Spotlight on STEM

After writing my "ASCA Was Spicy" post and sharing my STEM presentation, I was delighted to be contacted by Marissa Zych, a student at Rochester Institute of Technology.  Marissa is working to increase awareness of nonprofit organizations that support STEM initiatives for younger students. I am so excited to have her guest post and share some information and resources with school counselors that we can use at our individual school levels!   

Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

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The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math subjects, most commonly known as  
STEM, have been the focus of many school districts and education initiatives in recent years. As the statistics surrounding STEM continue to grow more alarming, nonprofits and educators are working together to build a base that provides students the groundwork needed to succeed within these fields.

Currently, nineteen nations have high school students performing better in science than those within United States, and 36 percent of high school students within the US are not ready for college-level sciences. To further expand upon these discrepancies, 36 percent of students that declare a major within the STEM specialities do not obtain a degree within these fields, and only one-third of bachelor degrees obtained in the United States are within the STEM fields, compared to China (53%) and Japan (63%).

                                                                                                                                              
Though these statistics are startling, teachers and nonprofits alike are focused on creating resources to increase proficiency within these fields. Nonprofits nationwide provide much-needed complements to the regular school day activities and lessons. These programs have the ability to continue to expand upon the education that students obtain within school, providing resources and continued growth within specific subjects that would otherwise be unattainable. For many kids, they can even help provide the motivation to finish high school and find their passion for continuing education.

There are a multitude of nonprofits that build upon what is taught within the classroom and assist teachers. Based in Chicago, IL, STEM CampUS is a week-long immersion summer camp that brings together students interested STEM careers. Students are able to meet with Teza Technologies employees, and participate in a mentorship program with STEM professionals. This program is created by After-School All-Stars, whose mission is to provide comprehensive after-school programs that keep children safe and help them succeed in school and life. STEM CampUS was created with the support of Teza Technologies CEO Misha Malyshev, and this nonprofit is focused on providing an immersive high-school transition program, while also bringing together students interested in the STEM field together to experience and explore STEM careers.

Another nonprofit that assists students interested in the STEM field is AspireIT, a nonprofit founded by the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). NCWIT uses a peer-to-peer model to educate young women in computing to help correct the imbalance of gender diversity in technology. This outreach program connects high school and college students with young students interested in learning the fundamentals in programming and computational thinking.  Check out their video below!

AspireIT Promo Spring 2014 from NCWIT on Vimeo.

Though the AspireIT program targets high school students, NCWIT also offers resources for K-12 education, such as e-Textiles-in-a-Box. This resource helps teach young students about electronics and computing, while also providing a fun activity.

There are a plethora of additional resources that aid teachers within the classroom. To educate students about what life is like for a girl within the STEM fields, look to Engineer Girl. This comprehensive website showcases why one should become an engineer, while also outlining specific skills and resources needed to work in these fields. Their current "Featured Interview" is on Kalyani Mallela, an electrical engineer at Starkey Hearing Technologies. In addition, NASA created a webpage that celebrates the women that work there. Women @ NASA provides personal stories and the path that these women took to get to NASA. All of these websites provide resources that can be used within the classroom to highlight STEM fields and the people within them, and allow students to learn about real-world application of these subjects.

Within the education field, nonprofits target a variety of subjects to allow for growth and advancement specifically within certain sectors. Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math are a key target to many nonprofits. Utilizing the base that the education system constructs, nonprofits allow for continued education and provide advancements within specific fields. With these resources, one hopes that we can continue to increase the proficiency in science throughout the United States.

                                                                                           ~ Marissa
*Marissa can be reached at marrisazych866@gmail.com if you would like to contact her with any questions. Infographic above from teacherconvoy.com.
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ASCA was SPICY!

It has been 12 days since the ASCA Conference wrapped up in Phoenix, and I am just now getting a chance to reflect about my top "spicy" moments during my days there (house hunting, family reunions, and Fourth of July vacations are time consuming!!).  Although nothing will probably ever live up to my first ASCA conference experience with #FLOTUS Michelle Obama's surprise appearance (reminisce with me here), there were some great moments to be had in the 112 degree Phoenix weather. Here are my top 5:

5.  Keynote by Tim Shriver:  From the moment Mr. Shriver walked on the stage, you could sense his passion for Special Olympics and his desire for all to create inclusive environments in school, sports, and beyond.  His keynote was particularly thought provoking for me because I started to think more about the self-contained classrooms I have interacted with at my different schools and the many additional interventions I could have done for those students with disabilities.  The highlight of this speech was when Mr. Shriver brought up a group of Special Olympics participants from Kellis High School in Arizona, and they taught us how to do their school dance, the Cougar Dance. All of the school counselors in the audience were encouraged to dance along with them "like no one was watching"  and boy did we!  We looked totally ridiculous, but it was such a touching moment to feel the students' enthusiasm and share it with them.  Check out the Go Pro video I took of our groove session for a laugh!

