Counselor Book Inventory

I thought I'd never say this but....I have way more books than space in my office!  I love books and inherited many, many great books from the previous counselor.  Books are great to use with groups, classes, counselor ideas and to share with parents who may need books on a certain topic.  Many times students and parents will ask for books to use at home and I have to begin my hunt for them.  I do have (most) of counselor my books categorized by topic however, the number of books is slightly more than shelf space, which has caused me to resort to other storage locations.  See below:  By the way, based on the (before) pictures, please no one turn me into the TV show Hoarders.

Book shelf (before the inventory)

After I ran out of shelf space I moved on to the file cabinet

After I filled one drawer, on to drawer #2!

I've run out of shelf & file cabinet space, so I'm forced to use the floor!

Since school's out leading into summer (with teacher workdays), I have the time to do an inventory of all the books that I have.  I can use this inventory to categorize and have a running spreadsheet of the books that I have in my counselor library.  This will also help me keep track of books that I loan out to parents and students during the school year.  Here's what I did:

-I created a survey using Google Docs and used my laptop to keep inventory of the books.  You could also use your iPad, but it's much easier for me to type on the laptop.  My Google Docs survey asks the following questions:
-Book Title
-Author
-Number of copies
-Book Classification (examples: bullying, counselor resource, Classroom visit/lesson, divorce, friendship etc.)

I went through each book and filled out a "survey" form for each book.  As you fill out and complete each survey, Google Docs then puts all your "survey" responses into a neat spreadsheet.

Screenshot of the Google Docs book inventory "survey"

Screenshot of Google Docs Spreadsheet

 As I keyed my 252 books into my Google document, I made somewhat neat piles of books by topic so that when they are filed back, I have the books already grouped.  I actually boxed most of the books up because I'm hoping to get a storage cabinet/cart (fingers crossed) to keep the books on and I will give my shelf to a 5th grade teacher buddy.  
 

After keying the books, I put them in piles, by topic.  The yellow sheet on top lists the topic.

It has taken me 4 days...to complete the book shelf (leisurely, I've been doing other cleaning, end of the year stuff too).  I will need to muster up some courage to tackle the file cabinet drawers with books!  I was able to recycle some of the books to either my counselor's character ed book cart or for "real recycling".  That eliminated  quite a bit of the books that were outdated or I have multiple copies of. 

I copied and pasted my Google spreadsheet into Excel.  You can skip this step if you'd like.  I just like being able to sort and filter in a full version of Excel vs. Google Docs.  Plus if I make an error in my Excel spreadsheet, I still have all of my info in my Google Doc (this is my personal choice, please do what works best for you).

I really was glad to have an chance to go through these books.  Do I want to do it all over again?  Not at all, but it allowed me to have a better idea of what I already have and what types of books I may need to add in the future (which I can add to the inventory list at any time).  This inventory will be great to use next year as an updated way to pull books and resources for parents and students.

How do you keep track/inventory of your counselor books?

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5th Grade Graduation Celebration

 As promised in my previous planning for a 5th grade graduation post, I have pictures from our festivities. 

Graduation Program

Ribbon that all graduates wore

I will admit that I was a little sad to see my 5th graders leave.  It was my 1st year at the school.  I was a little nervous about taking the place of a counselor that retired after 21 years at JYJ. Coming in as the "newbie" at school the kids were so great to work with and were very open and helpful to me.  So I got a little teary-eyed about the occasion.  Two students spoke at the graduation about what an impact the counselor intern and I had on their 5th grade year (tears from me).  Kids were sad to leave and crying (more tears from me) and later on a 5th grade teacher came and told me that most of her class wrote something about how the counselor intern and I had positively impacted their 5th grade year (I lost it here, this is where I did as Oprah says "the ugly cry").  How awesome is it to know that your students think so highly of you?  I think they are absolutely amazing and am flattered that they thought so highly of us, we're just doing out job and enjoying ourselves.

