12 Days Before Holiday/Winter Break

The holiday season covers all kinds of emotions, happiness, excitement, stress, anxiety and for the 2nd year in a row to pump up the staff for the exciting break, we did the 12 days before Christmas (JYJ style).  Several teachers and myself thought of this and we also had help and support from our PTA.  So here's what we did (these are pics from last year & I apologize that I don't have pictures for all the days but you'll get the gist):

-Day 1:  Turtledove Treat (Turtle and Dove Candy w/ a little note)

-Day 2: Guess the number of (holiday) M&M's in a jar (the PTA) counted and put the jar in the staff mail room and the winner got the candy.

-Day 3:  Carols in the Cafe, a Holiday playlist on the iPod that was played using an iPod speaker during lunch.

-Day 4:  Holiday Photo Booth, we used a corner wall on the main hallway and decorated with props (staff brought in the props).  There's a staff member who does photography as a hobby and volunteered to take the pictures (we also used our phones).

-Day 5: Staff  lunch and coverage for lunch duty (sponsored by PTA)

-Day 6:  Cookie Exchange (staff brought in cookies/sweets to share)

-Day 7:  Flannel Friday, wear your flannel/holiday PJ's and enjoy some hot chocolate (sponsored by our PTA).

-Day 8:  Find the hidden holiday ornaments, PTA put 5 ornaments throughout the school and if you found one you won a prize.

-Day 9:  Give and receive a snowman of appreciation (we assigned everyone a person to write a nice note to and each person also received a Hershey's Hug and Kiss candy).  The snowmen were cut using a dye-cutter and some people got creative and added more to their snowman (see mine below).  For the person that I wrote a snowman to, I knew that they liked diet soda so I put a dollar with the snowman to buy a drink from the drink machine. 

-Day 10: Holiday headgear day

-Day 11:  Pin the nose on Rudolph (like pin the tail on the donkey, blindfold and all), the top 3 people closest to his nose win a prize. 

-Day 12: Tacky Holiday Sweater Day

The "countdown" to holiday break was even more interesting by adding fun events for staff.  This year we're doing it again and adding a few different things.  What things does your school do to celebrate staff for the holiday/winter break?  Please share.


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The Countdown Until Spring Break (Staff Pick Me Ups)

Despite the snow days and the unexpected time off Spring Break just seemed like a (very) distant dream.  Well this year to pump up the staff for the exciting break, we did a countdown with a daily theme for the days before spring break (similar to the 12 days of Christmas, which we also do and I'll share later on).  Several teachers and myself thought of this and we also had help from our PTA.  So here's what we did:

-Hawaiian/Island Day, wear your favorite tropical themed shirt, hat, etc.  Kelly and I had on fresh leis straight from Hawaii that someone brought back for us from their trip right before this (how convenient).

Check out our "official" leis.  They are absolutely beautiful & I loved being able to smell fresh flowers all day.

Our staff really got into this!

-Guess the number of (spring) M&M's in the jar and the person closet to the actual number wins.

-Island Snack Themed Day (sponsored by our PTA)

Pineapple juice with umbrellas, I can almost see the beach!

-Spring "Prom" and Photo Booth Day, we LOVE a photobooth opportunity at JYJ!  We have an awesome staff member who was a former journalist & photographer who took pics of everyone.

-Easter Egg Hunt Day, there were 5 plastic eggs hidden throughout the building (a parent hid them) and if you found an egg you won a prize.  I actually won a gift card from finding an egg!

-March Munching Madness Day, wear your favorite college team shirt and bring in finger/snack foods to share with the staff.

-Staff "Sailing" Spotlight Day, write a note to a staff member to brighten their day and for a special touch we had Lifesavers candy to add to the sailing effect.  Each staff member was assigned a person to write a note to.  It was so nice to receive a little pick me up note during the week.

-Wake Up and Read PJ Day, this was the end of our district wide book collection drive and both students and staff wore PJ's.  Our school collected over 4,000 books to donate!

