School Counselor Blog

Our February #SCCHAT was held on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at 8pmEST. The topic was Using Data to Create Opportunities for Academic Success.  Franciene Sabens ( @FSabens ) moderated the chat. It was exciting to have a #SCCHAT occur during National School Counseling Week! We chatted about definitions of student success and ways that school counselors can support student success. Check out the  full chat transcript here! To access all of the tweets with the hashtag #scchat,  click here . For transcripts of previous #SCCHATs, schedules for future School Counselor Tweet Chats, and information on how to participate, visit #SCCHAT Info: http://bit.ly/scchat-info . The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 8pmEST. We are currently looking a moderator and topic for March. If you are interested in moderating, please email me or direct message me on Twitter . Did you participate in the School Counselor Tweet Chat? What did you...

The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is Tuesday, February 5th at 8pmEST. The topic for this month's School Counselor Tweet Chat is  Using Data to Create Opportunities for Academic Success .  Franciene Sabens ( @FSabens ) will be moderating the chat. We will be tweeting ways you can use data to create programming to support your students' academic success. We will tweet about tools and resources you can use to collect and analyze data. We look forward to tweeting with you! Join  School Counselor Blog and  SCOPE  for #scchat the first Tuesday of the month @ 8pmEST!  For transcripts of previous #SCCHATs, schedules for future School Counselor Tweet Chats, and information on how to participate, visit #SCCHAT Info:  http://bit.ly/scchat-info . If you are interested in moderating a future School Counselor Tweet Chat,  direct message me  on twitter! Dr. Erin Mason is a former Middle School Counselor, now Counselor Educat...

Kayla, a second year counselor at a rural K-5 Elementary school, shared how she uses Lunch Bunches to connect with students she serves. Kayla is able to get to know all of her students and build rapport by meeting students during lunch. Kayla wrote: One goal that I have set for myself this year is to get to know the students in my building better. Besides classroom lessons, groups, and individual counseling, I wanted to create a something where I gave each student the opportunity to meet me, regardless of whether there was a problem or concern. So, after brainstorming I decided to put together a program called Lunch Bunch where students could sign up to have lunch with me in my office one time during the school year. Kayla's Lunch Bunch sign up sheet.   Click on the image to download a PDF Lunch Bunch sign up sheet . Students are bunched into groups of 3-4 and are invited to bring their lunch to my office for a special lunch with me. Each class is assign...

This school year I will not be returning to my previous school and role as a 5th - 8th grade school counselor. I have known this news for a while. It has been very difficult keeping this from you! I have been waiting until everything was finalized to share this news publicly. I was accepted into a Counselor Education and Supervision Ph.D. program at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA.  During my program I will be serving as a graduate assistant creating programs to support college athletes' academic success! This is me giving two thumbs up in my Duquesne shirt.   What preceded the picture above was me literally jumping for joy for after finding out the news I was awarded a graduate assistantship. I had be anxiously awaiting the news all day. Directly after I found out the news (after telling sharing the news with my family, of course) I got in my car and drove to the campus to purchased a t-shirt!  You may be wondering... "What about your position...

I have a new post on  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog !  Check out my post about making school more meaningful for disengaged students: Engaging the Disengaged Student .  I started blogging for  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog  in April of 2012! I love  Free Spirit's books  and I am so excited to contribute to  Free Spirit's Blog , "a springboard of ideas for teachers, counselors, and anyone who cares about kids!" Comment below,  tweet ,  contact Danielle , or share on the  School Counselor Blog Facebook Page ! 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. Connect with Danielle via  email ,  Twitter , Pinterest ,  LinkedIn ,  Google+ , and become a fan of the  School Counselor Blog Facebook Page .

If you liked (or LOVED) the To Proficiency... and Beyond!  test-taking tip bulletin board  I shared just in time for state testing, you are going to LOVE this post where I share FREE PRINTABLE PDF files containing the letters and words for the bulletin board! I have gotten lots of great feedback about the bulletin board at school and online! :) I am so excited to provide you with FREE PRINTABLES of the words that I used on the  To Proficiency... and Beyond!  test-taking tip bulletin board  so you can make your own! The TO PROFICIENCY... AND BEYOND! Bulletin Board Letters PDF file contains the letters for "TO PROFICIENCY... AND BEYOND!" for the To Proficiency... and Beyond! bulletin board . The  Test-taking tips TO PROFICIENCY... AND BEYOND! Bulletin Board PDF file contains the test taking tips that we made for on the  To Proficiency... and Beyond!  bulletin board . I printed all of the words and letters for th...

I don't know what it's like in your state, but testing season is creeping up fast in Pennsylvania! I was so excited to finally get a chance this week to make a bulletin board to highlight test-taking tips! First off, I have to give a  HUGE SHOUT OUT to Gail, a School Counselor Blog reader, who shared a great idea for a test-taking slogan! Gail found a cute rocket Valentine on Pinterest and thought of a rocket theme for state testing using the slogan "To proficiency... and beyond!" (Like Buzz Lightyear! Get it?!)  I immediately loved it and thought it would be awesome to create a bulletin board with a rocket theme for the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) test. So, this week my school counseling intern, co-school counselor, and I got to work making "TO PROFICIENCY... AND BEYOND!" test-taking tips bulletin board.  It was so much fun to create and put together. I must say it turned out even better than I anticipated. We used four large p...

I am linking up this previous National School Counseling Week post to the  National School Counseling Week 2013 Link Party!  There you will find lots of other posts by school counselors all over the country and how they are celebrating and advocating during National School Counseling Week. You can also share your ideas by participating in the  Link Party ! National School Counseling Week 2012 is February 6th through 10th! I have a few National School Counseling Week Theme ideas swirling around in my head. I want to share them with you before it is too late for you to plan and get started! I will be sharing one theme/idea in each of my next few posts. The  American School Counselor Association  has great  resources  available for planning and implementing  National School Counseling Week .  The sample morning announcements are great and can tie into some of the themes ideas I will share. Last year I made cards that said "Teache...

February 6th - 10th is National School Counseling Week! I have a few National School Counseling Week Theme ideas swirling around in my head. I want to share them with you before it is too late for you to plan and get started! I will be sharing one theme/idea in each of my next few posts. The  American School Counselor Association  has great  resources  available for planning and implementing  National School Counseling Week .  The sample morning announcements are great and can tie into some of the themes ideas I will share. Last year I made cards that said "Teachers, Administrators, and School Counselors work together for student success!" and put mini 3 Musketeers in staff mailboxes. This year I want to make the focus more on School Counselors and what School Counselors do to benefit students! National School Counseling Week Lego Theme I think this is the theme I am going to end up going with this year at my school and for my local school c...

I have a new favorite way of finding School Counseling ideas... PINTEREST! Some of you may know about  Pinterest  already... and maybe you are as addicted as I am... but did you know you can use  Pinterest  as a school counselor to find, organize, and share ideas?! The best way to describe  Pinterest  is a virtual cork-board where you can keep track of all of the cool ideas and inspiration you find.  Pinterest  allows you to organize your inspiration by "pinning" things you like on to boards you create.  Pinterest  is currently invite only, but it only take a day or two to get an account once you request an invite! Within  Pinterest  if you find an idea you like, you can "re-pin" it to one of your boards. If you find inspiration when you are surfing the web outside of  Pinterest , you can download a " pin it button " for your web browser that allows you to "pin" to your  Pinterest  boards! There are ma...