This Week in the Counseling Office.

By Jeff Harper

Week five has been very busy in the Counseling Office – we met again with all of the Juniors to have them work on becoming more aware of their career and university match criteria, as well as college readiness.  Parents may want to talk to their Juniors about the exercises they did in class.  We also have been having meetings with the parents of Seniors about the nuts and bolts of the university admissions process and to answer any last minute questions.

If you haven’t already done so, please ask your Seniors to make an appointment with their counselor to discuss their individual university application plan.  There are many details to discuss, such as, Early Decision/Action, financial certificates, essays, etc.

Juniors were given their parent access codes for Naviance to take home this past week.  If you haven’t seen these, please ask your child!

Freshmen met with Ms. Tananone during their Freshmen Seminar period to learn about the extensive community service opportunities available at ISB.

We have completed more than a month of school.  The “academic review period” is mostly over in all classes and the work is getting more rigorous with the introduction of new material.  If your son or daughter is having extreme difficulty coping with their academic challenges, please encourage your son or daughter to see their counselor (drop in or make an appointment if the counselor is busy).

ISB does not send or mail any “report cards” home to parents: Parents must consult PowerSchool to monitor your child’s academic achievement in school.  Teachers leave notes to students AND parents on PowerSchool, so you should check once a week.  However, parents should not check their children’s grades too often, as this puts undue pressure on their child and can increase grade anxiety.  A once–a-week chat about school and grades, with PowerSchool open, would be a good family practice, with parents helping their child to find and use resources when or if improvement is needed.

What’s Coming Up…

Stress Management Parent Workshop

All children will have stress. It’s natural, and normal. As parents our role is not to “ make it go away’ but to help our children manage stress in healthy ways. As parents we need to be able to recognize the signs of stress in our children, the physical or behavioral or verbal messages they try to send to us to let us know they are overwhelmed by a stressful situation.

Our Parent workshop will focus on understanding what stress is and what to do to help our children. The workshop will be on Thursday, September 27^th, from 8.00am – 9.30.  The workshop will take place in Cultural Center Theater.

There are a limited number of places available so please contact the ISB Curriculum office to reserve your spot. (Khun Joom : pomtipt@isb.au.th) .

University Research Lab – This week’s URL will be a Essay Writing Lab (September 17^th).  The University Research Lab is open EVERY Monday for students who would like to work on their university application, essay, search, etc.  Open from 2:15 – 3:00 in Room 203 and a counselor will be there to help.  Encourage your senior to make this a weekly habit!

Registration for the October SAT has passed! The College Board DOES NOT ALLOW any “Stand-By” or “Walk-In” registrations any more!  If you are a Senior taking the SAT in November, remember to use your four (4) FREE score reports when registering – they cost a lot to send them later!  The registration deadline for the November SAT is October 4.

University Visits:  All University Representatives’ Meetings occur during lunch period, unless otherwise noted (Please check Naviance for any last minute changes, cancellations or delays.  Parents are always welcome)

* The University of Pennsylvania and Brown University are also hosting an evening program, “An Introduction to Brown and Penn,” at NIST (Soi 15 Sukhuvit) at 6:30pm on September 26, which is open to ISB students and parents. Please   RSVP: www.admissions.upenn.edu/e/thailand