Tag: school counselling

What Is Really Important In Life

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Shouldn’t we teach all students as if they were Zach? In #openspokes we have been discussing what is important to teach our young people. I believe Zach’s message of hope is one all teachers as well as students can learn from. At the heart of teaching should be teaching from the heart and Zach tells us what is really important in life. As a school counsellor these are the lessons that really matter to me. Lessons like those from  Zach that truly teach.

Zach is an amazing teacher. Here are some of his lessons:

  • you don’t have to find out you are dying to start living
  • most people live in the middle, but you don’t have to
  • be empathetic and compassionate
  • always look for the good in people
  • things are OK when you believe in something greater
  • what makes you happy is seeing someone else smile because you put it there
  • what’s awesome about living in this world is that you can help people
  • the structure of a family is great
  • to be in the same room with your siblings is enough
  • it is not the life in your years , but the years and passion you put into your life
  • spend time with the people you love
  • it’s ok to dream big
  • celebrate the life you have
  • you can communicate love through music
  • music can heal
  • releasing feelings through music is helpful
  • letting people know you love them is important
  • sticking together as a family is extremely important
  • be happy no matter what
  • treat people the same and everything will be fine
  • smile despite what is happening in your life
  • memories are essential…create positive ones
  • friendships help
  • fill your heart up with joy
  • it’s ok to have ultimate dreams
  • people we don’t really know can change our lives
  • the way you live matters
  • surround yourself with those people that lift you up
  • LOVE makes life BETTER

Zach says it alll better than I could ever do, his message is one that I will share again and again. Thanks Zach for giving us your gift of life.

My hope is that teachers will pay more attention to the students we teach than the content. The lessons we teach can make a difference.

There Are So Many Ways To Contribute

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It is more than a week ago that schools were cancelled because of flooding in Calgary. Calgary would be in a state of emergency  for many more days to come.

It is one of those days when you will never forget where you were and what you were doing. I was staying at my friend’s house and then off to our Bishop Carroll graduation ceremonies with my grade 12 students .We were celebrating their accomplishments and yet mindful of the devastation all around us, but not completely aware of  just how Albertans would be impacted.

I knew that Calgarians would make a difference, but little did I know how amazing the role modelling would be for our students. Our students would have definitely risen to the challenge fundraising amongst other things, but it was the end of the school year. That will come in September, as I know our city will still need help then. Within the first day I received a tweet from the YMCA that one of our students was already helping … no surprise.

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During the next week I would begin to see how much the city was impacted. I felt powerless in the beginning not knowing how I could help.

I recognized that I could give money to the Red Cross , that was easy. I could register with #yychelps, but not sure if I could do the heavy work.

Then came an email from our chief superintendant, Gary Strother, asking for volunteers to help with the cleanup efforts. I don’t usually look at my e-mail after school year ends, but this year I am more connected to my computer than ever before ,so I took it as a sign that I needed to act.

For two days I was up at 4 a.m. and to work by 5:15 because of the coordinating efforts of one of the organizers Ralph Strother along with some amazing people from  Whissell Construction .

Being in the middle of a neighbourhood at East Elbow Park made everything real. I just kept imagining if this was my home and my family, how I would feel and how appreciative of the help I would be.  I know the homeowners did, by the signs and the overwhelming thank you’s and gratitude that was displayed.

As Ralph Strother says, ”it was a huge step forward from unfathomable loss to rebuilding towards recovery… everyone worked shoulder to shoulder responding with no request too small and or seemingly too big dismantling garages, structures and even roofs, carefully, skillfully and even moving all the debris.”

Whissell construction donated dump trucks, front-end loaders, skidsters, trucks, barricades tools and amazing people who worked tirelessly to coordinate our efforts. It was amazing to see all the work being done around me. I am grateful for the small part that I would play to help out.

I have to admit it was hard work. It was back breaking work that some people do everyday (obviously something I am not cut out for on a daily basis) kudos to them, but for now they were adding to their week by volunteering. It made me very happy to be a part of it.

Ways I watched people help:

  • Driving the bus to get volunteers in and out of communities
  • Baking food for families and volunteers
  • First Aid responders
  • Organizing small clean up jobs for younger people
  • Lemonade stands
  • Raking, shoveling, hauling, demolishing, lifting, cleaning

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The list goes on…

There are so many ways people can contribute . Many people cannot contribute physically, but it is just as valuable to contribute in any way you can … JUST CONTRIBUTE.  We need to be grateful for what we have and what we can do, not to feel guilty for what we can’t do. All that we do matters and for today I am so grateful to live in a city of helpers. I do not have to look for them. They are everywhere.

