CSI/504 Organization

The first week was great! All of my intro lessons worked beautifully. The older kids had such a wonderful time with the Quiz. I had many of them debating with me about whether or not ice cream sundaes were appropriate for my favorite food answer. I was also impressed with the 3rd and 4th graders ability to relate a counselor to a beach bum/hairstylist. They were doing a great job making the connections.

 I have been so busy with CSI/504 requests, that I decided it was important to get organized. I created a spreadsheet to keep track of who we were collecting/monitoring, who we had scheduled for a CSI (this is our problem solving team where we decide what we should do, keep monitoring/test/504/whatever else), and those scheduled for 504s (to keep track of when they are). I have a separate sheet for all 504s, but this was nice to see everything in one place. If you would like a copy, leave a message with your email address and I will send it over. It is interesting to me how there wasn't a system before, so this will definitely keep things much more organized. My principal and I can send it back and forth and add as we get names from teachers.

 

What do you do to keep track/organize these students?

 

First Week & Schedule

Whew! I am exhausted.  I started my weekend before the first week of school with a major kidney infection.  Yay!  Seriously though, I kept a positive attitude because so much was going on.

I shadowed the principal the first day.  We spent the morning greeting students and parents and directing traffic (my morning duty from 7:50-8:00).  Then, we went in and out of classrooms saying hi to students.  Lunch period (11-12:40), I walked around the lunchroom talking to students and introducing myself.  I met with some of our students with special needs and organized 504 folders.

Today was another busy day.  The principal and I met with every grade level during their specials to talk about the new programs we are putting in place.  I also found out the large number of 504s and 6th grade ARDs I have.  So many going on in the first 6 weeks.

The rest of this week is going to be extremely crazy busy, but I am ready.  I attached a copy of my schedule, so you can have an idea of what I have posted on my board as well as on my website each week.  This is the same format my school counselor mentor used last year and I loved it! It was so nice for the students to be able to see if they had a group, individual session, or guidance lesson with their class. ( I blacked out teachers names and students initials for the internet)

CounselorSchedule

Do you have a schedule you use?

My Counseling Room- 2013-14

I posted a sneak peek here earlier this summer.  Well, this morning I made a video tour of the room and completely forgot to ask Colton (my husband) to take photos.  These are camera photos and they will have to do.  I am so happy with how everything turned out.  I reposted the before pics so you won't have to go back and forth.  

View looking right from the front door:

Before

After (large group area)

Directly to the left of the door (remember, it was a science lab):

Before

After (still need to add more to the doors & make the counter pretty)

Just past the sinks...

Before (All of the science stuff blocking everything)

After: Play therapy area & sand tray

Directly against the back wall 

Before (I wish I would have got a picture of the whole wall, but the bookcase was surrounded by 3 metal cabinets..

After (no more metal cabinets!!)

Front Wall

Before

After: Character words along top border

 More photos:

Another view from front door

Close-up of bean bag area (grey canvas bag is full of stuffed animals)

Large group area & supplies

LOVE my supply area!

Sorry for the bad quality photos.  It doesn't do the room justice.  I am so excited about the progress I've made in it.  I have several more bulletin boards to finish, but this is what it will look like Monday morning!  Throughout the years, it will just get better and better.  

Character Corner for teachers

I have been working on creating something fun for students and teachers to build character awareness.  I will post more about the student one later, but this post is about the teachers.

At my previous school we had this awesome board in the hallway near the teachers lounge where teachers could write little notes about another teacher.  Each month our awesome counselor would take the notes down, put them in a bucket, draw a few names, read their note out loud (Ms. Smith, thank you for helping me out when you saw I was stressed...) and give them prizes.  Then, she would attach chocolate to the backs of them and give them to the teachers so they could hold on to the notes.

I loved this idea and knew I wanted to incorporate it at my new school.  Since we will now have monthly character traits, I decided we could make the trait the theme for that month and write down when we catch a teacher exemplifying that theme.  Aug/Sept is responsibility and the amazing teachers and staff at my school have already started posting.  They are so responsible. ;)

I set our character corner up in our mailroom so the teachers can fill up the cabinets with the cutouts.  We have the cutouts, pens, and tape all accessible so they don't have to look for supplies.  I will use different cutouts for each month and I already have the character traits ready to go and trade out.  

Coming up soon:  Photos of my room.  I have some on my phone, but I would love for my husband to take some better ones when we are at the school tomorrow to make my room tour video.

Book dividers

My room & office are coming together.  I still have so much to do, but I am hoping I can get most of it done while I am on campus the next two days.

Hopefully I will have some more pictures and things for you this weekend, but I wanted to give a quick update.  I have quite a few books and I wanted to create dividers so I could easily access them for lessons and/or teachers.  I printed these front and back, cut and laminated them.  I am really excited with how they look.  Best part, they match my labels for my storage bins!

