My "To Do" schedule!

I know, I know, I've really been slacking on my blog game lately. I'm sorry to those of you who are kind enough to keep reading my blog. I haven't abandoned you! But, I'm sure many of you know how hectic things can be in an elementary school in the weeks leading up to the winter break. It's been crazy! Fun, but certainly busy. Which actually leads me very nicely into the topic for today's blog post: SCHEDULING. My schedule, from day to day, is fluid to say the least. As the say, "the best laid plans often go astray". Each morning I look at my list of meetings, lessons, groups, and check-ins, and put a schedule together of when each of those things will happen. However, in this role, there are several things that come up throughout the course of the day, like students in conflict, and student in crisis, phone calls from parents, etc., that can throw that schedule into pandemonium.

When I first started out the school year, I had a desk calendar where I would write my schedule down for the week. However, as things came up and other things got rescheduled, the calendar started to look like one giant cross out and scribble. It was unmanageable, and I realized, unrealistic to keep a schedule like that.

My wonderful friend, Amanda Sheroff, at School Counseling A-Z, inspired my new scheduling process. Something she has started doing is keeping her schedule on a piece of laminated paper with a dry erase marker, so it can can easily be changed, added to, and edited throughout the school day. I've adopted this form of scheduling, and it has been wonderful. I have five laminated sheets of paper, one each day of the school week, that is broken down into categories like "meetings", "groups", "check-ins", and then I have a space at the top where I put the lessons that I am teaching that day. I display it on the filing cabinet next to my desk, so I can quickly refer to my schedule throughout the day and add and change things as they come up.

Here are examples of what my schedules look like:

1000 VIEWS :-) THANK YOU!

THANK YOU FOR READING! It makes me so happy to know that some of my thoughts and ideas are reaching you. I know that reading counseling blogs is one of the best resources I have found, and I hope this blog continues to turn into a place where other counselors can come for inspiration or ideas! THANK YOU AGAIN! :-)

"Rocking" Good Character

Character education is a huge part, in my opinion, of what makes schools successful. It can be difficult for children to function effectively in school when behaviors, either their own behaviors or the behaviors of their peers, are less than stellar. However, getting students to buy in to character education can be a struggle. It is important to make the character education plan fun, relatable, and rewarding for students.

At my school, a few years back, an awesome committee of teachers and staff developed six "keystones" of good character to be highlighted throughout the course of the school year. Each keystone has it's own definition and expectations, and through different activities each keystone is introduced throughout the course of the school year. The keystones are: responsibility, conservation, respect, citizenship, trustworthiness, and appreciation.

This year, our keystones are being celebrated with a "you rock" theme, which was inspired by Entirely Elementary School Counseling's "You rock kindness" bulletin board. I used several of the same ideas, but modified it to include each keystone of good character.


At the end of October, we had a school wide "Keystone Kick Off Assembly". The assembly included 12 students from out 5th grade class that helped present each of the keystones. Six of the students read the definition of each keystone. Next, we had six students who each had an actual rock with a keystone written on it come up to the stage. On the stage, we had a camera focused on a bowl of water. Each student took their rock, placed it in the bowl of water, and discussed the "ripple effect" that occurs when students are responsible, respectful, trustworthy, appreciative, or when they are good citizens, as well as when they conserve. The students talked about the effects their good behavior and character can have on the entire school population.

To go along with our "YOU ROCK" theme, we have tickets to be handed out to students when they are "rocking" the keystone that is the focus of that month. For example, this month, the keystone is "responsibility". When students do something responsible, they get a "you rock" ticket, which is put in an envelope. At the end of each week, one student from each class has their name randomly chosen from the envelope, read over the announcements, and then they come to the office to receive a pencil and get their picture taken for the "YOU ROCK" bulletin board.

The response to the program has been outstanding so far. The students are very into the "YOU ROCK" tickets and the staff has been very supportive, making sure that they hand out tickets to reward good behavior. Hopefully, things continue on this path for the rest of the keystones! :-)

Run for Autism

Since college, I have had the awesome opportunity to work with school aged children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. I say awesome because that is truly how I feel about each of these experiences. I did my student teaching in a full inclusion first grade classroom where I had students who were on the spectrum. Many of my favorite moments from those 4 months were when I felt that I had really made an impact and a connection with those students. I left feeling that I learned more from them than they learned from me. After college, while I was in graduate school, I worked in an autistic support classroom. That experience, while certainly a challenge in many ways, was one of the best experiences of my life. Now, as a school counselor, I am lucky to have the opportunity to work with many children on the autism spectrum every day in social skills groups, de-escalation strategies, and sensory strategies.

