What's Inside Your HeART??

Well, hello again.....I hope these spring months have been good to you and you have been recharged and rejuvenated over spring break. I know the break was a welcome chance to unplug and relax for me!!! I have been committed to prioritizing family & friend time and "ME" time in 2016, and I have really stuck to it!  Remember my New Year's post?! Of course, this commitment means the blog posts have not been plentiful, but when I do write, I hope you will find it useful.

March was a BUSY month for me, and I think that is typical for most school counselors. Students (and staff) are tired and ready for a break, and problem solving skills tend to deteriorate. There was a lot of student conflict, and I found myself using my mediation form and problem solving card OFTEN! I also taught some really fun diversity lessons to my grade levels, which I will share in a future post.  I saw a lot of students individually and got a chance to implement some of the skills I wrote about in my post from the ASCA conference last July.  In particular, I loved using the feeling heart from the Counseling with HeART session by Julie Ford to help students, especially younger ones, process their feelings

I start out by having students draw a heart and choose colors to represent each feeling. Then, they color in sections of the heart to represent how much of each feeling they currently have.  After brainstorming behavior strategies, disputing irrational thoughts, coming up with a solution-focused plan (or whatever theory I am currently using to help!), the student re-colors the heart to show if any feelings have changed.  You can also have the student reflect on the chart from one session to the next if it's a more complicated problem and needs more time to address. In addition to allowing the student to be growth-oriented and giving them a concrete visual that feelings can change and improve, it also provides awesome pre and post data for counselors! Check out some student examples below.

Heart Example #1:  In this example there is no feeling key, but the student colored in the following feelings:  Angry (red), Sad (blue), Happy (Purple), Scared (Green).  After our session, the student colored over half the red and all the green with purple to show increased happiness. We still had work to do on the rest of the anger and sadness, but it was a start!

Heart Example #2:  My second example does include a feelings key, which I really liked creating while the student and I talked about different feelings you can have. This student was feeling very angry when we started the counseling session. After working together, the student colored in about 75% of the heart purple to show we had figured out appropriate ways to get rid of angry feelings and feel more happy.  Again, we still had to work on that last 25%, but we had definite progress.

I liked this art feelings activity so much that I created a template I could pull out of my individual counseling folder anytime it would be useful for a student. I have found that having resource folders for common issues ----conflict, anger, friendship, family, perspective-taking, etc.---- in a hanging wall organizer helps me be ready when students come in with concerns. It also saves me a ton of time because I can quickly find a visual resource to help focus our individual session instead of creating something new each time and spinning my wheels. With so many students and so little time, it has become a great time-saver! 

For this template, you might have a younger student that only lists two or three feelings in the feelings key or an older student who is able to discriminate 4 or 5 feelings with different colors that need to be represented. I included six boxes for different colors, but you can always add more boxes. Hundreds of you got this freebie in its first weeks on TPT, and you can still find it here as part of my DOLLAR DAY items on my Life on the Fly TPT Store! 

Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

#ASCA14 Top 10

Wow. It is hard to sum up the wonderful experience that ASCA 2014 in Orlando was for me! It was my first annual conference experience, and I left with my wheels turning about how I could get to Phoenix next year.  So, I will do my best to give you my "ASCA Top 10" from my experiences on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday (I had to hit the road on Wednesday and wasn't able to do the final half day).  I am going to attempt to include as many practical, hands-on ideas, websites, and resources that I intend to incorporate next year but will inevitably sprinkle them through my blog posts over the next several months as I use them at school.

#ASCA14 Top 10

10.  Being with 2,000+ educators who either work as school counselors, educate school counselors, advocate for school counselors, or want to be school counselors was an inspiring and powerful experience. I got to meet new friends and introduce myself to people like Dr. Wong, ASCA Executive Director (bottom photo).

