Course Adjustment Deadline

This week is the last chance for students to change a class from conventional grading (A, B, C, etc.) to Pass/ Fail grading! The forms are in the counseling center and require a parent signature. If you plan to switch a class to pass/ fail, please be sure to pick up a form and return it before Thursday! (Since we do not have school on Friday.)

March 5th is also the last day that students can drop a class without an F on their transcript. This is only possible if students have above the minimum number of classes required (5 for seniors and 6 for sophomores and juniors). And yes, it is too late to add a class. Sorry.

The Scheduling Process

It has occured to me (through many of your questions) that most students don't really know or understand how the schedule is created. I thought it might be helpful if I give you a quick overview of the scheduling process. (I am saying quick because it is actually boring and is known to cause massive headaches for those trying to put it all together and make it work for every student.)

After all of you entered your registration requests in the computer system, I started the process of meeting with you and reviewing your course selections. I still have between 25 - 30 students across all of the grade levels to meet with in the coming days/ weeks. I would like to thank all of the students who have come to the meetings prepared with your completed forms. I also want to thank all of the juniors and junior parents who made the time to come in and meet with me. I really enjoyed it and have been thrilled with all the "repeat" visits from the junior students since our meetings. All of the course requests need to be finalized, ideally, by the end of next week and officially given to the administration as the "final" registration requests.

I am concerned with how the course selections will play out because of the cuts coming next year. As you may have heard, we are expected to lose 4 teachers. This might not sound like a lot, but when consider that each teacher has 5 classes that means there are 20 sections worth of classes that are not being offered next year that were there this year. Or, to put it another way, that is approximately 500 "seats" that won't be there next year. Why does this matter? Think about when you came in at the beginning of the 1st or 2nd semester asking to make changes to your schedule and how hard it was to find open classes that we could move you into. Now, take away 500 more seats and imagine how hard it will be to make any changes. I am not trying to be full of doom and gloom, but this is simply our reality. It is also why I cannot stress enough the importance of making sure you are confident in your requests.

Once the final requests are submitted by the counselors at the end of the week, the administration (principal and assistant principals) will look at the numbers for all of the courses selected to determine what, if any, courses do not have enough students signed up to be able to offer the class. After they figure this out they will provide that information back to the counselors with a list of students impacted and we will work with those students and their alternates list to find a suitable replacement course.

The administrators will also begin working to determine the total number of sections of each class (for example English 1's) needed to meet the demand. They will then work with computer services to create a schedule that will create the smallest number of conflicts possible. This is a MUCH bigger challenge than most people would imagine. For example, if a class like AP Computer Science is only offered 1 time in the day, then they have to figure out what students want to take that class and try to make sure that the time of day selected to offer the course will not conflict with any other classes - especially any other classes that are only offered once in a day (like Band, Choir, or AP Foreign Languages).

Eventually they will create a schedule and "lock" it in place. When that happens they will then come back to the counselors with a list of all of the kids with conflicts in their schedules. In some cases, we are able to make minor adjustments - move a few classes around and make the schedule work. In other instances, we will have to work with the student to make tough decisions about what classes they do or do not want to take and use the alternates to find other courses that would work and still meet requirements toward graduation.

And that's it - we will ultimately get the schedule set just how we want it and hopefully all of you will pass all of your classes 2nd semester so that we don't have to go back and add anything into your schedule or change classes that you no longer meet the pre-requisites for, but all of those types of changes will happen after the final grades are submitted in June.

I hope that helps you to understand what is going on with the scheduling and registration process. It is a long and tedious process and I appreciate your patience.

PSEO Program

The Post-Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) program is an opportunity for high school students to take college courses while still enrolled in high school. There are two alternatives for the PSEO program.

Option A is when students take courses at any college of their choice and pay for the courses on their own (often at a discounted rate) and are able to earn the credit for college credit only.

Option B is available in Central Ohio at Columbus State Community College, the Ohio State University, and Franklin University and is paid for by the school district. Students who participate in this option earn both high school and college credit.

There are a lot of details involved in participating in the PSEO program and it is not meant to replace or substitute for coursework available at the high school, but rather to enhance the educational opportunities available. Students must complete the paperwork by March 30th to indicate their intent to participate in the PSEO 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 attend the PSEO Information night on Thursday, March 4th at 7:30pm in the WKHS auditorium.

