Tag: #scchat

Inspiring Leadership Begins With Me

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“There are scores of people waiting for someone just like you to come along, people who will appreciate your compassion, your encouragement, who will need your unique talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because you took the time to share what you had to give.” Leo Buscaglia

This week I am fortunate to attend the Inspiring Leadership Form at The University of Regina. I look forward to listening to women who have had many challenges in life and turned them into opportunities to learn and grow and inspire young women to take leadership roles at an early age. As Dr. Vianne Timmons says to make sure we surround ourselves with others who lift us up.

Presently, I am running a leadership group for a group of grade five students. I recognize that in order for them to take on leadership roles, I must model positive leadership and expose students to as many leadership opportunities as I can at an early age.

Being a leader isn’t always easy. It involves being brave, having courage, love , hope, passion, risk, self awareness, strength and trust among many other qualities. Sometimes it means having a thick skin, not allowing negativity to stop us from reaching higher. Having a growth mindset helps young leaders learn that failure is not a bad word. It is how we learn and grow and gain the strengths to be positive leaders in many ways throughout life. We each have a role to play in being leaders.

As School Counsellors we are in a unique position to not only model leadership , but to provide opportunities for students to thrive as leaders of today and tomorrow who are advocates and not afraid to become the kind of people they are meant to be … not perfect, but full of potential helping to make this a better world.

Collaboration and connecting with other leaders will help us to find our voice and be the kind of leaders our young people need.

Inspiring leadership begins with me and I hope with you too.

10 Education Twitter Chats Just For You

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Often when I am looking for a twitter chat I notice #scchat is left out , so if you have never heard about it look no further.

SCCHAT is held the first Wed. of every month from Sept.-June 6:30MT 8:30ET #scchat is an International School Counsellor chat for those across the world, but even if you are not a School Counsellor we welcome you in . School Counselors ,administrators and teachers collaborate all the time. We need each other . We are better with each other . So come along with us. Drop by any month for a little chat. We’d love to connect with you.  

You can learn more about our founder, chats and co-moderators here.

Education Hashtags  you may wish to follow:

#1 SCHOOL COUNSELLORS ,COUNSELLOR EDUCATORS #scchat

#2 EDUCATORS  #EdChat

#3 PARENTS #Parents

#4 PRINCIPALS #Principals

#5 EDUCATORS #MasteryChat

#6 STUDENT VOICE #StudentVoice

#7 DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP#DigitalCitizenship

#8 GLOBAL ED #GlobalEdChat

#9 EDTECH  #EdTech

#10 EDUCATORS #AchievementGap

For those of you interested in specific subject areas here are other Education hashtags  you may wish to follow:

ART #ArtsEd 

ENGLISH #engchat 
HISTORY #historyteacher
LANGUAGE foreign language #Langchat 
MATH  #Mathchat
MUSIC #MusEdchat 
PHYS. ED #PhysEd
SOCIAL STUDIES #SSchat 
SCIENCE #Scichat 
STEM #STEMchat

COMPUTER SCIENCE #CompSci

For those interested in Grade Level hashtags

EARLY CHILDHOOD #EarlyEd
ELEMENTARY #ElemSchool
HIGHER EDUCATION #HigherEd
HIGH SCHOOL #HighSchool
PRE SCHOOL #PreSchool

For a list of dates and times of weekly Education chats you can click here.

Celebrating School Counsellor Joanne Brisebois

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“You cannot change others ,but you can change yourself.”

Joanne is a High School Counsellor in Calgary, Alberta and got her Education degree from the University of Saskatchewan and her Masters degree in Counselling from the University of West Alabama. Did you know that she loves hiking, connecting and laughing with her team as well as travelling and learning new things?

She wants all  her students to know that the most popular students to successful adults – all have had struggles throughout their lives, and not everyone or everything is at it seems. You might tend to think that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, well it is not. As well, she wants students to know that accessing support or help is considered a strength, not a weakness. We all learn from each other. There is always a solution or steps to move towards that solution each day.

Her message to other School Counsellors listen, support, access help for others and yourself, and take breaks. Counselling is so difficult yet so rewarding. draining and energizing. Empower your students, and your peers — it’s amazing what happens when students/colleagues feel supported and valued. Lastly — love yourself, and look for the positives in people and life — it makes your journey so much more fun. You can find Joanne in #scchat and on twitter @briseboisjoanne.

I AM A SCHOOL COUNSELLOR

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Each day I listen to the stories of a child

I listen with my whole heart

Some days are so complex, yet I am determined to find an opportunity to leave an indelible impression on youth

Only other School Counsellors truly understand what it is that I do

I am fulfilled knowing that one small word or action can make a difference in the life of a child

I am here to HELP

Passion and purpose is why I keep doing what I do

I am a School Counsellor and I could not feel more gratitude that I get to touch the life of a child each day of the school year

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SCCHAT … What Is It All About?

