CSCA…We’re Going Places

Welcome back to school! We are very excited to be hosting the 59th CSCA Conference: “Oh the Places We Will Go” at the Embassy Suites and Conference Center in Loveland, October 9-11. The conference will feature two and a half days with many amazing and unique breakout sessions, a pre-conference option, a variety of exhibitors, a welcome event, wonderful networking opportunities and much more.
 
The Conference Center offers convenient lodging opportunities, beautiful mountain views and a variety of restaurants and entertainment just down the street. Embassy also provides shuttle transportation for your evening leisure time with your fellow school counselors.
 
Thank you to all our return attendees and welcome to those who will be joining us for the first time. We will be hosting the awards dinner on Wednesday night – please join us to honor school counselor award winners, RAMP recipients and more. We will be hosting a dance on Thursday night with an "Oh the Places We Will Go Through the Decades" costume contest. Get your counseling team together and start planning your fabulous attire from your favorite decade!
 
Leading Wednesday's pre-conference session is Dee Marie, MA, CYT, founder of Calming Kids Yoga. She will be sharing simple, effective ways that school counselors can bring yoga and mindfulness to their schools. This year's keynote speaker is Nicholas Thompson, LCSW, an engaging speaker who brings humor and information together beautifully. We are honored to have him join our 2019 conference.
 
Whether you are coming for the entire conference or just for the day, we can’t wait to have you join school counselors, graduate students and administrators from across the state, coming together to learn from and enjoy each other’s company. Registration is open, so don't waste another minute.
 
Janelle Winders and Christina N. Jurekovic, Ph.D., LPC

Creative School Counseling: A Playlist doesn’t have to be just for Music

By Sebrinia Welch
 
Let’s face it: technology is important in our world and to our students. It is a part of our lives and the future requires the use and integration of it. While it may be easier to just put content on a slideshow, with the intention of a lecture, I know that this will not prepare my students to be 21^st century digital learners, nor will it enhance the learning experience of most. The challenges present the following question: How do we as school counselors creatively integrate technology into our students’ learning experience, while also developing them into independent learners?”

Learn more about empowering your students with this unique blended learning model with technology playlists for career exploration and more. Read the complete article

A Talk-Back Board Experiment

By Katherine Brown
 
We can all recognize the benefits of bridging the gap between home and school - increased attendance, homework completion, parent participation, and critically, ensuring that the school is a part of the community that it serves. But how? In pursuit of these same goals we’ve tried it all: regular teacher contacts to celebrate or redirect student behavior, family nights, and monthly assemblies. We always want to strive for more and so this year it’s time to try something different. That’s when I started to consider a ‘talk back board.’
 

 
Learn how Katherine Brown has used this simple technique of sticky notes and markers to collect data that gives her students and their support systems a voice and build connections. Read the complete article

Empowering Student Voices Through Photovoice

By Jaimie Stickl Haugen & Candice Neverve
 
One creative tool that can help school counselors implement advocacy into action is photovoice, an approach that empowers student voices through encouraging them to take photographs to identify and represent their experiences. Photovoice has been used to explore a variety of topics such as students’ sense of belonging in school, immigration experiences of Latino youth, and the experiences of LGBTQ students.
 
Learn more about the main elements involved in a photovoice project and check out a few lessons learned from Jaimie Stickl Haugen and Candice Neverve’s experiences through this technique. Read the complete article