Elementary School Counselors 

 

 VP: Brett Alcarese Welch 

 Hope you were able to make it to the amazing 2013 Conference Elementary Session on Play Therapy - check out the handouts: (updated: 3/25/2013)

Presentation        Mandala        Techniques


Updated: 5/19/13

Happy Spring, ES counselors!

 

The school year is winding down and we are all thinking about the promises of warm evenings and at least a little time at the pool, beach, river or your vacation spot of choice. Here is wishing you a wonderful Spring into Summer and a happy and uneventful end of the school year. Below are some ideas for testing success and cheers that you may wish to share with your staff to boost your students' confidence! 

 

I have so enjoyed being your Elementary VP this year. Thank you for your dedication to VSCA and I hope that we, as a board, have served your professional needs as we continue to grow and evolve as an organization for the benefit of school counselors in Virginia. My wonderful successor, Laura Bell, will be fantastic in this position, and I look forward to all that she has to share with our members! I will move on to the role of Membership Chair, so I will not be far away! 

 

Please consider if you would like to join our board, as we are always looking for innovative, energetic people to contribute their awesome leadership to our members! Have a wonderful summer!!!

 

-Brett Welch

brettalcarese@gmail.com 

 Testing Cheers/Songs for schools 

 

Spend a few days of your summer with us!:

Summer Academy 8:

Plan, Tech, Go!

(for more information, or to register online go to the VSCA homepage)

When: July 17-18, 2013

Where: Charlottesville Double Tree Hotel

Featuring Virginia Native Julia Taylor and an optional wine tasting tour!

Join us for an informative, but relaxing time!



Starting to plan your Career Day and Career lessons? Here are a few resources that may help and answers to some common career day problems:

 Resources:

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/careers/teacher-resources/6637.html

http://www.vcef.net/news/tool-kit-for-educators/

 Virginia Career View - http://vacareerview.org/pro/

 

Common Career Day issues:

 How do I get presenters?

    - Do a needs assessment with the kids and see what jobs they would like to learn about. It can be easier to recruit if you have specific needs.

    - Send home an informational flyer to all parents requesting volunteers. On the bottom, create a cut off part to sign up with the person's name, job, the child he/she has at the school, phone #, and e-mail. Make sure you put a date on it for when it needs to be returned to you.

    - Do the same for your staff and ask them to contact their spouses, friends, neighbors, etc.

    - Contact your local community service board (CSB) or professional societies. Many times they have a database of members and can send out an e-blast asking for participants.

    - Contact your school's local police station, fire station, military recruitment office, etc. Don't forget a local yoga studio, local newspaper, nearby family owned restaurant, or local college's sports department- sometimes they will bring student-athletes, who are wonderful examples for the kids to see. Phone calls are often more effective than an e-mail.

How do I keep track of all of the presenters and organize it?

    - Keep an excel spreadsheet or google doc of all presenters, their contact into, and their needs (i.e. - outside space, projector, quiet space, etc.)

How do I get my staff to buy in to giving up a day of curriculum?

    - Take some time in a faculty meeting to present data on how effective career awareness is in keeping kids in school, excited about learning, etc.

    - Have the kids actively engaged during career day. Use a worksheet where the students are the "reporters," asking and recording each presenter's responses about how they use math and reading in their jobs, and specific questions the students have designed for each presenter!

    - You might also include a writing activity after the presenter's sessions. Consider having the kids to thank you letters using the information they learned and recorded on their session worksheets then write in proper paragraph writing structure - main idea, details, intro and conclusion.

 

Updated: 12/13/12
You’re now fully in the swing of the school year – guidance lessons running, groups going, and putting out emotional fires right and left! Do you ever feel like you’re burning the candle at both ends at work and yet there’s always more to do than you have time for? In truth, that’s basically the nature of this job, especially at the Elementary level where we are usually by ourselves, but there are things you can do to help yourself. Especially if you’re a new (or new-ish) counselor, don’t forget about these resources that are at your disposal:

 

 

1)      Organize: VSCA has a model for you to follow, much like the ASCA model, that will help you organize and make sure you are covering all of the important points of a comprehensive program. This is great to use in the summer in planning for next year, but a Winter Break revamp works well too! Find it under the Professional Development tab on our homepage or here: http://www.vsca.org/model.asp

2)      Personal Wellness: you have to take care of you to be good for everyone else. Don’t skip lunch even though it’s so tempting because that’s when you can pull kids! If you feel yourself getting frazzled, take the 5 minutes in between lessons to just sit and breathe instead of checking e-mail – it can wait. You are not there to be the teachers’ counselor, even though it may sometimes feel that way- set boundaries. When in over your head, phone/e-mail a friend – another counselor in your district, your supervisor, or me! We’re counselors – we love to help.

3)      Give and Take: Use the resource database on this page. Don’t reinvent the wheel – it doesn’t make you any less of a counselor to use other people’s stuff. In fact, that’s counseling smart because good ideas are meant to be spread. And, if you come across a great one, please send it in so that we can add it to the database for all to use. Pay it forward!

 

 

 

Resource Library

The following files are organized by topic. When you click on a topic you will be prompted to download the file. Be aware that you will downloading a zip file containing containing multiple lesson files, either in Word or PDF format. As we update/add files to each zip files, the file will be named with a version number, i.e., Anger - Anger v.2. Should you have any questions, or want to add a lesson, please click the link above to email Brett Alcarese Welch, your Elementary VP.

Anger            Academics            Back to School        

Bucket Filling        Bullying Prevention        Career

Changing Families        Diversity        
Friendship 

Goal Setting        Grief          Groups        Listening 

Parenting        Self-Esteem           Self-Regulation

       Special Needs        Study Skills



Suggested Websites:

ASCA Tips for Parents on Starting the School Year

Back to School HW Tips for Parents

Going Back to School: For Kids

What Do Kids Say About Starting School?