Great Way to Get Books for Your Counselor Library

Books, books, books!!!  How many times have you gone to a book store and find yourself wondering in the children's/young adult section to find books to use for work?  I certainly have.   I use books for many things: classroom lessons, resources for parents & students, my book clubs and our character ed book bucks cart.  I love the joy that reading brings and encourage students to read regularly to take on the joy of reading.

Copy of character book bucks. 

I've talked about our character ed book bucks reward incentive program previously, but I'll mention it again.  When students are showing good character by showing one or more of the character education traits (respect, responsibility, good judgement, perseverance, kindness, integrity& self discipline ) they may be rewarded with a character ed book buck from a teacher, staff member or school safety patrol member.  On Friday's students may trade in book bucks for a book, 5 book bucks = 1 book, 10 book bucks = 2 books and so on.  Our book supply had gotten quite thin and were mainly younger children's books.  So our main "customers" were Kindergarten - 2nd grade.   

Book bucks cart before new books were added...I know kind of thin

Every week students would ask "do you have any chapter books?" and I'd have to say "well there are a few, but they get gone quickly".  So here's where the awesome opportunity comes up.....our county library has an annual book sale, however before the books go on sale to the public there's a special day where educators can come and get as many books as they want (they even provide the boxes).   I feel like I had the ultimate opportunity of a lifetime on getting books for an awesome price....free (my favorite price)!  The literacy teacher and myself went with a plan....to get as many chapter and children's books for the character ed book bucks cart at our school. 

We arrived at the library sale bright and early, dressed in our comfy clothes, tennis shoes with a hand truck in tow ready to book shop.  There were rows and rows of tables full of books.  Thank goodness they were separated into groups (Children's, Young Adults, Adult Fiction, etc.) so of course we headed right to the children's section, which by the way everyone else was in too.   Since we were there fairly early, we had plenty of time to look through the tables of books.  At times I will admit it was a bit overwhelming with all the books but I after a while I got in a rhythm of choosing chapter books from popular children's series (Harry Potter, Magic Tree House, etc).  I also realized that a lot of our students (both male & female) are really into science fiction so I began choosing books based on book cover appearance that looked like they might be science fiction.  Any book with a dragon, ghost, knight or warrior I picked up and put in the box!   As stated before before our goal was to get chapter books but if we saw books to go in our professional libraries we wouldn't pass on them either.  So after 2 and a half hours and 28 boxes of books later we felt quite successful in our task of book shopping.  Once we arrived at school, we sorted the books  and I "updated" the book bucks cart. We now have a side of the cart for young children's beginner books and a side for chapter books.

This is only half of the book sale area, see why I was a little overwhelmed!

These educators are on a book mission.

Books we collected...28 boxes worth

 I'll use these books all year to refill the cart as needed (parents also donate books throughout the year).  I highly encourage you to make use of your local library book sale (check with your library about it).  As you can see, this was so like hitting the jackpot!  On book buck day, we had an astounding number of students coming to get their "new" chapter books (I guess the news traveled fast).  I know that I heard "wow" at least 10 times as students searched for their books.  After finding "the perfect book" the students looked like they had hit the jackpot.  Their faces told it all, I even saw a few reading their books during carpool.  Seeing their excitement shows me that all of us hit the jackpot!

Children's Beginner Books Side

Chapter Books!

Searching for the perfect chapter book!  This is before the large crowd came.
 

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Tips for Supervising an Intern

You may have added a new counseling member to your team this upcoming school year, meaning that you'll be supervising a school counselor intern.  This is my third year in a row supervising an intern.  I actually really enjoying having an intern and have been fortunate to have interns that have been fantastic to work with.  Each year I have learned more and more on how to improve the counseling program at my school and having a "fresh pair of eyes and ears" has been extremely helpful.

Here are some things that have worked for me as I've supervised school counselor interns:

-Meet and discuss what types of things your intern is strong in, areas they want more practice in and things that they would like to learn more about.

