RRW is over

What a great week it has been. I had lessons in the elementary building using some of the worksheets from my previous post. I separated the dot-to-dot worksheet for the Pre-K and K students so they would just have to complete the one prescription bottle. The other classes we either used a different worksheet or none at all. The lower elementary grades we played a game I saw on another counselor's blog or on pinterest. I'm not sure if it has a name but it used two pumpkins and a variety of products.I showed each product to the students, asking about them and then discussing the product.

After the discussion I asked the classes in which bucket each item should be placed, the orange (STOP) bucket/pumpkin or the green (GO) bucket/pumpkin. For the upper elementary, JH and HS, I put together a slide show about the history of RRW along with slides showing various types of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. I wanted the theme to catch the students' eyes so I put that on each slide with some movement. I gave information on what a natural high was and many, many examples of it. While the slides that pertained to drugs were showing the song, "This Is Your Life" by Switchfoot played. Once it switched over to the natural high slides the song switched to "Because I'm Happy" by Pherrell Williams. We then played the pills vs. candy game online. The JH/HS got to play all three levels of the game. We also saw the youtube video "To This Day". All week we dressed up to show how much fun we could have without drugs. My goodness though, taking down all the posters, banners and ribbons is just like taking down Christmas decorations after Christmas is over. While all this was going on I also helped with scholarship searches in the high school, transcript sending and delivering for seniors, EXPLORE and PLAN make ups and state reporting as part of my administrative duties.

Somehow I managed to put up a bulletin board in the JH/HS hallway, too. I think I'm going to do the iHELP board on my door, but go through Staples to make it permanent.

Red Ribbon Week Prepping

I spent my week making up some lessons in the elementary that I had to skip last week due to administrative duties. I go into elementsry classrooms every other week, some on Tues. and some Thurs. The teachers are wonderful. They have been very encouraging with the feedback on my lessons and flexible when I've had to make up time in order to keep everyone "on the same page" with lessons. We had a short week due to fall break and an extra day from P/T conferences. One of my principals was out, first his step mother was having surgery, then his brother went to the ER followed by ICU due to heart issues. There was a lot of drama with kids while he was out. Some I felt comfortable handling, some I didn't and had to put on hold as far as a decision in discipline until he returns, which I hope is this next week. Red Ribbom Week, as you all know, started Thursday and carries through to the end of next week. We chose to just celebrate one week. Thursday after school we put ribbons on the outside of the school and red cups in the fence so those driving by out school would see something was going on. Inside we hung banners throughout the HS/JH and elementary. The kids are dressing up and elementary is getting stickers. The HS/JH is getting an assembly. I'm stepping away from my lessons out of the Seven Habits for Happy Kids book that I've been doing in the elementary. This week I'm doing RRW lessons. The following link,

http://hagginwoodtrusdca.schoolloop.com/file/1235051427790/1281197202357/4679557137138500689.pdf

leads you to many lessons at a variety of levels for students.

This link: http://pillsvscandy.org/ will take you to a fun little interactive game for the smart board. It's a game where students chose which picture shows candy and which picture shows drugs. I'm using this game for the lower elementary classes.

I still have some administrative things to take care of this week (state reports), some scholarships to pass out to seniors, essay competition forms for 6-12 grades and I'm already working on our Veterans Day assembly.

Have a great week everyone!

Swimming with the tide

Today has been quite a busy day! I've been working in my office at the desk most of the day. I'm glad it's Friday because I need to move a little more. I have an assembly for Red Ribbon week potentially booked. This is in part thanks to another school up the road that is going to partner with us. We will have the assembly in the morning and they will host it in the afternoon, or vise versa. That way the cost is significantly better due to less travel time and expenses. We might be able to partner with a third, depending on the distance between the schools. I also contacted one of our military branches today. The recruiter for our National Guard came by earlier this week. I contacted him today about doing a Veteran's Day assembly for us. He agreed and I am so glad! That is yet another thing that is mostly off my plate now. I am leaving it up to him as to whether he wants to go to the elementary classrooms or do one full assembly for them and another for our MS/HS combined. Whatever he wants to do will be greatly appreciated. Now I just have to find something for Constitution Week. I didn't know I had to do something for that week, but...SURPRISE, I do! I was also able to get all sophomores and eighth graders loaded up into a document and sent in to ACT for our EXPLORE and PLAN tests later. There will probably be some mistakes in the upload, there always are, but, for the most part it is finished. I found mistakes in two girls' (seniors) transcripts from the previous school year and I have the information being sent to me by our career tech school so corrections can be made early next week. I started gathering elementary teachers' preference for a time when can go to their classrooms for lessons. I am going to try for every other week. I'm also going to try to keep them all on Tues./Thurs. I'm feeling pretty accomplished today! It's Friday, after all, and it's been a very busy week. Right now, I feel as though I'm swimming with the tide instead of already swimming against it. I was able to encourage a fellow counselor in the area. She is new to her district and a first year counselor. I let her know she could call me any time and how friendly the other counselors were in the area. We will meet in a couple of weeks at an area counselors' breakfast. Looking back I remember how I stumbled around so much with so many things I was already aware of in my role as counselor but, not quite sure how to go about completing them (technicalities). After four years I still fumble with some things here and there. I'm glad to help someone else any way I can. I hope you all have a wonderful, restful weekend. I know I will, when I'm not searching for something to do for Constitution Day/Week. :)