4.  Counseling with HeART session:  I love art and especially love getting new

ideas of how I can incorporate art into my individual and group counseling sessioons.  Julie Ford from Oregon did not disappoint! I walked away with about 25 new ideas of activities I can use with students.  My favorites, including one of my live tweets during her session, were:
*Using masks to help kids talk about feelings within or behind the mask.
*Creating vision boards to help kids with goal setting.
*Working on mandalas with students as part of relaxation exercises and concentration/focus activities.
*Allowing students to match colors to their feelings and then creating a heart drawing that represents what fraction of each feeling is inside them at any given time.

3.  Tweet Up with my Social Media Friends:  My social media friends were in full effect at the second annual "Tweet Up".  Susan Spellman Cann (@SSpellmanCann), Bridget Helms (@bridgethelms), JanD-M (@humbleofferings) and Carol Miller (@tmscounselor) did a fantastic job of organizing everything and incorporating tons of cute details at the meet up.  From passing out FB group buttons, creating a "Tweet Up" bingo game, taking inspirational quote pics, and snapping a group photo, it was a total blast!! Check out the collage I made of our activities.

Susan also made this great Storify project to capture our time together.

2.  "Full STEM Ahead" Conference Presentation:  I want to give a shout out to all the speakers at the conference who took a risk, put themselves out there to share knowledge with our counseling community, and spent part of their conference giving back to others.  It is a lot of extra work to present at the conference, but I love connecting with other counselors and hearing their feedback.  This year I focused on the STEM interventions I have done at my elementary the past two years.  From STEM Career Cafe speakers to Genius Hour to classroom lessons, it has been a blast exposing my students to the STEM careers of the future.  You can access my presentation handout here. Be sure to email me if you have any questions at apoovey@hotmail.com.  A few of my STEM resources are posted at my TPT store, and I hope to add a couple more over the next month (in-between moving..ha!).  Also, I am super excited to have a guest blogger for my next post who is going to share additional resources and another perspective on incorporating STEM with your students! Stay tuned.....

1.  RAMP Recognition Dinner: To my fellow ambitious RAMP seekers, hang in there; there is a light at the end of the tunnel. RAMP is a big undertaking, and it requires a lot of organization and time, especially if you are the only person at  your school working on it (I'm talking to you elementary counselors).  However, if once you earn the RAMP designation, it will be worth it. I cannot tell you how special I felt being dressed up, eating great food and drinking wine, and walking across that stage to pose for pictures and accept the RAMP award for my school.  It is a career highlight that I will always remember and appreciate, and I barely remember the HOURS of work that went into my portfolio at this point.  Keep working hard, you will get there!! I was also super proud to be with some of my fantastic former mentors, other NC awardees, and state board colleagues who truly make our profession great  (see pic below)!

I hope if any of my blog readers attended ASCA this summer you will also share a highlight you experienced at the conference in the comments section.  Also, a huge congratulations to Carey Hughes for being the book giveaway winner from my last post.  I even got to meet her in person at the conference before she was chosen randomly through my raffle app.  I hope you enjoy the book, Carey!!


Happy summer 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

#4

Making my top 5 summer list has kept me HONEST this summer, and I like that! I am almost done with my office decorating projects, and I already submitted a county grant with my principal's approval.  It is focused on getting some technology equipment I would like to use for character education and leadership projects with students (but more on that in another post!).  I'm going to submit a similar grant to another education foundation in hopes that I can get ONE of them, and I also have a Donor's Choose project request that I am going to submit.  So, I have been tackling my to-do list in between pool visits, beach trips, and general hanging with my kiddos.

However, item #4- Guidance Essential Standards- was kind of hanging over my head until last week. I was really excited about hosting a summer PLC with some elementary counselors in my county, and I wanted to finally put the ideas I have been thinking about onto paper in preparation for our meeting. So, I got out my trusty ASCA National Model handbook and got to work.  Here's what I did:

1.  Matched the ASCA National Model competencies I use for K-5 to the Guidance Essential Standards (GES).  There were lots that DID NOT match so I put them to the side.

