Look for the Helpers

Good afternoon everyone!  I hope you are all having a good virtual school day!  I know that mine has been busier than expected, which is nice.  I don't like wondering what I need to do on these days we are working from home, and I don't like feeling like I don't have enough to keep me occupied.  These are school days, after all!  I am getting paid to work so I want to be sure I, "earn my keep!"  It should be the same for all of you.  I am sure it can feel hard to want to connect on your remote days, but it is important to remember, especially because you have three of them, that remote learning days are school days.  You are expected to log on during team/class meeting times as outlined by your teachers, and you are expected to be completing and turning in school work at regular intervals.   You may be able to modify your schedule slightly in ways that work for you and your family, but you do have to participate.  Modifications migh...

Happy Tuesday! I ran across this snippet the other day... It made me think about mindfulness and the idea that there are so many what-ifs out there - especially these days.  It reminded me about how staying in the present and making the best decisions we can with the information we have is really the only thing we can do.  We can't be time travelers - letting our past mistakes affect our future successes or our unknown futures prevent us from making bold courageous choices - when we need to be grounded, or make thoughtful, calm, rational choices.   This idea also made me think about the Listen to the MUSTN'TS poem by Shel Silverstein, which I think I may have blogged about last year, but it bears repeating... So when we're worrying, or time traveling in our minds, or doubting our next steps, what to do???  Try some mindfulness.   Practice not letting the uncertainty overtake you.  Be bold and courageous, and be awesome.  You've got this!...

Happy Monday Everyone!   I love a good inspirational quote!  My love of these quotes comes from my high school basketball team.  Weird, right?  My coach was a gentleman named Paul Rabidoux, and he had a profound effect on my life growing up.  I made the varsity girl's basketball team as a freshman in high school (just by the skin of my teeth mind you), so I had four years on Coach Rabs' (as we called him) team.  Every day when we had practice he would write out a detailed practice schedule that showed us what drills we were going to do, what practice color we should wear, and what the quote of the day was.  He read the quote out loud at the start of each practice and we discussed it as a team when necessary. Sometimes those quotes were humorous, sometimes inspirational, but they were always timely.  Coach always seemed to sense what we all needed.  Those quotes brought our team together.  We discussed them, laughed about them, argue...

 It's Friday people...a good day to keep it light-hearted.  I saved a few things that made me laugh this week.   I have discovered the cartoonist Nathan W. Pyle and I think his cartoons are clever and light hearted... I like this one because it reminds us all that people exist outside of the places we normally encounter them in.  We often take narrow views of people and end up judging.  People are usually much more multi-faceted individuals than we might initially assume.  Do remember to think about people in a holistic sense taking into account the people they are or might be outside of the four walls of our school.     This one made me giggle considering the times.  We are trying to go a good job mitigating germ transfer and we base this on science as much as possible, but sometimes hunger just wins out!  :)  But seriously, don't eat it if it falls on the floor!   I hope you all have relaxing and productive wee...

Happy Thursday Everyone, My intentions are to do a blog post each day even when I am here in the school building, but here it is, almost 1:30 and I am just getting started with it.  That must mean that my work life is starting to feel like it has more normalcy to it.  I had things to do today, people to see, classes to work with, phone calls to make, and meetings to attend.  That's not to say that I am not busy on remote days, but it's a different kind of busy, where I can make my list of to do's and systematically work through it.  Here in the building, it's more like make my list, and tackle what I can in between the more pressing needs of very present people.  I like it!  I love making connections and working with all of you in person!   So I guess I feel okay with not getting to my blog post until now.  Sometimes things just have to wait and you have to prioritize the most important aspects of your day.  I will say though, that I lik...

Happy Wednesday Everyone! I have been stressed, as of late, about a big task that needed tackling.  Every 7 years teachers and school counselors have to apply to become relicensed in the state of VT.  Yup, that's right, you don't just need a license to drive...you need a license to do lots of stuff, and one of them is to teach/work in a school.  In order to apply for your teaching license every 7 years, you have to show that you have participated in at least 135 hours of learning or have earned 9 credits from college courses.    You do this by making sure you keep your paperwork and certificates of attendance for all the classes and workshops you attend, and then you fill out some forms online explaining what you learned and how it's going to help you be a better educator.  Once you've done all that, all your forms have to get approved by a group of teachers, and then you have to fill out more forms and send the application for your license to the state of ...

  Happy Tuesday Everyone, At some point in the last few years, I heard about the concept of Giving Tuesday which is a " global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world... It’s a simple idea: whether it’s making someone smile, helping a neighbor or stranger out, showing up for an issue or people we care about, or giving some of what we have to those who need our help, every act of generosity counts and everyone has something to give" ( https://www.givingtuesday.org/ ) Knowing that this movement exists, I decided to highlight this quote from Michelle Obama which I heard in her Michelle Obama Podcast recently.  I think that most people can agree that giving back is a value that makes us better people.  It is a value that makes our communities stronger, and it is a value that can make our world a more habitable place.   I bet you might be wondering how you, a young person, might be able to...

