I Love My Job

Today wrapped up the final day of National School Counselors Week.  It is interesting - here it is - a week when people across the country pause to recognize and celebrate the profession of school counseling, but I can't help but think that I am the one who needs to be thankful and express my gratitude.

I have the best job!

The fact that you allow me to walk alongside you during your high school years is not something I take for granted.  That you trust me to share in your pain on difficult days and also allow me to celebrate with you when you achieve successes is my greatest honor.  It doesn't matter if we are talking about school, college, friends, dreams, fears or even about seemingly nothing at all - you brighten my day and help me feel like I have a purpose.

It was interesting, yesterday, a gentleman was waiting in the hall outside of my office to talk to Mr. Nally and he asked me if Mrs. Beyer still worked at Kilbourne.  (Mrs. Beyer is a counselor who retired 7 years ago.)  After learning she had retired, he talked about the impact she had on him explaining that she changed his life by believing in him, helping him straighten his life back out when he had started down a path of making poor choices and that he was grateful.  He had graduated from Kilbourne in 1997 - that is before some of you were even born!  And yet, all this time later, he still remembered her.  Wow!  

I don't know if it's realistic to think that all of you will still remember much of the details of high school 18 years after you graduate, but if you do remember high school and think of me, I hope you will always know that I care about you, I believe in you and I am thankful to have had the honor of knowing you and being a part of your lives!

My greatest desire in life is to make a difference.  And, for the record, to me, making a difference isn't necessarily a big, grand impact - it is the small details, the connections shared, and the impact that we can hopefully have on one another.  I know without a doubt that you make a difference in my life.

Being your school counselor is the greatest job and I just wanted to make sure you knew as my own way of celebrating National School Counselors Week.  :-)  Have a great weekend!

Signing Day Celebration

Yesterday after school, 4 Kilbourne football players celebrated their commitment to play football in college.  I am lucky enough that 3 of these young men are "my" students.

Grant Chesser will be playing football at Notre Dame College.
Dom Brown will be competing at Otterbein University.
And JC Bartok will continue his football career at Bowling Green State University.

It was such a wonderful opportunity to watch as Grant, Dom and JC were surrounded by their family members, friends, coaches, and teammates to sign their letters of intent to play in college.  I couldn't help but think about the fact that this day of celebration was made possible because of each of their hard work, dedication and commitment - not just the glory and recognition for playing well in front of fans.  And, best of all, football is helping to lead each of them to their college education.

JC, Dom, and Grant ~ Congratulations!  I am so proud of each of you and thankful that I have had the opportunity to walk along this journey of high school with you.  You have made a positive impact at Kilbourne and I cannot wait to see what you will accomplish in the future at your respective colleges.

Parent/ Teacher Conferences

Parent/ Teacher conferences are coming up soon.  Conferences will be held on Monday, February 9^th from 5:00 - 9:00pm and on Thursday, February 12^th from 3:30pm – 7:30pm.  Each conference will be scheduled in 20 minute time blocks.  Conferences allow parents the chance to learn about your student’s classroom performance from the teachers, it allows the opportunity for you to ask questions and they provide an opportunity to build a dialogue with the teachers regarding thoughts and concerns you might have.

Parents, if you are interested in arranging to meet with one of your son or daughter’s teachers during conferences, the online system is now up and running for you to register for a meeting time.  Conferences will be scheduled as people sign up for them, so if you want to make sure you have times that work well for you, I strongly encourage you to register right away.  

Please follow the steps below to register for a parent/ teacher conference:

-  Go to http://ptcfast.com/schools/Worthington_Kilbourne_High_School.  This will take you to the conference scheduler.

-  Click on the teacher you would like to meet with for a conference.

-  Sign up by entering your child's last name, first name, your name and your e-mail address and then click Submit.

-  The next screen will direct you to check your e-mail inbox for a message with the subject "Select Date/ Team for Teacher Conference Now."

-  Open the e-mail and click on the link to select a conference time.  If you do not receive an e-mail, please check your junk/ spam folder.  Please note, you MUST follow the link in the e-mail in order to complete the sign-up process.

-  The link will take you to a Time Picker.  Available time slots will appear on this page.  If there are no available appointments that suit your schedule, please e-mail the teacher directly to set up an alternate meeting time.

-  After submitting your time slot, you will be prompted to finish, schedule another appointment for the same student or register another student.  Once you have completed your reservations, you will receive an e-mail confirming the date and time of your conferences and a link by which you can make changes to your date or time if you need to do so.

If you have any problems using the online conference registration system, please contact Julie Hammond at WKHS.  She can be reached by e-mail at jhammond@worthington.k12.oh.us or by phone at 450-6498.

Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, Monday, February 9th at 7:00pm is the Academic Options Night.  This evening will highlight opportunities available through alternate means including CC+ and Credit Flexibility.  We schedule this meeting on conference night to try to help parents minimize the number of nights that you have to be at school, so if you'd like to take advantage of both opportunities on the same night, simply select teacher conferences before 7 and then come and attend the college credit plus night in the auditorium.

College Goal Sunday

A few days ago most of us spent Super Bowl Sunday watching football (or the commercials).  I wanted to make that all seniors and their parents are aware of an event that is coming up next Sunday, February 8th, that is known as College Goal Sunday.

Completing the FAFSA forms can be intimidating for some students and their families. You should NEVER need to pay to have someone you complete these forms and free help is available if you are unsure of what to do. 

