School Counselor Blog

My name is Danielle and I am an introvert. Many of you may be surprised to know that I am an introvert. Honestly, I was surprised too. It sounds strange, but I just found out that I was an introvert this past summer. This realization began when I had the privilege to review an advance copy of  The Quiet Kid  a new book by Deb Fox, author and illustrator of  Good-Bye Bully Machine .  After seeing the  Why Introverts Have All the Fun  post and the comic below on Mashable this morning, I knew I had to post about introversion and  The Quiet Kid  today! Source: mashable.com via Danielle Schultz on Pinterest I love this comic! The last part is so me... happy with just a cat and a book! :) The Mashable article also mentions a TED Talk by Susan Cain that I included below, The Power of Introverts . Cain describes a story of when she was at summer camp and encouraged to be more outgoing. She explains that extro...

Setting up a school counseling office can be a daunting task, especially for new school counselors. I am providing you with a series of tips to help you set up your new school counseling office or revamp the space that you already have. When you are planning the layout for your school counseling office think of all of the things you want students to be able to do in your office.  Thinking about what students will be doing in your office will help you plan out your space. I have run many, many groups in my time as a school counselor. When configuring my school counseling space making room for groups was always my top priority. Below are my recommendations for creating a great group counseling space in your school counseling office. I will highlight the group spaces I have had over the years and show you how I used the above tips and give you some additional tips along the way. 2011-2012 School Counseling Office In my most recent office I did not have very ...

I make memory boxes as an activity during my grief and loss groups. Memory boxes allow students a special place to keep mementos of their loved one. I also use the memory boxes as a place for students to store items we create during our group. At the end of the group students take their memory boxes home with them. In the past, I have purchased photo boxes like the ones below for students to create memory boxes.   Source:   michaels.com   via   School Counselor Blog   on   Pinterest Photo boxes make great memory boxes but it can be expensive to buy one box per student each time you facilitate a group.  While searching for after-Christmas bargains, I stumbled upon blouse boxes that were deeply discounted. Blouse boxes are not as sturdy as the photo boxes, but they are a great size. They are blank which was a plus for personalizing them with art supplies. I decided to try them out as memory boxes.  The boxes I purchased were...

The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 8pmEST! The topic of School Counselor Tweet Chat this month is  Group Ideas and Overcoming Group Challenges . Natalie Spencer ( @nspencerlpc ) will be our moderator for the #scchat! We will be sharing ideas about groups and ways to overcome group challenges! For directions on how to participate in a  School Counselor Tweet Chat ,  click here . Join  School Counselor Blog  and  SCOPE  for  #scchat  the first Tuesday of the month @ 8pmEST!  View the  School Counselor Tweet Chat schedule  for dates and topics! Click here  for a list of past School Counselor Tweet Chats and full transcripts. If you are interested in moderating a School Counselor Tweet Chat,  direct message me  on twitter! Erin Mason is a former Middle School Counselor, now Counselor Educator who manages  SCOPE , a group blog dedicated to chronicling the p...

Self-pillows are pillows that represent your personality. My school counselor colleague, Natasha, had the great idea of creating self-pillows as an activity during our groups for children who have a loved one in prison . Self-pillows would also be great as an activity for grief and loss groups or self-esteem groups! 1. Pick fabric The most important and first step of making a self-pillow is finding fabric! Choose a variety of patterns of fabric that you think your students would like. You can even ask students what some of their favorite things are so you have some fabrics that go along with their interests. Also, consider the topic of the group.  We chose fabrics that related to feelings associated with our group. Children experiencing the incarceration of a loved one, can feel like they do not want anyone to be around them and keep people out of their life. We found some fabric that has gates and dogs that says "Beware" and "Keep Out." A number of...

Remember my before pictures of my 2011-2012 office space ? I was just about ready to share after pictures with you, but then I decided to change my office location! After much thought and consideration, I determined that it would be better if I moved to the "Student Services Suite," where the K-4 school counselor and the school social worker are located. As much as I loved my big space on the third floor, I saw this as a huge opportunity to re-vamp the common space in the "Student Services Suite" (pictures of that to come!) It was definitely frustrating to have my space all set up and then have to move everything to a different office, but I really think it has great potential to be better. The space is much smaller than my other space, but once the common space is up and running we should be able to share the common space for groups. I will be moving a U-table to my office so that I can meet with groups in my office too. So here is my progress so far. ...

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...