This was soooo much fun to do and went over well with the staff as you can tell from the pics.  We may have to do a another countdown for other school milestones, stay tuned.


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Get "Green" for Your School by Going "Green"

Have you heard the expression "one person's trash is another person's treasure"?  School counselor friends I have a project that can help you turn your school's trash into "treasure".  My school recently started collecting "trash" (candy wrappers, string cheese wrappers, empty chip bags, yogurt and apple sauce containers) for Terracycle.  Terracycle is a company that upcycles trash into items that can be reused again.  As you turn in items to be recycled, you receive points (money, 1 cent per piece) that can go towards any non profit or charity that you choose (it adds up very quickly).  My school is raising money to fund classrooms in Haiti, but I've heard of other schools that donate the money back to their school's PTA so the money comes directly back to school.

This project costs no money to start but does take some teamwork and planning.  We have a team to put this together and run it.  Click here to read how to get started with Terracycle.  They provide free shipping labels for your boxes of recyclable products and are very easy to contact if you have questions. 

We started collecting right before Halloween (hello tons of candy wrappers) and within 6 six weeks we had collected  21 boxes of items to be recycled!  It has gone very well because we also have students bringing in items from home to be recycled too.  We have a "JYJ Green Team" which consists of students & staff that collect and sort recyclables at our school.

(Top) Green team shirts (aren't they awesome), (bottom) collected items about to be shipped off.

I haven't mentioned this before but I have a passion for recycling and taking care of our environment.  Things that can't be recycled at school, I bring home and put in my recycle bin at home & I take my own bags to the store.   I even hope to one day drive a hybrid car (but since I haven't had a raise in 6 years, that's going to have to wait). This project really lets us as a school see how much we waste in our day to day activities and lives and how just saving something so small like a candy wrapper can make such a huge impact on our world (since we are helping fund classrooms in another country).

Does your school do Terracyle or have a recycling program? Pin It

Look Who's Been SPOTTED for Staff Spotlight

Staff morale truly plays a role in the direction and climate of any school.  One cool thing that my school does each month is "spotlight" great things that people are doing in the building.  Here's what we do:
-There's a bulletin board with the words "Look Who's Been Spotted" with "Spot" the jaguar on it (that's our school mascot).  There are spots (just construction paper cut in the shape of a circle) where any staff member can give another staff member a "spot".

-People write their compliment or shout out on the spot and staple it to "Spot" the jaguar. Sometimes people write who it's from, sometimes they don't, that's another cool thing, you never know how what you do affects someone in a positive way (umm hello that's school counseling/working in a school all the time).

-Each month at our staff meeting, we have a time where the principal and assistant principal read the spots and staff members are recognized (we get to keep our spots too).  It's neat to hear what nice, caring and thoughtful things our staff does to support each other.   I'll admit I actually enjoy this part of the meeting, because as the spots are being read, we clap and cheer for the person being recognized (and by the way it really feels good when it's your name being called).

Poor Spot, has no spots.....

Lots of spots for staff!

I even had a spot, whoot whoot!

This consistent staff recognition goes a long way with us and is a great pick me up.   

What ways does your school recognize staff in a positive way? Pin It

(Another) Holiday Assistance Idea for Students

Yes, the holidays are certainly in full swing and I like many of you are in charge of some sort of holiday assistance program at my school.  I've shared with you in a post about how I plan and implement at holiday assistance program at my school.  But surprise, I have another idea for holiday assistance to share....

This year our student support team thought of another way to help students that may need assistance...by giving them a school shirt.  So that's exactly what we're doing.  Just think about it, when you first started working at your school, when you received your school shirt you felt a sense of "being official" and belonging so why wouldn't our students that don't have a school shirt feel this same exact way?

Here are a few of my school shirts.  They make me feel "official". 

