by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jan 2, 2013 | This wacky job!
From the Department of “ACK! Get the Counselor, Quick!” Don’t you just love how the nutso stuff that happens at school somehow always winds up as the school counselor’s responsibility? Nothing like a little discomfort to clear everyone else out of the room, leaving you with . . . any number of situations, but today we’ll be talking about The Strange Things Kids Bring to School. I’d been planning to share my personal dooziest of doozies sometime in the future, but when I recently heard about the unbelievable “gift” a colleague in my district received, I knew this topic just couldn’t wait. In the interest of full and balanced reporting I asked School Counseling by Heart’s Facebook and Twitter followers to share the strangest things kids have brought to their schools. Let me just say: Oh Lordy! and This stuff does not only happen in Vermont! What do you know, some themes emerged. Take for instance, Animals, Alive A kitten in a backpack. Chickens in a cage (they rode the bus.) A chicken egg. Chicken poop. Four uncaged rats who came to a parent-teacher conference (parent-teacher-rodent conference?) I shudder to say this, because I may be bringing a curse upon my head, but I don’t think we’ve had any unexpected live animals come to school, unless, of course you count lice and bedbugs, which I try not to. Animals, Dead A dead kitten (thankfully not the same one as above.) A raccoon head. A deer head. A newly dead ferret, who, like the family of rats above, attended a parent-teacher conference. Let me just state for the record that... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jan 1, 2013 | collegiality
Happy 2013! One of my favorite things about 2012 is that I met so many wonderful school counselors through the blogging world – those whose blogs I read as well as the many readers of School Counseling by Heart who have written to me. I feel so lucky to have such thoughtful, open, and generous people as my new friends and colleagues. I am beyond excited to meet lots of them (you!) in person at the ASCA conference in July! In the meantime, here’s a wonderful new way for us all to connect – the School Counseling Linky Party that Marissa over at Elementary School Counseling is so kindly hosting for us. For this Linky Party, Marissa suggested that other school counseling bloggers share what they identify as their best blog feature, favorite blog post, most popular blog post, and the top five blogs we follow. I began writing this blog in the hope that other school counselors might find my ideas and experiences useful. I am proud and humbled that my posts about topics that are often very difficult to bring up but so important to talk about – sexual abuse prevention and, more recently, the shooting at Sandy Hook, have been helpful to so many counselors, other educators, and mental health providers. I will be adding more posts and scripts about “hard topics” in the (hopefully not too distant) future. Here are links to all the sexual abuse prevention posts and to the script for talking to kids about the shooting. Picking a favorite blog post is a little like picking a favorite child, but I have... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Jan 1, 2013 | abuse, children's literature, classroom lessons, personal safety
It has been deeply gratifying to hear from so many people about how they have used the sexual abuse prevention lessons and resources that I have written about in various blog posts. I am passionate about the topic of sexual abuse prevention – I have seen such amazing changes in children who are able to report and avoid abuse – and am so glad to be able to help others as they do this important work. To make it easier for people to more easily locate all the posts I’ve written about sexual abuse prevention, I’ve put them all together, with a little help from a friend. The wonderfully organized Vanessa at Savvy School Counselor recently collected links to all of her National Board Certification Process in one blog post. What a great idea! It’s not the first of Vanessa’s ideas I’ve adopted! What did I ever do before there was all this wonderful sharing of ideas between school counselors???!!! Here is a collection of links to help you more easily locate all the posts I’ve written about sexual abuse prevention. I’ll keep adding to this list as I write more on this topic. Teaching Kids How to Tell About Sexual Abuse Teaching Kids to Recognize Grooming Preparing Students (and Yourself) for Sexual Abuse Prevention Lessons Using Data to Teach About Sexual Abuse Prevention “I Got Safe So Quickly”: How Kids Feel After Telling About Sexual Abuse Shrinking the Hurt I’ve Got a Secret . . . Kindergarten Lessons for Sexual Abuse Prevention First Grade Lessons for Sexual Abuse Prevention Second Grade Lessons for Sexual Abuse Prevention Third Grade... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Dec 17, 2012 | classroom lessons, trauma
I hope you’re feeling okay and that you are treating yourself gently as you continue to support your students, families, and coworkers. I’m sure that many of us had similar experiences today. Somehow, it helped to know that even though we were miles away from each other, we were all working together in support of our school families, and of each other. Today was a busy, overwhelming day, but I do feel like we made a good beginning at helping our students feel safe and able to express and help themselves with their feelings. Unfortunately we had a two-hour delay because of snow this morning, so we ran out of time and didn’t get to three of our classrooms – two kindergartens and one first grade – even without any lunch, sitting down, or bathroom breaks! We will catch up with those classes plus do follow-up visits in the other classrooms and meet with kids as needed during the rest of the week. Here are a couple of resources that we will use as we continue to support our students: I Feel Safe (a book to reassure students that school is safe), is a 4-page coloring and reading book created by blogger and first grade teacher Jodi Southard from Fun-in-First, for her own students in response to the Sandy Hook shooting. It is appropriate for kindergarten and first grade, and is available as a free download. Jenny is Scared: When Sad Things Happen in The World by Carol Shuman, is an honest and reassuring book that is perfect for situations in which a frightening and confusing event – a... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Dec 16, 2012 | classroom lessons, trauma
