We had a short week this week with the day off as an unused snow day today (Friday). I got nearly all the middle school and elementary spring tests boxed and ready to go. We use Pearson (some of you may be familiar), so the scoreable tests are boxed one way and shipped to one location while the non-scoreable items are boxed and shipped to another. All my non-scoreable boxes are sealed and ready. I need to make copies of my security forms and once placed in the box the scoreable will be ready to seal. I received my copy of the newest "Fill a Bucket" series. The kids really caught on to this as I was reading throughout the elementary. I hope to find some cheap buckets to purchase for each classroom next year so students can fill and review them independently. I ordered a t-shirt to go with it. Tonight is our h.s. prom. I'm missing it due to an injury I received this morning. I kicked at our fat (21 lbs.) cat this morning in an effort to be silly and shoo her on her way. I wasn't trying to kick her or hurt her, (I think she's a precious kitty and call her that all the time) just make her move. Being the graceful person that I am when I did this I wound up kicking the oversized chair. The outside of my foot is swollen and two of my toes horribly bruised. I tried to put on a shoe, but couldn't put much pressure on it and the shoe itself caused great pain. I'd planned on getting a pedi today until this happened. No pedi left me with ugly feet which meant no flip flops, too. I stayed home and missed all the girls in their pretty dresses and boys in their finest. :( Next week we continue with online testing for high school and four middle school studens who missed their scheduled tests. I will be taking down my door (Git R Done) decorations. I discovered students are removing and stealing parts of it so I have to take it down before I lose any more. So far three of the paper boots and the bandanas have been taken. This makes me sad and angry at the same time. I can't believe it will be May 1st on Tuesday! The year is almost over and there is so much packed into the last couple of weeks it's unbelievable. What a great year it's been. I have learned so much and continue to learn (from the many blogs I've discoverd, from friends, other counselors I know, my coworkers and even the students). I can't wait until next year to put some things in place that I've been holding off on and become more involved with the students.

Second Week of Spring Testing

We got through our second week of testing. It was another five day week. All of the elementary grades completed their tests, as well as middle school grades. I was right in the middle of it all! One of our staff had a death in the family. With so many coworkers attending the funeral (as they all should have) we were left short of administrators and proctors. Therefore, we had to move two testing sessions. Since we're so early in the testing schedule we still had time to get those completed. Monday we had another career cafe. Our Pre-K teacher came over as the presenter. She was GREAT! She read a book that she reads to her class at the beginning of each year. Two of the students attending CC had this same teacher when they were in Pre-K. I am always amazed at how wonderful my coworkers are. Not because I go through the year thinking they are less intelligent or that they aren't doing a great job teaching and interacting with their students. But, from time to time I get to see or hear about their other talents, skills, hobbies, life in general, and more often than not I learn so much about them that before I had no idea! Wednesday we had a meeting after school with three teachers, a parent, the principal and a student. It lasted almost two hours. This made for a very long day since two of us at the after school meeting had attended a meeing at 7 a.m. between our district committee leaders and administration. I was just short of an 11 hour day. We normally don't have any spring tests on Fridays. However, this week we tested Friday instead of Thursday. I got so much done in my office on Thursday. It was a much needed office day. Friday, after I arrived I prepared the two computer labs for testing and made a couple of phone calls. I was then administrator for one middle school session which took almost three periods. I gathered up all the left over scratch paper, pencils and got the computers back to testing settings. I grabbed a quick lunch (snack bar) and went right back to the computer labs. I readied them both with scratch paper, pencils, stress balls, testing tickets, administrator books and seal codes. Once finished I called the next group in for testing. This session took over three periods. By the end of the day I was worn out. I didn't get to meet with any groups or classes for story time. While on cafeteria duty Friday morning the elementary kids were asking me over and over why I hadn't been in the last couple of weeks and when I was going to be back. It was very reassuring to know what I'm doing with them, even though its less than ten minutes one time a week, is having an impact! Next week will be the same as we get through more of our high school sessions. The next two weeks are four day weeks. We're all very thankful for that.

