Washington Middle School Counseling

Catherine Basl is a College Success Foundation and AmeriCorps volunteer working full-time for us this year. She’s been focusing on college and career awareness, helping with the College Bound applications, working on goal-setting in classrooms, consulting with teachers, and coordinating our first career fair in a decade. Here’s her report on where things are at the moment.

As Washington Middle School’s AmeriCorps College and Career Coach this year I have had over two hundred conversations with students about jobs and post-secondary education—and many discussions about what it means to be educated or have a career. I am excited to continue exploring future possibilities with Washington students this spring.

Career Fair!

Washington Middle School students began exploring career opportunities through a February career interest survey. In mid March students received the Washington Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board’s Where Are You Going? guide). (Also check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Students website.) As a class, students reviewed the guide’s career interest surveys and career cluster descriptions of occupations. Then, on March 22nd Washington students heard from forty-seven community members including engineers, scientific writers, journalists, and the director of the Seattle Center. Speakers presented on their jobs, career experience, and…

Open Enrollment for the 2011-2012 school year takes place from March 15-April 15, 2011. Open Enrollment is the best time for students and families to exercise their ability to choose a specific school they would like to attend. For complete information on this process, please go to the District Open Enrollment web page.

Here are the dates and times: Wednesday, November 17th, from 3:30 to 5:30, and Thursday, November 18th, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Don’t miss this chance to talk with all your student’s teachers. You can pick up her or his report card at the gym and then find the teacher(s) you want to talk with. While you will only have 5 minutes per teacher, you will get a good idea of how your student is doing. If you want a more in-depth conference after this conversation, we’ll help you arrange one. Your WMS PTPSA makes these conferences possible.

Tomorrow’s the first day of the 2010-2011 school year. It’d be a great night for students to get a good rest, but somehow, we think that’s unlikely to happen. Some food in the morning, a warm goodbye from at least one adult caretaker at home, and our middle school students start another school year. For 6th graders, it’s an even bigger adventure, as they leave the cocoon of elementary school. Seventh graders know this is the transition year, and eighth graders are already looking forward to June promotion and high school.

This is the first year of the new school assignment plan and the new transportation plan. We expect there will be many glitches and not a few surprises as old expectations are dashed against the rocks of fiscal tightening. Definitely contact your counselor with questions (check the FAQ area of this site first), and we’ll do our best to answer your concerns or direct you to someone who can. Even with all this, we are looking forward to another great year, and we can’t wait to see your children!

Unbelievably, another school year is completed. We had a smooth promotion ceremony last night for some very excited new 9th graders. Yearbook signings and goodbyes (some teary) were the order of the day today. We wish all students and their families and safe, healthy, and enjoyable 2 months. And of course, we look forward to our returning students, and our new arrivals in September.

Washington Middle School’s Tutoring Program is only a few years old, but it has become one of the most visible and sought-after academic student intervention programs in the school. The program as a whole has been quite successful, thanks to the efforts of the Tutor Coordinator, Susan Huntley. Her report for this school year follows.

The in-school tutoring program is wrapping up another successful year at Washington Middle School.  Over the course of the year, we saw 85 volunteers working with our students individually and in classrooms.  Of these, 23 were parents and grandparents of students.  We had a a total of 25 undergraduate tutors from Seattle University’s Children’s Literacy Project, and two SU staff members participated as well, thanks to a new program to encourage community volunteerism.  In addition, we had 8 students from University of Washington’s Pipeline Project, and 8 from Seattle Central Community College; for the first time, we had two participants from Bellevue College as well.  Four of our college-age tutors were former Washington Middle School students!  Of all the people who tutored in 2009-10, 16 were volunteering for at least their second year.

Around 70 Washington students received one on one tutoring for at least part of the school year.  These students are referred by their grade level counselors, who may be asked by parents, teachers or the students themselves for more academic support.  Once a week, tutors meet them in the library during their elective (non-core) class time.  They may work on missing homework or classwork assignments, binder organization, research projects, or reading practice.  Tutors are encouraged to stay in touch with the student’s teachers and to keep up with the student’s current grades on Source from the Tutor Coordinator’s office.