Living The Dream: Work isn't always Work

If you would ask me what my dream job is, I would say exactly what I am doing, a school counselor. (Don't ask me come December during SOL testing) I love my job. I have a great principal, vice principal, and close colleagues. The responsibilities that I take on with my job is what I have always wanted to do and what I enjoy. I have found that many schools expect different things from their school counselors, I have been lucky to be able to make my job what I want it to be. My principal is highly supportive of my crazy, outlandish, and time consuming ideas that I have for our students and school. I got a new secretary this year that has accepted doing all paperwork, which has taken a load off of me!

I have such enthusiasm and excitement for students, academics, people's stories, programs, and life in general; which translates into my job as a school counselor. I get to be each child's own cheerleader, and I love it! I get to encourage them to do their best, be their best, and support them along the way... it's a beautiful thing. I'm passionate about it, which makes each day go by fast and enjoyable.

I will probably talk a lot about my job because it consumes a lot of my time, energy, and thoughts. I'm constantly trying to think of new and fun things for my students. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear them :)

These are the two tshirts that I got to sell to our students and staff. They are academic encouraging shirts, but I think they still look cool for kids. The top one says, Peace Love and Academics. The bottom one says, A of F its your choice.

These are just some of the items that I have had donated to my clothing closet, called Carroll Apparel. We serve the whole county in giving free clothing and hygiene items to students and families in need.

One of my new programs is an Attendance Lottery. All students and staff that have perfect attendance each month get their name in a drawing. At the end of the month one student and staff member's name is drawn out and they win 50 dollars! Our attendance is already increasing!This picture is of me and two students doing the morning announcements on the tv's in the classrooms drawing out the winners.

This year is the first year my school has had a student council. I went to each homeroom and had them nominate a student to be their homeroom representative. The homeroom representatives meet with me once a month to discuss school functions, projects, and to help nominate the Staff Member of the Month. These are some of my homeroom representatives acting goofy in their school spirited academic shirts.

One of my friends and fellow teacher, Brandon, placing a ticket in for the Cavalier Pride GAME. The Cavalier Pride G.A.M.E is a program I created that supports and encourages Academics. GAME stands for Grades, Attendance, student of the Month, and Excelling in the classroom. Teachers and staff are given tickets to write to their students for things such as raising a grade, making the highest grade in the classroom, turning in all of their homework for the week, etc. I have also encouraged staff to write tickets to students that are good "citizens", such as being a good friend or person because I feel like being a good person is just as important, if not more important than good grades. These tickets are kept in my office in a big bin until the end of the year. At the end of the year award assembly these tickets will be pulled out for big prizes like a flat screen tv, an ipod, or money. So the more tickets the kids get, the more chances they have for a big prizes! Kids are really excited about this!