Use a Social Skills Checklist to Identify Group Needs

This post has been moved to my new website, The Helpful Counselor. You can find it by clicking here.

Play Therapy Introduction Video for Children

Thank you Deeray8 over at Youtube for this great video!

Counseling Program Management & Goodreads

 

School counselors are pulled in a million directions. Okay maybe not a million, but it certainly seems as though we could easily be drawn and quartered with the demands on our time. We need to find ways in which to reduce time spent managing our counseling programs and materials so we have more time to spend with our kiddos. Enter Goodreads!

For those of you that may not have had the pleasure of discovering Goodreads until now, it is somewhat of a Facebook (without the games & pokes) for book lovers. I have used Goodreads now for several years to keep track of my personal book collection and to connect with other like-minded readers.

After reading Entirely Elementary Counseling's Dr. Susan Fuller's Facebook post about cataloging her books on Library Thing, I found a new batch of motivation to reorganize my professional book stash. I have been using a clunky excel spreadsheet, but it hasn't really been an effective way to get my books into the hands of my teachers.

Okay, now enter Goodreads (along with the help of my iPad). The whole process is fairly simple and took me less than an hour to catalog over 100 books.

Steps:
1. Open a Goodreads account.
2. Download the Goodreads app onto your iPad or smartphone.

3. Scan the bar code on each of your books by selecting the scan feature and lining up the book's bar code in display window . (This goes quickly if you stack your books first, bar code side up. Stacking your books also helps identify which books you have already scanned. This may not be such an issue if you are only scanning a few books).

4. You will know when your book has been scanned when you see the ISBN pop up on the screen of your iPad or smartphone.













5. After you scan a book (or several) you need to select "add to shelf".

The app falls a bit short, in that you can only upload your books into either your "read" shelf or your "to-read" shelf. To bypass this short coming, you can open Goodreads on your computer and "batch edit" the scanned books and tag them onto their appropriate shelves.

I still have about 20 books that didn't get along with my scanner. Most of them were purchased from specialty stores (like The Self-Esteem Shop) or conferences. I will need to go in and type the names in individually, but I would much rather type in 20 than 120!

Please let me know if you have any questions. I would love to hear from you!

~Heather

ADHD Conner Screening Flow Sheet: Program Management

The Conners Rating Scale can be a helpful diagnostic tool for children displaying ADD/ADHD symptoms. The Conners Rating Scale comes in a few different forms; I prefer using the long form. It only takes a few more minutes more to complete but provides a wealth of information. Comparing the teacher rating form and the parent rating form can really help identify the students' strengths and areas that can use further support.

I developed the following form so I can see the status of the Conners that I have given out. The form may seem really simple but it definitely makes my "essentials" list.



*It is important to note (hence the bold and underline feature used above), that the Conners is only a diagnostic tool. I do categorize the Conners as an intervention when I am completing my Response to Intervention (RTI) documentation, but the form should be used as a starting point in the clinical/counseling setting.*

ADHD Teaching - Classroom Strategies

This "ADHD Teaching Tips" booklet was assembled by the US Dept. of Education. This is a great resource for teachers who are dealing with attention and/or hyperactivity in the classroom.

ADHD Parenting Handbook

School Counselors are often asked about what parents can do to help their children who display ADHD symptoms. I give out the following booklet during my parent consultations or when they request information. If I am giving the booklet out during a consultation, I will highlight specific areas that could prove helpful or that address the parents' concerns.

Click Here to Download

Response to Intervention - Counseling Child Study Form

Organizing a school counseling program is not an easy task. Providing services to students, parents, teachers, and administrators can leave one contemplating the benefits of human cloning ;) .

Child Study Meetings provide me with an effective way to collaboratively work with teachers and other staff members. During the meetings, my role is as the counselor is to help define the concern, identify interventions (both past and future), and help create a plan of action for the student.

Let's be frank (no offense to anyone named Frank), Child Study Meetings can be a tidal wave of information. This is especially true if your building is in full RTI and PBS swing. Covering three buildings does not leave a lot of extra time for paper work and administrative type tasks, so I need to keep it as manageable as possible.

 For me, I like to be comprehensive so that I can develop a clear understanding of the concern being brought to me for support. However, the process needs to be simple enough for me to not get lost in unnecessary steps.

In an effort to give back to the school counseling community: I am sharing the form I created that has helped me immensely. I included a jpeg image so I can pin it on Pintrest. If you would like, you can download the form by clicking the link below.

Child Study Form