Mrs. Lang's Counseling Capsule
6th Grade Counselor, Skyview Upper Elementary School
For the Week of September 22, 2014
Did you know that...
S...Supports the work of educators by reinforcing skills taught in the classroom setting via classroom counseling lessons, individual sessions, small group sessions, and working with parents.
C...Collaborates with educators to learn what emerging skills the school counselor can support via classroom counseling lessons, individual sessions, small group sessions, and working with parents.
H... Helps Special Education Students learn the skills needed to be successful at school and in their individual lives. Your school counselor does this by offering to teach a classroom counseling program called SPARKS in special education classrooms; by grouping students with shared needs into 8th period small groups; through lunch bunches; offering workshops to their parents; and offering information to families about how to foster skill mastery into my weekly news column the Skyview Happenings newsletter.
O... Offers support, resources, and time to educators. Your school counselor can be asked to cover a class or do classroom counseling lessons as needed to give you time to do something you need to do. Your school counselor can reinforce messages and concepts with students to support your efforts in the classroom setting. Your school counselor can continue to list various educational resources in this weekly newsletter for you. Your School Counselor has created a BLAST committee called Teacher Helpers made up of students who want to help save you time.
O... Optimizes student achievement through promoting Attendance, Motivation, Student Responsibility, and a Positive School Climate amongst all students and families.
L... Leads "Learning to Learn", a family based intervention in the form of a "Make and Take" workshop for individual families that aims to provide families and students with the tools needed for academic success at school and at home. A copy of my program is on the Y drive. Your school counselor also leads parent topic talks whether in person, at home and school meetings, or via the school counselor book club, website or blog, about things like responsible behavior, study skills, time management, stress management, test taking skills, and more.
The School Counselor's Schedule
Morning Student Appointments
11:00-Lunchroom visits by the Counselor
11:45- 12:30 - USA Parent Meeting
12:30 - 1:15 - Learning to Learn Parent Workshop
2-2:45 -Mr Au Sparks Classroom Lesson - (classroom counseling program for special education students)
Tuesday, September 23
8:00 am -IEP Meeting
11 - Lunch Room Visits by the Counselor
12:30 - 1:15 -Observation -Mrs Matriccino's room
1:15 -2:00-Constellations Team Meeting
2-2:45- Astronomers Team Meeting
2:45-3:15 BLAST - Committee Meetings
Wednesday, September 24
8:15 am - Parent Meeting / USA
Lunchroom Visits by the Counselor
2-2:45 - Observation / Mrs. Matriccino's room
2:45 - 3:15 - BLAST SKYPE SESSION in B2 (note day and place)
Thursday, September 25
NO SCHOOL
Friday, September 19
Morning Admin Meeting
Lunchroom Visits by the Counselor
The 6th Grade BLAST Post
This is where I will post news from BLAST, my student leadership group Being Leaders And Serving Together.
Students in BLAST do school based community service projects. BLAST members are responsible for making posters to highlight spirit weeks, finding quotes to read on the AM announcements, and more.
Teacher Helpers Committee.
This could be a Time Saver for you!
Students in your homeroom who are in BLAST are willing to demonstrate responsibility, respect, trustworthiness, caring and citizenship in the classroom settings by helping teachers with whatever is needed.
These students want to help you put materials together, organize materials, spaces, or places, collect and /or deliver items for you, and more. They want you to know that they are available to you throughout the year.
They are available to help pass things out during morning and afternoon homeroom times, make announcements during homeroom or flex time, collect things, and more. Please acknowledge them, and thank them for wanting to be Teacher Helpers.
If there are no BLAST students in your homeroom, you may nominate 2 students to be student leaders and participate in BLAST.
Peer Advocates Program
This year, students in BLAST wanted to do something way super positive for their school community. They have formed Peer Advocates. Students in BLAST are learning to be upstanders in their school and home communities and on the bus.
Students in BLAST are participating in training sessions with Mrs. Lang on Thursdays during 8th period to be upstanders and to advocate for their peers. I am so excited by their goals and to help them accomplish them.
