Written by: Suzanne Roberts, Social Emotional Learning Specialist Taking Care of You and Yours As we move into our summer break, I have considered sharing more tools that can be helpful in coping with uncertain and difficult circumstances. I think a possibly more timely discussion, however, centers around asking for help if you need it for yourself or a loved one. We all need some extra help sometimes, and it is okay to reach out for it. There can sometimes exist a reluctance to admit that we are having a tough time and that we could use some extra help as we get through. It is important to recognize that asking for help is a sign of strength, and never a weakness. We are experiencing a new level of sustained stress, and while we are working to both manage and cope with the symptoms we experience, if that stress leads to prolonged distress and you recognize symptoms of concern, please take the time to reach out to your doctor, therapist, or clergy. If you or a loved one is having increased difficulty coping, it makes sense to check on it with someone you trust. If you aren’t quite sure where to start or who to reach out to, Jeffco Public Schools has created a webpage that can help. Please take a moment to check out Jeffco COVID-19 Mental Health Supports page. If you or someone you care about is in crisis, please reach out any time of day or night to Colorado Crisis Services or call 911. The truth is that we all need extra help at times, whether it is from friends, family members, mentors, neighbors, doctors, counselors, clergy, or other supports. If you need something, please let someone help. We can all get through this together. We hope that you and your loved ones have a happy and healthy summer vacation. We look forward to seeing you all in the fall! Written by: Jon Watson, High School Counselor
Schedule Changes for 2020-2021 Counselors will be taking schedule changes for next school year beginning in August 2020. We will be in our offices on registration day to assist students with schedule changes. Remember there are exceptions to schedule changes, and we are not always able to accommodate all requests. If you have any questions about this process please contact your counselor. Columbia University Summer Programs As the school year concludes and summer approaches, we know families are looking for ways to continue engaging and challenging their children in a safe environment. To that purpose, Columbia University is pleased to announce their Online Summer Immersion Program with 90 curricular options from art and architecture to creative writing and coding. High school students can also enroll in special lectures, clubs, and virtual spaces to meet other high-achieving peers from across the country and around the world—there’s something for everyone. They are waiving the application fee for your students with this code: HSIM220. You can learn more about the programs by visiting their website at: http://precollege.sps.columbia.edu/highschool/online or by contacting Anita Weiss at [email protected]. Deadlines are quickly approaching as our programs commence at the end of June. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Rob Franek and The Princeton Review: Free Resources Before you leave for your well-deserved summer break, I wanted to share with you a couple upcoming events that The Princeton Review has created for our students and families. Students at any grade level are welcome to join. All of these events are completely free. First, is a Rob Franek event on June 4th. Rob is the Editor-in-Chief at The Princeton Review, and he is a nationally recognized expert on colleges and higher education. Rob gives dozens of presentations a year to audiences of teachers, parents, and students. He has given keynote addresses at national conferences, chaired panels at the National Association for College Admission Counseling conference, and delivered commencement addresses at universities. Rob will cover the following topics:
Second, they are hosting an online HS Week, that will be filled with 5 different webinars, ending with an opportunity for students to take a free full length SAT and/or ACT practice test. Here is a schedule of events: June 14 – SAT, ACT, Both? Math Bootcamp - Click Here to Register June 15 – SAT Strategy Session - Click Here to Register June 16 – ACT Strategy Session | Click Here to Register June 17 – Five Key Steps to Get a Head Start on Your College Application this Summer | Click Here to Register June 18 – Getting Into Your Dream College | Click Here to Register June 19 – Take a free (timed) full-length SAT or ACT Practice Test SAT Registration | ACT Registration If you have any issues trying to register for any of the events listed above please contact your counselor. These are all great resources, and we are very lucky to be invited to attend these events at no cost. JUNIORS Just because Covid-19 has interrupted some of our daily routines, and limited our travel and gathering during this time, we still want you to be preparing for life after high school. If you are planning on attending a 4-year university there are still things you can be doing to prepare over the summer. If one or more of the universities you want to apply to is on the Common App, we encourage you to begin filling that out over the summer. There are multiple sections that need to be filled out, and the sooner you start, the easier your senior year will be. The summer is