by schoolcounselingbyheart | Oct 13, 2012 | collegiality
School Counselors are in the House – the State House, that is! Vermont is a very small state, and the Vermont School Counselor Association annual conference is not the multi-day extravaganza that associations from larger states offer, but this year school counselors from the Green Mountain State got to feel especially important when the VTSCA conference was held at the State House, in the chamber of the House of Representatives. (And we got to meet a presidential candidate! More on that later.) The theme of the conference was Mindfulness, Movement, and Motivation, and we got to experience some of each of those in a very grand setting. There are not all that many conference centers in Vermont, and all education-related ones tend to be held in the same few, so I (fabulous mentor that I am), having skimmed passed my eyes over the registration materials only long enough to sear the words “Montpelier” (the only U.S. state capital without a McDonald’s) and “Capital” into my brain, blithely led my new counseling colleague to the Capital Plaza Hotel instead of to the State House. Thankfully, the guy at the front desk was better informed than I, and we walked back toward the golden dome. (Hey! New idea for Montpelier’s motto: Who needs the Golden Arches? We’ve got the Golden Dome!) The keynote speaker was – no, I’m not being judgmental – a clown! — Insert your own joke about clowns in the legislature here. — Troy Wunderle, from Wunderle’s Big Top Adventures is the artistic director of Circus Smirkus and director of clowning for Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Oct 10, 2012 | This wacky job!
Scratching your head about how this whole school counseling thing plays out? Feeling like a lousy counselor? Stay tuned . . . Let me set the scene: End of the school day. Me, teaching (aka tap dancing to keep everyone focused, on task, and in their own space) a lesson on self-regulation to 14 kids, in grades 1-5, in our PBiS Targeted Program. Two paraprofessionals, who deserve to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, providing back-up. Did I mention that this class/group is scheduled at the very end of the day in a behavioral program? All things considered it was going quite well. I was especially impressed with the attentiveness of one particular kid. His face showed me that he was thinking deeply, and his hand was raised for most of the class. He’s not the most energetic guy, and his version of raising his hand was more like resting it on his head, but he had an answer every time I called on him. Granted, I was having to call on some others more frequently, because for a couple of them not being called on is something akin to being dipped in boiling oil, but this guy was more focused and engaged than he had ever been! Oh, he was engaged all right! At the end of the class he said to one of the paraprofessionals, “That whole time I only caught one lice!” That hand on his head was not raised, it was hunting! He wasn’t thinking deeply about the topic, he was strategizing about how to capture his prey! Humility check for the day: Despite... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Oct 6, 2012 | children's literature, classroom lessons, conflict resolution
Teaching kids how to resolve conflicts is at the very center of the counseling program at my school. When I started at my school in the dark ages 1996, it was as a long-term sub. Being a sub had its challenges, but one of the major advantages it provided was that I had the opportunity to assess the skills and needs of our students and how the counseling program addressed those skills and needs. Here are my findings in a nutshell: They had some skills, many needs, and there was no program. When I was hired to fill the position permanently, one of the first things I did was develop units on conflict resolution for grades 1-5. There was clearly a need: I spent a lot of my time helping kids manage conflicts, repair friendships, and make restitution for egregious behaviors that were a result of conflicts that escalated rather than being addressed. My mailbox was full of notes from kids asking for help (or tattling), and the line-up at my door after recess made my office look like the ice cream shop on a hot summer day, or maybe something more like the Department of Motor Vehicles, given the distress and indignation level of the customers. Being able to solve conflicts involves many skills – feelings and how to manage them, friendship, understanding others, listening, respect, responsibility, telling the truth, behavior management, problem solving, and safety (to name a few) – so I decided to use conflict resolution as the organizing principle for developing and delivering the counseling curriculum to all students in my school. Of course, I... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Sep 30, 2012 | bullying
Here’s a moving video from the Austin, Texas Police Department and the It Gets Better project. In it, uniformed officers, victims’ advocates, and other police department employees share their experiences, encouragement, and support for young LGBT people. Central to the video is a powerful and direct statement from Art Acevedo, the Chief of Police in Austin, about acceptance for all, regardless of differences: “One of the things I have really always valued as an immigrant myself and as somebody that remembers not speaking a word of English, and some of that discomfort of being the one person that was maybe a little different because of the inability to communicate as a young child, I’ve always valued diversity. Whether it’s black or white, straight or gay, man or woman, young or old, it doesn’t matter. No matter who you are, we’ve created a safe environment for our employees, and our number one goal is to create a safe environment for you. Our doors are open, they are welcoming and we will be here to embrace you no matter who you are, where you come from, or what your background is.” [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBPhJjzLjmk] Wow! I wish that all kids in every city/town/village could hear (and believe) the message “We’re there to protect you, we’re there to help you” from law enforcement and other adults in positions of power within their communities. The It Gets Better Project was created in response to a number of suicides by students who were being bullied in school. The It Gets Better mission is to show young LGBT people that they are not alone, and that the... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Sep 22, 2012 | feelings, parents