Impressive Students

I am consistently amazed by the students at Kilbourne frequently and several of "my" students have recently achieved some very impressive awards and recognitions...

- Keeler Callahan is the only student from WKHS who qualified for the state competition in swimming this coming weekend. Keeler qualified to swim the 200 freestyle event. Good Luck Keeler!

- Hunter Atha recently won the OCC-Central division title in diving and he also qualified for the state competition in diving for this week. Congratulations Hunter and good luck at states!

- Heather Boortz was reconized with an individual award as the best attorney for her participation on the Mock Trial Team and she will compete with the team this week for the regional competition. Way to go Heather!

- Katy Deibel is the district All-Around Champion in gymnastics. Congratulations Katy!

I am proud of you all! Thank you for representing Kilbourne so well in every way.

I'm sure I don't need to mention this, but don't forget that tomorrow is a late-start day and you don't have to start 1st period until 9:10am. I don't think most of you have any problems remembering when you get to sleep in... :-)

Senioritis

I can't even begin to count the number of seniors who have stopped in and mentioned that they are dealing with "senioritis." And, even some juniors are already saying that they feel like they have senioritis in advance. While I understand that it can be hard to maintain your focus and pay attention to the details that are necessary to earn apply yourself in classes after you have been accepted to college, the reality is that it is still VERY important! You have heard it from me and yet many of you are still letting things slide... so perhaps the information shared in these articles will help enhance your sense of motivation on the importance of not giving in to senioritis.

A Dean of Admissions wrote this article about senioritis.

As we have discussed before, colleges have the right to revoke admissions decisions for any students whose grades and courses were not consistent with what they had previously expected from the student based upon their history at the time of application. This article addresses colleges revoking admissions decisions.

Please continue to work hard in classes and remember that interim reports are just about 2 weeks away.

Yale Admissions Video

In keeping with the song/ dance feel from yesterday's musical, I thought I would share the Yale admisions video that is on YouTube and is also linked to this article which explains why it was created. I think it is darling. If, in addition to listening to what they are saying (and singing) you also look at the background, you can see a lot of Yale’s campus. The one advantage of the video over an actual campus tour (at least when I was there on a visit) is that they allow you to see the inside of the residential college including the dorm room and eating areas. On the tour they simply take you into the courtyard and talk about all those features. The other big difference is they show a VERY small group of people gathered for an information session and tour – I can assure you that when I was there last year during spring break, the tour was ENORMOUS so you couldn’t always hear the tour guide who was sharing information about the school. It will be interesting to see if other colleges now work to find creative approaches to showcasing their schools in the future.

The Boy Friend

Tonight I went to the opening night of Kilbourne's musical, The Boy Friend. It was incredibly well done and everyone did a fantastic job! I cannot imagine how stressful the snow days made it for all of the individuals involved in putting on the musical, but it never appeared that way as the entire show came off impressively. There is one more night for the musical and I cannot encourage you enough to try to attend Saturday night's performance. The talent, enthusiasm, and dedication that each of the individuals involved in the musical is beyond my ability to describe in words.

A special congratulations to "my" students who participated in the musical. David Busch stole the show for me when he appeared on stage in his messenger-boy costume and started tap dancing. Gina Badillo, Josh Cook, Isabel Andrews, Jessica Blake, and Holly Klepek also had on-stage roles that included singing and dancing. Matthew Cooperman, Austin Dickey, and Kaytee Ambrozich contributed their time, talents, and gifts to the production as members of the orchestra. And, the entire show is impacted significantly by those who take on the very important behind-the-scenes, crew roles which included: Jey Bukkapatnam, Krystin Burgess, and Kyle Calcote.

The musical was very well done and an enjoyable evening!

Can You Imagine?!?

George Washington University had a "slight" glitch when they inadvertently sent out congratulatory e-mails to a group of students who had been rejected to the school. They soon sent out a follow-up e-mail to acknowledge their mistake and to point out that the students were really not accepted. This article gives more details about this mistake. I just can't imagine dealing with the kids who were disappointed, excited, and confused all at the same time. (Unfortunately, it is also not the first time I have heard of mistakes like this happening.)

