I moved schools this year, but am still in the same country. I also moved divisions! I am back with the elementary students!
I taught elementary for 10 years, but after six years with middle and high school, I'm a bit rusty. What's great about my new position, is that there are three elementary school counselors! Yes three! One counselor is for JK, Kinder, and will be running parent small groups for all of the elementary grades. One is grades 4 and 5, and then there is me. I'm in charge of grades 1-3.
What's great about having three counselors is that I can truly run a strong counseling program with weekly/bi-monthly classroom lessons, daily small groups, individual counseling, and have time for data analysis and other system support. I am truly blessed and excited!
My first lesson of the year is of course to explain our role to students. In addition, ask about their hopes and dreams during classroom counseling lessons and refer back to the classroom rules. *Note, I do not have a classroom and do lessons in the students class*
In order to help explain our role to students, I adapted Jeannie's, from Exploring School Counseling, Meet the Counselor Lesson. It is a wonderful way to explain our role in simple language. Perfect for younger learners.
In addition to using her lesson, I made another video explaining our role, but this time it's for elementary. I used small clips from some Pixar films to illustrate how we can help. It doesn't describe all of our roles, but it's simple and the younger students totally get it.
I hope you enjoy the video!
