Oh Seniors...

Seniors, we need to chat...

Tomorrow is the deadline for ordering your cap and gown at the regular rates.  After tomorrow there will be additional fees required to get your cap and gown.  I looked at the list of students who have their cap and gown ordered and it was less than half of my students!  :-(  Please, save yourself the time, money and effort by ordering your cap and gown NOW! 

Don't forget, we are working with a new partner for the Caps and Gowns.  Everything is now going through National Recognition Products.  This has changed the look for the caps and gowns, so even if you have an older sibling who had a gown, you will need to get a new one this year so that you have a consistent look with the rest of the class.  To order your gap, gown and tassel, please call the National Recognition Products office at 614-235-0277.  You can also contact them by e-mail at customerservice@nrpohio.com.  If you want to order announcements or other senior related products in addition to the cap and gown you can do that on their website at www.nrponline.com.  When you place your cap and gown order they will need your name, contact information, height, weight, gender, and that you are a student at Worthington Kilbourne High School.

Senior Pictures are due for the Yearbook by the end of February!  Many seniors have not yet submitted their senior pictures to the yearbook and it is essential that you complete that process.  Remember, it often takes photographers several weeks to get the pictures submitted or back to you so that you can turn them in for the yearbook.  If you did not have senior pictures taken, we can arrange for a photography student or a yearbook student to take your picture or for your LifeTouch photo from the beginning of the year to be used.  Please stop by to talk to me or go to see Mrs. Mullen, the Yearbook Advisor for assistance with your yearbook pictures.  (And since I'm not too proud to beg, I would LOVE to have one of your senior pictures to keep!  Each year I make an album with pictures and notes from my students in that graduating class and I'd really like to have your pictures!)

Many students are currently finalizing their plans for Senior Project.  If you are planning on participating in Senior Project at the end of your senior year, please be sure that you are meeting with Mr. Miller and meeting all of his deadlines so that you can have this exciting experience.

I mentioned the need for working on your FAFSA with your parents and it bears repeating because deadlines are real and you need to make sure you are giving yourself every advantage financially for college.  Along those same lines, please make sure you are working on applying for any scholarships for which you qualify.

I am out of the building tomorrow, so I hope you have a great weekend!

A Few Reminders

Seniors: Don't forget to watch your financial aid deadlines. Some are as early as February 1st! And, although I assume this goes without saying, if you still haven't applied to college, you need to do this now.

Juniors: We are about ready to start the registration process and your planning for senior year and life after high school. I sent an e-mail to your parents today about potential meeting times as I would like to schedule a 30 minute appointment with each of you and your parents. The dates of the meeting options are February 26th (7am - 9pm), March 1st (8:30am - 9pm), and March 4th (9:30am - 7pm). I hope that will provide enough options so that we will have the opportunity to meet together with your parents. Take a moment and remind your parents about the meeting.

Sophomores: You have been through a year and a half of high school.  Before long you will be taking the Ohio Graduation Tests, please make sure you are paying attention to the OGT reviews that your teachers are providing.  I promise, you will be glad that you focused and pass the OGT on the first time rather than taking the tests multiple times.

Freshmen: By now you understand the way high school works and what to expect on a day to day basis.  It is time to start figuring out how you can make a positive impact on the school and community.  How can you get involved?  What clubs, activities, or sports are you interested in joining?  Take actions today to explore areas that will help you in the future.

WKHS Counselor Website

Yesterday I posted articles about a range of topics that I thought might interest you.  I wanted to remind you that the WKHS Counselor website - www.wkhscounselors.com has a wide range of information that could be useful for you.

For example, some of the articles highlighted scholarship search tips.  All of the scholarships that WKHS has been sent are featured on the counselor website in the scholarship section.  There is also a list of links where you can find scholarship search tips and websites for searching in the College/ Career Section under Financial Aid.

Some of the articles talked about the importance of getting involved and exploring areas of interest during the summer.  As you try to figure out what you want to do this coming summer, you might be interested in seeing the summer opportunities that we have received from various colleges and programs.  We have updated this information on the counselor website too.

I just wanted to remind you that there is information available for you at any time you want or need on the Kilbourne counselor website.  We are constantly working to update the website so that it can be a valuable tool for you.  If there are topics you are hoping we could include, please let me know and I will add it to the list of things for us to include in the future.

