National School Counseling Week

Happy National School Counseling week! Each morning we read morning announcements about how school counselors help kids succeed.(See the announcements here) The "big event" of the week, however, was a teacher and staff appreciation breakfast. After sending an email out to the teachers that morning, we went around to relieve teachers for a few minutes so they could get some breakfast. On the menu: coffee, donuts, muffins, fruit, and banana nut bread. I'd call it a success! I also decorated the table with a thank you note to the teachers and staff, and put out some "teacher jokes" on the table so teachers could be entertained ;)

Random Acts of Kindness Week

Random Acts of Kindness week is Feb. 11-17. My Secret Service Group will be helping me during the RAK week, as they are the experts in the field! We have decided to start off each day with morning announcements. 

Our main Random Acts of Kindness activity will be a school-wide RAK bulletin board. My Secret Service agents suggested that we decorate the bulletin board with paper people chains, so that everyone is "holding hands" and showing kindness! Their homework this weekend was to make the chains so I can staple them on the board! 

All students at the school are invited to participate in RAK week. When students complete a RAK, they will write (or draw) on a heart cut-out about what they did. The hearts will then all be posted on a bulletin board. I am excited to see the bulletin board fill up with hearts this week! I will also be adding pictures of students helping other students.

Random Acts of Kindness week morning announcements:

Monday:

Good morning! This is ____ from Ms.____’s class. This week is National Random Acts of Kindness week. We perform Random Acts of Kindness when we go beyond what is expected of us and reach out to help another person. There are three simple steps to performing a Random Act of Kindness.

• The first step is to find out what another person needs. For example, Sally has her hands full and she needs to open the door to get to her class.
• The second step is to think about how you would feel if you had that need. You might feel frustrated if your hands were full and you could not easily open the door by yourself.  
• The final step to performing a Random Act of Kindness is to offer your help. Hold the door open and let Sally enter.

There are hundreds of ways to show someone that you care. This week, look for opportunities to show that you care by performing Random Acts of Kindness.

Tuesday:

Good morning! This is ____ from Ms.____’s class. Today is the second day of National Random Acts of Kindness week. Today’s message is about Kindness and empathy.  Kindness and empathy are very closely related: kindness is simply empathy in action. When we understand how someone feels and then do something about it, we are showing kindness. Even if you sometimes do not think that anyone notices when you are being kind, remember the words of the Ancient Storyteller, Aesop. “No act of Kindness, however small, will go unnoticed”.

Wednesday:

Good morning! This is ____ from Ms.____’s class. Today is the third day of National Random Acts of Kindness week. Today’s message is about showing appreciation to those who help you. Appreciation is when you are thankful for what someone else has done for you. Do you have a friend that you can always depend on? Has one of your teachers taken the extra time to help you learn something new? Try to find the time today to say thank you to the people who mean the most to you. Remember: a simple “thank you” can go a long way!

Thursday:

Good morning! This is ____ from Ms.____’s class. Today is the fourth day of National Random Acts of Kindness week. Today’s message is about making and keeping friends. One study found that children who performed Random Acts of Kindness felt more accepted by their classmates, and had more friends than the children who did not perform Random Acts of Kindness. When you are kind to others, more people want to be around you.  Being kind to others is one of the best ways to make and keep friends! How will you show kindness to kids in your class today?

 (adapted from: National Public Radio)

Friday:

Good morning! This is ____ from Ms.____’s class. Today is the final day of National Random Acts of Kindness week. Today’s message is about passing kindness on.  When we do kind things for people, they feel so good about what we did that they often do kind acts for others. As kindness is passed on from one person to another, an outward ripple effect is created, like a raindrop that falls into water.  In this way, one Random Act of Kindness can be passed on and on, bringing happiness to many others. Anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.” Thanks to all the students and staff for helping to make this a great week. Now let’s all work together to pass the kindness on throughout our school and into our community.
(adapted from: Randomactsofkindness.org)

Other runner-up ideas for RAK week:

• Bulletin board in the main hallway for teachers, parents, and students to write a note to someone who has made their day, or to thank someone for what they have done. Pens would be attached to the bulletin board so people could write something when passing through.
• Valentines Day theme: get the whole school involved by having all students write on a heart diecut any time they see someone performing a RAK. Put the hearts up on the board. My Secret Service group had the idea of creating a border for the bulletin board by making and decorating paper chain people holding hands. 
• Morning announcements with a positive quote to start the day
• Graffiti positive quotes on the sidewalks with sidewalk chalk  
• Mirrorless Monday - promoting self-esteem. Be kind to yourself.
• Pay it Forward (starting with a few people doing RAK's, watching it spread through the school. Haven't worked out the kinks yet. Please let me know if you have a similar idea!)
• RAK board- all students have the option of participating in. For the entire week, students will try to complete every activity on their board, and turn in their completed board to their teacher at the end of the week.

Pinterest Workshop

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am hopelessly addicted to Pinterest! So when the opportunity came along to share my passion for Pinterest with other teachers in the school, I was very excited!

Pinterest can be an excellent tool for teachers if they know how to use it! If you are not on pinterest- here are a few reasons why you should be!

