• Student Needs Assessment

    I’ll be honest when I first became a school counselor I didn’t do a student needs assessment. I felt super lost those first few years and by the time things settled down it seemed too late to send out a needs assessment. The reality is it only takes 10 minutes to set up a student needs assessment in google forms and 5 minutes to determine how students will access your needs assessment. Set aside 15 minutes today to gather data that will help mold your counseling program!

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    Therapy Building Blocks

    If you ask my students about me, they’ll all say that I love playing with Building Blocks. I kind of think it’s hilarious that they spread little rumors about how much I love playing Building Blocks. I have random kids come up to me in the hallway asking if they can come play Building Blocks with me! As you can guess, I don’t actually LOVE Building Blocks. I play a lot of Therapy Building Blocks though and it’s become my favorite “get to know you” activity.

  • Avoid Counselor Burnout

    It’s interesting that according to my blogging tools no one has used the internet to search for “school counselor burnout” this month. Basically telling me school counselor burnout is a terrible topic to discuss right now on my blog, but I think this is the perfect time to discuss counselor burnout. The reality is people aren’t searching counselor burnout because the beginning of a new school year brings hope and excitement. Hope that this year will be better, hope that this year things will get back to “normal”, and hope that we’ll find that passion in our worklife again. It’s an exciting time of the year for school counselors, but it’s also the time to set things in motion to avoid burnout. Everyone starts researching counselor burnout in March but the reality is by the time you’re searching the internet about burnout—you’re already done. The best thing you can do to avoid counselor burnout is to put these 10 tips in place now, before the burnout takes hold.

  • Emergency Grief Kit

    Today I wanted to share one of my most important counseling tools: My Emergency Grief Kit. You might be wondering what an Emergency Grief Kit is and why I feel like it’s sssssoooo important!!! Basically my Emergency Grief Kit is a bag/backpack with everything I need to help students with the loss of a loved one at school.  If I get a call tomorrow morning that a student or teacher has died, then I need to be prepared. I won’t have time to go to work and gather all of my materials and plan.  My Emergency Grief Kit is ready to go. I can set up a grief station in a school within minutes and train teachers on the spot. I’m ready to go!! You just never know when something tragic is going to happen so set aside an hour today to set up your Emergency Grief Kit. It’s easy and I’ve got most of the materials ready for you already!!

  • Self-Care Training for Staff

    If you have a professional development day coming up, then you seriously need to do have a session over self-care!! This time of the year is super stressful!! Everyone is talking data, the kids are getting antsy for spring break, and patience is running thin. I mean we’re past the 100 day mark and still repeating the same instructions as day one, it’s exhausting!! Use this PD day to remind teachers to take a little break, recharge their batteries, and relax a little. This one hour session discusses the importance of self-care, provides teachers with a list of positive coping strategies, provides multiple stations for teachers to practice self-care, and helps participants create a self-care action plan for the next month.

  • Grief Groups in Schools

    Grief groups are incredibly important for our students. They provide students with an opportunity to safely express their grief and to understand that they’re not alone in their struggles. As students begin to trust each other in group, they begin to express their inner struggles and work through their grief. Creating grief groups in schools will not only help the students but it will also save school counselor’s time. Groups allow school counselors to meet with multiple students at once, making them more time effective and beneficial to students at the same time.

  • Separation Anxiety in Middle School

    Separation anxiety is common when students first start preschool and elementary school.  It’s not that common in middle school, but let’s just say it happens enough for me to write a blog post about it!! Every year I see more and more separation anxiety at the middle school level. Some parents say their child has always had separation anxiety and others say this is the first time they’re seeing signs. It’s not surprising that students suddenly develop anxiety in middle school considering they’re developmentally moving from concrete thinking to abstract thinking.  There’s lots of information available online regarding the connection between abstract thinking and anxiety but that’s not something we’re going to dive into today.

  • Transitioning to Middle School

    Are you having issues sleeping at night because your 5th grader just came home with a letter about transitioning to middle school?  Did you grab that bottle of wine after the 5th grade parent night because you’re overwhelmed with the fact that your little baby is going to middle school?? Well I promise you’re not alone. Lots of wine was consumed after the 5th grade parent night!! Here are 7 things you can start doing for your 5th grader now to help make the transitioning to middle school easier for them: