School Counselor Blog

In my latest post for the  Free Spirit Publishing Blog , #REACHHIGHER for Red Ribbon Week,  I share a college and career take on Red Ribbon week, by focusing on higher education!  How do you celebrate Red Ribbon Week? I started writing for  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog  in April of 2012. Check out the  Counselor's Corner  for more Free Spirit Publishing Blog Posts by me! 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 Danie...

School Counselors are often in charge of coordinating Red Ribbon Week at their school. Check out the links below for Red Ribbon Week themes/days ideas you can implement at your school. Many of the ideas are easy to implement. Even if you have not started planning for this year's Red Ribbon week (October 23rd - 31st) you could implement some of the ideas below to kick off your Red Ribbon Week. School Counselor Spotlight - Character is Our Super Power - Red Ribbon and Character Counts Theme Career Dress Up Day Dress for Success Day College, University, Military, and Trade School Day College Door Decorating and School Spirit Day Red Ribbon Week Ideas  - Career Theme Bee Drug Free!  - Grocery Store Bag Decorations How do you celebrate Red Ribbon Week at your school? What themes/days ideas have you used? Comment below,  tweet ,  contact Danielle , or share on the  School Counselor Blog Facebook Page ! Danielle is a K-12 Certified School...

Red Ribbon week (October 23 - 31, 2012) and National Character Counts week (October 21 - 27, 2012) overlap this year. Babara from The Corner on Character shared great ideas for a week worth of themes to combine Red Ribbon Week and Character Counts week! Barbara's blog is chalk full of character education ideas, so I was very excited when she submitted this SUPER idea for the School Counselor Spotlight!  Barbara writes: I wanted to share our Red Ribbon/Character Counts Week theme and what we've got planned for a school-home connection. This year our theme is Character Is Our Super Power.  We have events planned for each day of the week. We are wearing "I Can. I Care." Superman style t-shirts.  For Red Ribbon/Character Counts week, I'm sending home "Character is Our Super Power" Parent Homework to ask parents to tell us what is their child's super power.  I can't WAIT to get these back because I think t...

Friday was Dream Career Day for our theme "Follow Your Dreams - Don't Do Drugs!" Students were encouraged to dress up as their dream career. Staff were encouraged to dress up like a career too! Students dressed up like lawyers, teachers, movie stars, singers, cheerleaders, football players, nurses, doctors, and much more. Some students who dressed in their normal uniform attire told me that they were dressing up as students! :) Teachers were dressed as a variety of careers as well. They dressed up as flight attendants, baseball players, coaches, nurses, doctors, and more. Some teachers wore their graduation caps and gowns from their undergraduate or graduate ceremonies! I dressed up as a veterinarian! To make my "costume" I bought a white lab coat and wore it with dress pants and a button down shirt. I wore a stethoscope that I borrowed from my brother around my neck.  I printed out a name tag for myself that said "Dr. Schultz, Veterinarian"...

Today was Wear Red Day! Our theme was "Celebrate Red Ribbon Week! Not just for a day - but for life!" There was a sea of red today! There was a lot of student, faculty, and staff participation! I continued to hang drug free pledge sheets with the help of student council members. They did a great job using the pledges to form large red ribbons in the school lobby. Student council members were also responsible for judging the doors for the college door decorating contest today. I took pictures of all of the doors and the students came up with criteria to judge the doors. We watched a slide show of all of the doors first and then went back through to vote. It was tough because everyone did such a great job with their door decorations. Tomorrow is going to be an action-packed day.  Tomorrow is our Dream Career Day for our theme "Follow Your Dreams - Don't Do Drugs!" Students are encouraged to dress up as their dream career. Last year we had a great leve...

Today was Dress for Success Day! Many students and staff dressed their best - ready for success! Everyone looked sharp and carried themselves with pride! I also started hanging up drug free pledge sheets in the lobby today with lots of help of student council members. All students in our K-8 school were asked to sign a pledge sheet about how they will be drug free for their future. Here is a PDF copy of the pledge sheet . The  pledge sheet states "I want a future as bright as can be! I'm making it my goal to be drug free1 I pledge to be drug free for my future by..." and gives space for students to write how they will be drug free for their future.  Student council members are also reading a drug free pledge during the announcements this week. One of the other school counselors in our district shared this pledge with us! Drug Free Pledge I pledge allegiance to myself, And to who I want to be 'Cause I can make my dreams come true If I believe ...

