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? 

Featured on Masters In Counseling Website! DAY-MAKER!

Thank you SO much to Rebecca at MastersInCounseling.org  for hosting my blog on the Best In School Counseling:Our Favorite Websites  post! I am so grateful to be featured on your site along with some of the best bloggers in the field!

Check out the link above to find more blogs and helpful sites for school counselors!

Spirit Week at AIS!

This past week was spirit week at our school and I can confidently say it was one of the funnest weeks we have had this year!

Backwards day! Day #1

Crazy Day! Day #2

The AWESOME AIS staff.

PJ Day (with awesomely comfortable Vietnamese PJs)-Day #4 

Twin Day with Ms. Michelle, Ms. Ahn, and Ms. Mihn! Day #5 

I LOVED spirit week and it was awesome to see our staff get into it so much. We did have quite a few fifth graders who were a bit "too cool" for spirit week though. What does YOUR school do for spirit week?

Where is the MOTIVATION!?!

• "I can't seem to get them to do anything." 
• "I just wish they were excited about learning." 
• "They seem so lifeless..." 
• "It feels like they don't care anymore!" 
• "My students just aren't motivated!" 

As we enter into our final quarter for the year, I have been hearing more and more of the statements above. I had one fourth grade teacher in particular ask me if I would lead a lesson in his class on motivation. I (over-confidently) said, "Yes! Of course!" However, when I began looking for ideas...I couldn't seem to find anything that hooked me. I always strive to have creative, inspiring and worthwhile lessons and so I was beginning to feel discouraged when I wasn't finding much when it came to motivation. 

I took some time to reflect on my OWN motivation and how it impacts my work. I will admit, the start of the fourth quarter has been a little more difficult for me and I even find myself dragging my feet in the mornings. So I found myself wondering, "How am I going to inspire motivation in students if I struggle with inspiring it within myself?" I was even beginning to think that I may need this lesson just as much as the students! 

I looked around my room for inspiration...art supplies, clay, puppets, toys, balloons...BALLOONS! I remembered a lesson I did with my first graders in which we used balloons to talk about emotions and they absolutely loved it! I thought about how I use balloons to teach about Anger and how if we don't release our anger it can make us POP! I decided I was going to use my trusty balloons again to help me teach about MOTIVATION!

HERE IS HOW THE LESSON WENT: 

• I started off by writing the word "Motivation" on the board. I then had students brainstorm about the meaning of motivation and we had a small discussion. 
• Then, I presented two deflated balloons. I said to the class, "I brought some balloons for us to play with today." I then blew up one balloon and tied it. The other balloon, I left deflated and tied it. I then let the kids play with the two balloons for a minute. It was obvious that the inflated balloon was the most popular choice and the students became bored with the deflated balloon within a matter of seconds. 
• I then shared that the inflated balloon was like someone FULL of MOTIVATION (fun, eye-catching, inspiring) and the deflated balloon was like someone who had NO MOTIVATION (lifeless, no energy, a bit boring) . I attached them to the board and had students create a list of what motivates (fills) them around the balloon and what does not motivate (deflates) them around the other.
• Afterwards, I had them fill out their own sheet about what fills-them-up and what brings them down. We discussed how the key to motivation is remembering to fill yourself up and avoid the things that bring you down. 
• We concluded by showing a video by Kid President. 

After the lesson, I found that I felt more motivated as well! Since I work with a 99% ELL population, I found that the concept was a bit abstract for them but I think it was a good way to get them to begin thinking about motivation.

What tips do YOU have to encourage motivation with your students? 

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!

How I got into the World of International School Counseling...

Usually, I get some strange reactions from people when I say I am a School Counselor in Vietnam, especially as a first-year counselor. Understandably so, many people have a lot of questions. So I decided to help answer some of these! I can already tell this is going to be a long post, so take it as you would like.

