Parent/ Teacher Conferences

Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Thursday, November 8th, and Wednesday, November 14th. Conferences begin at 5:00pm and run every 20 minutes with the last conferences beginning at 8:40pm. All conferences with teachers are scheduled through Mrs. Hammond, one of the building secretaries. Appointments can be scheduled now by calling 450-6498 or by e-mailing jhammond@worthington.k12.oh.us. This is a great opportunity for parents to be able to meet with teachers and review your student's progress.  I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity!

Congratulations

Tonight was a great night athletically and artistically at WKHS!

- The Girls Soccer Team won their tournament game.  They have advanced to Saturday's game which will be held at Canal Winchester at 2:00 on Saturday.  Congratulations girls on a huge victory!

-  Tonight was also the year's first choir concert.  Our choirs are incredible!  I love going to the concerts and being amazed by all of your talents.  My favorite part is definitely the traditional Kilbourne Singers entrance to "Come to the Water."  This is such a beautiful song and I especially enjoy the chance to make eye contact with my students as they sing during the processional.  If you have never been to a choir concert, I strongly encourage you to go to their winter concert - you won't regret it!

Tomorrow the seniors have a class meeting.  You will be released from 2nd period a few minutes early and you will be admitted to 3rd period a little bit late with the senior class meeting in between.  The purpose of this meeting will be to provide you with your cap and gown order forms and announcement information.  It is always an exciting time to have the "official" reminders that graduation is quickly approaching.

Deadlines

Just a friendly reminder to watch your deadlines. It is really important that you stay organized and submit all application materials to colleges prior to their designated deadlines. There are several schools that have scholarship deadlines of November 1st. (This means that if you want to be considered for the maximum scholarship offering that you need to apply by November 1st.) Other schools have November 15th, December 3rd, December 15th, or even later deadlines, but because every school is different it is really important that you stay on top of this and meet the requirements with plenty of time. If you have a college application with a November 1st deadline and you have not seen me already, please be sure to come in immediately!

Don't forget, you need to allow plenty of time to request your transcript, get it back and mail it in to the college. Most schools hold firm to the requirement that their deadline doesn't just mean that the online application has been received by that date, but that all supporting documentation is also in their hands by their designated deadline date. This means that they also need to have your transcript and official ACT/ SAT test scores prior to the deadline date. All the more reason to watch this closely and give yourself plenty of time to get your materials to the college.

If you are having trouble figuring out your deadlines, stop down to see me and we can look it up together.

Meet Brady

On occasion I try to update my blog with information that provides you with more of a personal glance at me because I think it helps to give you an idea of who I am and what is important to me.  I believe that this will allow you to know more about me to ultimately help you to feel more comfortable with me when we talk.  That being said, this post is entirely personal!  :-)  So, if you are one of the parents and you were hoping for study strategies or college information, today's post is one you might want to skip.

Meet Brady!

My sister, Macy, gave birth to her 3rd child, my 2nd nephew, Brady Joseph Spalding, on Friday, October 19th at 5:50pm.  Brady is a special little boy with a special name.  His dad is Brad so his first name honors his dad and Brad's dad and brother are both named Joseph which is how his middle name was selected.

I have been anxiously awaiting Brady's arrival since I found out my sister was pregnant on April 1st.  And yes, I completely believed that they were trying to pull an April Fool's Day joke on me when they called to tell me that they were having another baby.

My niece, Carly, and nephew, Colton, were so excited to meet Brady for the first time!  They are going to be wonderful to their little brother, but they aren't sold on changing poopy diapers yet.  Haha.

The whole family was completely enamored by Brady!  Pictured above (L to R) is Colton, Brad, Brady, Macy and Carly

 Me with my sister and Brady!

  Brady is the little man who completely captured my heart.  :-)

Brady is so precious and I look at these pictures and think that he looks big (7 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches long at birth) yet the reality was that he seemed so incredibly tiny in person that these pictures just don't do him justice.

Good luck on PSAT & PLAN

Tomorrow many of my students will be taking the PSAT and PLAN tests and I wanted to wish you good luck!

If you are taking the PSAT, you will report directly to the gymnasiums when you arrive to school on Wednesday morning. You will need to bring your student id with you in order to check in. You will also need a number 2 pencil (no mechanical pencils allowed), a calculator, and I would recommend a watch. The test will begin promptly by 7:45 and you will finish testing at the start of 4th period.

If you are taking the PLAN test, you will go to your 1st through 3rd period classes and then you will be released to head to the commons to quickly eat your lunch and check in at the gymnasiums for the test. Check in begins at 11:00am and you will test for the remainder of the day. (As with the PSAT, don't forget to bring a number 2, non-mechanical, pencil, a calculator and a watch.)

