Each meeting has a similar flow that allows for some learning by students and ample opportunity for them to talk and share. Before the meeting, students are given an article related to the topic of each meeting. In our first meeting, we read the article: Lives Turned Upside Down: Homeless Children in Their Own Words and Photographs

Here is an example agenda:

• Introduction/Greetings
• Warm Up Activity
• Team Norms
• Discussion: What were your thoughts or feelings about the article? ​
  • Brian says that he lives in a house with his family but has no electricity. How do you think this affects Brian?
  • What do you think some of Brian’s biggest worries or struggles would  be?
  • If Brian was a friend of yours, what questions would you want to ask him?
  • What do you think would help Brian feel comfortable and relaxed at school?
  • If Brian was a student at our school, would he be successful here?
• ​Ideas for action: How can we take what we've learned and make our school more inclusive for all students?

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It's been such a pleasure to see the conversations that students have! Other topics to include: Disability, Race, and Bullying. 

Next, I'd like to think more about how we can leave time and intention for action. We fill our entire time together with discussion and I'd like to add sessions for action or activities between meetings. Have you ever led a Student Voice Group? What topics did you discuss? I'd love to hear all about it!

When is gaming too much? How can we support students in understanding that moderation in gaming is great but overdoing it can have negative influences. One of my friends, Ian Wenstrand, has recently published a book titled "Plugged In" about a boy who is obsessed with video games and accidentally blurs the line between gaming and reality. Ian is a talented artist and I could stare at the illustrations in the book even without the text. Here's an interview about his work:

• What inspired you to write this book? Are you a gamer?

I wanted to write the book my younger self would want to read. The books I was attracted to as a kid had intricate artwork paired with fantastical stories. In Jumanji, by Chris Van Allsburg, the children get to go on an adventure that takes place in their normally calm neighborhood. That was a huge inspiration for Plugged In. Taking something normal and transforming it into something surreal was always very interesting to me. The idea that a character's neighborhood could be the setting for an adventure was something I wanted to incorporate into my own book.

I have been a gamer since as long as I can remember. As a kid, I spent most of my time on the weekends riding my bike to the arcade to play 4-player Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with my friends. After that, Super Nintendo and PlayStation were the console systems I played the most. I still play video games to this day, although less than I used to. Today, I mostly play games that my kids want to play and try to introduce them to the classics as well.

• What are the benefits and downfalls of video games for kids?

Games can help kids learn valuable problem-solving skills. When a child plays a video game they are basically interacting with a computer and learning how to work through an obstacle or defeat an enemy. I feel like more and more games are getting incorporated into the learning process. Minecraft (which is arguably the most popular game among kids right now), in particular, has recently been used as a tool to introduce kids to coding - another skill in high demand.

I believe the downfalls of video games for kids result from heavy usage. If a child refuses to do anything else and is becoming further and further removed from friends or family, that's when problems can start to arise.

• How do you think that kids can tell when they are gaming too much?

 Unfortunately, I think most children don't yet have the self-discipline to tear themselves away when they've been playing too much. I was certainly that way as a kid. I think it's the parent's job to help their kids understand that games are okay, just in moderation.

• Any tips for parents that are worried their child is playing too many video games?

I think that setting limits on how much time they can be in front of a screen, in general, is important. Phones, tablets, and TVs dominate so much of our attention that it's hard for kids to understand that there should be limits on how long they are in front of a screen. I think that children should have varied life experiences and sitting in front of a screen is not going to show them all the world has to offer. I think that helping your child develop diverse interests helps with this. Explore what else they really have a passion for and help them to pursue that. Are they creative? Do they like music? Is there a sport they are interested in? The games will still be there when they get back.

• What do you like to do when you are not plugged in?

I like to go running, hiking, create artwork and illustrations, take my kids to the park, and go swimming.

• What advice do you have for kids who think their friends might need to unplug?

Get them to go explore your neighborhood or town, join a sports team, do something that requires you to be out of the house and with people. There are plenty of games that expand beyond a solitary experience and encourage social and multiplayer experiences. Pokemon Go! is one game that I've seen have great success in getting people outside and socializing with each other. I've seen a large group of parents and kids meet together in a park to play the game with one other. These types of games give people the opportunity to get out and explore and to be part of a larger community.

I highly recommend the book - I think it would make a great few session lunch bunch book club for boys. They will love the illustrations - aren't they amazing?! Ian is offering a giveaway through Amazon this week. Make sure to check it out!

I am so excited to be over on Confident Counselors talking about how I make groups work. I even included a list of all the groups I run and how I organize my time. 
To give you an idea, here are the groups that I typically ran:

• Fall Groups
  • Sept-Oct:
    • Resiliency 
    • K-1 Recess Club 
  • Oct. – Dec:
    • The Girls Book Club
    • 3-5 Social Skills
• Winter Groups
  • Jan-Mar:
    • Academic Achievement 
• Spring Groups:
  • Mar-May:
    • Small Fry Friendship Group 
    • Girls Rock & Superhero Kids 
    • Middle School Readiness- following middle school lessons

Find all the details on each of the groups and organizing tips to keep you sane over on Confident Counselors. What are your best group tips?

