10 Tips for better classroom management as a school counselor. The things that they didn't teach you in grad school to run a smooth lesson!
So you finally landed the job out of grad school and are ready to start as a School Counselor. Congrats! It's a difficult profession but you will make a difference in the lives of children, hooray for you! Here is a list of things I wish I knew as a first-year Counselor to hopefully help you.
Spread the word: 2 Shares Facebook Twitter Email More “What does a School Counselor do all day?” Have you ever heard this question? Or perhaps, “It must be nice to play all day!” While the school counseling profession has made amazing strides in developing a new professional identify (guidance), I know many of us still get these kinds of questions and comments. Personally, I try my best to let these roll off my back and provide a positive, upbeat, but professional […]
How do you set up a self-referral system for your school counseling program? Details, FAQ, and problem-solving here
Building relationships is a key part of school counseling. Not only is it important to build relationships with the students we serve, but also with the classroom teachers. Involving teachers in school counseling can increase carry over of the skills our students learn and help them reach their goal
The ultimate school counselor supply list to stock your office with school counseling supplies for a packed school year. Books, crafts, prizes.
Google Docs for School Counselor Organization As a school counselor, I love using Google Docs to help organize my work life. Last year, as a new school counselor, I began creating docs to organize my schedule, small groups, goals, and more! I referred to the docs often throughout the school year and am thrilled to be able to use them again this year. The best thing about Google Docs is that you can easily make a copy and then tweak them for the following school year. In this post, I will share 6 Google Docs that you can tweak for your own use. How to Use Shared Docs All of the docs below are Shared Docs. Customize them to meet your needs by following these steps: 1) Open the doc by clicking on the image below 2) Click on "Make a Copy" 3) Rename your doc 4) Customize! Classroom Counseling Sign-Up Form Do you schedule monthly lessons with your teachers? The doc below will help you gather quick info to make scheduling a breeze. Before sending this doc to teachers, I type their names on the left side of the doc and color code them by grade level. Then, I share the doc with my staff and ask them to type in their two preferred days and times for me to do my classroom counseling lessons. This form helps SO much with scheduling because I can almost always choose a preferred time for each teacher. Classroom Counseling Schedule Once teachers have chosen their preferred days/times, I schedule classroom lessons for the first semester. On average, I see each classroom once a month. Scheduling lessons for an entire semester allows me to get everything written down in my planner well in advance. Then, I can plan individual check-ins, small groups, and meetings around the classroom lessons. This form is organized the same way as the sign-up form. If you want to create a page for the second semester, simply copy and paste the chart onto the next page. Character Traits Plan Last year, I based my monthly classroom lessons on character traits. This next doc was a lifesaver! On the first page of the doc, I made a chart for all of the traits I planned on teaching about in my classroom lessons. Throughout the school year, when I thought of a great idea, I added them to the chart as a way to collect my ideas. The second page of the doc is where the magic happened. For each character trait, I made a chart of how I planned on teaching the topic in every grade level. This was very helpful because I was able to see how my lessons built upon each other and got more complex in each grade level! Small Group Schedule and Lesson Plans Up next is a doc that I made for scheduling and planning my small groups. The first page of the doc shows you how I organized my small groups. I made a page like this for every grade level. Whenever I went to pick up students for a small group, I took this page with me so I would not forget anyone! I also made a copy of this page for each classroom teacher to give them easy access to the dates, times, and students in their grade level's small groups. I used the second page of the doc to create lesson plans for each small group. At the top of the doc, I wrote measurable goals for the group. On the right side, I typed in each student's name and used an "X" to keep track of their attendance at each group session. The rest of the doc was used for lesson planning. Since I used this as a digital doc, I could easily move items around in my lesson plan if I did not get to them each week. Yearly Counseling Tasks Do you have trouble remember what tasks you need to complete each month? Me too. I made the next doc to help me remember my reoccurring monthly tasks. For example, every August, I will need to prepare my new student folders. In September, I will need to organize my bullying awareness lessons. In October, I will need to plan for Red Ribbon Week. And so on :) Last school year, I used this doc to list each monthly task and then used the strikethrough feature when the task was complete. At the end of the school year, I turned all of the text