School Counselor Blog

The topic of the March #SCCHAT was  Improving School Counselor Preparation.    The chat was moderated by Dr. Erin Mason ( @ecmmason ) Counselor Educator extraordinaire and founder of  SCOPE , a website dedicated to providing school counselors with quality information about using technology in their practice. School counselors shared tips and recommendations on improving the preparation school counselors receive. 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 "March #SCCHAT: Improving School Counselor Preparation " on Storify ] Join us for our April #SCCHAT on April 7, 2015 at 8pmEST.  The topic is Evidenced Based School Counseling (EBSC) Conference...

I have had the concept in my head for a long time about how school counseling is a lot like navigating a boat. Bringing school staff and other key people "on board" can lead to smooth sailing for you and your school counseling program. I have so much to say on this topic that I decided to make it a series of posts.  I talked about the school counselor/boat concept with  +Andrea Burston  in the live Google Hangout we did recorded for  School Counseling on Air . In each post of the Who's on Your Boat? series I will focus on one person or group of people to get "on board" and how they can be beneficial to your role as a school counselor and your school counseling program. School Librarian and/or Media Specialist During my field II placement in January of 2009, I was emergency certified and hired as a long term-substitute school counselor. I served as a K-3 school counselor for 500+ students. It was such a rewarding experience and I learned so much fro...

I am so excited that I was able to participate in School Counseling On Air! Although I have done a webinar before and presented many times at local, state, and national conferences, I have never participated in anything like a live on air hangout. It was such a fun and different experience. It was so cool to connect with people and participate in week of live professional development for school counselors! It is amazing to me how easy it is right now to share information with the world. I look forward to doing more live on air hangouts in the future! I would love for you to share topic ideas for hangouts you would like to see in the comment section of this post! I am planning to do a re-cap of each of the hangouts, but for now I wanted to give you a description of all the hangouts and the link to the archived YouTube videos ! All of the videos are also available on the  School Counseling On Air YouTube channel . Marketing Monday Jeff Ream, the Counseling Geek, discusses ...

Wow! It was such an amazing experience doing my first ever live on air Google hangout! It was so much fun chatting with my blogger buddy,  +Andrea Burston  of JYJoyner Counselor blog about life as a graduate student and new school counselor. During  What I Wish I Knew Wednesday ,  we covered lots of topics, including picking a graduate school , making the most of your internship experience, networking, making connections , interviewing , and other words of wisdom for graduate students and new school counselors. We also answered questions from the audience on Google+ and Twitter. If you missed the live hangout, no worries! You can now watch the archived YouTube video  of  What I Wish I Knew Wednesday ! There are still lots of amazing  School Counseling On Air  presentations planned for this week! Check out the schedule below.  If you missed a live hangout you can view the archived presentation on the School Counseling On Air...

I am working on posting transcripts for past School Counselor Tweet Chats.  A complete schedule and transcripts can be found at bit.ly/scchat_2012 . September's #SCCHAT was held on September 4, 2012 at 8pmEST. The topic was  Support for First Year School Counselors .   Darrell Sampson, @CnslrDarrell , was the moderator. Check out the full chat transcript!  Note: In the tweet chat we used PD to stand for Professional Development and PSC to stand for Professional School Counselor (this helped us save valuable characters!) To access all of the tweets with the hashtag #scchat,  click here . The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is on Tuesday, November 13th, 2012 at 8pmEST. Marci Newman,  @ARHSCounselor and her principal will be hosting the chat Principal and School Counselor Relationship .  View the 2012 School Counselor Tweet Chat schedule and transcripts here . For information on how to participate in a future School Counselor Tweet C...

When I give new school counselors gifts, I want them to be fun and functional! I want to give them something they will actually use in their work as a new school counselor or school counseling intern. Last year, I gave my school counseling intern a gift of a portable sand tray .  Instead of just giving her a container of sand I wanted to make a gift "basket" of things she could use to get her started as a school counselor. In addition to a storage container and sand  (see the  portable sand tray  post for more details) I used colorful tissue paper to wrap some fun items she could use. First up, BUBBLES! :)  What school counselor doesn't love bubbles .  There are so many ways school counselors can utilize bubbles in sessions with students! Squishy Ball! I got this Squishy Ball at the Target dollar spot (have I mentioned how much I LOVE the Target dollar spot?!).  Balls like this are great for students to fidget with when they are ...

