3 Important Ways to Collaborate with Caregivers to Support Students with Anxiety
Working with students with anxiety in the school setting really requires a team effort! Caregivers and school personnel need to be on the same page to encourage similar strategies, recognize triggers, and use common language to support the student. Find 3 great ways to offer parent support for students with anxiety below! Parent Support for […]
Continue readingCreating Mindful Practices with Your Whole School
We’ve all seen the research and know that mindfulness has a whole host of benefits for health and schools. So this raises the question: how can we create a schoolwide culture that values mindfulness? As with any culture shifts, all-staff buy-in and routines are key! Keep reading to find out more about how you can […]
Continue readingMindfulness with Middles: Teaching Teens to Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness with middle schoolers: a piece of cake or labor of love? I’ve had loads of fun teaching mindfulness to elementary-aged students, but when I first threw out the idea to some of my middle schoolers, they looked at me like I had three heads. I knew that buy-in would be a little tougher with […]
Continue reading15 Strategies to Help Kids Deal with Stress
During the second quarter of the school year, I started talking to my seventh graders about stress. We did a simple self-assessment and nearly all of my students were reporting high levels of stress about things like school work and interpersonal problems. This is of course not unique to my students. According to a study […]
Continue reading10 Ways to Help Students Who Worry
One box I can always count on being checked on the needs assessment is ☑WORRY. Our students are coming to school with worries about friendships, home life, their school performance and so much more. Researchers estimate that nearly 32% of adolescents (ages 13-18) experience an anxiety disorder. Additionally, in a survey of children aged 10-11 in England […]
Continue readingDitch the Desks: Get Your Students Up and Moving in Your Counseling Lessons
If you find yourself reaching for worksheets for classroom guidance lessons and you’re noticing that students are lacking interest or engagement, it’s time to ditch the desks! Getting your students moving to learn and practice the skills you’re targeting in counseling instruction will boost engagement and have your students begging for more classroom guidance time. […]
Continue readingHow Centers Can Transform Your Classroom Guidance Lessons
I don’t know about you, but my counseling grad program didn’t spend a lot of time focusing on whole classroom instruction. I was ready for individual counseling. I was sooo ready for group counseling. But I was totally not ready to be standing in front of a group of 30 (a whole other issue…) students […]
Continue readingPipe Cleaner Crafts for School Counseling
Pipe cleaners are one of my go-to craft supplies for the counseling office. They’re so versatile, easy to store, and students love to create things with them or just keep their hands busy. While they are great for demonstrating flexibility, they have so many more uses from keeping students’ fingers busy to tracking progress toward […]
Continue readingSupporting Military Students During Deployment
If you’re a counselor in an area with a dense military population, you’re acutely aware of the ongoing military engagements around the world and the effects these long periods of parental absence have on students. Sometimes, families move away from military installations to be closer to supportive extended family during deployments. In this case, some […]
Continue reading5 Ways to Repurpose your Gratitude Tree for School Counseling
If you’re like me, you saw the gratitude tree in the Target dollar spot and grabbed it for a fun fall activity! But now that fall is over, are you wondering what to do with that gratitude tree for the rest of the year? I was too! To stretch out the lifetime of your tree […]
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