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Showing posts from 2013

13 Favorite Posts of 2013

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Does anyone else feel like 2013 just FLEW by?! I honestly can't believe it is going to be 2014! I am so thankful for all of the wonderful things that have happened in 2013. It was fun to go through previous posts I wrote and re-live 2013 a little!  Some of highlights of 2013 included: Starting a new job as a middle school counselor! Attending and presenting at the 2013 ASCA Conference. Especially hanging out and presenting with my school counselor blogger BFF Andrea Burston - ( JYJoyner Counselor )!!! Meeting blogger buddies Rebecca Lallier ( School Counseling by Heart ), Dr. Susan Fuller ( Entirely Elementary Counseling ), Marissa Rex ( Elementary School Counseling) , and Jeff Ream ( The Counseling Geek ) for the first time in person at the 2013 ASCA Conference in Philadelphia, PA. Continuing to host #SCCHAT with Dr. Erin Mason at SCOPE . (FYI SCOPE is getting a complete overhaul to better assist school counselors in learning about and utilizing technology tools!!!)

Happy Holidays from School Counselor Blog!

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I hope you all have a wonderful winter break filled with rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation! I am looking forward to spending time with family and friends!  Pictured from top to bottom: Perry Me (Danielle) and my husband, Noah Sophie How are you spending your winter break? Share below! 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 lesson plans,  and quality resources. Connect with Danielle via  email ,  Twitter ,  Pinterest ,  LinkedIn ,  Google+ , and become a fan of the  School Counselor Blog Facebook Page .

New Free Spirit Post: The Meaning of Giving: Ways to Give to Students and Teachers

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In my latest post on the  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog , The Meaning of Giving: Ways to Give to Students and Teachers ,  I share ideas you can implement in your school to give gifts that make a big impact to students and teachers. In this post I share resources from two fabulous school counselor bloggers: Andrea Burston of JYJoyner Counselor and Carol Miller of The Middle School Counselor .  This is a great post to file for next year so you can create and implement giving programs in your own school.  What is your favorite way to give to students and staff?  S hare your comments and ideas below or in the comment section of my post on the Free Spirit Blog! 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, counsel

Technology Round-Up with Tennessee School Counselor Association Re-Cap

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It is hard to express in words exactly how much fun I had with Tennessee School Counselors at the Tennessee Counseling Association Conference! I presented Technology Round-Up  at the TCA Pre-Conference on Saturday, November 23, 2013. It was so much fun to present to a room full of excited and eager participants! Tennessee School Counselors came ready to share great ideas! During my presentation I shared a variety of different technology tools and explained how they could be utilized. I also encouraged participants to share ways they could use the tools in their own work. School counselors shared lots of excellent ideas and proved that when school counselors share ideas, everyone wins! Below I shared this amazing document from the presentation with you. It is a WEALTH of information and has some ideas that were discussed during the presentation intermixed with the technology. During my trip I got to spend a lot of time with TSCA leadership.  They showed me amazing southern

3 (Inexpensive) Ways to Spread Holiday Cheer to Teachers and School Staff: New Free Spirit Post

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The holiday season can be the most stressful time of the year ! If your looking for some ways to spread holiday cheer and boost morale without breaking the bank, look no further! In my latest post on the  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog  I share  3 (Inexpensive) Ways to Spread Holiday Cheer to Teachers and School Staff .  Do you do anything fun and festive for your school staff? S hare your comments and ideas below or in the comment section of my post on the Free Spirit Blog! 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 Counse

December #SCCHAT Transcript: Closing the Gap

Our December #SCCHAT was held on December 3, 2013. The topic of the chat this month was  Closing the Gap   moderated by Jeremy Goldman ( @MrJGoldman ) a high school counselor and department chair at  Pikesville High School in Maryland . He is also President-Elect of the Maryland School Counselor Association ( @MSCAMd ). School counselors shared real life examples of ways they close the achievement gap in their schools. They also shared ways to collect and share data with stakeholders. 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 . [ View the story "December #SCCHAT: Closing the Achievement Gap" on Storify ] #SCCHAT occurs on the first Tuesday of the month unless otherwise specified. To add the #SCCHAT schedule to your calendar  click here . The January #SCCHAT will be held on January 7, 2013 at 8pmEST. The topic is  Promoting Your

December #SCCHAT: Closing the Gap (12/3/13)