-Remember that everyone doesn't think the same as you, it takes some time for the intern to adjust to the school setting and working with you (same with you too with adjusting to a new intern).

-Give feedback, if there were areas that you may need some feedback on, wouldn't you want to know?

-Collaborate and communicate, this has been a key piece with my interns.  Collaborating allows "great minds to think alike" and allows even more creativity in your school counseling program.  Plus it also allows your intern to have some ownership in things being done at school.

-Enjoy the experience, I was fortunate to have an outstanding student teacher and counseling intern experience and I want the same for the counselor intern working with with me.  When an intern is introduced to students, it's not "oh here's the counselor intern", it's "this is the 2nd counselor who will be working with us this year, you are welcome to talk to her just as you talk with me". 

Having an intern has been great and has been a learning experience not only for them, but for me too.

Previous counselor interns Anna and Dhruti

I warmly welcome counselor intern Kelly this year!

Are you supervising an intern this year?  Please share your tips and best practices.


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Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

If you didn't already know but we're in the midst of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15-Oct 15) and by the way if you wondering what events happen each month of the year click here for the National Educational and Health Awareness dates for 2013-2014.  My school is a magnet Spanish immersion school so the students are very knowledgeable about Spanish language and culture.  Here are a few things I did to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month:

-Made a bulletin board of famous Hispanics (the banner is from Vistaprint) for display on the main hall (right outside my office).  I typed the names in Word and printed a picture of each person (using Google images) also one of the Spanish teachers let me borrow her poster set of famous Hispanics which are also mixed in with the pictures that I printed (these can be found at any teacher supply store).

Bulletin Board

-Made Daily Hispanic Heritage Month Facts to be shown on our school's TV news show.  The facts are also shown during the day in the daily announcements.  I used PowerPoint to create this.

Fact shown on our school news.

-Made a book display showcasing books written by Hispanic authors or had a character that was Hispanic (the librarian helped me with this, she's awesome).

Each of these things was super easy to do and made a positive impact on our month long celebration.
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Add A Voice Recording to Your Counselor PowerPoint

Did you know that you can record your voice directly into your PowerPoint presentations?  It's so cool!  I've used this easy feature several times for staff presentations, parent info, reminders, etc. 

Here's how to add your voice recording to your presentations:

-1st, you'll need a microphone (most computers/laptops have one already built in).  I actually have a microphone headset that I've had for years to record, but do what works best and easiest for you.

-In PowerPoint, go to "Insert", then choose "Sound" (the speaker icon).

 -When you click on "Sound", then choose "Record Sound".

 -Use your microphone to record what you want to say.  Use the record, stop and play buttons just like on your iPod to navigate.  When you're finished recording click "Stop" (the square), then "OK" (it saves your voice recording automatically).

-After you click "Ok", a small speaker icon will appear.  After you've recorded your voice recording, be sure to click "Save" to save your work.  Your viewers will need to click on the speaker icon to hear the voice recording and that's it!

Like I said earlier I've used this feature several times.  For the pictures for this post, I recorded my voice for our annual signs of suicide awareness for our staff.  By doing this, we can post the PowerPoint on our school's online staff folder (with all other trainings and documents) where staff can have a refresher of the training as needed at their own pace and time.  I've also used this voice recording feature for parent info and directions.  It takes almost no time to create!

Do you use voice recordings in your Counselor PowerPoint Presentations? 











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Quick & Easy Staff & Student Pick Me Ups!

Now that school's in full swing, from time to time we all need a pick me up (especially with all the negativity going on with public education, but I'll save my rant for another post)! Going with the "random acts of kindness" theme.  I thought of some quick ways to show the staff & students at my school that we're all appreciated.  On a side note, I'm am very fortunate to work at a school where the PTA celebrates teacher appreciation once a month for staff as a pick me up.  Each month has a theme where there are treats just to let the staff know that we are appreciated (little things make such a BIG difference).  I just wanted to follow suit by doing a little something myself.  So here's what I did:

I found this printable on from the Flair to Remember Blog, I copied and printed the printable on colored paper, cut the positive thoughts on the bottom as strips and posted in each of the staff restrooms and also created those awesome "keep calm" posters you see all over Pinterest and such.    I used the website keepcalmstudio.com to create the (free) posters.  2 days after putting up the positive thoughts ALL of them were taken (I'll be putting up some more)!