It was difficult to pick my 11 favorite posts of 2011 considering I wrote 108 posts this year, not counting this post! 2011 was a pretty great year. I had the opportunity to present at the  ASCA conference in Seattle, WA , started School Counselor Tweet Chats , hosted lots of giveaways , made video posts , and much more! I have enjoyed connecting with you in 2011 and can't wait to see what is in store for 2012! Below I outlined 11 of my favorite posts and why they made the list. Serving Up Career Standards Through Community Involvement One of my biggest accomplishments of the 2010-2011 school year was starting Career Cafe at my school.  It has been an amazing ride since implementing it.  Students are so excited to learn about careers first-hand from people in their community.  I am learning so much from the speakers too! Career Cafe  is one of my favorite programs I implement as a school counselor. Many School Counselor Blog readers have emailed me...

Looking for a last minute gift for a school counselor friend or colleague? You can throw together some fun and relaxing items to make a relaxation basket! Every year our area donates a basket to raffle and raise money for a charity. We decided on a relaxation theme this year. Members contributed items such as aloe infused socks, a bathrobe, a mug, hot chocolate mix, wine, a wine holder, wine bottle opener, and an island calendar calendar. Some other items you could include in a relaxation basket are: bubble bath, lotion, soothing music, pedicure kit, spa gift certificate, a noise machine, etc. I love gifts with a theme! A themed gift basket would also be great for a supervisor or intern! What items would you include in a relaxation basket? What other theme baskets have you made? 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,...

While planning my career interest inventory implementation, I realized I needed a back up plan for printing... I was planning to have students print their career inventory results, but I wanted to have a back up plan in case the printers weren't working. This happens a lot at my school... so I wanted to be prepared. I went in search of a fast and easy way for students to send me files. Students at my school do not have school email so I needed a solution that would not require email. I discovered  DROP it TOme  a great FREE tool you can utilize in conjunction with  DropBox  to securely receive files from anyone!  I wrote a post yesterday encouraging readers to  Think Outside of The USB Drive  by utilizing  DropBox  for FREE online file hosting and file storage. DROP it TOme  is quick and easy to use. After you register for a FREE  DropBox  account and a FREE  DROP it TOme  account, you can use  DROP...

Are you sick of toting around a USB flash drive? Do you find yourself searching through your inbox to find files you sent.... to yourself? Do you wish there was a quick and easy way to access your files from anywhere? DropBox  is your answer! DropBox  is a FREE file hosting program that you can download on multiple computers, access online, and access by smart phone. My daD told me about  DropBox  a long, long time ago. I was an early adopter, but I did not really understand how  DropBox  could be beneficial to me as a school counselor until the beginning of this school year. Let's compare USB flash drives to  DropBox ... I have a million USB flash drives... Ok, so maybe that is an exaggeration. I have waaaaay too many USB drives. USB drives are easy to lose. You have to keep track of USB flash drives. You have to plug a USB flash drive into a computer's USB drive. DropBox  allows you to access files from anywhere you can co...

I am so excited to present "Essentials for Becoming a Tech Savvy School Counselor" on October 10th at the Montgomery County Counselors Association (MCCA) Fall Workshop. During my presentation I will be sharing tips, tricks, and techniques for utilizing Google Docs and social networking tools (Facebook, Twitter, Blogger) to enhance your professional identity as a school counselor and your school counseling program. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop for this interactive workshop! Check out the MCCA Fall Workshop Flyer to register! You must return the registration form to Julie Hamel by October 3, 2011 to attend. Will you be attending the MCCA Fall workshop? Comment below,  tweet ,  contact Danielle , or share on the  School Counselor Blog Facebook Page ! Are you interested in having Danielle present at your local or state school counselor organization?  Contact Danielle ! Danielle is a K-12 Certified School Counselor, Nationally Cert...

I have made it common practice to move absolutely everything out of my school counseling office each year. I hope that at the end of this year I won't feel the need to do the same.  It is a lot of work to move everything out of my office and then move everything back in at the beginning of each new year.  Looking on the bright side, I enjoy setting up my space and taking time to make my room student friendly and engaging. This will be my second year in this office and I am excited to think of new ideas of how to decorate it.  Here are the before views of my office. I am working on setting things up this week. I can't wait to share new pictures once I finish decorating it for the 2011-2012 school year.  Back of the room. Window side of the room. Front of the room Check out my previous post to see what my school counseling office looked like during the 2010-2011 school year . Do you have questions about setting up your school counseling office? What is your fa...

I recently created a Prezi to give you a  tour of my 2010-2011 School Counseling Office Space .  School Counseling Office Space 2010-2011 on Prezi I have gotten a few requests to see the pictures in an album form, so I created a  Picasa album  where you can view the pictures.   I also posted the pictures below. Please feel free to comment below if you have questions or would like more information about something! Many of the books, resources and products in my office are available in the  School Counselor Blog Amazon Store .  Outside of my door I made this sign to let students and teachers know where I am.  Check out my post about how to make your own ! Bulletin board when you walk in my door This is where I keep all of my career information and resources for students. My desk Behind my desk This is where I keep my most used resources and lessons. Window side of my room I t...