Blog Posts for School Counselors
From all reaches of the interwebs and school counseling offices large and closet-sized, our round-up of September Blog posts from some brilliant, confident, gorgeous counselors, teachers, and parents.
New Students & Small Groups
How to Welcome New Students from Exploring School Counseling. Jeannie has a simple free activity that you can download for new student groups.
Helping Students Transition to a New School from The School Counselor Is In. Jodi has put together a free new student brochure to help you get those kiddos acquainted with their new school.
Fun Ways to Welcome New Students from The Helpful Counselor. Heather has packed this post with freebies that are oh-so-helpful and fun for counselors running new student groups.
How to Welcome New Students from EduKate & Inspire. We love Kate’s New Student Banner that’s free to download.
5 Great Ways to Build Community and Get to Know Your New Students and Their Families from Teacher Ideas for Those Who Love Teaching. In a set of tips borrowed from our teacher friends, check out the class puzzle with individual students as puzzle pieces. Such a nice way to create a sense of belonging and community.
Small Groups Structure for Elementary School Counselors. Gretchen over at Speckled Moose Counseling has a simple, consistent way to run her small groups. The feelings wall is a perfect way to start and fill transition time.
Scheduling Small Group Counseling in 8 Steps. Figuring out how to schedule small groups can be one massive jigsaw puzzle. Social Emotional Workshop boils it down to 8 steps.
Carol Miller, The Middle School Counselor has taken ice breakers and made them hands-on and pretty for just $1 at the crafts store. Simple resource to have in your office to start groups or use for transitions.
Need more? Great counseling group books on our shelves are Building Resiliency, The Ultimate Middle School Counseling HandBook, and from our very own Carol Miller, Starbound: A Journey to Leadership Development, Empowerment, and Drama Reduction for Girls.
Anxiety in Students and Ourselves
Activities
Great for classroom lessons, the Just Breathe video has kids talk about overwhelming emotions and learning to calm down using deep breaths.
Another Step In “All Tied Up with Worry” from Kim’s Counseling Corner. Kim always has useful therapeutic activities to share. This one is a great way for students to take something abstract like worries and show it in a concrete form. This is definitely is becoming a standby activity. Also consider the types of questions in a post from Mindful you ask students to get them noticing that thoughts are not facts.
Calming Lavender Cloud Dough from Growing a Jeweled Rose. Can someone make this and put it all over our houses? A calming smell, something to fidget with, and it looks super easy to whip up.
Making Worry Dolls is the perfect craftivity for anxious students. Check out the posts about how to do it with tongue depressors from Secret Agent Josephine or with clothespins from Creativity in Motion.
Create Your Own Anti-Anxiety Kit for Children from The Chaos and the Clutter. The free printable relaxation card prompts are fantastic and such great ideas for what to add to kits.
Love the School Counselor Kind’s very simple idea for a Worry Box for anxious students. The Creative Social Worker has another easy to implement idea with Worry Bags.
A round-up of resources from Bilingual Learner for beating stress in school.
Incorporate guided imagery scripts into your routines with anxious students. Guided Imagery Forest Path Script. Kids Relaxation has 7 different visualization strategies to help students manage stress and worries. We are picturing a vacuum cleaner suck up all our worries right now. 🙂
5 Tips to Reduce Stress and Promote Mindful Breathing from The Counseling Teacher. Love the visuals and links to valuable student resources.
Teaching Mindfulness in Elementary Classrooms. Kallie over at The Counselor Stop has an incredible website full of resources. This post has some practical ways to introduce and practice mindfulness with K-4.
Two simple ways to work with anxious students in individual counseling sessions from Counselor Up. The graphic makes the token technique super simple and fast.
Kidlutions always has creative ideas. In this post, she has over 50 activities to help students with anxiety.
Kids Health is a great site to bookmark. They have great posts that are geared towards middle schoolers.
Self-Care
Awesomely honest and helpful post, Finding Air: My First Panic Attack from The Counseling Teacher. Important reminders and tips for dealing with our own anxiety and using that to consider how we support our anxious, overworked students.
Self-Care Tips from Soul Warriors. We love the chart with the super simple to-dos. And awesome healthy snacks from Double the Batch are amazing to take to work (they can be for adults too!).
Information & Tips
How to Help Children Under 10 Cope with Anxiety from Mommy Edition. This is an amazingly thorough post about childhood anxiety, practical strategies and links to parent friendly resources.
Coping with Separation Anxiety and School Phobia from Heidi Songs. Great information for parents about how to handle a typical, but challenging problem. Her suggestion about singing is so interesting. Can’t wait to try it out.
Strategies for Teaching New Concepts to Anxious Students from Whimsy Workshop Teaching. This is a great resource to use when consulting with teachers who have students with high anxiety levels. Always appreciate some quick tips for teachers that we can use in problem-solving meetings.
