School Counselor Blog

Awhile back I wrote a post about requesting college swag and what to do with it .  This year one of my goals is to expose my students to higher education opportunities in the Pittsburgh, PA region.  Over the summer, I sent out emails to admissions offices at local colleges and universities in my county and surrounding counties requesting pennants to display in the school counseling area at my school. In the emails I explained how I would be using the pennants at my school. A few weeks ago I started receiving the pennants! I couldn't be more excited about the response I received so far! Today I hung up the my "All Students College & Career Ready!" banner  and the pennants I received so far. I am hoping to represent all of the colleges and universities in the Pittsburgh area and then expand my efforts to elsewhere in PA and beyond!  Below I included the exact message I sent to Duquesne University, where I am pursuing my doctoral degree.  I thought...

Our March #SCCHAT was held on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 8pmEST. The topic was Supporting College Trailblazers.  Jeremy Goldman ( @MrJGoldman ) moderated the chat. I was so excited when Jeremy suggested moderating a chat on Supporting College Trailblazers, which are first generation college students. This chat stressed the importance of starting in elementary school to support and encourage ALL students for college readiness. Check out the  full chat transcript here! There were lots of new tweeps on this chat and we hope to see even more in future chats! 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, April 2, 2013 at 8pmEST. Tabitha Panariso ( @tpanariso ) from Scrapbook of a School Counselor w...

The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is Tuesday, March 5th at 8pmEST. The topic for this month's School Counselor Tweet Chat is  Supporting College Trailblazers .  Jeremy Goodman ( @MrJGoldman ) will be moderating the chat. We will be tweeting about defining, identifying, monitoring, and supporting first generation college students. We will be chatting about things you can do K-12 to support college trailblazers. 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 Educator who manages  SCO...

Recently I have received a lot of emails regarding college promotional materials. Some school counselors want to know what to do with the materials they have. Others want to know how to get colleges to send them some swag! Last night a School Counselor Blog Facebook Fan from Georgia shared that her son's high school has college banners displayed on the ceiling of their cafeteria. It is an awe-inducing site... If you work at this high school we all want to know how you got all of these banners!!! :) In the most recent  School Counselor Spotlight ,  Jeremy Goldman , a high school counselor in Maryland, shared how he displays college stickers in his office.  This is a great conversation starter for students and helps them become familiar with colleges they may have never heard of!  Jeremy purchases college stickers everywhere he goes! Students have also brought him back stickers when they go on college visits.  Awhile back I shared that ...

While I was at the ASCA National Conference I enjoyed connecting in person with s chool counselors I have interacted with on Twitter .  At the conference,  Jeremy Goldman , a high school counselor in Maryland was telling me about how he collects college stickers to display in his office. (If you are a school counselor who tweets you may know him on Twitter as  @MrJGoldman  or  @PHSCouns ). He even went on a college visit while in Minneapolis to get a sticker to add to his collage.  I thought Jeremy's college sticker collage was a unique way to share college information with high school students, so I asked him if he would share about it for the School Counselor Spotlight .  By Jeremy Goldman, M.Ed., High School Counselor, MD For me, it all started with my own experience with college. I was so excited to go to my first-choice college that when I went for my overnight visit in the spring of my senior year, I bought a window de...

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...

I created a bulletin board to showcase vocabulary related to college and career readiness! My "College and Career Ready!" bulletin board is in the 7th and 8th grade hallway. I plan to make a duplicate of this board for the 5th and 6th grade hallway. I want students to see the words to begin a dialogue about what it means to be "College and Career Ready."  Some of the words I chose include punctuality, effort, dependability, attitude, and responsibility. I used vocabulary that students should know by 5th and 8th grade in the Pennsylvania Career and Work Standards.   I made a pdf and doc version on google docs!  Bulletin Board How To The Graduation Cap To make the graduation cap I cut a large square out of  black roll paper . I then cut out two curved triangles to make the bottom part of the graduation cap. I cut a small circle out of the black roll paper for the button on the cap. I used strips of  white construction paper  for ...