Oops I went book shopping.

Oops I did a little bit of book shopping today! Here's a sample of what I got:

The Black Book of Colors

I love the sensory text and how it also incorporates braille. What a great way to introduce what it is like for students to be blind and awareness of differences. I think my special education teachers are going to love it.

Stuck

What do you do when you get a kite stuck in a tree? What do you do when you have a problem that needs to be solved?  I love this book for problem solving. 

If You Were a Bear

I love this book for kids to imagine what it would be like if there were a bear. What a fun way to introduce empathy! I love this idea of having kids research nonfiction animals and then create a video of what that animal would do if there were human with a career. 

Ron's Big Mission

I love that this story covers so many things. You can use it to talk about the real Ron McNair and his journey in becoming an astronaut to focus on the non fiction elements. You can also use it to talk about tolerance, perseverance, or career interests. It really is a book you can pull out and use for so many topics it's a great book to have on the book shelf. 

E-mergency!

This book is so fun. You could talk use it as a fun to way to introduce lessons on safety (running down the stairs causes E to fall), tattle vs. telling (E is hurt should be tell?), teachers could borrow it to talk about the letter "e", you could talk about friendship (when all E's friends come to help him feel better), and even how everyone on a team is important (how 'e' is used in the English language.)

How Dogs Really Work

I once had a student make me a poster based on the illustration of this book. I loved it. How fun would it be for students to do make their own version- "How friends really work" (as written by Sheldon Cooper) or "How could students work" etc. 

Embarrassed

This is a great book to talk to students about a tough feeling.  Perfect for young students and students on the spectrum. 

Dog Breath!: The Horrible Trouble With Hally Tosis

A fun book to talk about hygiene and loving someone even when their breath stinks. 

The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!

Do you have a students who really really really wants something, only to get it and they don't want it anymore? This book is for you. I think this would be fun for jealousy (always wanting what someone else wants), patience, and thinking big decisions through. 

Shark vs. Train

I love this story because it reminds me of the "Who Would Win" series. I do a how would win type lesson for careers- who should get paid more? The kids enjoy it. This will be fun to read with them. I also love the dialogue in this book and having the kids figure out how the characters are feeling as the story continues. 

Today I Will Fly! (Elephant & Piggie #1)

This is such a fun book. I love all the different topics you can use it for. Believing in your dreams (even if you are a pig that wants to fly), not giving up, asking for help, encouraging others, being a good friend, and more. I also love these books are perfect for students to do as readers theaters to practice taking turns.

Late for School

I'm going to focus on improving attendance this year, so I can't wait to use this funny book about being at school on time.  Plus it's written by Steve Martin and comes with a fun cd and sing along for large classrooms. Maybe I can collaborate with our music teacher?!

Collaboration with Biblio Therapy!

Having a blast at #asca16!


If you weren't able to make it, no worries. Here are a copy of my handouts:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_6T4rR2pFj5dTgzdGhOYlczUU0

Back To School Book Wish List

How I plan on using it:
*Collaboration with our school librarian and teachers for non fiction research. I got this idea from Sarah Svarda, librarian genius. She had her students research about an animal and then write a script before they used Chatterpix to make a fun recording about what they had learned.  You can read all about it here. She also had one of our friends, C Jayne Teach, write about about a similar lesson, where the students used persuasive writing to talk themselves into liking certain creatures. I am going to try and collaborate in a similar way, but with a career focused twist.

*One of Sarah's students branched outside the box and created this amazing Chatterpix. So here is my prompt for students. After researching your animal, what job should/would they have if they were human and why? Or, what job should they not have or why? They need to talk about skills, talents, hobbies, interests of the animal and connect it to that career. For example, social animals might make great helpers. Animals that run a lot might not want to work in schools, but would make a great police officer.

Read all about this amazing book here: http://www.upworthy.com/this-adorable-kids-book-lets-boys-know-tough-guys-have-feelings-too

How I plan on using: in my boys small groups, morning meetings with boys, and even in classroom guidance. 

How I plan on using it: Connect, compare, and contrast with When Pigasso Met Mootisse. Then partner students to create a friendship Venn Diagram.  Here is a great lesson idea.

Promoting Character Education Books

This year we started doing class meetings school wide. Several of the teachers decided to use the time  to read to their students and discuss character education and life skill topics. To help promote some of my favorite books I set up several books in our conference room so teachers could browse them when they met for their weekly PLC. On each book I put a post it note with ideas for topics, discussions, and activities. I was very excited when several teachers borrowed the books to read with their class. What a simple and effective way to promote literacy and my counseling program.