2.  Created a crosswalk for the GES to show which standards I would use in each K-5 grade level. I know the GES are part of a developmental model so I used knowledge of my students to choose the average developmental level in each grade and can differentiate up or down depending on the lesson topic.  This process is somewhat subjective depending on your students so there could be tweaking based on your student population. 

3.  Created a list for each grade level of the GES I assigned and added supplemental ASCA competencies that weren't aligned to the GES but were important to me to include for that grade level.

I ended up with a document that has a lot going on but helps me feel organized when I am thinking about all the different standards and competencies. I can now make sure my annual calendar includes classroom guidance lessons, small group topics, and school-wide initiatives that cover all the standards/competencies for each grade level. 

As an aside, I searched online extensively before I created this document because I was hoping to find something similar to save me time and not re-invent the wheel. If this document would be helpful to you, check it out at my Life on the Fly Store.
Happy Counseling!  

~Angela

TECH-tacular!

It is simple, I love technology.   And, I especially love technology when I can use it in a purposeful way to make my life easier or do something exciting with my students.  Here are a few tech tools/websites I have been exploring lately:

1.  Symbaloo - Symbaloo is a visual bookmark page (almost like a visual Livebinder) where you can organize the websites you visit most.  They call the finished projects "webmixes" and you can search for keywords to find webmixes that might interest you.  The student applications for this website are numerous for teachers and school counselors.  I am already thinking of career lessons I present where students do their own research or go on webquests.  How convenient would it be for a Symbaloo to be the homepage during that activity?!  Here is an elementary school counseling Symbaloo I made with some of the websites I visit most- career resources, social media, blogs, literacy resources, anti-bullying sites, and technology-based programs that I use for student projects.  You can find it live by searching ES Counseling Tools.

2.  Tech Tip of the Week  - This website by Tammy Worcester has 100+ short and sweet tech tips.  You can sign up for her email newsletter and have each tip sent to your inbox to stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest tech tools.  Her tips on QR Codes and the app, Croak.It, are some of my faves.

                                              

3.  

 I love this website because it deals with being tech-savvy and tech-safe. There are tons of resources for educators, parents, and students.  In particular, their "Best in Learning" section ROCKS!  One of my goals this year is to help parents feel more comfortable with and aware of the tech tools their kids are using, and I will certainly be using this resource a lot!

Happy Counseling!  ~ Angela

Design on a Dime

I have been tackling my "Top 5" summer list and am having a great time with #1....working on ideas for decorating my office. I'm not going to lie, I have some obstacles:  a small space, strict fire marshall rules, and cinder block walls. However, I am determined to add some warmth and style to my daily work space.

At the end of the school year, I decided I wanted to surround myself and my students with words that would inspire and motivate us to be our best selves. I added the pictured quote, "do something amazing", above my door after I saw something similar on Pinterest.  It is just subtle enough that people will catch it out of the corner of their eye as they are leaving, and I feel like it's such a powerful message.  I also added the quote below, "You are defined by the choices you make.  Choose wisely each day." to my main wall.  I am going to have to change the word "wisely" from yellow to green because it is too light against the cinder block wall, but overall it is a nice addition to my office space.  You can get the "Amazing" quote here.

 

On each side of this quote, I am going to make turquoise open picture frames like these examples I pinned on Pinterest (shocked?!).  I want to proudly display all the cute cards and pictures that students make for me, and I think this idea will look MUCH better than my current practice of taping them on my testing cabinet.

 

I am going to use leftover baseboard and molding that is in my garage right now to construct the frames because I want to get rid of it, but clearly an old or cheap picture frame would be ideal.  After I spray paint it turquoise, I will staple wire in rows across the middle or use the chicken wire.  I'm not sure which way I am leaning yet!  I am also going to use these adorable bird clips that I bought from World Market for attaching the artwork. So cute!! I wanted to show you the front and the back of the clips so you could gauge the size, colors, etc.

I also found this AWESOME feelings wheel on Pinterest that I would LOVE to make, but I'm not positive I have a good space for it.  I'm going to keep thinking about possibilities.  If YOU already have the perfect space, visit the Lil Blu Boo website for their tutorial.

So, that's my HGTV post for now. I'll share my finished frame pictures when I am done! As always, I would love to hear ideas about how you make your offices cozy or see actual pics of your work spaces.   
Happy Counseling! ~Angela