Get Connected for Back to School

We all know what this time of the year is...if you've forgotten check any TV ad because it's back to school time!  Andrea from JYJ Counselor Blog and Danielle from School Counselor Blog want to celebrate and kick off the new school year with you!

There are many ways that you can participate and connect with other school counselors to celebrate the new school year.

Here's how:

Share Your First Day of School Picture!

We want to see your smiling face as you head back to another year or your first year as a school counselor! We also want to see graduate students and counselor educators heading back to graduate school!  To share your first day of school picture with other school counselors use the hashtag #scday1 on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Vine.

Share Your School Counseling Office!

We want to see your school counseling office! Whether you are still preparing and decorating your office for the school year or are all done and ready for students, we want to see your space! To share pictures or a tour of your office with other school counselors use the hashtag #scoffice on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Vine.

Join Us for a LIVE Chat!

Join us on Wednesday, August 7th at 8PM EST for the first ever School Counseling On Air Back to School Chat.  We will discuss back school tips, best practices, and much more!  We have an amazing lineup of school counselor bloggers to represent each school counseling level! The following school counselors will be participating in the chat:

Elementary Level:

• Andrea Burston (JYJ Counselor)
• Rebecca Lallier (School Counseling by Heart)

Middle School:

• Tabitha Panariso (Scrapbook of a School Counselor)
• Danielle Schultz (School Counselor Blog)

High School:

• Jeremy Goldman (Pikesville High School Counseling Department)
• Darrell Sampson (From the Counselor’s Office)

To view the School Counseling On Air Back to School Chat live from YouTube visit the School Counseling On Air YouTube page. The School Counseling On Air Back to School Chat will also be broadcast live on JYJ Counselor Blog and School Counselor Blog.

You can tweet questions on Twitter using the hashtag #SCOA. You can also ask questions on the School Counseling On Air YouTube page.

We look forward to kicking off the new school year with you!

School Counseling On Air Event Google + link

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Whoo hoo, I'm the website of the month!

What better way to start off 2013 than being featured as the January website of the month for Elementary School Counseling!  I was so excited when Marissa Rex contacted me to share the great news (which you can tell in my interview, I was talking soooo fast based from pure excitement, shock & nervousness).  I've been following her blog & reading her website for quite some time.  In fact she's my December 2012 JYJ Shout Out!   I am so glad that I can share what happens in my little counseling world through this blog while being able to connect with so many fantastic school counselors.  Thank you so much for reading!  Thanks so much Marissa, I'm truly flattered beyond words. Pin It

School Counseling Linky Party 2013

Marissa from Elementary School Counseling is hosting a school counselor linky party to highlight counselor blogs and best posts, features of 2012.  This is my first linky party and I'm excited to share and see what other counselor bloggers have to share also.  Thanks Marissa for putting this together.

JYJ Shout Out:  giving a shout out to great (counselor) tech tools and awesome school counselor blogs.

I actually have 2 favorite posts....

Thanks to Danielle from the School Counselor Blog for the inspiration, I really enjoyed being able to add a tech spin to minute meetings using the iPad which allowed me to meet with all my 1st-5th grade students without a lot of paperwork but lots of data!

I LOVE to read and being able share my enjoyment of reading with students in a small group setting is wonderful.  I look forward to meeting with my book clubs each week and so do the students.

Top 10 iPad Counselor Apps:  Who knew that sharing a few apps that I found useful would connect me to so many counselors.  Stay tuned, I have more to share in 2013!

In no particular order,  but since I'm only limited to 5 please know that I read lots of counselor blogs.  Thanks to so many of you awesome counselors who take time to blog and share with us!

Savvy School Counselor

School Counselor Blog

Scrapbook of a School Counselor

School Counseling by Heart

Entirely Elementary...School Counseling

Here's how to join the party:

-Create a blog post titled "School Counseling Linky Party 2013"

-Place the Linky Party logo (above) in your post.

-Answer the questions above

-Submit your blog post link to Marissa's Blog at Elementary School Counseling.  Be sure to link to the actual post, not your homepage.

I look forward to reading more from the "party".  Thanks again for putting this together Marissa!

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2012 Blog Reflection

As 2012 comes to a close, I sit back and think about how me deciding to write about what happens in my little counselor world has allowed me to connect with so many wonderful school counselors from all over.  I can't thank you enough for taking time to read the jyjcounselor blog, your kind emails, your suggestions and sharing your best practices with me.

Here are my favorite posts of 2012:

-Character Education Night Event: 

Student made sign for our school wide character ed night

This was my first time working on the committee and it was certainly worth all the planning and hard work.  The event was very successful!

-Minute Mtgs with a Tech Spin: 

This made a huge impact on establishing rapport with students and it incorporates my favorite counselor must have....my iPad!

