Engaging Students Series:

Juniors (11 th) Grade Part 1

Or: Finding Sanity in the

Midst of Chaos

Your Hostess

Cyndy McDonald- Middle school and high school counselor

- Experience working in college access program

AVID

- Founder of HECA, MyCCA.net and co-founder

of GuidedPath

- Launching AVEST- American Veterans non-

profit organization

- Passion for education

- First generation college student

Sophomore Recap

Recommendation: Start early

• Update student and parent accounts

• Offer Find My Spark, College Affordability Shaper and other online surveys

• Assign students to research using college style

• Set up testing schedule

• Have students record college visits online or using available forms

• Prepare for ramping up in Junior Year

Review Engaging Sophomores (and 8-9th Graders) recordings/slides

at http://guidedpath.net/category/kims-blog/

Webinar Agenda

5 Management tips to help you

Surveys to use in the junior year

Kaetlyn's Tips- from a student perspective

Testing Momentum

Ways to use the Guided Search to

find best matches in colleges

Data management: reports

Questions/Answers

Finding Sanity

How can

you keep

your sanity

amidst the

chaos?

5 Tips to Help You Stay Sane

1. Organize all

students Prospects

ACTIVE

Archived

• Save time by assigning students

in groups at once as ACTIVE

• ACTIVE students have most

access

• You only pay for ACTIVE students

• PROSPECTS and ARCHIVED are

free

Stay connected to all students –- communicate by email - add advisor notes & track information

2. Activate Student Accounts

Student Accounts

= Sanity

• Assign students and

parents online accounts in

GuidedPath

• Let them do more for

themselves using online

account in GuidedPath

• What they do for

themselves = less you

need to do for them

Mantra – “Use your account””

3. Communication is key

1. Organize

• Organize messages

and themes for

students

2. Calendar

• Schedule on calendar

• Use word document to

organize message

templates

3. Record

• Track messages in one

place

4. Calendar it!

Set appointments and assignments in

calendars

Doesn’t happen if not on calendar!

5. Make it crowd friendly

Use group mode to

• View

• Organize

• Plan

Tips for group mode:• Include student name at beginning of

appointments/assignments

• Create protocol for

appointments/assignments

• Generates automatic

reminders/notifications

Engage through more surveys

Juniors should:

1. Update Activity record

2. Do College Match

3. Update Course Plan

4. Do Design a College

5. Do Getting 2 Know U if not done

before

6. And other surveys as needed

(custom, Athletic, Find My Spark)

Students LOVE to do surveys and learn about themselves

Kaetlyn Tells It Like it Is

Getting 2 Know U.

Coming up with something to write about for the Common Application was particularly challenging for me, as the prompts are very broad. The Getting 2 Know U survey gets your brain rolling and ideas flowing. Any question within this survey is a great place to start when trying to write your Common Application essay.

Design A College.

I find the Design a College survey most useful in organizing my thoughts. For me, after visiting ten colleges I became unsure as to why I liked a college. I simply had a general feeling for each school. This survey helped me to focus on the specifics of a college, and gave me a general idea of my ideal college. This survey can be used both as a starting point when creating a college list, as well as a reminder when all of your potential schools begin to blur together.

Read all of Kaetlyn’s blogs at www.guidedpath.net

Recommended Test Schedule- Juniors

Test Dates Comment

Diagnostic test Ongoing Help students identify which test to concentrate

on in next 2 years: ACT or SAT?

PSAT Oct. NOT a practice test

SAT/ Int’l SAT Fall, Spring Take at least 2 x, no more than 3 x, finish by

June

ACT Fall, Spring Take at least 2 x, no more than 3 x, finish by

June

AP/IB May Schedule as appropriate

SAT Subject Test May or June Strong subjects, if not doing higher level.

Example: World History, Biology.

See 4 year Testing schedule at http://guidedpath.net/engaging-students-series-sophomores-a-guidedpath-best-

practices-webinar/

Testing: Sanity Tip

Students self-

enter scores

• Saves time

• Empowers students

• Improves communication

• Enhance counseling

• Generates automatic

reminders for : regular &

late registration: and prior

to test date.

Remember your mantra:

Put it in your account!

College Search & Lists

GuidedPath uses 4

search categories:

• General Information

• Academic

• Financial Aid

• Social Experience

Also includes:

• Organized tagged lists

• Comparison columns

• Filters

ACT did a search and found GuidedPath to

be the most comprehensive on the market.

Search Tips

Teach student

search tips

• Start broad

• Use COMPARE for

multiple columns

• Select only 1-2

filters

Infinite Search Combinations Possible

Professional – Precise – Piece of cake!

Waited for 5 years for technology to catch up with imagination

Reports

Individual

& Group

Reports

Coming Next: Engaging Juniors: Part 2

Agenda

• Using Advisor notes

• Using notifications & reminders effectively

• Finalizing lists

• Activities for essay brainstorming

• Understanding My Chances

• Group mode- more ways to keep your sanity!

• Special features for International Students

Register now! Feb. 12 10 am PST Details at

www.guidedpath.net/training

Check it out

Let’s log into

www.guidedpath.net

Sample student: Andy

Awesome

I am using Audry Apple

Support?

Knowledge

Base

• View articles

• Watch videos

• Do a search

• Submit a request

• support@guidedpath.

net

• Call us!

• 720.465.8555

Counseling? cyndy@guidedpath.net