It is officially summer vacation for me!!! Feels GREAT to be on vacation before I start my summer job & eventually my eight week summer class. HOWEVER, no need to worry about either of those things right now. My mind is on my one week off and long weekend up at my cabin in the northwoods of Wisconsin.
Being that this weekend is Memorial Day weekend, it will be my first time back out on our pontoon since last summer! Not only will we be cruising around on the water, but we’ll be spending time outdoors around the fire, grilling out, etc. Basically, where I am going with this is that it is about that time to create a good playlist for all of the outdoor fun we have ahead this summer! Just as well, I am signed up for a half marathon next week, and a motivating playlist is a MUST to get me through 13 miles of running!
Whether you are looking for music for cruising on the boat, for a cookout, an exercise playlist, or something to walk/run/dance …Here is what I have on repeat right now! Enjoy and wahooo for summer!!! 🙂
Summer 2014 Playlist
(A mix of newbies & oldies but goodies 🙂 )
Am I Wrong -Nico & Vinz
Glowing – Nikki Williams
Summer -Calvin Harris
Problem -Ariana Grande
I Need Your Love -Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding
Show Me -Chris Brown
I Wanna Dance w/Somebody -Whitney Houston
Gettin’ Over You -David Guetta
I Cry -Flo rida
Freak -Enrique Iglesias
Africa -Toto
Trumpets -Jason Derulo
Fancy -Iggy
Keep Them Kisses Comin’ -Chris Campbell
Wild Wild Love -Pitbull
Ain’t it Fun -Paramore
Sweet Caroline -Neil Diamond (Fam fav & classic in the summer)
Live Like You Were Dyin -Tim McGraw (Same as above)
Hollaback girl -Gwen Stefani
Not Alone -Dane Rumble
I Don’t Dance -Lee Brice
La La La -Naughty Boy
Clockwork -Easton Corbin
Love Never Felt So Good -Michael Jackson & Justin Timberlake
It’s estimated that 26% of children in the U.S. experience some kind of traumatic event before the age of 4. Every year, more than five million children experience some extreme traumatic event. Traumatic events can include natural disasters, motor vehicle accidents, life threatening illness, physical abuse, sexual assault, witnessing domestic or community violence, kidnapping or death of a parent or loved one. Trauma can seriously impact our kids during their younger years and can cause severe health impacts later in life. In the classroom, children can display traumatic stress through aggression, anxiety, defiance, perfectionism, and withdrawal. And here’s the biggie, signs of trauma often times look very similar to ADD, ADHD, OD & CD.
Trauma affects the whole child: the mind, body, and spirit. The impact of trauma on the brain significantly effects children, their learning, and their ability to form relationships with others. Our brains are developed to help us respond to threat. We often times hear this referred to as the “flight or fight response.” When we are confronted with a dangerous or potentially dangerous situation, our brain goes on alert and prepares the body to respond. The brain does this by increasing the adrenaline in our system. When the threat is no longer there, our brain releases other chemicals such as cortisol to reduce the adrenaline in our bodies. This helps us to relax and to quiet down. We no longer need to fight or run, so our body adjusts accordingly. This is a normal, healthy reaction for many humans, but not for all.
In some situations where fighting or running is not possible, our brain may help us to freeze. In these situations our breathing may slow down and chemicals such as endorphins are released that help us to be very still or even to go numb, and therefore feel less pain. When a child is traumatized by extreme or repeated events of abuse (for example), chemical reactions in the body and brain can be switched on as if they have never been switched off. The brains of these children are often in a state of fear. This state of “fear activation” leads to changes in emotional, behavioral and cognitive functioning because the brain is tricked into survival mode. A major negative outcome of this is that a traumatized child can constantly be in this state of fear. As a result, this can cause things such as hypervigilance, a focus on threat-related cues (non-verbal included), anxiety and behavioral impulsivity.
