Meet Ginger!

Dogs. Big. Small. Skinny. Not so skinny. I love them all. They are a man's best friend and have a 6th sense for emotions. When you need some extra love, they are always there to give a lick, a bark, or a friendly. tail wag. The Pawsitive Pets Program has recently come to our school and I cannot think of a better image than watching children read to a dog as she/he sits there, wagging it's tail, enjoying a little TLC. The program is put together by R.E.A.D. Program of North East Florida and the Pet Assisted Therapy Services and I am so thankful for their hard work and dedication to education and love for animals.

Ginger comes to school once a week and spends time with some of our readers that are experiencing some anxiety and frustration while reading. The best part about Ginger is that she never interrupts them, never makes fun of them for mispronouncing a word, or judges them for their reading abilities. Each student gets about 20 minutes to read any book they want to Ginger and practice their reading skills.


It is one of the most amazing programs that I have seen and the children are absolutely LOVING their time with Ginger.  Please check out the website and see for yourself how beneficial this could be for your students!

www.pawsitivepets.org

Donuts with Darlings

If you have been following me, you know that we did a similar event in the fall, "Donuts with Dudes". Since Mother's day was recently celebrated, we wanted to let all the wonderful women know how appreciated they are. We invited every student to bring their "darlings" to school for breakfast. In today's society, we know there are not just Moms anymore, there are step-moms, aunts, girl cousins, sisters, etc raising our students. We wanted to include everyone and let them get to spend a little extra time with their sons and daughters. It was a great event and we were thrilled to celebrate these amazing people. 25 DOZEN donuts later, it is safe to say- we had a good time:)

Still on a sugar high,
Your Floridian Chick

Teacher Appreciation

WOW! What a week! Between the P.T.A., individual families, and administration, it is safe to say that I might have gained a pound or two from the wonderful week at school. Each day was something different and exciting and I feel very fortunate that I was included in the events!Here are some ideas that you can use at your school for next year!

List of Events!

New cups, breakfast, lunch and flowers!!

Pretzels, cookies, cupcakes and a great book!

Junior Achievement Day

Back in October I started investigating organizations outside of school that might be beneficial for our students. I came across Junior Achievement and was very impressed. Between October and now, we have worked together to organize about 50 volunteers from Florida Blue to visit our school and present 5 "mini" lessons to our students. They learned about their city, their region, or their nation- depending on what grade they were in. Each activity was interactive, hands-on, and tons of fun for the students.


The president of JA was able to attend, and stated it perfectly for the children's ears, "You will go home today and tell Mom and Dad that you did NO work today, but learned a lot!" This is exactly what they left with. They were able to learn about vocabulary, adult concerns in the community, and proper planning to make the most efficient city/region/nation that is possible.  Take a look at the link below and see for yourself how great of a program this is!

 Learn about JA!

Field Trips

Recently,  I was able to go on the 4th and 5th grade field trip to the Jacksonville symphony! It was a wonderful performance and I was/am amazed at the talent of these individuals. It got me thinking about all the things that these 4th and 5th graders could do when they "grow up" and find their own careers.While some of them were not thrilled to be going, after seeing all the different instruments, the beautiful hall where it was held, and the level of talent, many left with smiles on their faces.

It got me thinking about exposure:

The more we show them- the more options they will know about. Whether it be a baseball game, a musical, a culinary center, or a museum, if they do not know it exists, how can they be interested?

Have you gone on any field trips that really exposed your students to something completely new and different? 

I'd love to hear about it!

May Small Groups

A visual of how many weeks are left can give better closure

Now that testing is over, teachers are much more lenient about letting kids out of class for small groups. I started 2 types of small groups. One is for social skills, the other is for positive behaviors and motivation. This is the first time I am doing a social skills group at this school, but the second round for positive behaviors.

F.I.S.H.- Living a few miles from the beach, I only found it appropriate to name a group FISH stands for  Friends Improving Social Habits. We will be working on verbal and nonverbal communication, expressing our emotions, and starting conversations with others.

P.A.W.S.- Since our schools mascot is a Bobcat and we talk about paws often, our PAWS group stands for Positive Attitudes Working in School. We will be focusing on team work, expressing our emotions, anger management, and improving self-esteem.

