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Tips to Optimize Your ASCA Virtual Conference Experience 2025

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A great option to still get top notch professional development and connect with other school counselors across the country is to attend the ASCA Virtual Conference! Below I share tips that Andrea Burston (@jyjcounselor) and I compiled to help you optimize your ASCA virtual conference experience. Make a Schedule Familiarize yourself with the conference schedule and determine what sessions you want to attend. Use the virtual event platform to add sessions to your schedule. Be aware of the conference time zone when planning to attend live sessions. For example, the 2025 ASCA Conference is in Long Beach, CA so the time is Pacific Time. Here's a link of all the 2025 ASCA Virtual Conference sessions:  https://bit.ly/asca25virtual . ..But Be Flexible Don't be hard on yourself if you can't attend live sessions. One major perk of attending the ASCA Virtual Conference is that you have access to all the virtual sessions through October 15, 2025. Get Organized Make a plan for recording...

Tips for Attending the ASCA National Conference in Person - #ASCA25

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Heading to Long Beach, CA for the 2025 American School Counselor Association Conference? 🌴🌊  Catch my session with Andrea Burston (@jyjcounselor),  Design Products to Promote Your Program  on July 13th at 11:35am PST in Seaside S-7. 💻📣✨ For the full session description visit: Attending the ASCA Conference is so much fun! Below Andrea Burston and I share tips to help you make the most of your ASCA Conference experience! ✨  PLAN AHEAD ✨ Do some research ahead of your arrival so that you are prepared for your trip.   Check out the following: Health & safety guidelines Weather forecast Hotel location Conference location  ✨  PACK FOR WORK AND PLAY ✨ When you're packing your bags, think about what you will wear to conference sessions and what you will wear during downtime. If you are attending special events or activities, be sure to pack for them. ✨  CONNECT WITH OTHER SCHOOL COUNSELORS ✨ One of the most amazing aspects of the ASCA Confer...

ASCA Webinar Series: Promote Self-Care to Your School Community (On-Demand Webinar Now Available)

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Last month I hosted a webinar for the American School Counselor Association Webinar Series. I hosted  Promote Self-Care to Your School Community where I shared fun, creative, and practical ways you can promote self-care at your school.  The webinar is now available for on-demand viewing on the ASCA website for ASCA Members.  🎬 Watch the full webinar here:  https://videos.schoolcounselor.org/promote-self-care-to-your-school-community/ (Free to ASCA Members) This Promote Self-Care to Your School Community   ASCA webinar was based on an article I wrote for t he January/February 2025 issue of   ASCA School Counselor  Magazine , Tools for Self-Care . I wrote a blog post that includes links and resources for many of the initiatives mentioned in this  Tools for Self-Care   article and the  Promote Self-Care to Your School Community   ASCA webinar. You can find the link to the blog post here:  https://www.schcounselor.com/2025/01/f...

Stay Afloat, It's Almost Summer! End of Year Summer Teacher Gift Idea

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Posting about the Hawaiian-Themed End of Year Teacher Gift with Hawaiian shirt koozies and festive drinks made me realize I never posted about the teacher gift we did last year! 😱  One of my favorite End of Year teacher gifts we have ever done was inflatable summer drink floats ! These were super fun and silly. Staff loved them! Below I will share everything you need to re-create this "Stay Afloat, It's Almost Summer!" End of Year Teacher Gift. This would also make a fun gift for a School Counseling Department, Student Services Department, Supervisor, Intern, and more... To make the "Stay Afloat, It's Almost Summer!" Gift, we purchased: Summer Inflatable Drink Floats Similar smaller quantity pack from Walmart Astrobrights Cardstock Paper Ribbon A Variety of Festive Summer Sparkling Waters Waterloo Italian Ice  (I can't wait to try this one!) Bubly Strawberry Sunset Bubly Coconut Pineapple Bubly Orange Cream Pop/Soda Diet Coke Coke Zero Regular Coke Sna...

Aloha Summer! End of Year Hawaiian-Themed Teacher Gift with Printable Aloha, Summer! Gift Tag

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Our PBIS Team has a tradition of getting a small gift for staff for our final "Treat Trolley" of the school year. This year, we did a Hawaiian Theme. We purchased Hawaiian T-shirt Can Koozies, fun and festive sparkling waters, and of course some pop! We put a colorful gift tag on each one that says "Aloha, Summer! We Hope You have a great Summer Break! Love the QVMS PBIS Team." Below I will share everything you need to re-create this Hawaiian Themed Teacher Gift. This would also make a fun gift for a School Counseling Department, Student Services Department, Supervisor, Intern, and more... To make the "Aloha, Summer!" Gift, we purchased: Hawaiian Themed Can Koozies  - Oriental Trading Company - Also available at Walmart Colorful Astrobrights Cardstock Paper Ribbon A Variety of Festive Summer Sparkling Waters Waterloo Italian Ice (I can't wait to try this one!) Bubly Strawberry Sunset Bubly Coconut Pineapple Bubly Orange Cream Pop/Soda Diet Coke Coke ...

Need a Purrrfect Way to De-Stress After State Testing?

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Need a purrrfect way to de-stress after state testing? I got you! I literally lived my best life this week when we hosted Therapy Cats from a local therapy pet volunteer organization. It is all part of De-Stress After the Test, a series of stress-free activities to help students unwind and recharge after state testing. Some other activities that we're hosting include:  🧘🏼‍♀️ Yoga 🃏 Cards & Board Games 🐶 Therapy Dogs 😻 Therapy Cats 🎮 Esports 🥳 Dance Party I wrote a whole blog post about how you can implement this at your school. Check it out here: https://bit.ly/scdestress But wait, there’s more! I will be hosting an ASCA Webinar on this topic, May 20th at 11:00am: Promote Self-Care to Your School Community. A f ull registration link is available here: https://members.schoolcounselor.org/event-details?id=ba470317-780a-f011-a4de-6045bd866234 What questions do you have?! Connect with Danielle! If you have questions, connect with me on on  Instagram ,  Faceboo...