Helping Kids Shine

Happy National School Counseling Week. Have you hugged your school counselor today? Do you have anything special planned for him or her? Last year, Natalie Hoskins' class made this poster for me and invited me to be the Star of the Week; what a gift that was! They also asked my sister to write an essay telling them about me when I was their age.

Here's the All-About-Me poster that's in my office now.  Thanks, Natalie!

We have an amazing opportunity as school counselors to help kids make healthy choices and support them as they learn how to communicate and connect in appropriate ways. At Westwood-Bales, we'll be focusing on something else that counselors enJOY doing:  

Helping our kids shine by helping others!
Each day we're spotlighting one need in the the community to give our school families the opportunity to help out. 

 Since counselors serve as a support and resource for the faculty and staff as well, I'm holding a drawing for gift cards, fuzzy socks, and books each day. We're also playing a guess-how-many-legos game from an idea I saw at Tabitha's School Counselor Scrapbook blog. Go ahead, play along; just how many legos ARE there? 

Leave your guess in the reflections below!

I asked our students what legos and counselors have in common, and one of my third graders wrote this: The legos fill the jar just like counselors fill buckets. Yep, it promises to be a FUNderful week. 

I'm going to gear my daily posts all week toward the kinds of things a school counselor can help with, like navigating friendships and managing feelings. Today my guest post at the Teacher's Lounge is all about 
Friends That Fit; click here to go there.  

Got this t-shirt from my husband last year for School Counseling Week!

Oh, and you simply MUST check out the resources at Marissa's blog over at Elementary School Counseling.  AmAzinG!!