 Happy Monday Everyone! This weekend, I spent some time with my family celebrating my birthday and my husband's as well.  Our birthdays are two days apart, and we generally do something fun as a family on the weekend closest to the 17th and the19th.  This year we needed to stay in-state, so we stayed at Basin Harbor on Lake Champlain.  In the last couple of years, we have been graced with beautifully warm weather for these September weekends, but this weekend as you all know, it felt much more like fall, so it made it hard to enjoy the outdoors as much.   We went fishing, but the wind was blowing super hard, the kids' lines kept getting tangled, and everyone needed gloves that we didn't pack.  We went to find a mountain biking trail which in the end was really just a grassy path, and again...the hands, and this time ears too...all were quickly freezing.  We played golf late in the afternoon, but there were no cart rentals, and the minute my seven ...

Happy Friday Everyone! When I grew up, the TV was always on in our house.  My dad worked, and later owned, a business that sold home appliances like washing machines, stoves, refrigerators, and TVs.  Because of this my siblings and I had small TV's in our rooms at a pretty early age. (Check out the picture if the exact TV I had.  (Wow what a blast from the past!)   We also had a TV on our kitchen counter and a TV in the family room.  So needless to say, the TV's were always on in my home growing up!  However, as you can see, TV in the '80s and '90s, when I was growing up, was much different than it is now.  The small TV's in our rooms and on the kitchen counter only got channels 3, 5, and 22, and on a good reception day maybe PBS.  So we watched the news a lot.  We also watched day time soap-operas, weird, yes, I know!  We watched whatever sporting event was being broadcast live whether it be golf or tennis tournaments, basketball a...

  Happy Thursday Folks!   Yes, today is my birthday.  Just another day, really, but a good day to be grateful for another trip around the sun.  I just started hearing people use this expression in the last couple of years, but I really like it.  It's a little reminder that... 1.  We shouldn't take anything for granted, because nothing is guaranteed. 2.  We have a new opportunity each day, when we open our eyes, to make it great!   3.  We have 365 opportunities each year to be amazing!   Since my purpose of this blog is to share pearls of wisdom with you, I think I'll try to come up with 44...one for each of my trips around our big ball of light.   Here goes, in no particular order: 1.  Don't spit your gum out on the sidewalk.  Help keep someone else's good day from becoming sticky! 2.  Make little fists with your toes on the carpet when you wake-up each morning...go ahead, try it...so relaxing! 3....

If you or someone you know is in an emergency, call  The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline  at 800-273-TALK (8255) or call 911 immediately. From the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) :     September is National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month—a time to share resources and  stories  in an effort to shed light on this highly taboo and stigmatized topic. We use this month to reach out to those affected by suicide, raise awareness, and connect individuals with suicidal ideation to treatment services. It is also important to ensure that individuals, friends, and families have access to the resources they need to discuss suicide prevention.  Here are your local resources for suicide prevention :   Who can you connect with at CBMS for help ?   Mrs. Hempey, School Counselor - 802-583-8071 or jhempey@huusd.org or just come to my office!   Mr. Estes, Vice Principal - joshestes@huusd.org Hillary, Dean of Students...

Happy Tuesday everyone! When I was in college, (back in 1996)...oh my, was it really 24 years ago...yup!   Okay, moving on... An artist I listened to a fair amount was Alanis Morissette.  I was never a singer or musician myself, so I was not super passionate about any one artist, but I liked Morissette's style, and she was a contemporary so the things she was singing about seemed pretty relevant to me.  Her most popular song was called  Ironic , but she really had only a couple of successful albums.  While I hear her songs from the '90 every once in a while, I haven't thought too much about her music in a long time.   Until last week... Alanis Morissette, now a mom in her forties, like me, has a new album called  Such Pretty Forks in the Road .  I haven't listened to the whole album so I supposed I can't recommend it in its entirety, but I heard the song  Ablaze and immediately fell in love with it for two reasons...  ...

Another Monday, folks!   And this one throws us another little wrinkle, but I know it's nothing we can't handle Cougars!   Check out my question of the day over in my School Counseling Google Classroom about ways to destress.  (If you have not already joined the classroom, the link should be in your email, but let me know if you need me to reshare it with you).  You can share your ideas for staying relaxed in stressful times and hear about the tools that others use.  Consider practicing something new today and/or using something that already works for you.   Here are some basics to get you started...    Today is a day to be compassionate with yourself and with others.   If something is bothering you, ask for support.  Check-in with one of your trusted adults, or send me an email and I'll be happy to connect with you today.   Put a focus on creating a routine for yourself this week.  Check out your team ...