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The next School Counselor Tweet Chat is on  Tuesday, December 3, 2013  at 8pm EST. The topic of the chat this month is  Closing the Gap   moderated by Jeremy Goldman ( @MrJGoldman ) a high school counselor and department chair at Pikesville High School in Maryland . He is also President-Elect of the Maryland School Counselor Association ( @MSCAMd ). We will be chatting about how you can create purposeful programming at your school to close the achievement gap and other gaps that exist at your school. Resources and tools for data collection will be shared. This is an excellent topic and is instrumental in showing how school counselors make a difference in the lives of students! I strongly encourage those new to twitter to come and join us and participate! Even if you just watch and read the tweets you will learn so much! I archive each chat so that even if you aren't available to participate live you can read the chat later. We look forward to tweeting with you! The Janua

Happy Thanksgiving from School Counselor Blog

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I am so thankful to be able to connect and share everyday with so many amazing school counselors all over the country (and the world)! You all are amazing! I have done a lot of traveling and presenting in recent months. Although I love connecting online, it has been super cool to connect and share with school counselors in person !  I have been super busy lately with working as a middle school counselor, taking classes for my PhD program, presenting, supervising, traveling, and just life in general. I am so looking forward to some time to rest and relax with family and friends!  How are you spending your Thanksgiving holiday? 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 lesson plans,  and quality resources. Connect with Danielle

Backpack Organization Game: School Counselor Spotlight

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Jen, a school counseling intern who graduates in December, gave an organizational skills lesson a creative and interactive spin!  Jen wrote: I was running an organizational and study skills group for 7th and 8th grade students during my field experience at a middle school. In this group, each session focused on a different area of organization and studying. In the session where we focused on organizing backpacks and binders, we played a game where students had to race to find a paper in a backpack. I got this idea from the book Creative Approaches for Counseling Individual Children in the School Setting by Diane S. Senn. However, I decided to make it into a racing game between two students to make the activity more interactive and fun. I asked the group for two volunteers to play a game, and then asked the volunteers to each choose a backpack. I explained that they would be racing to look through their backpack to find a piece of paper with an “X” marked on it. Before the

November #SCCHAT Transcript: Creating and Implementing Lesson Plans

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Our November #SCCHAT was held on November 5, 2013.  The topic of the chat this month was   Creating and Implementing Lesson Plans  moderated by Chris Wood ( @ChrisWood415 ) a tech savvy school counselor from Iowa. School counselors shared great resources related to creating and implementing lesson plans as well as aligning lessons with local, state, and national standards. 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 . [ View the story "November #SCCHAT: Creating & Implementing Lesson Plans" on Storify ] #SCCHAT occurs on the first Tuesday of the month unless otherwise specified. To add the #SCCHAT schedule to your calendar  click here . Join us for the December #SCCHAT on December 3, 2013 at 8pmEST! The topic is to be determined . Join  School Counselor Blog  and  SCOPE  for #scchat the first Tuesday of the month @ 8pmEST!  For

MEA-MFT Educators' Conference

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It is hard for me to believe that a week ago I was in Montana presenting at the Montana Education Association and Montana Federation of Teachers (MEA-MFT) Educators' Conference. I am so excited that the Montana School Counselor Association invited me to be a keynote speaker and presenter for the conference. A HUGE THANK YOU to Alicia Godfrey for showing me a great time in Bozeman! My keynote titled You Are Not Alone: Connecting Through Social Media was about how school counselors can utilize Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and blogs to communicate with other school counselors professionally and create a professional learning network. I also presented two breakout sessions at the MEA-MFT Educators' Conference. In my session Blogging in 5 Easy Steps  I explained the benefits of blogging as a school counselor and showed participants just how easy it is to create a blog and start posting. In my session Tech Savvy School Counseling , I shared various technology tools that scho

Empathy Quote Bulletin Board

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Empathy is our character education theme for October. I wanted to create a visual display somewhere related to empathy, and thought that one of the remaining "free" windows of the counseling suite would be the perfect place. Jen, a school counseling intern who is working with my co-counselor, found a great quote related to empathy. We created a colorful bulletin board on the windows to the left of the entrance of the school counseling office area. I love how it turned out! To make the bulletin board, I typed the quote into Google Docs using the font "Luckiest Guy." We printed the words on plain white paper, cut them with a paper cutter, and then glued the words to  black cardstock  or  colorful cardstock . We made the word "EMPATHY" using my  Cricut paper cutter . Tip: If you use 12 x 12 cardstock and cut it in half with a paper cutter, the cardstock will be the perfect size for gluing on the words! I created a Google Doc  so you can print the

New Free Spirit Post: Supporting New Students Year Round

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In my latest post for the  Free Spirit Publishing's Blog , Supporting New Students Year Round ,  I share tips and information for school counselors and educators to welcome new students, even after the school year has begun. What tips do you have for helping welcoming new students to your school throughout the year? Please share your comments and ideas in the comment section of my post on the Free Spirit Blog! 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 Cou