Prepare for Success

This week we will start a new school year and it is important to put yourself in the best position possible to be successful.

The first step is to set your goals for the year. What are you hoping to accomplish? What do you need to do to reach these goals? It is often easier to dream big and, quite honestly, most of you could achieve any goal that you set your mind to, but it will take dedication and commitment.

Many of you are also out searching for new school supplies. As you buy your folders, binders, and notebooks, pause for a moment to think about what organization system tends to work best for you. Are you a "stuffer" who just stuffs papers into whatever happens to be available? If so, folders are probably best for you. If you are the type of person who wants to be able to combine notes from class with notes that you take from the book, you might gravitate toward a binder with loose-leaf paper rather than a spiral notebook. Whatever system you select, make sure it is one that will work for YOU.

Preparing for success is probably most closely connected to having an organization system for tracking your assignments. Perhaps you bought a planner or maybe you're hoping to use an app. It doesn't matter to me what type of an organization system you have selected, but it is essential that you pick something and commit yourself to using it.

This will be a great year! We hope you are looking forward to getting started (even though it means that summer is over and early mornings are beginning) and if you need help with setting reasonable goals or with organization, please don't hesitate to stop in and see us.

Reminders

Tomorrow (Monday, August 17th) is the first day back to school for students attending the Delaware Area Career Center. For DACC students, the bus will transport you from WKHS to DACC and back, but you will need to find your own transportation between home and Kilbourne. The bus up to DACC will leave WKHS in the morning at 7:15am. We hope you have a great first day at the Career Center!

Additionally, a reminder to seniors that tomorrow at 1:30pm is the second Common App 101 Workshop. We will meet in Room 201. Please be sure to bring your Chromebook or a laptop with you because you will work on your actual Common App while we are meeting.

Common App 101 Reminder

Seniors, just a quick reminder that tomorrow at 10:30am is our first Common App 101 Workshop. If you have signed up to attend, please be sure to bring your laptop or chromebook with you because you will be working on your actual Common App application during the time together. We will be holding this work session in Room 201 and look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

New Names and Faces

Kilbourne was filled with a buzz of energy, excitement, and nerves today as everyone came through to pick up their schedules. Don't forget, there are 2 more days for schedule pick up this week... Wednesday afternoon from 12:30-3:30 and Thursday evening from 5-8pm.

As you see your schedules and/ or as you walk through the building you may see that there are many new names and faces this year at WKHS. We encourage you to welcome and say hi to the following new staff members:

We will have 3 new security monitors: Mr. Benver, Mr. Schreiber, and Mr. Turnbull.

Mrs. Bowman (Math)

Mr. Zarycki (Math)

Mr. Timms (Special Ed)

Ms. Bush (Health/ PE)

Ms. Glitsch (Tech)

Mr. Sullivan (Orchestra)

Science has a bunch of new staff including: Mr. Larson, Ms. Starr, Mr. Joyce, and Ms. Lavelle

Ms. Coleman (EL)

Although they are not new to WKHS, we have a few staff members shifting positions - Mr. Berens will now be in the Art Department and Mrs. Taylor will be in the English Department

We have 3 new Administrative Assistants taking over for secretaries that retired including: Mrs. Stead, Mrs. Kehlmeier, and Mrs. Moneypenny.

Mrs. Dyer is a new Assistant Principal. She will partner with Mr. Alexander on the top part of the alphabet (A-K). Mrs. Leiding and Mrs. Travis will now share the bottom part of the alphabet (L-Z).

And then there were a few weddings over the summer and so Ms. Johnson is now Mrs. Maddock and Ms. Hunt is now Mrs. Gorski.

What hasn't changed? That everyone at WKHS is excited to work with the students and to have a successful year ahead. So even if you're uncertain when you see that your schedule features names of people you don't know yet, please know that it will be great!

Schedule Changes

 

Every year the week between schedule pick up days to the first days of the school year are filled with students asking about making changes to their schedules. We are happy to try to help facilitate schedule change requests, but we need to make sure you know a few things...

