All month I’ve been talking about how you can collaborate with your stakeholders, and this episode is dedicated to principals. Your administration can really dictate how your program runs, so this is a very important topic! Some principals can micromanage while others don’t want to be involved at all, hopefully your principal is somewhere in the middle.

These strategies can allow you to be in control no matter how involved, or not involved, your principal wants to be. One of the easiest ways to do this is by communicating with them that you have all your student’s needs met. This way you will be a breath of fresh air amongst the chaos! What better way to advocate for your role than to show your principal that you’ve got everything under control?

Resources mentioned:

• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Episode 65, Team Player Series: Parents
• Episode 64, Team Player Series: Teachers
• Episode 62, Ideas for School Wide Initiatives
• Show Notes: bright-futurescounseling.com/podcast

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
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• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

For this week’s Team Player Series episode, I will share how to get parents on board. I’m sure each and every one of you listening right now has experienced backlash from a parent at some point in your career. If you’re like me, you probably realized if you had communicated more in the first place some of those situations never would have occurred. 

Basically what I’m saying is to communicate, communicate, communicate! There is a caveat of course. The expectations, communication style, and feelings of parents are all going to be different. These tips I provide will be helpful no matter what the parent needs from you when collaborating about their child. Join me next week for another episode in the Team Player Series!

Resources mentioned:

• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Episode 64, Team Player Series: Teachers
• Show Notes: bright-futurescounseling.com/podcast

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

As we approach the holiday season I hope you take time to rest and reflect on how you feel about the first few months of school. I know some of you have probably felt really alone and isolated in your school building full of teachers. It’s just as bad, if not worse, if you have been getting push back from your class lessons or recommendations. Believe me, I’ve been there. That’s why I decided to create this team player series for developing a strong team in your school. 

Whether the staff at your school is young or established, I will be providing you with strategies to break through any barriers and create a cohesive team amongst your staff. If you’re anything like me you likely want to share your ideas as much as possible, but you also need to consider that your suggestions may add to the laundry list of tasks teachers need to do. These strategies will allow for a fun, respectful, and collaborative environment.

Resources mentioned:

• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!

• Pre-Referral Intervention Manual 

• Calendly

• Show Notes: bright-futurescounseling.com/podcast

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

To wrap up one of my favorite months, I decided to do a seasonal episode in the spirit of Halloween! I’ll be sharing some fun activities you can do with those Halloween buckets you’ve probably gotten on Amazon or in the Dollar Store. I love providing you with low-cost and simple ideas and these are no different.

If you’ve been a listener for a while, you know that I try to create simple activities that don’t require a lot of planning or materials. If you have paper and pumpkin buckets you’re all set. There are so many topics you can create sorting activities with such as problems and zones of regulation. Head over to my Instagram and let me know what grades or topics you used this activity for!

Resources mentioned:

• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Show Notes: bright-futurescounseling.com/podcast

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

Have you ever taught a great lesson only to have your student forget everything the next time they walk through your door? Teaching students truly takes a village, so it only makes sense we take advantage of our resources. I’m talking about peers, teachers, custodians, and more!

Think about it. When you explicitly teach a topic and then another staff member refers to it in the hallway, on the playground, or in the lunchroom then your teaching has extended far beyond your lesson. The more your students see and hear the terms and visuals you teach them, the less you’ll be reacting to a crisis. Once you put these strategies into action, I’d love to hear how you got your school community involved!

Resources mentioned:

• Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!
• Show Notes: bright-futurescounseling.com/podcast

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

Did you know that October is Bullying Prevention Month? It’s truly one of my favorite topics to discuss with my students. It is so important to work on those preventative measures and teach our students skills at a young age. The earlier you teach them about bullying, the more control you’ll have as they get older.

There are so many different ways to teach your students to be kind and aware of what to do if others aren’t. These activities can range from individual to school-wide. Each of these ideas will educate your students on what bullying is and how to communicate if they experience or witness something troubling. It’s our job to make sure all of our students feel safe and bullying prevention month is the perfect time to do that!

Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!