It's 9/11 None of our CBMS students were even born yet, but I am sure our staff all remember the tragic events that took place on this same morning, 19 years ago.  In a previous blog post last spring, I wrote about it being a defining day in my life.  One of those days where one will always remember what they were doing when tragedy struck.   I don't want to dwell on the shocking events of that day, but what I do want to bring your attention to is that the events of 9/11 happened because of hate, because of intolerance, because of a lack of understanding, and because people couldn't accept differences in others.  Were there larger global and political issues that contributed to that day, sure, but from my non-professional political view, the roots of that day were anchored in intolerance.   The subject bears examination because we are not immune from this hate...this intolerance...today.  It may be a different day, different time, different year, ...

Happy Thursday all!   So I try to keep it pretty positive here on my school counseling blog, but there is such a thing as toxic positivity, so sometimes I do need to be careful.  I want to acknowledge today that it's okay to not be okay sometimes.  It's important as a peer, friend, or co-worker that we don't always say things like, "chin-up, I am sure it will be better tomorrow,"  when someone is really struggling and in need of support.   More specifically, toxic positivity is when one, in trying to be helpful, says things that simply sugar coat the problem and don't acknowledge that sometimes things are just hard.  It is more clearly defined by Dr. Jaime Zuckerman, a clinical Psychologist, as " the assumption, either by one’s self or others, that despite a person’s emotional pain or difficult situation, they should only have a positive mindset."  (Scully, July 2020) Still confused...here is a visual... So I bet you're are wondering...can I ...

Happy Wednesday to you all!   Today I wanted to share a little story I ran across this summer about two unlikely friends...and their story of resilience.  Have a watch...   I like this story for lots of reasons... 1.  Animals are just cute...especially baby animals!  2.  I love that the man who rescued the pair drove them 21 hours in what, a Volvo?  Can you imagine passing them on the highway and seeing a cow staring back at you?  I bet they got lots of double takes!  3.  I love that there are people in the world who are willing to put their lives on hold to save animals.  'Cause really when you think about it, how many Marley's and Eli's are out there?  There are plenty of cute animals that don't get a second thought.  Also, how many people out there would have the attitude that they are just farm animals and not worth all the trouble.  To be 100% transparent, I consider my self to be a pretty caring indivi...

Hello and welcome to the start of the 2020-2021 school year!   I am so glad to be getting underway today!   This morning I was out on the curb as one of the question askers....you know, "have you been in contact with anyone..." etc, etc.  While I didn't like to have to ask the questions, I am willing to do it so that we can be back here.   It was fun to personally welcome kids back to the building.   It was difficult, however, to tell who was who behind the masks, so thanks for being patient with us as we reacquaint ourselves with your eyes!   Not only were the masks giving me trouble, but my glasses were fogging up, and I haven't seen you all since March.   All of you have gotten older in the last six months, and though you may not have noticed, I was shocked to see so much growth!  Usually, we only get that 2.5-month break, and then we're right back at it.  Nothing like a six-month hiatus from school to remind ...

Tonight, on the eve of a new school year, after a long time away from our, "home away from home," I wanted you all to know that I didn't forget my promise to welcome you all back "home" to Crossett Brook when the time arrived.   Tonight I repost my April 12th blog for those of you that didn't read it the first time around... Reposted from April 21, 2020, Happy Sunday all! If you are celebrating a holiday today, Easter or Passover, I wish you a day filled with peace and family connections. In the last few days, I've been thinking a lot about the idea of work (and for you, school) as home...it has really resonated with me, and I, like many of you I am sure, are grieving the loss of it right now.   During normal times, when we don't have a pandemic, it's pretty common to grumble because we have to wake up early, we have to juggle all of our tasks and responsibilities, we have to manage difficult moments, and we have to put energy into things that we...

Happy Friday Cougars! I posted for the first time this school year at the opening of our teacher in-service, and now I'd like to close our teacher in-service days with a few thoughts as well.   We have had two busy weeks here at school and from our virtual offices.  Two things are for, this school year will be new and different in many good and sometimes hard ways, and you have some amazing teachers ready to guide you!  It has become very clear to me over the past two weeks that you all are in very good hands!!!  Your teachers are working very hard on your behalf to make this year a positive and successful one.  Will it have bumps?  Yup!!  Will everything be normal and usual?  Nope!!  Will we all work together, students and teachers, to make it work?  Absolutely!! This weekend, as you anticipate your start on Tuesday, I ask you to put your trust in your teachers, communicate your needs as necessary, keep an open mind, try to stay po...