October 25, 2024 • 24 mins
Eighth graders are choosing their courses for freshman year very soon. We're asking them to sketch out all four years of their high school career now - knowing that it will change - so we can think about the end goal and life after high school.
Hear about how that's done, what a parent or guardian's role is, and how to prepare your student to make some of these big decisions.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to the SMA Podcast. I'm your host Daniel Bader. I'm the Communication Coordinator
(00:08):
for the School District. We don't normally do this. We don't normally tie an episode
of the podcast to a specific event, but we are this time. And it's the high school preview
night for eighth grade families that's happening on Tuesday, October 29th at 6 p.m. I decided
(00:32):
to break from that convention of not tying into events because it's a pretty epic event.
It's a pretty big night for parents and for students to figure out how you start planning
your high school career. It's four years and we're going to start laying out the roadmap
here. So joining us today is Shannon Hill said she's a counselor at the high school. This is why
(00:59):
while we are tying into a certain event this episode can live on because she's going to tell
us just in general how the process works, why we plan out start sketching out what our four-year
experience is going to be like, and really who that falls on and where parents responsibilities are
(01:20):
and where student responsibilities are and the supports they have in the process it follows.
So again it's Tuesday, October 29th, but if you're listening after that that's okay because this is
either a good catch-up or a good primer for when you may and your child will get to this point in
(01:40):
their education. So here is Mrs. Hillstead. Joining me today on the podcast is Shannon
Hillstead, Mrs. Hillstead welcome to the SMA podcast. Thank you for having me. So tell me a
little bit about student services. If I'm an eighth grade parent and I don't have any kids in the
(02:08):
high school what do I need to know about what student services is? Well student services is a
group of professionals here at the high school. Similar to middle school we have four counselors
currently a social worker and a school psychologist that meet with students. The four counselors are
really focused this time of year on academic and career planning and the rest of us as well of
(02:31):
course meeting with kids to meet their personal and social needs as well. But for the purposes of
this podcast we're really focusing on that academic and career planning piece. Yeah and for our
listeners we I asked you to do this just this morning because next week is a pretty big day for
eighth grade families as far as learning about how to be high schoolers. What's happening next
(02:56):
week? Yeah next week Tuesday on the 29th we are having a parent information night where they parents
and students are welcome to come in to the high school and listen to our team and our administrators
talk a little bit about what to expect with high school as well as some of the information they
need to know when they're choosing their high school classes because we are actually in the
(03:20):
process of doing that right now in October. I would say October and November seem pretty important
when it comes to career planning or high school career planning for kids. What happens during
these months? So during these months in October the counselors at the high school have been meeting
(03:41):
with our current students to give them information about planning for the upcoming year and years
ahead as many years as they have left to plan out all the courses that they want to take and we
will be meeting very soon with eighth graders now towards the end of October and into November to
(04:02):
start planning their high school courses as well. We're doing things a little bit differently actually
this year than what we've done in the past where we're not only choosing for next year we're choosing
courses for all four years so for eighth grade parents listening it's really important that we're
thinking about ninth grade in the classes that they're going to be choosing for ninth grade but
(04:23):
also looking ahead to tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade with the intention of the earlier they
understand what programs are available to them the better they can plan the courses that they need
to take to get there. We've seen students get to their junior and senior year and they want to do a
youth apprenticeship or they want to take a college class or something that they then realize they
(04:48):
didn't take some of the prerequisite classes the courses you needed to take to get into those
classes first so we're hoping that our families are taking the opportunity to look at some of the
more advanced level classes and opportunities that we have in the junior and senior year to help
them plan some of the classes that they take in ninth and tenth grade. Gotcha so it's kind of a
(05:10):
roadmap towards what towards graduation I guess right. Exactly towards graduation and then of
course towards what they want to do after graduation as well. So when I was a third grader I wanted
to be an Air Force pilot right. You can't see me at home but I wear glasses and I guess I'm the
(05:30):
right height but apparently you need to have 20-20 vision so I say all that knowing that maybe
in eighth grade I didn't know what I wanted to do right. I certainly didn't know that I was going
to be in this career how do you plan for that? There's a lot of resources out there and actually
one of the things that students will be getting in a folder at some point in time and the information
(05:53):
will also be available at the parent night as well as linked online is information and different
