Countdown to #NSCW16

Next week is National School Counseling Week; A week where I hope you will be recognized for the many contributions that you make to your school and students each day.  I hear from many of you that it is hard for you to promote yourself during School Counseling Week, and I get your perspective! I have always found it more fun when I focus on celebrating a school counseling program that is collaborative with parents and teachers and helps promote student success. I also LOVED combining Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Week with School Counseling Week last year (check out my post here) and am going to do it again this year! I decided to take the ASCA theme- "School Counseling: A Recipe for Success" and switch it up to "Kindness: A Recipe for Success" as I celebrate BOTH school counseling AND RAK.  Don't forget that ASCA has a lot of great resources and photo challenges for National School Counseling Week...be sure to get those FB posts and tweets out with the hashtag #NSCW16! Look for mine at @apoovey with the additional hashtag of #groovypoovey.

After brainstorming my Random Acts of Kindness Activity Pack last year, I'm not changing things up too much with my new school and staff...,why reinvent the wheel when it was so much fun?!! My art teachers are helping out again with Kindness-grams, and the Leadership Club that I help sponsor is going to help us sort all 1,000 of them next week so we will be ready for our deliveries next Friday.  They will also make sure we haven't left any staff members out!

I have also been counting down each day on the morning show to give kids ideas of ways they can show kindness next week. My co-counselor and I are sticking with our Kindness Cocoa Bar as a random act of kindness for our staff, but she came up with the brilliant idea to use Keurigs and K-cups of hot chocolate instead of worrying about all those crockpots of hot chocolate to make....#thatwaseasy.  We will expand our toppings bar depending on how creative I get at the grocery store, and I'm sure it will be a welcome treat that staff can stop in and enjoy any time during the day.

I did change my body outlines from last year to hearts this year because it fit better with my "Kindness: A Recipe for Success" theme and the bulletin board I made. Each classroom will decorate their own heart to show examples of kindness through words and actions. I can't wait for those hearts to be overflowing out of my kindness bowl...so cute!  Also, I put up my "tear a compliment" sheet on the bulletin board today just for fun and it's already totally empty before RAK week even starts! Looks like I'll need a few more copies to post around the school. 







Don't forget to check out my TPT if you are looking for some RAK ideas! I have my activity pack on SALE as a little RAK for you over the next couple of days. Check back next week for more photos and NSCW16 shout outs for our profession!

Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

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!

Hello 2015....Let's Pay it Forward!

                               *Picture from RandomActsofKindness.org

Happy 2015!  I reflected on 2014 in my blog post here  and am waiting as I type this post to hear about my RAMP results via email some time tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

I have also been thinking a lot about the notion of "Paying It Forward."  As school counselors, we probably spread a lot of kindness around during the holidays with angel trees, canned food drives, backpack buddy programs, and coat drives among other activities. School counselors are naturally what Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) enthusiasts would call #RAKTVITISTS (There is a Twitter hashtag!). 

Today I am proudly jumping on the #Raktivist bandwagon.  At the beginning of the school year I decided I wanted to participate in Random Acts of Kindness Week to help my students think beyond themselves.  After looking at the school calendar, I realized Random Acts of Kindness Week was scheduled for the week after National School Counseling Week.  How perfect! I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate our profession than combining those two weeks. So, at my school, National School Counseling Week and Random Acts of Kindness Week will both be celebrated February 2nd-6th.  Our theme is Kindness Counts.

Next week, I will be sharing the schoolwide, invididual, and counselor activities that my co-counselor and I plan to incorporate into this kindness-spreading week at my school.  For ideas until then, visit the Random Acts of Kindness website, a truly great resource!  Pinterest also has a ton of ideas to offer, and the RAK foundation has their own set of Pinterest boards here.

In closing this post I am offering YOU, my readers, a random act of kindness. My most-pinned picture in 2014 was probably my college pennant bulletin board above.  If you click on the picture below, you will be taken a Google doc I created with all of the schools and email addresses I contacted to request the free materials that allowed me to create this beautiful bulletin board. I hope that this resource will save you time and give you the motivation needed to cross one item off of your "to do" list for 2015.

                Enjoy and Happy Counseling!   ~  Angela

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ocVeUdOmE5LmGt5D_p5yORLRHdQ1_BJ-PusMa0hoSgw/edit?usp=sharing

I'm A School Counselor......What's Your Super Power?

I know I already wrote about School Counseling Week here and here, but I had to post these final pictures from last Friday. My part time co-counselor was able to come back to end our week-long celebration, and we continued our Superhero theme.  My kids happened to get a bunch of superhero costumes for Christmas this year (lucky for me!), so I "borrowed" them for the day.  The students, and staff for that matter, LOVED IT! We even went on the morning show to thank everyone for the cards, posters, and other treats we had gotten during the week.  It was really fun!

We also finished our cooperative bulletin board (see below) that most classes pitched in to help create.  We asked each class to draw pictures or write words of things they have learned at school that make them a "SUPERHERO."  It didn't necessarily have to be something students had learned from the school counselors; It could be anything! We got some great examples back that incorporated character traits, career information, and friendship skills among many other ideas.  Can't wait until next year! 
                                Happy Counseling!  ~Angela

National School Counseling Week Linky Party

 

I wrote earlier in the week about tips you could use to have a successful National School Counseling Week.  Now that we are a couple of days in, I wanted to share some pictures that go along with the plans I outlined in my last post. 

