Season of Change: From one place to another!

It has been quite some time since my last post and felt there was no better time to update than now! While there are many reasons for my absence...the top three would have to be:

1. My international school job search was running from September of last year until around mid-January. (stressful but exciting)
2. I accepted a new position ES School Counseling position (PK-2nd) at a school in Jeju, Korea! 
3. My partner and I have braved the transition and move here and are starting to feel more settled now that the school year has started. 

It was truly difficult to say goodbye to our home for the past three years in Vietnam; however, we are both very excited for new possibilities in Korea! We left our fast-paced life in the city and have traded it in for island life! Jeju is lovely and we feel supported by not only our new school but also our friends and family. I highly encourage you to check out Korea and specifically Jeju if you ever get the chance! Have any specific questions about my experience thus far? Comment below! 

Although it is only September, I feel that the buzzword for this upcoming year will definitely be, GROWTH. I am entering my fourth year as a School Counselor and as I look back on my experience thus far,  I am humbled by the opportunities I have been given and how much I have truly grown as a professional. I couldn't have made it this far without the support from my family, colleagues, administrators, and my partner. What is your buzzword for the year? Who is part of your support team?

In addition to our new move, I have restarted my twitter account and am back in the game! Interested? Follow me on Twitter HERE! I am trying to post weekly to stay up-to-date!
Look out for more updates and posts coming up this year!

Friday 5: FIVE AMAZING CHILDREN'S BOOKS I use in my Counseling program!

Hello Again and Happy FRIDAY!
Today's FRIDAY 5 is Five Children's Books that I use in my Counseling Program and how I use them! Check em' out and share your favorites below!

**These are in NO particular order**

I LOVE COMMENTS AND FEEDBACK!


#5: It's Okay To Be Different, Written and Illustrated by: Todd Parr
To be honest, I love ALL of Todd Parr's books. They are all wonderful, colorful, and are great for kids. I use his books a lot and read this book with a Kindergarten class during their story time and as well used it for my "Redesign A Favorite Book Cover" Door Contest as my school during our 2014 Book Week in March. The book has fun pictures and pages about how we are all unique and that it is great to be different. This Teach Idea Factory Blog has other FUN ideas to use with the book including making a class book.


#4: Miss Rumphius, Written and Illustrated By: Barbara Cooney
I love this book and used it with my 4th grade students during a Classroom lesson during Random Acts of Kindness Week. The book is about a woman who follows her dreams and also makes the world a more beautiful place. When I first read the book, it tugged at my heart strings quite a bit. After we read the story, we discussed the plot and tied the conversation into how Random Acts of Kindness can make the world more beautiful. We also watched this video tied into RAK. Then, I had each student write their own list of ways they can make the world a more beautiful place.

#3: The Hundred Dresses, By Eleanor Estes
This is one of my most favorite children's books. I remember my fifth grade teacher reading this book to me when I was in elementary school and it truly stuck with me. I typically read this book with grades 4-5 during my Bullying Awareness Unit for Classroom Guidance. The message of the story is still very applicable to students, even though it was published in 1944. I find the students get "sucked in" to the story and many of them have checked out the book independently after hearing in guidance.

#2. The Sneetches and Other Stories, By: Dr. Seuss 
As a huge fan of Dr. Seuss (who isn't?!?) I have to add The Sneetches in here. I have used this with grade 2-5 and they seem to love it. I have used this to teach about Diversity, Exclusion, Discrimination, Cliques, etc. This is a classic that I find I use again and again! Definitely worth a purchase!

















#1: The Monster Who Lost His Mean, By: Tiffany Strelitz Haber and Illustrated By: Kirstie Edmunds
I used this awesome book with my first grade students and I loved it. The book is about a Monster who loses his mean and then more or less realizes he is happier being a nice "Onster" instead of a "Monster". I tied this into a 3-lesson unit I found from The School Counselor's Chronicle Blog. The unit was focused on being assertive and not acting like a "Monster" or a "Mouse". I read the book to the students and then we did a role-play activity and the students pretended to first be "Monsters" and then to "Lose their Mean" and handle it like the "Best Me, I can be!" Needless to say, it was entertaining and a LOT of fun.