Parent/ Teacher Conferences

Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Monday, March 1st, and Thursday, March 4th. Conferences begin at 5:30pm and run every 20 minutes with the last conferences beginning at 8:30pm. All conferences with teachers are scheduled through the secretaries in the Counseling Center. Appointments can be scheduled beginning today by calling 883-2590. This is a great opportunity for parents to be able to meet with teachers.

Lots of Links

Are you enjoying the snow day? I have to admit that the 4-day weekend has allowed me time to get things done from my "To Do List". Plus, since I *love* to watch the Olympics I have been thrilled to sit and watch all of the various sporting events. One of the items on my "To Do List" was to catch up on reading all of the articles that I had flagged as being interesting. If I was on top of things most of these could have justified their own post, but there is just not enough time in the day so, here is a very long list of links to articles or blog posts that I think will interest you. I tried to organize them by categories to make it easier to follow. Happy Reading! :-)

Academic Related:

This post deals addresses the common question of the potential impact of a bad semester.

This is a college post about reminders of things that you should NOT do if you don’t want to fail a college exam. Since many of you are preparing to leave the security of WKHS and head out into the college world, it is a good reminder.

These are also written for the college student about how to get the new semester off to a good start, but it is applicable to all high school students as well.

This article focuses on strategies for preparing for tests.

At various times throughout your high school career you will seek editing assistance or other forms of feedback from people around you regarding the paper or project that you are completing. This article provides good insight and reminders in how you can effectively maximize the impact of the input you receive.


College Related:

This article addresses “5 College Blind Spots”

Have you ever thought about taking a Gap Year before starting college? If so, this post may be of interest to you.

Where to Apply to College provides insight into the impact of the economy on college admissions and gives students (and your parents) something to think about when you are trying to develop your list of colleges that you will apply to in the coming years.

Applying for scholarships is always an interesting issue for students because so many don’t want to spend the time working on the applications. Just like you put time into your college applications with the hope of receiving acceptance, now you need to put in time working on scholarships with the hope of receiving free money. Please remember though that you should never pay for scholarships!

This article reinforces the important point that you are hopefully doing your classwork and extra-curricular activities for the sake of your own learning or growth and not just for college admissions.

This article provides some interesting points to reflect on when considering distance from home and your college selection.

An increase in applications… again. This article addresses a common theme from the last couple of years which is a continuing trend this year – the number of applications being received at highly competitive colleges is growing.

This article addresses the impact of the recession on college selections including where to attend and what students are majoring in with the hopes of being able to secure a job after graduation.

This article is aimed at parents, but provides useful and important reminders of how to react (or not to react) as your son/ daughter receive their admissions decisions.

This post addresses the touchy subject of should you (or shouldn’t you) post your college admissions decisions on Facebook.

Since Miami University is one of the top applied to colleges for students at WKHS, you might be interested in their latest announcement regarding scholarships.

College Admissions essays, what to write about…

Are your parents starting to worry about college admissions? They are not alone as this blog posting points out.

This article features information related to college visits.

One common question that often comes up in junior meetings is related to concerns about quotas at colleges. While this is certainly not a new question, it might help you to hear it from someone other than just me and that is what this article will provide.

This article addresses the common question of “How many AP courses should a student take while in high school?”

While I work very hard (as do my colleagues) to help all of our students through the college admissions process, the reality is that you have a lot of work to do too. This post points out the importance of working on your plan and sticking with it throughout high school.

Admissions season begins. Again.

This article addresses some of the statistics related to college acceptances.

I know that a lot of seniors who are still awaiting college admissions decisions are getting impatient and frustrated about how long it takes to receive their decision. This article will definitely help put it in perspective of what a daunting task the colleges are facing as they evaluate the applications.

This blog gives thoughts for students considering which test to take – ACT or SAT

Students who are hoping to participate in collegiate athletics should consider asking coaches some of the questions on this blog post.

Visiting colleges on a budget is a topic of interest to a lot of students. Here are two links that address that issue. Article 1 and Article 2


Personal/ Social Related:

This New York Times article reports on a study of the amount of time students are spending online or using other electronic tools like cell phones.

This article provides An Argument for Quitting Facebook. (I know that this is a hard concept to imagine for some of you, but read through the article and think about how your facebook habits are impacting you and your goals.)

