School Counseling Simplified Podcast

I have exciting news! The doors to my Stress Free Class Lessons Course are now open! Inside this bonus episode, you'll hear more details about what this course is, who it's for, and a breakdown of all five modules. The doors to this course are open for a limited time. Enrollment ends on August 2, 2022 at midnight. When you join you'll gain lifetime access to all of the lessons! Check out the cours...

We've all made mistakes, right? Well, let me tell you, a lot of mistakes were made when I started teaching classroom lessons as a new school counselor. I want to share these mistakes with you and what I learned from each one so you don't have to make these same mistakes! Today, I'm being a little vulnerable and sharing some mistakes and learning experiences I had when teaching classroom counseling...

Keeping students engaged is a great preventative classroom management strategy. But maybe you're asking yourself, "How could I possibly keep an entire class engaged for the whole lesson?" Today, I am sharing some of my favorite engaging activities for you to do with your students! In this episode, I am breaking down how to use 3 tools that are fun and engaging for your students. I am explaining ho...

Does the thought of teaching class lessons overwhelm you? Maybe you don't have classroom teaching experience or you aren't comfortable managing an entire classroom while trying to teach a lesson. I know how you feel! Today, I am sharing a few tips I have learned that will help you in the classroom. In this episode, we are diving into four things you can do to feel more prepared to teach classroom...

Are you unsure what to teach during classroom lessons? Is coming up with ideas for meaningful and impactful lessons overwhelming? This episode is for you! As counselors, we have A LOT on our plates and coming up with lesson ideas for each grade for the entire year can seem daunting and stressful.  Today, we are diving into ways to come up with lesson ideas stress free and simple! Gone are the days...

How am I supposed to find time to plan and teach classroom lessons on top of individual and small group lessons? Have you asked yourself this question before? Doing it ALL can be overwhelming! But the good news is that there are ways to make it all less stressful. In today's episode, we are doing a deep dive on classroom counseling lessons. We are looking at small, actionable steps that you can ta...

We all want to use the summer to spend time with our family and friends, rest, and prepare for the upcoming school year. I know that preparing for the school year is so important and I love giving you tips to help make the school year easier, but today, we are focusing on taking time for self-care this summer. So many people talk about the importance of self care but what does self care even look...

Have you ever gotten to the end of the school year and panicked because you don't have enough data for your reports? Today we are doing a deep dive into data collection sources! Don't worry, these are likely things you are already doing in some way that you can adjust to use for data collection! In this episode, I am giving you an inside look at one of the quarterly training sessions we had inside...

Are you looking for a way to incorporate journaling into your classroom and group activities or give your current journaling practices a revamp but aren't sure what that could look like? We are diving into all things journaling today! I have a special guest who is here to share some of her great tips and insight on journaling. Megan Polk of The Literacy Dive is here to share with us how she has us...

Everybody loves tips and tricks for making classroom management easier, especially when you're working with a range of grades. Kindergarten classrooms are a completely different world than upper elementary classrooms. Oftentimes, these students are in a formal school setting for the first time. This brings unique challenges to specialists, like school counselors, who may only be in these classroom...

Data is a powerful tool. The more data we can collect on our counseling programs, the more effective our programs will be and the more students we will be able to serve and impact. All month, I've been sharing my favorite data tools that I've found super helpful in my own program, and I've been joined by guests who have shared how they have used these tools in their own programs. In episode 89 , I...

Clarity brings purpose. A lot of times people don't really know what a school counselor does, and there's a lot of confusion around the role of the counselor. The more clear we can be about who we are, what we offer, and how we help students, the more purposeful our school counseling programs can be. One of the ways we bring clarity to our role is by sharing data that we've collected about the ser...

Attendance is important. You may be surprised to learn that even a small number of days missed can put students at risk of struggling academically. Even though we know it's important, sometimes it can feel like we're fighting an uphill battle when it comes to improving attendance for students who struggle. Beyond offering incentives, what more can we as counselors do to help?  In today's episode,...

What if you had a simple, easy-to-use data tool that would help you make improvements to your program and give you a visual display you can show to your administrators and teachers so they can actually see the impact your program is having because of the work you do? This month, we are talking about data tools, and I have a special guest with me today to talk about one of my favorites. In this epi...

Data collection is key to making improvements to your counseling program and advocating for your role. This month on the podcast we're talking about data tools that I love to use. Today, we're kicking it off with one of my all-time favorites, the behavior surveys. Joining us for this episode is a special guest, Jessica Weinberg. Jessica is a member of IMPACT, my membership for school counselors. T...

All month we've been talking about the interview process. First, I shared my own interview experience as a school counselor in episode 85 . In episode 86 , Lauren Tingle joined me to talk through questions and we did a mock interview. Last week, in episode 87 , we learned about resume must-haves from Carol Miller, the go-to resume person for school counselors. Whether you're a new counselor lookin...

Today, I interview the go-to resume person, Carol Miller. This episode is full of advice and wisdom from someone who knows exactly what school districts look for when they are going through resumes. According to Carol, only 1-2% of resumes she has seen are what would be considered "quality" resumes. Most of the resumes she sees are "really, really awful."  Tune in to find out exactly what you can...

If you're a recent graduate who is looking for your first school counseling job or if you're an experienced counselor who is looking for a new job and you need to brush up on your interview skills, this episode is for you!  Today I am joined by guest, Lauren Tingle. Together, we go over some of the common questions you may encounter in an interview for a school counseling position and discuss how...

Are you looking for a school counseling job? Whether you're getting ready to graduate and trying to land your very first school counseling position or you're a seasoned counselor who is looking for a new position, interviewing can be stressful. This episode comes straight out of my Stress Free School Counseling Bootcamp program. It's totally FREE to join! If you're an intern, just graduated, or re...

Spring is finally here, and we can get outside and enjoy the sunshine! I love springtime because it's like a fresh rebirth. Spring is one of those times of the year when we emerge from our black holes and get rejuvenated and refreshed. In today's episode, I'm sharing my favorite spring resources and some fun and unique ideas that you can implement this month in your school counseling program. I ho...

Providing counseling in a one-on-one setting is so powerful for our students who are experiencing extreme anxiety. Today, we are wrapping up our anxiety series with 4 effective strategies you can use to help your students cope with anxiety. If you missed the last three episodes, go back and check them out. In episode 80 , you'll hear me talk about what anxiety is and how we might see it show up in...

All month we've been talking about anxiety, and today I'm going to talk specifically about how you can help students with anxiety through an anxiety small group. If you missed the last 2 episodes, be sure to check out episode 80 where I did crash course on anxiety, and episode 81 where I shared strategies for class counseling for anxiety.  Small group counseling is a great place for students to pr...

I'm a big fan of doing class lessons. It's a great way to plant seeds with students and teach them strategies they can use going forward that can empower them to be proactive instead of being reactive. In last week's episode , we had a crash course on anxiety counseling. Today I want to give you three ideas of things that you can do in a class lesson to help teach students about anxiety and how th...

Most students experience anxiety at some point in their lives. As school counselors, it's important that we understand the different ways anxiety can show up in students and how to best support them. Typically, I give you counseling strategies and tools that you can use generally across topics, but I thought it would be helpful to go deeper on a specific topic and give you some quick takeaways tha...

Collecting data is so important for our students and our counseling programs. It helps us answer questions like:  How can we teach this material to help the students better understand? How can we present this in a different way to help the student grow and to learn these coping strategies?  How can we provide outside support or other resources to really ensure that the student is getting the suppo...