How was your summer?

What did you to this summer?

Welcome back to school, from the School Counseling Department!

ALL STUDENTS

While we do not have any staffing changes, Mrs. Murphy is planning to supervise a school counseling intern this fall, whose name is Mr. Doyle.

Included with the schedules was a sheet of directions and registration codes for the parent accounts at http://connection.naviance.com/PikesvilleHi so that you can monitor your child’s college and career searches and begin the process of searching for scholarships. Speaking of financial aid, information is always updated at http://tinyurl.com/PHSCollegeCash, and it is never too late to start saving for college at http://www.collegesavingsmd.org/. Students should continue to see, and parents should continue to call, Ms. Billingslea, the School Counseling secretary, to schedule appointments, as she has access to all of our calendars.

If you have not yet seen it, please check out (and subscribe to) our blog at http://PikesvilleHSCounseling.blogspot.com. Also, if you are on twitter, follow us at http://www.twitter.com/PHSCouns. These are two resources where you will hear about opportunities and insight as you navigate the high school experience.

All stakeholders – teachers, parents and students of all grade levels – are asked to complete our annual needs assessment survey at http://tinyurl.com/PHSCounsNeeds14 so that we can get a sense of how we are doing and how we can improve our program. This year, we will work even harder to bring our comprehensive school counseling program to the breadth and quality that is recommended by the American School Counselor Association, and we can’t do that without your input as a community.

Last year, we started the #PHSfit Career of the Day project, when a different career was featured on Twitter and the morning announcements. This year, we will switch back to a different college each day, and also plan to post the career’s description on the blog.

If you haven't already heard, families who qualify for free and reduced lunch are eligible for a reduced rate on high-speed internet access from Comcast. Call 855-846-8376 or visit http://InternetEssentials.com for more information.

GRADE 9

http://pikesvillehscounseling.blogspot.com/p/grade-9-information.html

This is a critical time in a student’s life. Without a comfortable and successful start to high school, students find it challenging to get re-centered at a later point. Remember that the college admissions process starts on the first day of ninth grade, as each quarterly grade affects your final grades, and colleges will see those final grades from freshman year. Each final grade you earn freshman year has the same impact on your GPA as each final grade you earn junior or senior year. Success tends to have a snowball effect. In addition, it is really important to get involved in a few activities that interest you. You don’t need to spread yourself too thin, but the goal is to find people who share your values and priorities, and joining a club with like-minded people will help you make and strengthen connections with your peers in high school. It is recommended that you stay after school, either for coach class or with a club, at least twice each week. We also recommend that you spend at least 20 minutes on each academic subject each evening. This time can be spent doing the assigned daily or long-term homework, rewriting class notes, studying those notes, and pre-reading course material so you’re ready to participate in class the next day.

All students in grade 9 will be given the PSAT in October. Please know that only those students who have accommodations approved by the College Board are permitted to use those accommodations on the PSAT. More information will come in September. The test will be given on October 15, and students who are late to school will not be permitted into the test.

In the winter, students will begin to craft their four-year plans with their school counselor, as part of the course advising process.

GRADE 10

http://pikesvillehscounseling.blogspot.com/p/grade-10-information.html

Sophomore year is a time to hit your stride. If your freshman year grades are below a 2.0 average, you’d need sophomore year grades above a 3.0 to just break even at a 2.5 GPA. The higher GPA you have, the more options you’ll have for after high school. Sophomore year is the time to start visiting a few colleges so that you can develop a sense of priorities when you begin the planning process with your school counselor. Pick one or two of the activities you joined freshman year and start to pursue leadership opportunities within those organizations. Or start a new organization! October 15 of sophomore year is when you’ll take the PSAT at no cost to you, and your score will give you some early indication of your readiness for college and AP courses.  We will discuss your scores in December.

Later in the winter, when sophomores meet with their school counselors for course advising, we will update your four-year plans.

GRADE 11

http://pikesvillehscounseling.blogspot.com/p/grade-11-information.html

In the past, we have conducted college planning sessions upon request. This year, we will do more than that. Each junior is going to be assigned a pre-scheduled time, either 1:15 or 1:45, to meet with his or her school counselor, during the 2^nd quarter. Parents are invited, but not required, to attend this session. Your school counselor will give you a copy of your high school transcript, listen to your priorities (so be sure you’ve started thinking about it) for post-high school planning, and give you some feedback and tips so that you can be proactive about finding the right academic fit after you graduate.