Articles of Interest

I hope you had a great weekend.  This will be your first 5-day school week in quite a while.  As we gear up for the week ahead, I thought some of these articles might interest you.

Getting into Yale

21 Scholarships with February Deadlines

Scholarship Scams

Where the full ride sports scholarships are

Explore scholarships for Hispanic Students

Scholarships for Animal Lovers Abound

5 simple steps to get organized for scholarship season

10 choices you will regret in 10 years

Make a Difference: Put your teen energy and enthusiasm to work

The importance of volunteering

The value of high school summer experiences

The Gap Year Program – Boosting higher education through life lessons

Tips for planning spring break college visits

Very best guide for mastering the ACT

Getting ready for the SAT and ACT

One simple tip for maximizing standard test performance

January college checklist for juniors

January college checklist for seniors

How to choose a college

Happy Reading!

Thank You Notes

A thank you note is a simple enough idea - let someone else know that you appreciate them. I don't know about you, but a lot of times I am terrible at writing thank you notes. It doesn't mean that my gratitude is any less, but... and that is where everything falls apart. If I don't express my gratitude to the person who has been a positive influence in my life or who has done something nice for me or gone out of their way to help me, then how do they know how much I appreciate it? See the problem?

And I am pretty confident that many of you face the same problem. So I want to remind you of the importance of thank you notes. They do not have to be long or flowery - simply thank the person who has helped you. This is especially important for teachers who have written recommendation letters for you. Many people do not realize the time and effort it takes to write a good recommendation letter. If you didn't thank your teachers at the time they wrote your recommendation letters, perhaps now - as you wrap up your college application process - is the perfect time! Thank them for their help and support with your college applications. It is important to make sure that they know how much you appreciate their help along the way. It won't take you a long time, but it will certainly mean a lot to them. 

Before I close this post, I want to be very clear - I am NOT talking about writing to me! I do NOT need nor am I in any way hinting, asking for, or needing you to write a thank you note to me! I just figured we could all use a reminder in the importance of writing thank you notes and expressing our gratitude for those around us. Have a great weekend (and yes, I hope to finish writing my Christmas thank you notes this weekend)!  :-)

Report Cards & Parent/ Teacher Conferences

I feel relatively confident that most students know how to access infinite campus to check your grades, but parents may not be as consistently looking at progress.  In part this may be because they are allowing you to take responsibility for your own learning and watching as you develop independence while still in high school and part of it is that your parents are busy and infinite campus can be “out of sight, out of mind”. 

Parents, with the first semester coming to a close, I strongly encourage you to log in to Infinite Campus and check your son or daughter’s first semester grades.  Are their grades what you had expected?  Are you pleased?  Does your son or daughter need more structure or support to help them develop new skills for studying or preparing for classes?

If parents do not know their username and password, please go to www.worthington.k12.oh.us and click on the login button in the top right corner.  The next screen will ask for the login information and it provides an option to enter your e-mail address if you do not know your username and password.  Please note that your email address must match the one the district has in your student’s profile.  Once you submit your e-mail address, computer services will soon e-mail you with your username and password.

The online report-cards allows for parents and students to assess the progress to date.  Yet many times, if the student is struggling to be successful in classes, the students and parents are not sure what the best steps to pursue for making changes.  One of my top suggestions is to talk to the teachers!  Your teachers have a good perspective on where you stand in their class.  They can help clarify on concepts that you are missing, areas where you can improve, and they can provide concrete suggestions for how you can make changes to find success in their classes.

Parent/ Teacher conferences are coming up soon.  Conferences will be held on Thursday, February 7^th and Monday, February 11^th from 5:00pm – 8:40pm.  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, you will be able to do this beginning Monday, January 26^th.  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 Monday morning.  

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 email 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.

Dealing with Deferrals

One of the realities of the college admission process is that not every student will be accepted to every college. The waiting game can often be one of the more frustrating aspects. With family members and friends consistently asking, "Where are you going to college?" the uncertainty present with each "I don't know" response can be overwhelming.

