Playing Santa

Hello readers!  I apologize that I have been M.I.A.  It is that time of year when we are all getting the opportunity to play Santa.  This year, I am coordinating assistance for 51 of our families--a whopping total of 132 children.  I have done more in the past.  I have been very busy making phone calls, taking donations to go shopping, and pretty soon it will be time to organize it all and start handing it out.  Our local Rotary Club is generous enough to provide one box of food per family, and today I just went to pick up 75 bags of toys from Toys for Tots.  It is a big job, but someone has to do it!  I always tell my staff and donors that I feel like its not fair that I'm the only one who gets to give the actual "giving."  I start out by sending applications to my families who have participated in the past and/or are a part of our Backpack Bunch program.  These go out in October!  Once I have them back, I create a "christmas tree" for each child listing their clothing size, shoe size, and wish list.  I still have about 20 families to fulfill and time's ticking away!  It always seems to come together, but it is definately one of the most stressful (and rewarding) parts of my job.  It's totally worth it to know that all of my students will have a smile on their face on Christmas morning.

Behavior Plan Prezi

Often times, I'm asked to help teachers create behavior plans.  I have spent a lot of time creating them for teachers, so I finally decided to create a crash course on behavior plans.  I created this Prezi and e-mailed it out to teachers.


http://prezi.com/lnalai-w16bo/how-to-create-an-effective-behavior-plan/

Remodel

Sorry for all of the changes!  I think I finally have a design that I like :)

Class Dojo

As engaging as I try to make my groups, sometimes things don't go as planned.  Students can often lose focus or become silly and rowdy.  Being the counselor can be difficult because there's a line that we dont want to cross.  We want to teach them skills such as self control, anger management strategies, and social skills, but we don't want to be put in the disciplanarian position. 

That being said, I've played around with several different ideas in groups to keep students motivated.  I'm so excited to be starting an idea which I first saw on Pinterest:  Class Dojo.  Several teachers in my school use Class Dojo (a website and iPad app) to monitor student behavior.  Each student has an avatar (a monster) which you can change to the student's picture.  Teachers can modify their behaviors (to add or take away points).  Students will hear a ding when they receive a point and a buzz when they lose a point.  I plan on using the Dojo for each group and points will be awarded for participation, modeling skills (anger management, social skills, self control).  Instead of monitoring each student, I plan on creating an avatar for each group.  They will collectively earn points, and we can even create reports on the program to look at our overall performance and analyze data.  I want to put up a chart on the wall so that we can record their points for each session.  Groups will be able to monitor their progress in comparison to other groups.

What type of behavior management system do you use for classroom guidance or groups?

Data! Data! Data!

Accountability is one of the most vital parts of a successful school counseling program.  It is also one of the most threatening topics for school counselors who are new to it.  I have used data in some ways in the past (such as pre and post self evaluations for students), but I've never really kept track of it the way I should.  This year, our state has changed our standards to be more aligned with the ASCA national standards.  Thus, there is more of a focus on data.  On Monday, the elementary school counselors in my county got together (all day) to talk about our new standards and how we can use data as part of our programs.

Being the only counselor at my school, I was feeling intimidated by the task, but I'm always up for a challenge!  The more I learned about using data, the more I realized that it totally aligns with what my school is already doing through Response for Intervention and Tier!!  A huge lightbulb went off in my head and I definately feel less threatened.  Right now, I'm putting in place an action plan on how I can use data so that it will work for me.  I'm planning on taking baby steps, but I've created a data notebook and here's what I have so far:

1.  I'll be using google documents to create pre- and post- evaluations to be completed by teachers for students who will be in skill building groups (such as self-esteem, self control, anxiety, anger, etc.)  The forms are so easy to create and I really love that when teachers fill out the form, it puts it in a spreadsheet for you (then you can create graphs if you want too!).  I think this will be a valuable resource for me. 

