Resources and Activities to Celebrate National School Counseling Week (NSCW)

As school counselors, we know the importance of taking a moment to recognize, celebrate, and advocate for our profession. National School Counseling Week is in February each year, so it's a good time to start planning those celebratory activities.

Whether it's spreading awareness in your community or hosting some fun events for students and staff at your school, there are plenty of ways that you can celebrate NSCW. Keep reading to learn more about creative ways to celebrate National School Counseling Week and advocate for your role and our profession by spreading awareness through your local school!

I put together an amazing bundle with you with EVERYTHING you need to celebrate National School Counseling Week for years to come!

The National School Counseling Week Counselor Appreciation Bundle includes:

✔️ 25-Piece Collaborative Poster: Each student colors one piece to create a beautiful School Counseling recognition poster

✔️ Bulletin Board Kit: "School Counselors Help Me Dream Big" bulletin board kit with themed worksheets, 11 bulletin board border choices, letters, and pennants

✔️ 22 Cards for Counselors: in Color and Black and White

✔️ 15 Treat Tags for Counselors

✔️ 10 Treat Tags from Counselors to Staff: for recognizing staff who support the school counseling program

✔️ 20 Bookmarks to Color

✔️ 12 Posters: in Color and Black and White for Coloring

✔️ 6 Worksheets: for students to reflect on how their counselor helps them

Last year I moved to a new school and wanted to show appreciation to the incredible staff there, so I made these signs that say "Happy School Counseling Week! Thank you for partnering with me to support our students! You CHEX all the boxes for being great co-workers," and then it has a list of positive attributes checked off. I am pairing these with a bunch of packages of Chex mix! You can get this freebie in my subscriber resource library. Just subscribe here. I send out helpful emails each week during the school year.

If you're already a subscriber, log in here to grab this. And by the way, I also created copies of these posters to celebrate National School Psychology Week and National Social Work Week!!

However, I want to note that if you're feeling overwhelmed and burned out, as many educators are this year, please don't feel any pressure to put on a big show! You have permission to do nothing to celebrate NSCW and please do not feel guilty about it. Please know there have been years where I've done a lot and there have been years when I've done very little and even nothing at all.

NSCW is such a special opportunity for us to honor school counselors - the dedicated professionals who inspire students everywhere. The American School Counselor Association has a lot of resources for NSCW. They have photo challenges for every day, a press release, certificates of appreciation, morning announcements, and a proclamation.

I usually have my students create something for NSCW and then I make a bulletin board to display their work. I also typically get some treats that I share with my staff and thank them for supporting my program.

Sometimes I have put some “Did You Know?” flyers with facts about school counseling along with the treats.

Some years I've even put together flyers that have stats on my school counseling program.

For example, I might have stats and details about:

• The programs we’ve brought to the school that year (Calm Corners, Mindfulness, etc.)

• The number of jackets we’ve given out

  
  

• Information about the biofeedback program we've piloted

  
  

• The number of social-emotional lessons we've run in classrooms

  
  

• The number of bags of food we’ve distributed

  
  

• The number of small groups implemented and topics of groups

  
  

• Events we’ve hosted, etc.

In 2022, the NSCW theme was “we are better together” so I made these posters, worksheets, and bookmarks to help celebrate with your students. And in 2023 the theme is “helping students dream big.” So I’ve created some new worksheets for my students to do, as well as this bulletin board and collaborative poster to display their work.

Besides putting together a bulletin board that celebrates what your students have learned from their school counselor, here are some other ways to celebrate National School Counseling Week:

• Reach out to thank a school counselor for all that they do!

  
  

• Share your favorite memory or moment from working with your own school counselor

  
  

• Tweet or post about why school counselors are important using the hashtag before the term: nationalschoolcounselingweek

  
  

• Host or participate in a twitter chat about the importance of school counselors

I'd love to update this blog post and include how you celebrate NSCW. Please reach out and include your photos too so we can share them on the blog and inspire others! Please contact me here to share your stories and photos.