From that thought we decided to collect gently used school t-shirts or give parents the option to donate money to purchase new school shirts (each shirt is $10).  I am not sure of the dynamics of your school, but as I'll say again, I am extremely fortunate to work in a school where we have lots of support from parents.  Most parents have donated money to purchase new shirts.  I've given out some of the shirts and the excitement and smiles are absolutely amazing!  We have had a lot of support as well as positive feedback on this project and would like to continue this throughout the year for new students that may transfer in mid-year and may not be able to purchase a school shirt.  Something so small to us as a school t-shirt can really make a huge impression on a child. 


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Answers to Planning Holiday Help Questions

I've gotten several questions from you awesome school counselors from my previous post about planning and implementing holiday assistance programs at your school.  So here's my responses to some of my more frequent questions:

-How far in advance do you plan for your holiday help program?
I usually make/print the tags and labels (they're not filled out yet) for the tree in late October and I send home letters to families in early November. I have a quick turnaround time for letters to be returned back to me (usually less than a week) and I am very firm on forms being turned in by the due date.

-What do you do when numbers aren't taken from the tree to help students and families?
I haven't really had that problem.  I have the tree up before Thanksgiving break (the parents at my school expect it to be up by then, just in case they want to shop on Black Friday) and my principal mentions it in her weekly message.  Last year within 2 days of the announcement all of the tags were taken (I added more gift cards to the tree later to "refill" it and those were also taken in a matter of days)  

Snowman tree

Tags on the tree

-Does everyone bring back their gifts if they take a number off the tree?
Yes (knocks on wood)!  I'm very fortunate to work in a school where parents are extremely supportive with this project and are more than willing to donate to our families in need.  

-What do you do if someone doesn't bring in their gifts?
When the parents take a number off the tree, there's portion that they must fill out for me to keep track of who has what number.  I am able to contact the people with "missing gifts" (if needed).  I also add gift cards (in any amount) to various stores to our tree in the event that someone doesn't bring in a gift that we can also give out if a gift is missing.  

-What if a parent doesn't come in for their child's parent conference as required for the holiday help program?
Unfortunately if a parent does not come in for a conference their child's name does not go on the tree.  I also am very firm with this and stress this point (several times) in my letter.  My administration fully supports me on this rule.  The teachers at my school are great with letting me know who's come in for a conference.  In fact some of our hard to reach parents (we all have them at our schools) came in for their conference because they wanted to be sure to be put on the tree, so it's worked out pretty well. 

One more thing that we do is write a thank you note to every person that donates a gift for the snowman tree.  I use the contact info cards that the parents fill out when they take a number off the tree to know who to address the thank you note to.  The administration and student support services team all take a stack of names and write the note to those parents (we do them after the holidays & send them home with their children).  So many parents were so impressed with our handwritten notes afterwards!  

Planning for a holiday assistance program at your school is very doable, but takes a little planning.  Good luck as you prepare for the upcoming holidays at your school.

Do you have any other tips to share for how you plan and implement holiday help at your school?




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Make A Back to School Counselor Wish List

Of course every school has a meet the teacher/open house event.  This not only is a great time to introduce yourself to parents and students, tell them why the school counselor is so awesome but also a time display your "counselor wish list".  All the teachers at my school have a wish list of items outside of their classroom door that parents can donate to the classroom.  Well this year, I decided to join in and make a "counselor wish list" for counselor things that will be used for students (not to mention that fact that our salaries have been frozen yet again, for a 6th year but that's another post).  On my wish list, I asked for gift cards (in any dollar amount) to stores where I can purchase many counselor goodies from (Target, Walmart, AC Moore & Michael's).

To make my wish list, I typed "JYJ Counselor Wishlist" in Word and made little tags of the items on my wish list, that parents can take off the board.  You could also just write your wish list items on post-it notes (several teachers do this at my school).  I put them on a piece of colored paper right outside of my door.  My office is in the main hallway and gets lots of traffic.

