Meet the School Counselor....

This post will be short and sweet because I only have six more days of summer vacation, and I want to squeeze every last minute out of my last Saturday.  I have had a LOT of fun introducing myself to students as the school counselor over the years and have written posts about how to make that fun. My #FlatGroovyPoovey and Camp Counselor lessons are two of the most popular items in my Life on the Fly TPT store.

So, what do you do when your students have already heard those intro lessons?!!! You add more to the rotation. I have been working on some cute new lessons and can't wait to use this Mrs. Potato Head student worksheet with my Kindergarten students.  I included a parent blurb at the bottom and will have them color the Mrs. Potato Head to take home at the end of the lesson.

I also created two new upper grade lessons, a race track themed SMARTboard lesson (I do live in NASCAR country!) where the class divides into teams and races against each other as they answer TRUE/FALSE questions about the school counselor and a "What Does the School Counselor Do?" game where students sort Counselor Cards into TRUE, FALSE, and DON'T KNOW piles to learn about my job.

If you are ready to add some new material and fun to your INTRO lessons, check out my new bundles! Then, pat yourself on the back for being ahead of the game and super organized! One of the bundles has SMARTboard resources and the other is lessons plans, activities, and student products (two of these work best with the SMARTboard resource). If you buy both, you will have FIVE NEW intro lessons to share with your students. Click on the images for more info.
One last thing--- my lucky readers will get 20% off the 3 new items I have posted this week for the next 36 hours. 

Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

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

#GameChangers

I hope John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, will forgive me for hijacking his quote and changing it to convey the emphasis I place on the school counselor's role in a school,but it's important to reflect, how are you affecting your school's climate as a school counselor? Are you being a motivator, welcomer, change agent, and lifeline for the students in your schools? 

This year the theme of the NC School Counselor's Conference is "Game Changers" (awesome theme, Christy Welch!), which is a perfect way to depict what school counselors can represent to the students they work with each day. So, how have you been changing the game the first six weeks of school? Are you the quarterback leading the charge to try new plays, pull out the Puntrooskie (FSU fans will know what I mean. Can't believe I got to use that in a blog post), and score the extra point? Or, are you waiting around for the fourth quarter?  Part of being an effective school counselor is preparing your students for the game before they have to do the two minute drill.  

Glimpses from the Field.....

As I work to proactively prepare students for the new school year, I have been working on many different school success habits.

Goal setting:  Several weeks ago, I got this great tweet.  I was just about to start my annual goal setting lessons, and it reminded me how much fun it is to do this goal setting icebreaker, especially when students can go outside and have some fun tossing around beanbags. Although I usually save this activity for small groups, I have awesome fifth grade teachers and students this year who could totally handle a fun "hook" before we got into the nitty gritty of our SMART GOALS lesson. In discussing "just right" goals we simulated goals that were too easy (basket right beside the student), goals that were too hard (basket 30 feet away), undefined goals and action plans (eyes closed to throw the beanbag in the basket), a "just right" goal (6 foot toss in the basket), and goals with support (adult holding the basket as the student shot).

I also changed my fifth-grade goal setting sheet (coming soon to TPT) into a 3-column tracking sheet so that I can have better follow through during the year to help students monitor their goals. How often have I had students set goals and then not facilitated going back to them to see if their action plans are successful? On my new sheet, students defined the SMART acronym so they don't forget it and then wrote their goal and action steps in column 1. Columns 2 and 3 will be used for "minute-meeting" check-ins in Nov/Dec and March/April to make sure students are still on the right track. As the year passes, new goals will be written or current goals will be modified. I have a copy of every students' sheet and so does the student.  At the end of the lesson we brainstormed the best places to keep the sheet so students will be reminded of their goal on a daily/weekly basis.

For third-grade students, I incorporated a new goal game into my Perseverance/goal setting lessons to provide better modeling of all the different types of goals students can and will have throughout their lives.  I introduced the categories of personal/hobby, career/college, and academic goals and also distinguished between true specific goals and a wish (winning the lottery).  It was a concrete, fun way to check for students' understanding after introducing the idea of goal-setting.  We still used lemons to represent obstacles and ended the lesson with lemonade as we brainstormed strategies that would help students reach their goals and never give up. 