also a great time to get a jump start on your college essay. Almost every college you apply to will have some type of an essay, so you can either start in the summer or write college essays along with term papers…we suggest over the summer. We understand that traveling is limited at this time, but we encourage you to participate in virtual visits with the colleges that you are interested in. The summer before senior year is a great time to start narrowing down those colleges, so please participate in virtual visits, contact admissions representatives, or do some online stalking of your own. If you have questions about who to contact please reach out to your counselor. If you are looking to join the military or an ROTC program at a university, please start reaching out to military recruiters in the area. They will have all of the information you need to start preparing for a career in the military. If you are looking to enter an ROTC program, we highly encourage you to start talking to recruiters as soon as possible. ROTC programs are very competitive, and they view applications in waves. The first wave is typically towards the end of summer. For the best shot to be accepted into an ROTC program we encourage you to apply early. Applying for college and preparing for life after high school can be stressful, so do not hesitate to reach out to your counselor for assistance. We are not on our emails everyday over the break, but we will definitely try to get back to you as soon as possible. Enjoy your summer! SOPHOMORES You are about to begin the latter half of your high school career. This is an important time to start choosing courses that are going to set you up for success on college applications, and to best help prepare you for a career outside of high school. We encourage you to start exploring some colleges that sound interesting to you, or ones that you really want to go to. Look at their requirements, and what are some of the classes they want you to take while in high school. They will also tell you if they want you to take specific SAT Subject tests. These tests are different than the normal SAT, and they focus on one subject instead of multiple. The summer is a great time to start planning out when to take some of those tests (if they will even be offered). Speaking of the SAT…the state of Colorado has agreed upon a state-wide day to offer the PSAT/SAT tests that were originally supposed to be offered in April. This date is September 18. This will be a day where you will get to take the PSAT and get some extra practice. We will also be offering the PSAT/NMSQT in October, which is another opportunity for you to prepare for the SAT. We encourage you to start preparing for those exams over the summer. There are multiple ways to practice, and there are multiple companies that help students prepare. Please visit the SAT/ACT page on our counseling website. If you have more questions please contact your counselor. NJHS National Junior Honor Society-Service Before Self By: Reid Benfield, Vice President (9th grade) Throughout the 2019-2020 school year, National Junior Honor Society (NJHS), has made astounding success despite the effects of COVID-19. Although the club got cut short this year, the advancements made in the first semester and the first 12 weeks of the second semester made a large impact on the companies that were supported by NJHS. Throughout the time we were in school, once a month, on a Friday, NJHS would sell blizzards to the whole school as a fundraiser. Another very important fundraiser is World’s Finest Chocolate. This fundraiser allowed for each member to get a box of chocolate to sell to help NJHS raise money. This money did not just sit in the bank of NJHS, however. Instead, we donated over $2000 to organizations that help with water purification in Africa as well as the company, The Shoe that Grows, which is a shoe that fits many sizes and can be adjusted for kids who don’t have access to shoes. Additionally, we donated one of our blizzard sales to Jessica’s (President) sister who needed funding to go to teach kids around the world with the organization Global Glimpse. Interestingly, service is a very large part of what we do and what we have done over the 2019-2020 school year. As NJHS, we helped D’Evelyn with the Trick-or-Treat Street in October with many of our participants volunteering their time. In fact, this year we had over 600 service hours as a whole, and individually over the course of this year. Unfortunately, we were not able to carry out our plans of helping Stamp out Hunger as well as the Jeffco Action Center Garage Sale due to restrictions, but we are very proud of what we have done for the community here, and throughout the world! We are very disappointed that we cannot have our induction ceremony this year, but to all of you who were inducted, CONGRATS! We know you will be the next generation of NJHS and you will do great! The group of kids in NJHS at D’Evelyn strive to help the community, and follow the NJHS motto: Service Before Self. We want to wish you all a wonderful and well rested summer! We can’t wait to see you all again next school year. The counseling staff will be out of the office for most of June and July. We will do our best to reply to your questions and concerns in a timely fashion. Written by: Jon Watson, High School Counselor
