#ASCA14 1st Timer Tips

I've been seeing and hearing the buzz via social media from other school counselors about going to the upcoming ASCA conference in Orlando, FL.  The exciting part is that many of the counselors sharing the buzz are 1st timers going to the conference.  Now that got me "buzzing"!  I had absolutely no idea what to expect my first time attending the conference either.  So here are a few tips that I've learned to share with first timers or even tenth timers at the conference.

-Attend the reception events where you'll have an opportunity to mix and mingle with other counselors in a non-presentation style setting (meaning you can talk more).  I actually met a lot of counselor friends that I still keep in touch with at the first timers reception, dance and tweet up (all are fantastic opportunities for networking and fun).

-Bring plenty of your business cards to share, which is another way to stay connected with other school counselors.

-Pack comfy business casual clothing and shoes. It's usually chilly in the session rooms, so a sweater (or in my case cardigan, I love cardigans) or light jacket will help to keep you warm.

-There's usually food (lunch and snack) at the conference, but I always pack my own snacks just case.  

-Take some time to see the host city!  But of course especially since it's Disney (that's a no brainer).

-Make a shopping list of things that you'd be willing to purchase at the conference.  The vendors section can be overwhelming because there's so much to choose from and you'll just want it all (ok maybe that was just me).

-Download the conference app.  Having a conference app is awesome, you have the ability to take a look and get an idea of the sessions you'd like to attend.  Some fabulous school counselor blogger & Twitter friends will be presenting this year and I 'd like to mention their sessions for you to consider attending:

Monday 06/30 9-10:15am- Brand and Market Your School Counseling Program (Jeremy Goldman & Jeff Ream)

Monday 06/30 9-10:15am- Build Your Professional Community With Social Media (Lisa Savinon, Carli Segal, Carol Miller)

Monday 06/30 11:15-12:30pm- Help Girls Unlock Their Leadership Potential (Julia V. Taylor)

Monday 06/30 1:30-2:45pm- Going Gaga for Google (Russ Sabella)

Monday 06/30 3:45-5:00pm- Wi-Fi to Sci-Fi: Motivate anad Teach Students via Technology and Literature (Angela Poovey)  

Tuesday 07/01 11:15-12:30pm- Empower Girls Using Narrative Theory (Lee Grimes & Natalie Spencer)

Tuesday 07/01 11:15-12:30pm- Professional Development in 140 Characters or Fewer (Danielle Schultz & Erin Mason)

Tuesday 07/01 1:15-2:45pm- Create a Data-Driven Anti-Bullying Action Plan (Raychelle Lohmann)

Tuesday 07/01 1:30-4:30pm- Creating Magic Through Group Counseling (Matthew McClain, Rhonda Williams)

Wednesday 07/02 9-10:15am- Teach Students to Recognize and Report Sexual Abuse (Rebecca Lallier)

Oooooh, as I type these sessions I'm getting so excited!!!  Unfortunately I will not be attending the conference this year.  I have an amazing opportunity to participate in an educator study abroad program in Europe so I'll be following the conference through social media (use the hash tag #ASCA14). Please tweet, post and share your experiences so those of us that aren't there can "be there" via social media.  I look forward to seeing what others share from the conference this year.

What other tips would you give for 1st timers attending the conference?



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2013 ASCA Conference Recap

I'm back from yet another fun, fantastic and encouraging ASCA conference!  This time in Philadelphia, PA.  I had a blast being able to gain new ideas and tips to bring to my school and of course the best part of all...connecting with so many amazing school counselors.  The tweet up and blogger meet and greet where both a success!  It was so awesome to meet school counselors I follow through social media in person.

Don't forget you can still download the conference app (for free) to get all the handouts from the presentations.  You can also search social media with the hashtag #asca13 for others tweets, instagram pictures, posts, etc about the conference.  The easiest way to share my experience is through photos, so here goes....

