Dr. Michael Kester-Haynes

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Grade 1 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 2 (Grade 1 Counselor): Feelings Have Names

Help Grade 1 students build emotional vocabulary by naming feelings, reading clues, and connecting emotions to experiences and needs.

Grade 1 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 1 (Grade 1 Counselor): Meet the School Counselor

Introduce Grade 1 students to the school counselor, trusted adults, help-seeking, belonging, and school success through simple scenario sorting.

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K-2 Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan (Grades K-2): Space Snack Mission - Phonics, Sequencing, and Simple Engineering in a Cosmic Classroom Adventure

Launch K-2 learners into a space snack mission with phonics, sequencing, and simple engineering as they read, build, test, and explain.

The Admin Angle

The Admin Angle: Grading Drift

Address grading drift with schoolwide guardrails for late work, retakes, missing work, extra credit, and grades that clearly signal learning.

The Admin Angle

The Admin Angle: The Coverage Crisis

Build a school coverage plan that manages sub shortages, protects teacher planning time, uses fair rotations, and keeps instruction stable.

The Admin Angle

The Admin Angle: What Central Office Should Actually Own — A Smarter Division of Labor Between District Teams and Schools

Clarify central office, principal, and teacher responsibilities to reduce campus overload and strengthen instructional leadership.

Parent Tips

Parent Tips: The Overwhelmed Child Playbook—What to Say When School Feels Like Too Much

Help an overwhelmed child handle school stress with calm scripts, a triage checklist, teacher email template, and practical reset plan.

Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 36 (Grade 2 Counselor): Grade 2 Counselor Celebration

Celebrate Grade 2 counseling growth with a joyful review of feelings, coping tools, empathy, problem-solving, safety, goals, and responsibility.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 35 (Grade 2 Counselor): Look How I Have Grown

Help Grade 2 students reflect on growth in feelings, coping, friendship, safety, problem-solving, and goals with a then-and-now activity.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 34 (Grade 2 Counselor): Classroom Helpers and Student Leaders

Teach Grade 2 students classroom leadership with activities on kindness, responsibility, strengths, belonging, and positive helper choices.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 33 (Grade 2 Counselor): Safe, Kind, and Responsible Choices

Teach Grade 2 students safe, kind, and responsible choices with boundary, empathy, and scenario-sorting activities that support safety and learning.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 32 (Grade 2 Counselor): Friendship and Empathy Review

Review Grade 2 friendship skills with empathy, cooperation, turn-taking, listening, inclusion, and repair through games, role-play, and reflection.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 31 (Grade 2 Counselor): Feelings and Coping Review

Review Grade 2 counseling skills with feelings, body clues, coping tools, and trusted adult support through active review games and scenarios.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 30 (Grade 2 Counselor): Problem-Solving Practice Stations

Grade 2 counseling lesson with problem-solving stations, conflict role-play, safe solution sorting, reflection, and adult-help practice.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 29 (Grade 2 Counselor): Trusted Adults and Help-Seeking Review

Help Grade 2 students review trusted adults, match problems to school helpers, and practice brave help-seeking for unsafe or overwhelming concerns.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 28 (Grade 2 Counselor): Responsible Choices Help the Whole Class

Grade 2 counseling lesson on responsibility, classroom community, safe choices, learning habits, belonging, and simple action-step goals.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 27 (Grade 2 Counselor): Perseverance When School Feels Hard

Teach Grade 2 perseverance and growth mindset with self-talk, coping tools, help-seeking, and one-step goals for hard school moments.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 26 (Grade 2 Counselor): Respecting Boundaries and Speaking Up

Teach Grade 2 students boundaries, personal space, consent, and speaking-up skills with safe-choice scenarios and trusted adult support.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 25 (Grade 2 Counselor): Empathy and Including Others

Teach Grade 2 empathy and inclusion with scenarios, kind phrases, sharing, turn-taking, and role-offering to help every student belong.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 24 (Grade 2 Counselor): Apologies, Repair, and Making Things Better

Teach Grade 2 students meaningful apologies, empathy, and friendship repair with scenarios, sincere apology practice, and repair actions.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 23 (Grade 2 Counselor): Solving Friend Problems with Respectful Words

Help Grade 2 students solve peer conflicts with respectful words, problem-size practice, safe solutions, and adult help when needed.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 22 (Grade 2 Counselor): Handling Anger Safely

Grade 2 counseling lesson on anger management, body clues, coping tools, safe choices, respectful words, and conflict-resolution skills.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 21 (Grade 2 Counselor): Handling Worry

Help Grade 2 students understand worry, notice body clues, choose coping tools, and know when big worries need trusted adult support.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 20 (Grade 2 Counselor): My Personal Coping Plan

Help Grade 2 students create personal coping plans with safe strategies, trusted adult support, and tools for managing strong feelings at school.

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Grade 2 Counselor Units

Unit Plan 19 (Grade 2 Counselor): My Strengths, Interests, and Growth

Teach Grade 2 students to identify strengths, interests, and growth areas while building self-awareness, confidence, and classroom belonging.