For more information about Books for School Counselors check out this link for the Books That Heal Blog!

So, now I want to know... WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 5?!

R.A.K Week- Spreading the Kindness at AIS!

This week is Random Acts of Kindness Week (February 9-13th). Last year, I had a lot of fun planning R.A.K week and spreading the kindness all over my school. This year, I decided to take it a step further and try to make R.A.K week bigger and BETTER!

**DISCLAIMER** I will admit, I am a thief when it comes to good ideas. I took some ideas from School Counseling blogs and Pinterest mainly.. I will do my best to give credit where credit is due! 

Here are some of the things I did to help celebrate R.A.K week at my school! 

• Morning Announcements: Each day of R.A.K week, I tried to have a little blurb about Random Acts of Kindness. I kept it short, sweet, and direct. Here is an example of one of the morning announcements: 
• Today is DAY 1 of Random Acts of Kindness Week! This week, try to go ABOVE and BEYOND to spread kindness. A simple way to spread kindness is to say something nice. Who can you say something nice to? A teacher, a security guard, a canteen worker, a cleaner, another student, ANYONE!
• Staff Lounge display: It can be difficult to get staff buy-in sometimes, so this year I tried to do something to reach out and appeal to them. In our staff lounge, I posted up some R.A.K week ideas they could use in their classroom. I also added a gum ball machine where staff could write RAKs they received from other teachers. I found this awesome idea from Elementary School Counseling Website, 
• Student Display: Since R.A.K week is so close to Valentines day, I also created a display for our students that said "What will your next R.A.K be?" and posted different ideas on heart cut outs. I also included some pictures as well. The display didn't turn out that great, but it definitely got the idea across.
• Classroom Guidance Lessons: I see every class in grades 1-5 once within a six day cycle. I used the designated "guidance time" (40 minutes) to introduce R.A.K week and give each student a R.A.K challenge to complete!

             
1. With grade one, we made a craft to say thank you to our teachers. After school was out, I snuck into their rooms and taped the cards on their computers. They were quite surprised to see them the next morning and the students were excited to be a part of the surprise! Students also watched the video Color the World with Kindness. 
2. With grade two, we made origami paper hearts and wrote letters or nice encouraging words on the hearts to deliver to teachers. We also watched this video and discussed how kind acts can cause a "ripple effect". The students loved the video and even asked to watch it twice. The origami hearts will be delivered to teachers at the end of the week. 
3. Unfortunately, grade three missed their guidance lessons due to a school-wide event, however their classroom teachers still reinforced kindness in the classroom and did some seperate activities to celebrate R.A.K week. After getting back from our break, the grade three students will receive a lesson on "Keeping the Kindness going!" though. 
4. Grade four viewed a power point of kindness quotes and ideas that I purchased for Teachers Pay Teachers. They also helped create large-scale cards for some of our specialist teachers and departments. Some of the cards we made were for PE, Music, Library, and Art. The students were also able to help deliver their work to the teachers.
5. Grade five was focusing on their Middle School Survival Unit during this time and didn't receive the same focus lesson on kindness as the other students. However, to still encourage Random Acts of Kindness, I had students take a R.A.K from the "Kindness Bucket" and challenged them to complete the act before the end of the week. Next year, I will try to plan better so that they can focus on R.A.K week as well. 

• Small R.A.Ks: Separate from the student led R.A.Ks, I also wanted to spread some kindness around to people within the school. I left pieces of candy and "You have been R.A.Ked" notes on the desks of teachers, assistants, our principal, some of our other various staff members just to help spread some of the love. 

Overall, I think that this R.A.K week has been a successful one thus far! I can't wait to find more activities to celebrate R.A.K week and make it better each and every year! What did you do to R.A.K week? 

Up, Up, and AWAY! Social Skills Superheroes groups!

Last year, I ran a Secret Agent Group for students to help promote kindness around our school. It was a huge hit for our students and I still have students ask to be Secret Agents. This year, I decided to make my Social Skills building group have an exciting theme as well for students!

Introducing....