If you are one of the students who love testing so much that you have elected to take both the PLAN and PSAT, you will test 1st through 3rd, have a quick break for lunch, report back to the gym and test again for the remainder of the day.  For what it is worth, I'd suggest that you consider packing your lunch so that you don't have to lose time waiting in line, but plenty of students who took both tests last year still bought their lunch and had enough time to eat.

Generally speaking, the majority of juniors will be testing in the morning and the majority of sophomores are testing in the afternoon so teachers have adjusted the coursework being covered in class accordingly. Ultimately though, you will be responsible for making up any missed work from class.

The Power of Friendship

We are not meant to be islands.  We need to have people in our lives to support and encourage us when we struggle and who will celebrate with us when we succeed.  Friendships are an essential part of our daily lives.  Having a true friend is priceless - knowing that you can trust yourself, your stories and your secrets with someone is a gift.

Lately I have been reminded of the power of friendship - how friends can make sad times a little less sad and happy times feel even more joyful.  Yet what impresses me most is the way that I have watched as friends stepped up and supported one another even if it wasn't easy or convenient.

As you have probably figured out based upon the alphabet break-downs, Grayson Biglin, is one of my students.  In case you hadn't heard, Grayson was diagnosed with cancer last month.  He underwent surgery and is now going through chemotherapy.  His friends have been there in all sorts of ways - sending him e-cards when he is in the hospital, calling or texting him, the Gray-Out, painting the rock, carrying his books to and from classes, and spending time just hanging out and having fun.

As if all of those examples of friendship were not enough, yesterday Grayson had arranged for Coach Souder to buzz his hair to help deal with some of the impact of the chemotherapy.  When he arrived at the Souder's, 6 of Grayson's friends were waiting for him and one by one they each followed Grayson and had their hair buzzed off too.  What a wonderful gesture of unity and support each of these young men did for Grayson.

Above is the picture of the group before they had their hair cut and below is the picture of the group after their hair cut.

I hope none of you have to experience what Grayson is currently going through, but no matter how big or small the battles that you might face in your life, I sincerely hope you will be surrounded by people who will demonstrate their friendship to you in ways that you will always know that you are loved and cared about every day.

If you want to support Grayson, visit his Caringbridge page at www.caringbridge.org.  His site name is: GraysonBiglin.  You will have to register to visit the site, but you can leave him encouraging messages in the guestbook and receive e-mails after he posts updates.

Career Dreams

What do you want to be when you grow up? When you were little perhaps it was a professional athlete, a superhero, or a famous entertainer. Chances are that now that you are in high school you have started re-thinking some of your potential career choices. While there is still a lot of uncertainty and will, in all liklihood, be plenty of other times when you will change career paths in the future, it is time to start figuring out what you would like to be when you grow up.

I *know* you hate it when I say this, but the reality is that you need to know yourself and follow your passions. If you love what you do and you are willing to work hard then you will be able to find success. Everyone has their own unique gifts and talents and it is imperitive that you determine what career will meet your needs. This means you have to figure out what is important to you and how you can incorporate that into your life. For example, for those who love sports it can be hard to imagine life without athletics and, many times, these individuals will pick (at least initially) careers that involve sports - athletic training, sports management, sports marketing, etc. This might be the perfect combination - or maybe not. Knowing yourself and knowing what you have a passion for is important in determining what characteristics of a job will be best suited for you. In this example, the sports minded person might pick a career that involves teamwork where groups of people work closely together to reach a common goal. Or, if you decide that you are not going to meet a passion in your life through your career, then it is important that you still honor that influence in some other way - perhaps playing on an adult recreational team or coaching a youth sport team. While this example deals with sports the same concept applies to any of your interests and passions - art, music, learning.

So, while I am not asking you to abandon your dreams of fame and fortune as the professional athlete, superhero, or entertainer, I am asking you to start thinking seriously about what will make you happy, what is important to you, and how a career can help meet your needs and goals in life.  We are currently working on plans for the 2012 Career Fair which will be held next month. If there are particular careers you are interested in pursuing we hope that the career fair will provide you with the chance to talk to professionals in that (or similar) fields.  You are welcome to let me know which careers are of particular interest to you as we are still working to find professionals to come and meet with our students.  And, parents, if you are reading this, please remember that we NEED your help at the Career Fair on November 15th!  If you are willing to share your insights and career experiences with our students, we would greatly appreciate it.  Complete the career questionnaire at www.surveymonkey.com/wkhscareerfair if you are able to help.