OK, that was over 30 links for you to spend your snow day looking at so at least you won't be able to say you didn't have anything to do today. :-) Stay warm, be safe, and I will see you tomorrow!

Snow Day!

Hooray! I just got the news that we have a snow day tomorrow! Enjoy sleeping in and having this extra long 4 day weekend! Of course, the downside is that it means all of tomorrow's junior meetings must be rescheduled. I will work on trying to figure out when we can reschedule the meetings.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you have a wonderful day and, at least in my opinion, it is made even better by the fact that we have the day off tomorrow too! :-) In the picture are my 2 favorite valentine's - my niece, Carly, and my nephew, Cole. I have been fortunate enough to spend the last few weekends with them including a family trip last weekend to Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati. We had a great time playing in the waterpark while it was snowing outside. Enjoy the long weekend!

King and Queen of Hearts

I love some of the traditions at WKHS and the King and Queen of Hearts is one that I particularly like. As you are aware, tonight is the Valentine's Dance and the King and Queen of Hearts will be announced. In order to be crowned the King and Queen of Hearts, the nominated students have spent the last few weeks raising money for the winter charity (muscular dystrophy). The male and female students who raised the most money will be the individuals crowned. 4 of "my" students were among the group working to raise money as King and Queen of Heart candidates - good luck and congratulations to (alphabetically): Kara Barford, Haley Bogatay, David Busch, and Michael Frizzi.

The Olympics

I *LOVE* the Olympics! As you probably know, I enjoy watching sports as a whole, but the Olympics are so special and unique. It is thrilling to watch all of the different sports and witness the passion and excitement as athletes compete not just for themselves or for one particular team, but for their entire country. It is remarkable to think of the dedication, hard work, and perseverance the athletes have displayed as they made sacrifices and overcame obstacles to achieve their goals. We are blessed to live in a great country and I, for one, am proud to cheer on all of the men and women who will be competing.

There is one athlete that I am particularly excited to cheer on and that is Chris Klug, a downhill snowboarder. He competes in the men’s parallel giant slalom and this will be his 3rd Olympic appearance. In 2002 Chris won the bronze-medal – just 2 years after he had received a life-saving liver transplant. Many of you have seen and commented on the autographed picture of Chris that I have hanging in my office. One of my favorite memories of Chris came when he was preparing to speak at a Donor Family Recognition ceremony in Florida. I was sitting with a donor family in the row behind Chris and his (now) wife, Missy. We started talking to them and Chris stopped working on the final details of his speech to talk to and take pictures with the brother of a young boy who had died in a tragic sledding accident and saved the lives of others after his death by being an organ donor. The kindness and compassion that Chris showed to this family – complete strangers to him – was incredible. I can promise that I will be cheering for Chris and I was so excited when I learned that he had qualified for the Olympics again this year. Here is a video clip that aired of Chris today.

I hope you enjoy the Olympics!

February Socratic Society

Congratulations to the 37 students that were inducted to the Socratic Society this month. The Socratic Society is intended to recognize students for outstanding commitment to one or more of the Socratic principles - lifelong learning, integrity, compassion, scholarship, and personal effort. It is an honor that can only be received once during a student’s high school career. I was very proud to watch as 7 of "my" students were inducted into the Socratic Society during the ceremony last Friday.
“My” students honored included (Left to Right): Front- Clayton Bushey, Alyssa Biron, Megan Dukes and Kaitlyn Bennett and Back – Austin Dickey, Haley Bogatay and Emma Ellis.

Congratulations to every individual recognized and thank you for the impressive way you carry yourselves each day!

College Goal Sunday

Don't forget that deadlines are real - especially regarding college applications and scholarship/ financial aid deadlines. Most schools have FAFSA deadlines of February 15 to March 1st. Be sure to check with your college(s) of choice to make sure that you submit your FAFSA before their deadline.

I also wanted to be sure that all of my seniors (and your parents) were aware of an event called College Goal Sunday. This is a free workshop where you will have expert help from Ohio college financial aid representatives to complete and submit your FAFSA forms. Ohio College Goal Sunday is held across the nation on Sunday, February 14th. Sign in starts at 1:30 and the workshop begins at 2:00. There are three locations in Franklin County - DeVry University, OSU, and Westerville North High School. It is also being held in Delaware County at the OSU-Delaware Center. You will be working on the computers and completing the actual online FAFSA forms during these workshops. 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.

