5+ Ways to Celebrate National School Counseling Week

It’s that time of year again: National School Counseling Week!  It’s a week where you get to humble brag about everything you’re doing for your students, school, and community.  Keep reading (or listen) to find out why we say it’s the best week of real estate for school counselors!  In this post we’re giving you 5+ ways to celebrate National School Counseling Week (while secretly humble bragging).

Over the years we have written other blog posts and recorded podcasts about this. You can check them out here and here for some more ideas.

First of all, we want to save you from hurt feelings before the week even starts. Realize that this week is meant for YOU to spread the word about all of the fantastic things you’re doing.  While we hope that you get a shout-out or a box of chocolates, the emphasis is on your program, not on you.  Therefore, don’t set up a gift table or donation box just yet.

In this post we’re sharing 5+ ways you can spread the word and celebrate National School Counseling Week.  Sometimes this includes treats and gifts for the teachers.  You may be saying, “Wait a minute… you just said it’s not about receiving gifts, and you’re telling me I should be giving gifts?!”  Think of the treats for the teachers as attention getters.  You’re wanting to spread your message, and the best way to grab the attention and get your message across is by attaching it to a cupcake or other small treat.

1.) Celebrate National School Counseling Week By Sharing Your Standards

The ASCA theme this year is “Standards-based, student-focused.”  This theme is a great way to let teachers know that we also have standards that have to be met.  Teachers understand standards.  Their whole year is based on a pacing guide that revolves around standards.  Consider sharing your state and national standards with them.  This may spark conversations about ways that you all can collaborate and work together to reach standards.
Ideas:
Standards are all about helping students improve to be the best version of themselves.  This made us think of awards or blue ribbons.

• You could give Blue Ribbon ice cream bars to teachers with a message about how combining academic standards with school counseling standards causes achievement to go up and leads to students being the best version of themselves.
• Since standards measure progress, you could create cute recipe cards along with hot chocolate mix, cookies, or some other treat that requires a recipe.

2.) Using National School Counseling Week to talk about equity-

As school counselors we spend a lot of time advocating for equal access for all students to classes, clubs, programs, and opportunities.  We’re constantly looking for any gaps that may prevent equity.  Some of these gaps are related to the Maslow Before Bloom principle.  This helps teachers understand that if a student doesn’t have those basic needs met, they may not be able to meet the expectations in the classroom.
Ideas:
Of course the word “bloom” in Maslow Before Bloom makes me think of flowers

• You could give everyone a small potted plant
• Consider making these paper flowers
• Have someone decorate flower cookies
• Decorative flower cupcakes

3.) Talking About Data During National School Counseling Week-

We really pride ourselves on being excellent data diggers.  Use NSCW to talk about what you have discovered when you have dug through data.  Tell teachers that part of your job is to dig through data.  Digging through data helps you know which standards to focus on throughout the year.
Ideas:
– When we think of “dig,” we think of dirt cake.
– We have also used lemon and chocolate cakes to represent “Wheels” on our excavators.  It’s all about presentation.  

4.) Celebrating National School Counseling Week by Encouraging Collaboration-

Remember earlier when we said that showing your standards to teachers could lead to collaboration?  It’s true!  We say teachers are on the front lines; therefore, we definitely depend on them to notice when students aren’t acting like themselves.  We can also collaborate on a lesson.  I’ve had a math teacher ask me to join her when talking about “problem solving.”  Just letting teachers know that you want to collaborate when it comes to focusing on the students opens up so many possibilities.

Ideas:
Use any treat that has a counterpart or pair-

• Peanut butter and jelly
• Cookies and Milk
• A pack of Little Debbies that come with 2
• Sausage and biscuits
• Biscuits and Gravy
• Coke and Peanuts
• Smores Kits

5.) Get Your Advisory Council to Help You Celebrate National School Counseling Week-

Share all of these ideas with your advisory council.  Keep them in the loop.  Who knows- they might offer to help contribute to some of your ideas.  If nothing else, they will see you as invaluable to the school and community!

6.) Celebrating National School Counseling Week with Gifts

We would like to mention 3 gifts you might want to ask for during National School Counseling Week.  

Gift Idea #1

First, our book, Growing Your Program for School Counselors, is a fantastic (if we do say so ourselves) guide to how to run your school counseling program.  Many of the items we discuss in the book are tips that we used to achieve RAMP status last year.  Mention it to your administrator, your supervisor, or your school counseling BFF!

Gift Idea #2

The second gift you might want to ask for is a ticket to our Behavior Detour conference.  We know that teachers and counselors are scratching their heads right now wondering what to do with student behaviors.  To try to offer a solution to that, we have assembled some of the nation’s top speakers and authors to give stories, solutions, and strategies to help with the behavior crisis we are finding ourselves in across the nation.

Gift Idea #3

Finally, we have a school counseling course that comes with guided video modules, printables, and time with… Us!  We will all become best friends during this course.  School counseling can become a lonely job.  Who couldn’t use a group of best friends who “know what you’re going through because we’re living it every single day?”  (If you listen to our podcast, you know that’s what we say at the beginning of each episode.)  We are limiting the number of participants in this course because we want it to be a small group in order to allow us to build those relationships.  You can sign up here to join the wait list, and you’ll receive an early registration opportunity before we open the doors to everyone else.

Ultimately, we want you to ask yourself these three questions, “Is this positioning me as a leader?  Is this an effective use of my time?  Is this making me successful?”  We believe the answer to each of these questions is YES!  Getting a week set aside for you to brag about everything you’re doing is a major win!  We hope that knowing that you are spreading awareness is a gift in and of itself if no one else pours on the gifts you definitely deserve.