-Creating a Counselor's Notebook:

Counselor notebook

Who doesn't love a personalized, fully functional notebook?  This notebook has kept me much more organized this year.

-ASCA 2012 Recap:

It was my first time attending the conference and I had a blast.  I'm planning to be in Philly, will you (early bird registration ends 12/31/12)?

-Starting a Counselor Led Book Club:

I LOVE to read and really enjoy having 2 book clubs.

-Character Ed Books Spotlight:

This has been a great way to showcase books that are related to character education.  The display is working, I'm now constantly having to restock the shelves on the display because the students are steadily checking them out!

-iPad Apps for School Counselors:

By far my most popular post! As I've said before I love using my iPad as a school counselor.  It has been a great addition to my program.

Stay tuned, I have more to share in 2013!

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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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JYJ Counselor Blog FAQ's

First off, I want to thank you for reading and contacting me.  I LOVE connecting with other school counselors!  In my connecting with you, I've noticed that I get these questions the most, so I'll share my answers with you.

How do you have time to manage a blog?

Well I actually have superhuman powers that allow me to make it off very little sleep... no not really!  Pretty much like any "new" thing that gets added to our counselor plates, we somehow make do.  During my first 3 years of counseling, I felt as though I did every possible school and counselor duty under the sun and didn't have much time to make my own counseling program the way I wanted it.   I would have never dreamed of writing a blog.  When I got a position at my current school, I was in total shock when the principal told me I was hired to be the counselor and nothing else (whoo hoo).  So since I had more freedom to do counselor things, I thought that a blog would be a great outlet to share and connect with other school counselors.  The good thing about blogging is that it's by my choice and it's something that I really enjoy doing.  I've made great connections with counselors all over!  I blog when I have the time, but managing a blog hasn't felt like a burden at all.  Once I got into my groove of how I wanted my blog to flow (it took a while) things kind of fell into place. 

How often do you write on your blog?

Some bloggers write on certain days of the week at certain times of the day, that's not quite me.  I write whenever I have an idea to share.  Now here's the catch, I almost NEVER complete a post in one sitting.  Whenever I get an idea for a blog post, I usually start the post and come back to writing as I feel like it and as the "project" progresses.  Some posts take me a few days, while others take weeks (or longer).  I try to be detailed with pictures and directions in my posts so, that's why it may take me a while.  Some posts are my 1st time trying out something new and I want to make sure I have all my "ducks in a row" (my mother says that). 

Will using an iPad really enhance my counseling program?

Absolutely!  Now I know some people aren't fans of Apple products but that's the beauty of choosing another tablet (there are many other options on the market).  I can speak based on my experience with my iPad and it has been wonderful!  When I got an iPad, I was determined to make it work for me both personally and professionally and it has!  I use my iPad every day I'm at school.  I'm still learning new and innovative ways to incorporate its use into my counseling program.  Stay tuned, I'll be sure to share with you!

I heart using my iPad!

Where do you get your ideas from?

Oh my, I consider myself to be kind of a free spirit so my ideas just come to me.  I could be sitting reading and get an idea to try at school.  I use Pinterest and read other blogs from school counselors to get inspiration also.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or comments.  I LOVE connecting with other school counselors. Pin It

Counselor Blog Shout Out: Entirely Elementary Counseling

This month's counselor blog shout out is....

The Entirely Elementary School Counseling Blog is a fun & fantastic blog from Sue from PA.  I've been a reader of this blog for quite some time and have gotten so many great ideas from her.  This site is a must see for us elementary school counselors (although there's lots of things that can be modified for middle school counselors).  Need ideas for a cool bulletin board, organization, class lessons...this blog has this and so much more!  Here some great things that Sue has shared:

Thanks to Entirely Elementary blog for my next bulletin board idea:
(thanks so much for the printables...lifesaver!)

Your own real-life Hunter & His Amazing Remote Control:

Motivation medals:

Add Entirely Elementary to your counselor blog roll, you'll be glad that you did!

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Counselor Blog Shout Out: Scrapbook of a School Counselor

This month's counselor blog shout out is:

Scrapbook of a School Counselor

Scrapbook of a School Counselor is an awesome counselor blog by counselor friend Tabitha out of Colorado who amazed me by keeping a (very helpful) blog during her first year as a school counselor (my 1st year I could barely keep up with being a counselor let alone write a blog).  She shares a wealth of ideas for small groups and is ever so creative.  I've used several of her ideas in my counseling program (the worry box was a hit with my 3rd graders).  You'll find lots of neat and cool counselor ideas on this blog.  I can't wait to find out what Tabitha has up her counseling sleeve for her 2nd year! 