Counselors will be taking schedule changes for next school year beginning in August 2020. We will be in our offices on registration day to assist students with schedule changes. Remember there are exceptions to schedule changes, and we are not always able to accommodate all requests. If you have any questions about this process please contact your counselor. SENIORS Please make sure you pay your transcript fees. There are still scholarships out there, so please keep applying! We look forward to seeing you in August, so we can have an official celebration of your success. We are very excited for you all to begin the next step in your lifelong journey. We are truly going to miss you all, and we want to wish you the best in everything that you do! JUNIORS Just because Covid-19 has interrupted some of our daily routines, and limited our travel and gathering during this time, we still want you to be preparing for life after high school. If you are planning on attending a 4-year university there are still things you can be doing to prepare over the summer. If one or more of the universities you want to apply to is on the Common App, we encourage you to begin filling that out over the summer. There are multiple sections that need to be filled out, and the sooner you start, the easier your senior year will be. The summer is also a great time to get a jump start on your college essay. Almost every college you apply to will have some type of an essay, so you can either start in the summer or write college essays along with term papers…we suggest over the summer. We understand that traveling is limited at this time, but we encourage you to participate in virtual visits with the colleges that you are interested in. The summer before senior year is a great time to start narrowing down those colleges, so please participate in virtual visits, contact admissions representatives, or do some online stalking of your own. If you have questions about who to contact please reach out to your counselor. If you are looking to join the military or an ROTC program at a university, please start reaching out to military recruiters in the area. They will have all of the information you need to start preparing for a career in the military. If you are looking to enter an ROTC program, we highly encourage you to start talking to recruiters as soon as possible. ROTC programs are very competitive, and they view applications in waves. The first wave is typically towards the end of summer. For the best shot to be accepted into an ROTC program we encourage you to apply early. Applying for college and preparing for life after high school can be stressful, so do not hesitate to reach out to your counselor for assistance. We are not on our emails everyday over the break, but we will definitely try to get back to you as soon as possible. Enjoy your summer! SOPHOMORES You are about to begin the latter half of your high school career. This is an important time to start choosing courses that are going to set you up for success on college applications, and to best help prepare you for a career outside of high school. We encourage you to start exploring some colleges that sound interesting to you, or ones that you really want to go to. Look at their requirements, and what are some of the classes they want you to take while in high school. They will also tell you if they want you to take specific SAT Subject tests. These tests are different than the normal SAT, and they focus on one subject instead of multiple. The summer is a great time to start planning out when to take some of those tests (if they will even be offered). Speaking of the SAT…the state of Colorado has agreed upon a state-wide day to offer the PSAT/SAT tests that were originally supposed to be offered in April. This date is September 18. This will be a day where you will get to take the PSAT and get some extra practice. We will also be offering the PSAT/NMSQT in October, which is another opportunity for you to prepare for the SAT. We encourage you to start preparing for those exams over the summer. There are multiple ways to practice, and there are multiple companies that help students prepare. Please visit the SAT/ACT page on our counseling website. If you have more questions please contact your counselor. NJHS National Junior Honor Society - Service Before Self Written by: Reid Benfield, Vice President (9th grade) Throughout the 2019-2020 school year, National Junior Honor Society (NJHS), has made astounding success despite the effects of COVID-19. Although the club got cut short this year, the advancements made in the first semester and the first 12 weeks of the second semester made a large impact on the companies that were supported by NJHS. Throughout the time we were in school, once a month, on a Friday, NJHS would sell blizzards to the whole school as a fundraiser. Another very important fundraiser is World’s Finest Chocolate. This fundraiser allowed for each member to get a box of chocolate to sell to help NJHS raise money. This money did not just sit in the bank of NJHS, however. Instead, we donated over $2000 to organizations that help with water purification in Africa as well as the company, The Shoe that Grows, which is a shoe that fits many sizes and can be adjusted for kids who don’t have access to shoes. Additionally, we donated one of our blizzard sales to Jessica’s (President) sister who needed funding to go to teach kids around the world with the organization Global Glimpse. Interestingly, service is a