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KHS 2022 8th Grade Parent Night

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An overview of what 8th graders will need to know when the prepare for entry to the 9th grade at KHS.

Show Transcript

so I had this treacherous thing happen I'm your principal's this is what I look like without a mask good to see us but you'll have to leave your mask on thanks for waving thanks for leaving this is my second year at Keene High School and during graduation last year I stuck my phone under the thing the podium and I didn't turn my ringer off and in the middle of commencements my phone rang from like I've been telling you that I'm going to invite you to turn your phone's off we should all shut our phones off at sort of a cedar place if you need in the event of an emergency please find the red exit are you going to play that no he's not playing that self has her back that way the bathrooms are out bad hallway to the right towards the main entrance men's and women's bathroom over there this is the eighth grade parent welcome night how many of you know just so you know we are on Zoom also so there are people in the outside watching it I'll be running back there in a couple of minutes to bring their questions in how many of you this is your first eighth-grade student coming through your hands wow how many of you were veterans and you have two or more kids already through the system when you came back you'll have to tell us if we did it right we are almost all the new staff at the administrative level at the high school you're going to get meet folks as they come up I'm going to ask them as when they introduced themselves to let you know how long they've been here we have three seasoned veterans and then we have a whole group of new folks that started last year and this year last year was my first year and we are super excited headed to be able to be live in a covid setting and I appreciate folks that are being safe I appreciate folks things spread out but to be able to see each other and start to bring back that normal high school experience last year we tried this meeting on zoom and we were just learning how to do zoom in it was hard so I'm welcoming you and I want to make sure that we don't get stuck in this room a long time cuz there's actually exciting stuff in the cafeteria I'm going to turn this immediately over to Jess Russi who's the director of School counseling welcome everybody so good evening welcome to King High School I've had the pleasure of meeting most of your eighth-grade students already as I've traveled to the 8th grade school so we're hoping give you some of the same information that was shared with them so that you can have a chance to talk with them more about it the students is probably hard to believe there are going to be a freshman in high school and I can be part of the class of 2026 we are estimating about 350 students from each of the nine different schools all together that will transition here to the high school and our total population here is just under 400 so big difference probably are small schools that they're transitioning from fortunately we have a lot of people here at the high school who will help support your student and your family throughout their four years so I'm going to introduce the administrative team first you just met Gallagher who's the principal here we have a three house system which is going to be new starting tomorrow we previously at two houses but this is an opportunity for students to have a smaller Community within the larger community of Keene High School I'm in this house will help support your student in your family so you have Alex Bond who's the greenhouse assistant principal I don't think she's here tonight Colby Baker who's the gold house assistant principal is bright. Hymer who's the blue house assistant he's over there Sam Zell Court who's the director of the Cheshire career center she's going to speak in a few moments Kristen strohschein who's our special education administrator Mike Smith who's the director curriculum instruction and assessment and Mike Patton's who's our athletic director and they'll all be available to answer questions following the presentation as well we also have a wonderful School counseling team we have 6 school counselor you're at the high school if Kendra the wedgie Dan Boylan Lisa Brasa Jason Zucker Michelle Gates and Greg croteau see you soon will be assigned to one of these school counselors based on their last name your student will have an opportunity to meet their school counselor and April and get to know who they are and talk to them about their interest with Charlie Hansel who's a career counselor with the Cheshire career center we have Nancy Rafferty who's in the yellow coordinator with Jenn Whitehead who's a Student Assistance counselor Jo-Ann's yarn he's a personal counselor and then we have our school nurse is Nicole and Sarah so we have a lot of different support it's within our school counseling team and our administrative team hopefully you've had a chance to check out our program of studies which is a Mobile on the King High School website but in there you can find our graduation requirements and guidelines for academic placement lice African high school and what that might look like for your student the policy of course in schedule changes and then all of our offering Sierra Canyon High School in addition to the Cheshire career center and Fall Mountain so we went over this ends up with the students when we met with them but all students will start on a 24 credit diploma track change to another pathway as they move throughout their High School career but here it is chart shows a comparison with the 24 credit diploma truck and a 28 credit Advance the floor track so you can look at that more closely in a program of studies this is some information about life after seeing high school so if your students thinking about attending a 2-year or 4-year College they might want to look at this chart some of the admission requirements do you require additional credits in math and science in addition to World Language so they that's when they might want to look at that 28 credit diploma truck we also have a number of students who enter the military the workforce apprenticeship programs and career training programs right out of high school so no matter what your stance pathway is will help on the right track through their four years here and they're set up for success as they graduate guidelines for academic placement you don't have to worry too much about this because your student will be recommended for their core classes and the is that the only place in by the 8th grade teachers already done for them on their worksheet on if you have any questions about their levels and placement you can talk to the 8th grade teachers or school counselor any places might change throughout High cool but we highly recommend you move forward with your 8th grade teachers recommendations because they've been talkin closely with our high school teachers and they're very knowledgeable