Best Counseling Blogs

Whew, anyone else been super busy?  Of course you have been, a counselor's job is never done.  This recent post on ASCA's facebook page made me remember my blog and I thought it was a great resource to share.

Visit this link for the "Best Blogs for School Counselors" - lots of great links there.

Cure the Bullies

Cure the Bullies is an awesome website.  Part of a campaign created by SchoolAid, in partnership with the Vodafone Foundation, this site is certainly entertaining and attention grabbing.  You are welcomed by this warning:

"Cyber health warning!
Have you been online lately?  (like now?)
or on your mobile
Then you've probably caught....
A HIGHLY contagious virus."

After learning about the different viruses you can be inflicted with: Onlookerosis, Commentitis, Forwarditis, Gang-Green, Hasslenza and Slaggermania you are invited to be screened for the bully virus (a short survey including multiple "what would you do" questions). 

Once you receive your diagnosis, you get the virus sucked out of you and then you pickle it for later viewing.

Though light on actually teaching skills, I like that this points out that even students who think they are not bullies probably contribute sometimes simply by looking on or not doing anything to help others.  They have done a wonderful job creating a site kids will enjoy and can take home a positive message at the same time!  The site is flash based which caused some problems on my computer but nothing drastic.  I definitely encourage you to check this out with your students!

Wicked Ways to Teach Anti-Bullying

Looking for new and interesting ways to incorporate anti-bullying into your curriculum?  Well here you go!

The musical production Wicked has partnered with BullyBust (a National School Climate Center program) and created a downloadable tool-kit for teachers and a coordinating student packet.  (In case you haven't seen or read Wicked, it is the story of the Wicked Witch before she meets Dorothy.  Because she is different, and green, she is bullied).  The teacher packet includes: The Story of WICKED, What Is “Upstander” Behavior?, Bully-Victim-Bystander, Learning to Empathize, A Look at Appearances, Exploring Emotions, Upstander Behavior in WICKED, and The Stand Up Pledge: Elphaba’s Pledge and Commitment Cards using the theme of Wicked throughout.

The student pack includes information on responsibility, the roots of bullying, what you can do to stop bullying, cyberbullying, etc.  There is also an essay contest - the winning student wins a flight and ticket to see Wicked (only one entry per school).

Simply click here to sign up as a partner school.  It will direct you to the download page.

CyberSmart! Curriculum

While our students with their knowledge of technology may be able to run circles around us on computers, smartphones, ipads, etc., they still need instruction and guidance about how to use technology in a smart and safe manner.  Whether it is you, the school counselor, that teaches these important life-lessons or a computer teachers, you will undoubtedly deal with issues surrounding technology - namely cyberbullying.

I love the detailed lesson plans Common Sense Media has produced for their CyberSmart! Curriculum.  They range from kindergarten to 12th grade and cover 5 SMART target areas:

• Safety and security online
• Manners, cyberbullying and ethics
• Authentic Learning and Creativity
• Research and information fluency
• Twenty-first century challenges

Do you have other resources for teaching computer safety?  Please share!

National Bullying Prevention Week/Month

October is National Bullying Prevention Month: "Sponsored by the PACER Center—a parent center for families of children and young adults with disabilities—and cosponsored by NEA, the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education, and National PTA, this event encourages communities to work together to increase awareness of the prevalence and impact of bullying on children".-NEA website

It seems there are plenty of specific weeks dedicated to bullying prevention depending on what organization you are looking at - many of them seem to be in October and others dispersed throughout other months.  Regardless of the time you chose to teach a bullying unit, I'm sure most of us out there find it an important issue to address.  Here are some resources designed to help teach kids about bullying.

1. PACER Center - This site has 2 separate week-long comprehensive educational toolkits geared towards elementary and middle/high school.

• Elementary includes lesson plans, role plays, coloring book, activities, suggested reading list, etc.  Connect kids to the student-centered website: http://www.pacerkidsagainstbullying.org/

• Middle/High school also includes daily lesson plans and activities.    The student-centered website for these kids is: http://www.pacerteensagainstbullying.org/

2. Peaceful Schools International - a whole list of downloadable resources and websites.  In particular I like the first download - 50 Ideas for Anti-Bullying Week (Anti-bullying alliance).

3. Stop Bullying Now! - A very kid friendly site for both students and adults.  Complete with information, videos, games about how to recognize, stop or report bullying.

College Foundation of North Carolina

The College Foundation of North Carolina has created a school year's worth of monthly lesson plans focused around school achievement and going to college for 6-12 grade.  Each grade level has downloadable .pdf lesson plans and activities that go along with the lesson.  I've used many of these lessons with my students at different grade levels and they are effective.

In addition the website has information about the various steps to apply and attend college.

Puzzles, Word Searches and Mazes!

Need a fun activity to add to your lesson?  DiscoveryEducation has a great site that helps create all sorts of puzzles.  Enter your information in, pick your preferences and hit "Create my puzzle!" - easy as that!

Diversity Council

"The Diversity Council has collected resources for teachers to help students celebrate their multicultural heritage, explore their biases, increase awareness, build empathy, and learn respect. This guide includes links to ideas, activities, lesson plans and other resources."

The Diversity Council website includes resources grouped by elementary, middle and high school each including a substantial list of resources - many being lesson plans - ranging from racism to gender to specific cultural information.

Career: What Do You Like?

The BLS Career Information website asks students what they are already interested in, and then recommends jobs based on particular areas. By no means a career interest inventory, it does help younger students (geared towards grades 4-8) see how activities they enjoy could lead them to a potential career option.

"On the kids' site, wording and labor market concepts have been simplified and some statistical detail has been eliminated. In addition, the occupations on the site are categorized according to interests and hobbies common among students. The twelve categories and their corresponding occupations are shown at the end of this Teacher's Guide. To help students continue their career exploration, each occupational description on the kids' site links to related information in theHandbook. The Bureau's Web site for kids is updated every 2 years with each new edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook."

ASCA Scene

Ever wish you had a room full of other counselors to get ideas from, bounce ideas off of or learn about new programs? ASCA Scene is a great place to do all those things. With school counselors from all over the world, it is a wonderful community dedicated to helping students be successful using ASCA's national model.

"This networking site is a professional meeting place for school counseling professionals to share and learn from each other. Get answers to your school counseling questions, share your lesson plans and best practices, become the best school counselor you can be."

Peace One Day

The Peace One Day website has educational information, lesson plans and videos about Peace Day (September 21).

"Our goal is to provide our Education Resource to every school on earth. With this in mind, we have researched, designed and created lesson plans which we believe will enable today's children to become tomorrow's peacemakers. Our multimedia resources are available FREE online.

The resources are designed to enable students to develop a sense of perspective in relation to our multicultural and interdependent world. Reflective individual and group activities, critical thinking and modern technology are core components of the Resource. Through such experiences students will have opportunities to gain an awareness of Peace Day and what it stands for, as well the sense that they too, as global citizens, have an active role to play.

We recommend the resources be used in conjunction with Jeremy's documentary The Day After Peace. The 32-minute classroom-ready version of the film (with subtitles in Arabic, Chinese [Mandarin], French, Russian and Spanish) is now available to view free online here. The 32 and 58-minute classroom-ready versions and the original 82-minute feature-length film, can all be found on the Schools Edition DVD, available to purchase online from the POD Shop."

Arthur - PBS Kids

In this interactive online game - Arthur About Face - students listen to a story about one of Arthur's friends and have to chose which emotion they will feel.