School Email

Have you been checking your school email accounts while we have been out of the building?  In talking with students, it seems like about half of you are doing this and half of you are still struggling with checking your school email.  I need to tell you, never before has it been so important for you to check your school email account regularly!

Chances are, as you check your email, you will quickly start to feel overwhelmed with how many email messages you are getting from teachers.  (And maybe also from me too for that matter.)  Whenever possible, try to get in the habit of dealing with the email when you open and read it vs going back to it multiple times throughout the day or losing track of emails because they fell off your radar.

The district realized that there are constraints with the current set up of the email system which could cause problems.  For example, if your teachers are emailing you a document that you might want or need to print, the way the system was set up before, you weren't able to do that from your school emails to home printers (only to school printers).  So they have temporarily changed some of your email restrictions and you can now either print to other printers or at least you can forward to your own email account and print the documents from there.

Speaking of forwarding emails, you can now forward your school emails to yourself at other email accounts or to your parents AND you can also receive emails from your family as well as your teachers.  The goal of this change was to allow students, teachers and parents to have easier communication options for everyone to be together on one message during a time when everything else seems more confusing.

I would ask that if your teachers are emailing you that you please respond back to them so they know you are alive and well.  Truly, that is our first and foremost concern with students.  We don't know if you are healthy.  We don't always know if you even have access to email.  So please, if you are able to get to your school emails, check them and respond!

So Much to be Thankful For...

I have so much to be thankful for!  My heart may be sad in this moment at the realization that I won't get to see all of you until at least after May 1st, but the reality is I am sad about this because I am so thankful to have a job that I love working with students who enhance and enrich my life every day!

Two weeks ago today I had to go into school to bring home a bunch of stuff that I knew I would need to have available to me as I worked with all of you.  Since that time I have been super strict about isolating myself at home.  In the last two weeks I interacted with NO people face to face.  (Lexi hated every single second of it!)  But all of that was because I care about my students, their families, our health-care workers, our first responders, and the men and women who work in essential front line jobs like as delivery workers and at grocery stores... and it was for my parents.  My parents aren't "old, old" but technically they are in the "Senior Citizen" at risk category and I wanted to be around them, but I didn't want to risk exposing them to the coronavirus if I had been exposed to it.  Today marked 2 weeks which is how long the CDC and other health experts recommend that individual self isolate and so tonight I was finally able to go over to my parents house for dinner.  My mom made a traditional Thanksgiving day meal (see photo of my very yummy, very full plate) which is part of the reason I am thinking about how thankful I am even in the midst of a pandemic and even in the midst of extreme disappointment of not being able to see you face-to-face for a month.

At Christmas, my sister bought me a gratitude journal where I am supposed to write 3 things I am grateful for every day.  I have to admit, it is a good way to force myself to reflect back on the day and find 3 unique things that I am grateful for and even on these hard days I have found plenty to write down. 

So I want to tell you a few...
- I am thankful for each student who sends me an email and updates me on what they have been doing.
- I am thankful for the students who, unprompted, sent me an update on their ACT scores.
- I am thankful for the students who have sent a note asking about how Lexi is doing and telling me that they miss her.
- I am thankful for former students who have found time to reach out and check in with me.
- I am thankful for students who reach out and ask questions.
- I am thankful for the Counselor Website being available as an easy place for us to post updates and Mr. Estice helping me to continue updating it even now.
- I am thankful for the Kilbourne support staff who are working from home to help contact scholarship providers for alternate means to allow students to submit their scholarship applications.
- I am thankful for the teachers who are genuinely trying to make the best of the remote learning experience.  I am especially thankful for those teachers who have contacted me saying, "I want to follow up with this student because I haven't heard from them, but I really just want to make sure they are ok and not to just ask them why they aren't doing their assignments yet."
- I am thankful to work in a district that knows that this is hard for you and for your parents and for your teachers and wants to support all of you in this time.
- I am thankful that Mrs. Humphrey has worked to secure additional chromebooks we can loan out to the students in families who had not already been able to get a loaner device.
- I am thankful to live in the United States, to be blessed with a strong healthcare system, and to have all of those amazing front line workers who are doing everything they can to help keep us safe and to allow us to return to a "normal" life again as quickly as possible.
- I am thankful for YOU!  Each student and parent who takes the time out of their day to read my blog posts.  I hope they are useful and informative to you, but I just want you to know that I value this interaction and I appreciate that you are pausing in your day to read the information I share.