about the programming here at the high school I'm so they're going to set your soon up for Success there fresh me to get started we went over how to record subscriptions with students and really want to make sure that they're taking the time to look at what he's course is about and if it's something that may interest them we want to make sure they're looking at level requirements and if there are prerequisites for that course and then just making sure they're talking with you and their teachers to make sure there are perfect courses for them we tried to simplify things a little bit for the students so the precise can be pretty overwhelming there's a lot of pages in it so this is the course reference sheet that's just the classes that are open to freshman so we went over this in-depth as what classes they could choose and what courses might be commended for them already but you still will be bringing this home with their recommendations if not already I mean you can take a closer look at these options with your student not turn over to Sam no hi everybody I'd like to talk about the Cheshire career center the Cheshire career center is a CTE program and which one 26 centers in the state of New Hampshire c t e stands for Career and Technical education and all these programs your student will get amazing skills we have a lot to offer we have 17 different programs starting away from accounting to TV and film every single program starting next year will be open to 10th graders we also have a lot of introductory programs for our freshman would love to see your student get involved and get on a good career path come see me in the cafeteria after I can show you all the different amazing opportunities each of our programs you can earn college credit register for apprenticeship to work based learning opportunities receive certifications such as industry-recognized credentials that gives a really good higher up on their resume we have clubs activities such as Deka FB laffa skillsusa and student home builders club and even more so come see me to learn about all these amazing opportunities for more information feel free to email me or are your counselor Charlie Hansel we'd be happy to work with your student and get them on a great career pathway we'll also make sure you have access to these slides and recording of this presentation following this evening so the first step that we talked about with the three students is really to start having those conversations with their parents Guardians their teachers their coaches school counselors the people that really show them the best both inside and outside of the classroom and we want them to start thinking about what are their strengths and what may be some of their challenges and especially in the transition to high school and a much larger School environment and we want them to think about things they may be interested in or curious about so maybe they have older siblings and I've heard about some of the programs that are offered here or just as they look to the program of studies we also want students to start thinking about their short-term goals and their long-term goals so what are some of the remote as a freshman and then also thinking about that for your plan and what life might look like after they graduate high school their school counselors will also be meeting with them every year to review their graduation requirements and make sure we're on track and making sure those courses online with their feet the second part of this process is going to be for them to actually finish completing the course selection worksheet so their teachers will be making those recommendations and then they will have the option or opportunity to choose some core select Alexa. and I don't want to use their program of studies to do so this is what the course selection sheet looks like so that top piece is where those teacher recommendations will be filled out and then the bottom portion where the elect start is the courses they want to select based on their interest those might also include some graduation requirements should such as PE or health or maybe an art class we want to make sure that they're choosing at least eight credits so they have four each semester the bottom half of the worksheet is four alternates so the dessert options in case a student can't fit something into their schedule we betting the students that they can select as many all let's or electives on this worksheet they may not be able to enter them all online if they're putting the courses through the online PowerSchool portal but the school counselors will get this worksheet and be able to have those options when making their schedule as soon as have the option to select priority is so let us know what their top choices are second choice and so forth we then ask for the parents Guardians and students to review the course change policy it gets really tough to change courses once asked yours began so we ask that you take some time now to get some thought in the course selections on making sure those classes are going to be meaningful and of interest to your student not necessarily what their friends are taken and those students will have plenty of time once they receive their draft schedules to make appointment with their counselors and make changes if needed before the start of the school year we ask that you sign off that you've reviewed your soon as courses and are aware of that policy and then you don't need to worry about the due date that's when everything's due back to us at the high school the student school counselor will let them know when those are due back to their school so what is 9th grade schedule might look like we have to see Masters here at the high school so most classes run semester-long we do have a few year-long courses such as some of our music ensembles but also means we'll have 4 classes a day with four blocks in a day on secrecy on the schedule what that might look like for semester one you'll notice that 4/2 credit courses they currently rotate on a day 1 and day to schedule so students would have health every other day and on the opposite day if they would PE this may change for next year we're looking at the opportunity that I have court along courses and all that would mean is that they would have held for the first half of the semester if he eat for the second half of the semester but we do try to balance your students course load with their core academics you'll notice they have English and science on the first semester and social studies and math on the second semester so we do try to give them some balance and not overload them in one semester students also have an advisory and I time right now this is at the end of the day advisory is always on Mondays and this is a time for students to be connected with a teacher here at the high school and his teacher would help support them throughout their four years occasionally we have grade level and school-wide topics that may be discussed or we may have some team-building activities but it's also a time for them to check in with their advisor