middle school | The Urban Educator

Google Form Example for School Counselors

Posted on November 5, 2014 by nataliesweetpea

I am blown away at the attention my last blog post has received about data received through google forms!!!! Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog and welcome to The Urban Educator!

Many of you have asked to see the google form that I use…so the easiest way for me to share it with you was to make one especially for you (instead of giving you the link to the one I use everyday). Check out my google form for student notes here – this is the version I use to document my student notes (the live form) *this is just an example – you need to create your own to input student information*

This is what it looks like when I am creating the google form:

Once you create your google form through your google drive, there will automatically be a (Responses) table created that will show your responses in your google drive. This table will show you all of your responses and you can sort by grade, type or student (it will automatically sort by date). Many of you also asked how to see the graph after you have documented your student notes. This is the EASIEST part of the data collection process. See photo below…all you have to do is click on FORM – SHOW SUMMARY OF RESPONSES and google creates that pretty little color coded graphs with all of your data 🙂

Any suggestions are always welcome! Collecting data is important to prove to everyone that your job is important and I personally find this way super easy. Best of luck and continue to check back often 🙂

-Natalie

Counseling Data

Posted on November 4, 2014 by nataliesweetpea

That scary 4 letter word, data. We are told we need it but sometimes have a hard time gathering it. Collecting it is time consuming…a burden for sure. But the end result can blow your mind.

The data doesn’t lie.

And it is certainly amazing to see – especially with pretty little color coded graphs outlining your month’s work! Welcome to my 2nd month counseling at my new school. September was slow because I was getting to know students and make daily schedules…I wasn’t quite impressed with what I had accomplished yet. This month, October, I got into a good groove, made a system for scheduling students and started lunch groups. Below you see my October Counseling Stats, made using Google Forms (my favorite data collection source – totally customizable for my needs and easily changed) which can take the table responses from my “Daily Notes Form” and transform it into the beautiful pictures below that explain what I do so much better than words!

Take the data and run.

After realizing that a lot of my students come in for peer related issues, I want to dig a little deeper. What are my most popular topics when students come to me to discuss peers? For November, I’m breaking it down into 3 additional sections:

Conflict resolution
“bullying”
Friend support

Hopefully I’ll gain additional insight into our peer issues to start new groups with those topics in mind.

Using iTunes U for School-Wide Counseling Support

Posted on October 31, 2014 by nataliesweetpea

Have you heard of iTunes U?

If you have an iPad or iPhone you can download iTunes U which is basically an online course that your students and teachers can subscribe to and have all of your documents/materials and lessons at your fingertips.

This year, I’ve created our Middle School online course, “Surviving Middle School” (click here with your iOS devise) that gives students information from “How to Make Friends”, “What is a Bully?”, “How to Prepare for BIG Tests” and many more topics under the umbrella of School Counseling. Updates happen often so keep checking back for new information and links to helpful websites and apps to use for your School Counseling Program. Hope you find my course helpful for you and your students!!

Using Video to get in to EVERY SINGLE CLASSROOM

Posted on October 28, 2014 by nataliesweetpea

I can get in to EVERY SINGLE CLASSROOM in one day without leaving my office.

Yes, that’s right, I was seen by every student on my caseload in one day. Now, some of you may not feel comfortable being video taped or even audio taped…well than this idea just isn’t for you, sorry!! I have done so many school-wide presentations that the thought of speaking in from of 400 students at the same time doesn’t phase me so speaking in to my computer is no big deal. I have had at least 20 students say, “Hi Mrs. Mecaughey! I saw your video, super cool!” so this has been totally worth it for me and I will continue to do at least 1 video a month for our school-wide character traits.

So, heres the deal.