How many weeks are left?

During the very first session, we create rules for our group, and I explain the "check in policy". This creates accountability on their part, but also lets them know that we want them there. They are the only ones that can check themselves "in". I will be posting more about the groups as they continue, so keep checking in! Thanks for stopping by:)

with love,
your Floridian Chick

Pep rally time!

Hello there! Thanks for staying tuned for our two part series of FCAT spirit week! We held our pep rally at 2:00pm Friday and had a tight schedule! Approximately 550 people crammed into our cafeteria and by 2:05pm we were in full swing! We started with this little video Intro to our pep rally 

We did the video the week before pep rally and when we played it, the kids went crazy! It was a great bonding experience for our teachers and we all loved it! When the screen went up, a group of us learned the "Gangnam style" dance and did it on stage. Following the GS dance, we did a " Are you smarter than a superhero?" game show. I was the host and had 3 superheroes (A super scientist, a mouse mathematician, and a Rambunctious Reader- each subject of the test) and one villain- Professor the Stressor! Each part got more hilarious than the last and the kids seemed to love it.

Some superheroes:)

Game show board

Our skit team:)

When you're trying to figure out what to do with your life, you can only wish that you enjoy what you do. If someone had told me how much I would have fallen in love, I don't think I would have believed them. I may be a bit bias, but school counseling is the best job in the world and I only wish the same happiness for everyone else in this profession. I am so thankful for kind teachers who promote school counseling and a fun loving group who go to crazy lengths to make their students smile.

Until next time,

your Floridian counseling chick:)

CONQUER THE TEST! Superhero style!

To my wonderful followers:

WOW- Now that is what I call a hiatus. I am so sorry for this long gap in blogs. My personal life has gotten in the way of my blogging but  I am thrilled to share that you are officially following a homeowner! Mr. Hubby and I bought a home and have been busy setting up shop!

In between boxes, the world of elementary school continued its journey and that leads us to right about now! As you can tell from my last post, Florida's standardized tests are a HUGE,and I mean HUGE deal. Because of that, I was happily put in charge of our FCAT spirit week. Our slogan was "Conquer the test" and that is exactly what we did!  We had dress up days, shirts made, a pep rally, and even food to motivate the students to do the best job they could. Each hallway was a different superhero and OH BOY- did those teachers go to town on those walls! The pep rally will be an entirely different post because of its intensity but in the mean time, check out our dress up days, hallway decorations, candy, and t shirts that we rocked all week long to amp up the kiddos for a great testing environment. More to come shortly- promise:

FCAT SPIRIT WEEK: We are Superheroes!

Monday April 8th- Friday April 12th

BEATING FCAT ONE QUESTION AT A TIME!

Dress up days:

Monday: FCAT is no sweat! wear sweatpants/sweatshirts

Tuesday- TEAM FCAT- Wear your favorite team jersey/shirt

Wednesday- Brewer Day! Wear your DB shirt/ blue and gold

Thursday-Sock it to the test! Crazy Sock Day

Friday -Super Hero Day- dress up as your favorite super hero

502 goodie bags for 502 kiddos!

SUPERMAN Hallway!

BATMAN Hallway!

STEPPIN' out for FCAT!

Being in the Florida education system, I have grown to know 4 special letters that mean the world to each and every school in the state: FCAT. This is our state standardized test that is given each spring starting in 3rd grade. The 4th grade writing portion of the test was given yesterday and to pump up the kids to do well, our school brought in the high school step team. WOW! They were amazing. Not only had they practiced and done a phenomenal performance, they also were professional, kind, and mature- great role models for our little ones. This resource was completely free and did a few things:
1. We saw how incredibly gifted these girls are step.
2. Our Students got to see an activity that they could get involved in when they enter high school
3. The high schools girls were modeling for them dedication, passion, and commitment- something that many young adults have not mastered yet.


My principal did a great job of using our resources to benefit both parties and I want to continue to think of the people in our neighborhood who can role model for others what their future could hold!

For the T.V. lovers out there!

