School Counselor Blog

Join School Counselor Blog and SCOPE for  #sctweetchat on Tuesday, November 1st @ 8pmEST! Jen Grossman , president elect of the Missouri School Counselor Association will be our host this month! She will lead the discussion about collaboration ! Participants will share their successes with faculty, administration, parents, and community. For directions on how to participate in a School Counselor Tweet Chat, click here . Check out transcripts from our previous School Counselor Tweet Chats or look up all tweets with the #sctweetchat hash tag! School Counselor Tweet Chat is hosted monthly, usually on the first Tuesday of the month. Erin Mason is a former Middle School Counselor, now Counselor Educator who manages SCOPE , a group blog dedicated to chronicling the positive impact of School Counseling professionals. Connect with Erin via email, follow her on Twitter , add her on LinkedIn or Google+ , and become a fan of the SCOPE Facebook Page . Danielle is a K-12...

Today was Wear Red Day! Our theme was "Celebrate Red Ribbon Week! Not just for a day - but for life!" There was a sea of red today! There was a lot of student, faculty, and staff participation! I continued to hang drug free pledge sheets with the help of student council members. They did a great job using the pledges to form large red ribbons in the school lobby. Student council members were also responsible for judging the doors for the college door decorating contest today. I took pictures of all of the doors and the students came up with criteria to judge the doors. We watched a slide show of all of the doors first and then went back through to vote. It was tough because everyone did such a great job with their door decorations. Tomorrow is going to be an action-packed day.  Tomorrow is our Dream Career Day for our theme "Follow Your Dreams - Don't Do Drugs!" Students are encouraged to dress up as their dream career. Last year we had a great leve...

Today was Dress for Success Day! Many students and staff dressed their best - ready for success! Everyone looked sharp and carried themselves with pride! I also started hanging up drug free pledge sheets in the lobby today with lots of help of student council members. All students in our K-8 school were asked to sign a pledge sheet about how they will be drug free for their future. Here is a PDF copy of the pledge sheet . The  pledge sheet states "I want a future as bright as can be! I'm making it my goal to be drug free1 I pledge to be drug free for my future by..." and gives space for students to write how they will be drug free for their future.  Student council members are also reading a drug free pledge during the announcements this week. One of the other school counselors in our district shared this pledge with us! Drug Free Pledge I pledge allegiance to myself, And to who I want to be 'Cause I can make my dreams come true If I believe ...

Today's theme was College, University, Trade School and Military Day! "Believe, Achieve, Succeed - Drug Free!" Students and staff were encouraged to show pride for their future by wearing their favorite college, university, trade school, or military shirt! Students were also encouraged to wear their favorite college or university colors! I was excited to wear my Penn State jersey today to represent my undergraduate alma mater! :) I was totally impressed with the level of staff participation today! There was a wide array of post-secondary opportunities represented.  It was so exciting to see everyone decked out in their favorite college, university, trade school, or military branch! My favorite was our school security guard dressed in full camouflage! It was also great to see a few students completely decked out in college colors head to toe! Overall, we didn't have as many students participate this year as did last year. I think part of it was attribute...

Today was the first day of the Red Ribbon Week festivities at my school.  Today's theme was "Show School Spirit - Drug Free!" I wore black and yellow to show school pride. I was excited to wear my customized polo that I created using VistaPrint .  The other school counselor I work with and I got them at the beginning of the school year. It says my school and School Counselor under it.  I had a fun idea for the door to the student services suite. On my way to my parent's house this weekend I was trying to think of door ideas.  I got the idea to tape a graduation gown and cap to the door.  I then thought it would up the fun factor to cut out a hole in the paper where the window is so a student could put their head in front of the window so it would look like they were a graduate.  We decided to make the door a Shippensburg University theme since the school social worker, the other school counselor, and I all graduated from Shippensburg Univers...

Red Ribbon week starts Monday! How are you celebrating Red Ribbon Week? I wrote a post of how I celebrated Red Ribbon Week last year .  I am celebrating Red Ribbon Week this year using the same career theme from last year : Believe, Achieve, Succeed - Drug Free!   I plan to write a post each day this week showcasing the theme to give you some ideas for this year or next year.   I encourage you to comment on each day's post and share how you are celebrating that day! Also, share your Red Ribbon Week theme pictures with other school counselors by uploading them to the School Counselor Blog Facebook Page or Google+ .  This year, in addition to the theme days I posted about before, we are also hosting a college door decorating contest for the whole school. I am working on my Penn State themed door today (Sunday)! I had a clever idea for the door leading into the Social Services Suite . Check out my posts later this week for pictures and details...

