Can You Feel the Emojion?! :) :/ ;)

In one short week, little faces will be showing up at my school's doors to begin another year of learning and growing, both academically and personally. It's always fun to think about themes and be creative before the hustle and bustle begins and REAL LIFE sets in. This year, I was inspired by the Emoji movie and decided to play off that theme for a school-wide behavior anchor chart. Every K-5 classroom teacher will post this anchor chart and use it to teach and review behavior expectations as well as appropriate behavior responses throughout the year. 

To continue the theme, my co-counselor and I created this eye-catching bulletin board in the main hallway.  It was much easier to create thanks to the TPT store "Ms. Gs Got Class." I love that I didn't have to reinvent the wheel and could start with already created high resolution emoji images and quotes. Plus, there are editable fields to create custom quotes. Yay!  I love how we incorporated social media with the phone and hashtags. Even at the elementary level, it seems to get students more engaged.

I hope that you are also enjoying preparation for a new year.  What themes are you using to make the school year fun but still intentional so you can make an impact? Please share!

    Happy Counseling!  ~ Angela

Color me HAPPY!

*Image from hammertown.com

Have you caught the fever of the adult coloring craze?!! I bought the above book for my 5 year old daughter last Christmas because it caught her eye in a bookstore, and I thought we could color it together even if it was too hard for her alone. Kids and adults alike are LOVING coloring intricate designs.  You may remember my 2015 ASCA conference post when I learned about mandalas and started using them as an icebreaker and relaxation exercise during individual counseling.  It has continued to be a great activity for students of all ages, and I love it!

So, you can imagine my enthusiasm when I saw these AWESOME bulletin boards that our fantastic art teacher, Kim Pound, created for the start of school.

She did them freehand (YES!!!) to creative interactive boards where students could add pattern and color during Open House or other times during the day. I was so impressed that it got me thinking about how I could incorporate interactive coloring into my school counseling program.

I am still wrapping my mind around a few "new student group" ideas, but I did add the coloring sheets below when I taught my Kindergarten and second grade Intro to the School Counselor Lessons (My avatar sheet was added at the end of the campfire lesson but is not in the bundle).  They serve a dual purpose of informing parents that I am the school counselor and spoke to their child's class AND helps kids remember how I can support them at school. Students will fill in the boxes around my avatar with ways I can help them this school year AFTER we have completed the lesson as a quick comprehension check;  it's kind of like my formative assessment to ensure no one missed the main points of the school counselor's role during the lesson.  This fantastic avatar line drawing is the beautiful work of Surfer Clips on TPT. I highly recommend him!

And if coloring doesn't make you happy, I hope this next news will!!! I finally reached 350 followers at my Life on the Fly TPT Store and am celebrating by putting my ENTIRE STORE ON SALE until Monday...yes, everything! 

Act quickly, enjoy, and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

Career & College Wrap Up!

My final weeks of December are winding down and Career & College months will be coming to a close.  It won't be the end of career and college talk, though; Career Cafes with my fifth graders will be in full force through April. In the meantime, I wanted to round out my career posts with an updated version of one of my favorite lessons that connects what students are learning at school each day to future careers.  I have written about the lesson before here, but I now have a pulled together resource, "Career Connections: School Subjects to Careers", for my readers. Check it out at my TPT Life on the Fly Store! The best part is that it is only $1 through Friday evening as part of my DOLLAR DAYS December promotion!

For this lesson, third grade students worked together in teams with Chromebooks to research jobs matching their assigned subjects on this awesome KIDS SEARCH portion of the VA Career View website.  Each student was instructed to choose the job they liked best within the subject category, research the job, write the name of the job on their subject sheet, and draw a picture clue so others could get an idea of what the job does. Examples of the student work product are below....




The pre-selected jobs and kid friendly research describing the job makes this activity entirely possible in a 45-minute time block, unlike a lot of other research projects.  It is a great activity for third, fourth, and fifth grade students.Check out this bulletin board I made highlighting student work from this career lesson and others.

I  also wanted to brag on the staff at my school who did an excellent job in our first ever college door decorating contest.  All of the doors were fantastic and a few examples are shown below (the NC State one was our first place winner!). Creative and college focused....#priceless!

Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ 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

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"

School Counseling Week 2015.....KINDNESS COUNTS

*Image from ASCA

Fellow counselors,

Next week is your week! The time of the year when you should be recognized for all of the tears you help dry, the girl drama you help quell, the homework you help get turned in, the kids you help get clothed when they have no coat in 30 degree weather, the teachers you help calm down when they need to vent, the life lessons you help instill in children who need YOU..............................................

Next week is your week! And if no one else tells you next week, I am saying THANK YOU right now to YOU! I am saying thank you for doing the things that no one knows you do, for doing things that may not be quantifiable, for doing a job that often leaves you totally and emotionally drained because you have given every ounce of energy and feeling to the little bodies that fill your school. I am saying thank you because I have had school counseling weeks where lots of people have recognized me and made me feel like I was on top of the world, and I have had weeks where I wondered if anyone knew it was school counseling week.  So no matter what, know you are appreciated by at least this girl!

 

And I am celebrating next week because I love my job.  Believe me, I have been in jobs I didn't love, and the difference is life changing.  I am happy to have a job I love and will be celebrating!

So, fasten your seat belts because School Counseling Week 2015 is on the way, and we are going to have some fun!  It all started last week when my staff got a memo from my co-counselor and me (right) outlining our activities.

