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:

• Traditional Route: read the book and come to book club once a week for 3 weeks
• Cliff Notes Version: read my chapter summaries and come to book club once a week
• Virtual Participation: read the book or the chapter summaries and participate in our google group online discussion

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. 

Tomorrow I am headed to my annual state counselor's conference so I'm putting up our #tbt a little early. Here is a popular post about Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control group lessons for kids with ADHD.

Have you checked out the awesome book Hunter and His Amazing Remote Control by Lori Copeland? It's not exactly hot off the presses (copyright 1998), but it is a classic. The story is about Hunter who has ADHD and is often frustrated by how his brain works. He uses the idea of a remote control to help himself. 

This book is wonderful. The concept is wonderful. There a few things that are not so wonderful. First, the book is looooooooooong. I have marvelled at such a long book specifically designed for ADHD kids. Second, there are a lot of buttons on Hunter's remote control. To make things more manageable, I teach only 6 of the buttons.

The book includes the story and activities for each of the remote buttons. Some of the activities are good but others, not so much. I spent a lot of time googling and looking for activities to go with each button and had a difficult time finding many. So I present to you, my dear counselor friends, 7 lesson plans designed for a small group. 

I am including a nice printable lesson plan. I like to print on colored cardstock front and back and reuse over the years. 

Lesson 1: Read the story (skipping over any buttons you decide not to use). As Hunter adds buttons to his remote, students can draw buttons on their "remote." You can see some of our remotes in the picture above. 

Each Lesson 2-7 has the same basic format:

• Read portion of the story pertaining to the button for the lesson
• Practice a hand signal to help students remember the button
• An activity

Lesson 2 Channel Changer: Listen to song about the Channel Changer Button. It's a little cheesy (sorry nice music therapy lady) but the kids really like it. Then illustrate a channel changer book using the song lyrics. 

Lesson 3 Pause: Color game (in the book) and "Move and Freeze" - I use the song from the Brain Boogie Boosters CD but you can find lots of great ones on youtube too. Research shows that practicing that "stop" action actually helps kids to learn impulse control. 

Lesson 4 Fast Forward: Play Connect Four with a twist. Take turns playing while covering the board with dark paper. It's hard to Fast Forward and make a plan if you can't see. My Hunter groups tend to be small so we just switch and play winner. If you have a larger group (more than 4), it might be best to borrow another Connect Four game. Once everyone has played with the board covered, we take the paper off and play regularly. While they are playing, I note when they Pause and Fast Forward to make a plan.

Lesson 5 Rewind: Read famous failures from the Hunter book. Using Puppets, act out making mistakes scenarios and how to correct them. I wrote out some scenarios that I knew were relevant to my group on notecards and we drew cards. For some reason, drawing a card makes it much more fun!

Lesson 6 Slow Motion: Jenga time! We play Jenga to practice slowing down and move with intention. We play two games and in between we do some calming imagery. Usually the second game goes much longer because everyone is calm! Make sure to take pictures of group members to prepare for the next lesson.

Lesson 7 Way To Go: This is a good way to celebrate the last session of group! To prepare, I print pictures of each student. They can cut out their heads and glue to the page to be their super hero head. They then draw a super hero body and write four things that make them a super kid. 

This is a really fun group and I highly recommend the book. Let me know how it goes with your groups!