by schoolcounselingbyheart | Aug 18, 2013 | humor, This wacky job!
Despite all my well-laid plans and Pinterest dreams, my back-to-school reality has been what it usually is – far from perfect. I headed back into school to set up my room (ahead of when I’m supposed to be there, of course, so I could get everything ready before things got challenging. Bwhahahahahahaha, what was I thinking!), only to find that my carpets had not yet been cleaned, my new laptop had not been delivered, and the new phone system does not work. In other words, things are back to normal! But it could be worse. In fact, some years my back-to-school experience has been a bit more like a (literally) take-your-breath-away horror movie, complete with the creeping crud, horrendous odors, banishment, and a party line. However, I’ve always lived to tell the tale, and my students have survived undecorated offices and unexpected office glitches. You and your students will survive too, no matter what kind of scary movie your back-to-school experience becomes. My very first year as a school counselor, which was at a high school, went the best as far as setting up my office, probably because I was clueless about the workload that was about to hit me. Of course, when I arrived I didn’t have an office, but that was soon rectified by a last minute administrative decision that I would be “put” in the office that had until that moment belonged to a certain academic department which will remain nameless. Imagine how glad those teachers were to have me on the team! Way to start building relationships! The cinderblock walls were painted a moldy-pea-soup-green,... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Aug 11, 2013 | collegiality, self care
I don’t even want to think about can’t really remember what it was like before the existence of our wonderful online school counseling community. It’s hard to believe that I used to have to “go it alone” and am not quite sure how I actually survived it. It was a lot lonelier, that’s for sure! It’s so great to know that there are people out there who understand what I’m experiencing, who know what it’s like in the school counseling trenches, and who encourage and inspire me to keep going when things are hard. I learn so much from all of you – from your helpful suggestions, comments, and the questions that really make me think. You don’t have to be a blogger or a frequent tweeter to make a difference to other school counselors. Every time you comment or pose a question here, on other blogs I read, on the School Counseling by Heart Facebook page and other school counseling pages on Facebook, share a link or ask for input by using #scchat on Twitter, participate in a School Counseling On Air (#scoa) chat, or contribute to ASCA Scene, you are helping out your colleagues around the world. (No kidding, this is a global community!) Please don’t be shy – join in! This is one of the most welcoming communities I’ve ever experienced. The veterans and the newbies and everyone in between are open and curious and grateful for your thoughts and ideas. Those of us whose names or faces might show up more often than others are just regular school counselors like you, with dreams, struggles, moments... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Aug 6, 2013 | collegiality, technology, This wacky job!, Uncategorized
Well, the school dreams have started, and I’m feeling a new urgency to get organized. I’ve even been going to bed a (tiny bit) earlier. The first day of school must be right around the corner. Yay! Ugh! Ack! Yup, definitely experiencing some mixed emotions! One thing that has made going back to school easier over the past couple of years is the knowledge that I take an invisible host of supporters with me. No, I’m not delusional – I’m talking about all of the school counselors all over the world who share their great ideas, encourage me on the tough days, crack me up with their tales of kid hijinks and bureaucratic ridiculousness, and just all-around inspire me. Yeah, I mean YOU! Fellow bloggers Andrea Burston from JYJCounselor and Danielle Schultz from School Counselor Blog have come up with some great ways for us all to connect as we head back to school. (These two really should be named the social “cruise directors” of the school counseling world!) Here are three ways for us all to get together as we go back to school. (Descriptions and instructions are courtesy of Andrea and Danielle.) Join Us for a LIVE Chat! Join us on Wednesday, August 7th at 8PM EST for the first ever School Counseling On Air Back to School Chat. (Update: Watch it here.) We will discuss back school tips, best practices, and much more! We have an amazing lineup of school counselor bloggers to represent each school counseling level! The following school counselors will be participating in the chat: Elementary Level: Andrea Burston (JYJ Counselor) Rebecca Lallier... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jul 31, 2013 | career, classroom lessons, Common Core, curriculum, group counseling, technology
Wow! What amazing feedback I’ve gotten after my last post, Creating CareerSmarts! Thank you to everyone for your kind comments and enthusiasm. I’m so glad that other school counselors (and other educators too!) are excited about using the CareerSmarts lessons and that people are finding the info and resources helpful. As promised, here are the lessons about multiple intelligences. They provide a foundation for the CareerSmarts unit, but could also be used on their own for a multiple intelligences mini-unit for classroom or small group use. To find the applicable ASCA and Common Core standards, check here. There’s a lot in this post, but it includes everything you need to be able to teach these lessons yourself. The first two lessons (45 minutes each) in the CareerSmarts unit introduce kids to the concept of multiple intelligences, or “smarts.” These lessons are important not only because they help kids understand the ways that they are smart, but also because they provide foundational information for them to use throughout the rest of the unit. For every career they explore – through video, search engine, game, or interview – they will be making educated guesses about which multiple intelligences are important to that job. In both projects they create – career trading cards and avatars – they will be including information about how people use their multiple intelligences in their work. Lesson 1: Introduction to Multiple Intelligences Lesson 1 provides basic information about multiple intelligences and gets kids thinking about how their own and other people’s “smarts” manifest themselves. When I couldn’t find any visual resources I particularly liked, I created a... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jul 20, 2013 | career, classroom lessons, Common Core, curriculum, technology
One of the things I am most proud of from last school year is CareerSmarts, a new unit I developed for fourth grade, which I’d love to share with you. CareerSmarts is a student-driven, technology-based unit in which students learn about and connect their multiple intelligences and interests with future education and career possibilities. There’s even a fun gamification aspect – students challenge themselves to move to different levels by exploring multiple careers. While on the CareerSmarts journey, students learn about their own “smarts,” and explore and analyze a variety of careers by watching videos, using a search engine, playing games, and interviewing guests at Career Day. To demonstrate their learning, they create career trading cards featuring the Career Day guests and avatars of themselves in their future careers. To see an example of how knowledgeable the kids become, check out the biomedical engineer below. (You can learn more about the avatar project and see all the avatars the kids created at Avatars at the Virtual Career Fair.) [gigya width=”200″ height=”267″ src=”http://vhss-d.oddcast.com/vhss_editors/voki_player.swf?doc=http://vhss-d.oddcast.com/php/vhss_editors/getvoki/chsm=88182bfdbcd31c9787ddf13d86e552b8%26sc=8145507″ quality=”high” wmode=”transparent” allowfullscreen=”true” ] And guess what! The unit addresses Common Core State Standards in Writing and Speaking & Listening, as well as ASCA National Standards in the Academic and Career domains. I had several goals for this unit: to address some of the academic and career standards to integrate technology in a way that would create an environment in which most of the learning would be student-driven to get kids excited about future possibilities and therefore more engaged in their current learning to clearly illustrate how school counseling classroom lessons can address Common Core State Standards ... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jul 12, 2013 | collegiality, humor, This wacky job!
