Thanks & Giving

                                                        *Image from decor8blog.com

Just a quick post to give Thanks and celebrate some giving.  As I think about the things I am thankful for, my family, their good health, and my job quickly spring to mind.  This year has been a year of change, but I am learning and growing, and my family has never been happier. #worthit

Now, for the giving.  I was fortunate to be a delegate for my school counseling region at the NC School Counselor's Conference a couple of weeks ago. Remember my post?! It was a great opportunity to connect with other school counselors and school counselor educators across the state. 

I am especially grateful to Dr. Meghan Walter, UNC Chapel Hill school counselor educator, for sharing this awesome PowToon video that her graduate students made about the role of the school counselor.  Thanks to Breanna Herring, Briana Woody, Ashley Bennetone, Michaela Avila, Judith Smith, and Simone Diggs for creating this great resource.  My co-counselor and I used it last week at a brown bag lunch for parents at my school.  It was perfect! If you are looking for a resource to share with administrators, parents, or other school counselors, check it out!  

Enjoy another Dollar Days at Life on the Fly School Counselor TPT store through Friday afternoon...new items are just $1. Also, stay tuned for a TPT sale on November 30th and December 1st. TPT will be bringing smiles to lots of educators! #TpTCyberSmile

Happy Counseling & Happy Thanksgiving! ~ Angela

DOLLAR DAYS: College & Career

It is Throwback Thursday (and my first TPT DOLLAR DAYS so read all the way to the bottom!).....do you remember this picture from last year?!  I celebrated Career Dress Up Day as a NASCAR racer and greeted students during arrival with my "Welcome Race Fans" banner.  For those who have followed my blog for awhile, you know that I LOVE the career domain and always promote college & careers schoolwide with morning show announcements, classroom lessons, bulletin boards, and spirit days.  This year, my co-counselor and I are actually extending Career & College month with events in November AND December.  I recently made a flyer for the staff to give an overview of our career and college events and started publicizing colleges and careers on bulletin boards around the school (the college pennant bulletin board below is my MOST popular pin on Pinterest EVERY WEEK!).  

I am asking staff and students to bring in college pennants or other swag for schools they want me to highlight on the morning show. I am also including a "College of the Week" (or every other week) on my bulletin board (see below). 

I love involving staff in the college and career fun! Each Thursday in November and December staff members are invited to wear college spirit wear to school.  Many staff members have also completed career trivia forms (see example below) for the career trivia bulletin board. It is more of a makeshift bulletin board because I wanted to place it in a high visibility area outside of the cafeteria where there is no actual board, but it meets the need! I plan to start asking trivia questions on the morning show next week and continue until winter break.  I think students will love hearing about what their teachers wanted to be when they were in elementary school and what their favorite subjects were as kids. It helps humanize them (we don't sleep at school!). I did put pictures in the corner to highlight their answers so younger students can scan for clues rather than having to read everything. 

Finally, I am ultra excited about the college door decorating contest and can't wait to see what my new colleagues create for the judging on Friday.  It's neat to see which students get involved, who has a lot of school spirit for their alma mater, and what type of facts they include about their school. I am learning a lot!  Pictures to come of their super creative designs.....

If you want to get started with some school-wide college and career fun, check out my new TPT resource with a few things to get you started! Staff career trivia sheets, door decorating contest resources, and bulletin board signs will give you the motivation you need to make DECEMBER or JANUARY your College & Career Month!

Each Thursday in November and December I will be celebrating DOLLAR DAYS in my TPT store as part of my throwback to cheaper times. This resource, along with others, will be reduced to $1 for 24 hours so get them while you can!  By Friday afternoon, we will be back to 2015 prices! :)

Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

NCSCA: It's Kick-off Time!

It is NCSCA time...my favorite time of the year!   A chance to recharge, reconnect with former colleagues, and refocus on what I love about being a school counselor.  Today I was privileged to represent my Southwest Region as a delegate for the NCSCA delegate assembly.  I met some amazing school counselors in neighborhood counties (shout out to Ashley, Rachel, Renva, and Tim).

We focused on major issues facing school counselors,  ways we can advance our profession, and learned more about  how we can be integrated into the state organization...hello NCSCA speed dating (our way to learn about state committees)!

All in all, the experience solidified my belief that North Carolina has THE best professional school counseling organization in the country with vision, enthusiasm, and dedication to spare. Tomorrow the real conference kicks off, and I couldn't be prouder to be a #GAMECHANGER  presenting on one of my passions, student book clubs.  To celebrate, I am posting  a NEW boys' leadership book club activity pack that I have just started with two fifth grade groups. 

 I am using the book Middle School Rules by Brian Urlacher, former Chicago Bears' lineman, MVP, and pro-bowl player to help facilitate the topics of leadership, character, and good behavior choices with my students.  I am so excited to be incorporating football analogies into our conversations like a calm down scoreboard,  touchdown goal tracker, fumble cards, and touchdown vs. turnover thoughts.

If you are at NCSCA and want to learn more about book clubs, come by and see me tomorrow at the 10:50 session.  There will be giveaways and lots of information to share.  To my readers in other places, you can access my handout here and email me at apoovey@hotmail.com if you have any questions.  It is sure to be a lot of fun.....let's get this game started!

Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

October Wrap Up!

Here's a follow up to my bullying prevention post.  I was asked about the bullying card scavenger hunt and wanted to share a few pics of what that looked like. It rained A LOT the week I planned to hide the cards for the students so we could only do it a couple of days. However, I laminated blue "NO Bullying" cards and taped them around the three playgrounds at our school.  Students were able to turn them in to the media center after they were found, and I gave "No Bullying"  bracelets or "Bucket Filler" spirit sticks as a prize.

 

 

I was also pleased with the response of poems, songs, cartoons, and pictures I got from students for original "No Bullying" works. My bulletin board went from this:

 TO THIS (and I still have more to hang)!!!

The Leadership  Club at my school even created these fantastic anti-bullying posters and posted them in our main hallway. I LOVE them!

Now, we can just follow the yellow brick road to November with College & Career Month and fun lessons like Rockin' in my Career Shoes, A Hat for Ivan, Life on a Budget, and many more! Enjoy some pics of "Book Character Day" Wizard of Oz style at my school with my awesome Harry Potter and admin staff.  What a fun day!!!

Happy Counseling! ~ Angela AKA "Glinda"