I'm always looking for ideas that I can create ahead of time and grab in the moment. I want it to be quick but meaningful and ready for use. Enter Feelings Go Fish - print on cardstock, laminate, and get ready to use over and over.  You can even make this yourself! Just cut up two copies of multiple feelings pictures from google searches and you're good to go. If you're not so into DIY, you can purchase the cards seen here on TpT.

This can be a great ice breaker for a kid that needs some practice talking about their feelings. Each time you ask each other for a card - "Do you have a shocked friend?" - you are identifying the feeling on the card. You can also practice sharing a time that you have experienced that feeling each time you take a turn or make a pair. To help, I've created a poster that shows all the feelings on one page. Keep it posted in your room to reference each time you discuss feelings.

I think it's fun to practice tone of voice of body language to "go fish." When I need an angry card, I can use an angry tone of voice or make an angry face. The other student has to guess which feeling I am showing and the let me know if they have that card. Playing games in groups is a great way to practice turn taking, managing frustration, and communication. 

Do you teach a lot of classes? Many of the counselors in my area teach on the specialist rotation (weekly) so they need a lot of lessons. That's a lot to plan! One idea is to create stations that kids can visit multiple times over the course of a few weeks. Most kids know how to play Go Fish so this station would need very little explanation. Just make sure to laminate those cards! Use the cards again to play a memory game, flipping over two cards at a time to find pairs. 

What fun game hacks do you have? Please share in the comments, I would love to hear! I always love to be creative with items I have so I don't have to store too much. Gotta be - Productive. Organized. Effective.

School counselors work with all students and provide a variety of services. As more schools are aligning their efforts to the MTSS (multi-tiered system of support) model, it's important for counselors to be able to share how their work aligns with the school's system of support. 

In Tier 1, or core instruction, counselors support social emotional learning and academic skills via the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors. Tier 1 instructional practices include explicit instruction to 100% of student, across all settings. Instructional practices may be adjusted to reteach and differentiate based on student need. Of course, school counselors are not the only personnel to support core instruction. Discuss the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors with school staff and determine the areas of need for all students. Once areas of need are determined, the counselor can consult with administration and grade level teams to develop a plan for implementation.

Providing direct instruction of social emotional and academic skills is crucial for students to be successful both in school and post-graduation. We can't expect behavior and academic skills that have not been taught. Likewise, it isn't feasible for the school counselor to teach all of the social emotional and academic skills needed. An effective school counseling curriculum supports classroom learning of skills that are included in the instruction provided by the classroom teacher. Schoolwide initiatives like PBIS also fall into this tier because they provide the structure and expectations for all students. An effective core  allows 80% of students to be on target. 

In Tier 2, a second layer of strategic intervention is added. Students still receive core instruction but need additional support to be successful. Just like a math teacher will implement strategies to support students struggling to understand math concepts, students who struggle with social emotional learning or academic skills benefit from extra support.

The key word here is strategic. As a school, how do you know a student needs more support with behavior? Do you wait until they come to the office with a discipline referral? How can you use data to intervene earlier? Discussion in Professional Learning Communities within your building may be a great place to start. These discussions may show patterns of student behavior. PLCs typically dig deeper into available data as well and can serve as a jumping off point for counselors. 

As counselors, you are already doing Tier 2 work but may find that increasing your strategic focus may help. In my last school, I worked with students who had a high number of absences, students who needed to improve their academic skills, and students who showed anxiety about middle school. I chose these strategic interventions because I looked at the data and knew what was needed.

For counselors, Tier 2 can encompass work for a group of students that takes place individually. For instance, a behavior contract or Check-in/Check-out is a tier 2 intervention chosen for a group of students. Sometimes individual counseling can be a Tier 2 intervention, depending on the duration and intensity of the counseling. Meeting with a student 1-2 times about a friendship problem doesn't rise to the level of intensity that would be needed in a Tier 3 intervention.

Tier 3 interventions are intended for 1-5% of your student population. These kids are your super high flyers. Without additional supports, they can derail an entire classroom or grade level. Kids with Tier 3 support for behavior need a lot of help and most likely should be referred to an outside therapist. That doesn't mean there aren't Tier 3 interventions that counselors can put in place at the school! Tier 3 interventions are intensive, evidence-based instruction maximizing intensity, frequency, and duration. Interventions are progress monitored daily. Examples of Tier 3 interventions for counselors include FBA/BIP, suicide prevention, threat assessment, or collaboration and consultation with wrap around services for a child. 

So what instructional practices and interventions do you provide? How do they fit into the tiered model? I'd love for you to share!