My time with children has led me to believe that there are many television lovers in the elementary school. I feel that it is crucial to relate to them as much as possible or else they will not confide in you and/or let me help them. I saw this on Pinterest and made it my own.  In my group, we made remote controls as a way to deal with anger.  The group came up with ways to calm down and control our anger for each button on "our remote control". You could even make smaller versions and tape them to their desk as a reminder.

Girl Time!

One topic on  this blog that I do not usually talk about is my passion for exercise and nutrition. I love the idea of feeding my body with nutrient rich food that makes me feel good, and balancing that with my love for running. My two passions in life- school counseling and exercise- have finally come together and I could not be more excited about it! This past week, "Girls on the Run" started. This after school program encourages girls to take care of their body- emotionally and physically. There is a lesson taught each "practice" that goes along with many of the topics that a guidance program would cover: friendship, optimism, and encouraging ourselves and others.

The running goal of this program is for the participants to run a 5k at the end of spring; I cannot wait to see what this program does for the girls and feel very lucky to be able to volunteer!

Positive Behavior Boys Group

I have just finished working with 2 small groups of boys between 3rd and 5th grade. These students were chosen by having the most referrals in our school. These boys are spontaneous, active, and work well with incentives to complete their work.  I made a "deal" with them that if they do not get any referrals and participate each week in group, then at the end of the 6 weeks, I will bring in my sneakers and we will play whatever sport they want to outside during our group time (30 minutes). This "deal" worked very well! These boys used strategies we talked about in group to stay out of the office and stayed in the classroom! Below is a picture of our ideas (Rules!) that we wanted to use in group. The bottom poster shares how each one of us is different and unique.

The behaviorist in me knew that I could not just go "cold turkey" with this group. In order to keep them invested in the idea of staying out of the office, I told them that each month that they do NOT get in trouble, we would be able to go outside and play a sport again. They all seem on board- fingers crossed that this incentive will work!

How To: Survey your Staff

Now that the school year is half way over, I wanted to get a pulse on how the staff was feeling about what I was doing in and around the school. I facilitate RTI  (Response to Intervention), and MRT (Multidisciplinary  Response Team), which teachers have a huge role in. I wanted to know about what students and teachers are thinking about guidance lessons, groups, and individual counseling as well.

For those who have a Google Account, there is a VERY simple way to survey others anonymously to find out what they are thinking without the pressure of knowing who said what. Google allows you to create a variety of questions-multiple choice, open ended, matching, check list, etc.The answers are collected and put into graphs that are easy to read and understand.

How to create a survey:
1. Log into your account
2. At the top of page, go to Drive
3. Click on CREATE ( in red on left)
4. Click on Form
5.Create however many questions you want to, with whatever variety you would like.
6. After you are complete,  click on Save at the top.

To review the answers after your surveyors have responded, the top right will say "See responses" which will allow you to see the graphs of your new information.

Finding out what your population is thinking is crucial for our job! I hope this helps!

How pure is pure?

On Friday, the halls and classrooms were filled with laughter, cupcakes, and crafts as the students got ready for their winter break. I was busy running from classroom to classroom visiting my friends (I call all students my friends, because let's be serious, they are!)  and wishing them a happy, healthy, winter break and new year. As I walked back in to the front office to check my email between parties, my principal pulled me into her office and away she clicked on her screen. CNN has posted in huge letters that over a dozen CHILDREN had been shot and killed...As tears filled all our eyes, and the panic filled my heart, you can't help but feel such deep sorrow for what our world has become.

It makes me wonder how such a pure, pure place could have such havoc and pain in a matter of minutes. Not one good thing has come of this massacre, but it is bringing attention to the importance of mental health in America. Just as we go to the medical doctor for a yearly check up, maybe we should think about getting emotional help when we need it to.

I pray for the future of this country, the future of mental health, and for these families as they mourn the loss of the most wonderful people on earth: children.

Advisory Council

This past week I held my first Advisory Council meeting. This is a fancy term for gathering teachers, parents, students, administrators, and community members together for a morning of breakfast and learning about the counseling program. This group will meet twice a year, once in December and once in June, to discuss the department and how it can grow and become a stronger program. The meeting started at 7:45am and was over by 8:25am. We got bagels and O.J. and spread the word.