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Click here :

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/U1DekWUNVC/calgary-floods-2013 

and then click on the pictures to move to the next picture in the haiku deck:

Thanks to all my fellow @CCSD_edu  colleagues especially Andrew who helped out and a special thanks to Gary and Ralph for making this happen.

Here are some resources from Alberta Health Services that you may wish to check out: Flood updates and resources…

Alberta Government’s pamphlet Support for Albertan’s Affected by Flood:   http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/Advisories/ne-pha-ahs-support.pdf

Dr. Michael Trew’s Blog (Alberta’s Chief Mental Health Officer):  http://blogs.albertahealthservices.ca/floodcope/

 Mental Health

 

The Tough Topics in Education … Suicide

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This week in #openspokes we were asked to tackle the tough topics and I decided to tackle the topic of suicide which is NOT easy.

School Counsellors often have to assist students with the grief process. Over the years I have seen students who have lost parents, siblings, friends, classmates and family members some due to a completed suicide which is the most tragic of all.

Below listen to a young man’s story that begins to tell the story of the impact on family and friends. I am not sure that there are any words to descibe the impact that this tragedy truly has,but his words I am hopeful will help other students.

As school counsellors our role is to be helpful in anyway that we can by infusing HOPE in as many ways as possible.

When a school experiences the loss of a student everyone feels the loss as expressed here by a note left to a student who died.

Dear_____,

Even though we haven’t formally met, I look at your spot in English class and I am deeply saddened that you are not here with us…

It is never easy seeing a student in deep pain especially if the loss was tragic or sudden. Often times school counsellors need to ensure that they have dealt with their own issues surrounding grief so that they can best help others. School Counsellors need to be aware of vicarious trauma or counsellor burnout when assisting students who have experienced traumatic events.

Here are my livebinders on Suicide Prevention and HOPE:

Suicide Prevention and HOPE

Mental Health resources

I know school counsellors save lives everyday and I want to thank you for the important work you do that no one else sees. I know because I have been a school counsellor for a long time. So keep doing what you are doing even though it can be extremely difficult at times.

There are students who you will make a difference for… of that I am sure! Take care of yourself so that you can continue to help others.

Do We Really Need School Counsellors? You May Be The First One …

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The First One…

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As a school counsellor you may be the first one

  • To listen to the story of a young man who does not believe he is good enough because his step dad who is alcoholic repeats that he is not good enough everyday in a number of ways
  • To be there when a young person comes out for the very first time
  • To listen to the dying words of a student who has cancer, but still wants to come to school
  • To listen to students who are having suicidal thoughts and don’t know how to cope or to students who need to be hospitalized and you are the first to assess the risk
  • To recognize that a student has psychosis and send them to the hospital where they get diagnosed and the family starts the process of treatment
  • To understand that a students cutting is way of coping with pain for them
  • To sit with a student as she tells her mom that she is pregnant at 15
  • To hear of a students years of repeated sexual abuse that they are now disclosing at 17 years old
  • To refer young people to a group for dealing with clinical depression
  • To work with a student who has been bullied since grade two and wants it to stop
  • To help students who feel caught in the middle because of a parents divorce
  • To recognize that a student needs treatment for their mental health
  • To get help for a young woman or young man who has an eating disorder, but doesn’t want anyone to know
  • To listen to the buried fears of a young man coping with an anxiety disorder
  • To recognize a learning disability in a young person and have them get help
  • To be present to the impalpable grief of a brother who lost his sister in a tragic accident
  • To help students face the unbearable
  • To reach out to a student with a drug and alcohol problem who feels nobody understands and encourage them to seek treatment
  • To show compassion and assist students who are suspended from school
  • To work with students who are in an unhealthy relationship and help them understand how to get help
  • To assist students with their confusion about which post secondary school to go to
  • To get students help for their academic challenges and start to achieve what they are capable of
  • To let students know that whatever they are going through they will get through it. You will be with them along the way and assist them with resources to help them when they have finished school
  • To listen to the unspoken dreams of a young person
  • To let students know they can start over
  • To reach out to the student who no one knows how to
  • To be present and teach mindfulness to the student
  • To encourage students to engage and include all students with special needs
  • To trust the student
  • To listen to their stories and share stories that can help them
  • To believe in students
  • To help students find courage
  • To not give up on the student
  • To be their champion
  • To lift them up
  • To celebrate and make them aware of their strengths
  • To help, to really help students not just survive , but thrive
  • To recognize the gifts that a student has and encourage them to utilize them
  • To give HOPE to a student who has felt hopeless
  • To be the one person that matters for that one student

