Imagine The First Day Of High School Classes. The Beginning

The students’ level of preparation before entering college can affect their desire to become persistent and success in college (Tierney, Corwin, & Colyar, 2004). More than 80 percent of high school seniors aspire to four-year degrees (Roderick, Nagaoka & Coca 2009). Yet only a fraction enroll in a degree-bearing program within a year of high school graduation, and among those who do enter degree-bearing programs, approximately 36 percent are unprepared for college-level coursework

New college students find themselves in a place far different than they are used to. In high school students had agendas set by the teachers that they need to fulfill before the day is done. College is more freedom and less structure for a student. The freedom doesn’t mean that they could do anything they want. It means that the students’ choices are only to come back on them. Choices that can cost them lots of time, money, and education needed for the career they are looking into. There are no set schedules to say when they need to eat, when to do the homework, when to sleep or when they need to get up for class. It can be very overwhelming for a new student with the new work load and social opportunities. The challenge of balancing each one can be a struggle for them if a student doesn’t know how. A college student will need to have valuable skills that will develop their internal structure to be able to grow in college and go beyond college.

American College Testing has implemented PLAN, a procedure that determines students’ readiness in specific advanced courses (Ewing). These exams assist students in choosing classes they are ready for, and lower the student stress caused by unpreparedness. Having a “balanced life should be the goal for all families” (Neighmond). A healthy lifestyle comes from a reduction of toil. Students reduce their stress by finding a balance between relaxation and working. If students are experiencing frustration because of certain classes, they are free to drop the challenging classes and stick to the ones that they are most interested in (Kohli). Students need to find stability in their lives between academics and other leisure activities, so they can possess a feasible amount of work to complete.

Many current situations in course planning are extremely structured and do not allow for many modifications as the years progress. Teenagers are at a height of physical, social, and mental transformation and development, therefore their course choice opportunities should be able to change, as well. Schools do offer electives to fit the interests of their students, but at times there are rules and exceptions; new courses are required, leaving less and less options for student choice. These elective restrictions are also added to the fact that students must take a certain number of four core courses, in a set order,

[1] If a student, or an advisor makes a mistake in calculating the student’s credits and pre-requisites, or if the student has other issues with registration (course substitutions, department approvals, etc), the student is then forced to create more appointments with the advisor to get things on track for them. This process points to challenges in the academic advising model that leaves students disconnected from their education and can result in more dire consequences including delayed graduation. In the work of Luna, Gaye, et.al, the authors stated that “E-advising can establish a support system for rural graduate students by creating a means of accessibility and communication. Through e-advising, rural graduates students have an opportunity to self-direct and contribute to their own educational advisement needs. Universities can use e-advising to foster successful students by creating more accessibility and communication.” [2] While course work and advising at the graduate level has it’s distinctions from advising at the undergraduate level, some core concepts still ring true. Advising through technology empowers the students to take charge of their education, and ensure their goals are being met according to their schedule. Though digital assistants aren’t capable of filling the full role of a human academic advisor, giving students access to key, basic information will make all advising more effective.

On a foggy Thursday morning, I was up earlier than normal for the first day of school. Hardly any sleep was received throughout the night as the excitement for the next day sat in. The hallway was dark as I made my way to the kitchen. Within the next hour, my life would change drastically. The first day of school can always be problematic. However, the first day of high school is especially hard. Youthful children are always looking up to high school students. They seem like they are so old and mature. It is hard to imagine that you would ever be that old. On this morning, I was going to become one of those terrifying high school students.

As I read my first assignment for new students in the School Counseling Program, my reasoning to be a school counselor was simple; to help others. I noted that I wanted to help others in two manners. One, I wanted to help students toward an achievable goal, including graduation. Two, I wanted to help with discipline. This included helping teachers with classroom management as well as helping students to understand the reasoning behind rules and procedures. Because I am so comfortable and familiar with the high school age group, I gave the school counseling

The first day of high school I set a bunch of goals. The most ridiculous one was to go through high school without having to get an actual job. I had helped the mayor of Gary, Indiana place signs near abandoned buildings before, and I enjoyed it. The pay was forty to fifty dollars a day, but it was only temporary. The summer before my senior year I began helping out with putting signs down, encouraging people to vote for this particular person running. My craving for money had only one solution, to get an actual job. Shocking, I know, to find a high school student who was not forced at all into getting a job, but chose too. Like most self-conscious teenage boys I did not want to get rejected, in this case not hired, so I went to the one place I knew I would get hired, my grandfather’s farm. That weekend I started my first job. It was not the most glamorous job, but I eventually fell in love with it.