1. We are not authorized to make any teacher changes.  Sorry.  We can't move you from one teacher to another teacher's class. We know that you all have favorite teachers from previous years or teachers that our siblings had that you hoped to have too. We get it, but the administration works really hard to balance all schedules with timing and course sections and they don't want us to undermine that work by making things unbalanced. 

2. We cannot overload classes. If a class is full, there is no way for us to add you into the class. Think about it, you know how packed many of the classes are and how many desks are in the room. Each teacher and each period can only have so many students.

3. You need to have your graduation requirement classes. Obviously a big end goal of your classes is to graduate and so those take priority over every other request.

4. If the classes you have requested is only offered during 1st or 8th period then we cannot give you 1st or 8th period off. We're sorry. We know a lot of juniors and seniors hope for late arrival or early release, but the only way the master schedule works when the administrators build it is for classes to be spread across all 8 periods. They focus on eliminating as many conflicts as possible and so that sometimes means a class that is only offered once per day ends up being in 1st or 8th period.

5. We know a lot of times the hopes and expectations you had aren't in alignment with what the reality is when you first see your schedule. Pause and give yourself a little bit of time to process through it. It can be hard when you think that you're the only one in a particular lunch (we promise you're not) or that you don't have any classes with your friends. Every year we end up encouraging kids to just go to class and give it a try and see who else is in their classes and they realize that a friend they had classes with a year or two ago is also in that class and they are given the chance to rekindle the friendship again. Just don't panic when you see your schedule.

6. If you want to change levels from AP/ IB/ Honors classes that had summer work to other classes without summer work, remember you are still responsible for completing those summer assignments and the grade will go with you into the new class. (So if you're doing all of that work for the class, are you sure you really don't want to just stick with the class you had requested a few months ago?)

7. If you want to request a schedule change, stop and see us after you pick up your schedule - we will be in our offices during the schedule pick up times and are happy to meet with you. Come see us!

Interesting College Data

As high school counselors, we spend a LOT of time reading and reviewing information from and about colleges. This is important information for us to be aware of so that we can help provide accurate information to students and families as you are navigating the college application and admissions process.

Data isn't always everyone's favorite to explore - it is way more enjoyable to check out college websites with happy photos and eye-catching graphics, but, when you're trying to figure out if a college is a good fit for you or what the reality is for being accepted or getting financial aid at a particular school, digging into the data can be unbelievably helpful.

Big J Educational Consulting releases data every year that counselors, students and families can use to help compare various colleges. And it is set up in an easily interactive format so that you can play around and look at the colleges you are considering.

If you (or your son/ daughter) is working on figuring out which colleges could be a good fit for the future, it would be worth spending some time exploring their data. We definitely had some eye-opening moments as we looked at the information.

Schedule Pick Up Days

Are you getting excited to see your schedules for the coming school year?  Schedule pick up days are coming one week from today and we wanted to make sure all of you are aware of the days and times when you will be able to pick up your schedules... sorry, we can't email out copies ahead of time.

Tuesday, August 11th: 
9th graders, 11th graders: 8:30am - 11:30am

Wednesday, August 12th:
10th graders and 12th graders: 12:30pm - 3:30pm

Thursday, August 13th:
Any grade level of students: 5:00pm-8:00pm

Don't forget, schedule pick up day is packed with lots of activities like getting your school picture taken, picking up your books, etc.

The process is paperless again this year which means that your emergency medical information, health forms, and athletic forms should ideally be updated online BEFORE coming through the schedule pick up lines. Those forms will all be on the Worthington Schools website (not counselor website).

We know that every year there are questions about what you should do if you are not available to attend on your designated schedule pick up time. If you cannot pick up your schedule and books on your designated time, then you can come to school on the other schedule pick-up day/ times. If you will not be able to attend any of the designated days/ times, then you will not be able to pick up your your books or get your student ID made until the 1st day of school, but schedules will be available online starting Monday, August 17th or you're welcome to come to school on either Monday the 17th or Tuesday, August 18th from 1:00 - 3:00pm.  (No morning pick up's on those dates though because we are all in mandatory meetings both mornings.)

Each year schedule pick up days are two of the craziest days in our offices, but we are looking forward to seeing you!