First, shout out to the city of Philadelphia for hosting us:

Now on to the conference events:

Conference Center

Opening Session Speaker:  Chef Jeff

Exhibit Hall 

Tweet Up:

Meeting Rebecca (@SchCslgByHeart).  When we met, we both literally screamed because of the excitement!

with Rebecca Burkhart (@RebBurkhart)

with my blog buddy Danielle Schultz (@sch_counselor)

with Carli (@carlicounsels) and friend

The Tech Smackdown Presentation was awesome and it was so good to see our smackdown team together again.  To get our handout click here.

Smackdown team together again:  Danielle Schultz, Andrea Burston, Russ Sabella, Julia Taylor & Erin Mason.

Breakfast with Iowa School Counselors (thanks to Susan @cmsfl for all your #asca13 tweets)

The School Counselor Blogger Meet & Greet was a success!  It was so wonderful to meet all the bloggers that I've been following and meet the awesome readers that read our blogs.  It was a pleasure to meet you not only at the meet and greet but all throughout the conference.  Thank you readers for taking the time to read what happens in my little school counselor world, I love being able to connect with you!

School Counselor Bloggers:  Front Row: Rebecca from School Counseling By Heart, me (Andrea) from JYJ Counselor, Danielle from The School Counselor Blog
Back Row:  Jeremy from Pikesville High Counseling Dept, Marissa from Elementary School Counseling.org, Darrell from The Counselor's Office , Jeff from The Counseling Geek, Sue from Entirely Elementary

During our meet and greet (hosted by myself & Danielle) as promised we had great giveaways.  So of course I had to add just a hint of tech in it.  Everyone that attended got a card with 2 QR codes on it.  One code linked to all the blogs of the bloggers in attendance and the other was to determine if you won a prize.  By the way the prizes were really nice, I even wore one myself during the conference.

Meet & Greet QR Codes

School Counselors check to see if they've won a prize.

Danielle, Sue & I talk with Candice from AZ and Christina from OH.

More meet & greet mingling

Jeff talks during the meet & greet

Prize Winners:  Just in case you want these items for yourself, you can order them here.

Keep Calm I'm a School Counselor mug

School Counselors Rock mug

iCounsel t-shirt (in black)

Keep Calm t-shirt

iCounsel t-shirt (in white)

Told you I love this iCounsel t-shirt (in gray)!  And if you notice behind me is the Philadelphia Museum of Art, these are the steps that Rocky ran up in the movie! 

The Get UR Blog on Presentation with Danielle Schultz went fantastic. We both suspect that we'll have even more school counselor created blogs, yay.  To see our handout click here.

With blog buddy Danielle at our Get UR Blog On Presentation

Closing session with Rachel Simmons

As you can see, the ASCA conference was quite an event.  I was soooo tired (but in a good way) after this trip.  Being at ASCA totally pumps you up about our wonderful school counseling profession.  As I left Philadelphia, I was reminded of how much we make a difference to our students...here's my quick story.  As I sat in the Philadelphia airport, I notice a young lady that looks like a former student that I taught years ago.   I almost go over to speak but think to myself "nah, that can't be her, I'm in Philly and I think she's been traveling abroad, what are the chances that it's really her" so I don't speak.  Then on the plane I see her again on, so I just decided to call her name and it was actually my student and I actually winded up sitting beside her mother on the plane who remembered me from when I taught her.  And the story continues...as I arrive in Raleigh, I see one of my current students who seemed so excited to see me (you know students are always excited when they see you outside of school).  I was just as excited to see both of them.  As I headed home, I had a smile on my face, seeing my former & current student was the icing on my ASCA conference cake.  Hope to see you next year in Orlando!























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Next Stop Philadelphia... for the ASCA Conference!

