Mrs. Crabtree's Counseling Corner

While we are all quarantined and unable to reach our students face to face, it has been an interesting challenge trying to stay connected.  I am learning so much, and so thankful for the things I had in place even before we were quarantined.  Here are a few ways I am staying connected with students.  Google classroom:  I have been using google classroom with my grades 3-5 students for a few years.  Thankfully, it was loaded with lessons for them to review while I was adding new ones.  I only wish I had started this with K-2.  I am fearful about adding more to their little plates, so I will definitely be doing that once we return. Google Hangouts:   Google hangouts has been nice to be able to stay connected one on one with students.  I am able to text but in a secure place where they won't see my number.   Google Hangout Meet :  I did this today and was so excited to see my students!  I added the join link to their classroom, and it was a hit!  Honestly, the kids just

In a time when everyone gets a trophy, I am finding more and more students really can't handle losing a game, or not being the BEST at something.  Thankfully, Julia Cook has come up with this great book to help us address this.  In the book it refers to "you can't win a coin toss every time," so I ran with that and decided to help kids learn how to lose.  In this activity, I pair the students up, and one decides who is heads and one decides who is tails.  I give them one minute and let them play heads or tails as many times as they can.  They mark who won on each round.  Whoever has the most wins after the minute is over, wins the round.  Then I ask the students who did not win, to sit at the carpet.  We proceed to play again until only their is only one winner.  That winner gets to pick a prize out of my prize bag.  This is a risky lesson I must say, but it's proven to be very effective if I preceed the lesson with the following disclaimers.  There will be onl

   For years I have been hearing the debate between Guidance Counselors versus School Counselors.  I used to think it didn't really matter.  Boy was I wrong!!!  After reading the research behind why we need to change our title, I am convinced it's time to begin implementing this change.  This helped me so much in figuring out why we should be advocating for the change.   

This is my 12th year as a School Counselor, and this year is proving to be quite a challenge!  I have taken on more roles in my professional organizations, and am so grateful to do so. However, learning to balance both is taking some getting used to.  With that in mind, I gave myself permission to scale back a little on trying to come up with my own amazing lessons for Guidance.  Thank goodness I did!  I have discovered some wonderful resources and lessons that I just had to share!  PS...I don't make any money for endorsing any of these products.  I'm just a regular ole counselor who likes to share what she knows.  First, you MUST check out  Eve Coates ' Teacher's Pay Teacher's store!  She is amazing!  She has wonderful powerpoints on each of the 7 habits, as well as growth mindset, and so much more!  What I LOVE about her work, is how it's student friendly for grades K-5, and easily adaptable.  They almost always take up the whole time, so I don't f

I knew that Google was amazing, but this year, I am learning even more amazing things that Google can do, and how to incorporate into my Counseling Program.  For starters, I have upgraded my School Counselor Request form and learned how to make it two or three forms in one.  I plan on doing a screencastify tutorial very soon!  This has been a game changer.  Now, students, teachers, and parents need only find one link in order to communicate their needs to me.  Next on my Google adventures is how I've been able to use Google Sites to develop Leadership Notebooks for all students in Grades 3-5.  Students are loving being able to add their data into this digital notebook, and I am certain this will be big selling point for parents when Student Led Conferences begin next month.  I helped all the students set up their site in Guidance this week, and they have each shared them with me.  This is allowing me to see right away how they are doing in their classes and help celebrate their su

This book is an excellent source for teaching how to Synergize.  I love using for students in Grades 1-3 because it offers insight into how to deal with difficult students in a group.  This week in Guidance, I spent the entire 30 minutes, just reading and discussing the book.  Next week, we will use what we learned this week, to practice Synergizing. I feel it's important to let kids practice this skill in a safe way.  Often times, the teachers is so busy making sure the content gets completed in a group, the actual skill of synergizing isn't easy to emphasize, which results in conflicts, power struggles, and misguided groups.  Here are some key points of discussion I used this week when reading this book. 1.  How many of you have ever had to work in a group with people you didn't care for? 2.  Have you ever had any one in your group that was bossy, gross, or not as smart as you? 3.  Sometimes we have students in our group that are not as strong in school as us.  

It has been a crazy start to the year this school year; hence, the no new blog posts!  Now that the beginning of the year is behind me, I feel more refreshed and ready to share some exciting new things I have been trying this year.  My most favorite is I have added a new way for students to get in touch with me.  Typically, I have a hard copy of a school counselor request form.  This was great and all, but I had a hard time keeping all those slips of paper put away and filed, and often times, they'd get stacked under a pile of other things I had to get done.  So many times, I would forget to pull that student.  To resolve this, I created a school counselor request form (google forms are my best friend) for students to complete online.  From my school's website, the students can easily access this form, and submit it in literally seconds.  Then, the response goes straight to my email and I can easily access and organize all the students I am seeing and take notes on what we di