It's a School Night... For Me

You still have a little more than a week of summer left, but today was my final day of summer vacation and tomorrow it is back to the real world.  I am looking forward to the new school year, but will definitely miss sleeping in and spending time with my puppy, Lexi.  Tomorrow is the first schedule pick up day and if past years is any indication, it will be a hectic and fast-paced day in the counseling center so there won't be much time to adjust, but that is ok because I'm excited to see you.

When you come to pick up your schedule don't forget that you need to be prepared to have your school photos taken and you need to have your school emergency forms all completed online.

If something is wrong on your schedule, you will have to fill out a schedule change request form.  You do not have to wait to see me - if I am able to make the adjustment, I will make it and you can pick up your revised schedule on the first day of school.  Remember, as in the past, if you need to change to a core class, you will need your parent's signature indicating that they authorize the change.  I have to be honest with you, classes are unbelievably tight.  As of this moment, there are only 4 seats remaining in the entry level art classes, there are only 5 seats left in ALL of the business classes combined, and there are NO seats remaining in any of the health or physical education classes.  I'm telling you this just so you are prepared for the fact that it may not be possible to make many changes.

See you tomorrow (or Wednesday)!

Physics Summer Work

Over the last few weeks each time I have checked my school e-mail there have been questions from students about the AP Physics summer work.  As you know, many honors, AP and IB classes require students to complete summer assignments.  At the end of the school year the Physics teachers had planned to e-mail their summer work to students in August.  Students are worried because they haven't received their assignment yet.  I heard from Mr. Troutner and Mr. Green (the 2 Physics teachers) and they shared that your work has been posted to Google Classroom.  The challenge is that you cannot access Google Classroom until you receive your new username and password next week during schedule pick up.  The work will take 2 to 3 hours to complete so you will want to make sure you save a little time in your final week of summer to get it finished.

College Credit Plus Reminders

Many WKHS students are planning to take classes this school year that will allow them to earn both high school and college credit (for free) at the same time through a program called College Credit Plus.  College Credit Plus (CC+) was introduced this past spring and students who wanted to participate for this school year had until April 1st to declare their intent to participate.

For those of you who are participating this year, you will be taking classes through either Columbus State Community College (CSCC) or through Central Ohio Technical College (COTC).  These credits are guaranteed to transfer to any public college in the state of Ohio when you provide your college transcript showing that you had earned the credit.

I wanted to make sure all students participating in CC+ classes remembered that you must apply to the college, provide them with any required documents (just like you would if applying to college as a full time college student) and fulfill any requirements that the college has for their students.

For students planning to take a class through Columbus State, this includes completing an online orientation before August 13th.  The online orientation can be accessed here:  http://cscc.edu/community/dual-credit/CollegeCreditPlusOrientation/
(CC+ courses offered at WKHS through CSCC would include English, Psychology, Government, Sociology, and Intro to Programming Logic)

COTC does not have an online orientation required of their students.  So for those of you who will be taking a math course or Intro to Business through CC+, you do not need to worry about this additional step.

It would also be wise to log into your application and make sure that you have been accepted by the college and have fulfilled all of your steps required for your application.  If you realize that they are missing something, please communicate with the college directly to get it worked out and to make sure they have everything they need.  (For example, one of my students received an e-mail indicating that she had until today to complete her application and she ended up finding out that the college had not properly uploaded her Compass Test Scores so even though she thought everything was done she realized that it wasn't and was able to get it straightened out before it was too late.)

If you have any problems with getting through the requirements with the college, please email me so that I can try to see what I can do to help.

Schedule Pick Up Day Reminder

Everyone has been working hard to prepare for the start of the school year.  By now you should be aware that the next week are the designated days for you to pick up your schedules.

Tuesday, August 11th: 
9th graders - 8:30 - 11:00am
All students new to the district (regardless of grade) - 8:30 - 11:00am
12th graders - 12:30 - 3:00pm

Wednesday, August 12th:
11th graders - 8:30 - 11:00am
10th graders - 12:30 - 3:00pm

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

Your emergency medical information needs to be updated online prior to coming through the schedule pick up lines.  Your parents can also pay your fees online.

I 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 day.  If you cannot pick up your schedule and books on your designated day, then you can come to school on the other schedule pick-up day.  If you will not be able to attend either day, 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 if you want, you can pick up your schedule and turn in your forms on Monday, August 17th or Tuesday, August 18th from 1:00 - 3:00pm.

Each year schedule pick up days are two of the craziest days in my office, but I am looking forward to seeing you!

2 Weeks!

2 Weeks!  Can you believe it?!  In just two short weeks we will be back at school for the first day of the 2015-16 school year.  It is going to be a great year - it is Kilbourne's 25th anniversary year - and hopefully for each of you this will be your best year yet both academically and personally.

While many of you... and possibly me too :-) ...are wishing that these final days of summer would drag out and move slow, there is good news for how the first day of school will run.  We will not be on a normal bell schedule.