resources and places that you can do different career matchmakers like in Zello. It's a website
that we use a lot and tell students to go to where you can put in different information about
what you're interested in doing things you like to do or don't like to do and it'll match with
(06:14):
careers. So we're really encouraging students to try to do some of those surveys to help them
narrow down at least if you don't know exactly which career that's okay because we know they're
kids they're going to change their mind of course but at least kind of a broad area we call them
career clusters that they can start focusing on and then try some of those classes in high school
(06:37):
and that's what high school is for too is trying those classes that you know if you think you want
to be a nurse try some of our health care classes better to find out now that you do or don't like
that career or those types of classes before getting to college and potentially spending a lot
of money on those so that's what high school is for. Sure and then so this month and early next
(07:01):
month I know that process will happen. How much is on the student and how much is me on me as a
parent what's my role on this? Well it's the students responsibility to go in and choose their
courses and infant and campus of course we we're expecting that they do that and we will be giving
(07:21):
them lots of information and lots of help hopefully they will feel like they're coached along well
enough to do this on their own but we of course hope for families to get involved with that as well.
We're hoping you know at home you're having conversations and knowing you know what are
(07:41):
they choosing that when you see your son or daughter's schedule next fall that you're not
surprised by anything that you've had this conversation about what makes sense for them
and you know what your expectations are as a family. Yeah so I guess it's if we're at home
around dinner I have a seventh grader there's not a whole lot of conversation that happens right
right now at this age but that conversation should be big picture right I guess where do you want to
(08:07):
go? Yeah exactly that's what I one of our resources that's linked in online and in the
folders that will be given out is about the career clusters that I mentioned there's 16 career
clusters and I tell students all the time there's surveys that you can take to figure out which
clusters or cluster you belong to but you can also just look at them and know you know if you're
(08:31):
interested in for example healthcare you don't need to know that you want to be a nurse or that
you want to be a physical therapist but if you just know in general that I would like to work in
that area there's a list of different courses that we would recommend then based on that you
know you can narrow down exactly what it is within that career cluster that you want to do later but
(08:52):
looking at and trying the courses that belong kind of to that cluster we see as important to help
you make some of those decisions in the course planning. And how much for say what's this use of
freshmen as an example how much of their day is our required courses and how much are things that
(09:12):
they would make a decision on? So for a freshman they're required to take math English science
social studies and physical education so that's going to take up about five of their seven there's
seven periods in the day and then they'll also have kind of a study hall we're not sure exactly
(09:34):
what it's going to be called but like a study hall or a spire it used to be called it's a support
hour that's built in where they will be able to get some extra support use time to study retake
tests have joined clubs different things like that so seven periods in the day and of that about
five four of them are your core academics and then some room for elective classes. Yeah okay and
(09:58):
so my student gets a folder and they come home with it and it's got a lot of resources about how
we should go should I be sitting with them and doing it going through this stuff with them or
should I give them that space after we have that big conversation at dinner? I guess it depends on
(10:19):
your student but yes I would encourage families to help them get started I think this is really
especially for our eighth graders that are we're going to be asking them to plan out four years
and they're thinking I don't even know what I want to do next week you know come on mom. So yeah I
would encourage families to help them get started because sometimes that's what they need is just
(10:44):
a start like let's look at this let's just look at English and let's put that in together let's talk
about it let's you know why would you take an AP class in your later years versus not you know
having some of those conversations if you just want to look at one subject at a time however
you want to do it but definitely as a family I would encourage you to help your student get
(11:06):
started on this. Sure and I guess there are things like so we did a podcast on the ELA at
high school level English language arts at the high school level and that department has been super
clever and the course offerings that they have right so you could take like a deep literature
class or you could do media studies you're still getting those core requirements but in those later
(11:33):
years 11th and 12th grade right I think they're choosing which of those is that kind of the
decisions we're making now or like I think I want to go towards media studies so yeah we're
going to be asking students to put those take take some time to think about it and put those
courses in but we understand that right now they're they're not going to fully understand and read
(11:58):
the description of every single class in every department but more so big picture like you were
saying before do I want to take AP when I get to that to English in 11th and 12th grade or actually