Since this is the first year there has been a full-time counselor at our school, I have had the opportunity to lay the foundation for what our counseling department is going to look like. I presented information from the teacher survey, the student survey and what the district "said" a school counselor "should" be doing. I also created a rough draft for my mission statement and my vision for the department. I shared information about the American School Counselors Association (ASCA) model looks like and how I would like to model my counseling program like that.

This was a PHENOMENAL way to let every group I work with understand the tasks of a school counselor and get feedback from each group about how to improve.

I would definitely recommend doing this for your school to get the word out about school counseling at your school!

Perfect attendance party

As students finished the first nine weeks of school, I wanted to reward those who came to school each and everyday and who were on time each morning. At the end of a Friday, students with perfect attendance were invited to the cafeteria for an ice cream celebration! Of the 515 students at school, about 230 were able to make an appearance and be congratulated on their hard work and effort over the last 9 weeks. The kids loved it and it gave them time to socialize with their friends in other classes and grades. I am a huge advocate of "positive parties" and feel that kids need time to recognize their efforts.  For the next 3 marking periods, I will be having parities for those with perfect attendance and would LOVE any ideas on how to make them feel special!

Donuts with DUDES

In society today, there are fewer and fewer families that live together under one roof with a Mother, Father, and children. Since there are so many different male role models in a child's life, the term "dude" sounded more appropriate and applicable to our school than just the term "Dad". On Friday morning, we had 40 dozen donuts and hundreds of "dudes"  (Dads, Step-Dads, Grandfathers, Pastors, Uncles, etc) with their children in the cafeteria for a special breakfast together. It was a time that children could show off their school and their friends to the wonderful dude in their life who is helping to raise them. We had a great time and had high attendance!  We were definitely be making this in to an annual event!

Stickers for all the Dudes!

A FULL cafeteria!

40 Dozen donuts and juice!

Food for thought!

During our first teacher planning day, our principal had a great idea to have a potluck breakfast. I feel that as a counselor, our role is to foster community and build relationships with and among teachers. While not all principals are as supportive as others, counselors have a very important job and can take advantage of days like this to work on community building.  Besides the fact that I love breakfast foods, I really think that by simply bringing in food- it brings people together. I got to talk with some teachers on a personal level that I usually do not get to. I hope you have the opportunity to build up your community at some point this year!

Counselor's Corner in our media center

After getting a little more acclimated to my school, I found that our media center was FULL of counseling resources but they were not in a centralized location. I worked with our librarian/media specialist and got a list of the books that could be helpful for students dealing with counseling issues. My goal is to have students refer books they are reading to me/media specialist. This way, the students are the ones who are helping boost the counselor's corner! After all- they are the experts in their own problems!  Hopefully this idea could be used in your media center!

Red Ribbon Week! We vote NO for drugs!

Goodness Gracious! I have been thinking about this blog and ideas to post, but have not hit the button to submit and publish these stories!

Last week was Red Ribbon Week at school and we had a great turn out! I was thrilled to see so many teachers and students participate.

This is how our week looked:

Monday-Walk the Red carpet!  Wear Red to kick off Red Ribbon Week!

Tuesday- “I am a JEAN-ious, I Don''t Let Drugs Sneak Up On me!" Wear sneakers and jeans to school!

Wednesday- Sock It To Drugs Day" wear the craziest socks you can find!

Thursday- “Living Drug-Free Is No Sweat” day with everyone wearing sweatpants/sweatshirts to school.

Friday- “Be a Star- Don’t do drugs!” Wear your school shirts to school and dress in blue and yellow!

This is how our students got involved:

·       1. Essay Contest- done at home, or at the teachers discretion during school "Why is it important to NOT do drugs?"

2. Poster contest -  Students use 8 1/2 by 11inch  piece of paper and can use one of the slogans from above or create their own.

Our quilt of "What we do instead of drugs!"

·      3.  Quilt- each child will make a patch to put on the quilt. On each diamond, we asked the students “what do you do instead of drugs?” They had teh choice to draw or write what they do and it is now hung in the Cafeteria!  