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IMG_0030If you don’t know what #SCCHAT is . It is an International School Counsellor Chat that runs from Sept. – June 6:30 MT 8:30 ET . It was founded by the amazing Erin Mason @ecmmason in 2011. You can post in #scchat all year-long at any time of the day no matter where in the world you live. We’d love to get to know you.

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  • We are happy to have you join us this year and if you want to tell us a bit more about yourself please click here.
  • If you would like to learn more about our co-moderators this year please click here.
  • We are wanting to get to know you better so one way to do that is to add your video to flipgrid. You can do that here . 

We have some great topics . Mark your calendars and join in!

MONTH TOPIC Co – moderators
SEPTEMBER 5th 2018 The School Counselor’s Role in Suicide Intervention and Postvention Look for these in September
OCTOBER  3rd 2018 Relationships/Rapport w/ Students, Teachers and Parents
NOVEMBER 7th 2018 Bullying Prevention

“Promoting Positivity & Self-Esteem in a World of…
DECEMBER 5th 2018 Collaborating with Other Professionals in Your Building
JANUARY  2nd 2019 Counselor as Leaders: How do you Advocate for your School Counseling Program?
FEBRUARY  6th 2019 Celebrate School Counseling! (special invite for grad students)
MARCH 6 th 2019 Equity in School Counseling
APRIL 3rd 2019 Developing Positive Relationships with Challenging Students
MAY 1st 2019 The 21st Century Counselor
JUNE 5th 2019 Celebrating Our Year

 

We are so excited to get to know and celebrate you all year-long! You are doing amazing life changing work, so keep it up!

Raise Up Your Voice Canada … It’s School Counselling Week

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As soon as I entered the field of School Counselling I knew I had to be an advocate. I thought as a teacher I knew what School Counsellors did. Was I wrong!!!

Since then my colleagues and I have advocated at a district level to bring more awareness to what we do.  Has it made a difference? YES! YES! YES! Our district is one of the best in the country when it comes to supporting , understanding and recognizing the work that School Counsellors do.

I have also advocated at a provincial level by being one of the voices and president of the then Alberta Guidance Council. Today my friend Erin Luong has taken up that advocacy role in the ATA Council Of School Counsellors and they are lucky to have her.

At a national level in 1999 , I was part of the first delegation of Counsellors to go to China along with my leader and friend Maria de Cicco as part of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association . My administrator and district supported me as a School Counsellor advocate on this journey. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I will treasure and never forget.

Strong leaders are needed to be the voice along with School Counsellors . We need someone in Canada who has the same powerful, inspiring voice as Michelle Obama does here:

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Today although I am semi retired I still want to advocate. I believe School Counselling is one of the most important positions that every school still needs , maybe now more than ever.

So I say Canadian School Counsellors raise up your voices, if you want change , make it happen … be the change!!!!! We need your voice! Being silent won’t produce the changes needed across the country. You are valuable. You do matter . You are needed and you do make a difference.  YOUR VOICE MATTERS!

Want to know how to be a great advocate just follow the #SCCHAT feed on twitter to see how it’s done. Let’s join in Canadians with our world counterparts who are advocating and being the voice for School Counsellors worldwide.

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Digital Citizenship: School Counsellors Can Take The Lead

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“Nothing leaves a deeper impact on students than actually allowing students to see proper social media usage modeled daily by respected adults (parents, teachers, administrators) and by allowing students to use social media properly in the actual space” says Nikki D Robertson in her article Don’t Ban Social Media.

Digital Citizenship becomes even more important daily as students and adults figure out what matters online. As School Counsellors you can take the lead in this area. If you know how to navigate and model proper social media usage , then you will be able to assist the students you serve to do so too.

I know for me learning all the ins and outs was not easy ( and still isn’t ) , but the lessons were so important for me to learn as a seasoned School Counsellor. I am here to say we are never too old to learn and we should indeed continue to discover and educate ourselves. Every day I continue to master new ideas and believe we must start early to teach all students and all staff about digital citizenship.

Daily online, I see school administrators, counsellors , teachers and students who do not understand the basic concept of  EVERYTHING ONLINE IS PUBLIC. Even if you believe it is private … it is not. Many fall into the trap of the Illusion of Privacy.

If you’d like more articles on digital citizenship you can check out my online School Counsellor Talk weekly here.

I hope to see many more School Counsellors take the lead when it comes to this most important area in a comprehensive school counselling program plan. Won’t you join me on this learning journey?