All our planning must have worked because the day/event went well, our speaker, stage decorations and school celebration were fantastic.  The kids were excited, happy and sad (so were we).

Beautiful stage decorations, donated & arranged by a 5th grade parent.

No need for a DJ, use your iPod!

At the school celebration, fun times!

Snow cone truck = total excitement!

Love this picture!

Class of 2012!

After the school day ended, the celebration continued as some of the 5th grade parents planned a celebration off campus for all of the new "graduates".  I thought that this was a great idea taking that many of the students will be at at least 10 different middle schools next year.  I had a blast at both celebrations and felt that it was an excellent way to end the school year!  Here are some pictures from that event: 

The celebration continues....

As soon as I walked in they were ready to dance, I didn't even have time to put down my bag.  Thanks to the parent that snapped this.

5th graders enjoying the beautiful weather!

It's not a party until you see the conga line

me with some of the "graduates"

How was your graduation/end of the year celebration?  I'd love to see pics and hear what you did!  Please feel free to contact me. Pin It

Counselor office re-do plans

After a fun filled 1st year at my school.  I decided about mid year that the office just wasn't quite me and I would have to do something about it.  Now that summer is here and I have time to update my space.  As you can see my office is small, window-less and has a lot of stuff.

The "before" picture

 
I don't have "official" plans or a complete blueprint sketch of what the "after" office will look like, it's just something that I feel will come together once I declutter and sort through things (although if anyone from HGTV or the DIY network is reading, I'm more than willing to be your next project).  I'll keep you posted on the progress of this major project.

Do you have plans to update your counselor space?

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Summer Counselor To-Do List

So summer break will be starting very soon (YAY if you could see me I'd be doing high kicks and back flips)!  With the summer approaching I think about what things I want to do during the summer (when I have lots of relax time for myself) for the upcoming school year.  So here are a few things that come to mind:

-Redecorate/Clean my office:  I moved into my current space this year and really didn't get the opportunity to sort plan things the way that I wanted.  Now that I was in the office for a year, I've thought of many things that might help me maximize space.  I probably should stop my to do list after this project, because I know that it's going to be a lot of work!

-Inventory Counselor Books:  I want to make a list of every counselor book that is in my office.  In the past, I've let parents check out books (which I plan to continue) but when parents ask do I have a book on anxiety, I have to do a bookshelf, cabinet or file cabinet search for them (I do have the books organized by subject which saves some time) but I don't have a full list of what books I have.  That will also save me from having 3 and 4 copies of the same book (2 is enough in most cases, remember I have a small space).

-Create a counselor notebook/planner for me:  I've always just bought a planner and made it work but thanks to Pinterest I've seen other people make their own notebook and so can I!

-Think of/Plan class lessons for next year:  I visit each grade level once a month so that would be 9 lessons for each grade, if I get the first 4-5 months done I'll be happy (some lessons I repeat each year & they're already done).  Decide types of groups that have a need at my school.  

-Begin career cafe:  I love reading about other school counselors career cafes.  I would like to focus on 4th and 5th graders.  I can get an idea of what types of professionals to come based on counselor check-in meetings that I will do at the beginning and middle of the school year.

-Relax and do these projects at my own speed!  During the summer I always tell people that I'm a free spirit and do things based on how I feel for the day (well I'm sort of like this during the year but I have to adhere more to a schedule).  I'm looking forward to this break but feel that these projects will better prepare me for the next year.  I'll keep you posted on my projects.  Happy summer break (I'll still be posting as usual during the summer)!

Do you have a summer counselor to do list? Pin It

Recognizing parent volunteers

What would we do without our parent volunteers? At my school parents volunteer a lot (even for the counselor) and to show our appreciation of all their volunteer hours, we held a volunteer appreciation breakfast.  For this event, I was in charge of the entertainment and the party favors.  This year we really wanted to include our students in the celebration and here's a few things that we did:
-Staff donated money towards the volunteer celebration (food, favors, decorations, etc.)
-Student-made invitations to take home to their parents
-Student-made place mats that said "thank you" on the table
-Flowers from Trader Joe's ($2.99 per bushel) to decorate in tin pails (borrowed from the assistant principal)
-We have a stash of table clothes and serving bowls on hand at school ($0).