2.  I will be using Leadership grades to monitor progress.  As I've already shared, we are going through the Leader In Me process.  Therefore, we made the school decision to change our "citizenship grade" to a "leadership grade."  I will use this to monitor how much students in my self control group grow.

3.  Calendars!  I keep a yearly, monthly, and daily calendar, all of which I will be saving in my data notebook.

4.  Activity Logs.  In my previous post I shared that I am monitoring my daily activities in a log, all of which will be included in my data notebook. 

5.  Parent Involvement.  I am excited to announce that I will be starting "Coffee with the Counselor."  I have read about several other schools (such as Tabitha at Scrapbook of a School Counselor) who are using this as a non-threatening approach to parent involvement.  I will document this with sign in sheets as well as evaluations. 

I am sure that there will be many more ways that I will learn to use data in my school counseling program, but I am so excited to begin these ideas now so that I can watch my students grow and so that I can grow as a school counselors as well!

What are some ways you use data in your professional school counseling program?

Getting Groups Started

Well, it's the first week of October and i'm finally getting my groups organized.  It's been busy around here, so I'm glad to finally get some "routine" to my day.  Every year, I change something about the way I conduct groups--trial and error if you will.  Sometimes it's the content I teach (depending on student needs, new resources, or fresh ideas), and other times it's the organization and behavior management of groups.  So here's what I've done this year:
Groups I have beginning October 1st:

Self Control (grades 1, 2, 3, and 4)
Family Changes (grades 1 and 3)
Self Esteem (grades 4 and 5)
Anger (grades 3 and 4)

First (after receiving parent permission),  I decide what day of the week and what time we will meet (most of my groups meet at lunch).  I use a document, Group Layout Form, to organize my days.  I will not be conducting groups on Fridays this year so that I will have additional time to catch up with individual students.

Next, I set up my group table (well, 2 desks put together).  I'm hoping to add a tablecloth to make it more appealing.  I'm so excited to have this space for just my group stuff this year so it will be easily accessible.  It's right next to the round table where groups meet.  See below.  It includes a copy of my group expectations, a basket for pawprints and stickers (keep reading), my group layout form, paperclips (for clipping finished work), my 7 Habits talking stick, and all of my group materials/files.

I have 2 ideas going for behavior management.  In all of my groups, each student has a purple pawprint (we're the Wildcats) with their name on it.  When they are following group expectations (see Taming the Test for my expecations), they will receive a sticker for their pawprint.  This idea came from another school counselor, and kids are loving it!

For my 3rd grade anger group, we are in need of a little more structure. Therefore, I've decided to use the angry bird game found on pinterest.  The students will earn cups for following expectations, and will get to play the angry birds game for the last 5 minutes of group.  They are all really into Angry Birds so this should go over well!

As far as organizing lesson plans, I have decided to use a form found in Dianne Senn's Small Group Counseling for Children which lets you list all students and your lesson topics including warmup activity, etc.  This book is a great resource!!

How do you organize your small groups?



Whats your Weather?

As I've already shared, my school has the privilege of becoming a Leader in Me school this year.  Part of Habit 1: Be Proactive is choosing your own weather.  Despite what outside forces are impacting you, we can make the decision to be happy.  This is something I've been focusing a lot of energy on and guess what! IT'S WORKING!  I'm happier than I've ever been, I feel more successful in my work, and it has been much easier to solve conflicts in my personal life. 

So I had a thought...why not use the weather as an assessment tool in finding out how a child is feeling?  So I decided to make the above display for my room:  What's your weather?  The child can pick the weather symbol that best describes how they're feeling and then explain more about what it means.  Here's my thought but it's up to interpretation by each child:

Sunny = happy

Sun peeking behind cloud = feeling OK

Cloudy = not feeling my best

Rainy = sad

Lightening = angry

After the child figures out which weather picture depicts how they are feeling, we will be able to discuss it and then talk about how to make ourselves feel sunny again.  Some other ideas that I've received from others (and use all the time) are the emotions tree, feelings posters, etc. 

What do you use to assess a child's feelings?