-Bags packed: check
-Presentation notes ready: check
-Super excited to attend ASCA conference: check

I'm only days away from attending and presenting at the ASCA conference (click here for information on downloading the conference app). I'm so excited to go to Philadelphia!  I had an absolute blast last year and am super excited about attending this year's conference.  I have a very strong feeling that I'll be coming back with even more ideas for next year.  It's a good thing that I have this summer to process and brainstorm all the info that I know I'll bring back!  If you'll be in Philadelphia for the conference, please comment below or if you see me at the conference please stop me and say hello (it won't frighten me, I'm from the South so I'm used to it).  Please join myself and other school counselor bloggers at the school counselor meet & greet (Tues 07/02 from 8:00-9:00pm), hosted by blog buddy Danielle Schultz from the School Counselor Blog.  I look forward to connecting with other school counselors during this grand event. 

 Also if you're attending please attend the Counselor Tech Smackdown Session on Monday, 07/01 from 1:00-4:00.  I'll be co-presenting with wonderful counselors Russ Sabella, Erin Mason, Danielle Schultz and Julia Taylor and I'll also be presenting on Wednesday 07/03 from 9:00-10:15 with Danielle on our favorite counselor topic..."Get Your Blog On", which we'll talk about getting your own school counselor blog up and running.   An upcoming post on my ASCA conference experience will come soon. 

Will you be attending this year's ASCA conference? Pin It

National School Counseling Week Link Party!

Fabulous school counselors our week of celebration is here (although I think we should be celebrated each and every day)!  I've been thinking  how to celebrate National School Counselor Week at my school for a quite a while.  I can honestly say that at my school, we (counselor intern & I) are constantly reminded how much parents, staff and students appreciate what we do as counselors (we do A LOT!)

So here's how we'll be celebrating National School Counseling Week at JYJ:

-My school district had a morning celebration (click here to see the write up on it) for all the school counselors.  I was able to see blog buddy Vanessa from Savvy School Counselor!  What a treat it was to see her.

Vanessa & I at our district school counselor celebration

-I made this great banner from Vistaprint to hang outside of my office to celebrate and to let everyone know that it's National School Counselor Week. On a side note I got a sweet deal on this banner months ago on a Black Friday sale, for only (are you ready for this) 99 cents!

Celebration banner

Yours truly!

Counselor intern Dhruti

-I put daily announcements on our live morning television school news show on things that school counselors do and how we are here to help all students.  I even plan to be interviewed during the show on Wednesday (this is really a stretch for me, I'm more of a behind the scenes person).

-To include staff, I made a little note to everyone (I used Avery business cards) that said "being your JYJ counselors is worth at least 100 GRAND, celebrating National School Counselor Week from Andrea & Dhruti". I attached a mini 100 Grand candy bar to the note.  To get more ideas check out Pinterest and look under teacher appreciation.

-I ordered "I heart school counseling" t-shirts (from Vistaprint) for myself and the counselor intern to wear on Wednesday (the same day that we'll be on the school news).

T-shirt to celebrate School Counselor week

-Don't forget about the School Counseling On-Air Google + Hangouts during the entire week.  Some fantastic school counselor and bloggers will be hosting.  I plan to be there "hanging out"!

I'm very excited about our week to celebrate our fantastic profession!  What are your plans for school counseling week?

Please share by joining in on the National School Counseling Week Link Party hosted by blog buddy Danielle Schultz from the School Counselor Blog.

To participate in the National School Counseling Week Link Party:

• Create a post titled "National School Counseling Week Link Party!"
• Write a post about one of the following:
• how you plan to celebrate National School Counseling Week at Your School
• your favorite ideas, lessons, resources, etc. related to NSCW
• a collection of things you have done to celebrate NSCW in the past
• Place the National School Counseling Week Link Party Logo (above) in your post. 
• Submit your blog post using the Inlinkz tool in Danielle's original post. Make sure you link to the actual post URL not just your blog URL.
• CELEBRATE by sharing what you are doing and applauding on what others are doing! :)
• If you are not a blogger, but have an idea to share, please comment in the comment section!

Happy National School Counselor Week!