                                                                *Image from Phil Echols

                                  (L to R) Lauren, Dr. Wong, me, and Mona 

9.  Participating in the state roll call.  North Carolina represents at the ASCA conference every year, and it was so fun to be a part of the hoopla this year. I even got to hold one of the @NCSCA letters!  It's a little blurry, but that's me with the "S."

8. Catching "Tweet" fever.  Twitter was abuzz during the conference with the #asca14 hashtag.  Even if you were #notatasca14, you could get the latest news, photos, and online resources by following #asca14. It is crazy to think that two or three years ago this was NOT HAPPENING at the same level! I LOVED sitting in breakout sessions and tweeting out cool facts from my speakers while also reading about others getting pumped up in their sessions.  The energy and excitement was amazing!  I used Tagboard to follow the entire hashtag in an easy to view way, which can be used for any hashtag (#WorldCup2014 anyone?).

7. Great exhibitors with counselor SWAG.  The number and variety of exhibitors at this conference was overwhelming. As an educator operating on an increasingly tighter budget each year, I absolutely loved meeting the different vendors and getting freebies. Everything from career posters to pens to stress balls to magnets were available. I'm especially excited about a couple of companies that offer professional development and can't wait to see what we might be able to plan for my Professional Learning Community.

6. Girls' Leadership Breakout Session.  I attended Julia Taylor's (@juliavtaylor) Help Girls Unlock Their Leadership Potential session and came away with a ton of great resources.  She has already posted her session Prezi on her website for all to view here so check it out! There were so many powerful videos shared, as well as book titles and activity ideas to use with girls.  In fact, I have already watched the documentary Girl Rising (right) based on her recommendation, which can be rented on Amazon.com.  However, my favorite video to use with my students is this one:

5. Stedman Graham Keynote Address. @OfficialStedman was an amazing speaker, and I especially loved what he had to say about perseverance, relationships, and making choices to be successful. My favorite point (paraphrased) is that we all have the same 24 hours in a day. What are you going to do differently to make things happen? How are you going to create magic? Also, his challenge to use 60 minutes each day reading and learning resonated strongly with me.

So, I am going to start sharing the books I am reading that are making me THINK and LEARN....Thanks Stedman! Currently, it is the book Drive by Daniel Pink, which can be found here or at your local library.  It talks about motivational theory and how the "carrot and stick" approach  may not be the best to use, for companies or our students.





4. Solution-Focused Breakout Session.  This session by Dr. Carol Buchholz Holland from North Dakota State University featured 43 strengths-based activities and techniques to  use with students in individual counseling. I use this counseling theory for the majority of my students due to its brevity and solution-oriented stance and found this session extremely helpful.  It's difficult to sum up 3 hours in a Top 10 post, but I loved Dr. Holland's incorporation of art into her stratgies:  Drawing a picture of something you would like to change when focusing in on the student's goal, "Color Your Life" activity to indicate different emotions the child has, cartooning with superheroes to identify possible solutions, Power Hands activity that identifies the strengths that will help the child reach his goal (one strength written in each finger of the hand outline). She also shared some fantastic videos that could be used with staff or students in a variety of applications. This one was my favorite.

3. My First "Tweet Up". Danielle Schultz, @sch_counselsor, organized this get together for school counselors new to the twittersphere as well as those who wrote their first tweets years ago. I loved meeting new friends and introducing myself to counselors I have admired and respected online for years.  Check out Jan (@humbleofferings) and Kelly (@KellyHanscom) below with a future Miss USA and Jasmine (SeeJascounsel) and Rebecca (@schcslgbyheart from School Counseling by Heart) to the right.  Also, Susan (@SSpellman) gets creativity points for capturing us all with inspiring messages for the world (far right).

2.  My Wifi to Sci-Fi: Motivating and Teaching Students Through Literature and

Technology Presentation.  I must say, I challenged myself to present at the ASCA conference and 45 minutes before I began, I was kind of wishing I hadn't sent in that proposal...Ha! Seriously though, it was one of the highlights of my career thus far to be able to get up in front of my peers at this national conference and share my ideas. Afterwards, I was so happy I had done it and ecstatic about the positive feedback I received (see bottom right picture).  The handout shared through the ASCA conference app can be accessed here. As always, email me if you have specific questions.

1. Michelle Obama's Keynote Address:  I tweeted this about @FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) during her speech, and I feel even more strongly about it now. Her speech along with this letter to school officials released by Arne Duncan the day before her appearance showed the first lady "gets" how important school counselors are to the students and families we reach each day.

I hope these Top 10 Moments help give you a glimpse of  #ASCA14.  If you didn't make it this year, check out the future dates and locations for this unforgettable event below and put it on your BUCKET LIST.  

Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

March Madness: College and Conflict

                           *ottavern.com

March Madness is such an appropriate title for this time of year. Of course, I love the NCAA basketball games, the "bracketology", and the friendly rivalries, but it is also kind of a crazy time of year with its own madness:  student behavior issues, tired teachers, lots of meetings, and long days!

Lately I have been dusting off some of my behavior interventions in preparation for the friendship spring fever that inevitably crops up at this time of year.  I have my Problem Solving card ready that I wrote about in my "Free Fish" post here.  I also created a Rumor Blocker reminder card for my upper grade students as a follow up to my Steps to Respect lessons in third, fourth, and fifth grades.

I use these cards to give as student resources following individual counseling sessions, mediations, or small group sessions dealing with friendship issues.  I will be adding both freebies to the Life on the Fly Store.

In addition, our school recently implemented a STAR ticket program as a positive reinforcement system (PBIS) to motivate students to make good choices.

I am the lucky TV personality that gets to call winning tickets on the news broadcast each Wednesday and monitor prize patrol outside of my office.  In addition, I started a new small group behavior intervention where students earn points for doing homework, earning STAR tickets, earning verbal compliments, attending daily check-ins with me, and making it throughout the day with no tallies.  They can then redeem them for one of the fun activities on my reinforcement prize menu (token economy system, anyone?!), which mainly consists of group activities we do together such as an iPad game lunch, recess games, or working on a technology project together.

I also decided to kick up the fun factor related to March Madness and created this bulletin board linking future college choices and geography with the basketball tournament. When you scan the QR code, it takes you to an updated NCAA tournament bracket.

  

I also found these great mascot sheets and shared them with my upper grade teachers so they could do a map search with their students on a rainy day during recess or as a filler activity before lunch or specials.  Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

Dollar Spot

It is no secret that raises have been hard to come by for educators in the great state of NC over the past six years. Even if you are fortunate to be in a better economic situation, we all know that money doesn't grow on trees! I pride myself on being a thrifty shopper whether I'm buying clothes, shoes, home accessories, or SCHOOL COUNSELING supplies.  So, I love it when I can find useful items for cheap to use with my students!

Be sure to check out the $1 spot at Target, (although some things are $2 or $3 even though they call it that), any Dollar Store/Dollar General, and arts and crafts stores....the $1 bins at Michael's are my  new favorite; they have been getting some really good stuff lately!

Recently, I found these chalkboard mini signs at Michaels (4/$1) and bought two packs....Winning! I have already used them in a small group to rate anxiety and during a mediation so that students could rate how they were feeling or how things were going between them. I had the students write down their own number without letting anyone else see and then counted down for everyone to show the group at once to start our discussion. I typically use 1-5 (5 being the best) in those situations, although my "Miracle Scale" for ongoing individual counseling does go up to a 10.  Each pack came with one stick of chalk.

I also bought this twine clip string for $1 at Michael's.  I am going to use it in my office décor, although I may cut it in half.  The string is about 15 feet long and there are 12 evenly spaced mini clothespins.   I was given so many great pictures for School Counseling Week, and I think it would be great to display some of them for the rest of the month. Then, I can rotate them out for other pictures students make during individual or group counseling or work products from classroom guidance lessons.  Cute, right?!!! I also have a fun idea of how I can use it with a perspective-taking activity I use with kids in individual counseling. I will post a pic of that in action later!

