School Counselor Blog

Are you still Zooming? Even though my school is currently in-person, I still spend lots of time on Zoom. Recently, I had three Zoom meetings in one day. All of this Zooming made me think that others might benefit from some tips and tricks to improve your Zoom experience. You can use these tips for hosting Zoom meetings, participating in Zoom meetings, presenting for a virtual conference, or being a virtual conference participant.  Check out the post below for 6 Tips to Improve Your Zoom Experience for School Counselors.   1. Use a Ring Light Using a ring light is a great way to make your Zoom meetings, virtual conference presentations, and video chats look more professional. Ring lights balance light and reduce shadows. Ring lights also brighten your face and make you look your best. The ring light I have was under $20 and has been a game changer for me.  I even included the  ring light I have  in my recent post about  Gift Ideas for School Counselors . 2. Use a Laptop Stand A laptop

Do you have a school counseling budget? In the beginning of my career as a school counselor, I never even thought to ask if I had a budget. I purchased all the resources and items I used.  In this post I share ways to get funded for resources and projects even if you have a small (or non-existent) budget. School Counseling Budget Do you have a budget for your school counseling budget for your building or department? If you do, find out how much money you have in your account.  If you don't have a budget, talk to your administrator about creating one for your building or department. Determining how much money you have at your disposal can help you plan what you can purchase for your program and whether or not you need to seek out additional funding sources.  We are currently setting our budget for the 2022-23 school year. If you plan ahead, you can budget for things you will need for the following school year.  Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Your parent tea

All of the gift ideas are items school counselors can use at home or in their school counseling office. Some of these items are things I already own and others are on my holiday list this year!  🎁 🥤  Corkcicle Tumbler - I love Corkcicle Tumblers! They keep your drinks cold for 9+ hours and hot for 3+ hours! I have multiple 16oz tumblers for iced coffee and I just got a 24oz one for keeping hydrated at work. I purchased the holiday tumbler (shown above) for myself on Black Friday. It was on sale then, but now it has an even deeper discount. There is also a coupon code right now -DASHAWAY20 for 20% off site wide. Corkcicle also has an educator discount year round! (You can't use the discount in combination with other discounts though). If you prefer to purchase through Amazon, some Corksicicle items are available on their site.  🫖  Electric Kettle  - This mini Smeg USA electric kettle is on my holiday list. I am looking forward to making tea during the winter months to practice

To spread some holiday cheer, our PBIS team is hosting a "Secret Staff Member" for the month of December.  We made a brief survey on Google Forms for participants to complete. We asked participants to provide a few of their favorite things, such as favorite candy, drinks, snacks, and interests. After the deadline to participate, our PBIS team members assigned each participant a "Secret Staff Member." Participants will give their "Secret Staff Member" a gift each week leading up to Winter break. Participants will spend $15 total to spread cheer to their "Secret Staff Member." I can't wait to start shopping for my "Secret Staff Member." I will be sharing pictures on Instagram of what I end up buying for my "Secret Staff Member" hope participating will add some fun and cheer leading up to Winter break! Do you host any gift exchangs or moral boosters leading up to Win

Not ready for a complete bulletin board overhaul? Just change up some pieces! I converted my Halloween Digital Safety Bulletin Board so that it can be used year round!  Get the files you need to make the Smartphone Digital Safety Tips Bulletin Board here .  Below are the materials I used to create this  Smartphone Digital Safety Tips Bulletin Board : Smartphone Digital Safety Tips Bulletin Board Kit  - this is a link to a folder with all the files you need to recreate this bulletin board. The folder contains the social media icons, smartphone, stars, and digital safety tips. Black roll paper  - I used black roll paper for the background Black dot bulletin board border  - I am loving  School Girl Style  products. I used their borders for my "We are so glad you here!" bulletin board too! Astrobrights cardstock  - Astrobrights is my go-to for cardstock. I used this  bright "joy" color pack  for the social media safety tips.  If you use my resources at you

A few years ago I created this interactive, Halloween-themed digital safety week bulletin board. I put this bulletin board up last week in preparation for  Digital Safety Week on October 18th - 22nd .  This Halloween-themed digital safety week bulletin board contains tips for how to be safe on social media. Students and staff can lift the flaps for for information about each tip. This year, I added a  black & white polka-dot border  to my Digital Safety bulletin board to really make it pop!  I also updated some of the social media icons from my previous board. I needed to add Tik Tok, of course! I couldn't decide which Tik Tok logo to use... I added the white logo to see what it looked like, but ultimately went with black. I included in the bulletin board kit in case you prefer to use it in your school! Below are the materials I used to create this  Halloween-Themed Interactive Digital Safety Bulletin Board : Hallowee