October

8 months later and I'm back in action. I landed my dream job last winter and started literally the day before state testing. Next thing I knew, it was summer. Now I feel like this year has finally settled down and I can finally focus back on what I wanted to accomplish here.

October is an awesome month for more reasons than just it being my birthday month! This is national SIDS awareness month, breast cancer awareness month and bullying prevention month. We have rolled out our BE KIND program and I could not be more excited.

We have received a grant and some of my fellow counselors, social worker and art teachers have been working hard to program and promote our Be Kind campaign. Teachers and staff can recognize students for being kind.  These students will be recognized by a staff member by receiving a BE KIND nomination slip. When the students receive the slip, the will drop the slip into the BE KIND box in the office.  At the end of each marking period we will draw names from the box to invite and reward those to attend a BE KIND breakfast that recognizes those who have been kind and stepped up to do the right thing. I love the idea of this because it has the opportunity to recognize all students, not only those who are recognized for academics. 

We have also started up a BE KIND twitter page where students and staff who follow @falconbekind can direct message me compliments of students or staff in school (please see @osseonicethings as they have been my inspiration). I will then anonymously tweet these compliments. I am very excited to promote social media in a positive way and spread kindness. 

Yeayyyy to my first real blog post. Sorry it took so long; however, it represents a lot of what I want to do in my role of a school counselor!  Here's to National Bullying Prevention Month!