Deadline Reminder

A quick reminder for those of you who are still working on your college applications over break... don't forget to watch your deadlines! We received an e-mail warning from Common App alerting us to the fact that during peak times the processing time for payments when submitting an application through their site is up to 2 days! That means that there is a potential for a significant delay which could make your application late (and therefore not accepted by the college). So, if you are looking at a January 1st deadline or a January 3rd deadline, I would strongly recommend that you plan on being done with your essays a few days in advance so that you can get it submitted and your fees paid well in advance of the last minute rush.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I know that everyone does not celebrate Christmas, but either way, I hope that you have a wonderful day today surrounded by the people who mean the most in your life.

I am in Kentucky with my sister's family. My sister, brother-in-law and I just finished wrapping the gifts and putting them out under the tree. My niece and nephew (Carly and Colton) are *SO* excited for Christmas. I can honestly say that their excitement is contagious and I am thrilled to be able to spend the holiday with them. I don't know if it is snowing in Columbus, but it is snowing here and it looks beautiful. An added Christmas gift for all of us who were hoping for a white Christmas! :-)

This Christmas I hope you will be thankful for all that you have received and find joy in giving to others. I have so much to be grateful for this year - my family, friends, and the students with whom I work with each day. Thanks for being a special part of my life. I hope you have a relaxing and memorable Christmas!

Winter Break

I don't know about you, but I am relieved that we have reached winter break! I do find it a bit scary that we are nearly 1/2 way through the school year though. Does it seem to be flying past for you too? I hope you have plans to relax and enjoy the upcoming days off. Currently I am a bit stressed that I am not done with my shopping, Christmas cards or wrapping gifts.

Friday ended up being a little bit crazy for me so I didn't have time to blog and wish you all the best for the holidays. I hope you enjoy it with your family and are safe throughout the break. Also, as you have probably figured out, I will blog a couple of times over the holidays, but not every day - as this is a vacation for me too. :-) Looking forward to hearing all about your holiday fun after we get back to school. Again, have a great break!

Staying Organized

I admit it... I am a list maker. I have lists for just about everything you could imagine. I created a list of things I *MUST* accomplish before we leave on break (only 2 more days!) - not to mention the list I already have at school of the "other" things I need to do. I also have a list of things to do while in Kentucky visiting my sister's family over Christmas, a list of "to do's" for the remainder of break when I am back at home, lists for other upcoming school related projects, and even a list for "when I have time." So, sadly, I guess I could probably benefit from having a list of all of my lists. :-)

The reason that I am mentioning it, is that lists work for me, but everyone needs some sort of a system to help keep your thoughts organized. It is much more difficult and demanding to try to hold something in your head than it is to refer back to it on paper. I heard once that your head is a good place to have ideas not to hold ideas and I believe that makes sense. It doesn't require a lot of time, but the payoffs are large as long as you stick with it. Personally, I love being able to cross something off my list knowing that I had achieved a goal - no matter how small.

As you start thinking about the end of the semester, please work on staying focused and organized. What do you need to do to make sure that you end this quarter successfuly? What about preparing for exams? There is still plenty of time left to make improvements, but you need to start now. If lists are not your way to stay organized, that is OK, but find a system that works and use it.

News and Updates

A few different pieces of information for you tonight...

- For those of you who took the PSAT earlier this fall, your results are in! You can now pick up your scores and the test booklet from the secretaries in the front of the counseling center. As a "short-cut" method for getting a guesstimate on how the scores compare to actual SAT scores, add a 0 to the end of each score. So, for example, if you scored a 50 on the math section, you could predict that you'd score somewhere in the vicinity of 500 on that section of the actual SAT. This is certainly not a guarantee nor a definite, but it can give you a rule of thumb. The most important thing for you to do with your results is to use it to go back and figure out what you did or did not understand. This includes figuring out areas of weakness and identifying any concepts that you might want/ need to brush up on. You should also use your scores to go back and determine if there are particular styles of questions that you did not understand or that you tended to get wrong. Be sure to read through the results information and if you have any questions, feel free to stop in and see me.

- For the parents... on Thursday, December 16th at 7:30pm there will be a presentation in the WKHS Auditorium on "Parenthood: Strategies for Saving your Sanity" by Dr. Mike Thomson. Dr. Mike spoke with the staff today after school and he was a very entertaining and engaging speaker with a lot of good reminders. I realize that this is a very busy time of year and so the thought of adding one more thing to your to-do list is probably very overwhelming, but I strongly encourage all of the parents to consider attending his presentation. The strategies he discusses are important for helping each student develop skills that will benefit them for the remainder of their lives. I hope you will try to make time in your schedule for this presentation.

- Interim grades were due last Friday and so all of your grades should be updated on e-Sembler. Please be sure to double check how you are currently doing in your classes. Remember, after this week you will have 2 weeks remaining in this quarter when we return after break followed by exams to close out the 1st semester. I hope you are making every effort to keep your grades where they need to be or, if they are not where you wanted them, that you are working with your teachers or the academic assistants to come up with a plan for how you will make changes to improve your academic standing. Remember, if you don't do something different, your results will remain the same.

- Tomorrow you will be on a short homeroom schedule where you will receive the exam schedule. Don't forget, as you receive your exam schedule and we approach winter break, that this is a great time to get a jump start on studying for your exams!

It's hard to believe we are almost half-way through the year!

College Admissions Decisions

This week many students across the country (and at WKHS) who applied to colleges under the Early Decision and Early Action plans will be receiving their admissions decisions. Plus, all of the students who applied to schools with rolling admissions are continuing to hear back from the colleges about their admissions status. This can be a very stressful time for high school seniors - family, friends, and other people who hear that you are a senior automatically ask, "Where are you going to college" and so when you are waiting for or receiving your admissions decision it can be a bit overwhelming. I wanted to remind you that it is important to find a balance between hopes and expectations. Not only is this important when you are waiting for your own admissions decisions, but it is also essential that you keep in mind that your friends are facing the same worries. While it is normal to be curious to find out if someone in your class was accepted to a particular college, please remember that it could be very hard for your friend to announce to everyone that they had not been accepted. As a general rule, allow your friends and classmates to inform you of their admissions decisions on their own rather than asking them if they have heard yet. Trust me, if they receive acceptances they are going to share the good news in their own time. This is also a good time for me to remind all of you that we track the college decisions - so as you hear back from your schools, please stop in and share the update with me too.

PLAN Test Results

The PLAN Test results from November have arrived and are available for students to pick up in the Counseling Center. Remember, the PLAN Test is the practice ACT and it has a lot of great information about careers so be sure to check that out to see where your interests and abilities are for various future fields. The score report sheets contain a wealth of information on them if you take the time to actually read them. Additional information is also available on their website and if you have any questions about your results, feel free to stop in and see me.