back to normal and will re-use this form again this school year! Counseling Goals The last doc I am sharing today is my counseling goals doc. At the beginning of the school year, I came up with several long term and short term goals. The long term goals are my "bucket list" items (ex: getting a therapy dog)!! The short term goals are items I planned on accomplishing during the school year. I shared this doc with my administrator so he could see what goals I was working on. Follow the directions on the doc to learn how to turn checkboxes into checkmarks to keep track of your goals! I hope you found all of these docs helpful! Leave a comment with your favorite docs or tell me about what kind of docs you would love me to create. I would be happy to share more docs in the future! Stay Organized this School Year Looking for more ways to stay organized this school year? I love helping other counselors with organization! Check out some of my favorite resources below. Everything you need to document your sessions and stay organized! -Intake & Progress Notes Forms -Check In Form -Student Schedule Form -Small Group Lesson Template -Counseling Referral Forms -Phone Call Log -Meeting Notes & Notes Page -Weekly To Do List -And more! My School Counselor Planner is a practical, ink-saving weekly planner for documenting sessions, lessons, meetings, and more! Each two-page spread contains a weekly view for you to document your daily events. The day is divided into 15 minute intervals (7:00-4:00) with additional space to record events before and after school. My planner has free yearly updates! Interested in the documentation pack AND the planner? Check out my BUNDLE to save $$$. If you love using Google Drive to keep you organized, check out the resource above. It contains 70 Google Slides files to help you organize your school year! If you are new to my blog, please take a moment to follow me for more school counselor organization tips and creative lesson ideas!
Quick, fun, no-prep SEL lesson activities that are perfect for before and after breaks or any time you need an extra fun guidance lesson
Whether you are a rookie or a seasoned counselor, there are certain pitfalls that must be avoided to run a successful School Counseling program. It's exciting to step into your role as a school counselor
Whether you are a rookie or a seasoned counselor, there are certain pitfalls that must be avoided to run a successful School Counseling program. It's exciting to step into your role as a school counselor
Check out these practical tips for new school counselors to be successful and rock their first year in the school counseling profession!
So you finally landed the job out of grad school and are ready to start as a School Counselor. Congrats! It's a difficult profession but you will make a difference in the lives of children, hooray for you! Here is a list of things I wish I knew as a first-year Counselor to hopefully help you.
Looking for a great classroom community building or empathy activity for your classroom guidance lessons? You'll love this I am Human activity!
Leader in me Lesson Plans School Counseling Blogs 7 habits
5 Tips, commonly asked questions, and an editable school counselor portfolio for your next school counselor position interview.
Three check-in sheet options: two versions with 4 questions and one version with 6 questions. Each question has 5 emoji answer choices for students to log how they are feeling about school, home, friendships, self, etc! There is also an explanation page for turning the smiley faces into data points and a spreadsheet for keeping track of scores over time! This resource is great for tracking student improvement in individual and group counseling sessions. The pages are in color but can easily be printed in black and white.
Focus & PrioritizeNeeds AssessmentUpdate Your CalendarPromote Your ProgramOrganize, Organize, Organize!Loading...
Help your students refocus on their goals and identify the strengths they have that will help them persevere and finish the school year strong with this fun perseverance activity!
This article houses my complete School Counseling Lessons with yearly outline and examples along the way! Believe me.... you don't want to miss out!
PLEASE NOTE: This brochure is not 100% editable. Due to The Terms of Use of the clipart used in this brochure, it is a requirement that the clipart be embedded in the document. There are 3 versions of this brochure which allows for different levels of editing. The ADD TEXT HERE, ADD HEADING HERE, and ADD NAME HERE are the editable areas for you to customize with your personal information. This editable Introduction to the School Counselor Brochure is an effective way to define your role to students and parents. Directions for Brochure Assembly: Open the file using PowerPoint. Click on ADD TEXT HERE and ADD HEADING HERE to customize personal information. Print double sided and fold on dotted lines. This download includes both color and black and white versions. ***Please look the preview to see what areas are editable before purchasing. If you have any questions, please email me at [email protected] Thanks!
Our school PTA publishes a monthly newsletter that is distributed to every family in our school. I'm sure this project is a huge undertaki...
A crisis can happen at any time and counselors need to be prepared because they are often the ones on the front line when a crisis occurs. See how here...