10th 11th and 12th or am I student who wants to focus more in a different area and you know just
take some of the other options like you were talking about media studies and diverse voices
(12:22):
and literature and things you know those are the other options so there's flow charts there's again
lots of information that we can't see in a podcast but that is out there to help families and
students look through what the appropriate classes are for different grade levels okay so what else
do we need to know about this process we kind of went over what October and November is but maybe
(12:47):
for an eighth grade family what's the what's the timeline yeah so again Tuesday night October 29th
is more information for parents so we're hoping to see a good turnout that night again the counselors
will be meeting with in classrooms with students to to help show the students in eighth grade how
(13:09):
to use infinite campus how to enter classes how to enter a four-year plan and showing them all of
the resources that are in the folder that they have gotten to help them with planning and then the
week of the 18th of November 18th through Thanksgiving we'll be going into the middle school and
(13:31):
meeting actually one-on-one with every single eighth grader to look at what they've put into their
course plan which is again an infinite campus and just verify that things look correct and have some
conversations and answer some of the final questions that they have to make sure that everything
looks good we're going to be telling you'll hear this a lot we're going to tell the students we'll
(13:53):
say this next week Tuesday really focusing most of the effort on the ninth grade year you know
looking at because that's the one we're more so committing to we were we're committing to what
you're taking in ninth grade not that there's something that can't change you know in the next
couple of months if you email your counselor with a decision that you know you decided on
(14:15):
something else we can make that change but for the most part we're locking that in the 10th 11th
and 12th grade years we're we're just kind of like you had said making a map a roadmap for them of
how they're going to get through high school every single October we will revisit this plan and we
can wipe the whole thing out and start over if they took a class and decided they hated it and
(14:37):
their whole their whole map has to change that's okay but we just want to give them those opportunities
to think ahead and kind of give the district some idea for planning and of courses and stuff as well
yeah oh that makes sense yeah I guess resource allocation based on the projected path of students
(14:58):
would make a lot of sense in total for all the students right you could make some decisions that
way that makes a lot of sense and then and then that's it so December I now I know as a freshman
what I'll be taking in the fall yeah pretty much you will lock things in when you meet individually
(15:19):
with your counselor and then by December we do some of the cleanup you know if there's an absence
or something on the day so if your student is sick and you know that it's the day that the
counselors in the middle school please keep them home we don't want their illness we will find them
and do some cleanup in December but yeah for the most part everything will be pretty much locked in
so that our administrative staff can then move from there and look at the numbers and start
(15:43):
actually building a schedule for 25 26 if parents wanted to become more educated on what the high
school offers so they could have those discussions with the student what would they look at lots of
the things that are in the folder we have links to our course planning guide so the course planning
(16:06):
guide is a pretty thick booklet that we have a few copies printed off here but we also have it
offered online so there's a link to that that has a course description of every single course that
we offer in the high school it tells you also if there's a prerequisite class meaning a class that
you would have to take prior to taking a certain class as well as how many credits you get for
(16:30):
taking that class so if something says that it's one credit class it means it's gonna meet for the
entire year both semester one and two if something is a 0.5 a half credit class it only meets for
one semester either semester one or semester two so that the course book is really valuable also in
the course book there each department has a flow chart of their classes that they're all set up a
(16:57):
little bit differently but basically it'll it they're kind of top-down flow charts where it usually
shows kind of the entry level classes at the very top and then what classes it then leads to so you
know art is the first one there so just for example design is kind of the entry level class that you
would have to take before taking photography so you can kind of see in the course guidebook what
(17:20):
those flow charts look like for every department got it so if I read through that I'd have a pretty
good idea a point a to point b how to get you know decisions yeah right yeah yeah yeah and then what
talk a little bit about the end goal graduation what do we need to graduate from South Milwaukee
(17:41):
High School yeah our students need to have 25 credits in order to graduate from South Milwaukee
High School every year students are going to be choosing seven credits so again freshman year
it's there's gonna be a seven period day so for each period they're in a class if they pass the
(18:01):
class they earn a full credit after the year it has finished so of course I yeah yeah that's
that can't lunch the lunch period nope no no no credit no not credit but if I have to pick seven
things are there a county choose from or lunch is not one of the seven is seven no so there's
