Monthly Archives: November 2015

Happy November!  In this post, we have tons of holiday resources and ideas to share for your ESL/EFL classroom or counseling office.  Also, a quick update- that we will be signing off here for a few months to focus on getting all the teaching and counseling guides below written.  As always, you can click on any of the bolded links below for a free resource.

 

 

BILINGUAL LEARNER UPDATES

• As mentioned above, we won’t be posted our regular monthly blogs in the near future in order to free up time to publish all the teaching and counseling guides listed below.  Instead, we will post mini-blog posts here as we come across some resource or info that we just have to share with you.  And, as always, you can follow us on our Bilingual Learner FB page to get real time updates of resources, info, and free downloadables.
• Here are our latest guides coming at you very soon:

• a bilingual version of The Unstressables
• ESL in the Middle Volume 2
• revisions of Where There’s a Goal There’s a Way, Gol, and Cope into Hope
• the bilingual grief guide, Desde las Lagrimas Hasta la Luz
• The Complete School Counselor’s Handbook (scroll all the way to the bottom of the right column and you will see it)

 

 

HOLIDAY ESL/EFL RESOURCES

• Thanksgiving in America: The Journey
• Fun Holidays Around the World reading passage and accompanying activities from Kelly’s Classroom
• Holiday Madlibs from Teaching Resources Classroom Jr.
• Teaching Holidays Around the World activities from Heidisongs.com
• Hilarious Buzzfeed article, 19 Thanksgiving Experiences Only Children of Immigrants will Understand
• 10 Thanksgiving Writing Prompts Inspired by Children’s Literature, by Hannah Hudson

 

HOLIDAY COUNSELING RESOURCES

• Winter Holidays in the USA
• Elf Movie Academic Achievement Bulletin Board by Kern’s Counselor Corner
• Reindeer Job Application by Whattheteacherwants.com; you can easily modify it to promote college and career readiness at any level!
• Holidays Around the World Picture Books by Ayearofmanyfirsts.com

That brings us to the end of this month’s post.  If you haven’t done so already, like us at one our Facebook page below to become one of our Bilingual Learner followers where you will have access to real time updates of our latest info, resources, and all our other free downloadables!    As always, you can find out about our latest promotions, free stuff, or our counseling/ESL adventures by following us on our Facebook Page or Twitter Page or Pinterest Page.

 

Wait!! Did you find this post helpful? Then…One sentence!  That’s all it takes to show that our hard work helped you out! If you found a resource here, please show us your love and comment about it below!

 

If you are new to the school environment, the start of the school year is about as overwhelming as it gets!  So our September post is full of tips for helping the rookie counselor or teacher survive and thrive during your first (or fifth) year.  Someone once said that the first year of teaching is just survival…. 

BUT FIRST A FEW BILINGUAL LEARNER UPDATES:

• Our newest guide, Get Your Goal On: Academic Achievement Group Counseling Guide is here! Order it or download a free preview to motivate your underachieving students to pass those classes! Check it out @ http://bilinguallearner.com/Products.
• We also just put up our other counseling guide, The Unstressables: Stress Management Group Counseling Guide, on our website.  Check out the free downloadable preview on our homepage @ http://bilinguallearner.com/.
• Finally, our latest ESL/EFL lessons guide, ESL in the Middle Volume One, is available with lots of lesson plans for your intermediate English learner.  We hope to start cranking out Volume Two after the December holidays!

 

TIPS FOR NEW COUNSELORS AND NEW TEACHERS

The first year of counseling is like the first year of teaching- SURVIVAL!  So our first tip for you is our most simple and most important:

• Just do your best and go with the flow- you really do need that first full year of school counseling or teaching under your belt before you can have a true understanding of what your job entails.  Unfortunately, you can’t get to that understanding until to make it through your first year.  The learning curve is incredibly steep, so as long as your show up everyday, keep a running list of upgrades for your program the following year, and do your best to help kids, you are a shining star!  Which leads us to our next tip…
• Start a “Things to Do/Modify for Next Year” list right away where you can jot down any ideas or modifications for things you’d like to implement differently the following year.  It is so crucial to jot down your ideas in the moment right as they strike you- trust us, you’ll never remember it all if you wait until the end of the year to make your list.
• Say the serenity prayer or some other form of it often.  Working in schools is truly an experience where you will always see much more need than you can meet.  In addition, you will see things that need to change, but are out of your control.  Just remember to stay positive and change the things you can, accept the things you cannot, and try to know the difference.

 

TIPS FOR NEW COUNSELORS ONLY

• Get a copy of your state’s counselor manual (here’s a link to an example- it’s our Texas one) and make it your Bible- everything you do in your day should somehow relate back to the duties in that manual.
• Join ASCA and make time to read their monthly magazine.
• Meet with your administration (especially your principal or director) and fill out and sign a school counseling annual agreement for planning your program.  Here’s a link to ASCA’s template for an Annual Agreement.
• Find out your district’s protocol for handling student crisis (3 hurts) situations and be ready and well-versed in how to follow it.  If you are in a district or school that doesn’t have a protocol for this, use ours by following this link.
• If you are transitioning from being a teacher to being a school counselor (as we did), keep in mind that you are no longer part of the teacher team and this may sting.  Some teachers think that no one works as hard as they do and some can be forgetful or unwelcoming to non-teaching staff.  If this is your campus reality, just hang in there and be friendly- sooner or later you’ll make some close ties with the other non-teaching staff (at my school, we call ourselves the No-team Team) and you’ll eventually find some teachers that will be thrilled to have you on their “team.”

 

TIPS FOR NEW TEACHERS ONLY

• Defining Best Practice Teaching by Rebecca Alber  This is one of the best articles we’ve come across for new teachers since it really nails down the true basics of best practice teaching- the first two bullets are priceless in their wisdom.
• For an encyclopedia of new teacher fundamentals, check out this list of Edutopia articles on everything from classroom management to primary teaching strategies.
• 10 Tough Truths About Your First Year of Teaching  Love, love, love numbers 8 and 9!
• 9 Mistakes New Teachers Make by Cristie Watson  Numbers 1, 5 (get a mentor!), and 6 are so crucial to your success as a teacher that we recommend putting them on post-it notes and sticking them to your bathroom mirror to be reviewed every morning!  And speaking of number 1 and the perils of inconsistency…
• Get your classroom management techniques in order!  Without good, effective classroom management, you can’t actually teach any content.  Follow this link for some of our basics on classroom management.

 

AND NOW A FEW PICS OF OUR 2015-16 SCHOOL SPACES:

 

 

 

 

 

 

That brings us to the end of this month’s post.  We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences on being a new teacher or counselor (we were all there once!), so comment below!  Catch up with us again the first Saturday in October for our next post on substance abuse prevention in the classroom and Red Ribbon Week activities.  As always, you can find out about our latest promotions, free stuff, or our counseling/ESL adventures by following us on our Facebook Page or Twitter Page or Pinterest Page.