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...

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...

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...

Self-Care Tips for School-Based Counselors, Admins & Staff   The holiday season is upon us and self care is more important than ever. Many agree that this is the most stressful time of year to work in a school! Student behavior zooms all over the spectrum as...

Quick and Easy Daily Themes to Student Leadership How can I encourage excellent student leadership as an Activities Director? I ask myself that question every few months, and one of the most effective tools I've discovered is Daily Themes! Highly successful and...

Cyberbully Prevention With the rise of social media over the last decade, cyberbullying has become a huge problem for students and for schools. To follow up with my October post about bullying prevention, I thought it would be timely to explore the cyberbullying...

A Guide to Stopping Bullying at School As much as we don’t like to admit it, bullying is as prevalent in schools as gym class and homework. According to the Cyberbullying Research Center, school bullying rates have increased by 35% from 2016 to 2019. Sadly, some...

We all want maximum exposure for our big school activities, but sometimes people just don’t show! How can we draw interest in our next event from parents and students who already have a full schedule? That answer is in stacking several small events to lead up to your...

“Your school is too diverse for this to work.”  “Your teachers are too dumb to pull it off.” “Your time, funding, and testing practices will stop you from making it happen.” As you might have guessed, I call total B.S. on those notions! Click here for this CNN article...

One of the biggest problems our school programs face is money. We have amazing teachers who want to do amazing things, but everything costs so much money! Cash shouldn’t get in the way of education, so here’s a great way to raise thousands of dollars in ONE NIGHT!...

The average Director of Activities (also know as Student Council Advisors) lasts for 3.5-years. Let’s take a moment to think about the significant implications this statistic offers in terms of building school culture. Honestly, if every 3.5-years a school is...

When building school culture it’s very important to understand WHO your activities are reaching and HOW often you are reaching different groups of people.  Often times our activity programs are only reaching certain groups over and over, while neglecting...

Today's teens are feeling increasingly overwhelmed, stressed and anxious, warns the American Psychological Association. In fact, many adolescents actually experience more stress than adults. Studies report that common reasons for this include high parental...

While searching for One-Eyed Willie’s Treasure, the Goonies hit all kinds of crazy obstacles: lethal traps, nasty gangsters, and bizarre riddles. But they carried a powerful motto: “Goonies never say die!” The Goonies emboldened millions of Generation X’ers with an...

You want to build school culture. You want to extend guidance. You want to improve grades and attendance.   But you’re already working through lunch, balancing a razor-thin budget, and hacking through miles of red tape! What if I told you there was a solution to all...