I was hoping to post a new article when we returned from winter break, but so much for my New Year’s resolutions. In case you’re new to my blog, I create timely articles for my department about the post-secondary process…well, perhaps in the pandemic turmoil, they’re not as timely as I’d like them to be, but I try! Nevertheless, despite the rollercoaster of the COVID-19 world, this year I’ve seen a lot of bright spots to report to the Hopkinton community. In the fall of 2021, our school instituted a flex block in our schedule, which occurs on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week from 9:55-10:40. During this time, students can meet with teachers, counselors, and other support staff for extra help, remediation, and self-care. Our department seized this opportunity and used these blocks to offer our developmental curriculum to the students on our caseloads, which was an awesome experience as I was able to connect with my students more frequently than in the past. Though we’ve offered these classes for decades, this is was the first time in which counselors could teach their own students in person, so as such, I’ve now seen all of my freshmen at least five times in a group setting. Despite the mask that fogs my glasses, making me feel even more anonymous than my far-sighted colleagues, when I walk into the hallways and classrooms, freshmen now greet me and yell out to me by name. I am very grateful that I was able to establish a strong relationship from the very beginning of this year, and I have flex block to thank for it.
Counselors are now just wrapping up our Junior Seminars, which cover post-secondary planning. These sessions are heavily focused on the college process, and this week, counselors focused on letters of recommendation (check out this youtube clip from my class), when students should ask their teachers (typically in April/May this year), and what information they should provide once a teacher agrees to a write a recommendation. Additionally, all counselors are required to write a recommendation for all students in support of their applications, and we just assigned My Story this week. This assignment, if done well, enhances the letter that we will write for the student. Additionally, parents are also welcome to add more information to our rec letters via the Parent Brag Sheet. Moms, dads, or guardians are encouraged to answer the outlined questions about your child and return them to their respective counselor; the anecdotes parents provide are super helpful when writing. Often, there are really interesting pieces of information that parents share through this correspondence that I may not have known otherwise. So please, don’t be shy…brag about your child! It can only help.
I could go on and on about our seminars, but if you’re curious about when your child attended or will attend these classes, you can check it out here. Additionally, even though counselor sessions are focused on career development mostly in the freshmen and sophomore year, the flex block has allowed Valerie Lechtanski, STEAM and CVTE School-Community Career Coordinator, to reach out to any student who wants to meet virtually with a professional in a specific career. In these live sessions, the expert will talk about their journey, how they entered into the field, the future of the career, and what they do on an average day. Here is the calendar for February, and as long as we have enough student interest, we are hoping to provide more options for additional experts to share their stories and inspire youth in Hopkinton.
Despite the fact that we’re still riding the COVID wave, now that I look back, I do realize that these new initiatives might not have come to fruition if we didn’t need to make structural changes to help transition our students back to a normal school day, whatever normal is now. I am deeply appreciative that I live in a community that is creative and flexible, allowing us to use the ample resources in our school to assist our students. If you’re reading this article and had no idea about our new flex block pilot program, please feel free to reach out to your child’s school counselor, or to me, Kristen Wurster at kwurster@hopkinton.k12.ma.us, and I can direct your question appropriately. In the meantime, be kind, be safe, and stay warm!