I’m sure all of you are heartbroken over the tragedy of the shooting at Sandy Hook. I’m also sure that you’ve been very busy trying to prepare for your response at school tomorrow and in the following week. I too have been busy trying to make sure that we have all our supports in place at my school, while also supporting the new elementary school counselors in my district as they plan their responses. And also while trying to care for myself as I process this horrible situation and steady myself for the work I need to do. One of the things I did was to create a script for my colleagues, outlining how and what I will say when I go into the classrooms tomorrow. In case that is also helpful for you, I have linked to it here. It is only an outline of what I will say, and I wrote it with 2nd/3rd graders in mind as a way to give a general sense of what I say, but I will be sharing the same information, using adapted language for the older and younger kids. I also included information about some activities we will do as part of the classroom discussion. Please feel free to use or adapt it if it is at all helpful for you. There have been many wonderful resources circulating over the past few days to share with staff members and parents. Here are the resources that we shared with parents this weekend. We did not want to overwhelm them, but wanted to make sure that they had good, easy to read... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Dec 5, 2012 | abuse, children's literature, classroom lessons
My first grade sexual abuse prevention lessons revisit and build upon the skills and concepts covered in kindergarten. (See Kindergarten Lessons for Sexual Abuse Prevention.) For this series of three lessons you will need the books I Can Play It Safe by Alison Feigh, Your Body Belongs to You by Cornelia Maude Spelman, and Do You Have a Secret? by Jennifer Moore-Mallinos. For the activities you will also need some coloring pages, a Good Secrets Box, and Secrets Cards. (Find links for these resources 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. Lesson 1 covers several personal safety concepts: checking with a parent or caregiver before going anywhere or when asked to help with an adult problem; trusting the “uh-oh” or “yucky” feeling; the importance of telling if someone asks you to keep a secret from your parents or touches you in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable; and identifying adults you can trust to help you. The lesson consists of reading I Can Play It Safe; introducing and practicing the “Say NO (if you can), GO, and TELL” and “Check First” scripts; and coloring No, Go, and Tell and Check First papers. Lesson 2 specifically focuses on safety related to private parts. Activities include reading Your Body Belongs... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Dec 1, 2012 | career
In an earlier post, Role Models – on Paper!, I shared the fun and informative Career Paper Dolls created by Hannah Holt of Lightbulb Books. Hannah has added more interesting career characters to her collection, and she even included some neuroscientists, which I had requested! (Learning about the brain is a BIG deal at our school!) The newly highlighted careers are neurologist, neurosurgeon, mathematician, post-doc computer programmer, large animal veterinarian, and helicopter pilot. These are far more than just your typical paper dolls. You can use them as paper dolls or as pages for kids to read and examine. They are available in full color or black and white outline versions for coloring. You can get PDFs for all the pages here. Each page outlines two different professionals who work collaboratively. Their work, and how what each of them does intersects, is described in a brief story on each page. (There are two pages for the neurologist and neuroscientist. They work collaboratively, but on each of their pages they are paired with the same patient, which is a beautiful touch, since it quietly highlights the importance of the doctor/patient relationship and collaboration, and underscores the humanity of the patient.) The multicultural characters, the clothing they need for their work, and their tools and equipment are labeled and described. I can’t even really pick my favorite from among all the tools – they are just that cool: a sling to transport a sick horse by helicopter, an EEG cap, PET scanner, computer code book, and, hilariously, instant noodles – because what post-doc actually has time to cook?!!! So far, all... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Nov 30, 2012 | bullying, children's literature, classroom lessons
This year I decided to rework our fourth grade bullying prevention unit so that it builds upon the visually rich and thought-provoking book Goodbye Bully Machine by Debbie Fox. We’re in the midst of it now, and it’s going really well. I’ll share all the lessons and resources once we’ve completed the unit, but am so excited that I wanted to share this piece of it right away! Today our fourth graders put on a play based on the book, and you can see it in this video. (It runs a little more than 6 minutes.) [youtube=http://youtu.be/TTpeCzfnsFc] Here’s how the Goodbye Bully Machine play came to be: We have a wonderfully talented and collaborative new fourth grade teacher, Lanni, who has a background in theater. I told her I would be reading Goodbye Bully Machine in her class and asked if she would consider helping with a machine-based theater game that we would do together in her class, and which I would then recreate with the other fourth grades. Because the book’s language and illustrations are so rich and complex, I had planned to spread it out over two lessons. At the end of the first lesson, Lanni could barely contain herself – she was so inspired and filled with ideas. We went to the other fourth grade teachers, who signed on right away, and scheduled rehearsals. (We used 3 of my 45-minute classroom counseling times and three other times from regular classroom time.) Within a few days Lanni had created the soundtrack – she chose selections from the book, narrated it, and created the background machine sounds with GarageBand.... read more
