This week the Counseling Office is buzzing with the details of College Application Week. While some Seniors are frantically filling out applications, editing essays, and hunting down letters of recommendation, others completed the process weeks ago.
In an effort to prepare the current Freshmen and Sophomores for the future hustle of College Applications, I created this Advisory lesson to give them exposure to what all is involved in the College Application process:
9th-10th grade: Lesson: What Does it
Take to Apply to College
Goals:
·All students will become familiar with the college application
process before SENIOR year.
·Students will become aware of the importance of maintaining the
highest possible GPA and class rank, performing well on the ACT/SAT, and
getting involved in extracurricular activities.
Click here for the link to the Prezi on What is on the Common
Application:
In honor of World Kindness Day on November 13, I created the following bulletin board:
Our middle and high school students seem to love bulletin boards that are interactive. Plus, by having them leave something behind, you have an idea of how many people actually read the board! Now there's some data!
I am sure most of you would be surprised to find a High School Counselor creating a lesson on "How to Write a Letter/Address an Envelope". Yeah. Me too. However, it became obvious that out high school students needed a "refresher" on this life skill... and since it was going to be taught during advisory, the lesson fell to me. The middle school counselor and I decided to tie this life skill into our recent K-12 Activity Day to give "purpose" to the lesson. So after searching Prezi and after a lot of tweaking, here is the lesson I created (click on the photo):
I love the Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) movement. I firmly believe that by helping others we help ourselves lead a more meaningful life. RAK ties right into our school's mission of Character, Community, and Challenge. Therefore, I cannot wait for our school to celebrate World Kindness Day on Nov. 13. Here is the lesson I sent out to our high school advisories this week in preparation:
One of the requests from our administration this year has been to create monthly Guidance Newsletters for our specific grade levels. As someone who LOVES the chance to create, I jumped on this idea. I have found that this is an excellent way to connect with parents and keep my students informed. Here's a copy of this month's newsletter:
One of the reasons I was selected to move to the high school level was because of my experience organizing our middle school advisory program. Of course, this was put at the top of my list: High School Advisory. Because this is the first year that our school has incorporated a DAILY advisory class, our administration would very much like to see it succeed. One of the ways that I try to support our staff is by sending daily Advisory activities. Staff are not required to complete the given activity, although most staff do utilize the plans. I have learned that most staff resistance to advisory is due to "not having time to plan for advisory." I love that I am able to take this burden away!
I figured that I am not the only person out there attempting to come up with Advisory lesson geared for High School Students. With that in mind, I decided to share my activities.
A couple of notes:
The high school staff came up with a "daily theme" to help drive the activities of advisory. These themes were based off our school improvement plan and other areas of needed improvement. In general the days are:
oMonday- Academic Advising and Silent Reading or Study Hall- Advisors will meet with student individually for grades check, profile building, etc. while all other students read or complete homework silently.
oTuesday-Service Learning-Advisory groups will create a service learning project specific to their group.
oWednesday-Current Events/Topic Time- This will be student-led* discussion/activities, possibly choosing a current event to discuss.
oThursday-College/Career Prep- Activities will rotate from practice with SAT/ACT questions to having each teacher become an expert on a particular college who will share with each group.
oFriday- Character Clips- Students will watch a brief clip on TED or Youtube and discuss.
Our goal is for the majority of these activities to be STUDENT LED. This is a work-in-progress. To get the program off the ground, the first six weeks of advisory were staff led. My first step in making the transition was to create a Student Advisory Council. We meet weekly to discuss concerns, solutions, and future lessons. I have even had a few students step up to the plate and begin creating lessons for Wednesdays' Advisories. What a relief for me and an awesome opportunity for them!
So here are this week's Advisory Lesson. Be sure to leave a comment giving feedback and sharing ideas!
Advisory Week
October 28
Monday:
Silent Study Hall/ Academic Advising: I have received
a request for a lesson on goal setting in regards to grades.
9th & 10th
Advisories: Ten Years From Now Using the handouts:
go through this on-line presentation with your students: Click
Here
10 Years from Now:
Learning Goals:
·To explore students’ dreams about the future and what they
envision to be the details of their lives ·To develop an understanding about how much income will be required
to maintain an idealized lifestyle ·To prepare for a discussion on education and career opportunities
and choices
based off a lesson: Thinking of Yourself as a College-Bound Student by www.ecmfoundation.org:
Friday-
Film Clips: Watch: Lunch
ScholarClick on the link. This will open up a Google Doc Presentation. Click on the button at the top RIGHT of the screen that says “Present” or your movie will not play. Following the video have your group try to answer the “5th Grade Questions”.
In October, I decided to have a Sophomore Meeting with all of my 10th grade students. Since I had not personally counseled them the year before, I had no idea what they might have already known about Graduation Requirements and College Planning. Using my 9th grade presentation as a template, I edited out the GPA parts, added in info about Transcripts and came up with this presentation:
I ended up running out of time during the meeting, so I was unable to have my students log on to the computers and create accounts. Instead, I gave them each a challenge to create a CFNC account and to complete one of the sections under My Profile. Now I just have to wait to see who all rises to the challenge!
