by Ryan McKernan
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...
by Ryan McKernan
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...
by JC Pohl
How to Find The Best Youth Speakers For Schools Communicating with your students can be challenging. If you want to connect with them on a deeper level, you’re going to need a speaker who is not only credible enough to speak, but can also create a unique and...
by Ryan McKernan
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...
by Ryan McKernan
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...
by Ryan McKernan
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...
by Ryan McKernan
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...
by Ryan McKernan
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...
by Ryan McKernan
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!...
by Ryan McKernan
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,...
by Ryan McKernan
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...
by Ryan McKernan
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...
by Ryan McKernan
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...
by Ryan McKernan
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...
by Ryan McKernan
Crisis Prevention and Intervention Dealing with student crises is a sad, but very important part of our job as school-based counselors, educators, and administrators. With so much tragedy in the news these days over school violence, I thought it was time that I share...
by Ryan McKernan
We must take action to create peaceful and positive school culture. Here’s how: The recent school shooting in Parkland, Florida has rocked educators and students across America to their core. Once again, schools are faced with terrifying concerns for safety. We...
by Ryan McKernan
You Don’t Have to Break The Bank to Make An Impact I just heard about a really cool event called “Hug Me!” In this event, students and staff wrote their story – spoke their truth – on a poster board and held it out in front of...
by Ryan McKernan
Daily Themes: Creating Culture in Class If you’re looking for cultural direction within your school, a great place to start is with a MISSION. Your mission statement should be brief, precise, and direct. For example, if attendance is poor, your mission statement...
by Ryan McKernan
Stress & Anxiety Management During Testing Season Unless you’ve been living under a rock or inhabiting another planet, you know very well that we are hurtling headfirst into testing season! In this post, I’d like to address stress management during...
by Ryan McKernan
3 Ideas to Help Relieve Stress On Your Campus Stress! You feel it, your staff feels it, and your students feel it. As a marriage and family therapist, I help my clients and my schools work through this unrelenting issue. After years of graduate school, over a...
by Ryan McKernan
Winning the Battle on Lunch Time Stress When I first heard about lunch time stress, I had to look it up and I thought to myself, “Is this even a thing?” After all, I was the teacher who either offered students the option to eat lunch in my classroom with...
by Ryan McKernan
How to Create Student Leaders Are your student leaders on poster patrol, or are they actually being trained and directed to lead your campus culture? I often visit schools where student leaders are more focused on making posters and producing theme days than actually...
by Ryan McKernan
Student Support Groups in Schools To start off 2018 on an educational best-practice note, let’s talk student support groups! I am just bursting with so many ideas and resources on how to run support groups in the counseling office or classroom! A student support...
by Ryan McKernan
Three years ago I wanted to QUIT! I wanted out of student activities! My frustration level had reached an unhealthy point, and I was tired of the endless march of tasks and trials. Working in education is demanding, and sometimes those demands overwhelm us, but no...
