New Tools

I went to Barnes and Noble this weekend to see about a couple of new books to use in my office. I wound up getting nine! Tear soup is such a great story! I also found one for Pre-K/K about hitting and another about kicking. I found a couple on bullying for different age levels and a couple from the Fill Your Bucket series (lower and upper elementary) to go along with what I already have. I found one on being friends with a child with a disability. I had a Candyland game given to me by a friend. Thankfully I didn't have to buy that, too with all the books I purchased. I plan to start using the Candyland game within the next couple of weeks with a student. I've been doing lots of research the last few days on ASCA website and other places. So much info in my head right now.

PUT UPs

The PUT UPs are selling like crazy! I'm so excited about this! It took a few days for students to 'get it', especially in the elementary. However, now they have taken off! We're planning on continuing the sale of them into next week! I convinced the supt. he needed to buy one for each staff member by purchasing one for everyone myself. The elementary principal purchased one for all her staff. I told the supt. we were showing him up and he needed to step up to the plate! It worked! We have sold three times as many as I ever expected. I set up our first Career Cafe today. It will be the first full week in February with a head social worker from the county DHS office. I made several phone calls before I found someone willing to attend. The first dentist office just passed the info. along the office, thinking they were too small to participate. I have a back up dentist office I have yet to contact. I should be getting return calls from the pharmacy tech., mechanic and nurse I contacted. This is a new event in our school and a new concept to many business people. The word will have to get out about it so businesses will know what to expect and be willing to participate! It will be a bit of a slow start, but I'm sure we'll have success!

Stand For the Silent

We just had our first Stand For the Silent chapter meeting. The information has been sent to the Smalleys (as required) for their approval.

We elected officers and class representatives along with choosing our mission statement. There were 91 students in attendance! That is 7th - 12th grade but, there are just over 200 students total in those grades combined! AMAZING! I was very excited to see that many showing an interest! In anticipation of approval by the Smalleys, we chose our first fundraiser as the PUT UPS. Word has gotten out about our PUT UPS and we've sold over 100 already. They're not officially going to be sold until next week! A PUT UP is the opposite of a put down. Instead of putting someone down or calling them a name, buy a put up and write something nice about them. The PUT UPS are a postcard, sold for $.50 and will be posted throughout our school. They can be bought by staff or students to be sent to staff or students! This is in conjunction with No Name Calling Week! So proud of the students spreading positivity!

MLK Professional Day

We had a professional day today. It was a great day to recharge for the remainder of the year. We watched a webinar on homework, a cyberbullying program was held along with a funny and motivational audio broadcast on humor and attitude. We threw in some information on Common Core and TLE evaluation changes to wrap things up. I had the opportunity to discuss EXPLORE and PLAN results with 8th/10th core teachers. Wednesday we are having our initial meeting for the Stand For the Silent chapter of our school. Earlier in the year we had an assembly put on by this organization. It was wonderful! If you haven't heard of them it is run by Kirk Smalley. Look them up! In our meeting we will elect officers, students will sign pledge cards and then we'll assign students to sell the Put Ups as our first fund raiser. We decided to sell the Put Ups for $.50 each. It's a postcard that students will buy and write who they are to/from and a positive message about the person for whom it was bought. They'll then be posted all over the school and/or classrooms. I encouraged teachers to purchase them for each other or even students, too. I sure hope this goes well! I have to start going through the data collected on the students' career interests. I hope to get someone chosen to speak at our first Career Cafe' at the end of the month and the letter to them out this week.

I started my minute meetings this week and they are going so well. A couple of classes had pull out students missing so I still have to catch them. After completing my questions with a second grader I asked is she had anything she'd like to ask me. She thought about it for a minute and then asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?". I wish I had a recorder during minute meetings so I could record the responses. You can't get any cuter than that! I am getting so many wonderful ideas from other counselors' blogs and counseling sites on the web. It will be No Name Calling Week soon and I didn't even know that week existed! I now have an activity planned that will carry us through the entire week. Next month there are two special weeks: National Counseling Week and Random Acts of Kindness week. I'm working on things for both of those weeks and can't wait!

This is a sample of the invitations to Career Cafe'! I got them from Vista Print. Aren't they cool? I can't wait to see them! They're not school colors but, I thought it would be easy to find things to coordinate with them to really dress up the cafe' time such as zebra placemats or a black table cloth and zebra napkins and placemats in the blue color. I ordered these yesterday while home sick.

Today the first week of the new semester comes to an end. Reading time for the elementary has gone well so far. Teachers' classtime isn't interrupted since they're in the library already. Their library time now has the potential to be more valuable and I'm getting to interact with students I ordinarily wouldn't even see (bonus to me). I'm not doing this just for the sake of reading to the elementary. The teachers do a great job of this already. I have many books to deal with issues they may be struggling with (death, divorce, bullying, anger, courage, making friends, etc.). When the need arises I'll read one of those lesson themed books. Inbetween those times I'll read something else just for consistency and to help us continue to interact. I have met with some resistance to the new programs. Bummer. I'm forging ahead, though. I've had so much positive feedback from many coworkers I'm not going to let a select few get me down. We can't have change if everyone just keeps doing the same old thing. Yet, most everyone would say we need change. Positivity - my theme through the beginning stages of all this.

Happy 2012 everyone! Today is a day with so much more potential than usual. I love mornings, usually any morning. I look at it as a new beginning. It's a chance to be better. There is so much opportunity ahead. It's the same today, but on a bigger scale. The first day of 2012, the year has so much potential, so much opportunity ahead! What a gift a new year is! I hope you all enjoy it and hold on to all it entails!