What do you use for your book dividers?  Did you make something?  Do you use buckets?  I would love to see/hear about it.

Confidentiality Freebie

Well, if you can't already tell, I am loving mint green chevron.  It is all over my room!  I created this confidentiality poster to hang in my room & I'm sharing it with you.

Confidentiality

Chevron background from The Darling Blog.  Fonts used My First Crush (dafont) & Tangerine.

Classroom/Office Update

It has been a few days since I've posed because I have been getting everything ready for the beginning of the year.  I cannot believe it is already so close.  My contract is signed, keys are in my hand, and my room is coming together!  I wanted to share several updates with you.  You can see before pictures here.

I have my where is Mrs. Bradshaw sign and spinner posted by my door.  Click here to see how I made it.  

I created my very own BE yourself collage.  Thank you Susan at Entirely Elementary!  This little collage is everywhere in the school counseling world, and now I have one at my school. 

My referral notepads came in today and I could not be more excited!! They turned out wonderful! Click here to see more about them.

I covered up the collages (most of them) with fabric and added my border (Can you tell my theme & colors yet?).  I found several cute posters I added too.  Not sure what I am going to do with the bulletin board, but I love the colors. :)

I ordered several more Julia Cook books and bought Max (I believe I read about this on ASCA Scene) and a little liquid timer.  

Stay tuned for more lessons & some freebies.  

Counseling referral forms

I have been searching for a counseling referral form that I can use with my students.  I found
Vanessa's post on her blog (which is now added to my favorites!) about hers including the freebie.  I decided to add my own personal twist to it (the mint chevron background) and send it in to printpps.com to create notepads so each teacher can have one.  

Here is my design...

I will describe the different types of rocks (Small, medium, and large) to the students during my video intro at the beginning of the year.  I am excited that things are coming together.  I will post photos of the actual notepads when I get them in.

School Counseling Introductions: 5th & 6th grade

My last post on introductions is for 5th and 6th grade.  I will change 6th grade's lesson next year, but this year they will be the same.  I am so excited to have my whole first week of lessons planned out.  I love the idea of doing something different for every grade level and love the flexibility of adding and taking things away each year to make it better.

After searching ASCA Scene, I saw someone said they created a quiz for the students to answer questions about the counselor.  I thought it was a great idea and made a little powerpoint to go along with the questions (& assigned point values to different answer choices).  I think it will be fun to hear their answers and then discuss what a school counselor does.  The lesson plan and quiz are attached.


I hope these lessons have helped you get ideas for your introduction guidance lessons.  :)

Other introduction lessons I'm using:
Kindergarten
1st & 2nd
3rd
4th

School Counselor Introductions: 4th

Very similar to the 3rd grade lesson, the 4th grade is School Counselors are like Hairstylists.

Here is the file...



and the Powerpoint...


Other introduction lessons I'm using:
Kindergarten
1st & 2nd
3rd
5th & 6th

School Counselor Classroom Introductions 3rd

Part 3 of my classroom introductions!!  I am so excited to be knocking these out.  Part of my plan this year is to see how these work and the students' reactions to them so I can modify them for the next year.     The 3rd and 4th grade lessons are very similar.  I got the ideas from a message board on ASCA scene and made my own powerpoint.  These would be great for a Promethean or Smart board, but I don't have either, so I will just use a PowerPoint.  I attached the lesson plan AND power point for each one.

Third Grade....Counselors are like Beach Bums (which is fitting, because I am a beach/pool bum in the summer)

and the third grade powerpoint...


Other Introduction lessons I'm using:
Kindergarten
1st & 2nd
4th
5th & 6th

School Counselor Classroom Introductions: 1st and 2nd

In my previous post, I discussed the importance of creating lessons to introduce myself as the school counselor at my school.  Since it is my first year and first time doing this, my first and second grade lessons will be very similar (the only difference is that I will read 2 different storybird books).  However, next year, I will change the second grade lesson up a bit so that the first graders will not know what to expect.

Marissa has several into lessons listed on her page.  I was intrigued by Storybird, so I did some research and I love it!  I cannot wait to start creating my own books. This year, I am using the books she suggested.  They are listed below.

For my first grade lesson, I will use What is an Elementary School Counselor by Thiggins.


For my second grade lesson, I will use The School Counselor by Michelle Rollins on Storybird.


What 1st and 2nd grade introduction lessons are you using with your students this year?

Other Introduction lessons I am using:
Kindergarten
3rd
4th
5th & 6th

School Counselor Classroom Introductions: Kindergarten

I believe it is important early on to establish a presence in your school, as well as explain to teachers and students the purpose of a school counselor and when/how to meet with her.