We decided to incorporate Random Acts of Kindness Week (actually the week of Feb. 9th) with School Counseling Week as I mentioned in my previous post.  Here is how we are involving our school in our Kindness Counts  theme:

1- Students are creating Kindness Grams for staff members in art classes all week long. They will be delivered on Friday as a Random Act of Kindness to the wonderful teachers, administrators, and support staff at my school.

2-  Students will be given RAK BINGO cards to complete during the week.  The bingo cards are general so that all 1st-5th grade students can participate.


3- In media time, students will be able to write one of the Random Acts of Kindness they completed on a heart template, which will be added to our #RAKTIVIST bulletin board (below).

It may be hard to tell, but the bulletin board is complete with bobble head fairies, a kindness video QR code, and RAK ideas to share.

4-  We are doing a Kindness Cocoa Bar for staff members before school on Wednesday morning---idea courtesy of my awesome intern Ashley Warren. I will share pics later, but one of our hot cocoa toppings to choose from is jumbo heart marshmallows....enough said!  We also have a little candy treat for mailboxes on Monday in case some of our staff isn't available Wednesday morning.

5- Every class has made a class RAK mascot where they brainstormed kindness ideas and discussed the upcoming week.  The mascots will be used to decorate the border of our bulletin board. Here are some examples that have already been turned in. 





















There are so many ideas for School Counseling Week if you look at the ASCA website or Pinterest board. Don't forget the ASCA photo challenge for February 4th!  I also have my Random Acts of Kindness SCW Activity Pack available on TPT here for those who want to use it either week.

So, have fun, celebrate, and enjoy next week....you deserve it! 
Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

PS-  I meant to share the great news that my school got RAMP last week.....cheers!

Off to the Races.....

Here's to another school year!  We are "Off to the Races" at my elementary school with a Kentucky Derby theme this year. Each August we receive our principal's welcome back letter that gives our surprise theme, and I was really excited to see that we were doing a horse racing theme. Luckily, I already had a hat to wear to our opening meeting, and we had a great time dressing up!  Check out my friend Maggie (left) and me (right) below.  I also love a BACK TO SCHOOL SALE and am offering a sale tomorrow at my TPT store. If there's something you've had your eye on, now's the time to grab it up!

After the derby festivities, I had to get focused and start prioritizing because there are so many things to do!  My list has gone something like this:
1.  Organize my office
2.  Welcome and introduce myself to new staff members
3.  Get prepared for county professional development for school counselors
4.  Get prepared for "Meet the Teacher"

I already mentioned I was planning on creating a tree in my office in my last post here.  I focused on that for part of the optional workday last Friday, and I could not be more pleased with how it turned out, especially since I was kind of winging it with my design.  

I hot glued brown bulletin board paper to my wall for the trunk and added the tree hollow.  Then, I twisted up the same bulletin board paper to create the branches.  The leaves were created in different shades of green with my trusty Silhouette die-cut machine, and I hung two paper lanterns I found on clearance at Target to give it a whimsical feel.  Then, I used my die-cut machine for "The Giving Tree" letters. I can't wait for the kids to see it!  

I also put up my Big Deal Problem Scale numbers that I use for perspective-taking activities with my students who tend to catastrophize (more info at my TPT store here).  We will attach problem situations to the clothespin line above the numbers as we brainstorm coping skills. 

With those changes and a new paper cover on my table, I think my office is ready to go for now!

I also wanted to welcome and introduce myself to the new staff, particularly the classroom teachers who I will be working with closely as I help students.  I found these cute tags on Pinterest (go figure!) and printed them on white cardstock.  Then, I attached them to hand soap from Michael's (about $0.85 each after the teacher discount).  I taped a brief list of things I can help them with this year on the front:  Classroom guidance, small group referrals, RtI, parent conferences, behavior contracts, etc., and asked them to post it near their computer so they will have my phone extension and can call me. We have a large group of new teachers this year, and I have a new part time co-counselor so there will be a lot of time spent helping create a positive school culture and building relationships with our new Cleveland Stars.

I am presenting at county staff development tomorrow and can't wait to have our whole group together in one place.  I believe we have a great vision for our PLC this year as we plan to implement more components of the ASCA National Model.  In support of this goal, I will be presenting on the ABCs of the ASCA National Model and will give an overview of the next steps we plan to take as elementary school counselors. More details to come in a future post....

Finally, I was able to spruce up the main hallway and complete the FOUR (yes, FOUR!) bulletin boards I am responsible for during the year.  In keeping with the race theme, I updated my character board where character trait award nominees will be recognized each month. Check out the jumping gates! Each grade level's picture  will go above them. 

You may remember my map from the College Madness post.  This time, I am using it to post stars on the places our new students have moved from after I meet with them in new student groups. I may also list their names or take their picture, depending on how many new students we have. 
  
Next, I wanted to introduce my new co-counselor and continued my tradition of caricatures by turning us into "horse jockeys" as students are reminded of how school counselors can help them during the year! I don't think there's anything more entertaining than seeing your teachers, TAs, school counselors, administrators, etc. as bobbleheads! Kids love them!

Last, I am already preparing for my goal-setting lessons in September and my Career and College month in October and made a "Goals, Grades, Graduation...Go For It!" college pinwheel bulletin board. I'll give more details on how I did it later but wanted to share my pic for now.

As you can see, I have been B.U.S.Y. but having fun! I can't wait to see all my students at Meet the Teacher on Thursday.  I hope each of you has a fantastic start to the school year (if you haven't started already)!                
                     Happy Counseling! ~ Angela