Another Snow Day!

We have another snow day today. Enjoy and stay warm! Of course, this will now push the freshman and sophomore one-on-one meetings out another day which will also create rescheduling problems for Friday's junior meetings. I do not have the calendar of meetings at home with me, but all of the junior meetings for this Friday will have to be moved to next week. Sorry for any inconvenience that this creates!

Delaware Area Career Center Open House

The Delaware Area Career Center provides a wide range of opportunities for students. Students have the option of attending full time at the career center or just half days for their labs (elective credit only) and then completing their other half of the day at WKHS for their core classes. If you have considered participating in a career center program and would like to make another visit or want to explore the alternatives available with your parents, I strongly encourage you to attend the Delaware Area Career Center Open House and Spaghetti Dinner on February 11th from 5 – 8:00pm. At the open house you will have a chance to get a sneak peak at the programs, talk to the instructors, and visit the classrooms while getting all of your questions answered about what to expect at the Delaware Area Career Center. Dinner will be served at the career center from 5 – 7pm. ($7 for adults, $6 for seniors, $5 for children, and kids under 3 are free)

Open House for the following programs will be held on separate dates:
- Teacher Academy: January 20th at South Campus from 6-7pm
- Pre-Professional Internship: January 20th at South Campus from 6-7pm
- Business Management: January 26th at South Campus at 6:30pm
- Zoo School: January 26th at the Columbus Zoo from 5-8pm (call Laura Henderson for details at 614-724-3608)

Snow Day

Snow Day!!! You get to sleep in and enjoy the day off. :-)

We will be bumping back all of the freshman meetings scheduled for today to tomorrow and tomorrow's Sophomore meetings will go to Thursday.

Honors Diploma

Students graduating in the Class of 2011 and beyond have new requirements if you hope to earn an Honors Diploma. The requirements for the honors diploma listed below are established by the state department of education.

You will 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)

- 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

The one area that I have noticed some students falling short in is the science area. Some students have decided to take a different AP Science course instead of taking physics. It will still be possible to earn an honors diploma if that is your situation and goal, but you will need to make sure you fulfill all of the remaining criterion.

Meeting Madness

The next few weeks will be rather hectic with one-on-one meetings. I will be meeting all day long on Tuesday and Wednesday with freshmen and sophomore students. As a result, there will be no time during those days to see any other students. Please understand that your concerns and needs are very important to me so I will work to meet with you on Monday, Thursday, or Friday in between the one-on-one junior meetings.

Letter of Intent

Congratulations to Jason Cunningham who signed his national letter of intent to play football at Drake University in Iowa. Jason had his "signing" ceremony after school on Wednesday. Jason was surrounded by his family, coaches, teammates, and friends who attended to show their support and to celebrate this great accomplishment with him. (Pictured above is Jason in the center as he signs his letter of intent with his brother and mom on either side. His dad is just outside of the picture.) Congratulations Jason! We are proud of you!

Athletic Eligibility

As you review your course selections online this weekend, please be sure that you double check and make sure you are taking enough classes to be eligible to participate in athletics and other co-curricular activities.

All freshman, sophomore, and junior students are required to take at least 6 classes each semester.

All seniors are required to take at least 5 classes each semester.

In addition to the minimum number of courses you must take, in order to be eligible you must PASS at least 5 of the half credit courses each quarter. If you are signing up to take a Wellness for Life (formerly Phys Ed) course, you need to remember that these classes are only worth .25 credits so they do not count in the courses needed for athletic eligibility.

If you have questions about athletic eligibility, please stop in the athletic office or to see me for additional clarification.

Registration Reminder

I realize that right now every student (and let's be honest, most of the staff) are hoping that we luck out and have a snow day or at least a delay tomorrow. I suspect we aren't going to luck out with the majority expected to arrive Saturday, but there is always the hope. :-) Since we may (or may not) be at school tomorrow, I wanted to remind you that it is essential for EVERY student (grades 9 - 11) to register online by Monday. Below is a copy of the e-mail that is going to be sent home tomorrow to all parents from the counseling department about registration.

Dear Parents,

It's that time of year again!