The week is FINALLY over. :) After having a couple of short weeks it's always difficult to go back to a regular five day week. This was the first week of our spring testing season. It is always very stressful and very tiring. It gets easier, though. I'm trying to keep myself out of the testing process as much as possible so that I can continue with elementary story time and working with the kindergarten class on impulse control in addition to my administrative duties. However, every test session we've had I've wound up as administrator or proctor for at least part of the time. Today was an exception. I was able to excuse myself from today's session and get some much needed office time. I work on the weekly eligibility list, which takes me no less than 1 1/2 days. I was a little behind on this and today, though it was a little longer than usual, I got it completed! I didn't get to have any story time this week, which I didn't really like having to skip, but being only one person, I have no choice. Thankfully all the elementary teachers are very understanding! Earlier this week I was able to get the 8th grade and 12th grade diplomas and honor chords ordered and just in the knick of time. I had the opportunity earlier in the week, too, to give the 6th grade class the reading portion of their spring test. I thought this was a great opportunity for me to have some experience with the younger group and what their tests are like, as well as what they go through. All tests at the high school level are online, except for English writing, and almost all middle school tests are now online. There is a push in our state to have more and more tests moved to online format. Next week we continue with tests Tues. through Fri. Monday is Career Cafe'. The guest is our Pre-K teacher! She's very nervous about it. I don't know why, she's a veteran teacher and very good at what she does! I know she'll do a great job in Career Cafe, too!

Bulletin Boards

It's Wednesday, but tomorrow is my Friday due to it being Good Friday and we scheduled it as a snow day (which we didn't use). I made two bulletin boards over the last couple of weeks in preparation of state testing. One I saw on the School Counselor Blog. I made it for our elementary just going from memory of what I'd seen on the blog. The other I made last year for our hs/ms. I just changed up the colors but, kept the theme and wording the same this year. I had to do a western theme being we're here in the south. The elementary was very excited over their rocket display since I didn't get to do anything for them last year. The western board is actually my outer door since I don't have a b. board. I have an outer and inner office. Both doors I keep open when I'm there. It's a steady stream of students past my door.

I've dealt with lots of drama from students this week. I've had parents call, board members call, parents visit, and students visit, all over the same issue. Hopefully this will be resolved by tomorrow. I've been going through Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control with the kindergarteners and it's been really good. We worked on rewind and should today. They've got the channel changer and pause down so I'm sure the others will fall in to place, too. I worked on entering 8th and 12th grade names into a list this week for graduation and diploma orders. Friday I'm going fabric shopping, to the cake decorating store and out to lunch, all with a friend! It's a short break but still a huge blessing!

Another work week comes to an end. I got to read My Mouth is a Volcano to several classes this week and enjoyed it equally every time. I hope to get to use some the activities to go with it soon. I'm partically in charge of eight grade graduation and we had a class meeting to begin the process this week. Two girls came and 'auditioned' in my office to sing. They're doing a duet and they sang beautifully! Two other girls came in to audition a poem they had written about their eighth grade year. It was a great poem (such talent in all those kids). I prepared the first couple of lessons for the kindergarten class. I'll be using Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control. I hope it is as amazing as everyone has said. I am tweaking it just a bit for the younger group. Since I'll be working with the entire grade I won't be seeing the individual student each week that I normally see. We received a new junior girl this week though we are into our last quarter of the year! Thursday I had a check up at the doctor so I was out of pocket. It was a great day because I had a few minutes ahead of the appointment to take care of a few things in one place and after the appointment I had some time to take care of others in another location. I still managed to get home ahead of time and throw some laundry in the washer (yep, ahead of the weekend)! Today I played catch up at work from being gone. A couple of parents had called and left messages for on Wed. which I didn't have time to return. Before I could get to them this afternoon one of them called very upset. I can only get to so much in one day as everyone knows and I really feel I have to work in order of things received unless it's an emergency. She left a message for the principal instead of me this time, letting the front office know I didn't like to return her calls. Since she decided to take it up with the principal I left it alone. I did go ahead and meet with my boys' group today. We didn't get very far into the lesson as I was a bit late. I didn't get to my girls' group at all. Hopefully I can see them on Monday to make two in one week for them. I don't have a lot of plans for the weekend. I'm decorating our classroom at church for a month long promotion we're having - Operation April Advance - military style. Sunday there is an award for the best decorated classroom. Next week we start our spring testing sessions for elementary and middle school. Busy, busy, busy!