I am so excited to share this college pennant display with you! I am collecting pennants from colleges and universities. I decided to start with my alma maters, Pennsylvania State University (where I earned my B.A.) and Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (where I earned my M.Ed.). All I did was called them and told them I wanted to display the pennants in my school to expose students to colleges and they sent them to me for free! One day when I was at the high school I noticed they had pennants hanging in various places. Then I got an idea... I asked the high school counselor if he would send me any pennants in which he had a double. He told me that he gets so many that he sometimes throws them away! He was excited to have someone to give them to who would put them to good use. So I am up to 10 pennants now! I am so thankful for the high school counselor for helping me out and helping me to expose students to colleges! Over the summer I made a banner on VistaPrint that...

Big Blue Ikea bag = Happiness! :) I LOVE Ikea ! One of the perks of living in Pittsburgh was having an Ikea close by! I would go to Ikea all the time and find lots of cool things for my school counseling office . On Monday, I presented at the Montgomery County Counseling Association (MCCA ) on "Essentials of Becoming a Tech Savvy School Counselor" in King of Prussia, PA. I took a personal day so I would have plenty of time to get there and would not be caught up in something at school. Before I left I looked to see if there was a Ikea anywhere near King of Prussia. Sure enough there was one in Consohohocken, PA! I was so excited to make an Ikea stop! One of the things I went to Ikea in search of was this DUKTIG Toolbelt . When I found it in the store it was much smaller than I expected (I think it is for a toddler) but I still purchased it anyway. I figured I could still use the tools in a Home Depot belt that I had at school. I was also thinking about ad...

Rachel Simmons was interviewed on Anderson Cooper 360 about bullying. This clip talks about solutions to bullying. Rachel Simmons advocates for school counselors as being a solution and what students want! What do you think about this clip?  Comment below,  tweet ,  contact Danielle , or share on the  School Counselor Blog Facebook Page ! Danielle is a K-12 Certified School Counselor, Nationally Certified Counselor, and blogger at  School Counselor Blog , a place where school counselors share innovative ideas,  creative lesson plans,  and quality resources. Connect with Danielle via  email , follow her on  twitter , add her on  LinkedIn  or  Google+ , and become a fan of the  School Counselor Blog Facebook Page .

One of my greatest successes thus far as a School Counselor has been creating engaging career programing for students. Check out this video I submitted to Scholastic's Teacher Wall  where I talk about the    Career  Café  program I started in my school. Read other posts about Career  Café : Serving Up Career Standards With Career Café Serving Career Standards Through Community Involvement One of My Greatest Accomplishments as a School Counselor... One Cool Career Café Cat When Meeting with a Detective is a Good Thing How to Host a Career Cafe at Your School Series Career Café: Location, Location, Location! Career Café: Setting a Schedule Career Café: Career Interest Resources Elementary, Middle, and High School Career Café: Recruiting Speakers Career Café: Inviting Students What has been one of your biggest successes as a school counselor?  Comment below,  tweet ,  contact Danielle , or ...

The third School Counselor Tweet Chat was held on October 11, 2011 at 8pmEST! School Counselor Tweet Chat is a collaboration between  School Counselor Blog  and  SCOPE . We chatted about leadership  and advocacy ! Julia V. Taylor moderated the tweet chat. We had great conversations about what school counselors can do to advocate for their position and show how they are leaders in the school. Read the  full transcript  via google documents.  To access all of the tweets with the hashtag #sctweetchat,  click here . *Note the hashtag for School Counselor Tweet Chat is now #scchat. The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is on November 1, 2011 at 8pmEST! Jenn Grossman will be our host! For information on how to participate in a future School Counselor Tweet Chat, click here ! Did you participate in the School Counselor Tweet Chat? What did you think about it? What new ideas did you learn? Comment below or share via twitter #sctweetch...

I got the idea for this school counselor bulletin board from a School Counselor Blog Facebook Page fan, Sarah . I loved Sarah's "Whoo Can Help You With..." school counselor bulletin board that she posted to the School Counselor Blog Facebook Page . I decided to use my Cricut Expression paper cutter to make my own version of the bulletin board for the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade hallway at school.  I got my Cricut Expression paper cutter for Christmas last year. I used it a lot over the summer to make bulletin boards.  I am just getting around to posting pictures of some of the ones I made.  You can also check out the "College and Career Ready!" bulletin board I made using my Cricut Expression t.   Bulletin Board How To   Background and Tree I covered the bulletin board with light blue roll paper. I then drew a tree free-hand on brown roll paper . I cut it out with scissors and stapled it to the background. Letters I cut...

Self-pillows are pillows that represent your personality. My school counselor colleague, Natasha, had the great idea of creating self-pillows as an activity during our groups for children who have a loved one in prison . Self-pillows would also be great as an activity for grief and loss groups or self-esteem groups! 1. Pick fabric The most important and first step of making a self-pillow is finding fabric! Choose a variety of patterns of fabric that you think your students would like. You can even ask students what some of their favorite things are so you have some fabrics that go along with their interests. Also, consider the topic of the group.  We chose fabrics that related to feelings associated with our group. Children experiencing the incarceration of a loved one, can feel like they do not want anyone to be around them and keep people out of their life. We found some fabric that has gates and dogs that says "Beware" and "Keep Out." A number of...