Wachusett Guidance News
June 12, 2018
In this issue...
- Schedule Release Plan (grades 9-11)
- Google Classroom (grades 9-11)
- College Planning from now until the fall (grade 11)
- Freshmen Chromebooks and the summer (grade 9)
It's quite amazing that we're already at the end of the year. I vividly remember the first day of school this year, and as cliche as it sounds, it really flew by.
Last week, we celebrated a wonderful time of the year - 12th grade graduation. It's awesome to see our students wrap up their four years here and head on to their next adventure. Congratulations to the class of 2018!
As we wrap up the school year, I wanted to take some time in this newsletter and give everybody an update on a few things as we head into the summer.
I hope everybody has a terrific rest of the school year and summer!
- Jon Krol
Congratulations Class of 2018!!!
Schedule Release Plan
As you can imagine, creating schedules for over 2100 students has its share of challenges; that's anywhere from 15,000-25,000 individual course requests for the entire school! The administrative team pours over the student request data from the winter/spring and does its best to generate schedules that are as conflict free as possible. This year, we are proud that we had the best mathematical results in recent time. The team was able to fulfill 95% of all student requests. That's quite a feat, and I'm very proud to work with our team in an effort to make that happen. Of course that doesn't mean that the schedules are perfect, and some students weren't able to get all of their primary requests, but the vast majority of students will have schedules that are on par with the requests they made in February.
Students will be getting a copy of their schedules today during their last period classes. Leftover schedules will be available in the Main Office for pickup for students who were absent, etc.
A few things important to note:
- Students interested in changing a class or level must see their guidance counselors as soon as possible after receiving their schedules. Appointments can be made with guidance counselors over the next two weeks. June 22nd, the last day of school, is the last opportunity students have to make changes to their schedule. The guidance office is not staffed with counselors over the summer, so no changes can be made over the summer. Therefore, students who don't make a change before June 22nd would have to wait until the first day of school in the fall to make a change. This is especially important to remember for students who are taking classes that have summer work to complete.
- If a student wants to change a level (e.g. CPA to Honors, etc), he/she will need to see his/her counselor and then fill out a reconsideration form
- 8th grader schedules for next year (rising 9th graders) are not available until Freshman Orientation and any incoming 9th graders wishing to make a level change must wait until the start of the new school year.
- Often, we have students who want to make a change to their schedule, but do not come to school on the last day of school. The guidance counselors are here on June 22nd, and it is a good opportunity for students to see their counselors with scheduling questions.
Google Classroom - Guidance Seminar
We are piloting this new initiative in an effort to connect with our students in an additional way. The students at WRHS are already familiar with Google Classroom through their academics and we felt that this was another way to reach them with important information.
Guidance Seminars are set up for WRHS students currently in Grades 9-11. Our focus will be to push college application and college process information to students currently in Grade 11, so that next year, when they are Seniors, they will have much more information at their fingertips.
As we continue to roll this program out next year, we will be adding content to our Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior Google Classrooms and ensuring students are enrolled in the proper Guidance Seminar Google Classroom.
The seminars are separated by each guidance counselor with his/her own caseload of students, by grade level. So, for example, all of Mrs. Freeman's current Juniors are in one Google Classroom together.
Next year, we're going to look into the prospect of getting parents the ability to access those classes as well so they're privy to the same information that students can see.
College Process - Class of 2019
- Counselors gave a presentation to junior parents on April 24, 2018. The presentation can be viewed here: http://prezi.com/ztiwftuzdewk/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
- Counselors gave two presentation to members of the class of 2019. The presentation can be found below:
Presentation 2 of 2 given on May 8, 2018
It's important that juniors are working through all "Wave 1" tasks at this point, and that students and parents review the College Handbook. Parents and students are encouraged to reach out to guidance counselors before the end of the year with any related questions.
Class of 2021 (current freshmen) and Chromebooks Over the Summer
Freshmen will retain their Chromebooks over the course of summer vacation, and will not need to turn them into the school. They should expect to bring them back to school in the fall as they embark on their sophomore year. Parents will be receiving an e-mail with more details and information, in the next two weeks.