Kentucky School Counselor Association Conference

I just returned from the Annual Kentucky School Counselor Association Conference and I'm all pumped up and excited to implement all these new ideas I have floating around in my head.  Do you all get like that, too?  I mean, I just love having the opportunity to network with other counselors and share things I am doing and steal all of their good ideas, too!  I am so thankful that all of our counselors in our district were able to attend this week.  I was blessed to attend while I was living in Florida, too, but it was something I had to ask permission to do and persuade my administrator to let me attend.  I was one of only a small handful that attended each year from our district.  I remember when I first came back home to Kentucky and was setting up my office.  I met the bookeeper and she told me I had a counseling budget (a what?) and that I needed to make sure I set aside money for the conference.  Yes, you guys!  That really happened.  I didn't even have to ask if I could go, I was just told to go and that there was money there to pay for it.  I am so blessed to be where I am.

So, back to the topic!  Let me give you a quick recap of my last few days.  First and foremost, I attended the Pre-conference session with Amie Dean on Behavior Interventions that Work.  Ya'll she was the most dynamic professional development presenter!  I literally want to be like here when I grow up.  :)  It was three hours, but I could've sat in a workshop with her for days.  I have pages and pages of notes and ideas from her sessions.  So, if you haven't checked her out, she is Amie Dean, the Behavior Queen.  I had several "aha" moments where I felt like I just discovered a missing piece of the puzzle.  Now, I have been working with kids with behavior issues for years.  I write behavior plans, lead counseling groups, work one-on-one with kids, meet with parents, collaborate with teachers, etc.  I just wanted something new and fresh and I am returning to school with several new tools in my toolbox from her session and ideas that I want to present to the staff at my school.  In particular, the MVP behavior chart strategy.  This is happening immediately!  Plus, I'll give her a little plug for her very first children's book, "Your Happy Heart".  I got myself a signed copy the day after it was released and already have a couple of students in mind to read it with.

On Thursday, I decided to attend another of Amie's workshops, because she was that awesome!  This time, her session was on Trauma Sensitive Classrooms.  We talked about some familiar things like ACES.  She shared several tools for working with kids that are dealing with trauma like the correction cards, post-it campaign, and others.  She also gave us a whole list of resources and websites to pull from.  While I feel like I understand kids with trauma and why their needs are different, this workshop gave me some new ideas for how to meet their needs.  I also got an idea for how to train my staff on some things that I already knew, but have a difficult time explaining to others.  I plan to talk with my principal about some training I want to do next year with staff.  If you haven't seen it before, check out Nadine Burke Harris on Ted Talk.  She does a great job of explaining what trauma does to the brain.

Next, I got to learn from Lisa King about Growth Mindset in Small Groups.  Leading small groups is one of my favorite things to do!  I have 10 groups going right now for a variety of different things.  She shared lots of small group activities that encourage a growth mindset.  Some of my favorites were the egg vs. the bouncy ball (something I plan to actually use in a classroom lesson), the book club, mindset mentors, and lots of visuals she shared.

My next session was with Sharon Todd, and she gave us some good visuals and techniques to use when working with individuals.  This was useful to me, because I feel like this is an area I really need to improve and grow as a counselor.  My strengths are in small groups and in classroom lessons.  When I work with individuals, we mostly just talk and I give them some techniques to use, but I don't plan much for those sessions.  I liked having some good visuals to use during those sessions.

The Keynote Speaker, John Hodges was amazing!  I literally wrote down all these quotes he was saying and left feeling like I make a huge difference to some kids.  It was that reminder that my words can literally save a child's life.  He was very inspirational.

I attended another session on creating a trauma informed classroom with Kaet Barron and she was hilarious. You can find her @thatcrazymsbarron.  I loved the Moana clip she showed and the connection she made to trauma and behavior with the clip.  I am returning to school with a list of 10 activities from her workshop that I can do immediately with students one-on-one or in small group when they are having behavior problems.  I think my favorite is belly buddies and safe space.

I did attend two other workshops that were not really worth mentioning here.  And, that's okay.  There may be other people that got something out of them and when I get so many resources from the other parts of the conference, then it was still worth it.  Sometimes, you just end up in that session that feels like it's all stuff you already know anyway and you just don't get much out of it.

It was great to come away with resources I'll use, have the opportunity to share some of my ideas with others, and to have the chance to get to know some of the counselors in my district.  I'm excited for next year's conference in the Fall (September) and to hang out with Gerry Brooks!  :)  Now, I'm ready to let my brain rest a little bit!