Decorating an office on a dime! (Part 1)

I don't know about you, but I didn't have a lot of money to get my office looking nice. I wanted to make a warm, inviting space that kids would want to come to. I didn't want to spend much on it, though. I'm going to start posting some of the things I did to get my offices up and running. Here is are two quick tips for today:

1.Ask for donations! 
I was given four lamps, a bean bag, an assortment of toys for sand trays, stuffed animals, and a few others things when I asked for stuff on Facebook. I even had my undergrad university agree to donate pennant flags for my office. It's never to early to get them thinking about college! Most colleges will send you these for nothing, even at the elementary level. My grad school said they'd send me some, but I never received them. I've just been too busy to call them back!

2.You can also check out Craigslist for free stuff. It can be hit or miss, but sometimes you get lucky. BUT be safe and smart about checking stuff out on Craigslist. People are crazy. I was able to get a bean bag for nothing from Craigslist, but I met the couple at a public gas station near their home. 

More ideas will  be on the way in the next few days!

Here is a picture where you can see some of my free stuff from one of my offices: a beanbag and several stuffed animals. The blue trash can is also one a family member gave me that I cleaned well to store my animals in

Individual School Binder

This is my last post in my series on binder organization. I have one last binder I use to keep myself organized. This binder stays at school, so I have a separate binder at each school with the same stuff in it for each school. The things I keep in these are school specific and are things I am unlikely to need while I am at the other school. Having two schools can be quite complicated! My stay at school binder is pink at one school and white at the other (so I won't get them mixed up if I do ever need to take them anywhere).


 
Again, the cover is available on TPT for FREE!

These also start with the ASCA model.
This is really my ASCA binder now that I think about it. This binder has 6 tabs. The first four are the ASCA model systems: foundation, management, delivery, and accountability. I keep these at the separate schools because my schools are very different. While my lessons are the same most of the time for my own sanity, the rest of my counseling program can look very different at each school.


These are the tabs in this binder:

1. My foundation includes a copy of the county wide vision, mission, and beliefs as well as my own mission statement and program mission statement, vision, and beliefs. These have been adjusted to each location 
2. Management has a copy of my school specific data from my needs assessment, and could also hold my calendars (I just use the one copy in my blue binder). 
3. Delivery has my form where I keep track of which lessons I teach and when. This is particularly useful for when I do lessons teachers specifically request! You can find this in my notebook contents on TPT. It is one of several forms you can get in that pack. 
4. Accountability is empty right now, but I will add any result reports I do here and anything else that looks at how effective my program is.
5. I have a tab just for ASCA forms. I have the program audit, school data profile, , and a school counselor performance appraisal form 
6. My last tab is a notes or other tab. The meeting notes page from my notebook contents is great to put here! 

That's it! That's all my binder organization. Do you keep an ASCA binder or notebook? How do you apply this model in your program?

Remember: ALL my items in my TPT store will be on sale 10-21-15 through 10-24-15! 10% off!

School Counseling Notebook

As I said in my last post, I am split between two elementary schools, so I have to be organized. This is the other binder that I carry in my backpack and have with me everyday no matter what school I'm at. It is blue, so I know all this stuff can be found in the blue binder! 

The cover can be found in my TPT store for FREE and is editable. :)

The very first page in my notebook is the ASCA model. 
After this are all my county wide documents: technology log ins and a password sheet, what to do if I lose my ID, and a list of phone numbers for the whole county. 







I have 8 tabs in this binder without a master list like in my lesson plan post. The first tab is for schedules.

Here I keep a list of kids that receive food from a local church donation each week and my classroom counseling schedules for both schools. I put a small post-it note at the back of each of my counseling schedules so they can be easily skipped.
Behind my schedules, I have all the schedules for both my schools: lunch, activities, school year event list, duty roster, etc. 












My second tab is for ethical codes and the ASCA National Standards. I have both ACA and ASCA code of ethics included. 

The third tab is special to my specific placement. In that state of Georgia, teachers are required to teach certain career lessons during the year from the Department of Education. I am in charge of making sure every student receives the lessons regardless of coming in later in the year or not, so this tab is used for that.
Next is my resources tab. I use my handy sheet protectors to keep the list of outside counselors in the area and who takes what type of insurance and Medicaid. I have learned so much about Medicaid and insurance in just a couple of months! I also keep some useful counselor tools in here, like my problem solving wheel:

I have an arrow put through with a brad, so kids can spin it to pick if they want. This is a clip art image that that can be found by searching "problem solving wheel." 
Lastly I have report samples in this tab: closing the gap results, small group results etc. that I can hopefully use to collect data this year or next year.


My fifth tab is my professional development and parent contact tab.  