Click here to download the printable

 

Keep Calm Posters (in our school colors)

In the student restrooms I posted positive quotes that I got from the Entirely Elementary Blog (thanks Sue for sharing) right above the mirrors above the sink (you can't miss them).

Positive quotes over the restroom mirrors

I tried to do this "secretly" so no one would know it was me, but a several staff members thanked me. Sometimes we (students and staff) all just need a little pick me up!

What other things have you tried as staff/student pick me ups?











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Share Your "Youth" With Your Students

Most of us have our name on our door in our counselor offices (thanks for sharing your #scoffice pics by the way, it was so cool to see all the creative counselor spaces).  At my school in the past couple of years, we've had an acrostic poem with each staff members name and picture printed by our PTA (we write our own poem).

Acrostic poem printed from by my school's PTA (if you notice, I had to cover up the "G" word and put in "school")

This year we did something a little different, based on a back to school display, that the grocery store Trader Joe's had up (TJ's is one of my FAVORITES).  The front windows of the store had school pictures of all their employees as children.  I actually could match quite a few them up (yes, I go in there that often).

Display at TJ's

So we did something a little similar at my school.   Each staff member created a sign outside their door with a picture of them as a child and their favorite childhood book.  We had creative freedom of how we wanted to decorate/design our "signs".  It has been an absolute hit!  Everyone has been complimenting each other on "how cute you look as a child" or "I loved that book too as a child".

Here's my sign (sorry for the glare).  I used scrapbook & construction paper for my sign. Notice there's no "G" word!

This also shows a little different (fun & real) side of us to parents and especially our students (somehow they don't realize that at one point we were children too).  I also like that this can be adapted for any school level (elementary, middle or high) and other choices other than a favorite book could include: favorite quote, favorite thing about being at your school or cool fact about them. 

Do you have common name signs for staff at your school?

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Daily Reminders Magnet Board

No matter how many calendars or to do lists I keep, I do from time to time forget things (it's seems a little more often these days, but I digress).  A former counselor intern gave me this cute and cool magnetic message board.  At first I thought great I can put little notes, reminders and such on it.  That plan lasted about let's see....2 days!  I had a small board and a large amount of reminders & notes.  I got this great idea to make this reminder board for each day of the week.  I used something similar when I was teacher a few years back.  So this is what I did:

Magnetic Board

I typed a quick reminders template using Word for Mac (it took probably 10 minutes to type this).  I just typed the usual things that I have daily such as: classroom visits, students lunches, meetings, people I may need to call & other notes.  I typed the title "Monday's Reminders"once and changed the day of the week after printing.  I printed each day of the week on different color cardstock paper and laminated it.

Daily Reminder

The whole week of reminders

After trimming the laminating film from each day of the week I then glued some magnets I got in a race packet from our 5K several months ago (I also got extra magnets to use for future projects, hey they were free) on the back of each day of the week reminder sheet. By the way 2 magnets (shown below) came with the board, but having magnets on each day works great for me.

Free magnets, my favorite price!

Magnets that came w/ the board

Using glue gun to put on magnet

I write what I'm supposed to do each day with a dry erase marker (it's better to get a smaller tip dry erase pen, the ones used for a large whiteboard are hard for me to write with).  I can then wipe clean & reuse the same daily sheet...forever!  I use my Google calendar (agenda view) and transfer it to my daily reminders sheets.  I usually write my reminders for the following week on Friday's and it has worked great for me! 

Dry Erase Markers $4.99 for pack of 4

The finished product is below.

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