An educational counsellor takes care of a lot of things more than just education. Some of the other concerns that they need to take care of include family issues, bullying or fighting, and providing familial support. We can see counsellors at high school and college levels but what about for the little ones such as kindergarteners and elementary school students? How do we provide guidance on helping the young ones to make the right choices?

Good vs. Bad Choice

A great system that I use in my classroom is the Good and Bad choices chart in which children decide each day whether they want to make good choices (such as be kind to friends, raise hand during discussion, listen to teacher and so on) or bad choices (such as kick your friends, break things, run in the classroom and so on). They were then asked to place their pictures next to the Good or Bad column, which acts as a visual reminder that they should make good or bad choices. In addition, I use the star system in which individual gets rewarded with stars when they make a good choice and act as role model for the class. They both work extremely well together and they would even go home to tell their parents each day about the good choices that they’ve made or if they get a star. Some parents also came back to tell us that they’ve started similar system at home to reward good behaviors.

Here's a link to read more about the star system:

https://heart2heartteaching.com/blogs/news/stars-a-reward-system-that-really-works