On October 15, you’ll take the PSAT, which is your last unofficial exposure to college admissions testing, so be sure that you take advantage of this opportunity for meaningful feedback, and use that feedback as you prepare for the SAT and ACT, which really starts for you in January.

Baltimore County Public Schools anticipates another school-day SAT like we had last year, but we do not yet have details about how it will be implemented this year. You will be notified when more information comes to light.

GRADE 12

http://pikesvillehscounseling.blogspot.com/p/grade-12-information.html

Welcome to the busiest year of your life so far. In addition to your regular course load, you will spend this year applying to post-secondary programs and scholarships, and you should take advantage of as much down time as you have to both proactively complete these tasks and rest to recharge your batteries. Before school starts is an ideal opportunity to work on your college essays. If you have not already done so, finalize your list of colleges, which should be between five and ten. Activate your account at www.commonapp.org and/or www.eduinconline.com and be sure that you are registered for your second SAT or your first ACT. The school counseling department will meet with you in your English 12 classes to orient you to requesting high school transcripts in Naviance. Be sure to give your teachers and school counselor at least two weeks’ notice, with proper documentation for requesting letters of recommendation and for processing transcripts. Scholarship opportunities are regularly updated at http://tinyurl.com/PHSCollegeCash and you should also use twitter to participate in the weekly #CollegeCash tweet chat about financial aid.

The coolest part of Mr. Goldman's summer was when First Lady Michelle Obama mentioned some of the great things happening at Pikesville High School:

STEM Careers

I am at Community College of Baltimore County right now learning about school counselors' roles in encouraging students to pursue education and careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields.

The following are some helpful links that were shared:

National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity NSF Project
Society for Women Engineers (SWE)
Engineer Your Life (guide to engineering for high school girls)
Commonwealth Alliance for Information Technology Education (CAITE)
Engineering Equity Extension Service (EEES)
EEES Resources for Educators
IES Practice Guide for Encouraging Girls in Math and Science
Association for Women in Science
Career Girls
National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology, and Science
National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering
National Society for Black Engineers

What STEM elective do you plan to take next year? Don't forget that we are now running Computer Science for both AP and honors credit, as well as expanding our Project Lead the Way program so that it is accessible to all students!

SAT Day 2014

Baltimore County Public Schools is once again providing all juniors the opportunity to meet a college admissions requirement by giving the SAT in school on April 30.

Instead of leaving it up to students to arrange for transportation and potentially take such an important test in an unfamiliar location, our 11th grade students will take the SAT in their own school, on a regular school day.

This year, the juniors will be registered by the College Board, and test registration tickets will be mailed to the home addresses that we have on file. We just ask that the students bring their admission tickets to their advisory teachers. The admission tickets will be returned to the students on the morning of the test, April 30, because they will need important information that is printed on them.

In order to help students prepare, our English 11 teaching team has already evaluated trends that we saw in the juniors' PSAT scores and developed plans to address common areas of need. Additionally, juniors are advised to use their My College Quickstart codes that were printed on the PSAT score reports and that they accessed in December when PSAT scores were distributed.

The best way to prepare for the SAT, however, is to take full-length practice tests (like this one here). So when we have snow days, or on weekends, and especially during spring break, take a solid four-hour stretch of time to sit and take a practice SAT so that you can get a sense of how much time you should be spending on each question. Remember, on the SAT, you only gain points for correct answers so it makes more sense for your score to go for the answers that you can be sure to have at least a 33% chance of being correct, rather than risk losing 1/4 of a point for guessing.

Because we don't anticipate getting score reports back before the school year ends, it is that much more important for juniors to use Naviance to compare their SAT scores and GPA against the colleges on their prospective college list. Of course, the school counselors are available to discuss reasonable options given our school's historical admissions trends at a number of schools.

Just because the SAT is given in school, however, that does not mean that the SAT is the only test that students should be taking to prepare for college admissions. It is recommended that students who are intending to apply to four-year colleges should take both the SAT and the ACT during their junior year and then use the summer to prepare to re-take whichever test felt more comfortable to them or  on which they had a stronger performance.

Please be sure to use the Grade 11 page on the blog to get some input on what tasks would be helpful and developmentally appropriate at this critical time in your college planning and high school career.