Separation Anxiety: Coping with Tears delivers incredibly practical tips from the mom and daughter team at The Mud Kitchen. This would be great to give to kindergarten teachers to share with parents.
6 Helpful Strategies to Help Worried, Anxious Students from The Cornerstone for Teachers. Number one, start with empathy. We couldn’t agree more.
We adore these teachers who are thinking about how to support students struggling with anxiety in the classroom. This one comes from Teaching in the Fast Lane discussing how she Helps Students Work Through Anxiety.
Anxiety in Kids: How to Turn it Around and Protect Them for Life from Hey Sigmund. This would make a great resource for a presentation to staff.
No More School Anxiety from Music Teaching and Parenting has 3 great tips. Using the student’s favorite character is genius.
Organization & Setup
SMART Goal 2016: Parent Outreach from School Counseling Files is working on a key part of our job that often gets overlooked, working with parents. She has easy actionable steps to increase awareness of her role and what she has to offer parents and families. Great example of a school counselor parent brochure!
If you didn’t catch this last month, EduKate & Inspire has a great post and resources available to help school counselors get organized with Google docs.
Email Tranquility – Strategies to Find your Inbox Happy Place from Counselor Up. Is your email already piling up? Love her 10 email rule.
School Counseling Office Tour from EduKate & Inspire–also known as How to Turn a Kindergarten Boys’ Bathroom into a Counseling Office. 🙂 It takes a Confident Counselor to have a sand tray in her office. For more office ideas, take a look at School Counseling Files’ post from a couple of years ago (before it was taken over by stacks of books and papers): My Kick-Ass Office.
Hosting an Intern? Seems like a great idea. Then that person is in your office staring at you and you have to figure out what you feel comfortable having him or her do. Check out Counselor Up’s 5 tips to make it work for both of you.
School Counseling Files has an awesome freebie to help you plan out your classroom curriculum for grades K-4 for the year.
Another super easy and incredible time-saver from Counselor Up about keeping track of when teachers completed something you need. This post is part of a great series called Just a Little Thing that is full of tidbits for counselors. This woman is a queen of efficiency.
Starting a Student Advisory Council from Exploring School Counseling. Jeannie reminds us it is never too late to incorporate another effective practice. Always growing and learning is the example we set for our students.
Bulletin Board Background Ideas from Organized Classroom is full of awesome beautiful starts to bulletin boards. It might be time for another #pinterestfail. Math Equals Love also has some great free printable posters that could be repurposed for a school counselor office.
Counseling Resources Library
Kids’ Career Choices from Mrs. Bell, The Crafty Counselor. This post has a link to some great career choice cards along with some tips for how Mrs. Bell introduces different career options to elementary school students. Also check out the Education Planner for support with older students
Teaching Children How to Set Goals and Use a Vision Board from Kiddie Matters. This post is awesome. It includes a free goal setting worksheet, directions for how to set goals, and a great student vision board. We love that students can see what they are working toward.
Counseling Theories for Difficult Students: Wall with a Purpose from Counselor Up. This needs to be in our offices. Step-by-step way for students to set goals and see the path forward. Inspiring.
Mindset Moments: Showcasing Student Growth from Scholastic. Freebie Mindset Moment Statement pdf and some great book suggestions. Also check out the book There for goal setting.
In Loving Memory, Dealing with the Loss of a Pet from Mrs. Bell, The Crafty Counselor. Definitely bookmark this one. Mrs. Bell has put together a great memory book for kids to use when they lose a beloved pet. It’s always key to have just the right thing when a tearful student winds up in your office first thing in the morning. PBS has some great Sesame Street clips that would be great for younger kids or check out the book, Being Sad When Someone Dies.
Positive Self-Talk is such an important skill for students to learn to maintain and develop their self-esteem. Kiddie Matters’ self-talk shield activity is so cool, we want to make one for ourselves when the negative faculty room chatter starts.
The Hot Cocoa Breathing Sensory Art Activity always shows up our Pinterest feeds. Art of Social Work really nailed how to make deep breathing more concrete in this winter-themed activity. Maybe change it to a pumpkin spice latte this Fall? Check out her Feelings Check-in Wheel Freebie too!
Freebie Alert from Kiddie Matters. Printable activity that gets students talking about what goes on inside and outside. Many thanks!
A Boys Counseling Group from Bilingual Learner called Goals Make the Man for boys 11-14. Great resources for this age group and for setting up groups effectively. She also has an oldie, but goodie post about small groups that focuses on goal setting for students who have fallen behind. Lots of great tips.
Freebie Alert from Counselor Up! Beautifully designed counselor passes that you can use to send students back to class.
September is Attendance Awareness Month. Check out this freebie to pass along to teachers or use yourself. Attendance Works is packed with information and resources for this month
Milwaukee Public Schools has an incredible library of resources for Positive Behavior Intervention Supports.
Resources discovered by these Confident Counselors