Children (and adults) diagnosed with autism are inspiring in so many ways. It is hard to imagine some of things that these children go through on a day to day basis, and they consistently persevere. I have learned so much from working with children with autism about strength, courage, and never giving up, no matter how difficult something may be to get through. Because of these experiences and the strength of those with autism spectrum disorders, I have decided to partner with the "Organization for Autism Research" to Run for Autism. Next Sunday, November 17th, I will be running the Philadelphia Half Marathon (13.1 miles), for OAR. I have set my fundraising goal at $600, and I have until December 17th (one month post race) to raise the funds. I decided to share this story with my readers in hopes that some of you may be able to support this fantastic cause. With your help, we can raise the money so many children and adults need to fund research studies in order to find highly effective treatments, tools, and strategies to improve the lives of people with autism. I have provided the link to my personal fundraising page here:

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=2169206&langPref=en-CA

Thank you all so much!

Becoming a "Feelings Detective"

One of my favorite parts about my job is the opportunities I have to get into classrooms and teach lessons on various topics such as emotional health, feelings, how to be a good friend, bullying, safety, and a million other different topics. Currently, I am spending the week with my first graders, and we are talking about feelings.

Most first grade students know what feelings are. If you ask them what feelings are, they can rattle off happy, sad, and mad pretty quickly. Obviously, there are lots of other feelings for children to learn about a long the way, as well as how to recognize when someone is feeling a certain way. In order to accomplish that, both the group of students that I am working with and myself turn into "FEELINGS DETECTIVES"!

As soon as the kids hear that we are going to be detectives, they are already excited. First, we talk about what detectives do (they solve mysteries) and what they need to look for to help them (they need to look for clues). Then we talk about what a "feelings detective" does (a feelings detective uses clues, like someone's face, to figure out how they are feeling). After we talk about all of those things, I invite a student up in front of the group to role play what a feelings detective might do. I pretend to be sad and crying. The student typically always says "what's wrong?". I tell them that no one will play with me at recess. Every time I have done this activity, the student says "I will play with you!". Then the whole class talks about what clues the student used to figure out how I was feeling (my face, I was crying, etc.), and why it was important (so that he/she could make me feel better).

Next, I tell the students that I brought along pictures of some of my friends, and that we are going to use our imaginary magnifying glasses to look for clues in the pictures about how my friends might be feeling. We look at a series of pictures covering the feelings happy, sad, angry, afraid, surprised, and disgusted. Each time I show the students a new picture, they put up their imaginary magnifying glasses to look for clues. For each picture we discuss several clues that tell us how the person in the picture is feeling. For example, in the picture of the happy child, students point out that she is smiling, her cheeks are puffed up, her eyes are scrunched in the corners, etc. For angry, students point out that the child's arms are crossed, she is glaring, she is frowning, etc.

After we discuss each picture, depending on time, I would read them a story about all the different feelings, such as "The Way I Feel" by Janan Cain (get it here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Way-Feel-Janan-Cain/dp/1884734715/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383765495&sr=8-1&keywords=%22the+way+I+feel%22), and talk about all of the different feelings covered in the story.

At the end of the lesson, tell the students that they have officially graduated to be being "feelings detectives"! And what graduation is complete without a certificate? I created a template for a "feelings detective" diploma and wrote each child's name on it. I call each student up individually and shake their hand and give them their certificate. This obviously takes some time, but it's worth it, because the kids are over the moon to be getting something that they can take home.

Here is a photo of all of the materials for the lesson:

 

 

I had lent my copy of "The Way I Feel" to someone in the building, so for this particular lesson I used the book "Beginning to Learn About Feelings" by Dr. Richard Allington and Katheen Cowles. (Currently unavailable on amazon.com).