Sometimes even when you hear back from the college, the answer still leaves you wondering where you stand. That is the case with a deferral. As I mentioned a few days ago in a blog post, a deferral is not a "yes" and it is not a "no." It is what a college will do when they need more time to make a decision on your application.

So, what should you do if you are deferred? 

One of the first steps should be to stop in and see me so that we can talk about the college decision and develop a game-plan for your next steps.

If I were trying to simplify the process, then I would suggest that you call the admisisons office and talk directly with the admissions officer who is in charge of our region. Talk to him/ her about where you stand and what they would like for you to do to be a more "ideal" candidate.  Also look at the letter they sent you - what information did they say they wanted from you as that is often a specific roadmap of what you need to do next.

Draft a letter with any updates and information that you can share with the admissions staff. In particular, let them know that of any new experiences that you have had or recent accomplishments that they weren't previously aware of when you first applied. Updating them on your new activities and accomplishments is important because it is your effort to help give the college a reason to select you and add your application to the "accepted" pile. 

Send them an updated copy of your transcript. A strong first semester will be very important to helping showcase to the college why you should be a part of next year's freshman class.

If you re-took your ACT or SAT exams and haven't forwarded your most recent scores to the college, request for the scores to be sent directly to the college of your choice.

Consider other outreach efforts to communicate your strengths with the admissions office such as an additional teacher recommendation letter.

Although no one likes to be deferred, remember that this is not the end of the world and there is still plenty of time to communicate your strengths to the admissions committee to increase your chances of being accepted to their school.

A Gentle Reminder

It's easy to forget... sometimes we all get so caught up in our own lives that we forget that not everyone is in the same situation or feels the same way we do. 

In the past few weeks as more and more college admissions decisions have been arriving, I have noticed that students will sometimes forget that others are around and start announcing where they were accepted and their feelings about different schools. It is wonderful news and completely understandable that you want to shout it from the roof-tops when you have been accepted to a school, but it is also important to be sensitive to those around you and to remember that some of your friends and classmates are NOT being accepted into the very same colleges. While receiving a college rejection letter is hard, it is even more hurtful to hear someone else say something such as, "Oh, I was accepted to ___ (insert name of college) but I would never actually go there." Particularly if the school mentioned was the one where a student was recently rejected and had been their top choice college. 

So, go ahead and share in your excitement, but please be sensitive to what you say about other schools and how you "rate" your own schools. No one school is perfect for every student and every student is not perfect for every school - it is important to find the right balance and I sincerely believe that every student will be able to find the college that is right for them.

Common College Decision Responses

As more and more students begin hearing from colleges I thought it might be helpful to know some of the most common terms you will see in response letters from colleges. Below are some of the more common college related terms/ phrases for admissions decisions. If your son/ daughter receives a letter and you are uncertain what they mean, please feel free to let me know or to contact the college directly.

- Accepted: Congratulations - they are inviting you to join and be a part of their college/ university

- Declined/ Rejected/ Not Accepted: For whatever reason the college did not feel that you would be a good fit. While it is understandably disappointing, please remember that there are lots of colleges and universities out there so don’t give up on finding a good match.

- Decision Deferred: The college is not sure yet… usually they will tell you what additional data/ information they are interested in receiving to help them make their decision. The most common piece of data they will look for are senior year grades at the semester time.

- Wait List: The wait list is not a denial, but it is not an acceptance either. Colleges use wait lists as insurance to make sure that their freshman class will be the appropriate size. If enough students decide to attend, the college will not accept anyone off of their wait-list.

Please remember that we track admissions decisions, but for most colleges the only way we know of the decision is if you come in and inform us, so please, be sure to stop in and let me know as you hear back from each school.

Delaware Area Career Center

Earlier this year all sophomore students participated in presentation sessions by the Delaware Area Career Center (DACC) and then had the opportunity to join in a field trip to explore the DACC in person.  In just over a month we will begin the registration process for next year’s classes and I wanted to remind all students about the great opportunities available at the career center.

Students who attend the DACC are still WKHS students.  You can still participate in Kilbourne sports, clubs, dances and most students split their time between academic classes at WKHS and elective classes at DACC.  Depending on what year you graduate all students must earn either 5 or 6 credits of electives in order to graduate.  The reality is that many students are interested in taking hands-on electives in a range of areas that interest them and unless it is an elective within one of the core fields, we don’t have a large number of choices for students within our building.  However, the partnership with DACC provides a wonderful opportunity for students to get hands on experiences in a field while completing their elective requirements.