SOCIAL SKILLS SUPERHEROES!

I downloaded the Social Skills Program  from Crazy Days Counseling on Teachers Pay Teachers and I absolutely love it! 

I created the invitations for group and delivered them while wearing a super hero cape and mask (mainly to grades 1-3). The kids were really excited about being a part of group! 

I am able to use the packet with grades 1-5, with a little tweaking for each grade level. I found the Checklist and Challenge pages in the packet to be very helpful. The students enjoyed going through each one and I was impressed with how honest they were with themselves. I use their responses on the Challenge page to guide the group with activities. 

While the group has JUST started, I am really excited to see how it develops over the quarter. 

What programs have you used for your social skills groups? 

Want more awesome TPT sellers? Click here!

A day in the life...

Before I became a School Counselor, I wondered what an average day would look like for one. I kept hearing things like, "No day looks the same" and "You never know what the day will hold". To be honest, this is one of the reasons that I became a School Counselor in the first place. The idea that each day is unique and that your job is truly unpredictable excites me. I have found that my days tend to take on two different extremes, therefore I decided to outline the TWO Most Common Types of Days I have as a School Counselor.

*DISCLAIMER: The following is a look at MY own schedule as a first-year counselor. I understand that every School Counselor has a different school dynamic, case load, and schedule.*

Smooth Sailing Days
7:30: Arrive at school, grab a cup of coffee and check-email.
8:00: Head downstairs, greet students and check-in.
8:15: Bell rings (I usually spend this time wishing students a good day and assisting as needed)
8:30-8:50: Individual Counseling (various presenting concerns)
8:50-9:30: Committee Meetings/Admin Meetings/Teacher Meetings
9:30-10:00: Prepare for Small groups/Classroom lessons
10:00-10:40: Classroom Lesson or data entry
10:40-11:05: Have lunch with individual student (this is when I may eat lunch too)
11:05-11:30: Girls Lunch Bunch
11:35-12:30: Individual Counseling (various presenting concerns)
12:30-1:00: Check-in with teachers/admin
1:00-1:50: Small Group
1:50-2:15: Check-in with other Counselors at MS and HS
2:20-3:15: Classroom Lesson
3:15: Bid farewell to students
3:30: Respond to emails
4:00: Leave school!

Crazy Hectic Days 
7:30: Arrive at school, immediately see a child crying in the corner. Check-in with student and try to assist as needed.
7:45: Get to my room, see I have at least 15 unread emails ranging in topics from classroom bullying issues to HR notices to IEPs.
8:00: Go to grab a cup of coffee, get stopped by at least 3 different students saying things like:

• "Ms. Sara, Timmy says I am cheating but I am not cheating! Make him stop!" 
• "Ms. Sara, can I meet with you today? I am having the worst luck ever."
• "Ms. Sara, Jenny is being so bossy. I told her I don't want to play with her anymore but she keeps bugging me!"

and also at least 3 different teachers saying things like: 

• "I meant to email you, I really need you to meet with one of my students, they are driving me CRAZY!" 
• "I notice that my girls in class keep getting into conflicts, I don't know what to do anymore. Do you have any suggestions?" 
• "Did you meet with this student? What kinds of things do you guys talk about?" 

I respond to the best of my ability to all of the above...

8:15: Bell rings, greet students (still no coffee) 

8:18: See a student who is refusing to go to class...respond as needed. 

8:30: Finally get student to class, realize I am supposed to go to a 5th grade class and do a lesson on empathy. 

8:32-9:00: Lesson on Empathy with 5th grade 

9:05: Principal finds me, "I was looking for you, we need to meet about this student..now." 

9:05-9:35: Meet with Principal

9:35-9:55: Individual student who has anger management difficulties 

10:00-10:35: Individual student who discloses she witnessed a domestic violence situation at home, respond as needed. 

10:35-10:45: Grab coffee, finally...See a TA who is in tears over an altercation between her and her teacher. Try to assist as needed. 