The photos that I use are from out developmental curriculum called "Second Step", and they have several discussion questions and prompts, as well as explanations on the back of the cards. There is also a picture of the certificate, and an up close photo here:

 

We Are Proud To Be Drug Free...Celebrating Red Ribbon Week

Every year toward the end of October, schools across the country have the opportunity to participate in the national "Red Ribbon Week" campaign, which is a week where students learn all about living a drug free and healthy lifestyle. "Red Ribbon Week" carries such an awesome message, however, it can sometimes be difficult at the elementary level to approach the topic of drugs and alcohol, especially if students do not yet have background knowledge. In order to start spreading this message in a kid friendly way, my principal and I worked together to come up with some fun ideas to get the students at my school involved in "Red Ribbon Week". This year, as in other years, each day of "Red Ribbon Week" had a drug free theme attached to it. For example:

Monday- "Orange you glad to be drug free?!" Everyone is encouraged to wear orange clothing to school.
Tuesday- "Sock it to drugs!" Everyone wears their craziest socks to school.
Wednesday- "Put a cap on drugs!" Everyone wears hats throughout the school day.
Thursday- "I'm a 'jean-ius', I'm drug free!" Everyone wears jeans to school.
Friday- "Team Up Against Drugs!" Everyone wears their favorite team jersey or t-shirt to school.

The kids and the staff were all encouraged to participate in each theme day, and the kids were really enthusiastic about it. Overall, it was a great way to spread the "drug free" message in a way that really got kids involved, as opposed to just talking about it.

As part of "Red Ribbon Week", I also ordered little gifts for each student in the school. On Tuesday, we handed out actual red ribbons (with an adhesive back), for students and staff to wear throughout the week. The message on the ribbon was "Celebrate Red Ribbon Week, Not Just a Week but For Life". On Wednesday, students each received a pencil with the same message printed on it. On Thursday, paper bracelets were handed out with "My future is bright, no drugs in sight!" printed on them. All of these awesome products were purchased from www.positiveredribbonweek.com.

I am lucky to have an awesome student council at my school. They were incredibly helpful in supporting "Red Ribbon Week" this year. Students involved in student council were asked to make posters with a positive "drug free" message on it. They were hung up all around the school as a way to keep spreading the message. The students really put a lot of extra time and effort into these posters, and seeing them hanging up all over the school has been really awesome.

Lastly, students signed a banner, which served as a school wide pledge. "NPE Is Proud To Be Drug Free!" Each class was asked to take some time throughout the week to come down and sign the poster as their promise to live a drug free life.

Overall, the week has been very successful. Hopefully, all students, starting in Kindergarten and reaching all the way through 5th grade (the highest grade level in my building), have gained a better awareness about living a drug free life, and hopefully they had fun getting there! :-)

Introducing the School Counselor

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are many people who do not really know what the role of the school counselor is at the elementary school level. In many school districts, the school counselor position is relatively new. If it is difficult for adults to understand what the school counselor does, how can children possibly understand? It is something that I struggled with. I wasn't sure how to effectively explain the many different things the school counselor does on a day to day basis. As I was searching "pintrest" for ideas on how to introduce the role of the counselor, I found an awesome intro lesson pinned by savvyschoolcounselor.com. The counselor's first aid kit!

I adapted the first aid kit a little bit from what was in the kit featured on savvyschoolcounselor.com. In my tool kit, I included:

• Tissues-When you are feeling sad or upset, the counselor is a great person to talk to. The counselor can help you dry your tears, but also remind you that crying is OK, and even healthy!
• Jolly Ranchers-Going to see the counselor never means that you are in trouble, it is always a treat! Even when you're upset, the counselor can make you feel better, just like a treat can.
• Star-Like the North Star can guide people when they are lost, the counselor can act like the "North Star" of the school by helping if you are feeling lost, you are confused, or you are unsure how to solve a problem.
• Penny- "Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck!" The penny represents how the counselor reminds each and every student that we are lucky to be who we are and that we are valuable.
• Band-Aid- Counselors help to heal you when you are hurt on the inside, just like a Band-Aid helps us heal when we are hurt on the outside.
• Erasers- Everyone makes mistakes. The counselor can help you to work through your feelings when you make mistakes, can help you fix mistakes, and teach you not to make the same mistakes again.
• Cotton Balls- Just like a cotton ball feels warm and fuzzy, the counselor has warm and fuzzy feelings, too! Whenever you are feeling down, the school counselor can help you feel better.
• Safety Belt: The counselor is always there to help you feel safe, and to save you from scary, upsetting, or stressful situations. The counselor can provide support, help, and love to get you through the tough stuff.
• Headphones- The counselor is a great listener, and is always there to lend an ear when you need to talk to someone.