Here are some ideas:

Mr. Wuffles- check out the lesson here

Everyone Loves Bacon- popularity, jealousy, and friendship

Friendshape-  tolerance, friendship, resepct

Say Hello To Zorro- new student, friendship, getting along with others

Journey-  need a new spin on New Year's Resolutions? Talk about what personal and classroom 

journey the students would like to take in the new year. How will get there? 

Crenshaw-  this chapter books is perfect for the mornings, because each chapter is very short. Use it to talk about homelessness, perseverance, imagination, stress, struggles, and more.

Kid President's Guide To Being Awesome  - each week the classes can talk about and practice one way to be awesome

Clark The Shark- review rules, new student, skills for success

Numberlys-  team work, goal setting, imagination, journey, mindset, work ethic. This book also has a companion App for your teachers with iPads.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Summer Reading

I really enjoy hosting a series of parent workshops throughout the year. Not only does it give me a chance to meet the parents, but it gives the opportunities to collaborate with other professionals and sneak in my own professional development.

Our most popular workshop by far is the Summer Reading Workshop with our librarian and our music teacher (who is completing her degree in library science). Here is why it's the best:

1) The parents get lots of goodies.

Read about all the free goodies to encourage summer reading at Mrs. Svarda's Blog!

2) There is always coffee.

2) We get to show off our favorite books.

We hang out at Barnes and Noble a lot, so this is fun way to show off our "finds." Here are some of my favorites:

"I'm Bored!"

How many times have you heard that...over summer break, when it's raining and the kids can't go outside to recess, or when they can't use their iPod/iPad!

Brooklyn gets bored and tends to bring me a ball or toy with her sad "play, play" eyes. She's great about entertaining herself, but my students not so much.

I'm Bored Lesson In A Nutshell

Reading In The Schools Day

I really enjoy this event every year. This year I was even more excited because a good friend of mine brought her ReadingPaws dog, Stouie, to read with the kids. It was amazing to see how excited the kids were to meet him. They discussed what it meant to be a Reading Paws dog, they showed off Stouie's tricks, and read a book together. Even our most active, hyper students were calmed by his presence. We also got to practice our safety around dogs lesson!

Stouie is deaf so many of the students really connected with him. In fact one student was so eager to share that he was like Stouie, because he had to wear hearing aids. Their connection was instant.

One beautiful girl was scared to death of dogs before meeting Stouie. Now her mom brags on her she meets and greets all the dogs she can.

Although they read a variety of books, we mainly read "Help Me, Mr. Mutt," a book I read every year with my students. At the end I give them a prompt to write Mr. Mutt a letter and then give them to time to write to me or Mr. Mutt with any of their problems or concerns. At the end of reading in the schools day so many students wrote Stouie a letter that we are thinking of starting a pen pal program with him.

Don't Judge A Person By Their Trash

I recently wrote a post on "Not Judging A Book By It's Cover" and a lesson I do on tolerance. It was a lengthy post, so I decided to split it into two parts.


As you read in part one, I am all for 'beg, borrowing, and stealing' a good lesson and part two is no exception. Have you ever sat in on your librarians class lessons? If not, you need to add it to your 2012-2013 school year bucket list right now! Our librarian not only does amazing research with our students, but she also does amazing lessons with them about citizenship, tolerance, and more. After watching her in action I knew we needed to team up and collaborate on our lessons.

Below is a lesson she did with her classes in fifth grade this past year. I stopped by and just chatted with the students casually about their experience, and I encourage you to do this and more! Not only are you collaborating, but just think of the power of a small or large group discussion after such an activity. You can really assist your peers in helping let students process their experience and connect it to real life.

In this lesson, our librarian collected trash, not shoes. She asked our teachers to collect their trash for a few days and give it to her in an unmarked bag.  *Note: I think this goes without saying, but leave the banana peels, old milk, etc. at home with your regular trash. This trash should be 'picked through' and only non perishable items should remain. It is important that you go through the trash first and make sure no names are left on bills, mail, etc.

Each class teamed up into small groups of three-five students and they went through the trash bag (*please supply plastic gloves) as a team. Each team needed to record what they found and what they could infer from each piece of evidence. 

Each team collects their data and the inferences they have made based on the trash they have found. For example, my trash bag was full off fluffing and stuffing- the remains off my sofa after Brooklyn decided to 'dig' one day. Some classes thought the person with this trash must order a lot of things online, because they thought it was packaging and there was also a few JCrew catalogs in the bag as well.

Mrs. Svarda's lesson lasts for more than one week. I think it's up to you what to do from here. Here are two choices.

1) Each time presents their "trashy evidence" and makes an educated guess.
2) This is what Mrs. Svarda does- each team develops a Q and A to give the teachers. For example, if they find a movie ticket stub, one question they might create is "What was the last movie you saw?" They then spend their next class period visiting the teachers (spending two-three minutes with each teacher tops so it's not too much of a disturbance) and playing detective. Then they present their findings.

