Automotive Pre-Apprenticeship

Performance Columbus and the Automotive Maintenance PreApprenticeship Program (AMPP) will be hosting open houses for students and parents to come and learn about the opportunities available at their facility.

The Automotive PreApprenticeship is for students who will be juniors and seniors in the fall of the 24-25 school year.  This program is designed for those who want to learn how to diagnose and repair cars and learn more about careers in the automotive industry.  Participants will engage in hands-on learning, and earn high school credit while gaining career based skills.

The Open House sessions will be held on the second floor of Drive Direct at 2361 Morse Rd. Columbus 43229

Session 1: March 7th, 6:00-7:30PM

Session 2: March 12th, 6:00-7:30PM

 

If this sounds like something you would be interested in doing as a part of your scheduled school day next year, I hope you will go (with a parent) to one of the Open House sessions to learn more about this exciting opportunity.

ASVAB Opportunity

The ASVAB is a career assessment tool that is used by the military to help determine what careers a student would be eligible to pursue in the future.  But it is also a resource with lots of general career based information for ALL students - even those with no interest in joining the military.

We had provided the ASVAB to interested WKHS students last month and last week the students who participated received the summary of their results and the career access information.  The career information that is not specific to the military was actually much more expansive than I had anticipated.

There have been a group of students who had missed the chance to take the ASVAB in January and so we are working to provide a second opportunity to take the test for students who might be interested.  The test date is to be determined based on how many students indicate that they want to take the test.  So, if you are interested in taking the ASVAB in March, please stop by and let me know so that I can add your name to the list.

ACT Pre-Registration Reminder

Juniors, don't forget, you need to be sure that you have taken the time to log into the ACT website and completed the Pre-Registration paperwork including creating your account, giving information about your grades, and selecting where you want your free test scores to be sent following your test.  

This was covered during the PACK period when you were filling out your answer document bubbles.  If you are having any trouble with getting this completed, please bring your directions and code with you (that you were given during PACK period) and we can work on figuring it out together.  This is a really important step that you don't want to mess up so please get it taken care of ASAP.  

Also, one other reminder, when you create your ACT account information, please be sure to save the information such as your username and password somewhere.  It has become so common for people to think "I'll remember it" and then later when students need to request for their scores to be sent to a college and they can't remember their ACT account information it is a major problem.  None of the information they ask for is too challenging, you just need to pause and be sure to get it done because you will be taking the ACT two weeks from today!

Parent Lunch & Learn

We will host our next Lunch & Learn for parents this coming Friday, March 1st.  (Can you believe we are almost to March?!)  This month's Lunch & Learn topic is Stress Management.

Stress is a part of ALL of our lives.  Some people have developed strong skills to help manage the stress which comes up each day and others can benefit from learning some new skills in this area.  Parents are often the first ones seeing those stressed out behaviors at home and so we have a Lunch & Learn session designed to help support parents in learning and understanding some stress management approaches to help teens.

The Lunch & Learn's take place from 12-12:30 over zoom.  The link to the zoom session will be emailed to all parents the morning of the event and it will also be posted on the Counselor Website.  I hope that we will see parents online on Friday.

Bye Bye Birdie

Did your class get to see the teaser for this year's musical, Bye Bye Birdie, today during 8th period?  I know that there were many students hoping their class would attend that weren't able to participate in seeing part of the show.  

Mr. Robey, Mr. Jones and the whole cast and crew of the Bye Bye Birdie have been working so hard to put together an incredible show.  I encourage you to get tickets for one of the 3 shows (1 Friday & 2 on Saturday) to support your fellow students and to see the talent on display at WKHS.

There is a large cast and crew involved with this production.  I want to send extra good luck wishes to "my" students who are part of the production including:

On stage performers:  Jamey Chimbidis and Ivan Chivington.

There are countless hours of time spent behind the scenes without the applause and recognition that the actors/ actresses will receive and so I want to acknowledge: Ethan Bevington, Alliyah Ahmed, Charlotte Andon, and Kenzo Burgher.

