This school year marks the beginning of my twentieth year in education. Twenty. Years. It does not even seem possible. Especially since I'm only 27. ;)
I am a 9-12 counselor at a school with approximately 1300 students. There are 4 counselors in our office, so my caseload is around 325-350 in any given year. Before I was a school counselor, I taught middle school special education, high school special education and reading intervention to middle and high school students. This is my eleventh year as a school counselor and every year I like to freshen up my office much like I used to do to my classroom. I think our environments affect us so much and during the school year, I'm at my office more than I'm at home!
My office is on the small side and does not have any natural light. Why is it so rare for a school counselor to have a window?! The overhead fluorescents bother me, so I opt for lamp lighting instead. Not pictured is the fluorescent filter I purchased on Amazon HERE for one of my lights. I plan to try to have one of the overhead lights on this year with the filter which looks like a blue sky with white clouds.
Our school colors are orange and black, so I opted for a black, white and gold color scheme in order to work around the orange chairs.
My office design for this school year started with this sign I purchased at Hobby Lobby...
I removed everything from my bulletin board, hung the sign in the middle and strung these outdoor lights from Target around the perimeter. I am going to hang all my student photos on this board.
Then when I found these beauties at Marshall's, I knew my theme of "Kindness Confetti" was set!
I got super brave this year and purchased peel and stick wallpaper from Target to cover my back wall. Although not as easy to apply as advertised, I love the way it turned out!
I also found these peel and stick gold polka dots at Target and scattered them on the wall above my desk. Love that it looks like confetti!
Isn't this sign the cutest? A fellow school counselor I found online sells them on her website HERE. They are vinyl, very good quality, and only $15!
Here is the view walking into my office...
And a white board for the door for student messages and quotes...
The harsh lighting really doesn't do this space justice, but I wanted to make sure you could see the details.
On a typical school day, I like my office to have lower lighting to make the space feel relaxing and more like a living room than an office.
I am going to be diffusing doTERRA essential oils this year in my office because I love them so much! I think it will be a nice addition to the space. I also invested in an air filter HERE to freshen up the windowless space.
I love a good find from the Target dollar spot...
The students typically sit in this chair next to my desk, so all of my stress toys, coloring books, hand sanitizer and mirror go here. The only thing I will add before school will be Kleenex. :) A mirror is a very important addition to a high school counseling office; the girls always ask me to check their makeup if they've been upset.
There is nothing I love more than helping students grow into the best version of themselves. Whether that means helping them choose classes or problem solving a personal issue, working as a counselor at the high school level is inspiring, humbling, stressful, and the best job I could ever imagine.
The only thing left to do is choose my first day of school outfit! :) (Oh, and double check 350 schedules, enroll new students, balance classes, plan my groups...)
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