Red Ribbon Assembly

Today, we held our Red Ribbon assembly. Our STUCO (which I sponsor) chose to celebrate RR week starting today, going through Friday instead of last week through Thursday. They worked so hard getting everything together! I'm so proud of them! We met last week to decide on general ideas. I previewed video clips for a couple of days and gathered supplies for games. I asked one of the girls to put together a power point on drug use by the end of last week. I added to it over the weekend. I decided it would help with the presentation if there was music added, but couldn't get the song to attach. This morning I went in to work stressed about not having the song. My STUCO president, a senior, came to the rescue! She played the DVD with the videos in her laptop. She suggested we choose one of the clips I'd passed over, as the celebrity was more relevant to the kids. By the way, the DVD with the celebrity clips came from Natural High. It was free and I highly recommend them for middle school/high school ideas. The celebrity clips and toolkit are updated each year. The toolkit includes activities and lesson plans for all grades. We also chose a student story from the DVD. So, once the power point was played with the song "This is Your Life" by Switchfoot, we watched three 5-6 minute video clips. STUCO kids stood and told what their natural high was, which went along with the video clips and we played to minute-to-win-it games. We planned three, but the batteries were dead in my donated pedometers so we cancelled one. The games were a hit and included students from every grade plus two teachers. Everyday we're dressing according to some theme like so many other schools. Monday: tie-dye, color your world; Tuesday: Camo/Duck Dynasty; Wednesday: wear red, don't let drugs twist your mind and so on. We're taking a count each day of the number of students dressed up in each class. The class with the highest percentage of participation for the week will get a prize next week. I was touched by some of the students' comments while planning everything. One student said and others agreed or made additional comments to go along with what was said which impacted me greatly. This is what was said, "Thank you for everything you're doing for us and with us. You have these ideas and are trying to be supportive and incorporate our suggestions, too, to make our school better for us. We appreciate everything you're doing for and with us." Wow! I was almost brought to tears! I've been struggling with being in a new school, disconnected from all the teachers and administration due to my role at the school. Right now I feel I have just one real friend at work, who I knew previously (all my life), and who is retiring at semester's end. The principal doesn't care for me and I'm not sure the secretary does. The secretary thinks the principal hung the moon and she knows he doesn't care for me. If you follow this blog you know I'm new to the district, but so is the principal and several other teachers. The secretary has only been there one year and she is someone I've also known almost my whole life. So, many days I feel I'm in no-man's land, working by myself, no one to confide in, no one to conspire with, no one to joke and be silly with. The principal comes in now and then to give me a task to do with no other interaction. The secretary has gone around me to avoid me doing things when the principal is gone, though I had instructions from the superintendent to carry on a certain way in the principal's absence. The principal is gone often and never lets me know, though he communicates this with the secretary regularly. Sometimes the secretary tells me when he is already gone and won't return, sometimes she doesn't. The kind comments from the STUCO kids were perfectly timed, though they have no idea how much so.

Test, test, test

This week we (I) gave the EXPLORE and PLAN test. There were quite a few absent or on activities so I'll have to have a make up day next week. I was told by the helper from our local technology center that other counselors in the area don't give make ups. WOW! It does take extra time which is a precious thing this time of the year. However, if students who were absent are allowed to test on another day, everyone wins. Students in my state take EOI exams from 9th - 12th grade. They are required to pass four out of seven, with two being Algebra 1 and Eng. 2. If they don't pass, the score in that subject area on the EXPLORE or PLAN may be substituted if it's high enough. If there is no score, students have to retake he EOI exams until a passing score is achieved, or they complete a very involved project. Those things expend as much, if not more, time as the EXPLORE or PLAN. I couldn't imagine not allowing make ups. Through this testing I discovered 8th graders don't know their addresses, appalling but true. I corrected or filled in more addresses than ever!

STUCO, which I sponsor, is gearing up for Red Ribbon Week! We're not doing a single theme for the entire week, but a different theme each day with goodies and a dress up contest. I love seeing the kids creativity in how they interpret the dress up days! We're going to have an assembly with a short video from Natural High, a short speech by a student and a few minute-to-win-it games. Fun for all! We got all our goodies today, except the Twizzlers.

There will be one round of games for students and one round for teachers. I hope the teachers participate. Kids love seeing that!

It's Fall Break today and tomorrow. Besides spending time with family and my precious (and only) grandbaby and daughter, I have several projects for home to do, the hutch for my office to paint (I've had it since early September), housework, preparation for the class I teach in the evenings, uploading some scholarships onto our school website and previewing a video and movie for school. It is going to be a busy couple of days. However, I'm so looking forward to it. Hopefully there will be some rest in there somewhere as well.