Paly Guidance
Updates Week 2
Viking Families!
Zoom Drop-in Hours
Ms. Garcia enjoys seeing your students drop into our Guidance Zoom drop-in hours. She will continue to be available to help assist your students as needed. Students can reach Ms. Garcia using the following zoom link. (Zoom: https://pausd.zoom.us/j/91386650189.) You can also reach Ms. Garcia at pgarcia@pausd.org. Daily drop-in hours for the rest of August will be from 8:45-10:50 and 11:50-3:30. Any adjustments to the drop-in zoom hours will be posted on Schoology and our website.
Advisory
During which weeks will my student have advisory?
While 9th graders meet with their Teacher Advisor weekly, 10-12th graders are on a rotating schedule. In order to help students know when they will be meeting, an event will be scheduled in their Schoology calendar with the exact days and times their grade-level will meet. In addition, advisories are posted on our paly.net google calendar.
Advisory is not optional. We expect all students to attend both advisory periods (Wednesday and Friday) during their assigned week. Please do not schedule outside appointments during Advisory time.
Which groups of students met with their TA this week?
At the start of each school year, we prioritize 9th graders and 12th graders. Our goal is to help our 9th graders in transitioning to high school through getting to know their classmates, Paly, and relevant technology or procedures they may not be familiar with as new students. Our focus with 12th graders is giving support for post-high school planning (with a heavy emphasis on college applications). Here were the specific Advisory topics from week 2:
9th grade: Continued team building, clarifying common questions and concerns, reviewing the tech exercise from last week.
12th grade: First of 3 discussions around college applications. Students were introduced to how they can sign up for Virtual College Rep visits. In the following weeks, students will review their transcript to make sure there are no errors, be introduced to our updated process for our “Cover Sheet,” (the first step in our process of communicating with TAs to which colleges a student applies), and receive guidance on how to invite their TA and teachers to complete recommendations on the Common Application.
If your student has follow-up questions about what was reviewed in advisory this week, please have them reach out to their TA. If a student was sick and absent from advisory, please have them review the slidedeck found in their Advisory class in Schoology and then follow-up with their TA with any questions they might have. If students have feedback to offer about advisory lessons, please have them speak with their TA or email Ann Deggelman (adeggelman@pausd.org).
College and Career Center
SAT/ACT/PSAT
If you are signed up to take the SAT, please be sure to check the College Board website to ensure the site is still open for testing; sites will not contact you directly if they are closed: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/register/test-center-closings In addition, there is often a delay in testing site information being updated on the College Board website so it is good practice to contact the testing site (typically, a high school) to verify the test is still being hosted.
If you are signed up to take the ACT, please be sure to check to ensure the site is still open for testing.
The College Board recently announced they will plan to offer Winter PSAT testing but no dates or details are yet available. As of now, we are unable to host any exam. If the situation changes, we will inform the community.
Please see last week’s issue for more information.
Naviance Access
Naviance Student is a web-based college and career exploration tool our district subscribes to, to support students in their post high school planning. Families receive Naviance registration information their first year at Paly. Ninth-grade students will register in an upcoming Advisory while parents will receive their registration codes via email by October 1 with a hyperlink to a document highlighting some of Naviance’s features and functions. Once registered, students access Naviance from the PAUSD ID Portal by clicking on the Clever icon. Parents access Naviance by going to https://student.naviance.com/pahs and entering the username and password created during the Naviance registration process.
Parents, if you know that you already have a Naviance account, but you don't remember your password, please try using the "Forgot password?" link on the Naviance login page. Parents of students in grades 10-12 who never registered and have misplaced their registration code should email Karla Larson. Parents who have Naviance accounts for older students and need to link additional students to their account should email Karla Larson.
---reminders from last week---
Virtual College Rep Visits for Seniors and Juniors
College rep visits start Aug. 31. Students must register to attend in Naviance and request permission from teachers to miss class. For an overview of the process, see YouTube info video. Full details for how students ask permission to miss class can be found under the “Students: Attend College Representative Visits at Paly” section on www.paly.net/college . For an overview of how to register to attend in Naviance, see this YouTube video demo.
Appointments with College Advisors
Seniors may sign up for a 60-minute virtual advising appointment with your assigned College Advisor. In addition, for a more general/brief college-related questions, seniors may schedule a 15-minute virtual meeting with Ms. Cernobori or Ms. Cochrane, using Calendly:
If your last name begins with the letters A - K, your Advisor is Ms. Cernobori: https://calendly.com/scernobori
If your last name begins with the letters L - Z, your Advisor is Ms. Cochrane:
https://calendly.com/jcochrane
If your primary interest is community college, your Advisor is Ms. Laguna https://calendly.com/claguna/community-college-advising
Counselor Update
School counselors continued to work on Schedule Error/Correction Requests submitted through our form. Starting Monday 8/31/20, a new drop form will be used until November 6th, which is the last day to officially drop a course. All lane change requests must be made by September 18th. This week we continued to send a daily automated email to all requests we were unable to fulfill. We hope this allowed your students to better understand why their schedule in Infinite Campus (IC) was not changed. For all approved requests, schedules in IC were updated and students should have been able to see their new schedule as soon as it was updated. IC “talks” to Schoology every night, therefore changes in IC are not updated in Schoology until the following morning.
Wellness
Hi all! The folks at the Wellness Center would just like to remind you that if your student begins to feel overwhelmed, don’t hesitate to reach out for some support. We know that being in distance learning can impact everyone differently. However you may be feeling, we’re here to help!
Students can stop by during our drop-in hours on Zoom to check in with one of our Wellness staff in real-time! Visit us Monday-Thursday from 3pm-4pm or Fridays from 11:05am-12:10pm. They can always schedule an appointment outside of those times using this form here.
Parents and guardians can email Wellness staff with any questions or concerns as well. Our website has the most up-to-date information, resources, and contact information for students and families. Check it out here!
Community Service (reminder from week 1)
The deadline for service hours to be notated on the Senior transcript for college apps is September 15th.
Seniors: September 1st – 15th, a google form will be available via Paly.net for senior community service hours to be entered on your transcript and/or if you are submitting for a President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) this fall.
Underclassmen will have a later deadline and will also fill out a google form.
All updates will be posted at https://www.paly.net/campus-life/community-service and on Schoology. Full directions and a link to the google form will be posted on both platforms when they become available. For now, be sure to enter all hours on HelperHelper and confirm they are validated.Transcripts (reminder from week 1)
Transcripts ordered through parchment have a turnaround time of 24-48 hours to be released (not including weekends). For prior approved courses taken over the summer, an official transcript must be sent to Merilyn Tonga (mtonga@pausd.org) directly from the institution/college.
Students must contact the teacher of record for any grade-change requests (due to errors or pre-arranged agreements). All other inquires to our registrar (mtonga@pausd.org) will have a reply back within 48 hours.
Work Permits (reminder from week 1)
As of August 24, all work permits will expire; students should follow the new protocol for SIP 2020:
Complete the B1-1 form, but do NOT include Social Security number (data privacy)
Return to Rachael Kaci: rkaci@pausd.org (take a pic with your phone and email)
Guardian signs and returns a waiver understanding the potential risks of working during SIP
Ms. Kaci will follow-up with a phone call to get a students’ SSN and finalize the permit*
*permit renewals will not be called since the student information is already in the system
If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to ask Rachael Kaci – Work Experience Teacher: rkaci@pausd.org. For job postings, please visit this site.