I have scoured websites, Pinterest, and blogs and have included my classroom introduction ideas.  I want each grade level to be different and have their own powerpoint and activity.  My school has 2 teachers per grade level (K-6).  I will spend the first couple of days walking around the hallway, cafeteria, and classrooms introducing myself.  I am planning on meeting with each class during the first week to present the following lessons.  Like I mentioned in my previous post, I plan on making a video like Marissa that I will include with every presentation.

The next 7 posts will be my lessons for each grade level.  Today I will start with Kindergarten. (I found this adorable lesson on ASCA scene, which is a part of the ASCA website for members.  It is a great resource for collaborating with other school counseling professionals.)

Mr. Potato Head Lesson (attached)

I am so excited to try this lesson out.  I would love to hear from you.  What will you do for your kindergarten introductions?  Do you do the Mr. Potato Head lesson?  What modifications have you made?

Other Introduction Lessons I am using:
1st & 2nd
3rd
4th
5th & 6th

Beginning Organization & sneak peak of my room

UPDATE: Here is my new and improved room. So excited to have it (mostly) finished.

I have so much work a head of me.  I am blessed with a counseling office (photos to come later) and a big, beautiful classroom. The classroom, however, needs a lot of work to make it a functional and fun counseling room (and add my personality to it).  The counselor before used it for sessions and peer mediation, but did not really do anything to change the look of it. I have been inspired by a lot of blogs.  My absolute favorite space is THIS.  She has my dream room.  I love all of her organization materials and the way everything is set up.  I also love the video that Marissa made and plan on making my own to introduce the new room.  She also has some great organization stuff that I have been eyeing.

It is such a big space, but I am excited with the challenge of it.  Right now it is a bit drab.  My husband describes it as a "doctor's office," so I definitely want to change that.  We are waiting on confirmation on whether or not I can paint over the mural.  If I can...YAY! If I can't, then we will just cover it with fabric.  As you can see, my school was built in the 60s and still has chalkboards and cork boards.  It used to be the math & science room...so there are a ton of math and science stuff that are going to be removed.

You can see my science man in the back corner.  I am getting a screen and projector so I can use video clips and technology during my guidance lessons.  I am also getting rid of the tables and adding rectangular ones around the guidance space (which I will get a carpet for).

Just drab.

Love that I have 2 sinks and an eye wash.  Just what I always wanted. ;) haha

Lots of science materials to be removed.

I added labels to my file cabinets to organize my guidance lessons by grade level

Top: Before...all of my materials that were left.  There was just SO MUCH, I was overwhelmed.  

Bottom: After... I organized all the books and materials by subject and got rid of more than half of the materials.  I still have more to get rid of, but I will see what I use and don't this year. I wanted to have more than enough than regret getting rid of stuff.

So that is my first step in organizing my room.  I will be using the bottom shelves for counseling materials.  The bottom cabinets have a lot of games (most are from the 70s).  I need to invest in some more up to date counseling games. 

I love the amount of space I have, but I am ready to make it more colorful and exciting.  I will post more photos as I make progress.  

Update: I uploaded some more pictures of my classroom here.

Where is...? sign

One of the first posts I posted to my Pinterest for school counseling is this adorable "Where is the counselor?" wheels.  I found out it linked to what would be one of my favorite school counseling bloggers, Danielle.  I decided to make mine a full circle, so I could add a few more locations and wolah...

I still need to add a fastener so I can move the arrow around and create a "Where is..." sign to hang above it.  It will hang outside my door and I will (hopefully) get in the habit of changing it whenever I leave.

You can click here to see how she made hers.  (As I post activities I get from others I will add them to my blogs I follow list.  You can find that in my profile.  I hid all my family and friend blogs, but I am still following them as well.)

First Post & Counseling Library

Hi, y'all!  Thanks for coming to my blog.  I am starting my first year as a school counselor this year.  I started my education career by teaching PreK at a private school.  I moved to public school the next year and taught kindergarten for 3 years.  I wanted to teach middle school, but I realized after teaching kindergarten I had a passion for the young babies.  It seems like the beginning of the year for a counselor they spend a lot of time with these homesick little babies anyways, so it was a great experience.  Last year I taught full time and did my year long internship with our amazing school counselor.  I am so excited to begin this journey and decided to start a blog to share some original ideas I have/ learn from others and post success stories.  I will be adding blogs I am inspired by soon.  I will also be working on making this blog prettier.

The first project I undertook this summer is to create a library.  I made a list of each book that I had and the previous counselor left me on the shelf.  Then, I organized each book by subject and arranged them by grade level (to make it easier to locate books).  Later, I will add lessons that can be used with the books to keep them organized.  I plan on making the library available to teachers to borrow books on subjects they need.  I still have several series of books I need to add to the catalogue, but I am really happy with how it turned out.  I love to be super organized, so this is a great first step in that direction. 

Do any of you have a catalog for your books?  Share it here.