School Counselor Blog

In my previous post I shared the first part of my Digital Safety lesson for 6th grade students . During the second half of the lesson I showed students a video focusing on digital privacy and safety.  When looking for a video to share, I went first to  Rebecca Lallier's blog, School Counseling by Heart  and found this awesome video below. (Rebecca is an expert on all things child abuse so be sure to check out her MANY resources!) The video is about a girl who has a public account online. It outlines some of the dangers of having your information open and available for anyone to see. It is 8 minutes and 34 seconds long. Before watching the video with my students, I explained that the video we are about to watch can be a little creepy at times, but I felt like it was important to for you to see what can happen if we do not take our digital safety seriously.  During the video students gasped at different parts, especially when the predator goes into he...

Our November #SCCHAT was held on November 5, 2013.  The topic of the chat this month was   Creating and Implementing Lesson Plans  moderated by Chris Wood ( @ChrisWood415 ) a tech savvy school counselor from Iowa. School counselors shared great resources related to creating and implementing lesson plans as well as aligning lessons with local, state, and national standards. You can view the transcript below or   read the full transcript here . For more information about #SCCHAT and transcripts from previous chats visit:  http://bit.ly/scchat-info . [ View the story "November #SCCHAT: Creating & Implementing Lesson Plans" on Storify ] #SCCHAT occurs on the first Tuesday of the month unless otherwise specified. To add the #SCCHAT schedule to your calendar  click here . Join us for the December #SCCHAT on December 3, 2013 at 8pmEST! The topic is to be determined . Join  School Counselor Blog  and  SCOPE  for #scchat...

This is my first post in my effort to share more ideas with you! You didn't think MORE ideas were possible, right? ;) A  School Counselor Blog Facebook Page  fan asked me about an image I shared awhile back. It was a picture of students holding up a chalkboard sign with what they want to be when they grow up. Source:   christinekay.com   via   School Counselor Blog   on   Pinterest I can't remember where I first saw this. I swear I saw it on Scholastic's Facebook page... but regardless I pinned it because I totally loved this picture and this idea! This idea would be great as a bulletin board or display at your school! If I was working in a school this year I would love do to this... but as most of you know I am going back to graduate school to pursue a Ph.D . So.... To create a DIY version of this you could take pictures of students holding a chalkboard, whiteboard, or even a piece of paper with their future career choice written...

Wow, time has flown by since I wrote the Bullying and Bar Graphs: Part 1 pos t! Since I wrote the post I have facilitated the Bullying and Bar Graph: Part 1 in six classrooms and have facilitated the Bullying and Bar Graphs Part 2 in three classrooms. Students love seeing their results and having a conversation about what the bullying issues are in their classroom. Preparing for Bullying and Bar Graphs: Part 2 Bar Graph Paper I used Post-it Self Stick easel paper . Using eight pieces of Post-it Self Stick easel paper , I wrote one of the eight questions on each sheet.  I then created an x and y axis for students to use when graphing each question. I also cut sheets of Post-it Self Stick easel paper into four pieces and labeled it "solutions" sheet for each question. Question Bags I found these mini purple canvas bags over the summer before school started this year in the dollar spot at Target. They were sold in three-packs for $1.00, but they were on sale f...

While planning bullying lessons for 5th grade classes, I found a great lesson,  "Bullying Survey,"  from Teaching Tolerance . This activity not only starts a conversation about bullying, but can easily be integrated into a math class! I facilitated a two part lesson based on the "Bullying Survey" activity from Teaching Tolerance . The activity includes giving the students a bullying survey and having students graph the survey results. Through this activity, students see what the problem areas are in their classroom and provide solutions for the problem areas. I scheduled thirty minutes for each Part of the lesson. Preparation for Bullying and Bar Graphs: Part 1 Students respond to the pencil and paper version bullying survey and then use "tickets" to record their answers for the graphs. I thought double sided response cards would make it easier for students to record their answers for the bullying survey.  I made two sets of cards for each stu...

Last week I had the opportunity to meet with 5th grade teachers at their team meeting.  They asked if I could come into their classes and do lessons on bullying. Of course I was thrilled to do classroom lessons with 5th graders! I planned with the teachers to come in for a series of lessons with 5th grade during their morning meeting time.  I am making a schedule so that I will facilitate two lessons in each classroom and then start at the first class again for more sessions.  I am working on planning the lessons so they will go in a progression. In my continued attempt to avoid "Random Acts of Guidance," I decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to create a classroom lesson planner for bullying.  I created the classroom lesson planner to help me keep track of what lessons I plan to facilitate and how they align to  ASCA standards . The first classroom lesson planner I created is a Bullying Classroom Lesson Planner .  I created...

While planning my career interest inventory implementation, I realized I needed a back up plan for printing... I was planning to have students print their career inventory results, but I wanted to have a back up plan in case the printers weren't working. This happens a lot at my school... so I wanted to be prepared. I went in search of a fast and easy way for students to send me files. Students at my school do not have school email so I needed a solution that would not require email. I discovered  DROP it TOme  a great FREE tool you can utilize in conjunction with  DropBox  to securely receive files from anyone!  I wrote a post yesterday encouraging readers to  Think Outside of The USB Drive  by utilizing  DropBox  for FREE online file hosting and file storage. DROP it TOme  is quick and easy to use. After you register for a FREE  DropBox  account and a FREE  DROP it TOme  account, you can use  DROP...

I have been searching for fun and interactive career activities to facilitate with students this year. I rediscovered  Virginia Career View , which has a wealth of computer based and printable career activities. I have used this website many times, but each time I visit I am surprised by how truly awesome this site is. In the K-5 Section of  Virginia Career View  there is an interactive game called  Career Town ! I used the  Career Town  game with some 5th grade students last year and they loved it. Career Town has three levels with different games to learn about jobs on each level.  The  Career Town  has an educators guide  for each "level' of the game. The  educators guide  has ideas of how you can utilize the game to meet standards and includes ideas for extension activities.  In the 6-8 Grade section, there is a career cluster assessment activity called "Who R U?" . It is web-based. The Vi...

School Counselor Blog hosted a back to school contest with a different giveaway each day from September 1st to September 10th! Below is a recap of all the giveaway items from the contest. Although the contest is now closed, you can visit the posts and get TONS of ideas of how to use each of these awesome resources! Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the contest and congratulations to the contest winners!  Your participation in this contest will help other school counselors gain creative ideas to utilize these awesome resources in their work with students! Also thank you to the sponsors of this contest, Free Spirit , Really Good Stuff , Research Press , and School Counselor Blog  for donating the giveaway items! Good-Bye Bully Machine Book and Good-Bye Bully Machine Card Game The giveaway for Day 1 of the  School Counselor Blog Back to School Contest  was the  Good-Bye Bully Machine  book  and the  Good-Bye Bull...