And last, but certainly not least.  A musical is only a musical if there is music and so I also want to recognize my students in the pit orchestra: John Battle, Claire Bentley, Maela Best, Mira Bixler, and Abby Comp.

Good luck and I can't wait to see the whole show!

Progress

One of the most common challenges I see and hear about from students is connected to the frustration of wanting to achieve your goals while also struggling to stay motivated for those same goals.  Some of you will talk about that in relation to your grades saying things like, "I want to do better and get good grades, but I just don't have the motivation for it."  Others talk about it with personal goals such as with sports.  In this situation it might sound like, "I want to start on the team next fall, but it's so far away it's hard to make myself run on my own right now."  Or it could be in relation to a personal challenge you're facing such as navigating difficult situations with friends.

No matter what the dynamic or situation you are facing it is easy to get sucked into believing that there will be a better time in the future to do whatever it is that you're contemplating.  And, it is also easy to think that motivation will carry you through.  Sadly, neither of those things are effective in helping when the distractions and temptation to procrastinate are strong.

So what can you do?  You can set the bar low to start and raise it once you get going.

What do I mean and what would that look like?  I might think I "should" run a certain distance every day.  But instead I end up not running all week.  So if I shift my thinking and set the bar low to start then I am going to tell myself I will run for 5 minutes and then decide from there if I am going to keep going or not.  If I quit after 5 minutes, ok, I stopped.  But at least I got 5 minutes of work in towards my goal which is better than not starting at all.  And, many times, I will be able to raise the bar for myself and do more than 5 minutes of running.  Maybe I will run for 10 minutes or maybe I will go my whole desired length of time or distance, but no matter what, I am doing better than if I had never started.

If you expect yourself to be perfect then it is easy to fall short of that goal and therefore give up on even trying before you really get started.  But by setting the bar low, you know that you can achieve that simple goal and then you can keep raising it so that step by step you will end up making progress.

If you are needing help with making progress towards any of your goals, I hope you will stop and see me.  We can work together to help identify some realistic low bar goals that you could start with and then ways that you can gradually increase those goals towards supporting your desire to make progress.  Remember, I believe in you and know that you can achieve anything you desire and work for in the future.

Your Future & Careers

Throughout junior registration meetings I spent time talking about what students think they might want to be when you all grow up.  Not a fair question, but it's still interesting to me to hear your thoughts and what you picture for yourself in the future.

Sometimes students will talk about being stressed, overwhelmed or worried when thinking about the future and trying to decide what they want to be when they grow up.  I get it, but I have to admit – this kind of makes me sad.  I think that the process of exploring potential careers for your future should be fun and exciting.  It should provide you with the chance to learn more about yourself – what you like, what you don’t like, what you are interested in learning more about, and how you can contribute to make the world a better place in big or small ways.

Yes, I realize that this all sounds like pressure and that is not what I intend.  Let me be clear – I am not asking you to decide today what you will do for the rest of your life.  I’m just hoping that you take a big deep breath, relax and do some career exploration.  Even a little bit now while you are in high school can help give you insights into possible fields to investigate.

Some students have done a Myers Briggs personality test and the codes of your personality can be connected with potential career fields.  If you have never taken a Myers Briggs type test, today is the day!  This website provides a free version of the test.  It takes about 12 minutes to complete… what are you waiting for?  In case it entices you to complete the test, the results will not only tell you about potential career paths you might like it will also highlight some of your strengths and weaknesses, styles of interactions and needs with others, and work habits.  Plus, once you have your Myers Briggs code type (it will be 4 letters) you can do a Google search to find information about top careers for your personality type and that will result in much more detailed, specific career related information.  I also have a summary sheet that outlines lots of different career fields that often fit for people with that personality type, so if you come in to see me and let me know what your code is then I am more than happy to run that summary sheet for you!