Bulletin Boards for the New Year

"Ways to Make Friends" Bulletin Board

 

 

Hopefully this bulletin board will be a great tool to reference during individual counseling and especially small group counseling! 

"See Our 'Fin'tastic Work" Bulletin Board



 

I am excited to display student work on this bulletin board!

"Surf's Up with the 7 Habits" Bulletin Board

 



This bulletin board displays the 7 Habits based on Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Happy Kids.  It just happens to be right above my sandbox, which works well!

A few more Bulletin Boards based on the 7 Habits

Our school has adopted the "Leader in Me" program based on Sean Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and 7 Habits of Happy Kids.

Below are a few bulletin boards I created this past year based on the 7 Habits...

The 7 Habits According to the Presidents

 

 

Habit 1: Be Proactive - Student Work Display

 



"Happy" End of the Year Video

Our staff at school had fun making this end of the year video to the popular song "Happy"!  We changed the words to fit the end of the year theme!

Enjoy!

5 Things for the School Counselor to Do This Summer

1. Reflect

If you are anything like me, you are always thinking ahead...what will my next lesson be?  What will my next project be?  What new counseling technique will I begin using? 


Before you look ahead this summer, look back:
     1. What does my data say about this year?
     2. What would my colleagues say?
     3. What would the parents at my school say?
     4. What would my kids say?
     5.  And then take 5 giant steps back and ask, What would I   
         say?

The level of honesty in your reflection will be equivalent to the level of growth you can experience from your reflection.

The greatest tool of a counseling program, even that of an educator, is yourself.  YOU have to be healthy, compassionate, and available to be effective.

2. Find a good read.

It doesn't matter where you read - in bed at night, by the pool, with your feet in the sand, at the kitchen table eating breakfast, but make time for one professional read this summer.  Here are a few of my favorites:


     1.  How to Win with People by John Maxwell
     2.  Personality Plus by Florence Littauer
     3.  A Framework for Understanding Poverty  
          by Ruby Payne
     4.  How to Win Friends and Influence People
          by Dale Carnegie
     5.  Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor
          Frankl


3. Read up on legal and ethical issues.

During the school year, everyday concerns take over - lessons, making copies, parent phone calls, putting out fires.  There is little time to build on our "foundational skills and knowledge." 

Follow this link to find 2-3 ethical/legal issues that relate to your school, and get up to speed!
http://www.schoolcounselor.org/magazine/category/legal-%7C-ethical

4. Organize your guidance lessons by ASCA's categories - career, social-personal, and academic.


It's this simple - make sure your guidance lessons are in a binder and then sort them into 3 categories using dividers - career, social-personal, and academic.  If you find that one category has only 1 or 2 lessons, look around for a few new ideas for that category.

If you want to go one step further, I sort my guidance lessons into binders by grade level.  This makes it super easy to find a lesson for a class when I need one! 


5. Find your inspiration for next year. 

     1. What will be your top 3 goals for next year?
     2. What is your personal mission statement in your job?
     3. What specific students and/or teachers do you want to connect better with next year?
     4. Which of your talents and strengths do you want to use more next year?  And how will you do
         that?

My personal mission statement is simple - "I want someone to look at me and say, "Because of you, I didn't give up.'"

Two Leadership Tips

Over spring break, I have been listening to several of John Maxwell's leadership books, including "Leadership 101" and "How to Win with People."

Two quotes from the books have stuck with me.

"Do win-win, or don't do it at all." ~ John Maxwell

In my role as school counselor, I work with so many different people - teachers, administrators, students, parents, cafeteria workers, janitorial staff, and office staff.  When things get hectic, I sometimes become focused on myself and what I need.  I forget all about what the other person needs or how she feels. 

While getting what I need may seem advantageous in the moment, it can be devastating to my relationships with others.  I must remember - my relationships with others are my #1 asset.

For example, when I am doing behavioral plans for students, it is important that I give the teacher as much support as possible.  If I just do my part and then say, "Good luck," I have failed.  I am creating a win-lose situation.  In order to "do win-win," I need to create the plan with the teacher and student, provide ongoing support, and offer as much help as I can.

"Do the things that provide the greatest return." ~ John Maxwell

Almost any counselor will tell you that one of their greatest challenges is a four letter word - TIME.  Between staff meetings, guidance, crisis needs, small groups, parent requests, 504 meetings, paperwork, and student needs, I often find myself wondering where my time went. 