The School Counsellor may just be the first one students decide to share their stories with. The student might feel safe enough in their school to trust an adult with their most precious and often their painful secrets and that person could be you. Students want help and School Counsellors are trained and want to help students. There are so many stories out there everyday and in every school all across the world that need and are being shared.

I believe School Counsellors can and are saving the lives of students.

Do we need School Counsellors? What do you think?

For any of you who are considering School Counselling, I want you to know it is the best career in the world. I also want to thank all the School Counsellors from across the world that saved a student’s life TODAY or yesterday or a year or maybe even several years ago and remind you that you do make a difference.

Always remember you may be the first one …

 

Sharing: Unlocking the Key to My Filing Cabinet and Keeping it Open … HOPE

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This blog is the beginning of me keeping my filing cabinet open. I have many resources I have wanted to share with school counsellors,but did not realize I could do it. This blog is how and the time is now thanks to the fantastic open sharing in ETMOOC and especially because of Alec Couros. The process stated with me being referred to Alec’s work by Vianne Timmons, so I went to his workshop and got going on twitter. So began the best PD ever. I have been following the fantastic work of Dr. Erin Mason and other school counsellors in the United States and beyond, but I was still not ready to jump into a blog. Fears got in the way. I have been fortunate to have many, many great dialogues with Erin Luong which also helped with my decision making. ETMOOC was the final push and as a result I believe I will share, share, share and in an OPEN EDUCATOR way. I have so much more to learn and as I do this I am very GRATEFUL for all of ETMOOC participants who have inspired me to share openly.

My first THEME HOPE.. I hope school counsellors can use some of the ideas and materials. Take what you like REMIX ( a term I now really understand because of ETMOOC ) and leave the rest.

“Once you choose hope, anything is possible” Christopher Reeve

HOPE is essential when it comes to school counselling. School Counsellors can take a leadership role when it comes to instilling hope in students. Listen to Derek’s story of not giving up which demonstrates the power of HOPE. We know that if students are resilient they are better able to self- regulate and that means they can cope more effectively. According to Barbara Frederickson a psychological researcher at the University of North Carolina, “a positive mood makes people more resilient physically”.  Resiliency and hope definitely go hand in hand.

Shane Lopez, psychologist and author of Making Hope Happen helps us understand more about hope and the steps needed to help students be more hopeful. www.Hopemonger.com

We want students to never give up and if we can access resources to help us do this we will make a difference and possibly save a life.

How can we spread hope throughout the school in a digital way?

  • We can post videos like Derek’s story on our counselling website.
  • We can tweet out to stories of hope on twitter.
  • We can post stories of hope on our school Facebook site as well as our school website.
  • We can embed Hope themes and pictures into our curriculum guides

Hope is an Open Heart a book by Lauren Thompson can be used with younger students to discuss losses and the overcoming of hardship.

Students could be encouraged to:

  • Make videos of HOPE
  • Create Art pieces around the theme of HOPE
  • Make @haikudecks on iPad with a HOPE theme
  • Design hopeful songs or music
  • Find people who inspire HOPE and write about them
  • Brainstorm ways to inspire hope in others
  • Make bulletin boards on themes of HOPE and Suicide Prevention
  • For younger students they could make trading cards the size of hockey cards and design cards of HOPE that they can trade with others
  • Performing Random Acts of Kindness can inspire hope as well.

RESOURCES:

  1. At http://www.helpothers.org/ you can find smile cards which you can download and hand out.
  2. Who I am Makes a Difference ribbons can be ordered at www.blueribbons.org. These ribbons are great to use in a Celebration of HOPE assembly or as a beginning of the year activity.
  3. Some great books for school counsellors are called :The Power To Prevent Suicide  A Guide To Helping teens by Richard E Nelson, A Parent’s Guide for Suicidal and Depressed Teens by Kate Williams Beyond the Blues a workbook to help teens overcome depression by Lisa M Schab
  4.  At http://www.values.com/ you can make your own bulletin boards or make them and post for all kids to see.
  5. At pinterest you can see some ideas for HOPE on this board http://pinterest.com/susansc/hope-theme/
  6. Search institute has done extensive research on what adolescents need to be resilient. They have great resources. Go to http://www.search-institute.org/content/40-developmental-assets-adolescents-ages-12-18

As a school counsellor incorporating a suicide prevention theme with the theme of hope just makes sense. Running suicide prevention workshops for your students at the beginning of the school year is also very valueable.