I created my own parent contact document, which you can get for FREE here. As someone who doesn't have a set class, I need spaces for grades and teachers.










The sixth tab is also specific to my schools. It is my Exceptional Student Services (ESS) and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). I have the list of ESS teachers and contact information for the whole county as well as inclusion/co-teaching information form the county. PBIS is a county wide program we use, and it is fantastic. It is focused on early prevention of behavior problems. "The underlying theme is teaching behavioral expectations in the same manner as any core curriculum subject"_PBIS.org. Check out the website for more information, but we use this to teach appropriate behavior from the start, and it has dramatically reduced the number of office referrals in the county. 

Number 7 is my crisis plan. It is the one I wrote while in school, but it is a good reference if a crisis comes up. They don't happen very often, and an older plan is better than no plan. I hope to update this during the year to be adapted to the schools I now work in. 

My last tab is a miscellaneous tab. I keep overall needs assessment data for both schools combined here and some blank paper should I ever need to add anything anywhere else. 


Whew! That was a lot of info! I hope something in there was helpful. What works for you to organize your life as a school counselor? What special tabs do you use, or would you use if you used the binder method of organization? 

My cover and a notebook contents bundle can be found in the store on TPT. The notebook contents includes the free cover, binder cut outs for side view pockets in three sizes, counseling lesson documentation forms (more on this later!), a blank important info page, a password/log in page (a copy of the one I mentioned), meeting notes, professional development log, student referral form, and a 12 month calendar with NO dates or years, all in the same chevron print as the cover. While you have to fill in the calendar yourself, it can be used year after year. I use a good old fashioned planner, but I think I might use this if I were in just one school in the binder I leave at school (be on the lookout for that post coming soon!). 

ALL my items in my TPT store will be on sale 10-21-15 through 10-24-15! 10% off!

Lesson Plan Organization

I am split between two schools. That means I have to be on top of being organized! It's hard to know what I'll need day to day sometimes, but I use several binders for different things for school. Two go with me everyday and two live at school. More on that later, but my binders are color coded. I know that my green binder has lesson plans!
Today I will focus on how I keep my lessons and lesson plans organized. My secret? A binder with sheet protectors! I keep this notebook in my backpack and carry it with me each day to whichever school I'm at, so I always have it. I always have at least one hard copy of anything I need to make copies of. I put extra copies in the front flap. You can also stick books in here if you use those and have a hard time remembering to take them. I usually just put my books I use in my lessons on top of this binder so I remember to take it with me, but whatever works for you!

I have my lesson plans right in the front so I can easily look them over before preparing to do a lesson and see what materials I need. After these, I have a list of tabs that tell me where each lesson can be found. The tabs are a 12 pack from Walmart, but you could use any you have on hand. and make your own table of contents of sorts.

Each tab is assigned a different lesson. Right now I only have a few created. Under each tab I put the documents I need for activities or anything else I may need under that tab in a sheet protector. This keeps them in good shape and doesn't require holes in the document itself. 

I have a colorful cover cover on the front of my binder. You can download a FREE editable file from my TPT store if you're interested in the blue chevron!

How do you keep your lessons organized? I'd LOVE to hear what works for others!

Bullies!

The 4th graders at one of my schools are falling apart! They are being so cruel to each other and the bullying word is being thrown around a lot. I had not planned on doing my bullying lesson until the spring, but because of all the chaos, 4th grade will get the lessons starting next week.
Bullying is a big deal, and in Georgja, the police may become involved. Bullying is also an overused term. Sometimes, kids are just mean, and sometimes they are really just being mean when others think they are being bullied. The main purpose of this lesson is to teach students what bullying really is and what to do about it.  We do an activity where they talk about scenarios and what they could do about those situations.
The Powerpoint is in my TPT store. I begin with the crumpled paper activity where the kids crumbled, crush, step on, whatever they want to it. Their only instruction is to NOT rip it. Once they are good and crumpled, they smooth it out as best they can. Then I make them apologize to the paper. After that, we talk about how this is what happens when someone is bullied. The scars from being bullied don't go away with a simple, "I'm sorry." I define bullying and explain the difference between bullying and conflict. Sometimes kids are just plain mean, and I tell them such. Bullying and being mean are not always one in the same. I give examples of the four kinds of bullying: physical, verbal, cyber, and relational bullying. We then talk about what to do if they or someone else is being bullied.
We then do an activity where the students are divided into groups of 4-5. They talk about scenarios they are given and what they could do about that. Then we discuss as a class.
I save about five minutes at the end of my lesson for a wonderful lip dub video done by a high school. The whole school is involved, and I think it's good for my older elementary school kids to see high school aged students saying no to bullying. I make sure to highlight that the ENTIRE school is involved in standing up and saying no to bullying. Cool kids, unpopular kids, nerdy kids, jocks, ALL of them.