First, I create a keynote presentation (I am slowly transitioning over from powerpoint) with the information I want to show.
Then, I click PLAY and RECORD SLIDESHOW
The slideshow will start and the red light will be on, during this time you talk…just as if you were presenting in front of a room of students (yes, I probably did 20 different takes until I got it right)
When you are ready to go to the next slide, click the arrow button and continue on with the presentation until you finish the slides
Once you are sure everything is ready and you are done, SAVE and then click EXPORT
You can share this as a quicktime video or .key document with teachers via email (compress the file if it is too large or send via googledrive or post to your online course in iTunes U)
Teachers can play this in the classroom on a smart board or TV…or even large screen computer
Students can watch this video anytime with your course on iTunes U on their iPad (if applicable)

It is important to note that the person watching the slideshow will NOT be able to pause it at anytime…so keep that in mind when creating the video.

Interested in seeing a video in action? Check out my iTunes U course Surviving Middle School and click on October Character Trait and watch my “Responsibility Video” (you must have iTunes U on your IOS devise to watch). Feel free to ask me any questions about this process and best of luck!

School Counseling Office Design

Posted on October 26, 2014 by nataliesweetpea

My office is small, I have to use an unoccupied classroom if I need more space for groups. Here are some pictures of my active workspace – viewer BEWARE! This picture is taken in the middle of the day and the middle of the week…so please no judgements 🙂

I will add more photos when I clean up because I’ve moved the bookcase recently which has added a lot more room – it has really transformed the space!!

Who runs the world? GIRLS! How to Run Girls Lunch Groups

Posted on October 23, 2014 by nataliesweetpea

This year I have a lot of new students (not to mention being new myself!) and some of the students have come from being homeschooled for many years. I have some students that have come to me because they are looking to make friends and have had some bad experiences. I currently have 3 girls groups running during lunch/advisory (we have an hour) which are focused on making and keeping friends. I try to find 5-8 girls that will work good together and learn from each other – it is not hard for me to find students that want to have lunch with me 🙂 My office is pretty small so I go in to an open classroom and bring all of my goodies!

I structure my girls group as follows:

Ice Breaker: a quick activity to get the students talking…sometimes we start while we are eating and it can be very informal. If the girls are talking, I will step back and watch for good moments to use later if needed.

Group Rules: always read and remind the students of our group rules and our group name (decided during our first session)

Group Goals: using a pre-assessment tool, group goals are designed to help students where they need it most. I review our goals before each session to keep our priorities in mind. Students are able to share their ideas at this time, too.

Activity: the lesson paired with a group activity or discussion that will focus on the goal above.

Recap: student directed activity to make the final connections to our goals and the activity.

Closure: we close out our time together by thanking each other for our time and attention and add any last inspiration for the day. Sometimes I will continue reading a book related to the topic until the bell rings.

Keeping the group structure the same helps me organize my ideas but also helps students know when they can share and when they need to listen. So far, I’m feeling good but just getting my feet wet – more information and example lessons & ideas coming soon!

The Best School Counseling Apps

Posted on September 26, 2014 by nataliesweetpea

I am always searching for new apps to use at my school. All of our students have iPads and we are a paperless school – which is super exciting but different! Here is a list of my favorites:

1. Feel Electric – this app lets you create users/players for an interactive feeling game. In the “moodisphere” students have to identify their moods. The program saves your history and allows for students to also learn what the feeling words mean by clicking on the words. For example when you click on the word “panicked” you will see (and hear) the definition “when you’re suddenly really scared of what may happen”. This can be a great conversation starter for you and your students. There are other games students can play – I haven’t had time to experience those games just yet however, since my kids can download this app themselves, i’d love to see them use it in their free time!

I love how interactive this is – take a look!

2. Haiku Deck – such an innovative and fun idea for education and counseling! Students can choose from a variety of (really great) stock photos, designs and fonts to create a text photo. Here is an example, I made this to show students my happy place:

3. Pinterest – seriously, need I say more?

4. Google drive – I am IN LOVE with google forms. I use them for everything…student notes, referrals from teachers and parent contacts. All of the responses go straight in to a spreadsheet and keep my information so organized. So easy!

