Welcome back to another episode of School Counseling Simplified! Throughout September, we are diving deep into classroom lessons. I love using them as my tier 1 interventions. While many times we are given lessons to teach, there are also plenty of situations where you are expected to create everything on your own. That is why I am sharing strategies on how to schedule, plan, and teach classroom lessons. These ideas come from my Stress-Free Class Lessons Course, a five-module program designed to help you feel confident and prepared.

In today's episode, we are focusing on the teaching piece and specifically on strategies to keep counseling lessons engaging and fun. The more engaged students are, the less likely they are to act out, which makes your time in the classroom much more effective.

You will learn how to add movement and interactive activities into your lessons, including:

• Icebreakers: Sides of the room, Simon Says, Stand up/Sit down

• Activities: Role play, charades, escape rooms, scoot games

• Discussions: Beach ball toss, jumbo discussion die

These simple strategies can transform the energy in your classroom and keep students focused while learning.

Here are three action steps you can take right away:

1. Find an engaging icebreaker for each topic you plan to teach.

2. Decide which engagement activity strategy you want to try.

3. Create a discussion beach ball to spark interactive conversations.

Resources Mentioned:

• Join IMPACT

• stressfreeschoolcounseling.com/classlessons

Connect with Rachel:

• TpT Store

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• Facebook Page

• Facebook Group

• Pinterest

• Youtube

More About School Counseling Simplified:

School Counseling Simplified is a podcast offering easy to implement strategies for busy school counselors. The host, Rachel Davis from Bright Futures Counseling, shares tips and tricks she has learned from her years of experience as a school counselor both in the US and at an international school in Costa Rica.

You can listen to School Counseling Simplified on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and more!