10:45: Lunch Bunch with 2nd grade

11:05: Lunch with 4th grade student (eat lunch as well)

11:35: Individual student with social anxiety

11:55: Individual student who is a bullying victim  

12:20: Lesson on Self-Control with First Grade 

1:00-1:50: Small Group

1:50-2:15: Teacher brings in crying student, assist as needed.  

2:15-2:30: Different teacher comes in asking for advice about a student. 

2:30-3:00: Individual student who has self-regulation difficulties 

3:00-3:15: Read-aloud to Kindergarten 

3:15: Realize I have nothing prepared for After-school club 

3:15-3:30: Quickly prepare for club

3:30-4:30: After-school activities 

4:30: Same TA from earlier wants to discuss situation with teacher, support as needed.  

5:00: Check my email one more time before leaving school, realize I have yet to respond to all of the emails from the morning and now have at least 10 more emails added to my list. Including some emails saying: "Please respond before the end of the day" 

5:00-5:30: Respond to emails 

5:30: Go to leave school, see a student sitting by himself waiting for his parents, looking quite down. Join him until parents come. 

5:45: Finally leave school, feeling exhausted, somewhat defeated, yet somewhat excited to have finished the day. 

So these are just two examples of SOME of the many days I have as a School Counselor. I want to know, what kind of days do YOU have? 

Friday 5: FIVE AWESOME Teachers Pay Teachers accounts for COUNSELORS to check out!

FRIDAY 5: FIVE AWESOME TpT accounts for COUNSELORS to check out!

So I recently have been utilizing the Teachers Pay Teachers website to help me with my Elementary School Counseling Program. Let me just say...I have been pretty impressed! While I have only been using TPT for about two weeks, I have found some AWESOME accounts on there with great products. Here are my CURRENT TOP 5 (in no particular order) accounts to follow!


The Helpful Counselor : I LOVE LOVE LOVE THC's products. I have already purchased quite a few including: Social Skills Conversation Game, Bullying Bingo Game, Friendship Definition Card set, and the Anger Management Card set. I have definitely been impressed with the quality of work put into these products and already have some more of the THC products on my WISH LIST!



School Counseling Is Magical This is a NEW TpT creator and after checking out her products I am very impressed. She has created a "Scooping Up I-Messages" activity pack that is already on my wish list! She also has some freebies on there including "A Bug and A Wish" cards and more! Have an idea for something? Let her know through TpT!




One stop Counseling Shop This counselor has over 87 different products for sale on TpT. The "Coping Skills Card Pack" really caught my eye and it now has a spot on my Wish List as well! There are a lot of different games and activities on the OsCS account. Check it out!





Crazy Days Counseling: While this counselor only has 11 products so far, they are AWESOME products for Elementary School Counselors! Plus about half of them are free! I really like the "Using Kind Words" packet that has four different lessons to choose from (another FREEBIE!). I look forward to seeing more products from Crazy Days Counseling!






Super Power Speech: This creator has some awesome products and bundles especially focused on Social Skill building and conversation skills. Although her focus is on Speech and Language, I still find a LOT of her products to be applicable for classroom guidance lessons and small groups.




So I want to know, what other COUNSELING related products and creators have YOU found on Teachers Pay Teachers? Let me know and comment below!

Happy Friday!

My TOP 10 First-Year Counselor Tools (Elementary)

When I first started out, I was constantly looking for resources and materials to keep on hand in the office. Currently, these are my top 10 favorite Elementary Counseling tools that I use! 

1. Balloons- Having a supply of balloons in my room has helped me tremendously. I have used them for teaching calm breathing techniques, anger management, group games, team building, stress balls, classroom guidance and SO much more. They have truly been a lifesaver!

2. Question Cards- I keep a supply of laminated question cards (business card size) in my room. These have been helpful in group when we are getting to know one another as well as one-on-one when I am working with a student who is a bit slow to warm. I recommend every first-year elementary school counselor have these on hand!

3. Yarn/String- You would be surprised at how much red yarn I go through. It is good to have on hand just in case you need it. Some of the things I have used yarn/string for include: paper cup phones, classroom guidance lessons about getting "tangled up" in lies, and as tops for bookmarks for Random Acts of Kindness week!

