School Counselor Blog

I am facilitating character education with kindergarten through fourth grade. I have a variety of themes I am touching on in the classes. For friendship, I worked with third and fourth grade to create their own "friendship raps." Before creating their raps, I had each class listen a rap "Something for Me, Something for You," found on the CD in the Teaching Tolerance "I Will be Your Friend" educator kit. The students really enjoyed the rap. After listening to the rap, I had the students talk about what they learned from the rap. They learned messages such as "you should respect people," "we should be friends with people, it doesn't matter what color we are," and "you should include other people." I then instructed the students to each come up with a line to make a unique friendship rap as a class. The students were very enthusiastic and came up with some great lines. I had each student raise his or her hand and sha...

One of my favorite lessons I have ever facilitated was a tolerance and diversity lesson using the book The Colors of Us by Karen Katz .  I read The Colors of Us to a first grade class. I then had the students trace their hands and mix crayon colors to find their own beautiful color. I told the art teacher at my current school about the lesson. We came up with a way to collaborate and teach first graders an important lesson about diversity and tolerance. The art teacher read The Colors of Us to both of the first grade classes. After reading the book, she gave students the opportunity to use paint to find their own unique and beautiful color. The art teacher showed the students how they would mix the colors together to find a color that matched their skin color. Each table was given four colors: orange, white, brown, and dark brown. She demonstrated that she would need white, orange, and a little bit of brown to make a color that matched her skin color. Once the studen...

At the beginning of August, I was hired as a long-term substitute counselor for a charter school in the Greater Pittsburgh Area. I currently serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade. I am excited to work with the students! One of the first things that I created, since I started,was a bulletin board focusing on messages I want to teach students from the book Good-bye Bully Machine by Debbie Fox and Allan L. Beane, Ph.D . I incorporated stars (part of the school's logo) and multicultural hands into my bulletin board. The messages include: "We know our differences make us interesting and UNIQUE," "We speak up if we see others being treated unfairly," "We treat others the way we would like to be treated," We do our best to solve problems peacefully," "We like it that people are different," and "We treat others with respect." What creative bulletin boards have you created? Comment below,  email me ,  tweet ...