There is no question that I am sad tonight.  Yes, I saw it coming.  Yes, I knew that it was possible.  But no, I still wasn't really ready to hear school buildings are closed until May 1st.  The good news though is I will choose to be thankful that even though the form of our relationship has to change, our connection does not and we can continue to email or chat any time!  If you are feeling sad tonight, I'd like to encourage you to reframe this disappointment and think instead about how much you are thankful for today and every day.  It doesn't take the sadness away, but it definitely makes it a little easier to manage.

College Changes

This is such a surreal time and it is impossible to predict what is going to happen in the days, weeks and months ahead, but colleges across the country are trying to determine how they are supposed to interact with prospective students and what they can be doing to continue to convince you that their school is YOUR future school.

There are a lot of colleges that are posting virtual tours on their websites so that students and families can try to get an idea of their campuses.  There are blogs and social media sharing from admissions officers, college representatives, specific departments, and students to help give a fuller picture of the campus environment.  However, most on campus visit opportunities including special accepted student visit days have all been cancelled.

Prior to this year, the one thing that remained absolutely consistent across every college in the country was May 1st as the College Decision Deadline.  May 1st was the date when every college expected students to submit their deposit to demonstrate their commitment to attending that college next fall.  But, as a result of the Coronavirus, this year, that deadline date has changed for some colleges.  There are multiple reasons behind the shift to a June 1st decision date for various colleges.  Some were hoping that giving students an extra month to make their final decision would hopefully allow campuses to be opened back up to visitors so that students could come and explore campus in person before the new deadline date.  Colleges also know it is possible that some families, from a financial perspective, could have difficulty gathering the money required to pay their deposit by May 1st.  And the other rationale which I think plays into this is the realization that there is so much fear and uncertainty in the world right now that people might be hesitant to make any decision about where they want to go to college - particularly if distance is a factor and the areas where COVID-19 is currently hitting hardest.  So, students might be deciding that they want to stay closer to home or they may be electing to avoid particular areas of the country that are being hit harder by the devastating effects of the virus.  As a result, some colleges are wanting to give our world  more time for the impacts of the virus to balance out before asking kids to make that final choice.

But, not every college is changing their decision deadline to June 1st and that is a BIG deal that you need to pay attention to when making your choices.  If you are debating between 2 colleges and 1 pushes their deadline to June 1st and the other does not, then you essentially have to make your decision by the earlier, May 1st deadline.  You don't have to pay the depoit at the other college until their June 1st deadline, but if you don't commit to the May 1st college by May 1st then you are most probably not going to have the option of attending that school in the fall. 

This website contains the latest compiled information about college changes and you can sort to look for information that applies to you, but I also strongly recommend that you look at your desired colleges individual websites for the most up to date and accurate information.

The other possible change that I am starting to see information about from some more colleges across the country (this is still in very early stages though) is that for current juniors, there may be more colleges who will elect to move to Test Optional for your application cycle.  This is because they know that you have at least 1 less ACT and SAT opportunity to complete the test than students in previous years.  There have always been hundreds of colleges who have been test optional in their admissions approach, but we have already received emails from schools that have historically not been test optional indicating that, at least for the kids in the high school Class of 2021, they will move to a test optional model.  Again, it is hard to predict how wide spread this trend will go, so unless you were set with the score from your February test, you will likely want to repeat the test this June/ July or in the fall.

Things in the college admissions world are changing fast.  I am doing my best to keep track of it all - at least from a big picture scale, but I also encourage you to look for specific details on the college websites that you are considering.

Update Me

You made it through your 1st week of remote learning.  How did it go?  What is working well for you?  What is a struggle for you?  Are there things you wish teachers were doing more or less of?  I want to hear about all of it!

Every week the counselors and administrators are meeting to talk about how things are going and I want to make sure I am sharing accurate information that reflects what all of you are finding through this remote learning experience.

While I definitely want to know how things are going for you academically, I actually care even more about how you are holding up emotionally through all of this.  It is very anxiety provoking and there is so much you are grieving right now.  I hope that you are finding safe and consistent places to share what this is like for YOU!

I came across this article and I suspect it will resonate with how many of you are feeling.  Parents, I encourage you to read this to better understand what your son/ daughter may be feeling and students, I hope you will read it so that you recognize you are not alone in how you feel.

I was talking recently with one of my students who said, "this break stinks!" And, of course, that is true, but here is the reality... this is NOT a break!  I think that is probably part of the problem for many of us (myself included).  We slip into the mindset that we should be able to relax, have fun, and still do our school work.  That isn't how this works... especially with all of the underlying stress that we are dealing with in our world right now.  And that discrepency between reality and expectations is setting you up for disappointment and frustration.

So, please, about all of it, take a minute and send me an email to babbott@wscloud.org and let me know how things are going for you.