Wish list sign (made in Word)

Wish list take away tags (also made in Word)

Tags on colored paper

Finished Product

Having these wish list items will be a great way to have more supplies for counselor ideas and lessons that myself and the counselor intern can use throughout the school year.  This counselor wish list may or may not be ideal based on your school population (always do what works best for you).  I am very fortunate to work at a school where parents are extremely supportive with providing needed items and supplies for all staff. 

I'm so excited that I was able to have my own "wish list" this year and have the opportunity to bring new supplies to my school counselor program.

Do you use a school counselor wish list at your school?


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February's Black History Month!

February is an exciting month, not only is it National School Counseling week during this month, but is the month to celebrate the accomplishments and history of African-Americans.   Here are some of the things that I'm doing during the month:

-I made a  black history month book display in the media center.  I used  Kente cloth printed fabric (that a parent let me borrow) and lots of books to showcase books with African American writers, illustrators and/or characters (the librarian helped me with the books, she's fabulous).

-I made a PowerPoint of black history month facts to be shown each day in February on our school news.  The facts also rotate throughout the day on the classroom televisions.  Here are a couple of samples of what I created:

Gabby Douglas

President Obama

-I also will focus on diversity & acceptance of others in my monthly class visit lessons.  Click here for book ideas and lessons.


-We'll have a lunch celebration for the staff celebrating Black History Month (soul food menu).

And don't forget about my African-American inventors from A-Z bulletin board, I shared with you earlier.

What plans to you have to celebrate black history month in your school?



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JYJ Gives Back Night (Planning a School-Wide Service Night Part III)

I've given you tips on how to run a school-wide character ed event at your school (in part I and part II) and now it's time to share how our 2013 JYJ Gives Back School-Wide Event went (this is part III).  Also I want to mention that JYJ actually gives back ALL year through community service.  Each grade level is given money that has to be specifically used for a community service project for the school year. 

Here's who & how we helped out this year:

TV Screenshot of station locations (created by the fantastic technology teachers at my school)

-Wake county SPCA:  made dog chew toys out of old t-shirts

Making dog chew toys for SPCA

-Mayview Nursing Home:  made (early) Valentine's Day cards

Valentine's day cards

-Tammy Lynn Center: (for developmentally delayed children & adults): made musical instruments out of cardboard tubes

-UNC-Children's Hospital: notes and care packages for patients.  We also collected money school-wide to purchase 2 wagons to donate to the hospital (they use wagons to transport children through the hospital instead of gurneys or wheelchairs).  Some people were so moved by our efforts that 3 parents offered to donate another 3 wagons to the hospital on our behalf at our event (what a great way to show JYJ Gives Back)!  We had a station where students could sign the wagons.

Wagons "before"

Signed Wagon

-Ronald McDonald House:  notes and care packages for patients

Making care packages

-Raleigh Rescue Mission (local homeless shelter):  made & packed meals

Making sandwiches for the Raleigh Rescue Mission

-Backpack Buddies: packed meals for our PTA sponsored program

Food donations!

-USO: notes and care packages to the soldiers

USO station

-Refugee mission collection: separated winter coats, gloves, socks, scarfs and hats to donate to refugee families and children in the area.


-Several classes were really into the "giving back" and went above and beyond collecting items, helping set up and even running service stations at the event.  We had so many donations, which is why our event was such a success and so very meaningful!

We had an outstanding turnout from students and parents, by having Spanish performances (in full costume) throughout the evening (JYJ is a magnet Spanish immersion school) so each grade level had a group to perform throughout the event in various locations in the school (this also doubled our attendance and donations from last year).

3rd grade performance

Kindergarten performance

The wonderful technology teachers at my school put together this fantastic video of our very successful event!  Take a look (and yes, both myself & the counselor intern made a cameo appearance, we're the very last ones on the video):

Does your school have a school-wide service night event?  If you do, I'd love to hear how you run yours, please share!





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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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