(18:25):
another period in there that's my lunch and spend a sign yeah and so they have seven full courses I
could choose from seven full courses yeah okay yeah that hit me earlier when you were talking about
study hall I'm like but lunch lunch is not a period yeah okay they're not picking study hall
this year either it's it's gonna be built into their schedule naturally next year got it got it
(18:45):
and okay so 25 credits to graduate and they have to be in certain areas right they do have to be in
certain areas so for high school graduation they need to have four credits of English so we need to
make sure that for eighth grade parents we're looking at putting a full one credit of English in
(19:05):
every single year they need to have three credits of math and that always includes algebra and
geometry some students though will start with geometry as ninth graders if they're currently in
front algebra in eighth grade and again the sequencing of that is in the guidebook three
(19:27):
credits of social studies and three credits of science so a lot of times you will see students
get to their senior year where they may choose not to take the science and the social studies and
math however credits for for your college admissions might look a little bit different and
(19:47):
depending on where you want to go a lot of times they selective schools especially will want to see
some of those core area classes in the senior year as well sure and I guess that's something to
think about like I met a I know she was a sophomore or a freshman a couple years ago who was taking
our culinary one of the culinary classes and she had figured out how many college credits she would
(20:12):
get that are combined college credits to help her out when she got to college so that that's
something to think about too I guess right yes absolutely that's a great point in our it's in
infinite campus when you select a class in the course guide as well as another one of the resources
in the folder is just a list of all of our classes and what how many credits are offered some of
(20:37):
the classes are designated DE which stands for dual enrollment classes and those are classes where
a student is getting transcripted credit with a college so college or university so we have
partnerships with MATC and Gateway and some different colleges where students can take like a
(20:58):
class like accounting or some of our culinary classes and they will also receive college credit
as long as they receive a certain grade which is usually about a C or better in that class yeah
she wanted that she knew and that at that age that she wanted to open her own restaurant and that
she needed those culinary skills and to get through MATC that was her plan yeah the culinary
(21:21):
program and she'd start with I don't know I thought she said 14 credits but it's been a while to
say that but but yeah she had it planned out she knew what she was gonna do anything else we have
to think about heading towards graduation or freshman year I guess the beginning in the end
um thinking about freshman year I guess you know being open to trying some different things
(21:45):
Mrs. Roo's at the middle school has always done a really great job in the past of encouraging
students to try you know they may be really like art but she'll encourage them to to try a class in
business or try you know trying some different things especially if you are a student that really
(22:05):
has no idea what you want to do after high school what you want to be when you grow up that's okay
you know like we don't want our students to feel super stressed about that that's again what high
school is for and what what we're trying to do is help you explore different things so I would say
just being open to trying some different things and again looking at that big picture because if
(22:31):
if you do have some bigger goals that you want to go into the culinary field or you want to you
know do a youth apprenticeship during your senior year in business and you know we have students
who will work at banks or do different things some of that requires some planning and it's okay to
reach out to us as well if you have those very specific it's hard to cover everything you know
(22:53):
so yeah some of those real specific situations of students who want those very specific things
we're hoping that by doing this four-year planning that more students are able to do the things that
they are wanting to get into in those 11th and 12th grade years by by looking big picture like
this got it okay well thank you so much for being on the podcast and talking about this it kind of
(23:20):
right before this night I know you guys have a lot to do but I think it's gonna be super helpful
and if people can't come maybe then get a little bit of it out of listening to this so thank you
for being here thanks for having me so that's our episode for today thank you again for tuning
(23:44):
in to the SMI podcast and thank you to Shannon Hillstead for agreeing to come on the podcast and
first time for her and to talk about school counseling and course planning academic and
career planning next time we will continue our series on curriculum and why why we teach and
(24:05):
how we teach what we teach but we will be focusing on mathematics with hosts Kristi
Gajewski our curriculum and instructional director thanks again for listening this has been the
SMI podcast we will see you next time
Welcome to the SMA Podcast. I'm your host Daniel Bader. I'm the Communication Coordinator
(00:08):
for the School District. We don't normally do this. We don't normally tie an episode
of the podcast to a specific event, but we are this time. And it's the high school preview
night for eighth grade families that's happening on Tuesday, October 29th at 6 p.m. I decided
(00:32):
to break from that convention of not tying into events because it's a pretty epic event.