With this in mind, it is not surprising that some traumatized children really struggle controlling their anger and impulses, and maintaining their attention and connection in the classroom. It does not come easy for these children to regulate strong emotions and instead, they jump right to a reaction, with no time to think. While often times we see this through aggressive behaviors, children may also react by disengaging or dissociating. Both are adaptive human responses to traumatic experiences.
So what can we do in our schools, and in our communities to help our children who have been victims of trauma? Here are only some of the approaches you can help integrate into your school to effectively meet the needs and reach out to this, unfortunately, vastly growing population of kiddo’s.
Teach coping skills (mindfulness techniques, journaling, how to ask for a break when needed, deep breathing, relaxation, etc.). Check out the “Mindfulness” section of this blog to see various resources and activities you can utilize at your school.
Teach self regulation skills.
Inform and educate other teachers, school staff, administrators and families on the impacts of trauma
Give children choices! Often traumatic events involve loss of control. You can help children feel safe by providing them with some choices or control when appropriate.
Provide these children with EXTRA support and encouragement.
Once again, educate others on trauma! Educate, educate, educate! Advocate, advocate, advocate! Recognize that behavioral problems may be related to trauma. Keep in mind that even the most disruptive behaviors can be driven by trauma-related anxiety.
Be sensitive to cues in the environment that may cause a reaction for a traumatized child.
Provide a safe space for the child to talk about the traumatic event or provide additional resources in the community for the child’s family.
While a traumatized child might not be eligible for special education, consider accommodations and modifications for the child to support academic success.
This is obviously only a start to the ways we can promote trauma sensitivity in our schools. However, there are so many resources available today to help meet the needs of our kiddo’s who have experienced traumatic situations and as a result, have been impacted for life. It is our job to work together as a team with other educators, specialists and the families of traumatized children to see that these children are cared for, understood, and guided through their long journey in coping with their traumatic experience(s). Be an advocate, be an educator, be a leader and promote a trauma sensitive environment at your school.
One last thing….If you’re looking for a good summer read, I HIGHLY recommend “The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog” by Bruce D. Perry. Dr. Perry (child psychiatrist) discusses the various children he has worked with who have suffered from severe cases of abuse and neglect. I PROMISE you, your life will be changed after reading this book. You will come to new awarenesses and insights on the extreme impacts of trauma. The cases he presents are unimaginable….
I think we can all advocate for kiddo’s needing time outdoors! Truly, we all can benefit from time spent outside and in nature. I may have a bit of Wisconsin spring fever right now, but as the weather continues getting nicer, I am challenging myself to find more and more activities that can be done with children out in the sunshine and fresh air. There are so many ways we can work with student’s outdoors as we would inside our school walls, however outdoor time may actually result in additional benefits for our young ones. For instance…
Exercise, movement, physical activity!
Playing outside provides children with something many children don’t get enough of anymore – exercise. Exercising while having fun is the best kind of exercise! Walk and talks can be exchanged for sitting in chairs with students during individual meetings. Team building activities can be utilized during classroom guidance and small groups. Check out the WLW pinterest to see specific team building exercises to use outdoors.
Stimulation of the Imagination
As expectations for students increase in our schools, our student’s imaginations, creativity and freedom of expression are decreasing. Our children are not discovering and experiencing things on their own, rather they are being shown, taught, and instructed. Likewise, growing up in a society that is so consumed in technology does not help with this challenge. Playing outside helps children develop their imagination, which is something that television, video games, computers, iPods, etc. can’t do. Children tend to feel more comfortable outdoors, which allows them to “invent and create things,” once again stimulating their imagination.
Improves self-confidence and social skills
Outdoor play encourages children to risk. Children try different experiences which they normally wouldn’t and grow to be stronger and more confident individuals as a result. Children feel a sense of safety outdoors, which allows them to feel in control and promotes autonomy. Group activities, games, and sports help children learn how to solve problems with their peers. They learn to work together, compromise and communicate with one another.