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ASCA Early Bird Registration Ends 12/31

Just a reminder that early bird registration for the 2013 ASCA conference (June 30th-July 3rd) in Philadelphia, PA ends on Monday, December 31st. You can still register after the 31st, but you know I'm all about saving some money (the fee will increase after 12/31/12)! Click here to register online.

 Last year was my first time attending the conference and I had a blast!  It's was so amazing to meet so many school counselors from all over.  There were some great sessions that I'm still using the handouts/resources from.  In fact if you're curious to see what types of ASCA conference sessions will be offered, they are already listed (scroll down to breakout sessions).  

If you'll be in Philly, please join us at the school counselor blogger meet and greet hosted by myself and blog buddy Danielle from the School Counselor Blog. Stay tuned, more details to come! 

Danielle & I also will be presenting "Get Your Blog On" together and again with our Smackdown team:  Dr. Erin Mason, Dr. Russ Sabella & Julia Taylor for Web 2.0 Smackdown (Part II). 

  

Smackdown team: Erin Mason, Julia Taylor, Russ Sabella, me, Danielle Schultz

So if you haven't thought of it, I highly recommend attending the ASCA conference, you won't regret it!  So who's planning on attending the conference this year?

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Counselor Bloggers Meet & Greet

School counselor bloggers Danielle from The School Counselor Blog and Andrea from JYJoyner Counselor Blog will be presenting "Get Your Blog On" a session about creating and using blogs in your school counseling program at the ASCA conference July 3, 2013 in Philadelphia.  Since we're talking about the wonders of school counselor blogs we want to host a School Counselor Blogger meet and greet (it will be open to everyone).  

To plan and get a feel for our event we want to know which school counselor bloggers will be in Philly to join us.  

School counselor bloggers click here to answer a brief survey to let us know if you'll be at the ASCA conference.  

Details will follow with an invite to both bloggers and blog readers.  We are both very excited about the opportunity to meet and connect with other school counselors!

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I'm back from Minneapolis

Visiting Sculpture Garden

Oh, where do I begin? (there's so much to share): I had a fantastic fabulous time at my 1st ever ASCA conference!  Minneapolis was great, having nice beautiful weather (80 degrees with no humidity) having a beautiful and fun downtown area, and by playing host to tons of school counselors which could only equal a great time!  The best and easiest way for me to share my experience is through pictures, so here's a few:

The weather was so nice, you could eat outside and enjoy the fresh air!

Registration (I got there early, hence no lines)

Opening Session

Exhibit hall opens

Keynote speaker Dan Savage

Inside the exhibit hall

With ASCA executive director Dr. Richard Wong

ASCA celebrates 60 years

Neat Tweet up name tags made by Danielle Schultz

#scchat Tweet up

Tweet up with Jen G. from Missouri

Meeting Tabitha from Scrapbook of a School Counselor Blog

With Danielle Schultz & Erin Mason

Tech Smackdown sign, click here for the handout

Tech Smackdown team!  Erin Mason, Julia Taylor, Russ Sabella, me (Andrea Burston) & Danielle Schultz

 

With NC School Counselor Association (NCSCA) president Nikki Neuman at RAMP Awards banquet.

School counselors from my district (Vanessa Barnes, Wanda Moore, Portia Lambright) & me with ASCA president-elect Dr. Sylinda Gilchrist-Banks at RAMP awards banquet

WCPSS Counselors w/ former ASCA president and WCPSS director of school counseling Eric Sparks.

I had a wonderful time being able to connect with school counselors from all over the country.  I was able to meet my counselor blog and tweet buddies face to face which was so awesome!  I had a fun and fantastic time presenting with amazing school counselors Danielle Schultz, Russ Sabella, Erin Mason & Julia Taylor for the Web 2.0 Smackdown! If you would like the handout to the session, click here.    Go ahead & make plans to attend next year's conference in Philadelphia, PA, I certainly am! Pin It