       4. Our PTA was kind enough to give out candy with anti-drug sayings!

Throughout the hallways, we hung up the posters!

The winners of the Poster contest- hung outside Cafeteria!

Share Chair

I saw this on Pinterest earlier this summer and was excited to add my own little twist to it. I bought this chair at Wal Mart for $9. I put a few stickers on it but here is a unique way to incorporate the students:

 Every time a student comes in and shares something- positive, negative, neutral- they will add a sticker to it. This way, they will know they are not alone in coming to talk with the counselor, and hopefully feel more comfortable.

I started with a few stickers on it so it would not look too bare but hopefully by the end of year, I will have it FILLED to the edges with stickers!

My New Office!!:)

 I have been looking forward to this day for SO long and it is finally here:

Today I started work! 

I have been setting up my office all summer, and I finally have things settled.  Here it is:

I made "no sew" curtains from Wal Mart (easy to make and inexpensive!) and I decorated the window for the hallway. I had kept  Beanie Babies (thank goodness for basements where these things have been sitting since 1998) and bobble heads which I was able to place around the room.

I have tried to make it "elementary friendly" while still keeping it somewhat uncluttered  because of my need to keep things simple and neat. I cannot wait to see what this year brings me and I feel thankful for the opportunity to work with others and encourage them!!

Summer Reading

Over the summer, our principal suggested we read this book. Now usually during the summer, I enjoy a mindless read on the beach so I have to admit, I was somewhat skeptical. Yet this book truly opened my eyes to ALL that poverty can do to a person and a family.  It speaks to what poverty does emotionally, cognitively, mentally, physically, and socially. Hard to believe it reaches all those categories? Don't worry- I thought so too. Yet when you read it, you can see-very clearly- it does.

Even if you THINK you know what our students are going through, this will give you a detailed perspective that will have you walking away with a different, more empathetic, open mind set.

Teaching with Poverty in mind By Eric Jensen

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/1416608842/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1343676645&sr=8-1&keywords=teaching+with+poverty+in+mind&condition=used

Beginning before THE Beginning

       Hello sweet summer time! I took a hiatus from the blogging world over the summer but have good news to report on the A-Z blog front: I got a full time elementary school counseling job and will be starting in just a few short weeks! Since my last post, I got married and moved to the wonderful (and hot!) state of Florida, where my hubby and I are settling in to married life!

Some helpful hints for new counselors that have seemed to work for me:
            1. GET IN THERE ASAP! By going in each week during the summer, I have met families/students who were picking up/dropping off forms,etc. I have also met a few teachers and got to know the principal during her slow time of the year.  This is also good for finding your way through the school. I have gotten lost too many times BUT better now than in September when there are 500 other people in the school!
            2.CLEAN UP-The summer has been a great time to clean up (and throw out!) materials and "stuff" that the old counselor left behind. When the school year starts, counselors do not to be alone in their room- they want to be out meeting people,forming relationships, etc.
            3..NETWORK- By meeting as many people as I can, I am getting a pulse on the school, before it has even started. If you have 1 or 2 days before the staff comes in, any extra time will help!
            4..DO YOUR RESEARCH- By Being in  not only a new school, but a new state, there are tons of laws/information that are different from my other school/state. I have been reading all about the Florida school system and the unique acronyms that they use. While I still have A LOT more to learn, this is hopefully curb my transition.

ANY more suggestions are welcome! I want all the advice I can get!

There will definitely be more to come from A-Z but for now this Sunshine state girl is off to enjoy her last days of sweet summer time.

The end of an era!

August 22, 2011 seems like days ago, but clearly we have come a long way since the first day of my internship! Since August, I feel like I have grown so much as a person and as a counselor. During my last days at the elementary school, I received many kind words from faculty, staff and students, that encouraged me for what is it come. I would like to say a BIG thank you to all the people who shared ideas with me, helped me finish out my graduate school days with a smile, and those who gave me the inspiration to start a blog!

I will be continuing this blog this fall. Thanks for following and you'll hear from me soon!

