But I couldn't just stop there, right? I bought a sparkle folder and pasted our picture in it for her. Our kiddo is obsessed with jokes right now so I created little cards with jokes and clipart, added a handwritten note, and put in small envelopes. She could open envelopes each day to help her count down. Apparently, she loved her jokes and when we returned, she had put all her post-it notes on her headboard.
We just got back from the most amazing vacation. You can see pics over on instagram. I have had some questions about where we went, without getting too off topic, we had a great opportunity to sail in a catamaran around the BVI. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Because this was a trip that we knew we could never do on our own (a friend is a licensed boat captain) we knew we couldn't pass up the opportunity. However, our 3 year old daughter is pretty young to go on such a long trip. We have lots of family in town (so lucky, right?) but I worried about how she would handle us being gone. Time for me to dust off my school counselor hat at home! I created a calendar and called it "Zoe's Amazing Sleepover Week." This way she would know where she was staying each day. Just in case you're wondering, her class at preschool is called the Orca Whales. Each day, she got to cross off one block - I think this was her favorite part! The stars indicate the day we left and the day we came home. But I couldn't just stop there, right? I bought a sparkle folder and pasted our picture in it for her. Our kiddo is obsessed with jokes right now so I created little cards with jokes and clipart, added a handwritten note, and put in small envelopes. She could open envelopes each day to help her count down. Apparently, she loved her jokes and when we returned, she had put all her post-it notes on her headboard. It was a hit! She did great while we were gone and I felt much better that she was getting little moments of love to fill her bucket while we were away. Yeah, that was sappy. Moving on now... Here's the joke page in case you'd like to use it. Might be a fun icebreaker for groups and lunch bunches too. You can even share with parents who may be going on vacation during the school year!
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I'm excited to share a new series: Fresh on Friday, Free Til Monday. When I have new products in my store, I will post an update here on Friday and leave the item FREE until Monday. Today I'm here to share 2 new resources over on my TPT store for reaching out to parents! Door HangersOne of the principals I work with gave me the idea of creating door hangers to leave on family's doors when they are not home for a home visit. I really love home visits, I think it gives me a chance to really connect with a family. I have frequently been to apartments and houses that look like good places to live that have not a single stick of furniture inside. You can't always judge a book by it's cover so here are a few things I look for in a home visit:
I often get asked if I make unannounced or scheduled home visits. I do both. If I have a family who doesn't have a car, I might drive out to their house to deliver resources or bring a paper that needs to be signed. If a child misses a lot of school or they are sick and we can't reach anyone, I will make unannounced home visits. Of course, even with scheduled home visits we find no one home when we arrive. To leave a friendly message, I created these door hangers in English and Spanish. The purpose of home visits is to make a connection with the family. I am careful to follow their norms in their home: take off shoes if they do, accept water or a snack, be polite. It's a blessing to be invited into someone's home and we should honor that. Book ClubsI've written a lot about my book clubs for parents. You can check it all out here. One of the biggest barriers to starting a new parent book club is reading the book and creating the discussion guide. I can't read the book for you but I have created a powerpoint discussion guide for The Whole Brain Child by Daniel Siegel. This is a wonderful book and the discussion guide would work for both parent and staff book clubs or even a professional development. I think you could easily lead the discussion for people who have not read the book (but you will need to!). You can get the 27 page powerpoint in my TPT store. Free til Monday!Both of these products will be free on TPT until Monday, April 20th. If you download the freebie, please leave feedback. Thanks for your support!
We have officially wrapped our 2nd Parent Book Club at my school! This year, we read the book Nurtureshock by PO Bronson and Ashley Merryman. It was a great read! So, why is it low pressure? Everyone has a different level of ability to participate in one extra thing in their life. Just because our plates are full, doesn't mean we don't want to learn more about the journey of parenting. The low pressure book club concept allows parents to participate in the book club at different levels:
I first sent out a book club flyer to all the parents in the school and asked them to RSVP using my google survey. Our PTA purchased 10 copies of the book that will be housed in the library after the book club is over. I invited all the parents who RSVPed to participate in my google group for the book club. In this google group, we can discuss topics about the book and I can share related articles or stories.
If you haven't read the book Nurtureshock, I highly recommend it. Even after being in education for 12 years, I learned some new things. I found the chapter about sleep particularly fascinating. The negative impacts of loss of sleep were much more severe than I knew! Have you read the book, what did you think? Ever hosted a parent book club? Let us know all about it!
Presenting at my state conference this year woop woop! Check out the presentation here. Leave a comment if you were there :) Top Ten Ways to Use Technology to Communicate with Parents Parents are busy people. School counselors are busy people. How do we streamline communication using technology to reach parents quickly and effectively? Participants will leave with a list of 10 great technology resources, and understanding of how to maximize each resource, and how to track stakeholder usage. I am busy working on my presentation for my state conference titled "Top Ten Ways to Use Technology to Communicate with Stakeholders." (BTW- check out my friend Andrea's awesome post on the value of state conferences!) Confession time- I picked the title before I had chosen the "top ten ways." Clearly, I have some brainstorming to do... Other than a website (I use the weebly platform), I don't have to think hard to choose my favorite tech communication tool- smore.com. It's like a turbo-charged newsletter. It's fancy looking with good graphics and lay out. It also tracks the number of visitors and how long they spend reading your newsletter to help you track how well your word is getting out. If you're a tech-geek like me, you can even embed your newsletter in your website and if you update or change information, it automatically updates wherever it's embedded. Here's an example of my newsletter about my Low-Pressure Parent Book Club. I created a duplicate to share with you here so I can track the statistics on the newsletters that go out to my school's parents. Isn't it lovely?! Like us onFacebook to get updates on recent posts or sign up for email notifications over on the sidebar. Expect a post soon on the Low Pressure Book Club! P.S. I'm not paid or perked by the people over at s'more.com, I just like their product and want to share with you! |
Rebecca AtkinsWelcome to my blog where I talk about all things school counselor and encourage others to Counselor Up! This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesInterrupting Racism: Equity and Social Justice in School CounselingLinks may be affiliate links. If you link and purchase, I may receive compensation at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support of Counselor Up.
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