Spring Break comes to an end

Spring Break is coming to an end and I've come to the conclusion that I NEED ANOTHER WEEK! Why is it that no matter how much we love our job and all we get to do with it and no matter how much time we have off, it's never enough? I've been quite sick during my week off but, I've tried pushed through. I rested on the couch quite a lot in my pj's while sick, I did some shopping with a friend and to see her first (and only) grandbaby another day while giving an individual cake decorating lesson, I completed some spring cleaning (though I need to do more), and prepared some lessons for my new Level Four Cake Decorating class. I still need to do more cleaning, more visiting with friends, more reading (for pleasure and work) and get back to doing some routine things around the house. Oh well, I suppose those things will wait until summer. Right before I left for the break I ordered My Mouth is a Volcano.

I also got the activity book to go with it. It is such a cute book. Funny thing is I started reading it to my friend and kept thinking, "I feel the SAME way." We laughed and laughed! I also ordered Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control. However, it was sent to the wrong address and is being resent. I found one of the Katie Couric books for $2 at an antique/junk flea market/booth type place (score). I also bought a couple books at a half price book store. I found another knock off Jenga game and have it labeled and ready but I didn't get any questions ready for it. I think there are some changes in the future so I'm holding off getting any more books for my office. It's truly an exciting time! I now have a bucket decorated for summer and a summer bucket list inside. I have actually written some things down on it! Tomorrow is another Career Cafe. I'm excited because one of our female weekend news anchors is coming as a guest!

A Day of Groups

Today was the last day of the week. Everyone was excited because next week we are out for Spring Break. There were quite a few teachers out throughout our district this week for various reasons. The flu is still going around. We managed to squeeze in three storm drills to wrap up the quarter. Friday is my busiest day of the week for groups and individual sessions. I've been using Classroom Guidance Games with my group of 5th and 6th grade boys.

I have found many activities in this book that really work for this group of boys. Today we worked on emotions. We learned and discussed various emotions, some they didn't even know existed or what they were (distraught). We also worked on various levels of emotions (agitated, mad, angry, enraged) and how some emotions were good at different times and other emotions we needed to try and keep in check or work out with some help. I wrote out a list of emotions as suggested, but color coded them red, blue and green to help the boys visualize them. I used A Smart Girl's Guide to Friendship Trouble with the 5th and 6th grade girls. Like the previous book, I've been using this with great success with this group of girls.

Today we worked on the respect lesson and not only could I see some wheels turning inside the girls' heads but, they also had some great input. The successes in these two groups were a great way to end the week! I've been doing a lot of research to find lessons on impulse control for a kindergarten class. I'd been reading so much about Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control that I finally decided to order it. Now I can't wait to get it. The teacher for whose class this is will be great to work with and maintain some of the language in it! I also ordered a couple more books.

I've had great success using books to have guidance lessons with students and still not take up much of the teachers' class time. We are on the threshhold of testing season so I know they appreciate this! I read The Paperbag Princess today to third graders just for fun. I joked the the boys that they were going to have to step it up after I read this book because the girls were not going to let anything they say get past them. We had some great laughs with this book! This week, while on spring break, I hope to get many projects accomplished around the house. It desperately needs me (there is a thick layer of dust on some of my curtains!) I also plan on having some fun by running around and shopping with a friend a couple of days, going to play with her first and only grandbaby and conducting a private cake decorating lesson. I hope everyone has a fun and productive week, too!