College Goal Sunday is a free workshop where you will have expert help from Ohio college financial aid representatives to complete and submit your FAFSA forms.  College Goal Sunday is held across the nation on Sunday, February 8th.  Ohio College Goal Sunday will feature a range of workshops all across the state. Sign in starts at 1:30 and the workshop begins at 2:00. There are multiple locations in central Ohio that you and your family can choose between. You will be working on the computers and completing the actual online FAFSA forms during these workshops so it is necessary to register in advance. 

The list of materials you should bring with you include: Your IRS 1040 tax return and W-2’s, your parent’s IRS 1040 tax return and W-2’s, your social security card and driver’s license, and any other benefit and income information.

If you are uncertain about how to fill out your FAFSA forms, I hope you will take advantage of this free help.  Remember, your financial aid deadlines are quickly approaching!

Academic Options Night

In addition to the wide range of courses that we have available here at WKHS, there are other academic options available to our students.

The College Credit Plus (CC+) program is an opportunity for high school students to take college courses while still enrolled in high school. This program has replaced what used to be called Dual Enrollment and PSEO.

In addition to being able to go to the college campus to take classes or taking classes with WKHS teachers that will also give you college credit, beginning next fall professors from Columbus State Community College will also be coming to WKHS to teach some classes.

There are a lot of details involved in participating in the CC+ program and students must complete and submit the paperwork before April 1st to indicate their intent to participate in the CC+ program in the following school year.

In order to explain all of the details of the program and to provide you with the forms necessary, all students and parents interested in participating in this program should plan to attend the Academic Options night next week on Monday, February 9th at 7:00pm in the WKHS auditorium.  This will be a joint meeting for all of the students and parents in Worthington.  Every college in a 30 mile radius was invited to participate in the meeting.  So far we have received confirmations that Columbus State Community College, the Ohio State University, Central Ohio Technical College, and Columbus College of Art and Design will attend to share the opportunities available through CC+ with their college.  Please see me if you are unable to attend this meeting as it is mandatory that you attend one and there are other options being provided at local colleges which you can attend if you can't make it to our meeting next week.

Credit Flexibility is another program we will highlight during the Academic Options night.  Credit flexibility allows students to earn credit based on a demonstration of subject area competency, instead of, or in combination with, completing hours of classroom instruction. Students are able to customize aspects of their learning around their interests and needs. It encourages student self-direction and motivates learners to develop new skills and fulfill their potential. Examples of credit flexibility opportunities include, but are not limited to, independent study, online learning, and demonstration of course proficiency.

I hope that all students and parents interested in learning more about College Credit Plus and credit flexibility will join us next Monday evening.

Balance

How are you feeling about the courses you selected for next year?  As I have told many students, I will be looking at your courses for the next few weeks and can continue to make adjustments to what you have requested if something needs to change.

One of the most important aspects I want you to keep in mind is the importance of BALANCE!  Yes, we want you to select courses that will be rigorous and help push you to learn and grow.  However, that needs to be balanced with what is reasonable.  

You want to challenge yourself with courses that will help prepare you for the future. At the same time you want to remember that this is high school and you need to be realistic about your expectations of yourself. There is a balance that should be sought - between too many "easy" classes and too many "hard" classes. You know yourself best and what you can handle. So while it may feel good to have every teacher recommend you for honors, AP or IB classes it doesn't mean that it would be the ideal situation to load your schedule with all advanced classes. You have to keep in mind the rest of your commitments - what sports, clubs, music groups, part-time jobs, and volunteer commitments do you have?  There needs to be time for you to relax and breathe, spend time with your family and friends and, perhaps most importantly, still get a good night's sleep each night.  

This year the Kilbourne staff created a Time Commitment Planning Calendar.  You can find copies on the Kilbourne Counselor website - www.wkhscounselors.com - or there are hard copies available in the counseling center.  A student helped by completing a sample calendar so that you can see what a completed one looks like and that is also on the Kilbourne Counselor website.  I strongly encourage you to consider your 2 busiest weeks and fill out the calendar to see what classes would be a good balance for you - being both rigorous (particularly in any area of passion) and reasonable.

If you are struggling to find that balance, please talk to your parents about the classes you are considering and stop down to see me so that we can discuss it too.

Enjoy your late start tomorrow.  Don't forget you start classes at 9:10am.

Honors Diploma

Thank you to all of the students who successfully completed the online registration and especially to all of the junior students and parents who have taken the time to come in and meet with me.  I realize that you have already turned in your course requests, but I hadn't had the opportunity to post about the requirements for the honors diploma and I wanted to make sure you had it in case you want me to go back in and make adjustments to your requests for next year.

For some students, earning an Honors Diploma is an important goal. I have to be honest, this is not a factor for the colleges because the honors diploma recognition isn't granted until you graduate so colleges are not considering it when making their admissions decisions. The requirements for the honors diploma listed below are established by the state department of education.

To receive an honors diploma you need to fulfill 7 of the following 8 criteria:

- English: 4 units
- Math: 4 units (including Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 or equivalent and another higher level course or a four-year sequence of courses that contain equivalent content - obviously the names of these courses will be changing with the common core implementation)
- Science: 4 units (including Physics and Chemistry)
- Social Studies: 4 units
- Foreign Language: 3 units (including at least 2 units in each language studied)
- Fine Arts: 1 unit
- Grade Point Average: 3.5 on a 4.0 scale
- ACT/ SAT Score (excluding scores from the writing sections): 27 ACT/ 1210 SAT

One of the areas that I have noticed as a trend of some students falling short of meeting the honors diploma requirements is in science. This is because some students have decided to take a different AP Science course instead of taking physics. The other area where students frequently don't meet the designated standard is with the 4 credits of Social Studies since only 3 credits are required. Don't forget, it would still be possible to earn an honors diploma if you were missing one of these, but you will need to make sure you fulfill all of the remaining criterion.