Freshman students will come to school at the normal time (7:45am) and they will have some introductory transition meetings and a chance to move through their bell schedule to find all of their classes in the morning before all of the upperclassmen join them in the building.

All students, grades 9 - 12 will start attending their actual classes at 9:50am.  So this means that for sophomores, juniors and seniors, the school buses will run twice on opening day and you won't have to be at school until later - a great way to transition back into the school year!

Here is the bell schedule for August 19th:

7:45 - 9:35am - Freshman Students Only
9:50 - 10:25 - 1st period
10:30 - 11:05 - 2nd period
11:10 - 11:45 - 3rd period
11:50 - 12:25 - 4th period
12:30 - 1:05 - 5th period
1:10 - 1:45 - 6th period
1:50 - 2:25 - 7th period
2:30 - 3:05 - 8th period

Also, a reminder for all freshman students and parents - there will be a Link Transition Day on Monday, August 17th from 11:00am - 3:00pm.  Busses do not run on this day so parents will need to coordinate for transportation, but it is a fun day full of activities, class bonding, and mentorship opportunities that freshmen students will not want to miss.

ACT Registration Reminder

Just a quick reminder for all students planning on taking the ACT in September, the registration deadline is rapidly approaching!  The last day to register without a late fee is this Friday, August 7th.

The September ACT will be held on Saturday, September 12th and while I really recommend that you register this week, there is a late registration deadline of August 21st.

As a reminder, you will register for the ACT directly on their website - www.actstudent.org.

Common Application

The Common Application is a centralized application that students can complete for over 500 different colleges and as of yesterday it is now updated and released for the Class of 2016 to begin working on their applications. The colleges that participate in this application commit to treating applications received through the Common App with the same consideration as if students had applied through the institutions individual application. This will generally mean that you have to spend less time filling out all of the basic information about yourself and can mean that you have fewer essays to write (but maybe not).

On the common app there is 1 essay that typically must be completed for all colleges, but you do have a choice about what essay to pick from a list or prompts.  (New this year is the option for the essay to be included even if colleges don't require it - for the colleges I looked at when testing the site they all required it, but perhaps some may not which is exciting.)  Then, the "tricky" part of it all is that many of the schools will also have supplements required which are other questions of their own that they want students to complete. Sometimes it is just simple questions that weren't covered on the common app, but would have been if you had applied through their individual application, but often times it includes short or long answer essays. Be aware and be prepared for that when completing your application. 

Not all schools use the common app - there are 26 Ohio schools which will utilize the common application this year, but as you are getting ready to start applications for the schools you are considering it is worth looking to see if more than one school from your list utilizes the common app.

I have spent the last few hours playing around on the Common App website and the new format will be pretty straight forward for you to use.  A few things I want to make sure you are aware of to help as you are completing your application...

- When you are looking at the college information section to see the number of recommendations required sometimes it may say "0" but the reality is that a recommendation letter may still be required.  You will want to double check on the college's website to see if they require a rec letter.  Ohio State is an example of where this confusion can be seen.  They allow your recommendation letter to be from any adult (non-relative) so they don't require that it is from a teacher or from a counselor or from a non-academic source and therefore it lists required as 0, but they do want 1 recommendation letter from the adult of your choice.  (At least they have in the past - and I am guessing they still do.)

- After you have selected your colleges and added them to your list you will see specific questions (the supplements specific to that school) and some of them are updated now, but others haven't been posted yet so you may have to check back.  You will find the specific questions and additional application pages for individual colleges under the "My Colleges" tab.  The general information that you will complete for all of the colleges is under the "Common App" tab.

-  If you have attended WKHS for all 4 years of high school, then you entered Kilbourne in August 2012.

-  Your graduation date is May 29, 2016.

- It will ask you questions about me and so you will want to be sure that you spell my name and e-mail address right or else I won't receive the e-mail to complete your school forms.  (Ms. Brianna Abbott, Title: School Counselor, E-mail: babbott@wscloud.org, Phone: 614-450-6490)

-  It will ask you about other schools you have attended.  Obviously, if you moved into Worthington you have other schools to list, but I also want to remind you that if you took summer classes through a different school district (such as TRECA or K-12) then you need to include that school on your common app form too.

-  If you are a student who will be taking classes through College Credit Plus, you will need to include that information in the Academic Section under Colleges/ Universities.  (English, Psychology, Sociology, Government, and Intro to Programming Logic are all through CSCC.  Pre-Calculus, Honors Pre-Calculus, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC and Intro to Business are all through COTC.)

-  I strongly encourage you to make a complete list of your activities and honors BEFORE attempting to fill out the Common App.  For example, you will need to give a total number of your honors before you start naming them.  If you haven't developed that resume list then you'll have a tough time filling it out.

-  As you are working on each area there is a panel on the right side of the page titled "Help Center" and I found it very helpful as I was going through the different areas.  Some of the typical questions kids have asked me in the past as they are completing the Common App are now answered in the help center.

-  You will have to indicate your class size - for the Class of 2016, it is 302.

Let the fun begin!  Good luck as you start working on your applications.