Compass Chronicle
Counseling | Fall 2018
Can you believe it’s already November?
It feels like the school year just began! The counseling team has definitely been enjoying the school year so far and we hope that you feel the same way, too. Throughout the months of September and October, we did a lot of fun and interactive activities at Compass Charter Schools and look forward to continuing the momentum throughout the next few months.
As you saw in the last newsletter, the Counseling Services Department took to the road with our new initiative, Counseling with Compass Live, geared to engage and connect with our scholars, face-to-face, on a deeper level. We expect our next visit to be toward the end of this month at an Orange County location that serves as a mid-point for our Orange County and Los Angeles County scholars. We plan on having some exciting and informative round-table discussions to support scholars in personal and academic growth. If you haven’t confirmed your attendance to the event yet, please visit the calendar in Parent Square to sign up to join us. We’d love to have as many learning coaches and scholars there. Reach out to your scholar’s school counselor if you need help completing the RSVP. We look forward to seeing and connecting with you!
Sincerely,
Debra Stephan, Director of Counseling Services
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What's New in Counseling?
- Family Spotlight
- Staff Spotlight
- Share Your Story
- Exceptional Scholar Services, Engagement, and Main Newsletter
WHAT'S NEW IN COUNSELING?
We’re now just over one month into another exciting school year and our counseling team is deeply immersed in working directly with scholars to meet with them (via virtual or phone conference) to ensure they have their goals, plans, and schedules in order to finish off the semester and school year strong. Coupled with the efforts of our counselors are those of our Scholar Success Coordinator, Kasey Wingate, who has worked hard to lead our cross-departmental team in designing and implementing our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) program at CCS! With the implementation of this program, we expect to be able to provide instructional and behavioral assistance, at a school-wide level, in a timely manner for our scholars that need the support the most by taking a proactive approach.
With the kick off of the FAFSA and College Application season, Ms. Olson, our College Career Readiness Counselor continues to support scholars in their pursuit of post-high school education via webinars and 1:1 support, while the rest of the counseling team continues to deliver a robust lineup of webinars/lessons focused around other topics that our scholars benefit from such as Virtual Bullying & Safety, Grade Level Presentations, Organization, and our College and Career Success Cafe. This school year, in addition to the wonderful webinars brought to you by the counseling services department team, you can also find us on YouTube with short SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) Spotlight videos hosted by Mrs. Gonzalez that focus on skills to help you in daily life! Check out our growing list of videos by visiting http://bit.ly/2PqdlUf today!
FAMILY SPOTLIGHT
This month we are happy to highlight the Rockett Family!
CCS: What does a typical day look like for you and your scholars?
LC: After the kids made it to the TOP 14 on America's Got Talent, there haven't been many "typical days" for us! We have circled the globe traveling to 40 countries for television appearances as well as toured with their live show. When we are not traveling, we are based in Los Angeles and maintain a somewhat normal schedule that we follow with the kids doing their school during regular school hours except for meetings or auditions. However, when we are traveling, EVERYTHING changes.
We fly a lot so we have internet passes so the kids can do their school on planes. Kadan laughs at the thought that sometimes when he is doing a learning lab with his class, he might be 35,000 feet in the air traveling at 500 miles per hour! Earlier this year the kids headlined a 21 state tour where they traveled on a custom entertainers coach bus. They had their own rooms and did their school daily while traveling from state to state. Depending on what's on their schedule, every week can bring something different. We are preparing to do a South American tour of TV & live shows in 2019 and are planning to work ahead during what would normally be the kids' spring break so they can finish their school early and have more free time to explore during their travels.
CCS: What has been your greatest joy and what has been your greatest challenge in schooling at home? How did you overcome the challenge(s)?
LC: Getting to spend more time with family and the flexibility that schooling at home brings is awesome! When we were in China for 3 weeks, we found out the school was blocked by their Internet and we fell 3 weeks behind! This was a real challenge for the kids and caused them to work weekends, scheduled school breaks, and during times other kids were not having to do school work.
CCS: Why did you Compass Charter Schools, among the vast competition out there?
LC: looked at several programs and talked to others who had homeschooled their children and decided on Compass Charter Schools’ online program for my children. It offered the flexibility we desired along with an easy to navigate the program. We like the way we can monitor the children's progress daily and see their current grades at any time.
CCS: What do you enjoy most about being part of our Compass community?
LC: The flexibility that online homeschooling allows is crucial to making our schedules work. We like being able to do school on weekends, evening hours or even holidays if needed.
CCS: What advice would you give parents thinking about schooling their child at home?
LC: I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Compass Charter Schools. I believe that a LOT of time is wasted in public schools. With homeschooling, your child is able to learn at his or her own pace around your family schedule. The biggest concern that I have addressed many times when others ask me about homeschooling is in regards to the child's social life and interaction with their peers. We have made sure that they have outside activities with friends on a regular basis so this has never been an issue for us. We did not choose online homeschooling because we are trying to shelter our kids from the real world. We are all about empowering our kids with more opportunities and by utilizing homeschooling we feel we are able to maximize what we are able to offer.
STAFF SPOTLIGHT
This month we recognize Mataya Olson, College and Career Readiness Counselor
CCS: What is your job title and what are a couple of the things you do at Compass Charter Schools? How long have you worked for this organization?
Mataya: I am the College Career Readiness Counselor at Compass Charter Schools. In this role, I support scholars in college and career planning, obtaining work permits, and concurrent enrollment. This is my first year at Compass Charter Schools.
CCS: Tell us your “why” for doing what you do here at CCS?
Mataya: I love the aspects of college and career, and how it is always evolving. It is especially rewarding to help scholars plan for what is next after high school. There are so many possibilities out there and it is amazing to see each scholar’s unique passions and interests.
CCS: As an educator, is there a piece of advice you’d like to share with learning coaches or scholars?
Mataya: It is never too early to start thinking about college and career! There are many great opportunities available to middle and high school scholars. The earlier you start planning, the more aware and prepared you will be.
CCS: Share one thing about you very few people would know?
Mataya: I played the trombone in band during high school, but I never fully understood how to read music, so most of the time I would just pretend.
CCS: What do you and your family like to do during your free time?
Mataya: Some of my favorite things to do in my free time are scuba diving, golfing and attending sporting events or musicals with friends and family.
SHARE YOUR STORY
Continue to Exceptional Scholar Services, Engagement, and Main Newsletter
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Website: www.compasscharters.org
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