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.