Scholarship Reminder

Just a quick reminder that the deadline for most of the local scholarships is rapidly approaching! While we are out of the school building, please put forth the time, energy and effort required to work on completing all of the applications for which you may qualify.  

The deadline for most of the local scholarships has been extended until we (hopefully) get back to school on Monday, April 6th.  However, if there are local scholarships that were supposed to be submitted to a different place other than school, then those deadlines have remained the same.  We are working now to finalize what each scholarship sponsor who planned to have us collect your applications on the 6th will want us to do if we aren't able to be back in school together.  We will post that information on the website if you will need to mail all of the applications to each scholarship sponsor directly.

Be sure to review your applications and verify that you have all of the required pieces ready to be turned in by the deadline. Hopefully if you needed recommendation letters for your applications you have already requested those as it will be difficult (if not impossible) for teachers to write letters in one week for you with all the added pressure they are under right now with trying to figure out the remote learning process.  If your teacher (or I) have already written you a rec letter, then you can always ask for them to email you a copy of your letter to use with your applications.  For your transcript, as long as it is asking for unofficial copies, you can download that off of the reports section of Infinite Campus.  If you need an official copy, please request that using the Google Form just like you did for your college applications.

Additionally, there are scholarships available at the community, state, and national levels. There are many scholarship search engines that you can use as a resource to help you identify scholarships that might be a good fit. With so many different scholarships, it can feel a bit daunting, but remember, if you are able to earn one of the scholarships, your time would certainly be worth the effort.

Here are a few of the scholarship search sites that might help you (and the WKHS counselor website has LOTS more in the financial aid section):

http://www.fastweb.com/
http://www.collegenet.com/
http://www.scholarships.com/
http://www.scholarshipmonkey.com/

It is also important to remember that you should never pay for a scholarship - scholarships should be giving YOU money, not the other way around.

Sign Your Name

I was thinking about things that students could be working on during those moments when you get bored, but don't want to do school work, have refreshed your social media feeds so frequently that you just keep closing and reopening them, and you can't fathom the thought of what to do next.  Sound familiar?

One of the things I was honestly laughing at kids over was watching as students attempted to sign their name on forms.  Some of you (very few) have incredible penmanship and it made me jealous that you can write in print or cursive so perfectly.  Others (most of you) can hold your own in printing, but your ability to write anything in cursive - including your name - is a skill that is lacking.

Fortunately, much of our world (as we are finding out with this whole social distancing need) is electronic in nature, but there are still times when you will need to sign your name on forms.  (Case in point, all of your CC+ forms that students have been submitting)  At the very least, some day, when you buy a house or a car and have to get a loan for those items, you are going to need to know how to sign your name.

So, my suggestion to you is to spend some time learning how to sign your name or perfecting your signature!  I did some searching and found that this resource allows you to type your name in the box marked "Text."  Then click on "Create Worksheet."  Then scroll back up a little and you will see that your worksheet is ready for download.  Click on that arrow and it will open a handwriting sheet like when you were little and learning to write for the first time with your name written in cursive and lots of blank lines to practice.  It is a great first step of going back to the basics in learning how to sign your name.

It isn't something that will be earth-shattering to have accomplished, but it is something that can be beneficial for you in the long run and therefore, worth spending 20 minutes on today.  And I can't wait to see all of your beautiful signatures the next time we have you submit forms that require it.

Welcome to Remote Learning

Well, it was your first day of Remote Learning... how did it go???  I want to hear from you and know what is going well and what is harder for you.  Eventually I will meet (virtually) with our building administrators and they are going to ask what is working or not with remote learning and the only way I will have good insight to share is if you update me.  So please, send me a quick email as the days progress and let me know how things are going.

One of my concerns when I have thought about all of you trying to learn from home is that there are MANY of you who already struggle with getting work done effectively at home.  I can't even begin to count the number of students who use their options/ prep and lunch times to finish up work or try to hurry and get everything done because they don't want to have to worry about trying to complete the assignments at home.  For others, you get caught in the cycle of "I'll do it later" always thinking that some other moment in time will be when you feel motivated to complete your work.  This typically looks like you thinking, "I don't want to work on this during my lunch so I'll just do this tonight when I get home" and then you get home and think, "I don't want to work on this now, I'll do it in the morning before school" followed the next morning with "ugh, I don't have time to get this done now, I'll do it during lunch/ prep."  And the cycle continues.  The reality is there is no better time.  But, even if I say that and even if you KNOW that, it still is a pattern of behavior that is hard to break.

There are definite advantages/ disadvantages of learning from home.  You get to sleep in later.  (Something many of you desperately want to do.)  You get to create your own environment that meets your learning needs.  And you are in an environment that typically feels safe and supported.  But, all of those advantages can also back-fire and work against you.  It is easy for teenagers to sleep half the day away.  The environment where you might do your work may also be the same place where you typically sit to play video games.  And a place where you feel relaxed, doesn't always elicit enough push to focus and get work accomplished.

