SuperCounselor Recommends: The They-Never-Mentioned-This-in-Grad-School Guide to the Most Essential Counseling Tools

Invisibility Cloak - Want!

Invisibility Cloak – Want!

Guest blogging today is our old friend, SuperCounselor, who scolded me mercilessly about not posting more frequently graciously offered to cover for me while I try to keep up with everything that’s been going on at school. 

Hello, Fellow School Counselors! SuperCounselor here, to share with you my top ten list of resources that no school counselor should ever be without.  Oh, I know, I know, where would we be without our social skills games, bullying books, sandtrays, and bulletin boards? But here are some handy tools that I just can’t do without! Um . . . well . . . er . . . actually, I often do do without them, because I’m not quite sure where to purchase them. (Except for one, which I carry (more…)

Second Grade Lessons for Sexual Abuse Prevention

Screen Shot 2013-03-07 at 11.17.42 AMMy sexual abuse prevention unit for second grade consists of three lessons, which revisit and build upon the skills and concepts covered in first grade. For these lessons you will need the books Scoop by Julia Cook and I Said No! A Kid to Kid Guide to Keeping Private Parts Private by Zack and Kimberly King, as well as scenarios from Teaching Kids How to Tell About Sexual Abuse and some coloring pages (linked below.) It will be helpful for you to familiarize yourself with the foundational information about how to teach sexual abuse prevention by reading the posts Teaching Kids How to Tell About Sexual Abuse and Teaching Kids to Recognize Grooming before you teach the lessons. You can link to all my posts about sexual abuse prevention lessons and resources by visiting A Collection of Sexual Abuse Prevention Resources. The objectives and ASCA National Standards addressed in this unit are listed at the end of the post.

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Stand: The Anti-Bullying Anthem

Screen Shot 2013-02-21 at 11.05.38 AMIt’s finally out – the crowd-sourced music video of Stand! The singer, Charleigh Gere is a middle school student in our district, who decided to take a stand herself and do something to help other kids stop bullying. The video is comprised of clips of students from all over the world singing, dancing, acting, writing, and signing, united to end bullying. My counseling partner Amy worked with some of her 3rd and 5th grade groups to create clips, which they submitted for the video (some of them even made the cut!). Amy and I use the song (available in iTunes) in our bullying prevention units  and the kids LOVE it! And now here’s the video, which will be a great addition to any lesson about bullying! (more…)

Goodbye Bully Machine, Hello Integrated Learning!

Screen Shot 2013-02-19 at 3.57.15 PMI’m always tweaking and working to improve my lessons and units – I want to make sure that they’re meaningful and engaging, and that kids are learning and applying what they’ve learned in real-life settings. Also, I am addicted to just love figuring out how to incorporate new ideas and techniques! (Which may have something to do with why my to-do list is completely ridiculous.)  Most recently, I set my sights on my fourth grade bullying prevention unit. Even though this unit has been impactful and well-received, I wanted to: (1) experiment with how integrating technology and art might expand kids’ understanding about bullying; (2) see how this could help me assess student learning; and (3) increase my knowledge about how best to address the Common Core standards within the counseling curriculum. It was a LOT of work, but the outcome has been amazing! (more…)

School Counselors, Meet the Common Core!

Screen Shot 2013-02-03 at 10.04.52 AMYou work hard every day to help kids communicate clearly, solve problems, collaborate, gain independence, understand others’ perspectives and cultures, and become college and career ready. You facilitate discussion in one-on-one, small group, and whole-class settings. Depending on the grade levels you cover, it’s likely that you read books with kids, help students prepare for college or job interviews (or disciplinary hearings!), help them interpret assessments or other data to make decisions, and provide guidance about writing application essays. So guess what! You’re probably already on your way to addressing the Common Core State Standards. Here’s some information to help you better understand what the Common Core standards are all about, and how you can integrate them into your practice to improve student learning and build system-wide support for your school counseling program.    (more…)

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