It's a pretty big night for parents and for students to figure out how you start planning
your high school career. It's four years and we're going to start laying out the roadmap
here. So joining us today is Shannon Hill said she's a counselor at the high school. This is why
(00:59):
while we are tying into a certain event this episode can live on because she's going to tell
us just in general how the process works, why we plan out start sketching out what our four-year
experience is going to be like, and really who that falls on and where parents responsibilities are
(01:20):
and where student responsibilities are and the supports they have in the process it follows.
So again it's Tuesday, October 29th, but if you're listening after that that's okay because this is
either a good catch-up or a good primer for when you may and your child will get to this point in
(01:40):
their education. So here is Mrs. Hillstead. Joining me today on the podcast is Shannon
Hillstead, Mrs. Hillstead welcome to the SMA podcast. Thank you for having me. So tell me a
little bit about student services. If I'm an eighth grade parent and I don't have any kids in the
(02:08):
high school what do I need to know about what student services is? Well student services is a
group of professionals here at the high school. Similar to middle school we have four counselors
currently a social worker and a school psychologist that meet with students. The four counselors are
really focused this time of year on academic and career planning and the rest of us as well of
(02:31):
course meeting with kids to meet their personal and social needs as well. But for the purposes of
this podcast we're really focusing on that academic and career planning piece. Yeah and for our
listeners we I asked you to do this just this morning because next week is a pretty big day for
eighth grade families as far as learning about how to be high schoolers. What's happening next
(02:56):
week? Yeah next week Tuesday on the 29th we are having a parent information night where they parents
and students are welcome to come in to the high school and listen to our team and our administrators
talk a little bit about what to expect with high school as well as some of the information they
need to know when they're choosing their high school classes because we are actually in the
(03:20):
process of doing that right now in October. I would say October and November seem pretty important
when it comes to career planning or high school career planning for kids. What happens during
these months? So during these months in October the counselors at the high school have been meeting
(03:41):
with our current students to give them information about planning for the upcoming year and years
ahead as many years as they have left to plan out all the courses that they want to take and we
will be meeting very soon with eighth graders now towards the end of October and into November to
(04:02):
start planning their high school courses as well. We're doing things a little bit differently actually
this year than what we've done in the past where we're not only choosing for next year we're choosing
courses for all four years so for eighth grade parents listening it's really important that we're
thinking about ninth grade in the classes that they're going to be choosing for ninth grade but
(04:23):
also looking ahead to tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade with the intention of the earlier they
understand what programs are available to them the better they can plan the courses that they need
to take to get there. We've seen students get to their junior and senior year and they want to do a
youth apprenticeship or they want to take a college class or something that they then realize they
(04:48):
didn't take some of the prerequisite classes the courses you needed to take to get into those
classes first so we're hoping that our families are taking the opportunity to look at some of the
more advanced level classes and opportunities that we have in the junior and senior year to help
them plan some of the classes that they take in ninth and tenth grade. Gotcha so it's kind of a
(05:10):
roadmap towards what towards graduation I guess right. Exactly towards graduation and then of
course towards what they want to do after graduation as well. So when I was a third grader I wanted
to be an Air Force pilot right. You can't see me at home but I wear glasses and I guess I'm the
(05:30):
right height but apparently you need to have 20-20 vision so I say all that knowing that maybe
in eighth grade I didn't know what I wanted to do right. I certainly didn't know that I was going
to be in this career how do you plan for that? There's a lot of resources out there and actually
one of the things that students will be getting in a folder at some point in time and the information
(05:53):
will also be available at the parent night as well as linked online is information and different
resources and places that you can do different career matchmakers like in Zello. It's a website
that we use a lot and tell students to go to where you can put in different information about
what you're interested in doing things you like to do or don't like to do and it'll match with
(06:14):
careers. So we're really encouraging students to try to do some of those surveys to help them
narrow down at least if you don't know exactly which career that's okay because we know they're
kids they're going to change their mind of course but at least kind of a broad area we call them
career clusters that they can start focusing on and then try some of those classes in high school
(06:37):
and that's what high school is for too is trying those classes that you know if you think you want
to be a nurse try some of our health care classes better to find out now that you do or don't like
that career or those types of classes before getting to college and potentially spending a lot
of money on those so that's what high school is for. Sure and then so this month and early next
(07:01):
month I know that process will happen. How much is on the student and how much is me on me as a
parent what's my role on this? Well it's the students responsibility to go in and choose their
courses and infant and campus of course we we're expecting that they do that and we will be giving
(07:21):
them lots of information and lots of help hopefully they will feel like they're coached along well
enough to do this on their own but we of course hope for families to get involved with that as well.
