Ever have one of those kids who is a really nice kid that has really bad impulse control? They want to do the right thing but they have never learned the skill of self-monitoring. Many times these kids have really great, on-topic ideas to add to the discussion if they could just. raise. their. hand. 

To help these kiddos, I use a self-monitoring page where they can check off when they remember to raise their hand and when they forget. The goal is to fill up the hand-raising boxes before filling up the blurting out boxes.

Sometimes I have the teacher start by checking and then start to let the student take over. After a while of success, I start to black out some of the blurting out boxes with a sharpie to make it more challenging. It's a great tool for those peanut gallery kids that need a little self-reflection. I've had great success using it.

How do you help kids to self-monitor?

This #tbt is a little bit of a cheat because it only throws back to about 6 months ago. I have been working really hard on updating my products over on TPT and my Caterpillar Character Cards are the best example of this!

Here's the original post:

Now to share what the cards look like now!

I'm super proud of all the updates going on over there at Teachers Pay Teachers. It's so much fun to spend the extra time on making the products really great. Here are some other updates (click on the picture for the link):

My news feed has been filling up with posts about testing from my pals over at the Elementary School Counselor Exchange. Here in NC, we don't test until the last 10 days of school but I know that testing has begun (or already passed) all over the country. I thought it might be helpful to share all the wonderful resources I have gathered to prepare my kiddos for testing in one place. Some are products on my Teacher Pay Teachers store but I have a bunch of freebies too! And EVERYTHING in this post will be 20% off for the next 4 days until March 28, 2015 as a big high five for getting through the testing season.

For tier 1 activities, I usually teach 2 lessons about test prep. In one lesson, we learn about brain exercises and guided imagery to help with the pre-test anxiety kids have building up. It's a very casual lesson where we practice each of the brain booster activities, discuss general testing reminders, and go through the guided imagery. I also present this information to my teachers in their PLC meetings so that they can continue all of the activities in the classroom as well. All of this is in a professional development bundle at my TPT store. Here, I am including a FREE guided imagery script you can read to your students. They love this! Every year someone says "Why haven't we been doing this all year?"

For my second classroom lesson, I like to do something fun and confidence building. So much of the weeks leading up to testing, the kids are drilling and practicing and they need to have a moment to lighten up a bit. For that, we do the Coat of Arms lesson. The kids get to make themselves a personal shield to show their confidence. You can get a copy of the shield for FREE here or download the whole powerpoint and lesson plan from my teacher pay teachers store. Just right click the image below to save and then print.

As a tier 2 intervention for those kids who need a little more support, I incorporate testing taking skills and stress management into my Academic Achievement Group (blog post). In this group we play Roll Away the Worries a stress management game and play Test Taking Bingo. The kids LOVE both of these games. You can download a simplified version of Test Taking Bingo here - just have the kids cut out the squares and glue them on the blank one in random order- if you want the cards pre-made, they're available here. The following is also available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store: Academic Achievement Bundle and Roll Away the Worries.

You want it all in one place? I've made a Testing Bundle just for you with everything in this post! 

Have you checked out the wonderful website Paws in Jobland? It's a great interactive career website for younger students. I am a member of an elementary school counselor Facebook group and there were lots of requests for the lessons that I use with this website. 

Here's what I do:
Meet in the computer lab where all students have access to a computer. I often teach this lesson during their biweekly computer class time. The computer teacher is happy to have a break and it's easier than scheduling the lab during other times. 

Students go to the website and take the job interest quiz. When they are finished, the website will highlight "buildings" in jobland that correspond to different career paths. The students can explore the buildings, play games, etc for the rest of the class time. At the end of the class, I will call them to the carpet to share something they learned.

In the next lesson, I ask students which career interested them most. I divide them up by groups according to the building that corresponds to their interest. They then complete an "exploring careers" worksheet with their group. At the end of the class, they share their findings with the class.

It's not a complicated series of lessons but the students really enjoy it and it starts some good conversations about careers. I'm including the whole lesson pack here just for you!

Want more? You can check out my Career Jeopardy over on Teachers Pay Teachers.  It's 20% off until Monday, March 30th!