Here are some different ways you can incorporate “the great outdoors” into your school counseling program:
Walk and talks: Why always sit in chairs with students? Going outdoors allows for exercise, fresh air and increases alertness. The outdoors brings a sense of calmness, relaxation and safety. Isn’t this what we hope to provide to our students as we build relationships with them? Walking side by side helps diminish any sense of hierarchy.
Take the sandtray outside!! Sit in the grass with a child as you talk and play with the sand (really, any game/toy/etc. of your choice could be taken outdoors… 🙂 )
Journal time: Students may find calmness in journaling outdoors. Allowing for free time to journal at the beginning or end of time with a student(s) encourages autonomy, creativity and independence.
Yoga! There is no better place to practice yoga than out in nature…Take your class or group outdoors and see how the change in environment impacts the student’s practice.
Termination: For your last session with a student or group of students, encourage students to find rocks out in the school yard to decorate. With either paint/marker have them write words that describe what they learned from your time together, or what they are taking with them as a result of your time together .
Planting a flower/plant/etc. with a student or a group of student’s to increase cohesiveness and support the relationship(s) being built.
Sidewalk chalk: Sidewalk chalk can replace all sorts of art therapy activities that are typically done “indoors.”
Examples include:
Encouraging students to write strengths/things they like about themselves(This could be done over the course of a day or two with multiple students/groups. It could be an empowering area that would be on showcase for all students in the school to see, names not included obviously.)
Have students draw how they are feeling and suggest that different colors demonstrate different feelings/emotions.
Free draw!
Hopscotch! Why not play a game while chatting away?!
Now let’s hope for some sunshine and enjoyable spring temps the rest of the week… 🙂 -Jessica
Happy rainy Tuesday! The perfect day for playdoh! 🙂
Who doesn’t LOVE playdoh?? Kid’s ESPECIALLY love squeezing and smashing this miracle substance in their hands! Playdoh can be used in so many different ways when working with kids. Playdoh encourages children to tap into their unconscious mind as it is used as an art expression. Just as well, when engaging in more of a nondirective style of play with children, play-doh allows children to be in control (something they often don’t experience in their world!). Playdoh can support children in building self-esteem, express their emotions and help them sharing happenings in their lives. Here are some different activities that incorporate using playdoh when working with your kiddos:
Expressing Emotions: Have children create a person out of playdoh. Talk about different emotions such as anger, fear, frustration, anxiousness, sadness, etc. Ask children to think of a time when you felt a certain feeling. For each feeling, have the student place a different color of playdoh on the place in their body where they felt that emotion (ex. placing blue playdoh on the figure’s stomach if the child’s stomach hurts when they were anxious). Once done discussing different emotions, reflect on importance of expressing these emotions and not letting them bottle up inside to a point of where our bodies ache. Talk about healthy ways to express these emotions while at school, home, out with friends, etc.
Playdoh Personalities: Have children create an animal that they believe has the same “personality” as their own. After child has created the animal, discuss why they think the animal’s personality is like their personality.
Relaxation: Giving kiddo’s playdoh to fidget with can help them relax! Playdoh can also help kids to “open up” and feel more comfortable to talk! Playdoh is something that most kids are familiar with, and can help them feel safe and in control.
Anger release: Anger can help children release built up anger. Like the “importance of expressing emotions” activity, you can talk with a child about the significance in expressing emotions in healthy ways. You can encourage the child to say something he/she is angry about and then allow them to “smash” the playdoh as a way to release their anger. It may be beneficial to talk about the difference in “hitting” playdoh versus hitting others so that the child understands appropriate and inappropriate behaviors when expressing emotions. Another activity I found on “Creativity in Therapy” involves taping a target on a wall. The child can then throw the playdog at the target as another way to express and release anger in a healthy manner.
Control: Here is a cute activity to teach kids about things we can and can not control using playdoh and a rock. Yes, a rock! Find it on Callie’s School Counseling Website by simply scrolling down to the activity that says Playdoh.
Positive Self Talk: Your mind is playdoh! Check it out onKids Relaxation.
