School Counselor Blog

The topic of the the January #SCCHAT was Goals and Inspiration for the Rest of the School Year.    The chat was moderated by Dr. Erin Mason ( @andreajburston ) School Counselor Educator at DePaul University in Chicago, IL and founder of The School Counselor Online Professional Exchange (SCOPE) the go-to site for technology in school counseling. School counselors shared their goals for 2015 and shared inspirational quotes and ideas. You can view the transcript below or   read the full transcript here . For more information about #SCCHAT and transcripts from previous chats visit:  http://bit.ly/scchat-info . #SCCHAT occurs on the first Tuesday of the month unless otherwise specified.  To add the #SCCHAT schedule to your calendar  click here . [ View the story "January #SCCHAT: Goals and Inspiration for the Rest of the School Year" on Storify ] Join us for our February #SCCHAT on February 3, 2014 at 8pmEST.  The topic is TBA. Check ...

Looking for a way to teach goal setting to kids? In my post for the Free Spirit Publishing Blog post  Kids' Goal Setting: SMART Goals ,  I step by step instructions on how to help kids make SMART goals. How do you teach kids about goal setting? 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, Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), and blogger at  School Counselor Blog , a place where school counselors share innovative ideas,  creative lesson plans,  and quality re...

I have a new post on  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog ! In my latest post, 6 Solutions for Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions ,  I share tips and ideas for making and keeping a SMART New Year's Resolution.   What resolutions are you making for 2013? What strategies can you share for setting realistic goals and reaching them?  Please share your comments and ideas in the comment section of my post! 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 Counsel...

I have a new post on  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog !  Check out my post SMART Back-to-School Goals for Students  about using SMART goal setting.  I give suggestions of goals that you can help students create at the beginning of the school year and beyond.  I also wrote a post for the  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog  about SMART Goals for Counselors and Educators . SMART goal-setting would be a great topic for students of all ages as a classroom lesson or group counseling session.  You could also work with individual students and help them create and track SMART goals. 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,...

I have a new post on  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog !  Check out my post Back-to-School Goals for Counselors and Educators  about how a simple gesture can make someone's day. I give some fun low-cost ideas in this post! I also wrote a post on the Free Spirit Publishing Blog about SMART Back-to-School Goals for Students ! 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...

Life has been crazy for me lately (in a good way!) and I have been trying to play catch up. There are so many things I want to update you on, but I don't know where to start. Diva's Day Out seemed as good of a place to start as any... so... here we go! On May 16th my co-school counselor and I hosted a Diva's Day Out for 4th and 5th grade girls. Diva's Day Out was a big success and girls are still talking about how much fun they had and how awesome it was! Yay! We scheduled Diva's Day Out on a day where we had a half day and received parental permission for the girls to stay after school from 12:30pm - 3:00pm. We had approximately 50 4th and 5th grade Divas in attendance! (Side note we also required all of the girls in our Girls on the Run and Girls on Track programs to participate... more about GOTR later!) During Diva's Day Out students participated in activities focusing on fitness, nutrition, self-esteem, relational aggression, and body image. We mad...

Looking for a visual way to display students' goals? Goal Mountain serves as a visual reminder that students can take positive "steps" to reach their goals. At the beginning of the Goal Mountain session I explain to students we are going to make a mountain representing our goals and the positive "steps" we can take to reach our goals. As a group we brainstorm some ideas of what types of goals we might have. Students usually suggest future goals, career goals, interpersonal goals and school goals. After we talk about some potential goal ideas, I instruct students to think of a goal they would like to work towards. I give each student a cloud to record their goal. I instruct students to use colored pencils ,  markers , or  construction paper crayons  to record their goal on their cloud. Some examples of students' goals include, "to go to college," "stay in school," "get along with my brothers and sisters more," and "get...

Just to recap, my professional goal was to administer needs assessments and determine the best way to serve the population that I am working with. My personal goal, was to train for a half-marathon . I will give an update on the status of both... I have given all of the students in sixth grade needs assessments based on the Peacemakers program. The questions that were on the assessment include "In the last two weeks I have ..." and outlines various behaviors  "got into a fight, gave someone a compliment, talked to someone to solve a problem," etc. The students rate the questions by frequency. I have not tallied the data yet, but I think it will give me a good idea about how students are currently solving their problems. Although, from my interactions with students, most students are not solving conflicts peacefully. This brings me to the Peacemakers curriculum itself. I think it is a wonderful framework. It is research based and data-driven.  The only problem I a...

The holiday break has given me the opportunity to think about the needs of my school and what I want to accomplish in the coming year. My main goal for the New Year is to determine the needs of my students and the best way for me to serve them. When I get back to school I plan on administering needs assessments for grades four through eight, the grades I serve. I already had plans to run a fourth grade anger management group , a sixth grade girls group, and facilitate classroom lessons utilizing the Peacemakers Program in sixth grade.  I think that a needs assessment will help me determine other areas that I will be able to support students. You can find sample needs assessments under resources on the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) website . You must be a member to access the files. I also plan on collaborating with a colleague on fifth grade transition to sixth grade.  My school serves students in grades Pre-K through eighth.  There is a ne...