On April 30, make sure you...
Eat dinner the night before
Eat breakfast that morning
Arrive on time for school, as we will start at 7:45 like any other day
Bring your #2 pencils and an approved calculator that you trust
Leave your cell phone in your locker, since cell phones are absolutely prohibited during testing

And in case anyone was wondering, April 30 will continue to be a regular school day for everyone else, even though the underclassmen may find that their classes are temporarily moved to a different classroom.

November update

Now that the first quarter has ended, let's check in on a few fronts.

Report cards will be distributed November 14. Please follow-up with questions about progress directly with teachers, as they are best suited to answer questions about academic progress.

November 16 will be this month's College Shirt Day, so mark your calendars!

November 18 through 22 is American Education Week. More information will be available on edline and www.phs.edu.

NINTH GRADE
School counselors will meet with American Government classes from November 4 through 6 in the computer labs to complete a Career Cluster Assessment in Naviance and begin to evaluate the merits of careers in a cluster that they find appealing.
On November 26, school counselors will conduct an academic lesson in all of the Biology classes to help the freshmen understand how their quarter grades add up to final grades and how to calculate grade point averages. This is important for students to take ownership of their grades, since grades in high school are much more transparent, predictable, and permanent than in middle school.

TENTH GRADE
Between November 5 and 14, school counselors will meet World History classes first in the computer lab, and then in their classrooms, to take a personality assessment in Naviance and discuss how our personality types help us make sense of the world and find careers that suit our preferences.

ELEVENTH GRADE
Between November 4 and 15, school counselors will meet with US History classes first in the computer lab, and then in their classrooms, to take a career interest assessment in Naviance and evaluate the many ways different individuals can find satisfaction in similar career types.
Starting November and ending around the second week in January, each junior will have a 30-minute appointment (either 1:30-2:00 or 2:00-2:30) with their school counselor. Students and families were informed of their appointments when schedules were mailed in July, and students will receive a reminder in advisory closer to their appointed time. Parents are invited, though not required, to attend. Juniors will get an unofficial copy of their transcript, discuss their college priorities and preferences, and school counselors will help the students start their prospective college lists in Naviance.

TWELFTH GRADE
Thirty percent of our seniors have applied to college so far! We've even started hearing about college acceptances. The school counselors have been working very hard to honor our commitment to send out completed transcript requests within ten school days. Seniors should never hesitate to schedule appointments with their school counselors during the complicated and arduous process of college admissions. We are here to help, and happy to do so, but solutions are most readily available when concerns are raised earlier rather than later.
Once the applications are in and confirmed with the colleges, seniors are urged to turn their attention to finding and applying for scholarships. Tips are available from the "Paying for College" page on the blog, and we maintain the list of scholarships at the PHSCollegeCash document. Also, participate in the weekly #CollegeCash twitter chat for more suggestions.
Mark your calendar for December 12 at 7pm. We are hosting a MHEC Money for College event (their website inexplicably says 9; rest assured we're starting at 7, if not slightly earlier). Delegate Dana Stein will be on-hand to hear parents' perspectives on the financial aid process, MHEC's Benee Edwards will discuss the FAFSA and both federal and state financial aid programs, and Central Scholarship Bureau's Jennifer Bauer will prepare families for the scholarship application process.

About 10% of students have been asked to have their parent sign a permission slip for a video during one of the career lessons. Mr. Goldman is applying this year for certification by the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards, and one component of the portfolio is a 15-minute video from a lesson that he will need to critique and send in. Questions should be directed to him about the use and privacy of the videos.

October Update

with the exception of the 7% who were absent on certain days in the past two weeks...
Our student body has now activated their accounts at the Naviance Family Connection!
http://connection.naviance.com/PikesvilleHi
Through this portal, students can conduct college searches using many different criteria, save the colleges they are interested in and rank their interest level, and eventually request transcripts to be sent to those colleges. On the faculty side of the site, the school uses Naviance to submit transcripts and letters of recommendation to colleges where the students are applying.
One of the most popular uses of Naviance is the scattergram, which allows students to see how previous students from their high school have historically fared at popular colleges:

We will also use Naviance to help our ninth graders identify career clusters that are of interest to them, sophomores identify their Holland Career Interest Type, and juniors determine their Myers-Briggs Personality Type. Combining these three assessments helps individuals to get a clear picture of what occupational roles and tasks offer a suitable and gratifying fit for their futures.
As a special shout out, the following students have logged on more than their classmates and deserve recognition for investing their time in exploring their options for the rest of their lives:
12th grade: Kara S.
11th grade: Austin G. and Nicholas O.
10th grade: Parker B. and Ismail H.
9th grade: Waham A. and Jamie N.