Who knew that the ASCA annual conference would be so great? Well, probably lots of people, but this first-time attendee had her socks knocked off! It’s hard to know where to begin – I learned so much at all the sessions I attended, discovered terrific resources, and met some incredible school counselors. I’ll share some of my favorite resources in a later post, but for now – inspired by letters I’ve been getting from students at camp, and by the Twitterfest that went on at #ASCA13 – I’ve got something a little more fun in mind, something to give you a sense of what it was like to be there. This one time, at ASCA Camp . . . Saturday night Dear Diary, I rode the airport shuttle with a gaggle of super nice school counselors from Tennessee and South Carolina. Only one of us wasn’t using the term y’all. When I said goodbye, though, out it popped: “Hope y’all have a great conference!” I’m already learning from new friends! @DearDiary TYL – that’s southern for “tweet y’all later!” #yankeegirl Sunday Morning Dear Diary, Today I had a full day of “RAMP Camp.” The very first person I met at ASCA13 recognized my name! It turned out she’s a School Counseling by Heart reader from South Carolina!!! We’ve already worked on our projects together (yay teamwork!) and are gonna have our 5th grade friends Skype or Voice Thread with each other or something awesome like that. I bet my friends are gonna be like all “y’all” too after they meet the kids from South Carolina! Haha! The next... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jul 7, 2013 | college
Ah summer, time to kick back, relax, read, garden, catch up with friends . . . and prep for the coming year at school! I know it seems a bit counselor-geeky, but there’s something just so wonderful about having time to explore all the resources that are out there. Today I came across some great public service announcements from KnowHow2Go about the importance of going to college. These highly engaging English and Spanish PSAs are in video (30 and 60 seconds), audio (30 and 60 seconds), and a variety of print formats. The first set of PSAs feature middle and high school kids in urban settings showing and talking about their persistence, determination, and vision in sports, gaming, art, and music and how those traits relate to going to college. The videos end with the tag line: “I’ve got what it takes. So do you.” What a great way to tie in character traits with college planning! I can see using these with kids in 4th grade all the way up through high school. Here are some of the videos: The “Tough” set of PSAs encourage kids to take challenging courses in preparation for college. They feature tongue-in-cheek scary “cage-fighting” tough characters: Algebra, a gladiator/Arnold Schwarzenegger muscle-man; Biology, a set of armored, feathered, and echo-y twins; and Foreign Languages, a trio of Napoleonic, bullish, and Ninja-like characters. In the video clips, middle school age kids are initially scared or confused by them, but by the end are allied with them. These videos are hilarious! Print and audio versions of the “Tough” campaign are also available. Hmmm . . .... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jun 28, 2013 | Uncategorized
SuperCounselor has left the building! She is done for the year. She cleaned out her filing cabinets and email inbox, sorted all her binders, bookshelves, games, and toys, and left everything perfectly arranged so that she’ll be all ready to go when she walks back into school in August. She was probably whistling, a la Snow White, while she worked! Now, on her first day of summer vacation, her school uniform is laundered and put away, and she’s already packed to leave for the American Super Counselor Association conference in Gotham City. (We mere mortals will be at our own version of ASCA in Philadelphia!) I’m finally “done” with school too, after finishing up with a week of planning for the expansion of our PBiS program. But while SuperCounselor sang her way through tidying up, I muttered my way through the required, but more-or-less pointless, process of completely dis-assembling my room (a 1/2 day exercise in frustration, which will be repeated, in reverse, in just a few weeks.) I got most of it done, but have to admit that Ishoved a good chunk of my “to be filed” pile into a drawer, and generally just tried to stem the tide enough to be able to convince myself that it was okay to walk away. Done is a state of mind. Perhaps a delusional one. I’m not packed yet, but in every other way, I’m very ready to head to the ASCA conference in Philadelphia tomorrow. I’m so looking forward to gathering new ideas and meeting lots of other school counselors, many of whom I’ve gotten to know through blogging.... read more
