National School Counseling Week

Well, it’s the School Counselor’s holiday season! National School Counseling Week is upon us. Unlike other holidays, this isn’t necessarily a time for you to receive gifts, although we certainly hope that happens. This is a time for you to “humble brag” about your program. Please visualize us making the praying hands as we “humble brag.” In this blog post, we are going to share 5 tips for touting the great things you do without appearing conceited. There’s a fine line, and we’re ready to walk it!
If you haven’t already gotten some ideas from this post yet, go check it out! This was our blog post from last year, and we shared some of our plans for National School Counseling Weeks for our own schools. Our week was a total success, and I truly think people learned a few things that they didn’t realize we did.

National School Counseling Week: Time to Brag

First things first, this is National School Counseling Week, not Counselors. Counseling. Does that make it hurt a little less if you were “overlooked” last year? If I went around believing it was School Counselor’s Week, then of course I would wonder why no one appreciated me! Instead, this is a week for you to brag about all of the great things you’re doing! So start making a list. Here are some ideas on things you can brag about:

• How many classes have you done this year?
• What topics have you covered?
• How many small groups have you done this year?
• What are your small group topics?
• How many individual sessions have you done?
• What are the results from any pre-tests/post-tests that you’ve done?
• Have you written 504’s?
• Written referrals for special education?
• Connected students to community resources?
• Don’t forget that we still have half of a year left, so what else do you plan on doing? Tell everyone your plans!

What Is the National School Counseling Week Theme?

Each year the American School Counselor Association sets a theme for National School Counseling Week. This year the theme is, “School Counselors: Helping Build Better Humans.” There are differing opinions on this theme. We won’t get into that here, but we will say that we are all a work in progress. Another way to say that is “under construction.” So this year we are going to go with a construction theme! There are so many ideas on Pinterest for construction themed birthday parties. That’s where most of our ideas are coming from this year. ASCA has detailed topics for each day so our posters follow their schedule.

Food, Food, Food

We mentioned this last year, but food is our love language, and honestly, I think it’s the love language of teachers. That’s why each year I make my “advocacy station” revolve around certain types of food. I set up a table in our teacher workroom, display my poster, and put a different type of food on the table each day. With the construction theme, this will be so easy! I’m thinking about buying these cute hats on Amazon for decoration.

How cute are these?!

These dump trucks make cute decorations, too!

We’ve seen some cute ideas using dump trucks and other construction vehicles, and would you look at that: those little chocolate donuts look like wheels. What about saying something like, “I wheely enjoy working with your students!” Seriously, we just came up with that!

• Chocolate Donuts- I “Wheely” enjoy working with you! (Or your students)
• Dirt Cake- I can help you “Dig” to find the cause of a student’s academic or behavioral needs
• Dump Cake (With dump truck decor on the table)- I want you to “Dump” your students’ social/emotional needs on me! I’m here to help!
• Sausage Balls- I always have a ball with your students! Thank you for sharing them with me!
• Popcorn in Orange paper made to look like traffic cones- When things “Pop” up, know that I’m here to help!

Low Funds? No Problem

There are great ways to celebrate National School Counseling Week that don’t require you to spend a lot of money. If you think celebrating with food for 5 days will strap you financially, pick your favorite ideas above and only do one or 2 of those. Consider contacting local businesses to see if they have cards for a free appetizer or free drink with the purchase of a meal. Do you know a direct sales consultant who shares beauty tips? He/she may jump at the chance to come in to do facials or offer a hand scrub to your teachers. What about contacting a massage therapist and asking if he/she would set up in the workroom to provide quick massages for the teachers? Sometimes chiropractors will do this, too!

We Appreciate YOU!

We do want you to know that what you do is so very important. So many statistics point to the rise of mental health issues among our students. Now, we know that we’re not trying to tackle and fix mental health issues, but we are the first line of defense for them. YOU are the person who takes care of ALL of the students within the school. Someone needs a coat? Someone needs food over the weekend? A student is having a meltdown at carline? Who do they call? YOU! You are the only person in the school who is trained to juggle personal needs with emotional needs and academic needs. The school wouldn’t be the same without you. Thank you for loving your students. You are daily showing them kindness. Consider the words of Aesop, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”