Check it out:

The instructions for the activity, the definition of bullying, conflict vs. bullying, the types of bullying, and what students can do if they are being bullied or if they see bullying, and a link to the Cypress Ranch lip dub video is included in the Powerpoint. The lesson plan can be found here . Both the lesson plan and the scenario cards are free in my TPT store.

Here is the actual link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENBJnX6cEKE&index=1&list=LLs5AC47l5x2vxs_WMAb-Gtg 

Upper Grades Intro

My last batch of lessons began today. I started my upper grade intro to the counselor lessons in 4th grade. 
I wanted a game for the older kids, so I decided on Jeopardy! I start off by seeing what they think my job might involve, and then I use a Powerpoint Jeopardy game, which you can get here. This questions for this game are adapted from: https://musiccityschoolcounselor.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/133/


I only use one round of the game and a final Jeopardy round. My categories are: 

1. Confidentiality with questions about when I keep secrets and what the word means. The daily double is in the category and asks the students to define confidentiality.
2. Bullies and feelings with questions about how I can help with feelings and what we can do about bullies.
3. What's my job with questions about who I help, more about how I can help, and how I am different from a principal.
4. Come see me with questions about where I am, kids that will come see me, and the days I am at their school
5. Help me with questions about the kind of things kids come see me for, what kind of lessons I teach, and how they can come see me.

These questions aren't worded in a way for the standard Jeopardy answer, "What is ____?" However, it is a fun version of the game and a great way to teach older students about what a school counselor does. The Powerpoint I uploaded to TPT already has all the links, so each slide has link to the main slide with the board. The daily double will link to the question and the question back to the main slide. That way the students can make their wager before seeing the questions. I even put in a Youtube file with the Jeopardy music for Final Jeopardy.

There may be kiddos who have never played, so I would explain the rules just in case. I divide the class in half for teams. I try to give each child a chance to answer a question if they want to. I often actually skip the Final Jeopardy wager for time sake. I do the final question like the others and have them raise their hands. If I had them talk it over and write it down, I would be more likely to do the wager.  I remind them not to yell out because I only call on raised hands. They wouldn't want to give the answer away! If you have buzzers handy, they would be great for this! I keep score on the white board. I pick one student to start with, and then the ones that answer correctly get to pick the next question. For the Daily Double, I let the child who picks it wager, but it is open to either team to answer. That's the change I made least like the actual game.

A Tattletale Adventure

As I mentioned in my first intro lesson post, I had some kindergarten teachers who wanted a tattling lesson. Little one have such a hard time with this, so hopefully this lesson will help our my teachers.
I start out by introducing the topic and see what they already know. Then we read Don't Squeal Unless it's a BIG DEAL! by Jeanie Franz Ransom. 


The book can be a little long, but it has great info in it. There are other great tattling books, but I had a copy of this in both my offices, so that made my decision easy. A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue by Julia Cook is also a good book for this topic. 

After reading the book, review the information about when to tell. Is some hurt? Does it involve you? Can it wait? Is it an emergency? I then tell the students that tattling makes us sad because it takes time away from learning and friends get in trouble. Telling makes us happy because we want everyone to be safe at school and telling helps grownups do that. 

Next we play a game. I send the students to their seats unless they are already there. Draw a smiley face and a sad face on the board, label tattling and telling in need be. Taking turns, allow each student to have a post-it note/card with a scenario on it. I don't force any students to draw one, but I try to let each student that wants to draw one if the class is small enough. Ask them if it is tattling or telling. I ask if it is an emergency or if anyone is being hurt if they are struggling. I repeat that if no one is hurt and it isn't an emergency, it's tattling. I let them place the note or card on the side of the board they think it belongs (happy/telling or sad/tattling). Some of my white boards didn't hold my cheap notes well, so I set them in the tray of the white board. I go on like that until each student has gone. You may have to read the notes/cards for the student. I finish with a coloring page if time permits.

When talking about whether someone is hurt or not, it may be good to remind the students of emergency level hurts: bleeding, broken bones, being sick, bee sting, and bullying. This TPT store has a great resource for these tips and calls the the 5 B's! I also tell the kiddos that bullying happens when someone is hurt over and over by the same person or people on purpose.

I print my cards on post-it notes, which allows for ease of putting them on the board. They can be restuck a few times. This is what they look like: 

I have a tattling bundle on my TPT store with a blank post-in note printing page, instructions for how to print on a post-it notes, scenarios to print on post-its, a one page condensed list of scenarios, and a pig coloring sheet.
You could also print and laminate the post-it note pages without post its on them to make cards.
The lesson plan in also available FREE in my TPT store.