With the activation of Family Connection accounts, this marks the second time that every one of our students has had contact with a school counselor, plus whatever personal, group, or lunch duty contact individual students may have had. Our goal is for students to have the chance to interact with school counselors in individual, group, and classroom settings more than ever before in the history of Pikesville High School.

Thanks to the support stemming from Twitter and the previous post, we were able to fund two iPads for the school counseling department. Students have used these iPads for SAT and ACT registration, assistance with Naviance, and have streamlined the school counselors' ability to make and log contact with students outside of the office. If you can, please contribute whatever amount you are able for the third iPad and complementary keyboard covers through DonorsChoose.

Now, for some announcements:
October 3 - college planning workshop, led by Loryn Strauzer, from the admissions office of Towson University. Mr. Goldman, assisted by Ms. Andrea Wilson (school counseling chair from Owings Mills High School), will inform parents about Naviance Family Connection and help parents activate their Naviance accounts.
The school counseling department will also hold its first-ever advisory council meeting, taking another step toward alignment with the ASCA National Model. We will have representative students, parents, community members, teachers, and college admissions counselors to provide feedback. If you would like to provide feedback on the program, please do so at http://tinyurl.com/PHSCounsNeeds13.

PANTHER PREP DAY
On October 16, all juniors, all sophomores, and about half of the freshmen will take the PSAT. Approximately 100 freshmen will take the ReadiStep assessment. Information was provided in English classes or directly from Mr. Goldman, and PSAT-takers were given practice test booklets so that they can prepare. The ReadiStep assessment is explicitly intended as an assessment for which students should not prepare or study.
The seniors will engage in a series of post-secondary readiness workshops. Financial planning, independent sustenance, career options, and of course mock interviews, are among the stations through which the seniors will cycle during the three-hour period when the underclassmen will be engaged in testing.
At approximately 11am, the school will resume its usual schedule beginning with mod 4 (fourth period or A lunch).

Plan to attend the NACAC Fall National College Fair on November 12 and 13 at the Baltimore Convention Center to interact with dozens of colleges and learn about the multitude of opportunities for students to find their post-secondary #PHSfit.

SENIORS and their deadlines
Now that seniors have activated their Naviance Family Connection accounts, it is crucial that they use the site regularly to get comfortable with it. While the process is posted in other places, it won't hurt to list here as well:

1. Seniors need to submit the transcript release form, signed by parent/guardian, to the school counseling secretary. This is necessary for us to have permission to send the transcript, and Ms. Billingslea can then unlock the ability for students to request transcripts.
2. For those who are applying using www.commonapp.org, they need to complete the Education portion (denoted with a green check), add a college to their list on CommonApp, and click on "Assign Recommenders." Read, complete, and sign the FERPA agreement. In Family Connection, type the email address that is used for the Common App account and click "MATCH."
3. In Naviance Family Connection, add colleges to the "Colleges I'm applying to" list, and add transcript requests for each of those schools. Make sure that every common app school is included.
4. Provide $2 for each destination to the school counseling secretary, either in cash or a check made out to Pikesville High School. 
5. For those who need letters of recommendation (which is true for all common app schools), complete and submit the "School Counselor Recommendation request" survey, located in the "About Me" tab in Family Connection.

Once steps 1-4 (and 5, if applicable) are complete, requested documents will be sent within TEN SCHOOL DAYS. You can monitor the progress from your family connection account.
Teachers also have the ability to submit letters of recommendation through Naviance Family Connection. You should always discuss your requests with them personally, but you will need to add them in the "Colleges I'm Applying To" list with a pull-down menu to select the 1-2 teachers from whom you are requesting letters of recommendation.
Please keep your list up-to-date, so that you are able to meet (or beat!) deadlines.
Once you receive admissions decisions, please bring a copy to the school counseling office so that we can track our students' success rates at the colleges to which they apply.

As always, please feel comfortable coming in to schedule appointments with your school counselor. We are here to help.