Look Up, Not Down

After a colleague pointed out to me that I sometimes lack confidence in myself, I began to think about what I do that makes me appear nonconfident. I noticed that I often look down at the ground or floor when walking or running, and I caught myself often with my shoulders slumped forward a little bit and not having good posture. What in the world is the reason for that, I wondered? I have always looked down at the road when I run to make sure I don't trip over something and fall or hurt myself. Or so I thought.

I took a jog the other day and I made conscious effort to look up at the sky, houses and trees. The sky was really pretty and I began to wonder how much I had missed out on in life from looking down. I began to think that because of things that happened to me in my younger years, I carried around a sense of  self-defeat, or low self-worth, and I think that looking down just became a way of life for me. 

I have never taken compliments well, although I have learned to respond with "thank you," instead of "nahhhh."  While I work hard to compliment others and smile at passersby and help others feel good about themselves (after all, that is my job!), I'm not sure I always believe in myself and my ability to really make a difference in others' lives.

I want to keep training myself to look up and see the beauty of life and others, instead of the dirty pavement. I want to pass this ability on to the middle school kids I work with. Perhaps if they can learn this habit earlier than I did, they will grow to be strong teenagers and adults who see beauty all around them.

Test Taking Tips

Want some quick, easy tips to follow for test taking?  Here's a great website: http://www.testtakingtips.com/  This website has ideas on how to handle test anxiety, how to study for different kinds of tests: essay, multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank,and tips on note taking.

I don't need to re-type the stuff on this website in my blog, but if you go to the website, you will find many useful ideas. Under the resources tab it has even more little things like stress management, time management, essay writing tips, letter writing tips, . . . .

After the Rain

The drought of the summer of 2012 has only been matched by the drought in the 1980's in my own lifetime. Everything was terribly "dead" outside my house, or so it appeared. Finally, the rains came again in late August and early September. My sister posted some pictures of her leisurely drive, which gave me the idea of going out and taking random pictures around the house. I couldn't believe what had survived the drought. The vegetables had a little help from me, but even so, they looked pretty sickly most of the summer. I think about how the human spirit can be much the same way. Sometimes people appear to be dead, but there's deep life within them, if only they can get enough water and nourishment. The people that don't make it, often don't have deep roots to carry them through their droughts and winters. It makes me terribly sad, but most people do have the desire to "make it," come drought or rain pour. Enjoy the pictures I took around my house as you reflect on your own droughts, and then the rains that brought you back to life.

When Starting School Too Early Catches Up With Kids

At no time is it more apparent of when kids started kindergarten as when they enter middle school- 6th grade.  I can observe a student one time to know if they entered kindergarten early. There is just a natural progression of age that I can tell how old a student is by looking at him/her. I am right 9/10 times I meet a kid and guess what grade they are in.

So when I see a very tiny 6th grader entering middle school, I can almost always tell that they JUST turned 11. This year we started school on August 2nd, so there were several kids who were still 10 when school started! There is much about middle school that is a lot for a small child to take in. The stress on some of the kids' nerves is quite apparent. We have about 3 students right now who can hardly get through each day.  It poses the question, why do parents send their kids so early to kindergarten? Some of them are ready academically, but there isn't much in the readiness tests that measures their emotional stability in a brief overview. School Psychologists can guess all they want, but sometimes it isn't apparent until middle school.

So how do I help these students adjust? Constant communication with parents is definitely a key component. At this point, most parents are not going to come in and try to move their child back to the elementary building. It just isn't going to happen. Think of the embarrassment it would cause an already stressed out student.  I also meet with these students a little more regularly than the other students. I do "check-ins" just to see how it's going. They sort of need a "parent" at school to reassure them that they will get through the adjustment period.

Finally, I rely on the teachers a lot to help the kids along, and in my building we have absolutely wonderful sixth grade teachers who know exactly what the kids are going through, because if they are a seasoned teacher, they see it every year.

It is a passing phase in most of these kids' lives, but is it necessary to send them a year early for convenience when it may be more difficult down the road?  There is no easy answer, of course, but if there's not a reason to send them early, then maybe it would be wise to nurture them at home for one more year.

Shutterfly Photo Book

You will need to go to my blog and look on the right hand side to see the photo album.So my friend sent me a link for a free Shutterfly 8 X 8 photo book ($29.99 value), and all I had to do was pay shipping and handling ($8.55 total). At checkout, a message popped up that said if I post my book tomy own website or blog, I would receive a $10 coupon off my next order if I e-mailed them my link, SO, I am sending you a link to view my photo book from our short summer trip to Holland, MI.   I'm not totally sure we can call it a "vacation," since the water was SOOO cold and we were only there for 5 days, but I guess we can!  Enjoy the photo album

Sharren

Reflections on Blogging

Well, here it is July 6, 2012 and I haven't even begun to reach my blogging goals for the summer. My normal goal is to publish once a month during a regular school calendar year. My goal for the summer was to blog once a week and read lots of parenting and education books and become an online "expert."   Instead, I started thinking about what I really want my blog to be, and I  have it narrowed down to a couple of things.

1. I want to share what's going on in my world as a school counselor, whether it's just journaling thoughts, ideas, struggles, exciting moments, etc.

2. I want to share with parents, students, and other school counselors a few good books or websites on current and relevant topics in school counseling, parenting, and student growth to give some quick ideas on how to handle different issues that come up.

How often I journal is probably not that critical. Most people can probably only handle reading one entry a month, since they also read other blogs, update their facebook status, work, or parent!!

In one short sentence, I think that I can say that experience breeds expertise. When you want to know something about a topic, do you automatically run to the person who JUST graduated from law school, med school, mechanic or business school?  While a degree in something is valuable, it becomes more valuable when the person with the degree gets some experience under his or her belt.  I consider myself a normal, every day school counselor who processes and files every experience so that when students and parents come to me for advice, I have a lot of things to draw upon.  When you face similar situations day in and day out, you learn what works, what doesn't work, what to keep and what to throw away.

I think instead of pressuring myself to become an "expert" in school counseling, I will continue to journal about good books, good websites, and every day school counseling experiences.

We Are 1

I don't think I've ever tried to insert a link to a YouTube video, so I'm going to attempt to do so in this post. I was so proud of my 8th grade class this year, and one of our English teachers, Mrs. Rosebrock (who happens to be a former student of my sister who lives in Northern IN), had a great idea of having students create anti-bullying videos for their last project of the year. The students had to work in groups and create a video that could be used by our school in the fall to promote our school wide anti-bullying expectation. The students submitted videos, and then they were voted upon by classmates and a few select staff (mostly guidance counselors and principals). I don't think I need to say a whole lot about the videos, you just need to watch them. Enjoy!!!
YouTube Anti-Bullying videos by Middle School Students