We're hoping you know at home you're having conversations and knowing you know what are
(07:41):
they choosing that when you see your son or daughter's schedule next fall that you're not
surprised by anything that you've had this conversation about what makes sense for them
and you know what your expectations are as a family. Yeah so I guess it's if we're at home
around dinner I have a seventh grader there's not a whole lot of conversation that happens right
right now at this age but that conversation should be big picture right I guess where do you want to
(08:07):
go? Yeah exactly that's what I one of our resources that's linked in online and in the
folders that will be given out is about the career clusters that I mentioned there's 16 career
clusters and I tell students all the time there's surveys that you can take to figure out which
clusters or cluster you belong to but you can also just look at them and know you know if you're
(08:31):
interested in for example healthcare you don't need to know that you want to be a nurse or that
you want to be a physical therapist but if you just know in general that I would like to work in
that area there's a list of different courses that we would recommend then based on that you
know you can narrow down exactly what it is within that career cluster that you want to do later but
(08:52):
looking at and trying the courses that belong kind of to that cluster we see as important to help
you make some of those decisions in the course planning. And how much for say what's this use of
freshmen as an example how much of their day is our required courses and how much are things that
(09:12):
they would make a decision on? So for a freshman they're required to take math English science
social studies and physical education so that's going to take up about five of their seven there's
seven periods in the day and then they'll also have kind of a study hall we're not sure exactly
(09:34):
what it's going to be called but like a study hall or a spire it used to be called it's a support
hour that's built in where they will be able to get some extra support use time to study retake
tests have joined clubs different things like that so seven periods in the day and of that about
five four of them are your core academics and then some room for elective classes. Yeah okay and
(09:58):
so my student gets a folder and they come home with it and it's got a lot of resources about how
we should go should I be sitting with them and doing it going through this stuff with them or
should I give them that space after we have that big conversation at dinner? I guess it depends on
(10:19):
your student but yes I would encourage families to help them get started I think this is really
especially for our eighth graders that are we're going to be asking them to plan out four years
and they're thinking I don't even know what I want to do next week you know come on mom. So yeah I
would encourage families to help them get started because sometimes that's what they need is just
(10:44):
a start like let's look at this let's just look at English and let's put that in together let's talk
about it let's you know why would you take an AP class in your later years versus not you know
having some of those conversations if you just want to look at one subject at a time however
you want to do it but definitely as a family I would encourage you to help your student get
(11:06):
started on this. Sure and I guess there are things like so we did a podcast on the ELA at
high school level English language arts at the high school level and that department has been super
clever and the course offerings that they have right so you could take like a deep literature
class or you could do media studies you're still getting those core requirements but in those later
(11:33):
years 11th and 12th grade right I think they're choosing which of those is that kind of the
decisions we're making now or like I think I want to go towards media studies so yeah we're
going to be asking students to put those take take some time to think about it and put those
courses in but we understand that right now they're they're not going to fully understand and read
(11:58):
the description of every single class in every department but more so big picture like you were
saying before do I want to take AP when I get to that to English in 11th and 12th grade or actually
10th 11th and 12th or am I student who wants to focus more in a different area and you know just
take some of the other options like you were talking about media studies and diverse voices
(12:22):
and literature and things you know those are the other options so there's flow charts there's again
lots of information that we can't see in a podcast but that is out there to help families and
students look through what the appropriate classes are for different grade levels okay so what else
do we need to know about this process we kind of went over what October and November is but maybe
(12:47):
for an eighth grade family what's the what's the timeline yeah so again Tuesday night October 29th
is more information for parents so we're hoping to see a good turnout that night again the counselors
will be meeting with in classrooms with students to to help show the students in eighth grade how