Creativity with Playdoh: This is a fun website that talks about the benefits of using playdoh w/kids & also different materials you can combine with playdoh to get creative with playdoh play. Check it out at Imagination Tree.com
What IF the only resolution you made was to loveYOURSELFmore? It seems like such a simple question, with what “should” be such a simple answer. But for many females in our society, young girls, teenage girls, young adult women, and adult women, loving ourselves is not always something that comes easy. I am 25 years old, and can say that in the past two or three years I have finally began coming to a place where I am feeling more comfortable, proud and confident in my own skin. Have I always felt this way about myself, my potential, my knowledge, skills and body? No. Was it easy to get to where I am now? Absolutely not. Did my negative self-talk hold me back in my roles as a student, friend, sister, daughter and partner? Uh huh. Did I compare myself to others throughout my teenage years and into college? You bet. Does this still happen for me at times now if I am not mindful of my thoughts? Of course.
What scares me is not that I am alone in any of these experiences or thoughts that I just shared with you. What worries me is that there are WAY too many other women and young girls who are experiencing what I just spoke about (and more) daily. Our society has a way of telling females how we “should” be. What we “should” look like. What jobs we “should” have. All the tasks and responsibilities we “should” be able to manage. Our culture has created an environment of competition among women. Instead of empowering each other and advocating for one another, we compare, we contrast, we judge. We not only make assumptions and evaluate others, but we do this to ourselves. It seems like a never ending circle. It seems like a cultural epidemic that has no answer. And yet, if we try and understand this on a smaller scale, the solution does seem to be a bit more “manageable” (not sure I like that word, but you know what I am trying to get at 😉 ). If we stop and reflect on this vicious issue, we may find that it might not be as difficult as we think to create the change we’d all like to see in order to live in a world that encourages more self confidence and self expression and less judgment and competition.
With that said, as I am female who has struggled with self-talk, self-esteem, and body image, I am not saying my journey or your journey in becoming more self confident will be simple. I definitely am not implying that. But what I am suggesting, is that the changes we make in our everyday lives can be simple. We can begin strengthening our self confidence and respecting our own self-worth. We can empower those around us, our friends, sisters, mothers, daughters, neighbors, collegues, classmates, the list goes on and on.
I wish more than anything I could give you, or my friends, or my little elementary girls who have very low self-esteem, something that would just take these struggles away. I wish I knew exactly what to tell you and how to tell you to love yourself, your body, and your special and unique qualities. But, I can’t. No one can. My own journey, and every woman’s journey, in learning to appreciate herself (myself) looks different. There’s no magic wand to make it happen. There’s no trick that allows you to wake up one day and poof, all of a sudden you’re confident and proud of the woman you are. Yet, there ARE a lot of us on this planet. A lot of us that are in conflict with ourselves daily. A lot of us being our own worst enemies. We can come together, we can struggle together, and we can find ways to support each other while we help ourselves learn to love who we are, all that we are, and all that we do.
Learning to love ourselves comes with time. It takes effort. It takes stepping in your own “stuff” and working through it. It takes strength, and an openness and willingness to grow and learn. While every experience will be different, and the process may take longer for some than others, we can still support one another. As I said before, I don’t know the “secret” but I would like to share some different ideas with you in this post and in posts in the future. Some of these are things that have helped me in my own journey in becoming a more confident individual. Others that I have listed are thoughts, websites, activities, etc., that stand out to me and I feel as though could be helpful to you or for others around you. As always, please feel free to share and exchange any thoughts of your own as well.
Be mindful of your thoughts, your self-talk and the way you present yourself to others. Is what you say something you would say to your best friend? To a co-worker? A sibling? Reflect on treatingt yourself the way you do to those you love.
Forgive yourself! Everyone makes mistakes, no one is “perfect”…
Avoid “shoulding” on yourself. If you find yourself saying, I “should have” or I “must” you might be placing unreasonable expectations on yourself.
Encourage yourself!!!! Be your own cheerleader.
