School Counselor Blog

For our February Inservice, school counselors in my district were charged with hosting a social-emotional wellness session for teachers in our school buildings. My co-counselor and I decided to do something experiential. We wanted teachers to experience various self-care activities; not just talk about them. We decided to call this event a “Self-Care Fair” since teachers would have the option of trying different activities during the event. Overview of the Self-Care Fair For our Self-Care Fair, we had a two-hour block of time where we hosted six, twenty-minute sessions. We had multiple activities to choose from for each time-slot. Teachers were able to select which activities they wanted to attend. Our goal was for teachers to have a choice about what they participated in for the day. We chose activities that would be within teachers’ comfort zones. We wanted it to bel an enjoyable, self-care opportunity, not something stressful!  Self-Care Activities We hosted the following sessions d

The days leading up to winter break can be stressful! To help students and staff cope with the stress of the season, the Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) team at my school is hosting a daily self-care challenge for the 12 days leading up to winter break. Each day, students and staff can take a selfie featuring them doing the daily self-care prompt. Students and staff who submit a self-care selfie, will be entered in the daily prize drawing for that prompt.   The challenge starts on Wednesday, December 7th and continues through Thursday, December 22nd.  I am sharing everything you need to host this challenge at your own school! Students and staff will submit their selfies using a Google Form. I made a template of the form I am using so that you can use it too! You can access it here: TEMPLATE FOR SELF-CARE SELFIE FORM   I created a slideshow on Canva to share the daily prompt with students and staff on the closed circuit TVs. I made a version that you can use and edit t

I can't wait to present at the 2022 Pennsylvania School Counselors Association Conference! This year the PSCA Conference will be held December 8th and 9th in Lancaster, PA.  I'm presenting two sessions:  💵 Get Funding for Your School Counseling Program - December 8th at 9:45am  💻 10 Tech Tools to Save You Time with Lezlie DelVecchio-Marks! (@schoolcounselordm) - December 8th at 1:45pm  I'm so excited to connect and share with other PA school counselors! Will you be there? Here is a link for the PSCA conference registration 🔗: https://bit.ly/psca22register. Follow along on social media for posts related to the 2022 PSCA Conference by using the hashtag: #PSCA22. Below are some links about attending conferences in-person or virtually that may be helpful to you! Tips to Optimize Your ASCA 2022 Virtual Conference Experience Tips for Attending the ASCA National Conference In-Person Need a presenter for your school counselor group?  Request a workshop for your local or state s

In my role as a school counseling department chair, I am always on the lookout for professional development opportunities. I know how challenging it can be to find relevant professional development that meets school counselors' needs. Below I share a few virtual professional development events and options for school counselors. These ideas and suggestions would be excellent options to for you to attend solo or to share with other school counselors in your district!  Hatching Results School Counseling Institutes Hatching Results is hosting two upcoming School Counseling Institutes! They are hosting a Secondary School Counseling Institute on November 15th and an Elementary School Counseling Institute on November 16th. For more information and to register for the School Counseling Institutes visit: https://www.hatchingresults.com/virtual-events/ You can participate in the sessions live and you will have access to the recordings for three months! Both School Counseling Institutes are

This will be my fourth year attending the ASCA Virtual Conference. I absolutely love attending ASCA in person, but I haven't been able to attend in person for the last few years.  A great option to still get top notch professional development and connect with other school counselors across the country is to attend the ASCA Virtual Conference! Below I share tips that Andrea Burston (@jyjcounselor) and I compiled to help you optimize your ASCA virtual conference experience. Make a Schedule Familiarize yourself with the conference schedule and determine what sessions you want to attend. Use the virtual event platform to add sessions to your schedule. Be aware of the conference time zone when planning to attend live sessions. Here's a link of all the 2022 ASCA Virtual Conference sessions: https://bit.ly/asca22virtual. . ..But Be Flexible Don't be hard on yourself if you can't attend live sessions. One major perk of attending the ASCA Virt

Heading to Austin, TX for the 2022 American School Counselor Association Conference?  Below Andrea Burston and I share tips to help you make the most of your ASCA Conference experience! ✨  PLAN AHEAD ✨ Do some research ahead of your arrival so that you are prepared for your trip.   Check out the following: - Health & safety guidelines - Weather forecast - Hotel location - Conference location  ✨  PACK FOR WORK AND PLAY ✨ When you're packing your bags, think about what you will wear to conference sessions and what you will wear during downtime. If you are attending special events or activities, be sure to pack for them. ✨  CONNECT WITH OTHER SCHOOL COUNSELORS ✨ One of the most amazing aspects of the ASCA Conference is the opportunity to connect with other school counselors! Some ways to connect: - State or local meet-ups - Planned social activities - Social media meet-ups - Between sessions  ✨  MAKE TIME FOR FUN ✨ ASCA Conferences are great for professiona