Oh, Open House! The scramble to get ready, the shaking of what seems like a million hands, the graceful (you hope) redirection of parent disclosures that are better saved for a private meeting time, the insights gained from seeing interactions between kids and their parents, the happy reunions with former students who are back for a visit with their younger siblings (or, as is now my surreal reality, with their children), and the bleary-eyed stumble home after a 12+ hour day at school. Open House is always a wonderful event, but it’s exhausting! This year, inspired by lots of great Open House ideas from other counselors’ blogs, I suggested to my co-counselor that we try something different. She’s new herself, so it’s all new to her, and she said it sounded like a great idea. (More on this later!) In previous years we started by greeting people in the lobby, and then, once the initial rush of arrivals was over, went classroom to classroom to meet families where they spend most of their Open House time. It was a great way to have some brief conversation in a relatively quiet setting, but inevitably we would miss some families. This year we wanted to find a way to have a little more contact with parents than just saying hi as they streamed by, and also wanted to maximize the number of families we interacted with. We decided that we would set up an interactive table that would: provide information about our counseling program encourage parents to sign up to receive our school counseling news by email give us a chance... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Sep 19, 2012 | bullying, classroom lessons
Here’s a wonderfully clear and informative infographic about cyberbullying. The infographic is based on data gathered through McAfee’s 2012 Teen Internet Behavior Study. I’m definitely going to be incorporating it into my cyberbullying lessons, and thought you might like to do so... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Sep 16, 2012 | bullying
My heart swells when kids take action to make the world a better place for others. Today it’s practically bursting because of willUstand, a bullying prevention initiative by a local Vermonter, 12-year-old, Charleigh Gere, who is using music to share the message that “bystanders can make a difference and that when someone stands for another, they gift hope.” I am so excited about willUstand for several reasons (freebie alert!): 1. willUstand offers a great resource – a free download of the song Stand (the lyrics are there too.) You can use this song as part of a bullying prevention lesson, student presentation, in an assembly, or as a writing prompt. I always find that kids want to listen over and over to (and perform) the music we use in counseling lessons. This free download will allow them to be able to listen to it as much as they want. Here’s the chorus: All it takes is one voice unafraid to say… I will stand beside you Will you stand with me, dig your feet into The earth, cuz they’re worth Somebody to catch them Let’s join together and Stand 2. willUstand is offering kids an engaging and thought-provoking way to participate in the creation of a crowdsourced music video. Now through November 1, kids are invited to submit video clips (under 20 seconds in length) that visually illustrate the themes of standing up for others and/or one voice unafraid. Here are the submission guidelines and a video of Charleigh explaining how kids can join in: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXfKc7n9Zlo] 3. Charleigh is a great role model for showing kids how they can... read more
by schoolcounselingbyheart | Sep 8, 2012 | This wacky job!
One of the things I really, really love about school counseling is that you never quite know what is going to happen – and some of what does happen is often quite hilarious, at least in retrospect, if not actually in the moment. Such was the case on Friday, thank goodness! It had been a long week, which featured guest appearances on two of the three days by a child protective services worker, a police officer, and a guardian ad litem. And, no, they weren’t there for Career Cafe! But never fear, hilarity to the rescue! Chapter One: Tempting Fate At our district counselors’ meeting first thing Friday morning, each of us shared how things were going so far. One of the high school counselors said that she couldn’t quite believe it, and that she was embarrassed to admit it, but things were going really well – they were easy, even. Laughter and wood knocking ensued, and the doom and gloomiest of us (well, not really, it was just me being silly) said that she might have just brought on the wrath of the school counseling gods and totally cursed herself! A few hours later, here’s what popped up in the subject line in a group email to all the district counselors: “I retract my former statement!” I was already cracking up just reading that, but when I opened the email, it said, “I can already hear Rebecca’s laugh traveling down Route 5!” I’m sure she could! Along with diplomas from Masters of Counseling programs, they really should hand out stone tablets that read: “Tempt not the gods of... read more