very large part of what we do and what we have done over the 2019-2020 school year. As NJHS, we helped D’Evelyn with the Trick-or-Treat Street in October with many of our participants volunteering their time. In fact, this year we had over 600 service hours as a whole, and individually over the course of this year. Unfortunately, we were not able to carry out our plans of helping Stamp out Hunger as well as the Jeffco Action Center Garage Sale due to restrictions, but we are very proud of what we have done for the community here, and throughout the world! We are very disappointed that we cannot have our induction ceremony this year, but to all of you who were inducted, CONGRATS! We know you will be the next generation of NJHS and you will do great! The group of kids in NJHS at D’Evelyn strive to help the community, and follow the NJHS motto: Service Before Self. We want to wish you all a wonderful and well rested summer! We can’t wait to see you all again next school year. The counseling staff will be out of the office for most of June and July. We will do our best to reply to your questions and concerns in a timely fashion. Written by: Suzanne Roberts, Social Emotional Learning Specialist We have now been home together, albeit separately, for nine weeks. Much has changed in that time and we are coping as well as we can, while knowing that things may be different again tomorrow and we will need to adapt once more. This can feel exhausting or even overwhelming. For this reason, we continue thinking together about the things that can help us to take care of ourselves and those we love, as we grow in resilience. Today, we add “watering the helpful seeds” to the strategies we have considered and may be practicing. This is a practice that helps us be a bit more conscious of the things in our lives to which we are giving our attention and energy, and making some adjustments if we need to do so. As we have considered before, what we are focusing on makes a big difference in how we feel. This is another way of fine-tuning that focus. An excellent way for us to think about watering the helpful seeds is to review the Cherokee story of the two wolves fighting within us. Many of us have heard this tale, but it may have been some years back at this point. It warrants a bit of a refresher: While I may think more in terms of helpful and less helpful than good and evil, this tale helps us to reflect upon what we are feeding. Or, in terms of watering the helpful seeds, what we are watering. Are we watering and encouraging growth in the things that help us and make us more able to adapt and grow? Or are we watering the things that make us more upset and afraid? It matters significantly because the seeds we water are the seeds that grow. What do we want to grow – our sense of hope or our sense of fear? We may have both and need both, but which do we want to be central? Making decisions about what we seeds we are watering can help us tip the balance in a way that improves our sense of well-being. We may want to think about what are we focusing on – what are we watering?
What are the things that you are doing right now to help you and your family cope with our changing world? Our answers to this question will vary, but might include:
Of course this list could go on for pages. The truth is that there are many ways that we can and do take care of ourselves and grow in resilience, even while we move through difficult and unprecedented times. Watering the helpful seeds means thinking of what things you are doing, whether you need to do more of them, and if you could benefit by adding some new ones. While it may be true that we are all doing the best we can at any given time, it is also true that we tend to drop a helpful practice when we are busy, distracted, or stressed. So, reevaluating whether there are some helpful seeds that need watering is important work. The second part of this process then is considering the seeds that are less helpful. What are the things you are doing right now that instead of helping you to cope and grow in hope, are leading to more distress and fear? If we are honest with ourselves, there are probably a few weeds in our gardens that we may want to pull – or at least water less frequently. Again, the list here is diverse for different people, but we are often aware for example of an increase in anxiety after too much time spent ingesting media or of the spike in irritability following night(s) of poor or not enough sleep. Are there things that you are doing that you recognize as less than helpful that you could spend less time doing? So, it can be helpful to take a moment of reflection from time to time. Consider what is working well and what is not. And then concentrate anew on watering the helpful seeds. =) Written by: Suzanne Roberts, Social Emotional Learning Specialist Taking Care of You and Yours We have been focusing on ways in which we can take care of ourselves and our loved ones during this time of great change. We have worked to acknowledge that this is hard, while we continue to think together about ways we can get through it – day by day and week by week. We continue to explore the things that help this week by going back to an ever present and always valuable practice – the practice of gratitude. A daily gratitude practice gives each of us the opportunity to focus and concentrate on the positive experiences we enjoy every day. You may remember