When using the first aid kit in an introduction lesson, I pull each item out one at a time, and I have the students pass them around. I ask what each item is usually used for. Then, I ask for ideas about why I might have that item in my "counselor's first aid kit", and use that discussion to explain the many roles, and how activities like groups, lessons, and lunch bunches fit in. For example, classroom lessons fit in the explanation of the star. I teach students how to solve problems, how to be a good friend, how to make good choices, etc. Lunch parties and groups can fit in that description, as well as the jolly rancher/treat explanation as well, in that groups are fun, and we work on many different skills to get us through tough situations.

If there is time after talking about each of the items, I read a story, usually about a character that is having a problem with a friend or a certain feeling. Good examples would be "Angry Arthur" by Hiawyn Oram, "Stop Picking on Me" by Pat Thomas, or "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorist. Once I finish the story, as a group we discuss how the characters in the story may have been able to get help from the school counselor. It is a great way to connect the things we talked about to an actual situation!

 

The Tools To Build Self Esteem

Having low self esteem is something that many children find themselves to be struggling with. Honestly, it is something that many adults still struggle with. Having low self esteem can effect a child in several different ways. For example, suffering from low self esteem can have a negative impact on social relationships, school performance, motivation, and can even lead to depression. There are several sources of low self esteem. Maybe things are hard for a child in the classroom, or they aren't as athletic as their friends or siblings, and often times for girls, they feel less popular and/or attractive than other girls in their class. Combating this low opinion of themselves can be a difficult task for parents, teachers, and students alike.

When I meet with students who seem to be having a struggle with low self esteem, my first step is to try to figure out what the trigger for the feelings might be. Once that is identified, obviously, I do my best to try and build that particular student up. However, it's my opinion that building self esteem is most effectively done when students can identify their strengths themselves.

An activity that I love to have students work on is their own personal self esteem tool kit. I have the students choose paper to cover a shoe box or any small box with a lid. From there, we talk about the things that will be included in their self esteem tool kit. This is an activity for students to work on both with me and with parents/guardians at home. One of the first things I ask them to complete for their self esteem tool kit is an acrostic of their name. For each letter, they should put something that they feel they are good at or that they feel good about. For example:

M akes really good art projects.

A lways does well in math.

R uns really fast.

K eeps up with his chores at home.

The next item to put in the tool kit is an activity for the whole family to participate in. Each family member should write a list of their favorite things about the child and leave the lists in the box as a surprise for them. Other things to add to the toolkit at home could include special cards or notes from friends, pictures of especially fun memories and of people who the child loves and who loves them, an assignment from school that the child did really well in, maybe a medal or an award certificate from an activity,  and other items that always make the child feel good about themselves. It can be anything, be creative!

The last thing I work on the child with at school is making a list of as many compliments as they can remember ever receiving. I like to put these lists and the acrostics on nice paper, and I laminate them for the students as well. Once the students have assembled their toolkits, I have them take them home and keep them with them in their room or in a safe place at home. Each night before they go to sleep, I encourage them to take out their toolkits and review all of the great things about themselves. This is an activity that I have done with several families, and it has gotten a very positive response. Not only is it a way for children to build their self esteem, but it is a way for families to acknowledge the many things they appreciate in each other as well!

Bullying..It's More Complicated Than You Might Think.

Bullying is an ever growing problem in schools. It happens at every level, elementary, middle, and high school. However, as the problems with bullying are on the rise, the understanding of bullying and the different roles involved in bullying is less and less. There is a lot more to bullying than one student saying something unkind to another. Bullying (as it happens in schools) is defined as unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated over time. For an event to be considered bullying, the behavior must be aggressive (this is NOT limited to physical aggression), and there must be an imbalance of power, which means using power in terms of physical strength, access to embarrassing information, or popularity to control or harm others. It is possible for power imbalances to change over time and in different situations, even if they involve the same people. Bullying behavior must also be repetitive, meaning it happens more than once or has the potential to happen more than once.