If you know of a great counselor blog or great tech feature to benefit school counselors that deserves a shout out please contact me so that they may be featured in an upcoming post. Pin It

Starting a Counselor Blog

I know many of you are reading great counselor blogs and have the desire to start your own, but may have a little uncertainty about taking the plunge into the blog world.  My advice is to go ahead and do it!  Summer is great time to start since you may have a little less on your plate. Blogs can give us a little glimpse in your counselor world and give great ideas on what things that you do in your counseling program.

There's no "right" way to blog, it's you sharing your personal counselor experiences so it's certainly not meant to be a one size fit all deal.  I've been blogging for a little over a year and will say that my blog posts have improved with time.  Once I figured out what worked best for me, my blog truly started to show my fun, fancy-free, tech loving counselor lifestyle.  Here are a few tips I'd like to share as you ponder, plan or begin your own counselor blog:

-Read several blogs and get a feel of the writers and topics discussed.  I read all of my blogs on my iPad on one of my favorite apps ever Pulse Reader (free).  Another good blog reader is Google Reader (free) which you can read on your computer.  Each blogger has their own style and by reading others you get an idea of ways that you can "express yourself". Some great counselor blogs to follow are:

Corner on Character
Counseling by Heart
Elementary School Counseling
Savvy School Counselor
School Counselor Blog
Scrapbook of a School Counselor
and since your reading this, go ahead and add jyjoyner counselor to your blog list (shameless plug)

These are all jyjcounselor "approved" to have great ideas and are very helpful for school counselors.  I really enjoy reading these blogs. Another reason why I like these counselor blogs is that the writers post/update new info regularly. 

-Think of who your audience will be.  Will your blog be geared towards parents at your school, other counselors, interns, college students, etc?  Cater your blog writing to your audience.

-Decide which blog site you would like to use.  Several popular blog sites are: blogger, word press, edublogs.

-How often do you want to post on your blog? I try to post at least twice a week but once a week or even twice a month may work for you.  It's a good idea to post pretty regularly & consistenly so that other readers will continue to follow your blog. 

-Take pictures:  Show & tell time friends! Pictures give a visual of what you're talking about in your blog.  I use my digital camera, iPad and my iPhone to take pictures of things that I may want to share with you awesome counselor friends.  Who doesn't love looking at pictures?

-Don't worry, there's NO right or wrong way to do your blog.  You call the shots on what direction you want your blog to go in.

I'll also share that I've made great connections with my blog friends and communicate with them pretty often.  It's like an extended counselor family!  

So who's ready to start...blog on!  If you do decide to create a counselor blog, please share it with me, I'd love to see it. Pin It

Counselor Blog Shout Out: The Corner on Character

This month's counselor blog shout out is:

The Corner on Character Blog is a fun and inspirational blog from TX school counselor Barbara.  I love how Barbara ties her posts into an event in her life, her family or even food! It's amazing the kinds of connections she makes!  I don't know of any other counselor that can tie in recipes into school counseling lessons.  Looking for books to use to teach character, chances are The Corner on Character Blog will have it and by the way she posts very regularly (I can barely keep up with 2 posts a wk) so you know she's awesome.  Go ahead and add the Corner on Character Blog to your blog list or Pulse reader (my fav iPad app).  You'll love it! Pin It

Counselor Tech Dilemia: Which should I do, Blog, Website, Wiki, Twitter, Facebook?

Since the summer's here and in full swing, many of us school counselors sit back, relax and think of things to do and improve and try for the next school year.  I've gotten quite a few questions asking about which social media tools to use to start for counselor programs: a blog, creating a website, getting on Twitter, etc.  Let me begin by saying that there's a difference in each type of social media and it totally depends on what works best for you (I know that's NOT the answer you were looking for).  Here's my short version of each type of social media other school counselors use, hopefully it will help you figure out which one(s) will work best for you.

-Blogging:  Having a counselor blog is like having a sort of online diary (if that makes sense).  For a blog you'll need to type a post (diary entry) pretty regularly.  For me, my blog started out as a blog for parents then I changed my format to be geared towards other school counselors.  I'm hooked and LOVE blogging, LOVE connecting with other school counselors & LOVE hearing from you!  I use Blogger as my blog site of choice but many other people use Word Press.  There are also other blog sites to choose from, just Google blogging websites and you'll get a buffet of choices. 
Pros: very easy to set up, you can write about what you want.
Cons: Need to post on your blog regularly.