In order to be most EFFECTIVE, I need to ask myself, "What thing(s) do I do that have the greatest impact?  What has the greatest return?"  I need to focus my efforts on these things. 

Every school has different needs, and therefore different tasks will have a different return.  After reflecting, I decided that the following tasks have the greatest return at my school:

~ Guidance Instruction
~ Individual Counseling (teacher referred and self referred)
~ Teacher Consultation and Support

Tracking Students

If you are a school counselor - I am sure you have had this experience...

You are in the hallway walking from Point A to Point B and a teacher stops you to alert you about a student concern.  You listen, acknowledge the problem, and commit to work with the teacher and student to help resolve the problem.

You continue to walk and another teacher stops you to discuss a student problem.  You respond similarly, and continue walking.

By the time you arrive back at your office, 3 teachers have shared 3 concerns with you, but you only remember 2 of the 3 concerns.  You quickly write in your planner or on sticky notes a brief description of the issue, and then rush off to teach a guidance lesson.

How Do We Track Student Needs?
I currently work at a school with a high number of individual student needs.  I have the scenario above happen to me on a weekly basis.  I truly believe in being preventative in my approach through guidance lessons, but often times I am working with students who are in crisis or acting out in the moment.

A little over a week ago, I decided that I need a way to prioritize and better track students.  Although my brain is pretty amazing at multi-tasking, it sometimes fails when managing a caseload of 550 students and over 25 teachers. 

Tracking Tool on Google Drive
So I created a simple tracking system on Google drive to help me track my students.  This is different from my individual counseling log, and instead helps me to group students by need.  I think this tracking system will help me as a I create small groups, target specific needs in our school, and ensure that I am working with priority need students individually.

To create this in Google, simply click Drive --> Create --> Spreadsheet.  Or if you're less comfortable with Google, you can create an old-fashioned spreadsheet. 

Categories
I chose 5 categories for students:

• Priority Students (Students who recently experienced a crisis - recent death, suicidal ideation, family change, recent disclosure of abuse)
• Social Skills and Friendships (Students with "girl drama" issues, students with Asperger's/Autism, students who have difficulty maintaining positive relationships with others)
• Anger Management (Defiance issues, threatening others, fighting, disrespecting the teacher)
• Motivation (Students not turning in homework, lacking study skills, not making a connection between schoolwork and their future, apathetic attitude)
• Check-In Students (Students who need to be regularly encouraged or need a positive adult relationship in the school to keep on track.)

How to Use this Tool
This spreadsheet is meant to be fluid - as student needs change, so does the spreadsheet.  It is meant to be a planning tool.  At the beginning of the week, I can sit down with my planner and my Google drive spreadsheet and decide:

• Who do I need to see this week?
• Do I need to create any small groups?
• Are there any students I need to add or remove from my tracking lists?

Using Guided Imagery and Meditation with Children

What is Trauma?

When we think of the word trauma, we typically think of war, accidents, or 9/11.  However, trauma can be caused by a variety of things - domestic violence, medical procedures, falls, divorce, death of a family member, bullying, and natural disasters.

As Levin and Kline (2007) note, "Trauma is in the nervous system - not in the event."  This basically means that how the child processes the event determines whether it becomes traumatic to the child.

Levin and Kline (2007) identify 3 parts of the brain. 

1. The first is the neocortex, which is the thinking part of the brain.  The complexity of this part of the brain makes human unique.
2. The second is the limbic part of the brain, which deals with emotions and memory. 
3. The last part of the brain is the brain stem and cerebellum, which deals with survival instincts. 

Using Guided Imagery and Meditation

When trauma occurs and is not processed, physiological sensations may remain in the brain stem and cerebellum - such as fear, hyperarousal, or constriction.  Our typical counseling techniques do not work when dealing with unresolved trauma. This part of the brain is not accessed by asking a child how they feel (e.g. happy, sad, angry) or by asking them to think about the situation. 

This brings us to guided meditation.  Guided meditation engages the child's entire being in using their five senses (touch, taste, smell, hearing, seeing).  It helps the child become in touch with 1) a relaxed state of being, the opposite of hyperarousal.  It also 2) gives the child the opportunity to access physiological sensations that may still exist from the trauma.  Often these sensations are semi-conscious or unconscious to the child, but may still impact the child.

Trauma Through a Child's Eyes, Levine & Kline (2007).

Examples

Below is an example of one guided meditation that can be used with children.

The video below is a good introduction to guided meditation for children.  However, I would recommend that children close their eyes throughout the entire meditation.  I find the video to be distracting.