My students who have attended the DACC have loved it!  They like the opportunity to push themselves in an area, the chance to determine if a career field is right for them, and to learn in different ways than the traditional classroom setting.  Each time I step foot into a DACC lab, I am impressed by all the things that students are doing.  Whether it was building sheds, welding, driving fire trucks, playing with kids, repairing cars, cooking & serving food, participating in research on animals at the zoo, teaching, or reporting about their internship experiences, all of the students were engaged and thriving.

Most of the programs at the Delaware Area Career Center are 2 year programs for students to complete their junior and senior years, but there are some sophomore programs and some senior only programs.   The teacher academy is one of the senior only programs that used to be housed at WKHS.  Hopefully there will be enough interest next year that this program will be able to return to our campus as this program allows WKHS students who are interested in being teachers to go out and have experiences in different settings working as a teacher.  Additionally, one of the other impressive senior only programs is the pre-professional internship.  With this program seniors have the chance to go out and participate in 3 or 4 internships throughout the entire school year.  My students who have participated in this program in the past reported that it was very valuable in helping them determine what fields they liked or disliked before they ended up in college with a  major in a field that they ultimately would have disliked.

If you didn’t participate in the field trip back in November and would still like to learn more about the opportunities at the Delaware Area Career Center you can still visit!  They have second look days coming up on January 23, February 20, and March 6^th where you can visit one of the DACC campuses and spend time in the labs seeing what the students in that program are doing on a day-to-day basis.  Also, if your parents are interested in learning more about the Delaware Area Career Center, they will be hosting an Open House this week on Thursday, January 24^th from 5 – 8pm. 

For more information about Delaware Area Career Center programs, please visit their website at www.delawareacc.org.

Oh The Places You'll Go

Are you excited about the fact that we have a long weekend and you have tomorrow off?  For many students this is the perfect opportunity to make a college visit.  If you are going to make a visit on a college campus, please make sure to take a picture somewhere on campus for me!

For the record, the picture can be anywhere on campus, but I would like you in the picture!  So, pick out a pretty place on campus, find a cool sign announcing the college's name, or snap a picture in front of the building that houses your major where you anticipate spending most of your time in the future.

If you have no idea what colleges you might be interested in for the future, you can still make use of the long weekend to start exploring colleges.  You can, of course, begin your search online and try to find colleges that fit your interests, but more often than not, students tell me that they don't know what they want in a college.  If that is you, then perhaps starting your college search by exploring some nearby campuses would be a valuable use of your time.  As you walk around the campus, people watch and listen to the presentations by the college admissions representatives you will begin to see various aspects of college life.  From these impressions you will be able to start forming an impression of what you like and what you don't like.  These views will be extremely valuable to you as you start narrowing your college search.

No matter how you spend your long weekend, I hope you have a enjoy the extra day!  And again, if you are visiting a college, please be sure to bring back a picture!

Earning Credit

This week a large part of my time was trying to explain to students about how you earn credits in high school.  It is a valuable reminder for everyone.

High school is different than elementary and middle school.  In middle school, you take classes and each year you move on to the next grade and take all the classes for that grade.  In high school, you must earn credits for specified classes and the way you earn credit is by passing each semester of the class. 

So, for example, all students must earn 4 credits of English to graduate.  When you pass both semesters of English 1 during your freshman year, you move on to English 2 during your sophomore year.  If, unfortunately, you failed one of the semesters of English 1 then you are going to have to make that up before you can progress on to English 2.  Students who failed a semester will be able to make up the course either by repeating the class in summer school, repeating the class through credit recovery or repeating the class by retaking it during your sophomore year.  The bottom line is that you must REPEAT the class in some format.

Some classes (like English) have pre-requisites that students must meet in order to move on to the next level.  Other classes, like Science and Social Studies, do not have pre-requisites to move on to the next level so in order to help make sure all students are exposed to the content you will need to know before the OGT, we will allow you to move from PESS to BESS or from World History to US History without first repeating the freshman year class.  Don’t misunderstand though, you will have to repeat the class at some point, but if you are not making it up during summer school, then you will likely be taking a freshman year class during your junior year.