What dollar finds have you found?!!! Please share!  Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

Organizing Quick Tips

A teacher at school gave me the nicest compliment today.   She said, "When I grow up, I want to be organized like you."  Obviously, this teacher's compliment was a little tongue-in-cheek, and most of the time I just brush comments like these to the side, but today I thought, "YES! I am making progress!"

I have really been trying to step up my game with staying organized during this busy time of the year.  I have continued some of my time-tested organization strategies:

• Google calendar- I use it to keep track of EVERYTHING:  My classroom guidance schedule, school/parent meetings, small group times, etc. I especially like inputting my individual counseling appointments for specific time slots during the current week and then creating future meeting times for students so I don't forget follow up appointments in the weeks to come.
• A ready made individual counseling sheet that jogs my memory to have students scale or give feedback about their feelings so I can chart growth.  The photo below shows the front side of the sheet where I document if a student made a happy, straight, or sad face for "School", "Home", or "Friends" on the playdoh sheet I use.  See my post about that here.
• Bins that hold all my lesson materials so everything is together when I need to go to a specific grade level for classroom guidance.

 







And, I have implemented some new ideas:

• A Google form for individual counseling so I can track my sessions with students by date, whether I need to follow up with them in the future, and by topic.  I still use the paper sheet for jotting down quick notes and documenting feeling faces during my student meetings, but I also fill out the form on my Google drive at the end of the day so I can track the information more easily.  It literally takes 2 minutes with the way I have it set up.  

When I go to "Summary of Responses" under the "Responses" menu, I can sort whatever field I choose.  I love sorting by the field - Follow Up "Yes" or Grade Level so I can quickly remind myself who I need to check in with.

• Small Group folders- Perhaps it is because I am running so many groups right now or because I am getting busier in my life overall, but I have had a tough time keeping all my groups separate in my mind this year. I decided I needed a system and started organizing everything with folders.  I put the student booklets (or folders) that I create for each small group and keep them in a manila file folder.  On the interior left side, I put the students who are in each group, the time we meet, and the homeroom teacher. On the interior right side, I put a quick guide of topics we are covering throughout the group and the date we get to each one so I always know which group session we are on. It has helped me TREMENDOUSLY. Also, I keep all of these handy file folders in a hanging pocket organizer next to my filing cabinet so they are easy to access.  Photos are below, BUT I blurred out the names of the students on the folders so pardon the way they look. :o)  
  
  
  
  Happy Counseling! ~  Angela

Making a List and Checking it Twice

To say things are busy at my school right now is an understatement. It is hard for me to make it down the hallway without a student asking me when I am going to see them or a teacher relaying a concern about a child.  Sound familiar?! I am also running a lot of small groups simultaneously, and I'm trying to stay organized with so many balls in the air at one time......because that's what school counselors do!

The small groups that I am running are "School Success Groups", and I am using the Stephen Covey 7 Habits to organize our meetings (more on this topic in a later post).  However, I really want daily face time with these students to ensure they are meeting their goals for doing homework, being PROACTIVE and in charge of their behavior, and maintaining "Sunny Thoughts"  when frustration arises.  I can tell that morning meetings with these students get their days started off on the right tone.

So, I followed Santa's lead and have created a check-in sheet to use with my school success students as well as other students that can benefit from frequent check-ins.  I downloaded some free borders from the 3AM Teacher on TPT here.  I chose my favorite and then inserted a table with the headings of Student Name, Days of the Week, and Comments. I started out with 10 rows but could have definitely made 15 or 20, as evidenced by my writings in the margins...ha!

