Saranac High School Counseling News
December 2019
What's New?!
In addition to what we share with you about life at Saranac High School, we also wanted to share resources that we find helpful on wellness, mental health, addiction, college and careers, academics and more. This month we are featuring two free webinars on ADHD from attitudemag.com. The first is how mindfulness meditation can improve symptoms of ADHD and anxiety in both children and adults. The second webinar is about creating a healthy video game diet for your child with ADHD. If you are not able to attend these webinars live then you can enter your email and the information will be recorded and sent to you! Another article we wanted to share is on the most recent information from the CDC in regards to the outbreak of vaping and lung injury.
Choose Mindfulness
For the month of December we would like students to practice ways of being mindful! Our bulletin board outside of our office has hand outs students can take on a variety of mindful practices. These include the following: breathing techniques, affirmations, mindful meditation, journal topics, progressive muscle relaxation, desk stretches, and positive self talk!
Wellness Wednesday
After introducing meditation to our students as a form of self care, Mrs. Zurlo, one of our math teachers, decided to hold Wellness Wednesday. Each Wednesday, for approximately 10 minutes, students that are in a free period (study hall or lunch) will be able to do a meditation with us. Wednesday, November 20th, was our first one and we had 10 students participate!
SHOUT OUTS!
Students and Faculty spent November "shouting out" to people/things they were grateful for!
SUNY North Country Day
On November 4th, juniors attended the SUNY North Country Day field trip at SUNY Plattsburgh.
What Brings You JOY
We are asking students and staff to share with us "What brings them JOY" this time of year!
Seniors
We continue to meet with our seniors helping them apply to college, gather letters of recommendation, and submit the FAFSA. We are advising all seniors and families to apply to college before January 1st if possible. Once we return from the holiday break we will be meeting with juniors, sophomores, and freshmen for their annual meetings.
Scholarships for Seniors
Just a reminder that Mrs. Venne will be posting scholarship opportunities on Schoology for students, as well as putting them on our website. We are also working to email parents/families when the scholarships become available.
Alumni Panel
Saranac High School Alumni will be coming to speak with seniors on Thursday, December 19th, about life after high school. This will be a structured panel with a Q&A for students. This is real life information from past students and it allows our seniors to hear about the ins and outs of college, employment, expectations of professors/co-workers/roommates, etc.
Junior Classroom Lessons
PSAT scores will be available to counselors and students in December. Mrs. Rosenbaum and Mrs. Sproule will be in the classrooms after the holidays to discuss scores, registering for exams next spring, and begin talking about the college search process.
Important Dates
12/7/19: SAT (registration deadline is November 8th www.collegeboard.org)
12/14/19: ACT (registration deadline is November 8th www.act.org)
1/21/19-1/24/19: January Regents Exams (for students that wanted to retake an exam or failed an exam)
2/8/19: ACT (registration deadline is January 10th www.act.org)
3/14/20: SAT (registration deadline is February 14th www.collegeboard.org)
4/4/20: ACT (registration deadline is February 28th www.act.org)
5/2/20: SAT (registration deadline is April 3rd www.collegeboard.org)
6/6/20: SAT (registration deadline is May 8th www.collegeboard.org)
6/13/20: ACT (registration deadline is May 8th www.act.org)