School Counselor Blog

I recently had the opportunity to volunteer at a grief and loss camp for children. It was a very powerful experience to say the least.  While I was there, I met some amazing people, including an enthusiastic high school junior. I am dedicating this blog post to her and her career question. Q: How can I figure out what I want to do as a career?  A: Good question! I have provided some of my favorite career development websites below. They are all easy to use and are great for teens and counselors too! Occupational Network Online (O*Net Online) O*Net Online has information on worker characteristics, worker requirements, experience requirements, occupational requirements, workforce characteristics, occupation-specific information .  O*Net Online is one of my favorite websites to use with students. O*Net Online allows users to search occupations by Holland Code, industry, job cluster, skill set, and much more.  Students can also do an occupation quick search b...

This week's Fabulous Find is Bag it Forward! If you have been to any department stores lately, the secret is out. Summer is over according to the retail world, and BACK TO SCHOOL time is underway. As a counselor, I have worked with many students and families who cannot afford school supplies. As a daughter of a teacher, I have been on countless shopping trips to buy school supplies with my mother for her students.  Teachers (and counselors too!) spend a lot of their own money on school supplies for their students. This week's Fabulous Find, Bag it Forward offers a great opportunity to help students and teachers by supporting Adopt-A-Classroom .  Elmer's is will donate $10 for each blog post donating a "virtual bag of school supplies" and supporting this amazing campaign!  Please forward this to everyone you know, especially bloggers who can post it to their blog! I am donating my "virtual bag of school supplies" to my mom, an amazing fifth g...

This week's Fabulous Find is a Pool Noodle or Funnoodle®. For this week's Fabulous Find, I created a video of how to Create a Stress Reliever Using a Pool Noodle or Funnoodle® . Students will love these fun stress relievers and they are super cheap to make! I was able to make 58 - 1 inch stress relievers using the Funnoodle® for $2. Pool Noodles and Funnoodles® also come in different shapes too, such as flowers.   Watch the my video and create your own stress relievers today ! Do you have a Fabulous Find that you Fancy? If you have a suggestion for a Fabulous Find, comment below or email me  and I will try it out! Your Fabulous Find may be Featured on a Future Friday, Friends! ;) Danielle is a K-12 Certified School Counselor, Nationally Certified Counselor, and blogger at  School Counselor Blog , a place where school counselors share innovative ideas,  creative lesson plans,  and quality resources.  Contact Danielle via  email , follo...

Each week I will be selecting an item for Fabulous Find Friday. This Friday's Fabulous Find is Self Care. Summer break has been the perfect wake-up call for me that I am in need of more self care. At the end of the school year, I was feeling pretty burned out and overextended. There were a lot of things I was trying to accomplish before the end of the school year.  I have felt a huge wave of relief since I have finished the school year.  I miss school, especially the students, but the break has been a welcome one! I finally have time to think about things that are not related to work.  I really did not realized how caught up in my work I was until I have had a break from it. I feel so much more relaxed and able to focus.  For my own personal self care I have been spending time with friends and family, exercising more, reading, finding new recipes to cook, and just enjoying the freedom of not having a schedule (the joy of being in education). So, what is self ...

Each week I will be selecting an item for Fabulous Find Friday. This Friday's Fabulous Find is Vistaprint ! Vistaprint  is a company specializing in personalized products for professional and/or personal use.  Vistaprint personalizes items such as business cards, pens, t-shirts, notepads, car door magnets, tote bags and much more! Vistaprint hosts great sales and specials and always has FREE personalized items too! (you only have to pay the shipping!) I have ordered products from Vistaprint and I continue to be impressed by the quality and value of the products.  Business cards are one of my favorite products Vistaprint offers. The first time I ordered business cards I used the basic design business cards and received 250 business cards for FREE (I only paid shipping). Vistaprint also allows you to customize your business cards with your own design or logo.  I created a double sideded business card to match my website theme.  My website , em...

For the past couple of weeks I have been searching all over my office for a specific counseling activity worksheet. As I was packing up my office, I finally found the worksheet amid a myriad of career lesson plans (not where it was supposed to be!). The worksheet is titled, "Soundtrack of Your Life."   The worksheet was given to me in a graduate course by a fellow colleague. The purpose of "Soundtrack of Your Life" is for students to identify songs that describe or relate to aspects of their lives. I modified it from its original version to make it geared to middle school students. Some of the tracks on "Soundtrack of Your Life" are "Opening Scene," "School Experience," "Friends," and "When I Get Older." "Soundtrack of Your Life" could be utilized in many different ways.  I used "Soundtrack of Your Life" with a student this past week. The student had a lot of fun completing the works...

Each week I will be selecting an item for Fabulous Find Friday. This Friday's Fabulous Find is Grooveshark . Grooveshark is a free MP3 streaming and Internet Radio website. Members can search for MP3s and listen to them live.  Members can create playlists, get recommendations, and share their favorites with others. To learn more about the features of Grooveshark go to Grooveshark Help . (Membership is FREE!) Grooveshark is easy to use. After you search for songs, hit the plus sign near the song to add it to your collection. You can then create a playlist and drag songs into the playlist. This week's Fabulous Find was inspired by a counseling activity: "Soundtrack of Your Life. " I wanted to find a cost-effective way for students to make a playlist using their  "Soundtrack of Your Life. " Grooveshark was the answer! Using Grooveshark , members can create a playlist and play it online.  The playlist can then be shared with others through email or b...