My co-counselor and I kicked off School Counseling Week on Monday morning with a breakfast for our staff to say THANK YOU for everything they do to work with us day in and day out. We put an invitation in every staff member's box to get them excited (see below).  We decided to use a SUPERHERO theme as our take on the "Building Magical Futures" theme from ASCA.  Superheroes have their own kind of magic, right?!!!

                                                                          The staff loved our decorations and breakfast treats of "magic" muffins, "power" bars, and lemonade.  Here is my awesome co-counselor busy at work wrapping the power bars with our "BOOM" decorations.  I made them with my handy Cameo silhouette machine as well as the "POW" and "BOOM" decorations you see hanging from the break room ceiling.  Super fun!

 

 Today, we put treats in staff members' boxes to continue our SUPERHERO theme.  I downloaded a cape template from Pinterest (of course!) and wrote "Together We Are Invincible" on it. Then, I made copies and put them on Blow Pops to give the illusion of a superhero flying (see below).  They turned out very cute! We are still working on completing our interactive bulletin board with puzzle pieces from each of our classes. I will post that later in the week.    We also have some fun planned for Friday when my co-counselor returns to my school.  Happy School Counseling Week! ~  Angela
****See my update from the last day of School Counseling Week here.

I've got the MAGIC in me...........

I know we have a few more days before National School Counseling Week officially starts, but I feel like CELEBRATING early! It's a snow day in NC, which doesn't happen very often, and we actually got a decent accumulation. So, as I sit by my fireplace and write about school counselor's week, I want to celebrate you!!!  Next week, I hope people give you big high fives and write you notes telling you how great you are.  I hope kids draw you pictures and you get special treats. I hope your principal buys you lunch! However, even if no one else acknowledges you  (I speak from previous experience), know that you ARE making a difference and planting the seeds of change for many students.  Each time you greet someone with a smile during arrival, give a crying child a hug, or help a student solve a problem, you are making your school a happier, more caring place for kids.  So, think about how you want to highlight the great work you are doing and ponder these tips if you are still planning for School Counseling Week 2014.


1. Include students in your celebration.  Last year I handed out puzzle pieces to each of my classrooms and asked them to draw or write a picture of something they had learned from the school counselors. I got so many GREAT pictures back and then put the puzzle back together on a bulletin board. This year I am doing something similar so that everyone is included, but my individual pieces are going to create a different type of image. Just wait and see................

2.  Thank your teachers for being part of your SUCCESS as a school counselor!  It is very difficult to be a great school counselor unless you have good relationships with your teachers.  They are the rock stars who are on the front lines every day noticing the subtle changes in their students, seeing who walks in without a coat, alerting you if grades suddenly drop or if a child has a mark on his or her cheek.  Sure, we notice these things too, but we can't lay our eyes on every child every day like 40+ teachers can.  Good relationships with teachers also make planning your classroom guidance lessons, small group sessions, and individual counseling meetings SO.MUCH.EASIER. I appreciate my teachers who say "sure, take them" each time I ask for a student more than they know. So, thank them.  My co-counselor and I have been busy making preparations so we can host a small breakfast celebration the first day of School Counselor's Week. It is nothing fancy, but I hope my teachers know it is done with much love. Picture to come.......

3.  Have a theme!!! Let's just put it out there....themes are fun and get people excited. So, pick a theme. You can go with the ASCA theme ---- School Counselors: Building Magical Futures (hence the title of this post), borrow an idea from someone else, or come up with your own!! I piggybacked on the "magic" part of ASCA's theme this year but put my own spin on it.  You can DRESS UP to go with your theme (yes, I will be, of course!), use it to make something cutesy to put in your teachers' boxes, or simply incorporate it into a bulletin board. It can be simple! ASCA has some ideas here and you can join the ASCA SCENE discussion even if you are not an ASCA member.  Of course Pinterest has tons of ideas, too, so get pinning!

4. Say "Thank You."  Next week, if people tell you how great you are as a school counselor, just say "thank you" and smile. Sometimes school counselors don't own their "magic."  We would rather fly under the radar and just keep giving like we do every day. Resist the temptation to downplay yourself next week. Let your bucket be filled and enjoy it!

And just in case you need anything else to pump you up for next week.............
Happy Counseling! ~ Angela

Liberty and Learning For All!

Hello! I have been on an extended absence since I switched schools and got used to a new routine, but I am ready to start blogging again!  I thought it was only fitting to start with a celebration post....a celebration of school counselors!  I wanted to share what I did to celebrate National School Counselor's Week last month. My co-counselor and I decided to create a treat for all the staff at my school and created tags that looked somewhat like this:                                   
                              Happy School Counselor's Week 2013

 

Angela     Amanda     YOU

Thanks for being our THIRD MUSKETEER!

We printed the tags on blue paper and used fancier fonts, layouts, etc. but the gist is there.  We attached each tag to a fun-size Three Musketeers bar and put one in each staff person's box, which the staff seemed to enjoy as a beginning of the week treat.        

In order to incorporate our students, we also decided to do a classroom activity to celebrate school counseling. I drew a huge puzzle on bulletin board paper and then cut out the puzzle piece by piece, numbering the pieces on the back so I would remember how the pieces fit back together.  I then gave each classroom a puzzle piece and asked students to decorate it with pictures of things they had learned during guidance lessons, words they would use to describe the school counselors, or any other decorations.  After receiving the decorated puzzle pieces, I created this bulletin board.

                     

The kids pass by this bulletin board each day in the main hall and always make comments about which piece they worked on in class.  You can see more detail on a few pieces here:

                                                                              

 

It's great to be back!       
Angela