School Counselor Blog

I have a new post on  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog !  Check out my post Small Gesture, Big Impact  about how a simple gesture can make someone's day. I give some fun low-cost ideas in this post!  I started blogging for Free Spirit Publishing's Blog  in April of 2012! I love Free Spirit's books and I am so excited to contribute to Free Spirit's Blog , "a springboard of ideas for teachers, counselors, and anyone who cares about kids!" 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 ,  Twitter , Pinterest ,  LinkedIn ,  Google+ , and become a fan of the  School Counselor Blog Facebook Page .

Career Café is an opportunity for students to learn about careers from individuals in their community.  One of my biggest success as a school counselor  has been s tarting a Career Café at my school. Students absolutely love Career Café, it is a blast to host, and it meets  ASCA Student Standard in the Career Domain .   Career Cafe can also be geared toward any level - elementary, middle, or high school! I have gotten tons of inquiries and questions about hosting a Career Café. I am creating a series of posts to explain Career Café in greater detail and provide you with the tools you need to start a Career Café at your school.  Selecting Students to Participate  One the most frequently asked questions I receive about Career  Café is "how do you decide which students you invite?" This answer may be different for everyone who is reading this post! We all work in different size schools with differe...

Career Café is an opportunity for students to learn about careers from individuals in their community.  One of my biggest success as a school counselor  has been s tarting a Career Café at my school. Students absolutely love Career Café, it is a blast to host, and it meets  ASCA Student Standard in the Career Domain .   Career Cafe can also be geared toward any level - elementary, middle, or high school! I have gotten tons of inquiries and questions about hosting a Career Café. I am creating a series of posts to explain Career Café in greater detail and provide you with the tools you need to start a Career Café at your school.  Since starting Career Café I have hosted 13 speakers (8 the first year and 7 the second year).  I was worried at first that I would not be able to find speakers, but in the words of Kevin Costner from  Field of Dreams , "If you build it, they will come!"  Recru...

I have gotten tons of questions and comments about the "What You Say in Here, Stays in Here" Banner that I have in my school counseling office.  Shown here in above the desk in the upper left side of the picture. Also shown here above my desk. I created the banner using VistaPrint.  I got the idea for the banner from a School Counselor Blog Facebook Page Fan. The banner is made out of indoor vinyl and is 3' x 1.6' in size. VistaPrint  is a great place to order personalized items. In the next few weeks I will be sharing some other great things you can order using VistaPrint .  I have been trying to figure out an easy way to share this design with you so that you can reorder it yourself. Unfortunately, when I "share" a design, it does not come up complete with the words. I can share the link to order a banner with this same background, but not the completed banner. The link below will allow you to design the banner yourself. You ca...

I have a new post on  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog !  Check out my post  Highlights of the American School Counselor Association Conference !  I had an awesome time at the conference and learned so many new ideas! I started blogging for Free Spirit Publishing's Blog  in April of 2012! I love Free Spirit's books and I am so excited to contribute to Free Spirit's Blog , "a springboard of ideas for teachers, counselors, and anyone who cares about kids!" 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 ,  Twitter , Pinterest ,  LinkedIn ,  Google+ , and become a fan of the  School Counselor Bl...

I make memory boxes as an activity during my grief and loss groups. Memory boxes allow students a special place to keep mementos of their loved one. I also use the memory boxes as a place for students to store items we create during our group. At the end of the group students take their memory boxes home with them. In the past, I have purchased photo boxes like the ones below for students to create memory boxes.   Source:   michaels.com   via   School Counselor Blog   on   Pinterest Photo boxes make great memory boxes but it can be expensive to buy one box per student each time you facilitate a group.  While searching for after-Christmas bargains, I stumbled upon blouse boxes that were deeply discounted. Blouse boxes are not as sturdy as the photo boxes, but they are a great size. They are blank which was a plus for personalizing them with art supplies. I decided to try them out as memory boxes.  The boxes I purchased were...

This past school year I have implemented various ideas to  boost staff morale .   One day while perusing  Pinterest , I came across the  DIY Birthday Wreath  pictured below.  Source:  blog.embellishedbayou.com   on  Pinterest I thought creating a wreath like this would be a super cute, fun, and inexpensive way to celebrate staff birthdays.  Creating a Happy Birthday! / Happy Un-Birthday! Wreath  I did not see the wreath until around February when the school year was half way over. I decided to make the wreath an inter-changeable Happy Birthday and Happy UN-Birthday wreath.  My intern, Christine, and I purchased all of the supplies for the wreath at the dollar store.  We purchased 8 packs of curly ribbons, a roll of yellow ribbon, and a foam circle (which we did not end up using). We purchase 4 solid color packs and 4 packs that had little birthday cakes on them! :) We at...

During the last week of school I was trying to come up with a way to catalog all of my school counseling books.  I have TONS of school counseling books!  I wanted to find an easy way to look up what books I have. I also wanted a way to provide others with a list if they wanted to see what books I have.  I was thinking of creating a spreadsheet when I decided to see if there were any iPhone apps that would do it for me. I was looking for something that would allow me to scan the bar code of the books and put them into a database. I discovered that there are lots of different book cataloging iPhone apps available. After reading reviews and looking at screen shots I decided on the  Book Crawler App .  I purchased the  Book Crawler App   from iTunes for $1.99.  The  Book Crawler App  can be used  on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. (Note: You do not have to purchase it for multiple devices... once you buy it it works on all three!...

Career Café is an opportunity for students to learn about careers from individuals in their community.  One of my biggest success as a school counselor  has been s tarting a Career Café at my school. Students absolutely love Career Café, it is a blast to host, and it meets  ASCA Student Standard in the Career Domain .   Career Cafe can also be geared toward any level - elementary, middle, or high school! I have gotten tons of inquiries and questions about hosting a Career Café. I am creating a series of posts to explain Career Café in greater detail and provide you with the tools you need to start a Career Café at your school.    There are a number of ways that you can determine how students are selected to participate in Career Café. Students can be chosen based on results of career interest inventories, select which Career Cafés they would like to attend, or entire classrooms or grade levels...