Counselor Connection
Collaboration is essential for school counselors. This mini-blog is for my counselor colleagues to share ideas, lessons and inspiration
This week I have the honor of presenting at the Arizona School Counselor's Conference. For the past two years I have facilitated an Elementary School Forum since I was the sitting Elementary School Vice-President. I'm happy to be back this year to doing a presentation about the programming at my school that I'm so proud of. I'll be co-presenting with two fabulous teachers from Sunset Ridge, Jessica Felix, a 3rd grade teacher and Elizabeth Epley, a 6th grade teacher on Teaching the 7 Habits; K-8. Last summer, our principal, Carrie Prielipp came across the book The Leader In Me by St ephen Covey. Upon reading the book she was inspired to push our school to develop better leaders. She encouraged several Sunset Ridge staff members to read the book and see how we could implement some of the strategies at our school. We soon realized that our school was already well on its way to being a model Leadership School. However, we still found several great ideas to take our program to the next level. During our AzSCA presentation you'll hear about how Sunset Ridge is working on implementing this program Kindergarten through 8th grade. As the school counselor I quickly realized that many of the "habits" taught by Covey could easily fit into my curriculum. Upon looking at school-wide data, I decided to work with grades 3 and 6 to teach the 7 habits. During our AzSCA presentation, you will see examples of lesson plans and activities that we used to teach these habits to our students. All lessons and activities can easily be adapted to fit any K-8 grade. We will also show how this program has influenced attendance and office referral data for these two grade levels. Below, you will find the power points that were used for 6th grade. Each lesson is aligned to the ASCA standards and to 6th grade standards. Feel free to adjust the lessons as needed for your needs. Any worksheets, should also be attached. Several of the slides have links to various YouTube Videos - be sure to note where those are so you are able to show them to your students. We have also included standards-based lesson plans for 3rd grade. Again, we have tried to include any extra worksheet that the lesson plan mentions. Both sets of lessons can be used a grade up or down or altered for other elementary grades. Third grade lessons are based on Covey's book The 7 Habits of Happy Kids. If you have any questions about the lessons or the activities, please feel free to contact any of us. For more information about how these were taught, you may visit the 6th Grade Level Updates or 3rd Grade Level Updates within this site. Good luck! And please leave feedback for us about our AzSCA presentation or about these lesson plans! It inspires us! Mindy Willard Jessica Felix, 3rd Grade Elizabeth Epley, 6th Grade [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Please email Mindy if you are interested in your own copy of these lessons.
0 Comments
During National School Counseling Week in early February the counselors in my district were recognized by our Governing Board and Superintendent for the work we do to impact student achievement. I know right? We really do work for the best district inArizona! To show OUR appreciation for THEM for allowing us to be Professional School Counselors and not "Professional Schedulers" or "Professional Substitute Teachers" or even "Professional Test Administrators", we made these post-it holders for each board member along with a little puzzle piece that says "School Counselors Connect the Pieces". I have to give credit to Pinterest which brought me to a blog called Paper Wings where I found a detailed description of how to make these make these cute little advocacy pieces! Below is a bulletin board that we had made and hung in the room during the Governing Board Meeting. I know it is a little hard to see but the top says "School Counselors Connect the Pieces". Then on each puzzle piece (printed on scrapbook paper) we typed in something that we do for students. Each year during Valentine's week, we celebrate Friendship Week at Sunset Ridge. This idea stemmed from National No Name Calling Week. We just chose to put a more positive spin on it at our school. It is tradition that on Valentine's Day, to celebrate the fact that "we are all friends", we participate in Mix It Up at Lunch. (from TeachingTolerance.Org) This is a time when students are encouraged to sit at new tables and with new people to get to know others who may not be in their social circle. My K-6 students love it! However, Ii takes a little bribery to get my 7/8 kiddos to participate so that is where the CANDY comes in handy! As students enter the cafeteria they are given a ticket with a picture of a candy bar on it. (NJHS students help out). Prior to lunch time tables have been decorated with Candy Bar Signs on a stand (a water bottle and a ruler or paint stick taped to it then wrapped in tissue paper...again NJHS kids helped). Students are to find their corresponding table and make conversation with their new table mates. (Inspiration for the butcher paper in the center of each table along with crayons comes from my days as a waitress at Macaroni Grill) Discussion starters were written on the butcher paper by NJHS students prior to lunch times. If students are participating and sitting at the correct table, they write their name on the backside of their ticket. Tickets are collected and drawn out of a bucket to win mini candy bars (K-6) or full size candy bars (7/8). Candy bars are courtesy of our PTO. Teaching Tolerance reports that "studies have shown that interactions across group lines can help reduce prejudice. When students interact with those whoare different from them, biases and misperceptions can fall away." To keep the mood light and festive, fun music is playing, along with a slide show of random pictures of Sunset Ridge students. Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any questionsabout this annual event. Hello fellow school counselors! I wanted to share with you some blogs that I have come across over the last few months...mostly viaPinterest. There are so many school counselors out there doing amazing things with their programs! I get overwhelmed and excited when I look at what everyone is doing! Here are a couple that I really enjoy. I'll add to this post as I come across others so check back soon! (Just click on the image or the title to be taken to the blog) School Counselor Blog This site is maintained by Danielle Shultz and she is K-12 Certified School Counselor, Nationally Certified Counselor, and author of School Counselor Blog. I found this blog while perusing Pinterest (as I do most evenings). Since that day I have probably been on this site a minimum of 3 times a week! She has just too many awesome ideas for school counselors! South Carolina Counselor Cafe "Dr. Isom is a National Board Certified K-12 Professional School Counselor, Counselor Educator, and Licensed Professional Counselor in the coastal region of South Carolina. She specializes in counseling and therapy with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families." Her site has lessons for a variety of topics such as academics, accountability, anger management, bibliotherapy and many many more! |
AuthorProfessional School Counselor since 2004. National Award winner just trying to make an impact on our profession. Archives
October 2014
Categories |