By Jon Watson
COLLEGE VISITS! College visit season is almost over! We only have 8 visits scheduled for the remainder of November. Please log on to Naviance and sign up. We have some great Colorado schools and the University of Arizona wrapping up our college visits for the year. We would love to see you down in Counseling for these visits! STUDENTS INTERESTED IN THE MILITARY: We have scheduled a time with military recruiters to have ASVAB testing during 7th hour on February 15, 2018. If you have more questions about this, please contact your counselor. SENIORS Keep working on those college applications! We are passing and approaching the early action deadlines for most schools. The University of Colorado and Colorado State University have their early action deadlines coming up. CU’s deadline is November 15th and CSU’s deadline is on December 1st. If you have any questions, please come down to counseling. Are you stressing about how to pay for college? Starting in the Spring semester we will be hosting scholarship workshops for students. We have arranged 6 dates throughout the semester during 7th hours to have students come down and explore scholarships. We will provide you with multiple data bases to look at, and help you narrow down options. JUNIORS We are looking for students to join our College Prep Group for Juniors! This group will begin in December and we are looking for students who want to get an early edge on applying for colleges. This group will focus on preparing you for the applications, a deeper look into what schools are looking for, and how to make yourself stand out on applications. We will also talk about interviewing skills and hear from an Alumni panel. The group will meet 4-5 times over the course of the Spring semester during 7th hour. We only have around 30 spots, so it will be first come first serve. The deadline to sign-up is Thursday November 30th. Please talk to your counselor if you are interested. On Monday November 13th we are hosting an internship seminar and you all are invited. This seminar is designed to provide students with a better understanding on how to get internships, how to search for them, and how to prepare for interviews. We have an awesome guest coming in to do this presentation for us. Any juniors who are looking for an internship, or are looking to be an intern somewhere over their senior year this would be a great session to attend. The session will be during 7th hour, and if you have any questions come down to the counseling office. SOPHOMORES Hello Sophomores! Get ready to start exploring careers. We are beginning to put together our career shadow days and lunch sessions. We are expecting all of you to attend at least one of the sessions. We will have a variety of speakers and careers presenting throughout the year, so if something grabs your attention please join us! Coming up in the next few weeks we have: Life as a Chef on 11/16 and Computer Scientists on 12/5. FRESHMEN Hello Freshmen! Get ready to start exploring careers. We are beginning to put together our career shadow days and lunch sessions. We are expecting all of you to attend at least one of the sessions. We will have a variety of speakers and careers presenting throughout the year, so if something grabs your attention please join us! Coming up in the next few weeks we have: Life as a Chef on 11/16 and Computer Scientists on 12/5. JUNIOR HIGH During the past month 7th and 8th graders were called to the auditorium during 7th hour to complete their ICAP (Individual Career and Academic Plan) tasks. In Naviance seventh graders did a survey called Strengths Explorer which guided them to career clusters that might match their strengths and interests. Eighth graders did a similar survey also in Naviance, and were asked to choose 2 career clusters that they were interested in. Both grade levels were asked to explore careers within the clusters they chose and to write a sentence about two of them. Eighth graders also had the opportunity to discover their preferred learning styles by completing the Learning Style Inventory in Naviance. Parents can log onto Naviance with their students and look over the results. CONSELING TIPS We recognize that a main concern at our school is the amount of stress homework, extracurricular activities, tests, and all the other factors that play into a school day can have on our students. As a counseling department we are constantly trying to develop effective strategies on how to deliver information about coping with stress. Each month we are going to have a Counseling Tips section to share strategies related to a specific topic. Our topic for November is test taking anxiety. With finals just around the corner we figured an important topic to cover would be test taking anxiety. Tests can be an intimidating concept, and finals tend to bring out copious amounts of stress on students because of the amount of tests students have to study for. One of the most important aspects in figuring out how to reduce anxiety is to learn the symptoms that come along with it. Once we recognize the symptoms we can utilize strategies and coping mechanisms to alleviate those symptoms. Symptoms of Test Anxiety:
There are multiple causes for test anxiety and some of the most common ones are a fear of failure, lack of preparation, and poor test history. Through all of these causes an important thing to keep in mind is to stay as positive as possible. One of the best ways to beat test anxiety is to prepare for tests and start preparing early. Start studying course subject’s weeks before an exam. This is a lot easier said than done, however when students get in the habit of cramming for tests that will increase stress and anxiety levels. Tips for Managing Test Anxiety:
These are just a few strategies to help cope with test anxiety. If you have any questions or want more information, please stop by the counseling office. |
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