Back To School Night (B2SN)

Every year the specialist are asked to attend one of the Back To School Nights (B2SN) at school.  This year, I attended for grades 4-6 and talked about the service learning project with the 6th grade parents.  I meet a few families and we had a table for our display.  We had one of the nicest tables out of the specialists.  Parents took a bunch of flyers that my counseling partner had printed, as well as a few of our brochures about the school counseling program.

Here is a picture of our display at B2SN

NetSmartz Kids at Old Navy?

Our family was out last weekend and we were out and about and I had to make a return to Old Navy.  While I was in line, my husband and son were coloring a table.  When I went over, I was totally surprised to see NetSmartz Kids on the table.  I use "Clicky" and NetSmartz kids every year with the kids for internet safety in the spring.  Loved seeing something that I actually use in my school counseling program.  It put a smile on my face.  

Check out www.NetSmartzkids.org for great ideas for lessons.  You can also contact them for a free educators packet, which has presentations, worksheets and tips for parents that you can use for your program.

Below you will see a few of the handouts and "Clicky" the robot that were available at my Old Navy!

Kindergarten Parent Coffee

Very last minute my principal asked for me to put together a Kindergarten Parent Coffee for all Kindergarten parents on the first day of school.  We wanted to get the parents have somewhere to go so they were not lingering outside of the Kindergarten classrooms.  I threw together a flyer with the help of another school counselor within my counseling pyramid. 

I was imagining it to be a meet and greet, but even one started having a seat and waiting for an exact presentation.  The parents were all very nice and seem grateful for having a chance to talk to the school counselor, principal, and also able to ask "school related" questions.

Overall it went very well, even though it was throw together last minute.  For next year, I now know what to expect!

Below are some pictures from the morning event as well as pictures of the flyer that I made of the PowerPoint Presentation slides.

Centre View Northern Edition Paper- School Counselor Interview?

Last week a reporter was interviewing for the Centre View Northern Edition and my principal called me down to be interviewed, to my surprise. Glad to see I was not the only school counselor, who was interviewed with in my pyramid.  I am not sure if she exactly got what I was saying about working collabortely with students, teachers, parents & staff member, but it works!

 

Check out the digital paper online at this link:

http://connectionarchives.com/PDF/2013/090413/Centreview%20North.pdf

Grocery Store Check Out, Ability Tests?

Happy Labor Day everyone. I went to grab a few last supplies for our Korean BBQ that we are going to this afternoon. We thought it would be fun to bring some authentic Korean sides. We went to Lotte Plaza which is described as a "high quality Asian Market" near our home. Just as we were checking out I saw these and had to take a few pictures. 

I have seen a lot of things at a check out, but never study guide books on how to ace ability standardized tests including the NNAT 2 (non-verbal abilities) & CogAT (which gives scores for verbal, quantitative & nonverbal). These scores are used in our Advance Academics screening process. Advanced Academic Program (AA) use to be called gifted and talented program (GT).  In FCPS all 1st graders take the NNAT 2 and all second graders take the CogAT.