Attendance Awareness: Good attendance is a true game changer for kids with unnecessary, chronic absences. I always implement attendance interventions as a school counselor, but this year was the first year I participated in "Attendance Awareness" month. My county recommended the website attendanceworks.org for some great resources. Each week I shared attendance statistics on the morning show and gave "shout outs" to classes with no absences or those who only had one student absence. The first week we only had 1 class with perfect attendance (blue letters on the bulletin board) so the class got an extra special recess with ME! By the end of the month we had the most class "shout outs" with 13 classes the final week, almost 1/3 of our total classrooms. Classes also received badges on their door to recognize their accomplishment each week. One lucky class made it on the board EVERY WEEK in September and will be spending a fun recess with me to celebrate.

As the weeks progress and absences increase, I will also be starting an Attendance Club to see if daily monitoring, lunch groups, attendance goal setting, and organizational strategies can positively impact attendance data.  

New Students: How are you supporting the new kids on the team?  It is amazing how new student lunch bunches or any lunch bunches quickly help you develop relationships and figure out what is happening in classrooms. I often get referrals for individual counseling from conversations that occur during these lunch groups. This year, I met with all of the new students in my upper grade levels (3rd/5th) after presenting my Introduction to the School Counselor lessons. We did an icebreaker, played new student bingo, discussed the transition with a few small group question rounds, and ended by having students add their names to this bulletin board welcoming them.  I found some great white and metallic chalk markers so names would "pop" out from the black bulletin board paper (in the space to the right of the map).  They also added a sticker on the state/city they had moved from on the map as our administration and school counselor bobble heads cheered them on!

I love football and have enjoyed this analogy to help me stress the importance of a school counselor's role in making each day a great one for students. You may be the one coach that can get through to your players so I hope you will "lace up" and get in the game as the school season continues. #notimefortimeouts #gamechangers

Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

  

Visibility: Part II

Do your staff members know what you do at school? Are they aware of the value you bring to students, parents, other staff members, administration, and the community as a whole?  Advocacy is an important word that school counselors use when we are talking about students.  We want to advocate for students who may not be having their voices heard so they can be successful at school.  However, we also need to advocate for ourselves as professional school counselors. 

Our job is often measured in changes that may go unnoticed by others during the fast-paced, high stress weeks of school (surely that's not just my school ;o)  ); the child who can finally walk down the hallway to class instead of crying and fighting to stay in the car every morning because they know you will be there to help them, the student who doesn't mind taking Accelerated Math tests anymore because you worked with her on positive thoughts and anxiety, and the student who went from four negative reports home a week to zero because you worked on and kept practicing specific behaviors for the classroom.  These are all great improvements, but we have to do more.  Here are some examples:

1.  Morning Show/Newsletter/Website/Parent Letters: I am certain that most  school counselors have websites and may send home updates about what they are doing at school.  If not, it is a great way to inform parents of the lessons, programs, groups, etc. that you are offering at school. I used to have a Weebly website, which I loved, until I moved to a new county that didn't allow it. Now, I just use the template that is required and don't get to have as many of the bells and whistles on my site. However, I am lucky to be included in the "Specialist" (music, PE, art,  etc.) quarterly newsletter that is sent home to all students. I write up my articles about what I am doing and make sure to include my website link so parents can access additional information.

 Also, I LOVE going on the Morning Show at our school to talk about events that are going on.  My media specialist is great about fitting me in whenever I want.  I even made this GoAnimate cartoon to share during the Morning  Show at the beginning of the year, although I am still waiting for the correct cord to make it technically possible to show it to ALL students (some have seen it in groups with me).   Check it out:
School Counselor Intro by apoovey on GoAnimate


2. Staff Meetings:  Each year I request to be put on the agenda at an opening staff meeting so I can share my plans for the year.  I include any new information that has been passed down from the county  level, an overview of my annual plan for the year, and my specific action plans based on data.  I use PREZI because it is perfect for my goal of just focusing on the "big picture" information while I verbally share the details, and it is much more engaging to watch.  Here are some examples of information I include.