Today's theme was College, University, Trade School and Military Day! "Believe, Achieve, Succeed - Drug Free!" Students and staff were encouraged to show pride for their future by wearing their favorite college, university, trade school, or military shirt! Students were also encouraged to wear their favorite college or university colors! I was excited to wear my Penn State jersey today to represent my undergraduate alma mater! :) I was totally impressed with the level of staff participation today! There was a wide array of post-secondary opportunities represented.  It was so exciting to see everyone decked out in their favorite college, university, trade school, or military branch! My favorite was our school security guard dressed in full camouflage! It was also great to see a few students completely decked out in college colors head to toe! Overall, we didn't have as many students participate this year as did last year. I think part of it was attribute...

Today was the first day of the Red Ribbon Week festivities at my school.  Today's theme was "Show School Spirit - Drug Free!" I wore black and yellow to show school pride. I was excited to wear my customized polo that I created using VistaPrint .  The other school counselor I work with and I got them at the beginning of the school year. It says my school and School Counselor under it.  I had a fun idea for the door to the student services suite. On my way to my parent's house this weekend I was trying to think of door ideas.  I got the idea to tape a graduation gown and cap to the door.  I then thought it would up the fun factor to cut out a hole in the paper where the window is so a student could put their head in front of the window so it would look like they were a graduate.  We decided to make the door a Shippensburg University theme since the school social worker, the other school counselor, and I all graduated from Shippensburg Univers...

Red Ribbon week starts Monday! How are you celebrating Red Ribbon Week? I wrote a post of how I celebrated Red Ribbon Week last year .  I am celebrating Red Ribbon Week this year using the same career theme from last year : Believe, Achieve, Succeed - Drug Free!   I plan to write a post each day this week showcasing the theme to give you some ideas for this year or next year.   I encourage you to comment on each day's post and share how you are celebrating that day! Also, share your Red Ribbon Week theme pictures with other school counselors by uploading them to the School Counselor Blog Facebook Page or Google+ .  This year, in addition to the theme days I posted about before, we are also hosting a college door decorating contest for the whole school. I am working on my Penn State themed door today (Sunday)! I had a clever idea for the door leading into the Social Services Suite . Check out my posts later this week for pictures and details...

I am so excited to share this college pennant display with you! I am collecting pennants from colleges and universities. I decided to start with my alma maters, Pennsylvania State University (where I earned my B.A.) and Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (where I earned my M.Ed.). All I did was called them and told them I wanted to display the pennants in my school to expose students to colleges and they sent them to me for free! One day when I was at the high school I noticed they had pennants hanging in various places. Then I got an idea... I asked the high school counselor if he would send me any pennants in which he had a double. He told me that he gets so many that he sometimes throws them away! He was excited to have someone to give them to who would put them to good use. So I am up to 10 pennants now! I am so thankful for the high school counselor for helping me out and helping me to expose students to colleges! Over the summer I made a banner on VistaPrint that...

Big Blue Ikea bag = Happiness! :) I LOVE Ikea ! One of the perks of living in Pittsburgh was having an Ikea close by! I would go to Ikea all the time and find lots of cool things for my school counseling office . On Monday, I presented at the Montgomery County Counseling Association (MCCA ) on "Essentials of Becoming a Tech Savvy School Counselor" in King of Prussia, PA. I took a personal day so I would have plenty of time to get there and would not be caught up in something at school. Before I left I looked to see if there was a Ikea anywhere near King of Prussia. Sure enough there was one in Consohohocken, PA! I was so excited to make an Ikea stop! One of the things I went to Ikea in search of was this DUKTIG Toolbelt . When I found it in the store it was much smaller than I expected (I think it is for a toddler) but I still purchased it anyway. I figured I could still use the tools in a Home Depot belt that I had at school. I was also thinking about ad...

Penn State Nittany Lion posing with our Red Ribbon Week Drug Free Pledge Red Ribbon Week is Monday, October 24th through Friday, October 29th. Red Ribbon Week is a week to raise awareness about the importance of being drug free. Last year our theme for Red Ribbon week was "Believe, Achieve, Succeed - Drug Free!" All of the events we planned for Red Ribbon Week were related career to reinforce the school to career connection and the importance of students choosing to be drug free for their future. Below are descriptions of the theme days and events we hosted for our Red Ribbon Week last year.   School Spirit Day For School Spirit Day we are asked all students, faculty, and staff to show school pride by wearing school colors. Our school colors are black and gold. We had a good level of participation in this day, especially because so many of our teachers are Steelers fans! College, University, Trade School, and Military Day For College, University, Trade Scho...