Create a word for yourself, such as strong, beautiful, intelligent, caring, respectful, driven, etc. When you notice those negative thoughts, recognize that they are, but use your “word” to help you focus back on the positive and present.
Appreciate your body. Recognize ALL that it does for you each and every day.
Take notice of when you pass judgment and compare. What does this do for you? Instead of looking at how you’d like to be like someone else, VALUE all that you are.
Exercise! Exercise increases the release of endorphins (chemicals in your brain that fight stress). Exercise boosts self-esteem and helps decrease stress, tension and anxiety.
Listen to your body. Everyone’s needs for exercise, nutrition, sleep, socializing, etc. is DIFFERENT. Know what feels “right” for you. It’s amazing how wonderful we can feel by simply listening to our body and honoring what it asks of us.
Embrace and Empower (“Like” it on Facebook) – A page that encourages self-love and self-acceptance through inspirational quotes, resources, etc.
The Four Agreements by Miguel Ruiz (Just check it out… 😉 )
Yoga: This has been a big one for me. Yoga encourages mindfulness, awareness, and it connects you with your thoughts and body. Yoga has challenged me mentally, physically and has been an amazing part of my process. It’s help me learn to acknowledge my self-talk, but then has also supported me in not allowing negative thoughts to interfere with my practice. Basically, the greatness I’ve found with yoga is that I’ve been able to integrate my awarenesses and greater self-appreciation that I continue to learn on my yoga mat into “real” life situations.
Gratitude journal. Treat yourself to a fun, little notebook and begin journaling about all that you are thankful for, and all the strengths and special qualities you have as an individual.
No more “fat” talk. “Fat talk” does not refer to just weight, it includes all that we say as women that brings us and others down. It’s more “negative” talk, in my perspective. The following website is dedicated towards helping to eliminate negative talk. http://www.operationbeautiful.com/release-form/how-to-become-fat-talk-free/
In Schools:
Have a student sit on a chair in front of a whiteboard while other students write positive phrases on the board.
Tape a blank piece of paper on student’s backs. Students walk around and write positive comments on other student’s sheets.
“Friendship bracelets” —See “Noticing our Kindness” post (individual/group activities)
Bucket Filling—See “Bucket Filling” post (under curriculum)
More to come here….
I hope you have a wonderful end to your week. And I hope you are able to begin embracing yourself, all that you are, and that you are also able to empower those around you to do the same. 🙂
I’m LOVING this book: How Full is Your Bucket? Kids REALLY seem to connect with the content and the meaning behind the story. The real test, as we know, will be to see if they can apply it when they’re interacting with their peers, teachers, and families… TBD! 😉
I have been using this book when working individually with kiddo’s, although you could totally use this for a small groups or for an entire class when teaching a lesson. We’ve had requests from teachers to work with numerous girls on friendship skills. How Full is Your Bucket has been a great way to connect with these girls and cover friendship skills such as facial expressions, tone of voice, eye contact, expression of feelings, inclusion, etc. It typically has been taking me one session just to read the book and talk about it briefly with the student. I usually take turns reading the book with the student (dependent upon age), and conversation evolves as we make our way through. Some of the topics/questions we talk about throughout the story include:
-Who was a bucket dipper? Why?
-How do the character’s feel when their bucket is dipped into? When their bucket is empty?
-Has your bucket ever been dipped into? Emptied? When? How did you feel?
-Who was a bucket filler? Why?
-How can we fill others buckets? How can we fill our own buckets?
-How do we feel when our buckets are full? How did the character’s in the story feel what their buckets were full?
-What can we do at school to be bucker fillers? In the classroom? At recess? At home?
When we meet again for a second time, we review what we learned about being bucket dippers and bucket fillers by writing different examples out on a dry erase board or sheet of paper. After, we each create some piece of small artwork, letter, etc. for another person in hopes to fill their bucket! When I meet with the student for the third time, we once again review bucket dipping and filling, and talk about how it felt to fill someone else’s bucket. Here are some other GREAT options of ways to incorporate “bucket filling” when working individually with kiddos, in small groups or in a classroom!
Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend filled with fun, family, friends, and of course, candy! I was in the mood for a new read this weekend, so I took a little trip to Barnes and Noble. Luckily, one of my professor’s mentioned the book “Thrive” by Arianna Huffington (cofounder of the Huffington Post) in class this past week, otherwise B & N trips can consume an entire afternoon… If there is one store where I can spend hours and hours, sometimes walking around in the same circle, it’s Barnes and Noble.
I spent almost my entire Saturday night (thrilling Saturday night for a 25 year old 😉 ) digging into Thrive, needless to say I HIGHLY recommend this read. Huffington’s novel discusses the definition of success in our world today (money and power) and how it is literally driving individuals into the ground. She stresses the importance, for us as a society, to begin redefiningsuccess. “To live the lives we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives we settle for, we need a Third Metric, a third measure of success that goes beyond the two metrics of money and power, and consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving.” These four pillars are what make up the four sections of the book.
The first section “well-being” talks about just that, our health and well-being. Huffington advocates that if we don’t begin to redefine success in our country, our physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual health will continue to decline. She offers countless stories of CEO’s and well known leaders who have stepped away from careers that they put everything into and sacrificed a ton for, including their health, to regain a life of meaning, balance, and wellness instead of stress, anxiety and exhaustion.
Together with the stories from influential American’s and personal experiences from Huffington’s own life, she provides readers with tools and tactics to begin living a life where our health and well-being becomes just as important as our work meetings, e-mail’s and deadlines. In her “well-being” section, I especially appreciated Huffington’s sharing of her meaning of mindfulness. She brought in this component to offer readers a simple approach to give more attention and care towards our mental health. This is what I would like to leave you with this Monday.
Mindfulness as Told in Thrive: Habit Breaking or Habit Unmaking
“Each day for a week you choose a habit such as brushing your teeth, drinking your morning coffee, or taking a shower, and simply pay attention to what’s happening while you do it. It’s really not so much habit breaking as habit unmaking -it’s taking something we’ve placed on autopilot and putting it back on the list of things we pay attention to. The idea is not to make you feel different, but simply to allow a few more moments in the day when you are ‘awake’…If you notice your mind wandering while you do this, simply notice where it went, then gently escort it back to the present moment.”
Mindfulness exercises can be done in a variety of ways and in all sorts of settings, but the point I think Huffington tries to make is that it can be incorporated into our lives in the simplest parts of our day (such as brushing our teeth 🙂 ). After reading this, I started thinking about my own day. I can’t remember the last time I took a shower, without running through a list of things in my head that I needed to do that day. As far as drinking coffee goes, I’m usually trying to inhale a cup as quick as possible as I fly through my morning to get ready and get out the door by 7:30 am. I don’t know that I usually even taste my morning coffee? Someone could put lemonade in my favorite snoopy mug, and I don’t know that I’d even notice a difference? It’s become more of a “get the caffeine in asap” and let’s get the day going! It makes me disappointed to look at the parts of my day when I should be more present, when I am actually physically away from school/work/etc. and yet, I am not being mindful. I’m not being connected, I’m not living as well as I could be. I’m rushing. I’m stressing. I’m thinking about the next thing. Trying to get ahead, not realizing that it’s probably actually setting me back.
I think we all have areas in our day where we can try to be a little more present. More mindful. More connected. By finding parts in our day to focus on our well-being is just how we can begin to, as Huffington says in her novel, redefine success and most importantly, begin to Thrive.Likewise, we can think of it as just another way to begin living our life “the water lily way.”
As an aspiring counselor, I am beginning to gather different resources such as books, games, toys, etc. However, as we all know there’s a ton of resources, activities and books online that are FREE to use. What a great way to balance and mix up resources as an educator. Like many of the other collections I’ve shared on the blog, this is a very basic list! I will continue to add to this list as I slowly uncover more of the wonderful and inexpensive resources that exist for educators! Enjoy and feel free to share others that you’ve found to be fun and effective to use throughout the school day!