Look Listen and Link is a video which could be very helpful for Suicide Prevention for teens. You can find it on Youtube. Here is another message of hope.

The Centre for Suicide Prevention has fantastic resources for school counsellors. www.suicideinfo.ca

  1. A great book for students is When Nothing Matters Anymore by Bev Cobain

At the APP store students can access a digital blue ribbon that they can share with others sending positive messages to anyone they feel makes a difference. You can find a link to the blue ribbon in my livebinder.

Finally you can access my livebinder on HOPE for more ideas.

These are but a few ideas. Please share yours so we can help students everywhere.

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=425596

This blog post will be a work in progress and as I continue to learn. I will share more and more.

Role Reversal Part of the #ETMOOC Experience

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Tonight as I sat down to enter my #ETMOOC chat, my daughter was making a great supper. As I began to open up my laptop, get my cell phone ready so that I could  to begin to find the hashtag to enter a twitterchat for #etmchat , here’s what my daughter said. “Mom put that away we are eating supper!”

I said, ” I can’t because I am in a class and this is part of what I have to do”. She told me a few more times  to put down the technology and I continued on to keep up with the chat. I repeated what I needed to do and finally she accepted it. How many times in the past had I told her to put away her phone etc? It almost made me laugh as I realize now how when my kids are engaged in something they feel is important to them, they don’t want to stop.

On the other side of that, we have been very fortunate as a family to have many dinners together where we are all fully engaged in conversation and not distracted by technology.

So many life lessons to learn as I journey on with my #ETMOOC experience. As my professor used to tell me all the time when I did my Master’s in Counselling,”trust the process”. So I will!

So many things to learn. Isn’t life about learning lessons, no matter how old we are?

So happy to be a part of the inaugural chat. Thanks to my new online colleagues at #ETMOOC.

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Educate From The Heart To The Heart

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I hope all school counsellors and teachers do this. As school counsellors we deal with such emotional issues and if we cannnot connect to the heart of a student we will never be able to help them . I know what I do impacts those around me and everyday I attempt to do the best I can by reaching out with heartfelt compassion to those around me. I do not believe I am always successful, but I know it is my goal everyday to do so.

In my attempt to assist students along their journey in life, I reach out attempting to make a difference. This jumping out of my box into the ED tech world is my way of touching the hearts of many students so that they can get the supports they need. Counselling is more than assisting a student in my office. It is reaching out to students on a more global scale. It is being able to use technology to reach and teach them.  I will promise to use this process to educate from the heart using technology and all the tools ETMOOC gives me.

This week my daughter found this heart tomatoe in our fridge. I guess it was meant for this blog. So this post is from my heart to yours.

ImageSchool Counselling With Technology From the Heart.

Connecting with like minded people…My ETMOOC Introduction

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Hoping you enjoy my Introduction. I am learning … so playing with all the options to see how this works. This video shows how to embed a smilebox slideshow into your wordpress blog.

Still figuring things out!
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Getting Ready For A New Adventure ETMOOC Educational Technology Massive Open Online Course

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I am a life long learner and willing to take risks and here I am signing up for #etmooc. The tweet by @courosa from @fryed on What is #ETMOOC and why should you join us is what finally convinced me to… just do it!!!

In one of my @haikudecks I said I would DO MORE in 2013 and here I am. Stepping out of my box and doing more.

A little nervous yes, but at least I am NOT going to be graded, I can just learn!! Yahoo!!! I love learning without being graded. I have had enough of that.

So in the next few months, I look forward to learning just for the sake of learning.

It is Alec Couros who inspired me to become interested in technology as much as I have and I am grateful. So thanks Alec.

Here I am as the title of my god daughter @SarahDevaeau ‘s book says, ” Sink or Swim “. I think I’ll swim!

There are now over 1200 participants registered representing 67 countries – take a look! (Apologies that not all participants seem to show up on the map). Holy!!!!

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Here Alec is motivating me again … So my journey begins…