(13:09):
to use infinite campus how to enter classes how to enter a four-year plan and showing them all of
the resources that are in the folder that they have gotten to help them with planning and then the
week of the 18th of November 18th through Thanksgiving we'll be going into the middle school and
(13:31):
meeting actually one-on-one with every single eighth grader to look at what they've put into their
course plan which is again an infinite campus and just verify that things look correct and have some
conversations and answer some of the final questions that they have to make sure that everything
looks good we're going to be telling you'll hear this a lot we're going to tell the students we'll
(13:53):
say this next week Tuesday really focusing most of the effort on the ninth grade year you know
looking at because that's the one we're more so committing to we were we're committing to what
you're taking in ninth grade not that there's something that can't change you know in the next
couple of months if you email your counselor with a decision that you know you decided on
(14:15):
something else we can make that change but for the most part we're locking that in the 10th 11th
and 12th grade years we're we're just kind of like you had said making a map a roadmap for them of
how they're going to get through high school every single October we will revisit this plan and we
can wipe the whole thing out and start over if they took a class and decided they hated it and
(14:37):
their whole their whole map has to change that's okay but we just want to give them those opportunities
to think ahead and kind of give the district some idea for planning and of courses and stuff as well
yeah oh that makes sense yeah I guess resource allocation based on the projected path of students
(14:58):
would make a lot of sense in total for all the students right you could make some decisions that
way that makes a lot of sense and then and then that's it so December I now I know as a freshman
what I'll be taking in the fall yeah pretty much you will lock things in when you meet individually
(15:19):
with your counselor and then by December we do some of the cleanup you know if there's an absence
or something on the day so if your student is sick and you know that it's the day that the
counselors in the middle school please keep them home we don't want their illness we will find them
and do some cleanup in December but yeah for the most part everything will be pretty much locked in
so that our administrative staff can then move from there and look at the numbers and start
(15:43):
actually building a schedule for 25 26 if parents wanted to become more educated on what the high
school offers so they could have those discussions with the student what would they look at lots of
the things that are in the folder we have links to our course planning guide so the course planning
(16:06):
guide is a pretty thick booklet that we have a few copies printed off here but we also have it
offered online so there's a link to that that has a course description of every single course that
we offer in the high school it tells you also if there's a prerequisite class meaning a class that
you would have to take prior to taking a certain class as well as how many credits you get for
(16:30):
taking that class so if something says that it's one credit class it means it's gonna meet for the
entire year both semester one and two if something is a 0.5 a half credit class it only meets for
one semester either semester one or semester two so that the course book is really valuable also in
the course book there each department has a flow chart of their classes that they're all set up a
(16:57):
little bit differently but basically it'll it they're kind of top-down flow charts where it usually
shows kind of the entry level classes at the very top and then what classes it then leads to so you
know art is the first one there so just for example design is kind of the entry level class that you
would have to take before taking photography so you can kind of see in the course guidebook what
(17:20):
those flow charts look like for every department got it so if I read through that I'd have a pretty
good idea a point a to point b how to get you know decisions yeah right yeah yeah yeah and then what
talk a little bit about the end goal graduation what do we need to graduate from South Milwaukee
(17:41):
High School yeah our students need to have 25 credits in order to graduate from South Milwaukee
High School every year students are going to be choosing seven credits so again freshman year
it's there's gonna be a seven period day so for each period they're in a class if they pass the
(18:01):
class they earn a full credit after the year it has finished so of course I yeah yeah that's
that can't lunch the lunch period nope no no no credit no not credit but if I have to pick seven
things are there a county choose from or lunch is not one of the seven is seven no so there's
(18:25):
another period in there that's my lunch and spend a sign yeah and so they have seven full courses I
could choose from seven full courses yeah okay yeah that hit me earlier when you were talking about
