What’s Your One Word for 2019? If you’ve read my book, Building School Culture From the Inside Out, you know that I believe messaging is the surest, fastest, cheapest way to build school culture. The schools that do it well are alive with activity. The ones...
The Most Important Part of Your New Year’s Plan The winter holidays have come and gone. Christmas parties and semester finals are distant memories. All the decorations are out of sight and the buzz of a new year can be felt throughout the campus. The hope is...
A New Year’s Resolution Every Educator Should Make The New Year is a time for new beginnings, setting goals and bettering yourself. My New Year’s Resolutions usually center around healthy habits, eliminating negative relationships, etc. etc. I usually do not...
A Big Lesson I Learned From Sitting With a Lonely Student I’ve spoken at over 1,000 schools, reached millions of students around the world, and have obtained a masters in professional counseling. But just when I thought I had it all figured out, I learned a truly...
How To Build Empathy In Students Picture a crowded high school cafeteria on a Friday. As an educator, the image probably sends a shiver of anxiety down your spine. As you monitor the cafeteria, you notice a group of girls laughing and whispering juicy gossip to each...
The Weather Outside Might be Frightful, but the Fire in You Can Still be Delightful: Keeping Teachers Going Through the Stress of the Season This change in season is often coupled with anxiety and stress in the field of education. Winter break is right around the...
The Single Best Way to Be Grateful How come she gets more likes on Facebook than me? Why do they have so many followers on Instagram and I don’t? How can they afford exotic vacations while I’m barely scraping by? Am I doing as good of a job as they are? In a world...
Guide Students and Staff to Gratitude in Three Simple Steps November is synonymous with football, food, and family. In the world of education, it’s famous for Thanksgiving Break. Since August, students and staff have been working hard to meet our goals and all we can...
Changing Mindsets of Negative Adults and Being More Appreciative of Each Other: Four Things to Keep in Mind Here’s the thing about changing adult mindsets: you can’t. What you can do is change the way you react and interact with those staff members. The best advice I...
I Hope You Fail This Year. Here’s Why… You read that right. I hope you fail this year. And no, all the time up in the air on planes hasn’t finally gotten to me. I’ve got a good reason. The reason I hope you fail is because as leaders that is how we become...
Failure is Not an Option, But It Should Be: Create Space for Innovation in Four Manageable Steps You may have read the brain research that says students learn best when they analyze their mistakes and adapt their thinking. We have all heard the stories about Michael...
Use These Student-Made Videos in Your Class You want to engage your students, but there’s constant resistance. What would change if you gave students a voice, and put them in the position to solve their own challenges? The award-winning TEEN TRUTH films are the...
How To Raise Awareness On Key Issues In Your School If you ask a school counselor what comes to mind when we think about the month of October, you’ll probably hear about Red Ribbon Week, anti-bullying, financial aid, ASVAB, and PSAT. The common denominator for all of...
The Principal Teacher Relationship: What Teachers Really Want, But Never Ask For When it comes to strong school culture, the principal-teacher relationship is key. At the center of that relationship is trust. This idea of trust has consumed me lately. After reading...
The Top 3 Keys to Mental Health on Campus Someone recently asked me, “What are the top three keys to mental health?” I didn’t even have to think twice about my answers. #1 is taking ACTION There’s a pattern I’ve seen in my therapy practice and in my work...
Counsel like a Rockstar As counselors, we dream of spending our days in meaningful small group sessions with students, of preparing testing seasons without hiccups, and of building a happy and successful environment on campus for both staff and students. In other...
Want to Build Relationships With Your Students? Here’s How. I led a relational needs training for teachers and staff at La Habra High School recently. The school admin team asked everyone on campus to “create meaningful relationships with all students.” It was...
Four “5 Minute” Ways to Inspire School Culture: Invest in The New School Year In June I attended a conference and listened to an excellent keynote speech. As I enjoyed my latte, the topic of school culture stopped me mid sip. The speaker told a story of a teacher who...
It’s about that time… Time to start setting your alarm and remembering what day of the week it is. Time to break out the school clothes and put away the flip flops. Time to reflect on the previous school year and prepare to make this year the most successful one yet!...
5 Tools To Build School Culture This Summer What a year! I’m sure you’re exhausted from all your hard work. The school year certainly takes its toll. That doesn’t mean there isn’t important work to be done, but it’s still important to take a second to breathe,...
Wrapping Up Your School Year and Setting Next Year’s Goals In this month’s post, I have lots of ideas on wrapping up your counseling or social-emotional learning (SEL) program and getting prepared for the next school year! This time of year brings lots of closure as...
Are Your Students Prepared for College or a Career? Working for Disney was my singular career goal throughout high school and college. Yes, my career interests were pretty much set once I realized that my baseball talents had topped out by 9th grade! But not every...
College and Career Readiness Get ready because College Week is coming! Do you celebrate it in your school? It occurs this year from April 30 to May 4 and its most exciting point occurs on May 2nd, which is College Signing Day. College Signing Day and College Week are...
These Worksheets Will Help You Develop Student Leaders Student leadership is part of a rock solid foundation for strong school culture, but steering students in that positive direction can be a challenge. That’s why our leadership expert, Stephen Amundson, has...