There are typically three types of bullying: verbal bullying, which is saying or writing mean things about someone else, social bullying (aka relational aggression), which is damaging someone else's social relationships by embarrassing them, spreading rumors, leaving them out, etc., and then the more traditional physical bullying that most people picture when bullying comes up as a topic of conversation. Often, in a situation where bullying is happening, more than one of these types of bullying are happening at the same time.

When a bullying situation is happening, there are several people involved. It is not just the student or group of students doing the bullying vs. the student or group of students being victimized. There is an entire circle of people that are typically involved in the bullying. Obviously, not every situation is the same, but in general, those involved typically include the bully and the victim, followers, supports/passive bullies, the disengaged onlookers, possible defenders, and then those bystanders who are active defenders. The image below shows what the bullying circle usually looks like:

I think it is so important to teach students the power of the bystander. There are two things that people can do as bystanders in a situation. They can just watch as the bullying continues and things get worse for the victim, or they can take an active role by standing up for the victim. That can mean actually speaking to the bully/bullies and letting them know that they need to stop, or it can mean going to get the help of a teacher, counselor, or principal. Intervening in a bullying situation is the best way to make it stop.

Too often, bullying is ignored. That is the advice children often get as well. How many of you have ever heard or said "Just ignore them and they'll stop eventually." Sometimes, luckily, that is true. Other times it's not. Bullying can be relentless for some students. As we have seen over the past several years, the ramifications for victims of bullying can be very serious. As educators and parents, the best way to ensure that we improve bullying is to make students aware that there is a zero tolerance policy for bullying, being consistent with the handling of students who bully, and educating students on what to do if they are being bullied of if they see someone being bullied. As the adults in the school, our most important job is to make sure that students are safe. We are the biggest defenders of all, and we must practice what we preach in terms of standing up for the victims of bullying.

For more information of bullying, and what constitutes bullying, please visit stopbullying.gov.

Bibliotherapy...What Is THAT?!

Literature and counseling may not seem like a natural match to some people. When you picture a counseling session between the school counselor and a student, what do you see? I know when I tell people what I do, or how counseling sessions and/or groups are structured, they are often surprised by how I use books to reach children. However, when you think about it, this technique makes a lot of sense. Most people, when they are reading a book, find themselves identifying with characters. For children, the same thing happens. Bibliotherapy is a counseling technique in which a book or a short story is used to address an issue, or concern, a worry, or a situation that a student finds themselves in. Using books allows children to see that other people have the same issue, concern, worry, situation that they have. It also helps to jumpstart a conversation and to identify strategies to address whatever is going on. As part of this blog, I plan on reviewing a book from my library, as well as some suggestions to how I would use that book in a lesson, in a group, or individually with a student.

The first book I'm blogging about is "The Crayon Box That Talked" by Shane DeRolf with illustrations by Michael Letzig. What I like about this book is that although it is written at a beginners level, it can easily be adapted to reach students of all ages, especially grades K-5. The book is about a box of crayons that lives in a toy store, and the different colors DO NOT get along. As the crayons are arguing with one another, a little girl overhears their bickering, and decides she needs to do something. She takes that box of crayons home with her. As she begins to color a picture with all of the different crayons, things start to change. The different colored crayons begin to appreciate what the other colors contribute to the picture. Blue makes a beautiful sky, green makes soft looking grass, yellow makes a brilliant sun, etc. By the time the picture is complete, the attitude of the crayons has completely changed.

There are several ways this book can be used. I have used it in the past when teaching classroom lessons about diversity, but the same activity done in the lesson could be easily adapted for a small group on friendship as well. What I do is I give each student in the class a piece of paper and then I tell them that they may choose one crayon out of their crayon box, but only one. Then, I ask them to draw a picture of something (usually a beach or a garden), but I remind them that they can only use the one crayon that they chose. I give them about 5-10 minutes to complete their picture. Then I read "The Crayon Box That Talked". After I finish the story, I give them another piece of paper, and tell them to draw the same thing as before, but this time they can use as many colors as they want. Once everyone has completed their pictures, I start the discussion by asking which picture they would rather have hanging up in the hallway. Typically, every student says the multicolored picture. When I ask why, the most common answer is that the picture they drew with one crayon is boring. So that leads to a conversation about how boring things would be if all of us (students, teachers, brothers, sisters, etc.) were all the same, and how by appreciating the unique things that each of us bring to the classroom, family, world, we make things exciting and beautiful. This is just one way of using this story, but it seems like an activity that really resonates with children of all ages. If I were doing this with a small group, one of the adaptations I would make would be that we would make a group crayon box. Everyone could pick a color, and we would make a giant crayon box with each of our names on our color, and something about us that helps make the group better. When doing this activity, I have other members of the group tell each student the things they appreciate about them and what they think make other group members special.

