Teacher Recommendation Letters

Recommendation letters are a time consuming process requiring a great deal of thought and time. Juniors, as you finalize the list of schools where you will be applying next fall, it is important to determine if you are going to need a recommendation letter from a teacher (or two). Many of the Ohio schools - Ohio University, BGSU, Kent State, etc. do not require teacher recommendations.  Because rec letters are a time consuming process, if the colleges where you are applying do not require recommendations, then do not waste your teacher's time by requesting letters that won't be needed or used. 

If you are applying to schools that need teacher recommendation letters, it is very helpful and beneficial to the teachers if you can give them as much time as possible to write your recommendation letters. That means, if you know now that you are going to be applying to a school which needs a teacher rec letter, then I would like for you to ask the teachers this spring allowing them to have the entire summer to write your letter. (These next few weeks are a great time to ask!)  After you ask your teacher(s), you will want to provide them with information that can help them as they write your letter. We have several handouts in the counseling and career center and on the WKHS Counselor website that you can use for this purpose.

Welcome Mrs. Focht!

Have you met Mrs. Focht yet?  She is the new secretary in the counseling center... actually, she has been at WKHS for about 6 weeks and I am just now getting around to formally welcoming her on my blog.  (Better late than never, right?!?)  :-)

Mrs. Focht has worked in the district and has been an incredible addition to the WKHS Counseling and Career Center!  She is excited to have the opportunity to try to get to know the students and parents so the next time you are stopping by to see me, make sure you introduce yourself to Mrs. Focht and let her know how glad we are to have her at Kilbourne.

The best way I can tell you about pronouncing her name is that it is like the word "vote" except with an "F" in place of the "V".

Cut Them Free!

For a while now I have been reminding students individually that as they start narrowing down their college choices that it is important to cut the other schools free. I realized that I had not mentioned this for everyone to hear... so I want to remind all seniors that as you begin identifying which college or the few colleges that are still in the running that it is important for you to notify the other colleges that you do not intend to attend their school beginning next year. Please wait to tell the schools that you will not be attending until you are completely sure that you are no longer considering them. However, I realize that many of you have narrowed your choice to a smaller group of colleges and you have completely eliminated others from consideration. Those which have been completely eliminated are the colleges I am recommending you notify as soon as possible. This is important because it allows the college to plan for their upcoming student body and to know if they have room to accept other students off of their wait-lists. Think about your classmates who might be on the waiting list for a school and they want to hear back from the schools as quickly as possible and there are other students across the country in the same situation. Colleges can't begin opening up additional slots until they know which students will or will not be attending. If you received scholarship offers from one of the colleges that you have eliminated from the running, this can also potentially allow the college to offer that money out to other students which, again, can help people such as your fellow classmates. Believe me, the colleges will not be angry with you for deciding that you will not be attending their school - they understand that this is part of the process, so just go ahead and take a few minutes to let them know of your intent to attend a different college.

Procrastination

Do you struggle with procrastination? It is one of the more common problem areas that I hear students battle. Procrastination doesn’t mean you are lazy or incapable, but it does often result in increased stress levels. There are no quick fixes and, as with most things in life, what works for one person will not necessarily work for someone else so it is important to find a strategy that will work effectively for you. 

I doubt that any of these suggestions will be ideas that you have never heard of before, but it comes down to deciding that you want to try to make a change. So, reward yourself for progress made because it does take time to improve.

Some ideas to help combat procrastination:
Plan ahead.

Break your big projects, assignments, or responsibilities down into smaller, more manageable tasks.

Commit to spending at least 15 minutes working on something that you have been avoiding.

Remind yourself that there is not going to be a better time – not tomorrow, not next weekend, or next month – something else will always come up that continues to contribute to the procrastination.

Ask for help.

Focus on the desired outcome – rather than your fear or inaction.

Be realistic – most tasks take far longer than you expect.

Minimize Distractions… and take care of whatever is distracting you.

Let go of perfectionism. (And, for those of you who are perfectionists, I know that this is a hard one, but the reality is that many things aren’t worth doing perfectly, so just start and do your best – it will still be better than not doing it at all.)

Recruit a friend to help keep you accountable. (If you tell someone else about your goal or plan to battle your typical procrastination blocks, you are more likely to follow through, but please make sure it is a friend who will help you stay accountable not convince you that it is OK to put off starting your paper for a few more days.)

Do the hard part first… or… do the easy part first. (Whichever is more motivating to you is the one you should choose.)

Keep track of your progress so you don't lose sight of how much you've accomplished.

The bottom line is that if you get it done when you need to instead of procrastinating, you’ll feel better about yourself and have less stress… so get to work. :-)

This article gives additional ideas for tips to beat procrastination.

Senior Reminders

Seniors, this is a busy time of year and you have a lot of pieces to pay attention to so I thought it might be helpful if I gave you a few reminders...



-  Caps and Gowns: You should have picked up your Cap and Gown already.  If you forgot to order your cap and gown, please stop by the counseling center to get the phone number for National Recognition Products and call to place your order right away!  Don't forget, if you had planned on using an older sibling's cap and gown, you will not be able to do that because of a change in style.  There is an exchange option that will allow you to trade in your sibling's gown to be able to order your cap and gown at a discounted rate.

-  Diploma Presenter Form:  If you plan on asking someone to present you with your diploma at graduation - the deadline for submitting your presenter request form to the co-curricular office was (technically) last Wednesday, but you can still turn in your form if you forgot to submit it. I love the fact that you all have this opportunity as a way to make graduation an even more memorable experience. If you do not select someone to give you your diploma, an administrator from WKHS or central office or a school board member will present your diploma to you.

-  Senior Pictures:  I sincerely hope that you have already taken care of submitting your senior picture to Mrs. Mullen so that they can be included in the Yearbook.  If you didn't get your picture taken, please see Mrs. Mullen to make alternate arrangements.

-  Post-Secondary and Final Transcript Release Form:  Included in the senior packet that was mailed to your house was a post-secondary and final transcript release form.  This is a mandatory form that you must return no later than May 2nd.  This form not only outlines your college decisions and scholarships received, but it also allows you to indicate where you would like your final transcript to be mailed after graduation.  The information collected about colleges and scholarships will be used when putting together the information for Senior Recognition Night and when they are creating the graduation program so it is very important that the information is accurate! (For example, in the past a student called one scholarship by the wrong name and the parents were upset that it was listed wrong, so please double check to give the correct details.) If students do not complete the survey the school will not have anything to list in the commencement program, so please take a few minutes and complete the survey!

On a completely different note, tomorrow we will be on a 3A/ 3B bell schedule.

GPA Calculator

Many students are trying to guesstimate what they need to do in order to raise their grade point average. This blog post includes a link to a GPA Calculator which will allow you to calculate what grades you would need to earn in order to achieve your desired GPA. (You will need to have your current GPA which you can find on your transcript in the reports area of Infinite Campus.) 

Local Scholarship Reminder

A last minute reminder to seniors... the local Worthington scholarships are due TOMORROW (Friday, April 12th) at 3:00 in the Counseling Center. You will give your completed scholarships directly to the secretaries. Please do not forget to get your forms turned in on time!