• "How did that happen!?" Well, I have always loved traveling and never had the chance to study abroad in college. I heard about teachers being International Educators but had never heard of International School Counselors. I decided to do some research by asking some of my professors in grad school. Thankfully, one of my professors had a previous student who was at that time a School Counselor in Venezuela. I emailed her and got some awesome feedback from her perspective. After hearing her story, I decided to do some more research and see if it was something I could do myself. 

• "Where did you start?" I started by researching International School Counseling as much as possible. I found out countries all over the world have School Counselors, mainly in international schools. I emailed some of the leaders in International School Counseling that I could find and just asked them some general questions. I was a bit worried at first, but was very impressed with the feedback I received from them. It really helped shape my understanding of the field and some of the things I could expect. The more research I did, the more I started to realize this was something I wanted to do. 

• "How did you find that job?" From talking to the contact I had in Venezuela, I found out about the University of Northern Iowa's (UNI) International Education Job Fair. To find out more about the job fair CLICK HERE! I signed up for the fair during my last year of grad school. I was still in my internship and was nervous that I wouldn't even get looked at, but I decided to take a leap of faith. After booking my flight to Cedar Falls, Iowa, finishing my portfolio, practicing interview questions, printing off resumes, and more, I felt anxious that I wouldn't even get an interview. I got to the fair and was surprised by the amount of "mail" I had of schools that wanted to meet with me. The fair itself was overwhelming but I am so grateful I attended. After a few interviews for School Counseling and teaching positions, I decided to accept the offer at the American International School in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. 

• "Why Vietnam?" I will be honest with you, Vietnam was not my first choice when I attended the fair. I had dreamed about going to Frankfurt or Barcelona or Turkey. However, I was also passionate about working at the elementary level and after meeting with the principal from AIS, I just knew. His idea of what the role of School Counselor was aligned with my own views and that of ASCA. He was familiar with the ASCA model and was willing to give me the trust and support to mold the counseling program at the school. I was offered jobs at two other schools, one for a K-8 Counselor in Myanmar and one as a Kindergarten teacher in Shanghai (I have a teaching license in NC). Vietnam stood out to me because of my conversation with the principal and because of the package they offered me. I am definitely confident I made the right choice. 

• "How can I do that?" Trust me when I say, you are stronger than you even realize. If being an international School Counselor is something you really want to do then I can confidently say the odds are in your favor. You may not get a job at your first or second or tenth choice but if you are open-minded and are willing to take the chance then there are opportunities out there for you. I am not saying it is easy, but I will say that for me it was worth it. 

• "Where do I start?" First, do your research, ask questions, email other international School Counselors, and decide if this is something you want to make a commitment to. Discuss it with people you trust and consider their feedback. I had A LOT of people tell me it was an awful idea and that I was crazy and equally as many that told me it was a wonderful opportunity. Your next step is to get a passport. Yes, just go ahead and do it as soon as possible if you do not have one. Make sure your credentials, licenses, and certifications are in check before you go into the process. Research different job fairs and opportunities around you. UNI is NOT the only job fair for international School Counselors. While I had success there, maybe you decide to try some other fairs. Some of the leading search agents for international education jobs aside from UNI are TIE Online and Search Associates. These are some of the top tier search agents for international education.

• "I don't think I have enough money to do that..." Job fairs can be expensive and yes, there are some upfront costs that you will have to pay. This was challenging for me as I was in still in school and was interning full-time and working as a nanny part-time. However, wherever you decide to go, the MAJORITY of schools will reimburse your flight or book it for you, will give you settling in allowance, and will help set you up with housing and/or accommodations. All of the money I paid after I got the job, I was reimbursed. This includes my flight, my notarization fees, visa applications, etc. If you plan ahead, you will be able to afford it and the pay off can be huge.  

• "But, I have a wife/husband/child/family/cat/dog/etc! What will they do?!" While it can be more challenging if you have dependents, it is still possible. Many schools will support you and your dependents and give you an extra allowance to help support them. If you have a spouse or partner who teaches then you can sign-up for fairs as a teaching couple. There are a lot of couples at my school that signed contracts together. They may teach at different campuses, but they are here together and quite a few of them have children here as well. If you have a non-teaching spouse, you can also negotiate that sometimes. It really depends on the contract with the school and many schools will state their policy on teaching couples, non-teaching spouses, and dependents up front. For pets, many times you can pay to have them transported over but this can be challenging, still doable...but challenging. 

