A couple of years ago, during a lesson, one of my students said, “not to be racist, but she was white.” It wasn’t the first time a student had mistakenly thought that naming race was being racist, but it was still one of the bigger wake ups I had about the need to talk more directly to my students about identity, diversity, and social justice. And it wasn’t just about ensuring my students had the understanding and language to discuss these very real issues. Social justice lessons with elementary students are also about developing empathy, perspective-taking, and bullying prevention. The idea o ..read more

The value of social-emotional learning is undisputed amongst both teachers and counselors. We know that kids need to learn SEL skills to succeed in, and out, of the classroom.  Unfortunately, time is often the biggest barrier when it comes to adding these important lessons to a typical school day.  But with these tips, you can seamlessly integrate social-emotional learning into the classroom by adding them to what you’re already doing daily (or by setting aside just a few moments in the morning at end-of-day) 1. Morning Madness Check-ins  Teaching self-reflection at ..read more

Getting to know students can be overwhelming at the start of a new school year. You may have a large caseload or may be the only counselor at your school. How can you make individual student connections when this is your situation? Use Duty Assignments to Make Student Connections If you have an assigned duty station before and/or after school, use this to your advantage. My early morning and afternoon duty in the front hallway allow me to make individual student connections every day. After only a few weeks, I already see some patterns. I get to know the late arrivers, sleepy heads, friend gro ..read more

Social emotional learning in academic instruction is having its moment. While counselors have been supporting the whole child and taking a deep look at noncognitive skills, the bandwagon has now officially been joined. If not, here are some ways to increase buy-in. What a great time to be a counselor! In my state, schools are required to use a set of school improvement indicators, several of which include social emotional learning. School counselors are also the leaders of our state’s guidance (insert cringe at the g-word) standards. The combination of these two means that all eyes are on coun ..read more

Restorative practices are sweeping the education world and for very good reason. This approach to discipline focuses on repairing/restoring the hurt that has happened - instead of on punishing the wrong doing. I'm lucky to have worked in a school district that was an early adopter of some of these ideas. That doesn't mean that all faculty across the city immediately jumped on board, but it does mean that we had the opportunity to receive training on it early on. So what is the connection between school counselors and restorative practices? While administration and classroom teachers play the ..read more

As counselors, we know that parent engagement and involvement is important. We also know that it can be tricky to find ways to get parents involved in their child’s social-emotional learning. One way to help bridge this gap is by hosting a social-emotional learning family night. I have found that hosting a night like this is a great way to get students and their families excited about social-emotional learning topics. Another thing that makes a night like this powerful is that you can tailor the night to meet the specific needs of your school. Regardless of the topic and activities you choose ..read more

No matter what your school looks like, chances are you’re helping students to effectively and peacefully manage conflict. We are all human and conflict is a part of our lives! Teaching students conflict resolution is one of my absolute favorite parts of being a school counselor; it’s fun and it has a huge impact. Your students need conflict resolution skills now, next year, and for their whole lives. Classroom Guidance Lessons One of the best ways to teach conflict resolution skills is to do just that – teach it! In an ideal world, you will have time in your guidance map to teach each class a ..read more

Are you working on creating buy-in for social-emotional learning at your school? This post is for you to share with other educators in your building to spread the word about why Social Emotional Learning is important. Think about the best job you’ve ever had. It could be in your education career, it could be at an ice cream shop in high school. What did you love about it? I bet you liked your boss. They cared about you. They wanted you to be successful and they were going to walk alongside you to make sure that happened. Now imagine a time when you’ve learned something new. Something hard. Som ..read more