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: