School Counselor Blog

The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is Tuesday, April 3, 2012 at 8pmEST! The topic of School Counselor Tweet Chat this month is  Effective Professional Development for Professional School Counselors . Jenn Grossman  ( @MSCAJennifer ) will be our moderator for the #scchat! Join us and share ideas about professional development for professional school counselors! Participating in #scchat is a great way to build your own professional learning network! For directions on how to participate in a  School Counselor Tweet Chat ,  click here . Join  School Counselor Blog  and  SCOPE  for  #scchat  the first Tuesday of the month @ 8pmEST!  View the  School Counselor Tweet Chat schedule  for dates and topics! Click here  for a list of past School Counselor Tweet Chats and full transcripts. If you are interested in moderating a School Counselor Tweet Chat,  direct message me  on twitter! E...

I am excited to announce a new feature on School Counselor Blog - School Counselor Spotlight! School Counselor Spotlight is a way for you to share your innovative ideas, creative lessons, and quality resources with School Counselor Blog readers! After reading about my  To Proficiency and Beyond! Test Taking Tip Bulletin Board , School Counselor Blog reader Kristin shared a test-taking tip bulletin board she created with the help of her students! Hi Danielle,  I have been enjoying your school counselor blog most of the year. It helps to inspire me for activities and bulletin boards. I wanted to let you know that for my test taking bulletin board I actually work with 4th graders and have them brainstorm test taking tips that they would give 3rd graders (who are taking the State Assessments for the first time).. This makes the 4th graders the teachers and the 3rd graders love to see the 4th graders work. After each group of 4th graders has a tip then I take a pict...

Wow, time has flown by since I wrote the Bullying and Bar Graphs: Part 1 pos t! Since I wrote the post I have facilitated the Bullying and Bar Graph: Part 1 in six classrooms and have facilitated the Bullying and Bar Graphs Part 2 in three classrooms. Students love seeing their results and having a conversation about what the bullying issues are in their classroom. Preparing for Bullying and Bar Graphs: Part 2 Bar Graph Paper I used Post-it Self Stick easel paper . Using eight pieces of Post-it Self Stick easel paper , I wrote one of the eight questions on each sheet.  I then created an x and y axis for students to use when graphing each question. I also cut sheets of Post-it Self Stick easel paper into four pieces and labeled it "solutions" sheet for each question. Question Bags I found these mini purple canvas bags over the summer before school started this year in the dollar spot at Target. They were sold in three-packs for $1.00, but they were on sale f...

I feel like I have been M.I.A. (Missing In Action) from School Counselor Blog this week and wanted to check in with you! First off... I must share that school has been crazy lately. A former student died recently. He touched so many students' and teachers' lives. Thankfully, my intern, co-school counselor, the school social worker, and the school social worker's intern were all available to respond to students' needs.  This was definitely an example of why it it was a good choice to move to the student services suite. We were all there to support students and utilized all of our space.  We also had the support of a school counselor from another building (who happens to be my best friend) and a school psychologist from a different building.  I was so grateful that we had so many people able to help and support students. It was a very sad and trying day; it made me feel so much less alone to have them all there.   Last Tuesday we started our state assessments. ...

If you liked (or LOVED) the To Proficiency... and Beyond!  test-taking tip bulletin board  I shared just in time for state testing, you are going to LOVE this post where I share FREE PRINTABLE PDF files containing the letters and words for the bulletin board! I have gotten lots of great feedback about the bulletin board at school and online! :) I am so excited to provide you with FREE PRINTABLES of the words that I used on the  To Proficiency... and Beyond!  test-taking tip bulletin board  so you can make your own! The TO PROFICIENCY... AND BEYOND! Bulletin Board Letters PDF file contains the letters for "TO PROFICIENCY... AND BEYOND!" for the To Proficiency... and Beyond! bulletin board . The  Test-taking tips TO PROFICIENCY... AND BEYOND! Bulletin Board PDF file contains the test taking tips that we made for on the  To Proficiency... and Beyond!  bulletin board . I printed all of the words and letters for th...

I don't know what it's like in your state, but testing season is creeping up fast in Pennsylvania! I was so excited to finally get a chance this week to make a bulletin board to highlight test-taking tips! First off, I have to give a  HUGE SHOUT OUT to Gail, a School Counselor Blog reader, who shared a great idea for a test-taking slogan! Gail found a cute rocket Valentine on Pinterest and thought of a rocket theme for state testing using the slogan "To proficiency... and beyond!" (Like Buzz Lightyear! Get it?!)  I immediately loved it and thought it would be awesome to create a bulletin board with a rocket theme for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) test. So, this week my school counseling intern, co-school counselor, and I got to work making "TO PROFICIENCY... AND BEYOND!" test-taking tips bulletin board.  It was so much fun to create and put together. I must say it turned out even better than I anticipated. We used four large p...

I am not sure if I mentioned this before on my blog, but I am HUGE Seth Godin fan. (Thanks to my daD!)  I am even using one of Seth Godin's books, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?  as required reading for the Introduction to School Counseling course that I am teaching in May. The other day my dad sent me one of Seth Godin's latest manifestos. This one is about school and is titled Stop Stealing Dreams: (What is School For?) .   I am making  Stop Stealing Dreams  required reading for my Introduction to School Counseling Course too. Stop Stealing Dreams  is a must read and a must share.  Stop Stealing Dreams   is FREE to encourage sharing and discussion. I hope Stop Stealing Dreams: (What are Schools For?) s tart's a much needed national discussion about how schools need to move out of the factory mindset and prepare for the jobs of the 21st century.  This is of utmost importance because school counselors play a critical role ...

The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 8pmEST! The topic of School Counselor Tweet Chat this month is  Group Ideas and Overcoming Group Challenges . Natalie Spencer ( @nspencerlpc ) will be our moderator for the #scchat! We will be sharing ideas about groups and ways to overcome group challenges! For directions on how to participate in a  School Counselor Tweet Chat ,  click here . Join  School Counselor Blog  and  SCOPE  for  #scchat  the first Tuesday of the month @ 8pmEST!  View the  School Counselor Tweet Chat schedule  for dates and topics! Click here  for a list of past School Counselor Tweet Chats and full transcripts. If you are interested in moderating a School Counselor Tweet Chat,  direct message me  on twitter! Erin Mason is a former Middle School Counselor, now Counselor Educator who manages  SCOPE , a group blog dedicated to chronicling the p...

While planning bullying lessons for 5th grade classes, I found a great lesson,  "Bullying Survey,"  from Teaching Tolerance . This activity not only starts a conversation about bullying, but can easily be integrated into a math class! I facilitated a two part lesson based on the "Bullying Survey" activity from Teaching Tolerance . The activity includes giving the students a bullying survey and having students graph the survey results. Through this activity, students see what the problem areas are in their classroom and provide solutions for the problem areas. I scheduled thirty minutes for each Part of the lesson. Preparation for Bullying and Bar Graphs: Part 1 Students respond to the pencil and paper version bullying survey and then use "tickets" to record their answers for the graphs. I thought double sided response cards would make it easier for students to record their answers for the bullying survey.  I made two sets of cards for each stu...