Be a STAR!! Stop, Think, Act, Review!

As any other counselor out there I am sure, I have a few students who struggle with making approriate choices at school! For these students I have created a visual reminder to keep in the classrooms to remind them to make good choices - to stop, think, act, and review. I have seen the STAR decision making model in several other curriculums. It is simple to remember, and the STAR can serve as a visual reminder to the student to stop and think without even saying a word.

I created my own poster to be used in the classrooms of the students using this decision making model. The poster talks the student through the steps - Stop, Think, Act, Review. Some other good resources for Stop, Think, Act, Review are classroom lessons from the Missouri Guidance Model. They have one lesson called Star Deputies, and another lesson called Star Deputies, Unite! These lessons would be great to do in the classroom (since I am sure that several students could benefit from discussing decision making!), and then the posters could be used to reinforce the concepts taught to those students who need a little more. I plan on also using the problem solving sheet included in the Missouri Model lesson to process with students as they are trying to make a difficult decision, or after they have made a poor decision. We've also been using the sign language symbol for "stop" as a visual reminder as well.

What other resources do you have to assist students with decision making? I know that there are many more out there, I would love to hear about what works for you!

Using Data to Drive Your Program

Today the High School counselor and I are attending one of our AEA school counselor workshop in Pocahontas to work on developing our comprehensive counseling plan. After working on developing our beliefs and philosophy statements last time, today we are looking at our plans to deliver intentional guidance and our closing the gap plans.

For my closing the gap plan, I am looking at my student discipline data. In addition to using disciple data collected by the principal, I am also asking teachers to record data about behaviors that they observe in their classrooms. Using this data, I am hoping to identify those students who need more. Once hose students are identified, I plan on starting some small guidance groups.

I'm hoping today to continue on working to develop our comprehensive guidance program, and especially working on how to use data in my program. I can't wait to get back to school on Wednesday and start putting all of these pieces together!

Getting to Know the Counselor

I have been doing lessons the first few weeks of school on "Getting to Know the Counselor", but the lesson I have been doing in 5th grade so far is my favorite. To introduce myself as the new school counselor, I first show the students a powerpoint so that they can get to know a few things about me. Throughout the powerpoint I ask the students about some of their favorite things and interests, so I can get to know them to! This is a great way to break the ice with the students and a great way to help the students begin to feel a little more comfortable with me.

Next I ask for volunteers to come to the front of the room and put on various pieces of a costume. Each volunteer puts on a piece of the costume, and reads a script when it's their turn that describes an aspect of my job. The students love it, and it is a really interesting a different way to introduce the school counselor!

Next we discuss the componenets of the guidance program and the word confidentiality. I share with the students ways that they can notify me that they would like to visit, and we discuss different things that a student may want to come to talk to the counselor about. We also review how to fill out the Need to See the Counselor forms, and where my office and mailbox are.

Lastly, we do an activity together called "Record of Me". In this activity, the students make records and list each track on the record as a detail about themselves. I have the students share their records at the end of class, and I bring a record that I made to share a little more about myself as well. We usually listen to the Primary Focus "Start Dreamin'" cd while we work on our records.

Any way that you introduce yourself to your students, it is important that the lesson cover the components of the guidance program, the process for contacting the counselor, and confidentiality. Sharing a little bit about yourself and encouraging students to share about themselves is a great relationship building activity for that first meeting as well. Here is a link to the lesson plan if you are ever interested in using it for yourself!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to a new school year! I have taken a new job this school year as the elementary counselor in Humboldt, Iowa. I will be working at two school buildings this year, with 500+ students and growing.

To introduce myself as the new school counselor, I did a lot of work before the school year started to get my program ready. Over the summer I created brochures explaining the elements of the elementary guidance program. I wrote seperate letters for our K-1 school, and for our 2-5 school. I also wrote letters to send home to the parents introducing myself and explaining some of the things we will be doing this year in guidance.

At open house night, which was the night before school started here, I handed out some of the brochures to parents and I handed out stickers to the students as I greeted them at the front door. It's a challenge doing events like open house when you work at two schools, but I balanced it out by spending one hour at the K-1 school and one hour at the 2-5 school.

The open house event was a great way to kick off the school year, and I am looking forward this year to what is to come!!

Paws in Jobland

For our last career awareness activity in guidance, my 3rd graders are completing a career interest inventory through the program Paws in Jobland. Paws in Jobland is a free online website created by Bridges Transitions Inc. The career inventory on the website asks students a series of questions about things that they like to do, things that they are good at, or things they are interested in, and then presents the students with a list of jobs that they may enjoy. Students can explore jobs that they may be interested in on the website by clicking on different buildings in "Jobland".

The program is easy for students to use, and it reads the questions out loud for students who are not strong readers. I am using it with my 3rd grade class, but it could be used for younger students too. There are lesson plans to compliment the Paws in Jobland website for grades K-2 and 3-5 that are available from the Bridges Transitions website, and there are more resources available to supplement with this curriculum available on the College Foundation of North Carolina website.

Purple Hands In the News!!

Recently the Purple Hands Program at our elementary school made the news! This March when our students were studying the Purple Hands Pledge, our school was lucky enough to be able to partner with Hy-Vee, a local grocery store, to promote the Purple Hands Pledge throughout our community. Hy-Vee printed the Purple Hands Pledge and symbol on their grocery sacks during the month of March. It was a hit! Students began noticing the symbol on the Hy-Vee sacks, and it was a great reminder to the students that the Purple Hands Pledge is important beyond our school walls. It was a great way for students to share with their parents the pledge as well when they asked what the symbol meant!

I think it is a wonderful thing when we can place reminders in our students homes and in our community that the Purple Hands Pledge is important no matter where you go. Several local business that partner with our school display the Purple Hands Pledge poster in their businesses, and it is great to see the students make that connection when they are out in the community to the pledge that we teach at school. If you would like to see a full link to the article, just click here!

The Character and Career Connection

To end out the year in our guidance curriculum this year, our third grade class is learning about how careers and good character are connected. The curriculum that I am using for our third grade careers unit is The Character and Career Connection by Amy R. Murray, M.Ed.

Each lesson in the curriculum is based around a character trait. Each lesson begins with a story about the character trait, includes discussion questions to follow the reading with, and then an activity related to good character. For example for the pillar of Responsibility, students read Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss. After reading and discussing the book, the students play a game where they draw a card with a responsibility listed on the card. The students must guess what job I am describing based on the responsibility.

Good Character is something that we emphasize all year, and this curriculum is a great way to bring both careers and good character together. The character traits are not the Character Counts traits, but most of the traits in the book can be adapted to meet any type of Character Education program. The book has other great ideas too, such as how to start a "Career Day" or "Vehicle Day" at your school, and a really neat idea about how to honor students who have good character. In the back of the book are also tip sheets to send home to parents as each character trait is studied.

Here are some other resources you can pull from to connect careers with good character:

World-Of-Work Map, Career Clusters, and Career Areas

Career Wordsearch

After Hours Inspirational Stories

The Quote Garden