Marketing our job...

Hey, y'all!! I have been so super busy as I am sure all of you have but I finally had a little time to relax and blog...which I love to do because it makes me feel like we are all just havin' a little chat!! I have a hodge podge of things to talk about today so bear with me....you may see some ADHD tendencies goin' on!

As counselors...of course, we love counseling but there are so many other aspects of our job as school counselors. I think we have to be the biggest advocate for school counselors by our actions, words, and attitude. The past two weeks, I have witnessed great speeches and great staff developments. I have been blessed in every district I have ever been in and this new one is no different. In convocation, we heard from Dr. John Draper and he said we have to market our district, school, and profession. When we make comments about how we don't like doing this part of our job but we love doing this part...we really aren't marketing our job as counselors. Now, are there things I don't prefer as much as other things?? Yes... but I know that BOTH parts make up my job! In schools, we can't just show that we are counselors who provide guidance, individual and group counseling but we have to show that, yes, we do schedules and support teachers and meet with parents and do LOTS of paperwork!! It shows accountability for us! I try to be positive and save any "venting" for a close friend or my husband because I want to advertise my profession and show the people in my school that I keep going and I am there to support our students and staff every day with a smile!! !

Sorry, y'all! I was just feeling so passionate about that today because I think sometimes we do a disservice to ourselves when we have a negative attitude. There are already sooo many people who don't understand the importance of school counselors and I want to show them we are the heartbeat of the school!!

So...I have been missing lately because I have been doing schedules which has made me realize how stinkin' important us counselors are at the beginning of the year (see that advertising)??? Haha!

We also went to Meet the Teacher night for our first, sweet baby who is going to Kindergarten. Oh my word, Monday will be super tough....I better wear water proof mascara!

We couldn't ask for more amazing teachers for our sweet boy!! He absolutely loved visiting the school!! My hubby works there so he will love having Daddy as his PE teacher. And look how cute the bulletin board is.....isn't this wire like ribbon fabulous border??? It would look darling on some counseling bulletin boards!!!



Now on to counseling!!!! I attended an absolutely fabulous counseling staff development and can I say that our district Guidance Director is amazing!!??? Ms. West is so stinkin' cute and shared with us such a neat intro activity. First, she showed us this video clip from the movie " How Do You Know"? (After seeing the clip, I rented the movie and it was pretty cute).

Pretty sweet? Huh? Then Ms. West gave us all a small play dough container with the quote: ""We're all just one small adjustment away from making our lives work." She said she had used this in a training with other staff members and had them take the playdough and create something and pass it around the table with each person making a small adjustment and it was really cool to see the outcome. She related this to, us counselors, as an example of also being flexible in our jobs. Do things get stressful? Yes! Are things in education always changing? Yes! But instead of being negative and complaining, we can be flexible and ever changing like playdough to adapt to our situations and environment which can make it all work!! I loved this activity, example, and movie quote so much....I created a little sign that I plan to hang in my office...so on those tough days, I can take a gander at it and remember that!!!

You can a free printable of this: HERE

This got me thinking about play dough and all the great uses in counseling. I especially thought about doing a similar activity in possibly a self esteem small group and having students describe how they feel about themselves and what they would want to change, what they can and can't change and possibly creating something with the play dough (maybe how they think they look, how they think others thing they look, etc). I hope to create a Small Group Counseling activity book in my TPT store pretty soon, so be on the lookout for that!!!

I also wanted to share an exciting Dollar Tree find!! I tried one of these wall stick ons and they had a lot of good counseling-type quotes there. I picked this one out to see how it would work and it was easy to put up and you can't beat a $1!!! I added it to my Believe. Dream. Achieve printables which you can also find HERE for free!!!

In other news...we are just waiting to see if the contract and everything else will go through on our current house and then we will start building!! We are just praying and seeing what happens. But here is a picture of where we will start  building if everything works out!!

Our students start tomorrow so I have enjoyed this last weekend before school REALLY starts with a wild manicure, shopping with my sweet family, and prepping for our sweet boy's first day of Kindergarten!!

I hope you all have a great start to your year! Please know that you are such an integral part of your campus and to "advertise" yourself and profession!!!! Keep a positive attitude and be flexible!!! I know I will keep that in mind this year!!!