4. Chart paper- Chart paper is super handy when it comes to Classroom Guidance Lessons! Plus, a lot of the teachers want to keep the chart paper after the lesson and hang it up in the classroom.

5. Lanyards- I use lanyards for my Secret Service Agents and for my Lunch Buddy groups. The lanyard works as a hall pass as well as a reminder for students. I try to keep at least 10 lanyards on hand, the ones with the card holders work best.

6. Hula hoop- I keep a green hula hoop in my office and have found that I pull it out usually once a week if not more. I use the hula hoop during small group games and team building mainly. There are tons of things you can do with a hula hoop!!

7. Tissues- This seems like an obvious one...However, I have learned very quickly that it is a good idea to have multiple boxes of tissues around your office. I am very lucky to have such a sizable work space, that being said, I try to keep a tissue box at arms length at all times. I also keep some cinnamon-flavored tissues on hand, they are different and the students like the way they smell.

8. Mini dry-erase board- I have a larger dry-erase board in my room but also keep a small one on hand. Sometimes a student will write down something on the white board that they don't feel comfortable saying out loud and then they can erase it. This can be a very powerful tool.

9. Magic Wand- Ahh the magic wand! I have one magic wand now but hope to acquire more! I use the magic wand a lot during small group discussions and individual work. We use it with the magic question, "If you could wave a magic wand and change something, what would you change?" Plus, whenever some of my students see the magic wand, their curiosity is sparked and they are more inclined to open up.

10.  Clay/Playdough- Awesome to have on hand. I use clay with every group I run at one point or another and most of the students become very engaged! Plus using clay or playdough can be a great stress reliever!

What supplies to you LOVE to use in your counseling program? What would you have on your list? Comment below! 

End-Of-Group Treasure Hunt (1st-4th Grade)

"ARRRGGGHH MATEYS! It is Captain Counselor here! You are about to set off on a magical adventure filled with tests, tricks, and treasure! You must use the friendship skills you learned in our Friendship Group (over the past 8 weeks) to guide you to the hidden "Treasure of Friendship!" 

This was how I was starting my group sessions every day for the past week. I found this idea online (I will try to find the link to give credit where it is due!). I adjusted it to fit the needs of my students and their English level. I was amazed at how engaged they were. They talked like pirates, acted like pirates, and were really excited to find the treasure. I made different "stops" along the way for my students (I did this for my 1st-4th grade groups and an advanced one for my 5th graders). At each different stop they had to complete a "Friendship" task to get the clue for their next stop on the map. 

These were placed at each different stop with a task written in each envelope! 

I kept the map very vague so I could use it again in the future with different groups!

When they finally finished all of the tasks, they ended up back in my room. I had an "X" hidden in my sand-tray that said "Look Behind the Blue Shelf!". With the treasure, I had gold chocolate coins that they were to share.

The final treasure! (Hidden in my room behind a shelf!) 

Pirate Pup 

I found this to be a huge success and will definitely use it again in the future! What activities have you found successful in terminating your groups?

Positive Mistakes!

The school I am currently at uses the Character Counts! Program for our Character Education program. I found some excellent lesson ideas from the site and one of my favorites is used to teach the Responsibility Pillar (Our Pillar of the Month for November).

I used this lesson under "Positive Mistakes (4-6)" with my second graders in a Classroom Guidance lesson and I feel they really enjoyed it! It was appropriate for their level and we were really able to extend the lesson into some valuable discussions. I was very impressed with how engaged and creative they were!


With the lesson comes a free worksheet. The worksheet is pretty much a plain sheet of paper with a big black mark in the middle (to represent a mistake). Students then turn the mistake into something beautiful. We focus on the importance of fixing our mistakes and being responsible for our actions. I followed the lesson plan for the most part except I used the book, "Harriet and the Garden" By Nancy Carlson .

I gave the students a lot of freedom and allowed them to turn their paper around and be creative! Here are some of their results!

"Underwear" 

"Heel"

"Red Pear" 

"Pirate Ship"

"Dinosaur" 

"Tooth"

I was super impressed! What are some lessons you have used to teacher Responsibility?