By: Gina Writz, Counselor D'Evelyn Junior/Senior High School What’s on the Calendar? Monday Nov 8th - 9th grade admissions game Tuesday Nov 9th - Counselors are out of the building attending a training. Wednesday Nov 10th - 9th admissions game Thursday Nov 11th - Veterans Day Assembly Friday Nov 12th - LIKE Virtual Screening Event - More information below. Tuesday Nov 16th- Scholarship Workshop Friday Nov 19th - Boys Mentoring - 7th hour Girls Mentoring - 7th hour NJHS Meeting - 7th hour 9th Grade Admissions Game - Monday November 8th Counselors will be meeting with all 9th grade students this upcoming week. We will be playing the Admissions Game, which introduces students to the different pieces of information that colleges and universities look at on their applications. This game is intended to help students start thinking about the steps they need to take to stand out on applications and prepare for the rest of their time in high school. We will also be talking about graduation requirements, and the recommendations that 4-year institutions in Colorado (CU, CSU, CMU, MSU Denver, etc.) expect students to have completed by the time they graduate. LIKE Virtual Screening Event - Friday Nov 12th We are excited to offer a virtual screening of the documentary film LIKE next weekend, starting at 5pm on the evening of Friday, the 12th of November, and going into the weekend. LIKE breaks down why we find social media so irresistible, examines who is controlling who, and gives you the tools to pivot to a more balanced and contented relationship. It features Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, including the co-creator of the ‘LIKE’ button, experts in brain science and regular teenagers. You can check out the LIKE Trailer to learn more. To receive your film link to screen this film with our community next weekend, you must register in advance here: https://watch.eventive.org/indieflix/play/6181a39e4c42df00307d1c82 It is free and will provide access not only to the film during the screening window, but also the at-home discussion guide, notes, and other resources. Scholarship Workshop Tuesday Nov 16th Starting on Tuesday. November 16th, counseling will start hosting scholarship workshops. These workshops are intended for seniors who would like some extra assistance on how to find scholarships, tips and tricks for scholarship applications, and to spend time working on scholarships. The counseling office will have a handful of scholarships that have been sent to us directly laid out for students to look at, but because there are thousands of scholarships out there, we will be introducing students to the databases they can utilize to search for scholarships. We will be holding around 8 workshops throughout the rest of the school year, with the majority of them coming in the second semester. Boys Mentoring Meeting Friday Nov 19th Boys mentoring will be meeting the Friday before Thanksgiving break, and the mentor/mentee pairs will be constructing their egg capsules, which they sketched out in our last meeting. The mentor and mentee should have agreed upon what materials they each have to bring to construct the capsule. They are responsible for ALL of the materials. The counseling office will provide the eggs, but we will not have any additional materials. After construction, the boys will head outside where one of our custodians, Ron, will drop them off the roof. The goal is to see if anyone’s egg can survive! Girls Mentoring Friday Nov 19th Girls Mentoring will have a Spa Day on November 19th. Girls will be meeting in their classrooms and doing manicures, face masks and doing a cucumber treatment for their eyes. Girls are responsible to bring nail polish, remover and a face mask if desired. We will provide the sliced cucumbers. It should be a relaxing and fun way to kick-off the Thanksgiving break. NJHS meeting Friday Nov 19th National Junior Honor Society students will be meeting in the cafeteria on Friday the 7th. We will be discussing the success of the blizzard sale during homecoming week and scheduling our next blizzard sale. Students also need to turn in their Individual Community Service Projects if they haven’t already. They can be turned into Mr. Northway or Ms. Writz in the counseling office. We will also be discussing charity and non profit organizations that the students would like to donate NJHS money to this year. We look forward to seeing and meeting with the NJHS students on Friday November 19th. Counseling College Updates: College Visits: College visits are 1:50 - 2:30 pm Monday thru Thursdays. Please sign up in NAVIANCE. Remember these college reps read and decide your admittance into their institutions. Hope to see you there! Mon, Nov 8 - University of Maine from Fort Kent, Maine Tues, Nov 9 - University of Colorado, Colorado Springs Wed, Nov 10 - Red Rocks Community College from Lakewood AND Bethel University from Saint Paul, Minnesota Transcripts Are you aware of your College Application Deadlines? Do you need a Counselor Letter of Recommendation to apply to your colleges? (Students tend to overlook that DU requires a Counselor LOR). The next major deadline dates are Nov 15, Dec 1, Dec 15 and Jan 1, 2022. Make sure your teacher LOR's are completed and your common app is correct. Counseling can send transcripts and LOR's prior to the college application deadline. Please give Counseling a week to process the large volume of requests. Any problems or questions, please see Mrs. McSwain in Counseling. Benefits of Gratitude “I don't have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness - it's right in front of me if I'm paying attention and practicing gratitude.” ~ Brene Brown Gratitude is the state of being grateful; a feeling of appreciation or thanks. Harvard Medical School suggests that gratitude is “a thankful appreciation for what an individual receives, whether tangible or intangible. With gratitude, people acknowledge the goodness in their lives… As a result, gratitude also helps people connect to something larger than themselves as individuals – whether to other people, nature, or a higher power.” It is a state we can all find ourselves in, but not one that we all remember to foster and practice as regularly as could be helpful. There has been a great deal of research over the last several years that has shown the benefits of gratitude, which include but are not limited to positive impacts on our well-being, relationships, work, and even our health. Knowing that gratitude can have such a positive effect on our lives may leave us wondering how to best start a regular practice. It all starts with paying attention to all that is going right in our lives. Emmons and Stern describe this in 2013 as “noticing and becoming aware of blessings that we normally take for granted.” They remind us that “practicing gratitude is all about making an intentional shift from the negative to the positive.”
There are many ways for us to increase our practice of gratitude in our daily lives, should we choose to do so. We can notice the positive things/people/interactions in our daily lives, record these in a journal, write to or share verbally our gratitude with others, or a number of other things. If you are having a tough time getting started, you can check out Marie Forleo’s video with what she calls a Gratitude Trick. Jefferson County Public Schools also provided for us a November Gratitude Google Doc with fun ideas, links, and resources. Check it out this month for gratitude fun at your house! =) |
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April 2022
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