Bibliotherapy is a great way to incorporate reading into classroom lessons and groups, as well as an awesome way to open discussions and introduce new topics and ideas. It's something that can be done in most aspects of school counseling, but it's something parents can use at home as well. There are children's books addressing topics such as bullying, to things like feelings, friendship, diversity, and even grief. I will be using books from all different subject areas for this addition to my blog, but amazon.com and most books store websites will have tons of suggestions if you just type a topic, for example "self esteem books for children" into the search bar!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Crayon-Box-that-Talked/dp/0679886117/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379334622&sr=8-1&keywords=the+crayon+box+that+talked

Personal Touches and Bits of Comfort

When it comes to the office of the school counselor, one of the most important things, in my opinion, is to be sure that the space is comfortable and welcoming for students. There are so many ways to go about achieving this, and obviously, the space should be comfortable for the counselor as well. In my experience, kids will always want to come to a room that has bright colors and toys. I have also found that kids really love being able to sit in bean bag chairs or on those big bouncy exercise balls. Those are very simple ways to help put students at ease, and make them feel less intimidated as well as less formal. Something different that I have tried this year is setting up a "relaxation station" for students in the corner of the room where I have pillows, bean bag chairs, and stuffed animals. When students find their way into my office, they are often times angry or sad or upset about something. Going right into a heavy conversation and trying to dissect what is going on is not always immediately effective. Often times, children need a few moments to themselves to calm down and pull themselves together. Typically, the best results come when everyone involved in a situation are calm. By providing the students with a comfortable space, they are better able to get a handle on their feelings and calm themselves down. Another thing that I have tried, for the first time this year, are using "cozy shades" over the lights in my office. Fluorescent lighting tends to be harsh. For me, soft lighting has always induced a more comfortable feeling. When looking for a way to soften the light in my office, I came across "cozy shades" on amazon.com. They come in several different colors, and they have magnets in the lining, so you can put them on the metal around the lights, and they change the color of the lighting in your room. They have many choices of solid colors, but I chose the blue, purple, and green striped shades for my office, because, as I mentioned before, children seem to be drawn toward color. When the lights in my office are on, there are now shades green, purple, and blue thrown around my office. I just put them up yesterday, but everyone, children and adults alike, have reacted very positively! I will include a link to the cozy shades on amazon.

My cozy shades :-)

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Doffice-products&field-keywords=abilitations%20cozy%20shades

 

My lovely office space :-)

 

Thank you all so much for reading! Until next time.

 

 

And We're Off!

Welcome to my world! I am so glad to have you. Sometimes, I feel like the role of the school counselor in an elementary school can be quite misunderstood. Often when I tell people what I do for a living, I get responses like "Oh man, so you just deal with all of the bad kids, that must be awful", or "it must be pretty easy, it's not like kids in elementary schools have many problems". Now, I can totally understand why someone might have those misconceptions about the school counselor. Many people didn't have school counselors in elementary school, and those who did had a counselor whose role was likely very different than today's school counselor. It is my hope that by having this blog, maybe I can shed some light on what we do from day to day, as well as share resources, ideas, and what I'm sure will be hilarious stories about my little munchkins. Hopefully, this blog will allow you to see why it is that I love what I do so much!

On that note, it is back to school time for many of us in the education world, and with that can bring much excitement, happiness, and fun. However, there are also those feelings of anxiety, sadness, and discomfort that many of us (staff and students alike!) may be feeling. The biggest suggestion I have to help combat some of those feelings throughout the first week is pretty simple: Keep It Positive! By having a positive attitude, it can put others around you at ease. Your happiness can rub off on the person next to you, and maybe their happiness can rub off on someone else they encounter in the hallway. The first week of school always comes with some growing pains, but just keeping your cool, remembering to stay calm, and thinking about all of the fun you're going to have this year should help to ease some of that pain. And if that doesn't work, just take it one day at a time! You'll be in the groove before you know it. :-)

"Keep calm and counsel on!"

Until next time :-)