Co- leading this with me is Hayley Lawrence, a student at West Virginia University. Mrs. Lang met Hayley at the American School Counseling Conference in Orlando, FL this past summer. Hayley's message about peers supporting peers is a powerful one, and her heart and soul are dedicated to helping young people be brave, to be the ONE voice that makes a difference, to stand UP for others. We will have our first Skype session with Hayley this Wednesday during 8th period, to meet her and hear her message. We will Skype with Hayley once a month and look forward to a visit from her when she is on break from WVU.
A list of BLAST members is on the Y Drive under "Lang/Blast".
BLAST MEETINGS ARE ON TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS at 8th PERIOD, every week.
Music ensembles and make up work take precedence over BLAST.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, student members are to report to Mrs. Lang at 2:45 pm to pick up their Committee Work and task assignments.
Lunch Bunch News
Tips. Plans. Tools. Stuff You Can Use.
Five Ways to Use Padlet in the Classroom
Padlet is a free, online "virtual wall" tool where users can express thoughts on
topics of their choice. It's like a piece of paper, but on the Web.
Uses for Padlet in your classroom could be endless, but here are a few ideas to
get started:
1. Book Reviews: For classrooms reading books such as The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn or The Great Gatsby, Padlet offers a great venue for
students to share their thoughts. Young people can highlight favorite
quotes, ask questions, discuss characters and more. Teachers can then
take the page and present it in class to spark continued face-to-face
discussion.
2. Topic Summary: Useful for any subject from math to earth science,
Padlet can help teachers summarize a large amount of information and
present it in a visually pleasing way. Educators can put in text, photos,
graphs and other learning tools and share the image with students
before a big test or discussion.
3. Greeting Cards or "Thank You" Wall: Have you had a speaker come
in recently to share his/her knowledge on a particular subject? Or did a
famous author come in and read his/her latest book? Padlet is a great
tool for sending a group "thank you" note. Each student can post an
individual message, and the platform offers many interesting designs
and other tools for personalizing the card.
4. Questions Board: Students can access a "questions" board 24/7 and
anonymously post questions. The teacher can then read off and answer
the questions each day.
5. Opinion/Forum: Educators can post a particular topic or issue, and
students can post their opinions on the subject. This is a great building
block for teaching students how to write opinion pieces or persuasive
essays
I will just keep adding to the list, new stuff appears at the top each week.
9/22
Finding the Spark in Motivation - A great article / Resource for Educators
9/12
Google Templates for Teachers:
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/09/10-excellent-google-drive-templates-for.html
Kahoot! A Classroom Based Response System using Ipads, Laptops, and other personal devices. Uses a question and answer game format
12 Super Study Tools for Students
Hundreds of Fun IceBreaker Questions! use what you can, alter some, whatever!
http://www.character.org/lessons/lesson-plans/
Social Emotional Lesson Plans (15 minutes or less)
Links to Remember
Sign Up Genius (used for curriculum based classroom counseling lessons that I do with all homerooms. If you want something additional just email me! I'd be happy to come in!)
This link is just to the site for those who wanted to see it. It is not an active sign up.
When we schedule lessons, you will get an email from me, via this site, to select your time and date (that I enter into the online scheduler).
Mrs. Lang's Counseling Corner Website
http://mrslangscounselingcorner.weebly.com
Mrs. Lang's Character Counts! Lesson Plans and Resource Packet
Y Drive / Skyview/Public/ Lang/ Lang's Character Resources
End of the Year Data Reports
2013-14
Student Birthdays this week...
Due to regulations posed by the Methacton Acceptable Use Policy, I am unable to list student birthdays in the Counseling Capsule. You will continue to receive birthday pencils/bookmarks for students celebrating birthdays during the week in your mailbox sometime on each Monday.
Inspiration Point
Counseling Clips will be Coming...
I will be inviting students to sign up to create skits for or participate in the Counseling Clips on a homeroom by homeroom basis. My goal is to create a Counseling Clip each week to include in the Counseling Capsule and archive on my website each Monday. That way you can access it any day you want to!