I love this lesson and I love the collaboration between peers. Not only are you sneaking in a little counseling PR with your peers and students, but it really shows your colleagues that you care about their lessons and that combined you can be a dynamite team in ending discrimination.

Brand Me! Counseling PR

I always enjoy going to conferences where I leave with a head swarming with ideas, tips, and suggestions. One conference that always leaves me exhilarated is the Tennessee School Counselor and Administration Leadership Institute. One breakout session this year really got me excited! During the session the speaker suggested branding yourself so that your program is more recognizable. I loved the idea and if you know me you know I am obsessed with the new pup in my life, Brooklyn, so the "theme" for my "brand" was easy- dogs!


So I have spent my summer dreaming of ways to brand myself. Hopefully whenever someone see's paw prints and adorable dogs they will think "Hey, I bet this has something to do with Ms. Filtness!"

 Here is what I have so far:
Vistaprint is a great way to personalize your items and they frequently do sales. Right now they have six items for free, just pay shipping and handling. One of those items is a tote bag, great for carrying my supplies as I visit classrooms. 


I also just paid shipping for these super cute post-it notes.



I also got the idea to rename my PR documents, such as my newsletter, which is now "Brooklyn Barks News" after my beloved Brooklyn. "Brooklyn Bytes" will be a page on my website where I can share Internet/Technology safety tips for students and their parents, Brooklyn Bites will be healthy eating/nutrition tips, and I have renamed my FAQ page to "Kibble and Bits." I also enjoy watching the Westminster Dog Show every year, so I got the idea of using the "blue ribbon" with my students. I created a page for Blue Ribbon Books and Blue Ribbon Resources, which share with my stakeholders books and resources that I have found which provide great information on a variety of topics.

I also decided to tie in the "blue ribbon" idea with my character education. Each month I will ask teachers no nominate students that demonstrated each character word (i.e. courage, honesty) and I will show off those students on my "Top Dog" bulletin boards, which will of course have this frame from the Parent Teacher Store:




I can't stress the importance of collaboration. I am fortunate enough to meet daily with my special area teachers to engage in our PLC (Professional Learning Community). I love my special area team, I can't brag on them enough and what an invaluable resource they each are. This year our INCREDIBLE art teacher did a blue dog lesson and the students created their own blue dogs. I batted my eyes and smiled and got the best end of the year gift of all about 10 blue dog paintings.

This one is hanging in my living room and the rest are waiting to be framed and hung up at school. My plan is to frame some to hang in my office and in our conference room, where I host my parent workshops, and use the rest on my bulletin boards. You know why this is my favorite part- it's student made. The students will get to show off their art work and I can use the pictures to decorate. It's a win-win.

One blog I can't get enough off and love to see pop up in my Google Reader is Savvy School Counselor.
Since "branding" has been on my mind all summer, I was so excited to see Vanessa's entry on counseling PR. She is a great blogger, so it was no surprise when she came up with a list of ways to in enhance a counselor's PR. I don't think you can ever advocate enough for yourself or your position, because we are often overlooked and forgotten, so Vanessa's PR tips were great. She reminded me that I need a new paw covered brochure, so I've got to work on that soon.  It also encouraged me to get these at Vistaprint.


 New business cards to give to parents and hand out at conferences, new note pad, and the last picture is a brand new magnet I can hang outside or inside my office.

Here is my new dream list of fun stuff I want to buy. I am going to save my pennies and hopefully add these items to my  doggie collection:

Loyalty Card- I often get students that wander out of class to visit me or that ask to see me every time they see me in the hall. I have often  made an agreement to see them once a week, then once a month, until they taper off and don't beg to be in my office everyday. I thought these cards would be a cute way to do this. I could check them off when they see me and they know how many visits that month they have left. I could also use these for students who struggle with blurting out or ask thousands of questions. Each time the student asks a question or blurts the teacher can check off a box and the student knows they only have so many blurts or questions left that day/week, etc. This will also be a good way to advocate my role helping teacher's with behavior management.

More letterhead that would be adorable to use.

Thank you cards! I love these cards and between parent helpers, PTA assistance, Student Council, and Career Day I sent hundreds of thank you cards in a year. This way they will remember me and my program when they look at the dog bowl cards.
Stress balls! I work at a school for high-achievers, so I can't run enough stress groups. I thought these paw print stress balls from Inkhead would be great for the students who participate in my "Chill Pill" or "Cool Beans" small groups.

Can you tell how excited I am about my new "brand?" Share all of your doggie ideas!

So,  what do you do to set your program apart and to advocate your role in your school?