My last day as an intern, hearing such kind words from some of my elementary friends.


 Florida, here I come!:)

Study advice for license tests (Local, state and national)!

In order to graduate from my program, I  had to take a multitude of tests ranging from a university given comprehensive exam to state exams and then finally (if you chose to ) a national exam. After scouring through Barnes and Noble, online, and it seems everywhere in between, I found two very helpful and useful books that enabled me to do well on my exams.

The first book, Encyclopedia of Counseling has over 1000+ questions to get you ready for the big test. I was able to pick it up when I had 5 minutes or when I had an ample amount of time.

The other book that I found to be useful was the book "Mastering the National Counselors Exam" This had information for every topic and questions to go along with the information.

Hopefully this will help you as you are walking the isles of Barnes and Noble looking for those "A+" books!

Enjoy and good luck!

Kindergarten Night

Recently, the district I am interning at invited every 2012-2013 Kindergarten family to their very first district event! The panel of district employees included 2 school counselors, a kindergarten teacher, the head of curriculum and myself.

After this Kindergarten night, I complied the information and added to it to create a "Kindgarten morning" for incoming families to this elementary school. Some of the extra information that I gathered was from the Occupational Therapist at our school, and the kindergarten teachers. Here are some key issues/concerns O.T. is seeing with incoming Kinders:

1. Hand dominance- help children decide which hand will work best for them.

2. writing their own name- using correct upper and lower case letter.

3. drawing a person-including appropraite placement of hands, feet, arms, legs, and head.

4. scissors-appropriate grip, safety and using the opposite hand to guide.

As our Preschoolers are getting ready to head to elementary school, there are so many ways we can help them gear up to be great in Kindergarten. Hopefully some of this information will trigger an idea for you to something special for your new students!

A Bitter Sweet lesson!

Today, our F.I.S.H. group (Families In Separate Homes) ended. I began by giving them lemon juice with a VERY small amount of water- clearly, this drink was too sour for them! We talked about how divorce is kind of sour sometimes. Then I asked what are some ways that might help us to make the situation better. Every time they gave me an answer, I added water to their cup. By the end, their drinks were much sweeter and less sour!

Lemons are kind of like families who live in different places. There are some sour things that make divorce/separation difficult, but there are also sweet things about having parents live in different places (less fighting, more attention, etc.).

I hope you can use this in one of your groups because when life gives you lemons...:)

Friendship sand necklaces

Last week in our flower (friendship) group, second graders came together and talked about qualities that make up a great friend. We made a huge list on the board and from there, we narrowed down the list to 6 qualities that they felt were the most important.

From there, we assigned a color to a quality and they were allowed to choose 4 of their favorite qualities that they think they possessed. to make a sand necklace. They worked in pairs and helped each other to make their beautiful necklaces.

The girls left the office with their heads held high and enjoyed making the necklaces!  I hope you can do this in your office soon!

"Formal dining" in 4th grade

I have started eating lunch with the 4th grade as a "Bon Voyage" as they make their way out of the elementary school and onto  the "5-6 School." I wanted to make this meal a little more special and make sure that they had a great time eating with their classmates and the counselors. Some easy ways to make them feel special include:

•  An "invitation" to lunch instead of just a simple note
• Centerpiece with a sign to welcome them
• TWO choices of hand sanitizer (WAHOO!)
• Name cards 
• Table Cloths

These simple but extra things made them separate this lunch from all the other lunches that they have had with the counselor before.

As your oldest grade graduates from your school, hopefully you can use these simple ideas to make them feel great!

Divorce and "Pudding"

Today the third grade FISH (Families In Separate Homes) group met. During our time together,we read a great book called "Was it the chocolate pudding?" By, Sarah Levins

It is about a boy who made a mess of chocolate pudding and thinks that it was his mess that made his parents get divorced. By the end of the book, he realizes that it was not his fault and feels relieved!

After, we used "vanilla pudding" (A.K.A. shaving cream!) to draw pictures of how the boys in the book felt, and then we moved on to talking/drawing about how each of them felt about THEIR family/divorce. Not only was it fun for them, but it was a GREAT way to get them talking and sharing!

Enjoy!