• "What are some of the perks?" Again, this is only from MY perspective and my experience. The package here in itself is a great perk for me. My contract allows me to save about half of my earnings (which go towards my student loans) and still allow me to have a very comfortable lifestyle here. My housing is covered as well. I get ample vacations, can travel to many places in South East Asia for cheap, get to experience the awesome Vietnamese culture, meet some wonderful people, make lifelong friends and absolutely love my job. I am very lucky and try to be grateful for every day (even the not-so-good ones). Another perk of the job here is that I can travel to nearby countries and within Vietnam for Professional Development opportunities and meet leaders in the field. 

• "What do you find the most challenging?" It is by no means easy to be a school counselor, let alone an international school counselor. Your support systems can be compromised, you miss your friends and family, your lifestyle, your comforts, etc. The job may look different then what you are used to (although this is the case when changing jobs in general). It may take longer than you expect to adjust to the new culture, this is completely okay. There are good days and bad days. There may be days when you love your new home and job and feel like you could do this for the rest of your life. There also may be days that you end up in tears or feel like you want to hop on the next flight home. You miss major events that go on back home like weddings, births, birthdays, deaths, changes, and more. They still affect you but you can't always be there in person to support the ones you love, this is very hard. There are people who will judge your lifestyle and your choices and sometimes its from people that you never expect would. You lose some relationships, feel disconnected from people back home, and also realize the ones who will continue to make an effort no matter where you are in the world. You are put in uncomfortable situations on a regular basis and your limits can pushed to the extremes. It is not for the faint of heart, but trust me when I say YOU have it in you if this is something you want to do. 

• "Don't you miss your family?" Every. Single. Day. I miss them more than I ever thought I would, but I also feel closer to them then I have ever have. I am reminded of them here and even though we don't talk very much, not a day goes by that I don't think about them. I am so grateful for their love and support throughout this. At the end of the day, I knew this was something I had to do for myself. I had to write my own story and live my own life; this is where it has taken me thus far. No matter where I am in the world, my family will ALWAYS be with me in my thoughts, my actions, and my words. Distance doesn't change that for me. 

• "When will you go back to the states? I have no idea. There is a chance I could finish my contract here and then head back to states, there is also a chance that I end up doing this for the rest of my life and continue being an international school counselor at various schools around the world. I have no clue what is in the cards for me, and I am perfectly okay with that. 

I want to conclude this lengthy post by saying that if you have ANY questions or comments please do not hesitate! I am, by no means, an expert on this... this is just a look into my own experience and I consider myself an open book when it comes to this topic. Please feel free to comment below or email me with questions at sara.roberts@ais.edu.vn

Thank you!

Self-care in times of need...

Hello Counseling friends!

Last semester, I went to a conference called the South East Asian Counsellors Network Conference. It was held in Ho Chi Minh City at the British International School in District 2. Counselors from all over SEA were here to discuss and learn more about counseling and counseling interventions. One of the workshops was focused on professional self-care. We discussed some things we do to make sure we have self-care; some of the things that came up were:

1. Reading a good book 
2. Listening to music
3. Yoga and other exercise 
4. Traveling 
5. Talking with other counselors 
6. Going for a walk 
7. Favorite hobbies 
8. Baking or cooking 
9. Pampering yourself (massage, manicure/pedicure, etc) 
10. Making time for friends and family 

and more! 

However, even though I know some ways to practice self-care, I have had some difficulty doing it lately. I don't know if anyone else experiences this but I can imagine it would be quite common. Sometimes I come home from work and feel like I am not my best self. I try to be my "best self" at work and when I am with students, but for some reason have difficulty doing it outside of work. Does anyone else ever feel like this? If so, what do you do to combat it? What self-care do you practice? Any advice or input would be highly helpful. 

This is me at the end of the day... 

Until next time!