In order to earn sophomore status, students must have earned at least 5 credits.  To become a junior you will need 10 credits.  To be classified as a senior, you must have earned at least 15 credits.

If you have any questions about where you stand with the credits you have earned or what still remains, please don’t hesitate to stop by and see me.

Reminder

Don't forget, tomorrow is the last day to add classes to your schedule.  I realize that this seems fast, but you have to remember, every day that you are not sitting in class, the rest of the students are moving forward and you are falling behind.  As a result, the policy states that students have three days to change their schedule if it involves adding into a new class.  If you are still hoping to add into a class, please be sure to bring your parent signature on the add/ drop form with you.  (Again, you can download a copy of the form from the WKHS counselor website - www.wkhscounselors.com and it is located in the academic category under the schedule changes area.

Office Workers

Office workers play a vital role in the smooth operation of the counseling center.  They frequently help us by delivering passes to the students we need to see throughout the day and sometimes they help us with other special projects.  Although it isn't every day, they often have time to work on their homework.

The office workers earn community service hours for their volunteer commitment.  Many students feel this is an easy way to earn service hours because it is completed during the school day.

Personally, I love having my students among those serving as office workers because it allows me to get to know them better.  During the first semester I was fortunate enough to have 4 of my students working as office workers - Gabrielle Dendinger, JC Bartok, Griffin Dahn and Amelia Boudinot.

Many students are not able to continue working as office workers both semesters and so many of the class periods have openings for 1 or 2 office workers.  If you are interested in giving up your academic prep, options or lunch periods to sign up as an office worker, please stop by to see me and I will give you an application.  It is important to have strong grades in your classes because working as an office worker will require you to give up the time that you normally would have been able to dedicate to studying.  I would love to have more of "my" students working as office workers during 2nd semester, so please consider this possibility.

Gabrielle, JC, Griffin, and Amelia -  Thank you for your dedication and commitment to helping as office workers!  I appreciate your time and energy to help us with anything that we needed.  Your positive attitudes and generous kindness often brightened my day.  I am grateful that this provided me the chance to get to know you each better.  Your responsibility and dependability are admirable traits.  Thanks again for your help!

Think Twice

The first three days of each new semester are typically filled with countless students coming by to see if they can change their schedules.  I need to remind you to think twice before you try to make any changes.

Colleges frequently tell us the importance of seeing students maintain their challenging schedules - especially during their senior years!  A strong senior year schedule (and doing well in it) is one of the best predictors of a student's success in college.  Not only is it important to colleges because that is what they were expecting you to take, but it shows them that you have the dedication to stick to your commitments when times get tough.  This is critical for colleges, but also a valuable life skill.  If you back away from any challenge, then you never really know what you can achieve.

If you are a senior and you are considering changing your schedule, I want to make sure you are communicating with your college BEFORE you make any changes!  This is essential.  Colleges have the right to take away your acceptance if you make changes from what you had indicated on your application.  Last year I had a student who wanted to make a relatively minor change from one senior English class to a different one.  When she contacted her colleges of choice, she had two colleges that were not in favor of her making this change and after several discussions they indicated that if she wrote a letter outlining why she was making this adjustment to her schedule and how she anticipated it helping her in the future that they would take that into consideration.  Fortunately, for this individual she was still accepted to her first choice college and it all worked out well, but had she not communicated in advance and followed it up in writing, I am not confident that the outcome would have been the same.

If you're not sure of the importance of maintaining your schedule, please check out this article and be sure to follow the link within the article to read the letter from UNC.  Believe me, I am not making this up when I am telling you that I don't think you should be making changes - I am just trying to look out for you.

Now, please let me clarify, this is not true 100% of the time!  If you are struggling with your academic load, then you should make adjustments!  For students who are having a difficult time academically (F's, D's or even low C's), you need to make changes.  I don't know what those changes will be for you - hopefully it is an adjustment to your approach, time management and studying strategies, but if that is not a realistic option, then you need to change your course load.  Colleges want you to take appropriately challenging classes - in other words, classes that push you, but where you can still achieve success.