Sugarland, Stand Up: (Bullying) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qas0BDx6PCg –There’s several videos ersions of this song, some might be more appropriate for some ages than others. Either way, the message is powerful
Gonoodle.com –This site is AWESOME! If you’ve never heard of it, check it out asap! Zumba for kids, calming exercises, energizing exercises…So great for the classroom! You have to create an account (you earn points as you do different exercises), but it’s FREE! 🙂
Hello all! I hope you had an enjoyable weekend, and are ready to tackle another Monday. 🙂 I am at my practicum site on Monday, and decided to share a little card I began making for some of the students I see individually. One thing I have noticed since being at my elementary school since February is that we have a lot of students with low levels of confidence and self-esteem. While this may not come surprising to some, it still shocks me every Monday when I am at my site and talking with my kids. I suppose I assumed I would encounter more self-esteem related struggles when I eventually entered into a middle and high school during my internship next year. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
A lot of the kiddo’s I have been talking with individually, originally were connected with me because of either behavioral or academic related issues (or so I was told). After spending time with a few of these students, I’ve come to see that their self-talk is very negative and their self confidence is extremely low. How are children suppose to succeed in school when their brains are telling them one thing, and yet they are being challenged beyond belief to perform academically? How is that happening to our little ones at such a young age? What can we do as school counselors, teachers, parents and friends to promote positive self-talk, and increase self-esteem in our youth? Self-talk effects SO many aspects of our daily life: our mental wellness, our ability to cope and handle stress, our immune systems and physical health, our confidence, self-esteem, work habits and relationships. Self-talk. Is. Powerful.
There are millions of resources for school counselors, teachers and parents to use to help increase positive self-talk in our youth. As I continue to explore different activities, I will, of course, share them with you on the blog (this is an area of passion for me!). For now, here is a little card I have been giving to some of my students. While they decorate around the card (we paste them on construction paper -I believe decorating helps make it “their own”) we discuss the “little monster” that feeds them negative thoughts. By externalizing the self-talk, it takes the blame off the child and any extra frustration that may have been connected with the self-talk being “their fault.” Talking points can include things such as:
-What does the monster say?
-How does the monster impact you at school? Home? With friends?
-How can we stop the monster?
-What are some of your strengths? What do you enjoy? What makes you feel good about yourself?
Feel free to let me know what you think, as always. 🙂
One final thought for your “Mindfulness Monday”…
Remember: “Your thoughts only have as much power as you give them.”
An important aspect to delivering a comprehensive school counseling program entails providing students with lessons or activities that are preventative and developmental in design. School Counseling Core Curriculum is often thought of as “guidance,” however curriculum can actually be delivered to students in a school through several strategies such as:
Direct Instruction:
School Counselor’s teach school counseling core curriculum in a variety of subject areas to all students in classrooms, school counselor offices, computer labs and other school facilities. School Counseling Core Curriculum is focused around the three domains: academic development, career development and personal/social development. The ASCA model encourages school counselors to allocate 35%-45% of their total time spent at school providing students with school counseling curriculum. Not only does direct instruction provide students with knowledge, skills and new awareness’s, but it also assists the school counselor in identifying students who may need further support in either a small group setting or through individual student counseling.
Groups Activities:
The school counselor facilitates groups outside of the classroom to meet individual student needs or interests. The groups promote academic, career or personal/social development to enhance student skills and knowledge within these areas.
Examples of possible content topics for direct instruction or group activities:
Academic support
Career awareness
Career exploration
Character education
Conflict resolution
Cultural competence
Goal setting
Mindfulness
Protective behaviors
Relational skills
School safety
Self-management
Social skills
Stress management and healthy coping
Transitions
Wellness
The following are lesson plans that could be used to deliver school counseling curriculum to students. The lesson plans have been created using the current templates provided by ASCA for school counselors.
The Water Lily Way 