Athletic Eligibility

As you are finalizing your selection of courses online, 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. (Remember, any school sponsored activity that involves competition requires you to be eligible. So this includes band, choir groups, Mock Trial, In the Know, Dance Team, etc.)

It is recommended that all freshman, sophomore, and junior students should plan to take at least 6 classes each semester. All seniors that are on track for meeting their graduation requirements can decrease the total number of courses each semester due to the demands of other requirements such as college and scholarship applications, but should still plan to take at least 5 classes each semester.

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 (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 co-curricular eligibility.

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

Honors Diploma

For some students, earning an Honors Diploma is an important goal. I have to be honest, this isn't a factor for the colleges because the honors diploma recognition isn't granted until you graduate so colleges are not considering it when making their admissions decisions. The requirements for the honors diploma listed below are established by the state department of education.

To receive an honors diploma you 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 - obviously the names of these courses will be changing with the common core implementation)
- 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

One of the areas that I have noticed a trend of some students falling short of meeting the honors diploma requirements is in the science area. This is because some students have decided to take a different AP Science course instead of taking physics. The other area where students frequently don't meet the designated standard is with the 4 credits of Social Studies since only 3 credits are required. Don't forget, it would still be possible to earn an honors diploma if you were missing one of these, but you will need to make sure you fulfill all of the remaining criterion.

Finding 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 this 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. You have to keep in mind the rest of your commitments - what sports, clubs, music groups, part-time jobs, and volunteer commitments do you have?  There needs to be time for you to relax and breathe, to spend time with your family and friends and, perhaps most importantly, still get a good night's sleep each night.  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 too.

Reminders

A few different reminders for you tonight…

Please remember that tomorrow is the last day to drop a class without having it appear on your final transcript.  Tomorrow is also the last day to change a class from traditional grading to the pass/ fail grading option.  You need your parent’s signature on both of these forms so hopefully you took them home with you to get your parent’s approval if these were changes you planned on making – just make sure you turn the forms in to one of the secretaries tomorrow before the end of the day so that I can make the changes.

The online registration window is now open.  This means that you can log onto Infinite Campus and select the courses that you plan on taking next school year.  All students must complete their online registration this week (by the end of the day on Friday, March 1^st).  Juniors, please remember that you need to complete your online registration prior to our individual meetings – which for many of you will begin tomorrow!

With Infinite Campus the online registration system has some different aspects that are confusing some students and parents.  Hopefully I can help clarify a few points. 

The first thing to remember is that when selecting year-long courses, you will need to select the course number (example: American History – 2007) with both S1 and S2 at the end.  So, in this example if you were trying to register to take the full year of American History next year, you would select 2007S1 and 2007S2.  S1 and S2 stands for Semester 1 and Semester 2.  This is also important for students who might have failed a class that you will need to make up next year.  You can select just the semester of the course which you failed to repeat.

Another confusing aspect is that the program refers to the total number of units that you are taking.  Units are equal to quarters.  So, if you are taking a semester long class, it is worth 2 units.  If you are taking a year long class, it is worth 4 units.  You will want to make sure that when you are finished selecting your classes, you have at least 20 (for to be seniors) or 24 (for everyone else) units selected.

After you have selected your first choice classes, you will need to submit three alternative classes.  Please be sure that you select these courses in the order of your preference.

The entire registration process will save automatically.

You need to make sure you get your teacher recommendations on the recommendation form (they will initial) and to have your parents sign the form.  You will turn these forms in when you meet with me on your designated days.  If you have already lost your form, please stop by the counseling center and ask one of the secretaries to give you a new copy.

If you have lost your directions for how to register for your classes:

Please visit the Worthington Schools website at www.worthington.k12.oh.us and then login to Infinite Campus using your ID and Password.  Click on “Course Registration 13-14 Worthington Kilbourne” from the selection bar on the left side.  You then click on “Course Search” and you can search by the course name or the course number.  Once you have identified the class that you want, you can click on the course to read a description of the class at the bottom.  Then, after reviewing the information to make sure this is the class you are interested in taking, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “request this course.”  The course will now appear under “requested courses on the left side of the screen.  Repeat this process for all additional courses you want to select.  If you make a mistake and decide to delete a course from your requests, select the course name under “requested courses” or “alternate courses” and a “drop this request” box will appear which you can then click and it will delete the course from your request list.  After you have completed selecting all of the courses you would like to take as well as your alternate courses, please review the requested courses list and click on “print request summary” to print a copy of your requests.

Although I'm not available at all tomorrow due to junior meetings, please let me know (you can leave me a detailed note on one of the passes outside of my office or send me an e-mail or stop to see me on Wednesday) if you are having any problems.

Planning Ahead

I am confident in saying that all of you enjoyed the "snow" day on Friday due to the ice!  As we head back to school tomorrow it will probably be a bit of a shock to have a full 5-day week.  :-)  Since this is registration time, I wanted to give you a heads up about a few days in the weeks ahead that I will not be available. If you have questions or would like to touch base about anything, I wanted to make sure you were aware of when I won't be available ahead of time so that you can plan accordingly.