A slightly different aspect of when I believe you need to think twice about the courses you are taking is for those students who are too overloaded.  You may be doing relatively well in all of your classes, but if you are struggling emotionally, are stressed 95% of the time, are not sleeping, or, are just barely managing to keep your head above water, then I believe you should consider adjusting your courses.  This is particularly true if you know that your second semester has commitments (such as a spring sport or a new job) that you haven't been juggling with the rest of your commitments so far this year.  Perhaps it doesn't mean you need to change your schedule, but something will need to change because your emotional and personal well being is of the utmost importance!

Enjoy your day off tomorrow!  Don't forget to print your schedule from Infinite Campus so that you know where to go on Tuesday!

2nd Semester

Congratulations, you made it through the 1st semester!  A few reminders as we head into 2nd semester:

1. You have Monday off!  Your teachers will be working to finalize all of your 2nd quarter, exam and 1st semester grades.

 

2.  Print your schedules!  Unless every class you are taking is a year-long course, your schedule is probably changing on Tuesday.  As a result, please make sure that you have the updated copy of your classes and the rooms where your classes will meet.  You can log into Infinite Campus to print your new schedule.

3.  Remember that any schedule changes require a parent signature.  Often times students will try to change their semester long classes as we go into the new semester.  Perhaps your elective interests have changed, but understand that we cannot overload a class and I cannot magically make a class appear in the master schedule where it isn't offered.  I strongly encourage you to at least give your new classes a chance before you decide to request a change.  If you know now or after next Tuesday that you want to make a change to your schedule, you can download the course change request forms from the academic section of the WKHS Counselor Website or you can pick up a copy from the bookshelves in the counseling center.

4.  Get Organized!  This weekend gives you the perfect opportunity to sort through all of your schoolwork from the first semester.  What do you need to keep?  What can be recycled?  What needs to be filed and saved for future reference?  Do you need new folders?  Do you need more pencils, paper, binders?  Get organized now so that you start fresh for the new semester.  It is much easier to work to stay organized than it is to try to catch back up if you start off in a hole.

5.  Reflect on the first semester and set goals for the upcoming semester.  How do you feel about the grades you have earned so far?  Is what you have accomplished an accurate reflection of your capabilities?  What things tended to get in your way?  What would help you minimize those distractions?  What supports do you want/ need to help you to be successful?  What do you want to accomplish next semester?  Are there new experiences you hope to try?  What about outside of school?  Are you getting enough sleep?  Be clear with yourself about your goals and identify what small steps you can start taking today to help you accomplish them.

Enjoy your long weekend!

Good Luck on Exams!

It is finally here - Exams!  You don't need to panic about exams, but you do need to prepare for them! As you know, tomorrow begins semester exams and they play a significant role in your final grade for the semester of each course (and remember, because we grant credits based on the semester this is really important to you!) Most of your classes will follow the structure that your 1st quarter grades are worth 40% of your final semester grade, the 2nd quarter grade that you are currently wrapping up now will make up another 40% and then your exam grade is worth 20% of your final semester grade.

20% is a really big deal...
Think about it, if you had a 57% the first quarter and end up with a 60% this quarter then you can still pass the class as long as you earn a 66% or higher on the exam. On the other side, if you are trying to make sure that you earn an A in a course and you had a 95% first quarter and an 88% this quarter than you need to earn an 85% or higher on the exam to reach your goal.

Clearly, exams are an important part of your grade, but more importantly, they provide you the opportunity to practice a more realistic glimpse of what testing will be like in college and helps you to showcase your semester's worth of knowledge.  Please don't stress about exams, but focus and do your best.  Be sure to get a good night's sleep and eat breakfast in the morning.

Below is the schedule for the semester exams:

Day One - Wednesday, January 9th:
7:45 - 9:45: 3rd period exam
10:00 - 12:00: 4th period exam
12:00 - 1:00: Lunch
1:00 - 3:00: 7th period exam

Day Two - Thursday, January 10th:
7:45 - 9:45: 2nd period exam
10:00 - 12:00: 5th period exam
12:00 - 1:00: Lunch
1:00 - 3:00: 8th period exam

Day Three - Friday, January 11th:
7:45 - 9:45: 1st period exam
10:00 - 12:00: 6th period exam
12:00 - 1:00: NO Lunch Provided!
1:00 - 3:00: Make-Up Exams

A couple of questions that tend to come up at exam time...