1. It's a great tool for collaborating with colleagues. If colleagues follow one another's boards, they can share creative lesson planning ideas. In fact, multiple teachers can pin to the same board!

2. Plan creative/unique lessons. There are lesson ideas for about anything you can think of! There are also instructional videos that can be utilized during instruction. Just search for your topic.

3. Maximize space in your classroom.  Find original ideas on how to organize your classroom.

4. De-stress after a long day! Lose yourself in page after page of inspirational ideas!

About the workshop:

All of the teachers and staff at the school were invited to attend. To introduce the concept of Pinterest, each person wrote down several ideas that they have used in their classroom based on different categories, and used a push pin to "pin" their idea to the correct board. This process helped them understand what a pin is and what a board is, and start to see the benefit of having hundreds of thousands of people sharing some of their best ideas- all in one place!

Here is a handout with some of the basics of Pinterest.

If you share my passion for Pinterest, please follow the Inspired Counselor here!! Yeah, it's kind of an addiction :)

Secret Service Group

I'm very fortunate to have a site supervisor for my internship who encourages me to try new things and to make mistakes. I've done a little of both with this group! When I told her about the idea of having a Secret Service group, she was very supportive of the idea. I got the inspiration for the Secret Service group from Dianne Senn’s book, Small Group Counseling, Grades 2-5. After reading about her Secret Service club, my wheels started to turn!

Before the group started, I met with each student. I gave them a manila envelope with “TOPSECRET” printed on it. Inside the envelope, was the official secret service invitation and parent consent to be in the group. I told each student to return the envelope with parent signatures to asecret location outside of my office. I also explained to them that the US Secret Service’s job is to serve and help the country through protecting its’ leaders. This group will serve and help the school by doing random acts of kindness (Intro by Dianne Senn).

Another great introduction to Random Acts of Kindness is a Youtube video by Life Vest Inside- Kindness Boomerang. In this video, one act of kindness causes another person to want to do something kind for another, and so on. This is a great "real life" example of paying it forward, and sparks a conversation about how easy it can be to be kind. Click on the picture to play the video.

Each week, I assign a secret mission to the Secret Service Agents. This could be anything from giving compliments to a classmate, or writing anonymous thank you notes to teachers around the school. I usually print the assignments out on a half-sheet of paper so that it fits into their envelop. Some of the missions may be written in code so that the students have to decipher it first! The students keep track of their service assignments in a journal. After each completed assignment, the students record the responses of the recipient of the deed, or their own responses (feelings, thoughts, other ideas). We use the journal as a springboard for group discussions.

I have also challenged my group of 6 students to do a combined total of 100 Random Acts of Kindness throughout the duration of our group meetings. We brainstormed different things that each person could do to earn extra stars (see list below). My goal in doing this is to encourage them to constantly be on the lookout for kind things to do for other people, rather than simply focusing on one task each week. A quote/motto that we often refer to in group is, "No act of kindness, no matter how small, will go unnoticed" -Aesop. They are not doing the services to get recognition for themselves, but rather for the satisfaction of knowing that they are making a difference in someone's life.

I created a group notebook (below) that is hidden in an “undisclosed location”. This notebook serves as a source of information and a means of communication for group members. If the students have questions during the week, they can refer to the notebook. (This also helps me with the group since I am an intern and am not at school all week to answer their questions). Included in the notebook are some of the most common questions- the date and time of the next meeting, the agenda for the next meeting, our list of ideas for secret service projects, extra copies of handouts, and a chart to keep track of the 100 assignments as they are completed. 

This group has been great for building students' friendship, leadership, and social skills, in addition to promoting students' positive self-esteem. So far, the kids are very enthusiastic about being members of the Secret Service at school. I have already noticed some changes in how the students are treating one another during group time. They were beyond excited to learn that they are the school's ONLY Secret Service, and that the only adults who know about the Secret Service besides me are their classroom teachers and their parents. I am excited to see how the rest of our group meetings turn out!

Extra Stars Ideas:
Pick up trash in your classroom
Be a peer helper to a life skills class 
Read to younger students 
Offer to help someone in your class with an assignment they are struggling with
Say thank you to cafeteria staff 
Smile to someone who may be having a hard day
Say “good morning” to someone you don’t normally speak to
Offer to get extra materials for someone (pencil, paper, textbook, fork, napkins, etc)
Stand up to a bully- don’t just be a bystander
Do an extra chore at home without being asked
Invite someone to play with you at recess who is not playing with anyone
Send a letter to an adult friend (with parent’s help)
Write a thank you note to a parent
Host a collection drive for an important cause
Put up positive posters around school (get adult approval first)
Give compliments to classmates, teachers, or students you do not know
Leave anonymous positive notes in a classmate’s or teacher’s desk
Put out birdseed after it snows
Hold the door open for the next person
Draw a picture for someone
Sit by someone different at lunch
Take time to get to know someone new
Puppet show to teach younger kids about friendship
Offer to help a specials teacher during your lunch time

You can now purchase the ENTIRE packet of documents for this group at my Teachers Pay Teachers store! Check it out: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Secret-Service-Group-Promoting-Random-Acts-of-Kindness-1252038

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Secret-Service-Group-Promoting-Random-Acts-of-Kindness-1252038