I love the ASCA National Model so I want my staff to have at least heard of this framework. I also reintroduced the Guidance Essential Standards to them this year after mentioning it at another staff meeting last year.

Here are my action plans for the year written in a very general way.  I focus on one specific plan for each of the ASCA domains (academic, personal/social, and career), and then I always include a plan addressing attendance. If kids aren't at school, how can they be successful?!

The annual plan information gives an overview of how I will be interacting with them during the year:  classroom guidance, small groups, schoolwide programs, and monthly activities that will involve them.

3.  School Advisory Council:  I haven't always had a school advisory council, but I think it is a good way to get feedback and publicize your program. The people included are my fantastic co-counselor,  a 3-5 teacher who is also a parent, an administrator who is also a parent, a specialist, and a K-2 teacher. I am also on the School Improvement Team, which allows me to share a lot of information about what I am doing, but I like that the advisory council's sole focus is the school counseling program.

Whatever strategies you use, make sure to let people know that your job as a school counselor is essential to the students, staff, and families you work with each day.   Happy Counseling!  ~Angela

Being Visible: Introduction to the School Counselor

Every year I start the school year introducing myself to students and explaining my role as a school counselor.  My K-2 students need the refresher as they get used to their varying degrees of school experience and truly begin to understand how I can help them during the year.  My 3-5 students know how I can help them by this age, so I spend a short time on the school counselor's job and then link it to goal setting for the year.  This year I got pretty excited  about using some creative, new ideas to start the year with some fun.  My kids loved it!

First and Second Grades
Over the summer, I was walking through Outdoor World when I saw this log.  After I pushed the "tester" button and saw the fake, flickering fire with the glowing embers, I knew I had to incorporate it into a lesson somehow.  You can also buy it at Amazon here.



My co-counselor and I decided to create a "CAMP COUNSELOR" theme for my younger kids and assembled my camp gear:  fake marshmallows, skewers for roasting, a backpack, lantern, binoculars, and camping clothes.

We wrote questions about the school counselor on each of the marshmallows and laminated them.  During the lesson we gathered students around the campfire, asked volunteers to come up and roast the marshmallows, asked the questions, and discussed them as a class.  *You can find the lesson plan and marshmallow question templates on my TPT site or the Life on the Fly Store.


The questions included:
- Where is the school counselor's office?
-  Can you show up any time you want?
- What is something you would talk to the counselor about?
- When will you see the school counselor?
-  Is the school counselor like the principal?
- What does the school counselor do with character traits?
- Does the school counselor tell people what we talked about in her office?

We obviously had a great time hamming it up!!! I wish I could share some other action shots from the actual lessons, but you will have to visit my school website for those. I don't put pictures of my students' faces on my blog, even if they have Internet permisson. :o)

Third Grade

In third grade, we did a True/False quiz about the school counselor's job using similar questions as above.  The final statement said "The school counselor can help me reach my goals this year", which is obviously TRUE.  We related this true statement to the goal of having a classroom community where everyone feels safe, happy, and is able to learn each day.

We read the fantastic book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud, and we learned how to be bucket fillers.  You can find it here.  Students created the forms below writing actions they could do or words they could say to be bucket fillers, and we added it to our hallway bulletin board.  I also gave students an extension activity of Bucket Filling Bingo they can work on over the next couple of weeks. I never want my one 45 minute lesson to be the only time they think about what we have learned.

Fourth and Fifth Grades

We also started our fourth and fifth grade lessons with the same True/False quiz as third grade.  Then, I went through a Smartboard lesson I had created on SMART goals.  The fourth grade Smartboard lesson went through each letter detailing how you create a SMART goal. The fifth grade Smartboard lesson was a review (since they had the detailed lesson last year), and we practiced  identifying each letter in goals that had already been written, as well as sorting SMART and NOT SMART goals.  Then, both grades made these fun hands (totally a Pinterest find!) showing them reaching for their SMART goals.  They wrote action steps down their arms, also covered during the lesson, to show the specific steps they would take to reach the goal.

All of these lessons were really fun to do and got the kids excited about the year!! My Kindergarten students still haven't started school so I will share their lesson next time.  It was a great first week.  I would love to hear ideas about your Intro lessons, too. 

~ Happy Counseling!     Angela