Yes, you are REQUIRED and EXPECTED to be in all of your classes during an exam. (Even if you don't have an actual exam, the teachers are going to be working with you on projects, papers, or other learning related to their course.)

No, you do NOT need to be in school during your scheduled lunch period or during your Options or Prep periods. (Which means, for example, that if you have 1st period options and 6th period lunch that you do not have to come to school at all on the 12th.)

Hope that helps clarify and good luck on exams!

Also - Don't forget that tomorrow night at 7pm is the Financial Aid Night at WKHS!

Peer Tutoring Program

How is studying going?  I hope that you have been productive this weekend and are feeling good about the upcoming exams.  For some students this is a very overwhelming time because you are not just reviewing old information, but trying to re-learn it all before your exams.  If this is the case, my guess would be that you are questioning yourself about why you didn't just work harder throughout the semester to actually understand the material instead of making sure you knew it enough to just get by on the test.

At WKHS we are very fortunate to have a lot of resources available to students - teachers who will meet with you before or after school and during their off periods as well as the academic assistants in the Teaching & Learning Center (room 209).  But sometimes students prefer to work with other students which happens a lot with study groups or friends helping others with questions.  Seeing a need, one of my students, Joey Cipicchio, developed a peer tutoring plan that he presented to Ms. Adrean.  She has agreed that developing a peer tutoring program will be an additional beneficial resource for the Kilbourne students.

Many students have a subject or two that simply clicks for them.  Perhaps, for example, math class just makes sense to you and you grasp the concepts easily.  You will have the opportunity to sign up as a peer tutor for students wanting help in the subjects that are your strengths.  The peer tutors will be on a list that other students can then access as a resource and the tutor and student needing help can set up time(s) to meet that work well for one another.

This is a great opportunity for students needing help, but even more so for the students who serve as the peer tutors!  You can reinforce your understanding of course material as you help others, earn volunteer hours and you can reinforce outstanding characteristics such as patience, dedication, and responsibility.  Any students willing to be added to the list as peer tutors should plan on attending a brief meeting after school on Tuesday, January 8th in Room 120.

Also, just a quick last minute reminder that we have a late start day tomorrow, Monday, January 7th.  Enjoy sleeping in!  :-)

January Students of the Month

Yesterday morning 17 WKHS students were recognized as being January 2013 Students of the Month.  Students are nominated by staff in recognition for their outstanding contributions to the classroom and community.  Students are only eligible to receive this recognition one time during their 4 years at WKHS.

I am very proud of "my" students who were honored on Friday.  Pictured from Left to Right: Isabel Bensusan, Jenna Boue, Tanner Atha, and Cameron Cleaves.  Also, not pictured, Michael Coen.  Congratulations and thank you for the outstanding contributions you make to Worthington Kilbourne High School!

Learning to Study

With exams rapidly approaching a lot of students have been turning their time and attention from completing homework to studying.  I frequently ask students if they know how to study and, quite honestly, the most common response is "no." It really isn't a surprise though. The reality is that until high school gets hard enough that you hit the wall and it no longer comes easy to you, studying isn't something you typically have to worry about and spend a lot of time focusing on.

The challenging part of studying is that what works best for one person may not be what works best for someone else. And, even if you figure out what works best for you in one particular subject area, that still doesn't mean that this particular strategy will be most effective for a different subject.

The best news is that there are lots of different ideas and strategies that you can use to develop a study strategy that works best for you! For what it is worth, think of learning to study like you think of learning to run. You already know some skills that have helped you to know how to study and to be successful - just like you already know how to run, but if you practice and really train at running, you can improve significantly and studying will work just the same. Keep working at your study strategies, practice and continue refining your technique until you find the perfect combination that works for you.

Don't forget that on the WKHS Counselor website (www.wkhscounselors.com) we have study strategy ideas available for you to consider trying.  You will find it under the Academic Category in the section on Student Success.

Financial Aid

Now that we have passed the 1st of the year it is officially Financial Aid Season!

