Author: Rachel Davis

Encountering name-calling in school is unfortunately a given. Coming back to physical school after spending a year or more online, has only seen an increase in cases of name-calling. The visible lag in social  and conflict resolution skills might make one wonder where and how to start tackling this issue. Here is a cheat sheet…

Enough has been said about the “learning lag” since the onset of the pandemic. While teachers and students had to suddenly embrace the world of digital learning, the one area that took the worst beating is social skills building and development, especially among the littles. If you’re among those counselors that are looking for simple…

Counseling students with anxiety is not easy. It’s challenging to know how to select which activities to use at each tier to effectively help anxious kiddos. Check out these strategies for counseling students with anxiety. Anxiety Counseling Basics Do you feel ill-equipped to counsel students struggling with anxiety? It’s a tough topic. Before you get…

“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.”, Jane D. Hull. If you’ve been a school counselor for a while now, you know how important it is to establish and maintain positive relationships with the parent community. Unless administration, teachers, and parents work…

Have you ever encountered a student who has more trouble than others when it comes to complying with class rules and following directions? Have you been frantically called in to intervene when a child has had his third outburst in two hours, simply because he was asked to put away his favorite book or tie…

After a year-and-a-half hiatus of in-person schooling, many students are struggling the most with conflict resolution. Sure, we expected children to find it difficult to make friends and socialize, but we may have overlooked the importance of resolving conflicts on their own. Considering we are now in the second semester of the school year, hopefully,…

Mindfulness is more than just a buzzword in today’s world. And as a school counselor, I swear by it! There is an ample amount of scientific research to show us that mindfulness has a positive impact not just on academic performance but also on social skills, emotional self-regulation, stress management, confidence building, and overall well-being.…

The dictionary defines empathy as “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another”. Something I’ve commonly noticed in schools is that we tend to focus on getting students to understand and demonstrate kindness, but it’s time we took it a step further with the teaching, learning, and demonstration of empathy.  Teaching empathy to…

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and while it’s not my favorite holiday I like to use it to inspire my class lessons and counseling sessions. What I do love about this Hallmark holiday is that it’s the perfect time to remind my kiddos that they are loved and to also reinforce the importance…