and how they're doing I just scheduled our iTunes sessions I time is more of a focus on academics sofa student was perhaps absent and needed to catch up with a teacher on what they missed or they might need to do a reassessment or maybe they just need a little to help we also try to have some fun activities from time to time so the other week we had a unified basketball game that students could sign up to attend so there I time schedule is going to be based on her academic progress distance from their teachers and advisors so they can be assigned if they're not doing well in a class and they have access to see a teacher at least twice in the week and then with the students input as to where they want to be as well so what's coming up next to your students your eighth-grade teachers and teams are making recommendations they're going to be selling out that worksheet which will be sent home if they haven't been already to be reviewed by the parents and Guardians and be signed they're going to be calling on a tour of the high school the last week of March some of them have already gone on a tour of the career center and some of them will be going on one in the future and then in April the school conference will go and have one-on-one meetings their students to review those course selections they need and make sure everything looks good and to talk about their interests and maybe things they're excited about or concerned about as a transition to the high school and then we have freshman and parent orientation it's the first it's the day before the first day of school you'll get more information over the summer but that's a nice time for students to me all the other freshmen that are transitioning here and to walk through their schedule so they feel a little bit more comfortable on that first day comes ways that families can get involved if you can attend open houses with parent advisory meetings you can check out our King High School website we have the Blackbird Beacon that comes out every other month I will school events and equally part of club or Sports booster clubs I'm going to bring up mister Atkins he's our athletic director to give you some more information about the Athletics and clubs here at the high school oh sure it's only two questions so far so for the folks that are online there is a question-and-answer tab inside the zoom the first question is asking whether we're providing the PowerPoint and everybody should know is that the meeting is being recorded and that the slides will be shared tomorrow will be producing the link so if anybody's missed it and then the second question it asked specifically about Jim and health but it's asking about classes over the summer Keene High School runs on a traditional school year so we don't offer full credit classes in the summer we do have some more opportunities to recover credits but you wouldn't see a gym class or a health class being offered outside of the regular school and you wouldn't see any other class running that way scheduled wise thank you I'm going to pull that pull this down if that's okay everybody everybody a home as well my name is Mike Adkins I'm on the athletic director and I'm also the person that helps manage the extra-curricular have to activities after school I'm going to be really really quick my advice to you what is encourage your students to get involved beyond the classroom I would say that the experiences beyond the classroom are going to fulfil the high school experience so much more so than those students that are just in the app and I'm going to just take 1 minute of your time and it do a little audience participation so some of you think back to when you were in high school for somebody was farther back than others for me is quite a while back now I'm not going to the subject but I'm just going to randomly say think as a as an adult do you remember anything from freshman geometry if you did put your hand up I think I see two or three hands up now think back to high school again if you were involved in a play in the band if you were on an athletic team if you were in student government do you remember any of those experiences if so I would say better than 50% so what's my message get encourages students to get involved encourage your son or daughter to join a club be in student government being a performing group join a team not going to read through the slides again you have the slideshow and all our athletic teams and activities are on the athletic webpage on the Keene High School web page I will say that we will have a freshman parent meeting in June and I've stopped my head I believe it's June 14th right at the Tuesday after a graduation will get information out to all parents for if you have a son or daughter who is going to be involved in any athletic team fall winter or spring and then we also have a club activity Fair during freshman orientation which is the first day of school for incoming freshmen so I'll stay around afterwards if you have specific questions about sports I'm happy to answer those go black birds all right so we also had a slide just on the club's basically we have over 50 different clubs we have something for everybody and if not we're open to creating something new but the list is all available on Keene High School website and we have plenty of opportunities for students be able to do both I thought extinct Club so definite you should check that out I think now we're going to see if we have some questions we only have one additional question so far and this is coming from the private schools has Keene High I reached out to the lake St Joe's and schools like that yet yes so we've been to most schools and we will be going to St Joe's in early March and we still also need to attend series but otherwise we've been to all of the schools and so I shared with the with the first parents I'm assuming it's apparent your email if they had specific questions but so you haven't been to st. Joseph so there are no other questions online the link for the program of studies yep so the program study is is right on the Keene High School website but I can help you access that laughter if you need to I do have some copies of the grade 9 reference sheet with me and I can give those to you after as well anybody else needs copies they can feel free to email me any other questions we invite all of you we have another one online so this confirming the parents are going to review the course selections before a student submits it correct that answer is yes you should be signing off for those any other questions we're going to invite all of you here in person to join us in the cafeteria we have representatives from East Apartment there so you can walk around and introduce ourselves to them and ask any other questions you may have but we want to thank everyone for coming out tonight and for joining us at home as well and we look forward to beating all of your 8th grade students so thank you

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KHS 2022 8th Grade Parent Night

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