I pasted my sheet on cardstock and laminated it for repeated use.  I write the initials of the students I need to check in with each morning, give them a check mark if they stop in, and a star if they did their homework. I also write any comments about issues I need to remember. At the end of the week, I take a picture of the chart with my Ipad for documentation purposes, and I erase all of the stars and checks.  The lamination really keeps it flexible because as I end current groups or start working with different students, I will simply replace old initials with new ones and continue the cycle.

What I love best is that I feel like my 30 minutes of morning duty time is so much more productive and focused now. The majority of the students are coming each day, and they like it as much as I do!

Also, it's working!!!! A lot of the kids are doing homework more consistently now than they were a month ago, and  I truly believe the accountability piece of knowing I am going to ask them EVERY morning is making a difference.

How are you staying organized in this busy time leading up to the holidays? I would love to hear!
Happy Counseling! ~Angela

Balloon, Balloon: Don't Let the Balloon Touch the Ground

I had to use that title for my post because it was one of my most favorite childhood games growing up, and I loved to play it with my sister. I find it completely fantastic that I have been able to incorporate it into my J-O-B. Here's part two of my Ordinary Objects Post - Balloons!

I use balloons in lots of ways at school, many of which I am sure you also use.  Here's a rundown of my favorite uses.

1.  Individual Counseling/Classroom Guidance with students focused on coping with anger, anxiety, or other unpleasant feelings. 

A balloon is extremely powerful in illustrating how feelings can build if you don't use strategies to calm down and release the "not so good" feelings in healthy ways.  I usually let students brainstorm the triggers that have upset them in the current situation or in the past. As they share the triggers with me, I inflate the balloon each time until it is about to pop.  We relate those pent up feelings to exploding in the classroom and making bad choices.  Then, as we discuss, draw, and practice strategies that could help students calm down, I release the air a little at a time until the balloon is completely empty.

 I have also used this idea in a classroom guidance lesson on anger management.  I incorporated the superhero Incredible Hulk and found this You Tube video.  Every time the Hulk growled, I inflated the balloon. Every time he turned back into Bruce Banner (the normal version of himself), I released some air.  It was a great "hook" to introduce the topic of controlling your anger.

2. Skill practice for appropriate social skills, self-regulation, and any other replacement behavior practice a student may need.

We have all seen the icebreaker or conversation starter balls that you can buy through educational companies or on Amazon.com. They are a great resource and can really help you get to know a student or prompt them to start talking about important issues. I decided to create the "do-it-yourself" version and save $20 with a balloon.  I made the balloon pictured to the right for a student who was having a hard time staying in her space and keeping her hands to herself.  I had already done a lesson about your "Hula Hoop Space"  with the entire class so this balloon activity provided her with extra practice to reinforce the skills. I drew lines to divide up the balloon and then listed actions such as "Show Your Hula Hoop Space", "Practice a Good Touch", "Ask Someone to Move Over", and "Sit Criss Cross in your Hula Hoop Space" on the balloon. We would hit the balloon back and forth a few times and when I said STOP, she would practice whatever skill her hand was on.  The other advantage to the DIY version is you can have specific skill practice for a wide range of issues rather than one generic ball.


3.  Teamwork activities in classroom guidance or small group counseling.

I am currently running a "7 Habits of Highly Effective Students"  School Success Group.  Habit #4 is THINK WIN- WIN.  I am using balloons to practice the idea of teamwork and helping everyone around you be successful.  My plan is to take my group into the gym and give them the challenge of moving the balloon from one end of the gym to the other.  The group will earn one point for completing the task and additional points each time every member of the group touches the balloon.  Following the exercise, we will discuss how teammates helped each other get the balloon, how they communicated, and their feelings on whether they liked completing the activity as a team or would rather have completed it independently. 

You could also incorporate one or more balloons in a classroom guidance lesson on teamwork and pass multiple balloons around the room at a time.


How do you use balloons as a school counselor? Please share and.....Happy Counseling! ~ Angela