Classroom Guidance

I do a Classroom Guidance lesson at the beginning of the year with each of the 3 classes I'm in charge of; 8th, 9th, and 10th. During this lesson I go over what my main responsibilities are as a School Counselor; scheduling, testing, and counseling. When I talk about counseling with my students I always go into what are the three things that I have to report. I find it is a good way to open the door to that conversation, it also allows me to remind students of that conversation if and/or when they come down to talk to me. "Remember when I was in your classroom at the beginning of the year and I told you there were three things that I have to report?"

Then I go into my conversation about our two types of diplomas, credits, verified credits, yadda yadda. It's amazing how many times you can over something and students still forget.

I also give each student an "information sheet" to fill out and give back to me. My goal is to meet with each student individually to talk about what they want to take class wise, career wise, college wise, etc. During that time I find it will be helpful for me to have their information sheets to help me guide them. It also has some information to allow me to pick out students who might be in need of a little more attention counseling wise. Below is the information sheet.

Before I finish my lesson, I give each student a checklist. I created these checklists, but I added them below to share with you :) I tell students that whether they are college bound or not, these sheets will help them graduate.

Bulletin Boards 2013-2014

It has been my experience that Secondary Schools lack the enthusiastic nature of an Elementary School. However, as a School Counselor I take on the challenge to try to create that enthusiasm with in my staff and my building! One of the ways I like to encourage this is decorating creatively or as us in education call it, Bulletin Boards! Some people hate them, I love them!  There aren’t as many fun ideas for Secondary Schools because it has to be considered “cool” by teenagers. So… Dr. Seuss out? We’ll see what the year brings lol For now, I have been lucky enough to adopt FOUR bulletin boards at my new school. I’m not sure if that’s a good sign that they already love me and trust me to decorate the school or if that means no one else wanted them haha either way, I win!

Without further ado (or adieu? Where’s an English teacher when you need them?!) here are my bulletin boards!

This one is in my office. It is Pinterest inspired! Check out the original here. I found the US map on ebay and bought it for like 12 bucks. My husband, a history teacher, tells me I could have found one cheaper at Walmart, but I never did.... I emailed my new staff and asked them where they graduated from in undergrad. Then I made Stars with each of the colleges and hand wrote the names of the staff on the stars. Then I found each city that the colleges were in and put a push pin in the map. I have already gotten a lot of compliments from parents, students, and staff!

 

This board is right outside of our office. It will contain information about scholarships, PSAT's, SATS, etc. (I'm going to be working on the "Guidance" title for any other school counselors out there who see this.)

 Student of the Month is a student recognition program that I ran at my last school. It was so successful and I'm excited to start one here! This bulletin board is directly outside of the main office. It will soon be filled with winners of Student of the Month!

 Students for Students is a Community Service club at my school that I have proudly and excitedly inherited. Soon the middle of this board will have pictures in the middle of my club members working in the community. :) This board was also Pinterest inspired. As seen here.