Door Sign Freebie!

Yesterday I added a FREE door sign to my TPT store. This is a simple sign that has only two options: come in and counseling in progress. Simply use a clip of any kind: a binder clip, a clothes pin, even a paper clip! It has a background that makes me think of Inside Out, but it is not from Inside Out. I recommend laminating this if you can, but it'll work with or without that. 
Click here to download this PDF file.

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If you would like a more detailed version of this, visit my TPT store. I have 4 non-editable versions of the wheel below as well as an editable version for a little bit more. This is the wheel I have on my door, which you can see in this post. 

Remember, my whole store is 10% off now through Saturday.                       Have a wonderful Christmas/holiday break!

Christmas Break Sale

Merry Christmas!

Can you believe it is also time for Christmas break?! We have 2.5 days counting today at my school before the break starts!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, and restful, break. To celebrate the break, I'm throwing a sale in my TPT store! 

Everything is 10% off 12/16-12/19!

Jenga

I have some students who are dealing with varying issues, including sadness/depression and anxiety (especially about tests) that I am checking in with as regularly as I can. I wanted to use Jenga as a part of my work with them. I have seen where other counselors write questions on the Jenga game. I wanted to have a multipurpose Jenga that wasn't written on so I could use it for many things. So I set out to find some sets of questions that were already made!




There weren't a whole lot out there I found. However, I did find one wonderful set on TPT! It has five sets of questions that you could ask while playing any game, including Jenga. Check it out here. This is NOT one of my products on TPT, but I think this is a great resource. There are two pages full of questions for each of the five topics. I love this because I don't have to take the time to compile my own set of questions for any of these topics, and I can use my Jenga game for many problems kids have instead of just one.

I wasn't looking for a "get to know you" version of this, but in my search, I found one of those too! Here is a free version of these questions. This would be great for a small group or with a shy child.

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Do you ever use Jenga in your counseling program? Let me know what that looks like for you!

Counseling Newsletter

I mentioned in this post how I use Google Forms to survey the teachers to tell me how effective my lessons are. I take percentages from these to see how many teachers saw improvements or differences in their students. I am taking these and putting them into a newsletter I will send to my principals next week.

On my newsletter, I give data from the needs assessment I send out when we come in for pre-planning and what the teacher surveys said about my lessons. Since school started for me in September, I have done two lessons K-6 at both my schools. I have also done a tattling lesson for kindergarten.

 

Above are examples of what my letters look like. I've blocked out my data findings as well as my school system logo for privacy and security reasons. My lessons and visits section is still pending since there is still about a week left to see students (how is it that Christmas break sneaked up so fast?!).

For these letters, you could do anything is these boxes! I chose to do the data results from surveys, but you could include tips and tricks, cool things you learned at a conference, cool programs you are wanting to start, etc. I also send these letters jsut to my administrators, but I think making one for teachers would also be a great idea!

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These letters were made using Microsoft Publisher. For your convenience, I have uploaded this file up to TPT. This item is now FREE! You can get a blank version of this form that already has all of these boxes and places for pictures.  You will need to have Publisher (it is a .pub file) and will need to know basic skills such as changing the pictures and re-sizing boxes as you need. But all the finding and placing is already done for you! See below for a look at what these blank ones look like: 

Google Forms

I love Google Forms! I use them often in my counseling program. To create one, go to or create a Google account to access Google Drive. Click on the red "New" button on the left hand side. It'll pop up with a few options, but I have to put my mouse over "More" to find Google Forms. It's a purple icon with a bullet list on it. 













At the start of the year I use a Google Form for my needs assessment. Using these are great for this because it will put your results into a spreadsheet for you. You can export this form to Excel if you'd like. It makes collecting data much easier!
For my program, I also use these for teacher reviews. I ask just a few questions about what they thought of the lesson and how it worked in their room. See below for a screen shot. I use these results in a newsletter I send to my administrators to demonstrate what I've been doing! I have one of these for every lesson I do. They are quick for me to make, and they are quick for the teachers. They take only a few seconds unless they choose to write me a novel in the last box!

More to come on that newsletter later! Do you use any sort of website or app that makes maintaining your program easier?

Stinky kids

At one of my schools, we have several stinky kids. I've talked to a few individually, but I'm going to do a whole grade lesson since there just seem to be so many. I plan to talk about why we stink and what to do about it. I plan to emphasize that it's part of growing up to be a cool grown up!
A good counseling friend of mine already had a PowerPoint made, so I plan to use that. This is always a hard lesson, but one we all have to learn. What techniques do you use for stinky kids? 

Final hours of the TPT sale!

The special TPT sale is almost over! Run over to check out my store and get the best deal you'll get all year with the extra % off on top of my 20% off sale! Use the code below for an extra % off.

Anxious babies

It's a sad fact in our world today that many of our kids are anxious. With high stakes testing and all the pressures they face socially and at home, kids are more anxious than they may have ever been. I have a good handful at each school that need to be seen for this. I've been working on building an arsenal for helping them with their anxiety. I've already done a post about worries that has some useful things. I wanted to share some new ideas I plan to try with a particularly anxious child:

1. I found these cards in my search and thought they would be a good resource for the kids themselves to have and be a good conversation starter for a session. I plan to make a book of sorts by binding them with a binder ring after lamination. 
   There are three pages with idea and a blank page for you to write in your own. You can pick out which ones fit your kids and your school and discard the rest. That's what I did!
2. This blog post is fantastic for visualizing the biggest worries! I love the idea of attaching a string to the worry based on how big it is.  Part 2 is also a good idea!

What are your go to anxiety techniques? I'd love to build my arsenal more!