This week I am not available at all on Tuesday, February 26th or Friday, March 1st. Next week I will not be available at all on Tuesday, March 5th or Wednesday, March 6th. On Monday, March 4th, Thursday, March 7th and Friday, March 8th my availability will be sporadic depending on the period. During each of these days I will be meeting individually with students regarding their course selections for next year and, for the juniors, also discussing plans for life after high school.

If you stop by on one of these dates, leave me a detailed note and I will try to follow up with you again as soon as possible, just understand it isn't going to be possible for me to have a response back as quickly as normal.

Also, don't forget that the online registration is now open, so log in and complete your course registration!

Physical Education Waiver

The number 1 registration related question I have been receiving has been students seeking clarification about the PE waiver.  Hopefully I can help explain it to all of you here, but if you have more questions, please don't hesitate to let me know. 

The PE waiver is just what it sounds like - it provides the opportunity for students to waive having PE as a required class for graduation.  This option is available to students participating in high school athletics including cheerleading and marching band.  (For ease of explaining and writing this, when I refer to sports or athletics throughout this post, please know that it also includes marching band.)  All students must still earn the full 20 credits to graduate from high school, this waiver would simply mean that what has typically been required (1/2 credit of Physical Education) would not need to be included in the 20 credits earned.

The option to utilize a PE waiver is open to any current 9th or 10th grade student (as well as all future, incoming Kilbourne students).  The waiver option is NOT available to any current 11th grade students because athletic participation during your senior year will not count.

In order to utilize the waiver, students must successfully complete two full seasons of athletics.  This can be 2 different sports in one year, it could be 1 sport over two years, or even 1 sport one year and another sport the other year.  So, for example, if I participate in both football and basketball in the same year, I could apply for the waiver.  If I participate in football as a sophomore and again as a junior, I could apply for the waiver.  If I participate in football as a sophomore and track as a junior, I could apply for the waiver.

The waiver option will go into effect as of August, so any sports completed prior to the start of next school year do not count toward the two sports needed to meet the waiver requirement.  This is very important for current sophomores to pay attention to because unless you are going to participate in 2 sports during your junior year, then the waiver is not an option for you.  As mentioned previously, senior year athletic participation does not count toward the waiver.  So, essentially, as of August 2013, every student begins with "0" sports and then will have to fully participate in 2 seasons to be able to apply for the waiver.

In order to have your sport counted as one which can be used for the waiver, it must be an approved high school sport.  This means that your club sport participation, like club soccer or club volleyball, is not included in the waiver eligibility.  Also, bowling, dance team, and the competition cheer team are all club teams and not high school sponsored athletics and so they are not eligible for the waiver option.  Additionally, team managers and statisticians cannot count their involvement as a season toward the waiver.

Students must complete a "full season" in order to have the sport count which is considered from the first practice through the last event or banquet.  If a student is "cut" from a team, quits, or has an athletic/ activity code violation which requires them to forfeit 50% or more of the season, then that season would not be able to be used to meet the two-season requirement.  If you were to get hurt, the injury will not eliminate the option of having the season count if the principal, coach and athletic director concede that the student actively participated and made contributions in spite of the injury.

Many students asked if it could be a partial waiver because they had already completed one of the PE required courses and would only have 1 season of sport eligibility and the answer is no, there is no ability to mix and match.  If you have already completed a PE course, you can still utilize the waiver to eliminate PE as a required course, but you must complete 2 seasons of sports in order to apply for the waiver.  The bottom line is that 0 seasons of sports = needs PE/ doesn't meet the waiver eligibility requirement, 1 season of sport = needs PE/ doesn't meet the waiver eligibility requirement, and 2 seasons of sports = meets the waiver eligibility requirement and can apply for the waiver (therefore doesn't need PE classes).

Please know that this is a brand new option (approved by the Board of Education last week) and so some of the exact details such as when you will fill out and submit the waiver form has yet to be finalized.  As that becomes clear, I will keep you posted.

Registration Timeline

As you heard during today's homeroom, all students currently in grades 9, 10, or 11 will use the online registration system to select the classes you would like to take next year.

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 set up a time to talk to the teacher. Let me know if you need help finding a teacher during one of their off-periods.

After you have determined which courses you would like to take, please talk it over with your parents and then log in and register. (The online registration system will open Monday after you have received your teacher recommendations.) You will register when you log into infinite campus with your username and password.  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 year long classes will require you to register for the course number with S1 and S2.  You must select both to sign up for the full year of the class.

Don't forget to save your signed course recommendation forms! You *MUST* turn those in during your meeting with me.  Freshmen will meet with me during Science classes on March 6th or 7th depending on your class, Sophomores will meet with me during US History classes on March 5th, and Juniors will meet with me during your individually scheduled appointments. Juniors will receive individual appointment slips. Please don't lose your appointment slips since they are your only reminder and your pass if you need to leave class. Don't forget that your classes need to be submitted online before our meeting! (Don't worry, we can still make changes if necessary.)