So, if you realize already that keeping up with learning remotely is going to be hard for you, what can you do?  I have lots of suggestions for you to consider...

- Come up with a plan.  What is going to be reasonable for YOU?  In addition to completing your school work, what are the other expectations for you with your family?  Are you expected to help with your little brother/ sister?  Are multiple people in your family sharing the same computer?  All of those are key reasons that you need to have a plan.  If you start with a plan then you can always modify it and adjust, but if you have no plan and no "to do list" items for the day, it is going to be really easy to reach the end of the day without accomplishing anything.

-  On social media you have likely seen "experts" spelling out ideal daily schedules for kids and teens.  While some students will absolutely want and need every minute to be spelled out for them, many of you will feel it is too strict and abandon it without ever really trying to actually follow the schedule.  So, come up with a loose enough schedule that works for you.  I know that for many of you when you sit down to do school work, 80% of the time ends up being doing something else - searching for the right music to listen to, checking social media, watching a YouTube video, getting distracted by a video game, responding to a text, taking a FaceTime call, trying to refocus on what you were supposed to be doing, and, at best, 20% of your time is actually on doing the work.  I have seen many students find success by blocking out 3 times of 30 minutes where they fully and intensely work.  Switch the phone to Do Not Disturb, turn it off, give it to a parent, set it in another room, etc. - anything so you don't absent-mindedly grab it and get caught in your old patterns.  Set an alarm for 30 minutes and during those 30 minutes go full out on your work.  Apply yourself, read, write, calculate, whatever is expected and do it intentionally for 30 minutes.  And then stop.  Be done.  Go back to doing the things you wanted to do... the things that typically distract you.  By working intensely for 30 minutes you are getting work accomplished, but it isn't so long that you will feel as if you are missing out on other activities which are definitely more fun than doing work.  And then, two other times in the day, repeat this schedule and time block.  A lot of students can do this successfully if you wake up, give yourself time to do your normal morning routine, and then when you have finished that and caught up on all that there is to know about your friends for the moment, do 30 minutes of work before you eat (probably lunch since you most likely slept in).  Do 30 more minutes after lunch some time, and 30 minutes after dinner if you like to spread it out.  As you start to implement this routine, you may need to adjust the schedule to your needs.  Are your friends more active and wanting to talk more later in the day?  If so, maybe get the 3rd work session in earlier so that you can have that time to relax and enjoy without school work hanging over your head.  YOU get to set the plan, so you get to adjust it to make it work, but try this idea for 4-5 days and see if it works for you.

- Be realistic with yourself.  You are going to need time to transition.  If you think about life as normal... you would wake up, get ready, go to school, and then do school work.  Chances are there were lots of mornings when you would wake up and think, "I don't want to go to school," but then you would get up, get ready, go to school and by the time you were at school you had made that transition and you were ready to learn.  You don't have those same signals and cues, but you can try to create some transition signals to help shift your mind and body into thinking it is time to do school work.  If you notice that you get stuck, DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT!  It means you need a change to help you transition.  Stretch, do jumping jacks, take three big deep breaths, go pet your dog or cat, or (if you have a laptop or Chromebook) move your work space somewhere different like the kitchen table.

- You are going to need to figure out a plan for how you will set up some accountability.  At school, you normally are handing in assignments face to face with your teachers and that inherently creates it's own internal reward system.  But we don't have that now... and it is hard to replicate that same feeling when submitting assignments electronically.  So try to figure out who you could have as an accountability partner... who can you be truly open and honest with that will help you stay focused and get work done?  It might be someone else at your house, but most of all it needs to be someone you will be honest with because you can be sitting at your computer in your room for hours and your parents can come in to check on you and no one will know that you were actually sitting there playing Minecraft for hours instead of doing your work.  (Again, that goes back to fully work for shorter time periods and then allow yourself the freedom and flexibility to do those things you want to do.)  So, maybe it will be one of your parents or siblings, or perhaps it is one of your friends who also wants to get some work done, but knowing that you will have to report back on your progress and how you did at following through on your plan and any pitfalls you ran into is valuable and can help keep you on track.

There is no question that this is going to be a BIG adjustment to how you learn and interact with your teachers - just like you are also having to adjust to being at home and away from your friends.  So experiment and try some new strategies and approaches.  If it works - keep doing it.  If it bombs - abandon that idea and try something else.  Most of all though, please apply yourself and get some school work done!  I believe in you!  I know you can do this.  Let me know if you need more help.