School Counseling Week 2016

It's that time of year. The time to celebrate the men and women who devote their time and hearts to being counselors. For counselors, it is a time to advocate for your program and show off all of the amazing stuff that you do!

If you are reading this and have not been a counselor...then I hope you stick around. As educators, we all devote lots of hours, are heartbroken over our students' stories, and pour so much love into all we do so that our students can be empowered and succeed. Yet, as a counselor, it is a very deep emotional weight. You connect with students and usually get to continue as that "ear to listen" over many years. You laugh, you cry, you celebrate, and you are there through rough times. Being a counselor is definitely no easy job!!!

So how are you celebrating School Counseling Week? Need some ideas? Below you can find past posts:

2013

2014

2015

As a counselor, I used this time to do announcements about what counselors do, give the staff certificates of appreciation for their support, and even highlight data to show the effect the counseling program had on the campus.

I also enjoy giving my own kids' counselor a treat and some of my fellow counselor friends. Below are some ideas.

-Handwritten notes from students
-Journals and Sharpie pens

-Lunch
-Gift Cards
-Homemade treats
-Starbucks (you can never go wrong with that...lol)
-Framed, positive quotes

You can get your own (print above)  FREEBIE HERE!

I hope you all have a great week full of lots of fun! Next up, I will be doing a wear to work series and a review on the new Honest Makeup Brand. Hope to see you back!

Something exciting!!!!

I usually won't blog this much in a weekend but with School Counseling Week and being on a blogging hiatus for awhile...I have so much to say!!!

First, I am so excited to be hosting an Instagram challenge. I have been joining in similar challenges on Instagram that were non-counseling related so I thought it would be fun to start one to coincide with School Counseling Week.

Here is how it works:
-Just post a pic that goes with the theme for the day (you can find it below). It starts tomorrow so that is Day 1. Then before you upload your pic, don't forget to put #schoolcounselorchallenge

It is a fun way to take a peek into other counselor's lives and get to know each other, so I can't wait!!!

So, speaking of School Counseling Week, here's what we are doing on our campus.

-Morning announcements provided by ASCA, which you can get a copy of here .

-Bulletin Board on "What Counselors Do" which I will try to post a picture of later in the week.

-Certificates for the staff members.
 

This is my first year at this campus and district, so this year I am just getting a feel for it and I am brainstorming for next year already! I would love to do a theme next year!!!

Another thing I wanted to share is a quick, powerful grief activity. I love this activity because if you have strips of scrap paper readily available...you are ready to go. Basically, students can either write the events of what happened when they found out and their feelings or they can write memories about that person.  I always gauge it by the student and what they are wanting to do.

They can write, draw, or both...whatever works best for their age. I have middle schoolers that like to do both. They can keep the chain or we can get rid of it. One student I had wanted to keep it as a treasured memory and the other wanted to cut it up. Whatever works for the kiddo.

I am also so super excited because my BFF made me a counselor banner for my office. I love it and I just had to show it! I love how she used tulle!!!

I have been so busy getting back into figuring out transition. I created a video for students to watch to go over transition on POWTOON.com which is awesome! It makes videos out of a slideshow type program. You can add your voice, pictures, animations, and text. Super cool! Part of the activity was for students to write any questions on note cards. So I tried to hand write answers to the kiddos. They loved it and one told me they didn't think I would read it so it is definitely something I will continue next year. I just took some home and did some while waiting on things. They did great and had some really good questions!

I was trying to cover up their name.

Before I go, here is a Stylish Spotlight. This leopard scarf will make any school counselor look stylish! It's lightweight and only $18 at Nordstrom. You can get it online here!

Here's what is coming up on the blog

I hope you all have a wonderful School Counseling Week and that you know how valuable you are at your campus and to your students! Hope to see you all on Instagram!!!

I have some work to do!

I know you must have heard it tons of times...but I can't get over how sad I am about our computer dying! We have laptops and an ipad but it's not the same. I miss sitting in the comfy computer chair creating away...since we do have laptops we are not replacing it...we will be turning our office into a playroom/guest room. I am oh.so.excited to decorate and make it fun, so that is a positive!

In the meantime, I have beeen behind on blogging and creating so I definitely have some work to do. On top of that, I was reading Counseling Corner and am so in love with her guidance activity organization. I see labeled binders and cute, colorful crates in my near future. I do have a guidance calendar I use to help me plan my dates/times and monthly topics but I pretty much do the same lesson K-2 and the same for 3-5 unless a need comes up for a specific grade level or class. Here is a look at my calendar:

I hope you all had a fabulous school counseling week! I know I enjoyed gifts and pinkberry from my principal and tons of sweet notes from students!

I was so excited to have the week to advocate for counselors and the counseling program!! I hope you felt special and appreciated for all the hard work that you do!

Before I go, I was wondering if anyone had any good resources for bipolar children? I have a lot of good books but I was looking for some internet resources. With "trying" to study for the national counselor exam, I have not had much time for any extra reading! If you have any, please share because I am in great need of them!!! Thanks so much and I hope you all have a fabulous week!