School Counselor Blog

April showers... BRING MAY FLOWERS! Spring has finally sprung where I am in Pittsburgh, PA! Temperatures have been in the 70s this week and I hope that sping is here to stay! Even if it spring hasn't sprung yet where you are, here are a few ways you can brighten things up by bringing May flowers into your School Counseling office and activities. Grow Respect! In a recent post for the Free Spirit Publishing Blog I shared about a lesson I did that I called " Growing Respect ." This lesson is an example of how you can use concepts that children and adolescents already understand to teach new information. I used the concept of how a flower grows to teach students about growing and nurturing respect. I took this lesson a step further for a girl's group. We talked about growing respect and then planted sunflowers I purchased from the dollar spot at Target. Students enjoyed watching the progress of their sunflowers' growth throughout the group. It was a...

I am currently running a group for children with a loved one in jail. One of the activities I have facilitated with my group is the kiwi lesson.  The kiwi lesson can be used to address many different topics including stigma, shame, diversity, tolerance, body image, and more.  This lesson is fun and engaging. It worked especially well in the context of this group. The idea for the kiwi lesson comes from  The Freedom Writers Diary Teacher's Guide  by Erin Gruwell.  In the book there is a lesson called the "Peanut Game." I decided to use a kiwi instead of peanuts because of how colorful kiwis are on the inside and to avoid any allergies.  At the beginning of the activity I pass out a kiwi to each child. I instruct students to explore the outside of the kiwi and to make a list of as many adjectives as they can that describe the kiwi.  I recommend having students pair up to do this part with one student recording the words at a time.  After ...

I recently began facilitating weekly classroom lessons with 6th grade students. I am planning to cover a myriad of topics with students throughout the remainder of the year. Some of the topics I am working on currently include bullying, conflict resolution, and respect. For the lesson I facilitated today, I used No Kidding About Bullying by Naomi Drew.  I taught students about "Respectful Listening," through a role play described in the book.  The students identified ways  I was being a respectful listener, including making eye contact, paying attention, asking questions about the topic, and not interrupting.  I recorded their answers on my white board. After the role play, I instructed students to complete a brief checklist from No Kidding About Bullying to assess how well they feel they listen to others. To get students up and moving while reinforcing "respectful listening" skills, I used an activity from   Energizers! 88 Quick Movement Activities That...

A reader asked me where she could get lessons on RESPECT for middle school. Q: My hat off to you!  As a counselor we many hats, and you seems to be wearing many more than that.  I appreciate reading the blogs which I’ve signed up to receive from you.  I would like to know if you have any articles or activities dealing with “RESPECT” and “Personal Self”?  If you do, I hope you would share them with me.  Do you have an archive of your counselor’s blogs?   I’m a counselor in the middle school and I love it! A: There are many different websites and books I use to find lessons. Below, I have written about a new resource I have use to find lessons on respect (and much more!) and other resources I have used in the past. Also, see the bottom of the School Counselor Blog website for an archive of all of my previous posts! Safe and Caring Schools I recently got the Safe and Caring Schools series from Free Spirit Publishing for my school. The series is g...

A reader asked me for suggestions on where to find lessons on respect. Q: Where can I find respect lessons?  A: I get a lot of ideas for respect lessons from www.tolerance.org , the  Teachin g Tolerance website . You can look up a specific topic, chose a grade level, and chose a subject for your lesson. I recently wrote a blog entry about ideas for respect lessons . I found ideas for respect lessons from the  National Education Association (NEA)  website.  A book I use for older kids, that you could use also use for younger kids if you altered the lessons slightly is, The Freedom Writers Diary Teacher's Guide . What respect lessons do you facilitate with students? Comment below,  email me ,  tweet , 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,...

I was looking for ideas for a lesson on RESPECT for 7th grade. I just came across some cool ideas on the National Education Association (NEA)  website. NEA featured  RESPECT lessons  from Education World .   Check them out! Where do you find respect lessons? Comment below,  email me ,  tweet , 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.  Contact Danielle via  email , follow her on  twitter , and become a fan of the  School Counselor Blog Facebook Page .

I am facilitating character education with kindergarten through fourth grade. I have a variety of themes I am touching on in the classes. For friendship, I worked with third and fourth grade to create their own "friendship raps." Before creating their raps, I had each class listen a rap "Something for Me, Something for You," found on the CD in the Teaching Tolerance "I Will be Your Friend" educator kit. The students really enjoyed the rap. After listening to the rap, I had the students talk about what they learned from the rap. They learned messages such as "you should respect people," "we should be friends with people, it doesn't matter what color we are," and "you should include other people." I then instructed the students to each come up with a line to make a unique friendship rap as a class. The students were very enthusiastic and came up with some great lines. I had each student raise his or her hand and sha...

At the beginning of August, I was hired as a long-term substitute counselor for a charter school in the Greater Pittsburgh Area. I currently serve students in kindergarten through eighth grade. I am excited to work with the students! One of the first things that I created, since I started,was a bulletin board focusing on messages I want to teach students from the book Good-bye Bully Machine by Debbie Fox and Allan L. Beane, Ph.D . I incorporated stars (part of the school's logo) and multicultural hands into my bulletin board. The messages include: "We know our differences make us interesting and UNIQUE," "We speak up if we see others being treated unfairly," "We treat others the way we would like to be treated," We do our best to solve problems peacefully," "We like it that people are different," and "We treat others with respect." What creative bulletin boards have you created? Comment below,  email me ,  tweet ...

How does respect grow? I taught a lesson about respect to a group of fifth graders. I decided to use a flower theme since, it was almost May and "April showers bring May flowers." I made a poster with construction paper letter and flower cut-outs. The message on the poster stated, "How does respect grow?" I brought in a flower and asked students if they could tell me what a flower needs to grow. Some answers included, water, dirt, air, sunlight. I explained to students that just like flowers, people need water, air, and sunlight to grow too.  I asked the students if anyone could tell me what the word "thrive" means. One student stated, "to do really well." I explained that people need food, water, and air to survive, but in order to thrive people need to be treated well and respected. I asked students if they could think of any examples of how they could respect someone else. Some of the answers included, make my mom breakfast, be kind...