Most seniors will need to fill out the FAFSA form (FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and it is essential to meet the deadlines established by your colleges of choice to determine what amount of aid they can offer. (Many deadlines will be February 15th.) So this is definitely not something you can put off.  There are some people who will automatically assume that they do not qualify for financial aid and it is important not to make assumptions and to read the fine print from the colleges carefully as there are some colleges that won't offer any financial packages (including merit scholarships) without having a FAFSA on file. Specific questions about each college's requirements and deadlines should be addressed to the financial aid offices at each respective college.

The way financial need is determined is taking the “Cost of Attendance” (which includes tuition, fees, room, board, books, and other miscellaneous expenses) and then subtracting from that the “Expected Family Contribution” and the remaining difference is what is known as your “Financial Need.”

The financial aid administrators reminded us that usually people do not agree with their Estimated Family Contribution, but it is the same for everyone so it is fair across the board.

For what it is worth, it is also important to know that it depends upon each school as to whether they guarantee to meet your entire financial need with a financial aid offer. You can usually find this information on the college financial aid website.

If you are a freshman, sophomore, junior, or the parent of a student in one of these grades, you may be interested in using Net Price Calculators on each college's website to give you an idea of what you might qualify for regarding federal aid when considering colleges for the future.

When you are completing the FAFSA application, please remember that this is a FREE application – do not pay to have someone help you fill it out as there are plenty of opportunities to get free assistance to complete it if you need it. You will also want to make sure that you are using the correct website –http://www.fafsa.gov/ – (do not use .com as that is a site that has a fee.)

You can request your PIN number now, but please make sure you save it and keep it in a safe place for future use as this will be your permanent PIN number. Your parents will also need their own PIN number unless they have one that they have utilized with older students as it is the same PIN number for all of the children in a family.

When you are filling out the FAFSA form please pay attention to who they are asking for information about – the beginning of the form is all about the student and later it is about the parents. This can be confusing if your parents are helping you fill out the form because it says “you and your” so sometimes parents will accidentally put their information in rather than putting in the student information.

If your parents are divorced, you will use the parent with whom you live with the majority of the time. You fill out the form based upon your “household” so anyone living in that household and under that roof are included in your FAFSA. So, for example, if your parents are divorced and you live with your mom who is remarried then your FAFSA application will include the information from your mom and your step-dad.

When completing your FAFSA forms you will need your tax information as well as your parents tax information. If you cannot get the tax information completed early enough to meet the deadlines from the colleges, then be sure to use estimated numbers and then go back and revise the information once you have the actual data.

To help you with the college financial aid process we will have a Financial Aid Meeting for parents at 7:00pm in the WKHS Auditorium on Wednesday, January 9th.

There is also an event known as “College Goal Sunday” which is Sunday, February 10th at 2:00pm where financial aid administrators will provide free expert help in completing the FAFSA forms. To find locations and to register you can visit http://www.ohiocollegegoalsunday.org/.

Here We Go!

Ahhh... I don't know about you, but I have been letting out a lot of sigh's of relaxation over this break.  It has been great.  Lots of time with my family - snuggling, laughing, and making memories that I will cherish forever.  (I am including 2 pictures - 1 of my family on Christmas and 1 of my 10 week old nephew, Brady.)  I also enjoyed the peace and relaxation of watching it snow and having the blessing of being able to cozy up on the couch with a book (or 6).  :-)  All in all, a wonderful break.  And now, here we go!

I am looking forward to catching up with all of you and hearing about your winter vacations.  Did you do fun things?  What was the best part?  I hope you will stop by and fill me in.

As we enter the new year, I hope you paused to reflect on your accomplishments of the past year and took some time to set new goals for the coming year.  What can you do today that will allow you to take a step closer to achieving your goals?  I have personal goals as well as professional goals.  My guess is you have probably done the same - set goals for yourself personally as well as goals for you as a student.  If you need help establishing or achieving your academic goals, don't forget to utilize all of the resources available to you at school (including me) as we all want you to be successful!

We are heading into the new year with lots of new and exciting hopes and opportunities.  Enjoy your last few hours of relaxing over break and tomorrow morning, as we return to school, embrace each moment with joy and possibility.  I'm looking forward to seeing you!