that we thought last week about the fact that we are often attuned to the negative, not only because of the news cycle or high levels of stress, but because of a natural negativity bias. Remember also that we can counter that bias with other practices, including savoring joy and practicing gratitude! The practice of gratitude is incredibly simple – just jot down three things you are thankful for every day. This record can be kept where it is most convenient for you – in a journal, on a piece of paper in your wallet, in the notes section on your phone, or any other place you can access it easily and keep track of it over the course of the weeks ahead. Record big things and little things you are thankful for during your day. Think about the obvious, the things that have gone well, as well as the things that make you smile during the day. If you feel stuck, appreciate the beauty in the world and people around you. Before you know it, the positives will seem more evident to you. This simple practice is actually a powerful tool that helps us to improve our happiness, motivation, and overall sense of well-being. It trains us to focus on the positive, which allows us to recognize more of it in our daily lives. It trains our brains to scan the environment for the positives, and the pay offs are huge. Daily gratitude journaling practices have led to increased reports of “positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness, and energy” in young adults. Research also suggests that a regular gratitude practice can result in fewer physical complaints, an improved sense of well-being, and an increase in feelings of optimism. There are myriad reasons to start a gratitude practice and really no downside. Of course, just because a practice is simple doesn’t mean it is easy to make it a habit. We are busy, we have other commitments, and we may just forget. We can make it easier, though, by leaving a journal where we think we might use it, by trying to do it at the same time every day (often first thing in the morning or just before bed can work well), or by setting a reminder on a favorite device. Whatever works for you, try recording three good things every day for the next three weeks – you may be astounded at the shift in your perspective, and in your newfound ability to identify, focus on, and savor more positivity in your life each and every day! Written by: Suzanne Roberts, Social Emotional Learning Specialist At present, most of us can find a few things to complain out. We wish we could go out more; we wish we could go to the gym or the movies or a favorite restaurant. We wish we could hang out with friends in person. Some of us miss physical touch. So, the spread of COVID-19 has provided us with a few negative things to notice. But truth be told, most of us can find a few things to complain about most of the time. No outbreak required. Have you ever noticed that you or others tend to focus more on the insults than the compliments? That we tend to think more about what went wrong than reflect on what went right? That we respond more quickly and more strongly to negative events? That we focus more quickly on the negative than the positive? If you’ve noticed this about you – or someone you are close to – it is because of what we know to be an adaptive and evolutionary function called “negativity bias.” Negativity bias is simply the human precondition to prioritize negative input over positive. As a human race, it has been important for us to recognize negative information, including danger. We have learned to scan our environments for threats. This bias can keep us safe, but when overactive in modern times it can also lead to a lower sense of well-being and lower our experience of happiness. We don’t live with the same level of threats to life that we once did (lions and tigers and bears, oh my!), but our bodies are still processing the threats (emails and traffic and cares, oh my!) in the same way. This can lead to overwhelm. The good news is that there are myriad ways and practices for us to address this bias and to work to increase positivity in our daily lives. We need that now as much if not more than ever. One way is through savoring joy. Beyond the obvious advantages of feeling more joyful, intentionally cultivating and expanding joy can help us to feel more present and increase both attention and concentration. How does one intentionally cultivate joy? One great way is through savoring – appreciating and revisiting our experiences of joy, which is easier than it may initially sound…
As we savor the joy in our lives, we anchor it. We give it attention and help it to grow. As we focus more on the positive, we see more of it. (We will think about this concept again soon when we review the benefits of practicing gratitude.) This helps us to work against the natural negativity bias, and recognize and experience more positives – and more joy. We may also want to increase the number of our joyful experiences. What are the things you most enjoy? Whether it is time spent with family or outside or doing something creative, how can you plan to include more into your day or week? This week, if you would like to cultivate joy, see if you can do more things that bring you joy, and take the time to savor those moments. Have a week filled with more joy! |
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April 2022
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