-Creating a counselor website:  A website will require a lot of time towards the initial part of creating it, but once it's done you only have to update it as needed.  I'll be honest, I worked on my jyjcounselor website all last summer but once it was completed throughout the school year I had to update it as needed (very quick updates like upcoming events, parent reminders, etc).  I used Weebly to create my website.  There's a free version and a pro version ($40).  I opted to go for the paid version after a full year of the free version (which is fine) but I wanted the added features that were included in the paid version.
Pros:  Once created very easy to update
Cons: May take a while to create and set up your web page (but it's very do-able)

-Twitter:  Twitter is an easy way to post news, events, ideas in 140 characters or less.  It takes no time to create an account.  It's great to follow #schoolcounseling news and ideas.  I would also suggest to use Tweetdeck to read your tweets (it's much easier in to understand in tweetdeck and you can schedule your tweets days or months in advance).  Twitter is a great way to get info out to parents and students that have cell phones.  There's an awesome tweet to text feature that allows people to receive your tweets as text messages.  Click here to see a previous post about this great feature.  I'm actually going to do a parent training on this feature at our meet the teacher event (my school will be actively using Twitter this year). Twitter is also another tool to connect with counselors and get resources.  Each month there is a #scchat (school counselor chat) where we talk about various counselor topics.  Be sure to use the tag #scchat in your tweet so that you can easily follow along with us.  Other helpful school counseling tags are #edtech, #asca12 or #edchat. 
Pros: Short messages to your followers, tweet to text feature, wealth of information can be found on Twitter.
Cons: Can be overwhelming with many tweets (use Tweetdeck to make this easier).

-Creating a Counselor Facebook Fan Page: If you're already on Facebook, you can make a fan page and just post counselor info on it.  I'm very new to this concept so I'm can't honestly give my pro's and cons yet (I just created my jyjcounselor fan page & will keep you posted).

There are so many ways to connect with other counselors, parents and students.  Isn't technology just great?  What tech tool(s) are you working on using or are already using in your school counseling program? Pin It

Counselor Blog Shout Out: Counseling by Heart

This month's counselor blog shout out is:

School Counseling by Heart

School Counseling by Heart is a great and thoughtful blog from elementary school counselor Rebecca L. in Vermont.  She is super nice and don't you just love the picture with the heart?  Rebecca gives great tips on what works well in her counseling program such as book suggestions, activities and even strategies on working with students who may have special needs.  I've certainly gotten great ideas from her and this great blog! 

If you know of a great counselor blog or great tech feature to benefit school counselors that deserves a shout out please contact me so that they may be featured in an upcoming post. Pin It

New Feature: JYJ Blog & Tech Shout Out

There are so many great counselor blogs and great tech tips that have helped me in my school counselor journey.  I want to share the wealth, with you!  So each month I plan to give a counselor blog or great tech feature a "shout out". 

The school counselor blog shout out is:

Savvy School Counselor

 I am a huge fan of the Savvy School Counselor Blog.  This blog has great and very creative ideas on elementary lessons, activities, creative crafts & book suggestions to use in your school counseling program.  She also gives tips on understanding and planning for National Board Certification if that's a direction that you're interested in working towards.  Vanessa is a school counselor in my school district, who has fantastic ideas.  I think that she's so awesome and I think you will too!

The tech feature shout out is:



Secrets for iPad (Lite)

Now that many of us have or plan to have an iPad, Secrets for iPad app (free, my favorite price) will help you get started with the basics of using your iPad. It's very simple to read and understand and the pictures and graphics are crystal clear!  I consider myself fairly competent with using the iPad but this app gave me several great pointers. 

If you know of some other great counselor blogs or awesome tech features that would benefit counselors, please feel free to contact me so that I can continue to share. Pin It

Getting Counselor Blogs

Before I became "the JYJ Counselor" blogger, I was and am still an avid blog reader.   Blogs are great ways to find resources, news, tips, recipes, decorating tips, etc, ok maybe that's MY blog reader, but you get the idea of where I'm going.  It took me a while to get the courage to actually start blogging, after one attempt earlier last year with not many people following (don't worry about the number of followers by the way), I revamped my blog and just type what's going on at my school and in my little counselor world.  I'm often asked by school counselors on which blogs I follow, what I use to read blogs and the most popular question (which I love by the way)...How can I start my own school counselor blog?

To answer those questions:

School Counselor Blogs that I follow and recommend:

-SCOPE (School Counselor Online Professional Exchange) well this actually is a wiki that has a fantastic blog roll of school counselor blogs!

Blog Readers:

The easiest and simplest way for me to read blogs is to read them on my iPad on my Pulse reader app.  I wrote a post about how it is one of my favorite apps!

Starting a blog:

There are various (free) blog sites that you can make your blog on.  I use Blogger because it's through Google and I like the ease of using it (plus there's a blogger app so that I can blog on my iPad although I'm not really a fan of the small keyboard).  Other popular blog sites are Word Press, Blog.com, thoughts.com & Edublog.  You should choose the blog that is easiest for you to use and understand, what works for me may not always work for you.  

Blogging is a fun, fantastic and not to mention easy way to share ideas, thoughts and just general FYI with others.  I've gotten so many school counseling ideas from the various blogs that I read.  Happy Blogging!  

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