Tables decorated w/ student-made placements and flowers

Student-made placement

Food!

The entertainment piece was easy and I didn't have to look far to find it!  I recruited students that wanted to showcase their musical talents.  The students were more than happy to play a tune whether it was on the piano, violin, guitar, recorder or even in song.  Of course having local musicians gives the event a more personal touch and the students feel a little ownership in the event (plus more parents will attend to see their child).

Recorder players

Tickling the keys

Rocking on!

Strumming the strings

A violin soloist!

Piano

More piano

Thanks to Pinterest, the party favors were bottled water with a packet of Crystal Light On the Go packets.  I saw a lot of cute cards that were attached to the bottled water on Pinterest but I was short on time so I bought some round labels from Staples ($7) used the online template and typed "Thank you JYJ volunteers for quenching our thirst for student success". 

Avery Round Labels

Screen shot of labels in Word.

After the original packaging from the water bottles was removed, myself and a great co-worker friend put the new volunteer labels on (you can put the label over the glue from the previous label, no one will notice).

Water bottles w/ labels

We then used a very small hole puncher to punch holes at the top of the Crystal Light packets (be careful not to punch too low...potential to make a mess). 

Hole punched packets

After hole punching the Crystal Light, we added ribbon through each hole to tie to each bottle of water.  We chose ribbon in school colors (blue & gold).  I got the ribbon at Michael's for 50 cents each (bought 4 = $2). 

With blue & gold ribbon

Here's the finished product:

The parents really seemed to like the breakfast, water bottle and especially the entertainment.  What a great way to recognize how much we appreciate the efforts of our parent volunteers.

What ways do you recognize parent volunteers? Pin It

So What's So Great About Elementary Counseling?

I had a great opportunity to participate on a panel with other awesome school counselors (Kevin McGee, Jessica Ricks, Kelsey Felton & Raelene Daley) for a class of students seeking their master's degree in School Counseling from UNC-Chapel Hill. 

Counselor Panel: Jessica Ricks, myself, Kelsey Felton, Raelene Daley (not pictured Kevin McGee)

Prior to the panel discussion I was already warned that many of the counseling students were weary about interning or working in an elementary setting, so I had a hard item to sell.  I too was in their shoes.  I taught high school, interned at a high school and thought of course that I'd always work on the high school level.  While interning, I talked with one of the counselors who told me that the elementary level would be a great fit for me.  I thought he was totally wrong, but where was the only place that I got a job offer????  Yep that's right, elementary! 

I absolutely LOVE working on the elementary level, it was an adjustment at first working with younger students, but their energy and excitement is contagious and I feel their great energy too!  There are always pro's and cons at any job but your counseling job is what you make out of it and I choose to make it as awesome as possible!

Here's a few pro's and con's (this list is not complete, just off the top of my head for this post):
Pro's:  The students, working alone, being able to make my own counselor schedule, no school scheduling, total creative control over the counselor program.
Con's: Working alone,  possibility of being test coordinator (I'm not test coordinator now, but was at a previous school), being a specialist (on a scheduled rotation like music, art, PE).

Notice that I have "working alone" as both a pro and con.  Working alone can be great because you get to call the shots, but when you have a lot on your plate, it can be overwhelming at times (thank goodness that I've had an intern to work with).

After giving our "speeches" on what's so great about elementary counseling several students came up to me with more questions about my experiences on the elementary level.  You should work where you feel is the best fit for you.  We encouraged the students to spend a day on a different school level to get a feel for it (elementary's the best by the way!)

What makes working on your school level so great? Pin It

Planning a 5th grade graduation

In my day (wow that saying makes me sound old), the ONLY graduation I ever had in grades K-12 was my high school graduation, now graduations are popping up at each school level.  I actually like the idea of having a 5th grade graduation because the students are "graduating" in a sense to a new beginning in middle school and leaving elementary school. 