study hall I'm like but lunch lunch is not a period yeah okay they're not picking study hall
this year either it's it's gonna be built into their schedule naturally next year got it got it
(18:45):
and okay so 25 credits to graduate and they have to be in certain areas right they do have to be in
certain areas so for high school graduation they need to have four credits of English so we need to
make sure that for eighth grade parents we're looking at putting a full one credit of English in
(19:05):
every single year they need to have three credits of math and that always includes algebra and
geometry some students though will start with geometry as ninth graders if they're currently in
front algebra in eighth grade and again the sequencing of that is in the guidebook three
(19:27):
credits of social studies and three credits of science so a lot of times you will see students
get to their senior year where they may choose not to take the science and the social studies and
math however credits for for your college admissions might look a little bit different and
(19:47):
depending on where you want to go a lot of times they selective schools especially will want to see
some of those core area classes in the senior year as well sure and I guess that's something to
think about like I met a I know she was a sophomore or a freshman a couple years ago who was taking
our culinary one of the culinary classes and she had figured out how many college credits she would
(20:12):
get that are combined college credits to help her out when she got to college so that that's
something to think about too I guess right yes absolutely that's a great point in our it's in
infinite campus when you select a class in the course guide as well as another one of the resources
in the folder is just a list of all of our classes and what how many credits are offered some of
(20:37):
the classes are designated DE which stands for dual enrollment classes and those are classes where
a student is getting transcripted credit with a college so college or university so we have
partnerships with MATC and Gateway and some different colleges where students can take like a
(20:58):
class like accounting or some of our culinary classes and they will also receive college credit
as long as they receive a certain grade which is usually about a C or better in that class yeah
she wanted that she knew and that at that age that she wanted to open her own restaurant and that
she needed those culinary skills and to get through MATC that was her plan yeah the culinary
(21:21):
program and she'd start with I don't know I thought she said 14 credits but it's been a while to
say that but but yeah she had it planned out she knew what she was gonna do anything else we have
to think about heading towards graduation or freshman year I guess the beginning in the end
um thinking about freshman year I guess you know being open to trying some different things
(21:45):
Mrs. Roo's at the middle school has always done a really great job in the past of encouraging
students to try you know they may be really like art but she'll encourage them to to try a class in
business or try you know trying some different things especially if you are a student that really
(22:05):
has no idea what you want to do after high school what you want to be when you grow up that's okay
you know like we don't want our students to feel super stressed about that that's again what high
school is for and what what we're trying to do is help you explore different things so I would say
just being open to trying some different things and again looking at that big picture because if
(22:31):
if you do have some bigger goals that you want to go into the culinary field or you want to you
know do a youth apprenticeship during your senior year in business and you know we have students
who will work at banks or do different things some of that requires some planning and it's okay to
reach out to us as well if you have those very specific it's hard to cover everything you know
(22:53):
so yeah some of those real specific situations of students who want those very specific things
we're hoping that by doing this four-year planning that more students are able to do the things that
they are wanting to get into in those 11th and 12th grade years by by looking big picture like
this got it okay well thank you so much for being on the podcast and talking about this it kind of
(23:20):
right before this night I know you guys have a lot to do but I think it's gonna be super helpful
and if people can't come maybe then get a little bit of it out of listening to this so thank you
for being here thanks for having me so that's our episode for today thank you again for tuning
(23:44):
in to the SMI podcast and thank you to Shannon Hillstead for agreeing to come on the podcast and
first time for her and to talk about school counseling and course planning academic and
career planning next time we will continue our series on curriculum and why why we teach and
(24:05):
how we teach what we teach but we will be focusing on mathematics with hosts Kristi
Gajewski our curriculum and instructional director thanks again for listening this has been the
SMI podcast we will see you next time
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