A Snapshot of October

Whew, I cannot believe that we are already into November!  I have been so busy this year and just haven’t stopped to write about how things are going.  This post will be a snapshot of October to share some of the things that I’ve been feeling and doing while MIA from the blogging world.

Overall, this year has been more stressful for me than last year.  It seems like the need is greater and my already full plate has been overflowing.  I have also been taking more home with me (actual things to do and emotionally speaking) this year than last, and am just having a hard time leaving work at work.  I am attributing this to the fact that I now have deeper relationships and connections with my students, their families and my teachers.  I will have been at my school for 2 years this January.  I am at a Title One school, and the stressors that my students experience at home are more obvious and overwhelming to me each day.  Despite feeling overwhelmed because I can’t ever seem to quite do “enough” (I am my harshest critic), I do feel like I have finally gotten into my groove for the year.  Here are a few snapshots I wanted to share...  

 

We celebrated a successful Red Ribbon and Character Counts Week with the theme: Our future is looking bright!  Here are some pictures of the week.  

 

My favorite part was on Thursday when we celebrated our good character by being HEROes.  I had the teachers give their students a hand print to sign and decorate showing their commitment to being a HERO for the rest of the year.  It was not an orignal idea, but something I saw nad loved a while ago on Pinterest.  I don't remember where it came from, but thank you to whoever created it! :) We talked about how being a HERO means making the choice to not bully or put others down, but to lift each other up.  It turned out to be such an awesome character ed display!

 I also have to show off these writing samples that a first grade teacher did with her students during the week.  Aren’t they awesome?!  I love when teachers get into the week and show their creativity.

I’ve also finished training an amazing group of students to be peer mediators.  They worked so hard during their training and it was awesome to see it reinforce the conflict resolution skills that I have been teaching them with my 7 Habits curriculum.  Look what they came up with all by themselves!

We are a PBIS school, but were in need of displaying our PBIS expectations across the school and in a kid-friendly way.  Look what our fabulous PBIS team came up with!  These signs are posted all over the school showing what the expectations look like around the building and on the playground with the help of our mascot, Pride.  I love PBIS! 

              For Halloween, my school celebrates by dressing up as your favorite book character.  At 1:00, we invite parents to come watch their children parade around the school in their book character costumes.  Book Character Day is a fun way to allow the children to dress up appropriately and celebrate a love of reading!  Here is a pic of me as the Rainbow Fish!  Students were asking for my scales all day!  Next year I plan to make some to hand out to them along with the costume!

Finally, I wanted to share this bulletin board that an RTI teacher of ours put together.  I absolutely love it!  What a great visual for our kids to dream big J

I’ve been seeing a ton of kids individually and enjoying my time spent with them too.  Maybe my next post can focus on the strategies I like to use the most when working with students in a counseling setting…  Until next time, thanks for stopping by!  Happy November to all!