School Counselor Blog

One of the many hats I currently wear is Vice President of the Allegheny County School Counselors Association. In this role, I plan all of the professional development events for the 2024-25 school year. This consists of three all day professional development sessions.  To add an interactive element to our ACSCA Winter Meeting and to promote National School Counseling Week, I got the idea to create a photo wall and selfie station. I have created photo stations at my school for other events like Open House and Start with Hello Week. I thought creating a National School Counseling Week themed Photo Wall and Selfie Station would be a fun way to engage participants and spread the word about National School Counseling Week!   To make the National School Counseling Week Photo Wall and Selfie Station I used the following: Photo Wall Backdrop (I have used this many times and it holds up so well! I love how colorful it is and I honestly can't believe it's under $15!) Astrobrights...

I am excited to share that an article I wrote,  Tools for Self-Care ,  is featured in the January/February 2025 issue of ASCA School Counselor Magazine ! This issue highlights the importance of school counselor and student mental health. In   Tools for Self-Care , I provide practical ways to promote, model, and encourage self-care to  students, educators,  and graduate students! ASCA Members can read the article online here:  Tools for Self-Care . You can also find Tools for Self-Care  in the January/February 2025 issue of ASCA School Counselor Magazine starting on page 30. Below are links to initiatives I mentioned in the article. 12 Days of Self-Care Check out this  12 Days of Self-Care  post for information about how I facilitated 12 Days of Self-Care at my school. This was an event leading up to winter break, but you could use the activity ideas and "self-care selfies" other times during the school year to promote, model, and encoura...

I can't wait to connect and share with other school counselors at the 2025 American School Counselor Association Conference in Long Beach, CA! 🌴🌊 Check out my session for   #ASCA25 : 💻  📣  Design Products to Promote Your Program  with Andrea Burston ( @jyjcounselor ) This session will provide participants with the opportunity to design materials with Canva that you can start using immediately to promote your program! I'm beyond excited! Let the countdown to  #ASCA25  begin! Who's ready to Navigate and Innovate ?  🙋🏼‍♀️🧭💻 Will you be attending virtually or in-person? What are you looking forward to about  #ASCA25 ? If you are speaking at  #ASCA25 , and are looking to make an image like the one above, I made a free template on Canva  here: https://bit.ly/asca25speaker . Drop all your info in on Canva and use it to promote your session! If you use it, tag me! I'd love to see it! ASCA Conference Details Get all the details about...

The days leading up to winter break can be stressful! To help students and staff cope with the stress of the season, the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) team at my school hosts a daily self-care challenge for the 12 days leading up to winter break. Each day, students and staff can take a selfie featuring them doing the daily self-care prompt. Students and staff who submit a self-care selfie, will be entered in the weekly prize drawing.  Find some examples of prizes here:  12 Days of Self-Care Prizes .   This year the challenge starts on Thursday, December 5th and continues through Friday, December 20th.  I am sharing everything you need to host this challenge at your own school! Students and staff will submit their selfies using a Google Form. I made a template of the form I am using so that you can use it too! You can access it here: TEMPLATE FOR SELF-CARE SELFIE FORM   I created a slideshow on Canva to share the daily prompt with students and...

5 Bulletin Boards You Can Keep Up All Year Long! School counselors typically have a love-hate relationship with bulletin boards. They love how they look, but thinking of an idea, putting them up and changing them throughout the year can be a challenge. I am here to help with inspiration and some relatively easy to assemble bulletin boards that you could leave up ALL YEAR LONG! Some of the bulletin boards I included below have been up for YEARS at my school  My hope is that you can get a bulletin board up and not have to think about it. You can get back to work supporting students while having welcoming and engaging bulletin boards! Click on the images or links below to access everything you need to re-create each of these 5 bulletin boards. Need more bulletin board inspiration? The School Counselor Blog search allows you to find even more FREE resources and ideas. Here are all the bulletin boards on SCB .  "We Are So Glad You Are Here!" Bulletin Board "We Are So Glad You...

Editable Friendship Bracelet Style Bulletin Board I have wanted to create a friendship bracelet style bulletin board ever since I saw them all over Instagram last year. I made this simple, customizable, and editable - "In My Middle School Era" bulletin board using my Canva educator account . To create this bulletin board for your school or office, access my  EXACT "In My Middle School Era" Friendship Bracelet Style Bulletin Board  or access the Editable Friendship Bracelet Bulletin Board template . If you use the  Editable Friendship Bracelet Bulletin Board template  you can then change the letter beads to write things like: In My Friendship Era In My "SCHOOL NAME" Era In my Kindness Era ...or whatever you want the letter beads to spell! 😉 To assemble the "In My Middle School Era" Bulletin Board follow the steps below. Friendship Bracelet Style Bulletin Board Letters & Beads I saved the whole file as a PDF and then pr...