5. Flashcard – this is a great tool for students that want to study for tests. I constantly have students coming in my office with test anxiety – this is a great tool that is fun to use, students can share their cards and you can play games!

I’ll continue updating this often so check back again soon!

Ready for a Change!

Posted on September 26, 2014 by nataliesweetpea

Well I’m back. Its been wayyyyy too long. Since my last post I have a new house, new husband, new name and new job. I am happy to say that I’m in the best place of my entire life. With that being said, I’m ready to get back to updating and sharing about my Urban Education Experience! Currently I am a 5th – 8th grade school counselor at a school in Center City Philadelphia. With over 700 students, I’m pretty busy but I am inspired everyday. Check out my new office:

To get to know all of my new students, I did a small presentation at our Welcome Assembly and also created a video for students to watch during advisory – turned out to be a very quick way to hit everyone! My day’s are filling up fast with drop in students, referrals and meetings. Check back soon for updates about my favorite apps (all of our kids have iPads), new books, videos and accessories I use in my office.

Principals 200 Club

Posted on September 11, 2013 by nataliesweetpea

Welcome to the start of the new school year! I would write more but this is my 3rd post of the day, the previous 2 were mysteriously deleted! Feel free to check out my pictures and use my “Office Staff Roles” in principals 200 to help you implement this at your school. More info to come – promise!

Behavior Management, Education, guidance, guidance counseling, middle school, Positive Behavior Support, Uncategorized, urban education

Guidance Suite Day 1

Image | Posted on August 20, 2013 by nataliesweetpea

First off, I apologize for the lack of updates this year. Some major life changes (did I mentioned I’m engaged?? he put a ring on it!) and also a career change (guidance counselor, woopwoop!) have taken a toll on my free time. My goal is one post every two weeks, so please check back often for updates!

Today is day one of decorating my guidance suite for the 2013-2014 school year and I couldn’t be more trilled! I work at a Charter School in Philadelphia (same one that I worked as a special education teacher) with grades kindergarten, 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th grade. There will be approximately 450 students across these six grades. School starts September 9th and I’m working on decorating (obviously…its the best part!) and putting my schedule together (HELP!). I will also be researching the topics for this coming school year. Does your school have a monthly character trait? If so, tell me more!

Positive Behavior Intervention & Support (PBIS) is in FULL SWING this coming school year! “School Culture” is very important to us, so we’ve changed the title of PBIS to The School Culture Team. We are working on our “big 8” systems and modeling/role playing with the staff during orientation. We spent a lot of time this summer with our School Culture Team and designed these school-wide and in-class systems such as arrival, dismissal, hallway transitions, getting supplies in the classroom, etc. Our staff will hear all about of these proposed systems during the next few weeks and work within grade teams to choose what works well for them. These systems are written as scripts and seem so silly to write but even sillier to act out (and super entertaining, I must say). When you act out your plan (literally pretend your staff is your students) you realize what works and what is too wordy. It can be as small as saying “collect materials” instead of “put your materials away”. Practicing through role play has also been effective in showing teachers exactly what we mean – when we say repeat, we mean it. When you do it the way it is written, it will be more effective (especially since we spent so much time tweaking it!). Have you had any experience writing “scripts”? if so, how did it go over with your staff?

One more small change we are making this year is that students are allowed to be in zone 2 (quiet) in the hallways and during transitions instead of zone 1 (silent). The reason for this is we are modeling REAL LIFE. Have you ever had to be silent in a mall hallway? how about an office building? We want to show our students how to act in the real world. I’m hoping teachers find this as a blessing and that this maximizes learning time. Do students have to be silent in your hallways during transitions? How does that work for you?

Best of luck with your school year! I have a feeling this will be the BEST ONE YET! enjoy!

Remember, your students & school are a reflection of YOU! (quoted by my amazing Principal) 🙂

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