Resources Mentioned:

• FREEBIE Bullying Prevention Scenario Cards 

• Ideas to Spread Awareness During Bullying Prevention Month

• Bullying Prevention Salad Bowl Game

• Bullying Prevention Bundle

• Blog post on YouTube videos

• Ned Show on how to be an upstander vs. bystander

• For the Birds Pixar Film

• Stopbullying.gov

• Kidstakeonbullying.com

• Commonsensemedia.org

• Show Notes: bright-futurescounseling.com/podcast

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

Can you believe it's already October?! What's more exciting is that we are celebrating ONE YEAR of this podcast, School Counseling Simplified! I wanted to do something special to celebrate this milestone, so this episode will be a bit different than the others. I've created a mash-up of the top 5 most popular episodes from the show!

Be sure to stay tuned in until the very end for a special announcement. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for supporting this podcast by listening, sharing with friends, and writing reviews. It truly means the world to me!

Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!

Resources Mentioned:

• Free resource library
• Download the FREE Stress-Free School Counseling Toolkit
• YouTube Mock Small Group Session
• Coping Strategies Journal
• Episode 2: How to Form Your Caseload
• Episode 20: 5 Things I Wish I Knew When I First Started Counseling
• Episode 22: Grief Counseling: A Tier 1 Approach
• Episode 36: How to Facilitate an Individual Counseling Lesson
• Episode 44: I've Got a School Counseling Job: Now What?
• Show Notes: bright-futurescounseling.com/podcast

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

Today is extra exciting because we have a veteran counselor on the show, Terry Foytek. Terry has been a school counselor for 25 years and is a student in my online course, Stress Free School Counseling. This goes to show that Stress Free School Counseling is not just for new counselors or for counselors with 3-5 years of experience. It’s for any school counselor because we are all constantly learning new ways to grow and transform our counseling program.

Terry’s favorite part of being a school counselor is doing whole class and small group lessons. She found that she needed some great ways to track her student data, which is one of the main reasons she joined Stress Free School Counseling. She’s sharing her experience with my course and how it has helped with several aspects of her counseling program, including advocating for her role.

Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!

Resources Mentioned:

• Head to stressfreeschoolcounseling.com to join my course, Stress Free School Counseling!

• Stress Free School Counseling Admin Letter

• Stress Free School Counseling Bootcamp

• Show Notes: bright-futurescounseling.com/podcast

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

If you have been considering joining my Stress Free School Counseling course, then this episode is for you. I don’t have guest episodes often, but I had to introduce you to one of my Stress Free School Counseling alumni, Kaylena. I hope any questions you have are answered after listening to her real-life testimonial!

Like many of you, this is Kaylena’s first year as a school counselor. She has experience in the classroom but has quickly learned how different the daily operations are of a school counselor. She will walk you through her reasons for becoming a member of Stress Free School Counseling and how it has allowed her to easily transition into this new position. Whether you’re a first year counselor or have been in the career for years, you won’t want to miss this LAST opportunity to join Stress Free School Counseling.

Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!

Resources Mentioned:

• Head to stressfreeschoolcounseling.com to join my course, Stress Free School Counseling!

• Stress Free School Counseling Admin Letter

• Show Notes: bright-futurescounseling.com/podcast

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!

Do you constantly feel like you are putting out fires rather than preventing them? Or maybe you take work home regularly to catch up because of all the distractions throughout the day. In this episode I will give you a solution to these never-ending problems. It all starts with scheduling, and I don’t mean when you see specific students.

I want you to think about how you are organizing your time throughout the day. You are not doing yourself any favors if you don’t allocate time for bathroom breaks or traveling from one building to another. You have to be realistic about what you need to do and make sure your students and staff can rely on you to be there when you say you will. Creating these clear boundaries and time slots in your schedule will help you increase your impact and advocate for your role.

Join my school counselor membership IMPACT here!

Resources Mentioned:

• Sign up for my free live masterclass: stressfreeschoolcounseling.com/3secrets

• Show Notes: bright-futurescounseling.com/podcast

Connect with Rachel on social media:

• TpT Store
• Blog
• Instagram
• Facebook Page
• Facebook Group
• Pinterest 
• Youtube

If you are enjoying School Counseling Simplified please follow and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!