As expected graduation is a big deal and my school's no different so there's been lots of planning to.  Luckily, there's a graduation committee (which I am a part of with several 5th grade parents).  Graduation is pretty much the same show at any age (speeches, songs, memories, remarks, etc), but of course it's meaning and magnitude changes at each changing stage of life (elementary, middle, high, college).  So if you're planning for a Kindergarten, 5th grade or even 8th grade graduation for the 1st time here are some pointers and tips that I've learned this year:

-Recruit help from others:  I can't stress this enough, graduation is a large task to take on solo. Delegating duties to others will help you keep your sanity!  There's always a person(s) who's great at party planning, ask them to take on  a few of the graduation tasks. Don't be afraid to ask, most people are happy and willing to help.

-Secure a speaker sooner than later: Often this part of graduation gets overlooked.  Have several choices of speakers just in case there are scheduling conflicts. 

-Make ribbons in the school colors for everyone to wear:  We aren't wearing robes (hey, this is 5th grade) but the ribbons will show some uniformity among the "graduates".  I had the vision for the ribbon idea but asked one of my crafty 5th grade parents to make them (picture coming soon).

-Use an online certificate maker:  You can easily print graduation certificates from multiple websites or if you're crafty and creative use Word, Pages, Publisher or any design software.  Here's a few online certificate maker websites:
     -123 Certificates 
     -Quick Certificate Printer
     -Microsoft Academic Certificates
     -Other Microsoft Certificates

-Making a graduation slideshow can be a very daunting task.  Recruiting help from others is great for this too.   In our graduation slideshow (you can use PowerPoint or Keynote), we have 2 pictures of each 5th grade student (a baby picture and a current picture).  It took me nearly a month to collect, scan, constantly remind and save my 5th graders baby pictures.   For getting the current picture, there should be a disk with a copy of every students picture at your school (from the fall school pictures that everyone takes).  Also on the slide show we put what middle school that the students will be attending for next year (we have students going to about 10 different schools).  At other school levels you could list the high school or college that the students will be attending.  In this task, I volunteered to collect, scan & save the pictures.  It wasn't too bad getting the pictures.  I sent an email to the 5th grade teachers which they forwarded to their parent email lists, had them put the picture request in the class newsletter and also reminded students in our middle school group lunches.  Another creative 5th grade parent is actually creating the slide show and there will be copies of the DVD for each student to take home as a keepsake.

-Ask parents & staff to bring in flowers for stage decorations.  Someone always has several ferns and potted flowers that can be borrowed for a few hours.  Total cost: $ 0! (have you noticed a trend in recruiting help from others yet?)

-If there will be a celebration after the graduation, make a playlist(s) on your iPod and connect to an external speaker (borrowed from another 5th grade parent) and that's your DJ.  When I had my small middle school group meetings, I had the students to make a list of songs that they wanted to hear that were appropriate for school.  Several of the students actually had the CD's for me to put into my iTunes library.  I listened to the songs to make sure that they were appropriate (a few were not and they were taken off the list).  I threatened to just play Kidz Bop and call it a day (there's nothing wrong w/ Kidz Bop by the way).   I even overheard a student whisper to someone "man she's going to ruin our graduation if she plays Kidz Bop!"


- If you're ordering graduation t-shirts for the students, instead of having the names typed on the back, have the students sign their names on the screen print of the shirt.  This will almost eliminate typos, misspelled names and not leaving anyone out. The shirt printer will provide the special paper for the students to sign. Here's an example of our shirt for this year:

I'll post pictures of our graduation to show the final results in a few days (graduation's on the 7th).

Graduation is a special occasion whether it be kindergarten or college!  As counselors, we can try to do our best to help students and families enjoy the celebration (and enjoy ourselves of course).

What ways to you celebrate graduation at your school?  If you have other graduation tips please share, contact me. Pin It