Panther P.A.L.s (Peers as Leaders)

At a district counselor meeting during the fall semester, a wonderful colleague of mine mentioned a peer leadership program that she has with her students.  I was thrilled with this awesome idea and wanted to replicate it on my campus!

The special program, "Panther P.A.L.s" (Peers as Leaders) was introduced to the fourth graders as an opportunity to show leadership and volunteering on our campus.  I sent a letter of explanation and application home with each of our fourth graders.  (I chose fourth grade since our fifth graders have the opportunity to join Student Council)  Since this was my first year to have a program of this nature, I just couldn't say no and accepted all students who applied, who also met the application requirements.  To date, we have over 35 students who are Panther P.A.L.s!

At our first meeting, the students wrote their name on sticky notes and selected various committees:
*helping teachers
*working with students
*mentoring students
*performing Random Acts of Kindness on campus
*No Place for Hate Committee

These students have volunteered to either help a teacher before or after school and/or during their RECESS time!  I know!  AWESOME!

Some Panther P.A.L.s also have the distinct honor of working with a peer either as a tutor or a peer mentor through our M&M Time (Mentor & Me Time) program.

The Panther P.A.L.s and I meet during their lunch times as a group on several occasions in order to establish roles for the students, expectations for the roles, and to award each P.A.L. with a "HERO bracelet" from Positive Promotions.  Each Panther P.A.L. has a special lanyard with a badge identifying him/her as a P.A.L. The children wear these lanyards when they are performing their specific duties as a P.A.L.

Counselor Newsletters

For eight years I have submitted various articles to be included within our weekly newsletters to parents. I have often considered the idea of creating my own newsletter to not only inform parents of counseling events on campus, but to also educate parents regarding my role as the counselor.

Yesterday, based on the recommendation from someone who posted on my Facebook post about Glogster, I have discovered www.smore.com!!! 

WOW!

This was by far the EASIEST format for a newsletter that I have ever used!  I was able to write my first flyer and email it to all of our parents in less than an hour!  I love how you can track how many people have viewed the flyer as well!  Amazing! 

Coffee with the Counselor: Bullying from Two Perspectives

I just hosted my first Coffee with the Counselor of 2014!  The topic of this chat was, "Bullying from Two Perspectives: In the Girls' World and in the Boys' World".  I had a wonderful time meeting with the parents and talking with them about the topic of bullying.  The chat was interactive with a PowerPoint presentation that included music videos and various tips on how to help their child.

Here is the link to the presentation:

Bullying from Two Perspectives - Prezi Presentation

Enjoy!

Girl's Day Out!

Girl's Day Out!

Empowering girls through lessons on self-esteem, relational aggression, and body image.

This is one of my FAVORITE activities to do with the students on my campus.  I found some wonderful ideas on one of my favorite blogs: 

http://www.schcounselor.com/ with regard to lessons to do with girls to help empower them.

I chose two days last year to work with each grade level of girls.  On our campus our students go to "Specials" class: computers, music, library, p.e., art, etc....  The boys went to P.E. while the girls and some of the Specials teachers joined me in the music room for some Girly FUN!  

During our forty-five minutes together the students listened to music videos, participated in group activities, and ended with an individual quick writing portion.  

I paired the fourth and fifth grade girls together for over an hour for their lesson.  This year I plan to create special "invitations" for this day and present them to each of the girls.

(The kindergarten and first grade presentation was shorter: 

no Prezi, reading The Recess Queen, and looking into the Mirror: "What do I Like When I look in the Mirror?")

**Before you ask, yes, I had a Boy T.A.L.K. day**

Activities:
Back to Back: Girls sat with their backs to each other and had to only use their backs/legs to get up.  :)

Mirrors: (Students are sitting in a circle) Look into the mirror and either say it out loud or think it inside, what do you like about the person looking back at you?  2nd time around: One person holds the mirror and the girl to her right says something about her that she likes (body image).

Paper Chain: Students are given a slip of colored construction paper.  Brainstorm one thing you can do to help empower girls, make a difference on our campus, or help someone in your community. Staple links together to make a long chain of powerful statements! (Together we can be the change we wish to see in the world!)

The program's design for grades 2-5 is outlined 

in this PREZI:

Mentoring

Mentors

I'm thrilled to start a new program at my school called "M&M" (Mentor & Me)!  I am excited to pair students with an adult on our campus to help foster positive relationships.  The mentors are meeting with me this week in order to discuss the intended outcomes of this program, as well as, the multitude of opportunities with their mentee throughout the school year.  In the initial stage of this program, I have asked each team to select five students to be paired with a mentor.  Once the list of "mentored" students has been established, I will send a permission slip home with the students before the students are paired with a mentor.

Another component of this mentoring program will be to establish positive peer connections through my "mini me" program! (okay, kidding with the name)  I have begun a peer leadership team with a group of fourth graders called P.A.L.s. (Peers as Leaders)  A wonderful colleague of mine shared this idea at one of our counseling meetings and I absolutely loved it!  Our school already has an established group of fifth graders in Student Council.  I wanted to give the fourth graders an opportunity to embrace leadership, mentoring, and helping positions throughout our campus.

I have already received several applications from interested students.  One of my favorite parts of the P.A.L.s application was the narrative aspect where the students had to indicate the reasoning why they would make an excellent P.A.L.!

I can not wait to begin this journey with the students and staff on my campus in order to foster healthy relationships that impact so many!

Staff mentor treats ~ a little chocolate is always a nice incentive!
(Idea adapted from an idea on: http://www.schcounselor.com/)

Counselor Coffee Chats

Coffee Chats!

Last year was my first experience hosting Counselor Chats with parents and staff.  This year instead of merely selecting topics that I feel parents wish to learn about, I have sent out a Needs Assessment in order to obtain parent input.

I'm thrilled that I have received over seventy responses from parents regarding possible topics of interest to them.  Here is my Needs Assessment:

Needs Assessment for Parents

Parents have also submitted that they would like to learn more about the following topics: self-esteem, organization, anger, and anxiety.  I love it!  (Btw, the STAAR is our standardized test for our 3rd - 5th graders)

As always, I can't wait to schedule the chats and meet with the parents!

Scheduling Guidance Lessons

Scheduling of guidance lessons for me has evolved from the typical paper and pen circulated sign up calendar.  Several years ago I transitioned to a technology approach to scheduling guidance lessons with the teachers.

Last year I used Sign Up Schedule.  While this was of course free, it didn't have the capability (or not that I noticed) to send an email to me notifying me of the dates/times that the teachers signed up for lessons.

This year I am using Sign Up Genius and I LOVE it!  This online scheduling system not only has several cute templates to choose from, it also sends an email to me when teachers sign up for lessons!

I'm still hoping to figure out a system that syncs the sign up times and places them onto my calendar.  I think I would have to convert to a Google calendar system which wouldn't really work since my work calendar is GroupWise.

Alas, this is still so much "cooler" than the traditional paper and pen aspect!