The online registration system is currently open and all students must register online for their 2010-2011 classes by Monday, February 8th. Students will register by logging into the portal and indicating their courses on the “My Requests” page. Please take the time to sit with your students, review the courses that their teachers recommended, and decide on a schedule that best fits your student's needs.

All students will meet with their counselor individually to review the courses they have submitted online to make sure that they are on track for graduation and for meeting their future goals. They will need to turn in their completed course recommendation forms during these meetings. We understand that some students may have questions about their course selections and we will work to address them during our meetings. It is still essential that all students have submitted their course requests online prior to these meetings with the required number of credits and alternatives selected. It may ease your mind to know that the system closes for students on the 8th, but counselors will still be able to enter the system to make changes if necessary.

Freshman will meet with counselors on February 9th.
Sophomores will meet with counselors on February 10th.
Junior meetings are scheduled individually by counselors and they have received notice of these meeting dates and times.

This is the first year that we are being given the opportunity to meet one-on-one with every single student on our case load and we are very excited that each student will have this individualized attention regarding their academic planning. As you can imagine, this will be a busy few weeks for us, so we ask for your patience throughout this process. We realize some of you may have questions that your son or daughter is unable to answer. Perhaps these questions can be addressed via e-mail, but if you feel it is essential to have a face-to-face meeting, we will be available during the March 1st parent/ teacher conferences. Please call or e-mail your son or daughter’s counselor directly if you want to schedule an appointment for that evening.

Thank you,
The WKHS Counselors

High Anxiety

I don't know if it is always this intense and I just don't remember it from past years, but it seems to me that everyone is more anxious than usual regarding picking classes for next year. The overwhelming number of e-mails and voicemail messages from parents not to mention all of you who are stopping down to try to see me provide a pretty solid indication that there is a lot of concern about registering for classes.

Let me try to put your mind at ease on a few issues. Yes, you do need to register online by next Monday. I will also be double checking all of your classes and meeting with every student individually. We will be able to make any changes that are determined to be necessary at the time of our meeting or throughout the month.

Some people are hoping to set up appointments in addition to the individual meetings. I promise that I am more than happy to meet with you and we will work to find a time that is convenient, but it doesn't need to be before you register online because I can still go into the system and make changes to class requests throughout this month. Please go ahead and register with your best guess on classes that you would like to take and then when we are able to meet if changes are needed I can make them at that time.

I hope that eases your mind a little bit to know that it is not completely locked in stone after you submit your requests online! I am here to help you, but I do beg for you to try to be patient with me as having more than 350 students makes it hard to get to everyone all at the same time.

The Key is Balance

Hopefully you are ready to register for your classes (or have already done so) online. When you are considering which classes you want to take it is really important to try to find a balance. You want to challenge yourself with courses that will push you and help prepare you for the future. At the same time you want to remember that it 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 be an honor to have every teacher recommend you for AP classes it doesn't mean that it would be the ideal situation to load your schedule with all AP classes. 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.

Thanks to the Juniors (and their parents) who came in to meet with me today. Hopefully it wasn't *too* painful. :-) I am looking forward to getting to know you all even better over the next year.

Online Registration

As you heard during last week's homeroom, the online registration system for all students currently in grades 9, 10, or 11 to log in and select classes for next year is currently open.

Over the next few days your teachers should continue reviewing the different classes offered within their departments as well as talking with you individually about the courses they would recommend for you to take next year. Please be sure to carry your registration materials with you so that you can get your teacher signatures on the course recommendation form and can make any notes about other classes of interest. If you'd like to hear more in depth information directly from the teachers who teach particular courses, please be sure to attend tomorrow night's Curriculum Night from 7 - 9pm.

After you have determined which courses you would like to take, please talk it over with your parents and then log in and register. You will register on the portal at http://www.worthington-portal.org/ and it will prompt you for your username and password which you should know from school. If you have any problems, using the online registration system, please stop in and let me know so that I can try to fix it.

Remember, your math teachers indicated the math course that they are recommending for you to take next year online already so you will not be adding a math class. Also, as you are completing your online registration, don't forget that you can leave me a note in the request comments section. If you change your mind after completing your registration, simply log back in before February 8th and make your changes. After February 8th your course requests will be locked.