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

JYJ Counselor Shout Out...Elementary School Counseling

This month's counselor blog/website shout out is:

Elementary School Counseling, written by the awesome Marissa out of Ohio has been one of my go to school counselor website/blogs for quite some time.  Plus who can't love a website, with such a cute blue puppet friend! Need bulletin board ideas, class lessons, group activities, this is your one-stop-shop counselor resource place to visit!

Love this guy!

One cool thing I love about Marissa's website is that she is NOT camera shy (I can't say the same about myself) and does lots of school counselor how-to videos.  She even did a video on how to incorporate your role as the school counselor into how you dress (great tips and I'm not much a fashion rule follower, so that was right up my alley).

I will warn you, you'll spend quite some time looking through this very helpful and resourceful counselor website.  

Add this to your must read counselor blog list and you will certainly not regret it.  Thanks Marissa for sharing your (wonderful) ideas with us!

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Counselor Tech Shout Out: Fluid app

This month's tech shout out is...

Fluid, which is a (free) app that I just LOVE!!!  Have a student that needs to calm down or need to calm down yourself?  This is certainly the app for you.  It's very simple, just some rocks, water and calming music.  The cool factor is that you can move your fingers across the screen as if you were running your hands through the water.  The best part is it looks and feels as if you are touching a liquid surface (minus the potential mess of water splashing all over your office).  I found this app to be very beneficial as a school counselor and I'm sure you will too.  Take a few minutes to relax and enjoy this app.

Screen shot of rocks & water.  Simple yet extremely practical!

Do you have any other calming apps to suggest, please share.

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Counselor Blog Shout Out: Cool School Counseling

This month's counselor blog shout out is:

Cool School Counseling

Lauren is indeed a "cool school counselor" out of VA sharing her creative and great school counseling lessons and ideas.  I'm super impressed that as a 2nd year counselor Lauren has even found time to write an awesome blog.  I certainly know that I wouldn't be able to keep up a blog from my 1st-4th years as a counselor, so kudos to you Lauren.

Lauren has shared with us ways to incorporate community service into her counseling program (I'm working on that too!) and had a great bulletin board idea to show the connection between the two.

Lauren has also put the "character" into character education with costumes for each trait (so creative).

This is a blog that I look forward to reading more so add Cool School Counseling to your blog list for more "cool" and neat counselor ideas.

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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 Tech Shout Out: Dropbox

This month's counselor tech shout out is:

Dropbox Link

This is one of my "staple" tech tools.  Dropbox is online storage that allows you to save your files, pictures, videos and music to a cloud storage.  You can easily share your files and folders with others and transferring files from your USB memory stick to Dropbox is pretty simple (just copy and paste the files from the memory stick to Dropbox).  Files can be accessed from any computer (or device like the iPad, iPod touch, Andriod) that has an wi-fi/internet connection.  When I do classroom visits during the school year, I just log onto Dropbox and pull up my lesson.  There was no need to carry (and worry about losing) a memory stick.  Dropbox will truly simplify your life!

If you have a counselor tech tool that you would like to share, please feel free to contact me  so that it may be featured in an upcoming post. Pin It

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

Counselor Tech Shout out: You Are Your Words

A great tech tool that can be used in a small group is youareyourwords (you are your words) which allows written words to be uploaded and formatted around an image (that you choose).  I'm thinking that this would be a great take away activity for a group.

The website is very easy to use.  You upload a picture, type words, sentences or phrases (400 word minimum) and ta-da it's done!  If I were to do this in a group I would create an "all about me worksheet" and have the students write their words on the worksheet which I'd type into a word document (for the use of the spell check feature and because you can save the document).  I would  take the student's picture with my iPad while in group (simple and easy to do) to upload to the site.

I just played around with the website a bit.  Here's screen shots of how it turned out (click on the photos to see a larger version): 

Upload your pic

Here's me, this is where you'd type in your text.

Results

I like this!  From my "test run" I see that if I had typed more text, the picture would be more defined, but since this is a test, this will do.  I certainly plan to use this for the upcoming school year in my small groups.  For counselors that have a small number of students per grade level this is something that you could do for a grade level activity.  I don't think this would work well for me as a grade level  activity because it would take me forever to type and take pictures of over 100 students, so I'll be sticking to small groups.

How could you use this tech tool in your counselor program? 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 Shout out: Stich.it

Stich.it has got to be one of my new favorite tech tools!  It's a one-stop-shop on combining web links/websites into a slide show, that's super easy to navigate through.  For an example, I combined 8 web links for parents into just one simple link slideshow that I could add to my counselor website.  I also did the same for elementary school counselors in my district that currently have websites/blogs. 

Here's how to use stich.it:
Once you get on the website, you copy and paste the web links that you want to put in your slide show.  For the example below, I did websites for parents on preparing for transitioning to Kindergarten.  After you copy/paste the links click "Stich it"(it may take a few moments for things to "stich").  After your "stich" is complete you will see "your stich" which is the website where the slideshow of your web links can be viewed.  (by the way don't close this tab just yet).

Click on pictures to enlarge

Next you can name your stich.  You can then give brief descriptions of your web pages (this is totally optional).  Some websites already show a description, again, giving a description is optional.

From there click on your stich web link and view your slide show. Click "next" and "previous" to navigate through the pages. 

Your stich link can be copied and pasted and shared with others through email. The only drawback with stich.it is that it's still in beta (testing) form so you can't edit your stich once it's published (this is why I leave the create tab open, you can still add and delete info in that tab).  If you'd like to see more of how stich.it works.  Take a look at the Kindergarten links for parents stich and the counselor stich I did for elementary counselors in my district.  Happy stiching!  Let me know how it works for you. 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