It was my first day of highschool and I was super nervous. “Would I make friends? How would the boys judge me? How would everyone as a whole judge me?” was all I could ask myself. My sister told me to dress cute so that I could hang out with her and the “seniors.” She told me if I looked anything like a bum she would disown me. I was hurt by her words even though she intended for it to be a joke. In someway I felt as if she was serious. I looked in the mirror and made sure I perfected my hair and outfit. I wore a red materialistic Calvin Klein dress with shoes everybody loved which were Jordan’s. My sister straightened my once long hair that my mother made sure was healthy. My mom always said girls with long hair was much prettier. I planted that in my head like planting a peach tree. School started at 8:00AM but my sister said pretty girls always takes their time getting dressed and arrived late. By me being new to everything, I just wanted to fit in. We waited for my sister friends to ring the doorbell. Once everyone gathered up we started walking to school.

It is the first day of freshman year at Covina High School and Spencer was not ready to start school at all. Spencer was never a so called “popular kid” throughout Elementary and Middle School and he already knew that things was not going to be any better in high school. He would always get picked on because of how ugly he was. Spencer knew that he was ugly but he tried not to let it get him down. He did not want his hate of the people who picked on him, which was basically everyone he encountered, triumph but he was only about two seconds from letting all Hell break loose. To add on to all things that Spencer was dealing with his home life was not that perfect either. Spencers father abandoned him as a child and his mother, Miss Johnson, has no idea where he is. Miss Johnson was not the best mother; she would encourage Spencer to punshines the people who picked on him since he was little. She would say that things like “Since they treat you like a monster would should act like one.” His mom even gave him a hand gun to bring to school and she told him to use it whenever he felt like he need to use it. Miss. Johnson knew that he wanted to go she pushed him out the door to the bus.

Starting high school is something everyone seems to be excited for. I had a different experience in 9th grade then most people I know. In 8th grade I did Online school and I decided that I wanted to go to my local high school for 9th grade. While I was doing online school in 8th grade I had lost all my friends so in 9th I was starting fresh and had a plan to somehow make friends. I started out the first day of school with the mindset that I was going to be a complete loner because everyone already had their set friend groups. At first, I was a loner but that ended up changing.

Lou’s first day of senior year starts at 7:55 a.m. sharp. She sets her alarm for 6:30 a.m. to give her plenty of time to get ready in the morning and pick out what she is going to wear. “LOU, GET UP, YOU HAVE TO BE TO SCHOOL IN TWENTY MINUTES!” are the words that finally jolt Lou out of bed at 7:35 a.m., nearly an hour later than planned. “There’s not enough time to pick my out my outfit! It looks like I might as well just be late” is the only thing to come to her as she rolls back over for thirty more minutes of sleep. Have you ever felt so stressed in high school when you’re running late and cannot for the life of you find an outfit to impress your crush that day? Many high schooler students today are obsessed with their appearance. High school can be a vicious place for those who don’t fit the status quo.

The first day of a student’s high schools can be be a terrifying and stressful situation and this way definitely true for me. Leaving middle school I didn’t have very many friends even though I was in band and talked to kids while I spent my time there. But my first high school activity wasn’t the first day of school. It was band camp and I was actually more stressed out for band camp since most of our marching show is learned during that time. It turns out though, that band camp would be where I made some of my greatest friends.

In the memory of each person about school, it was something that very difficult and pleasure, especially the first day of school. My family came to the U.S in my freshmen year, the first day of school on the land of free left me a lot of memories about school, the feelings , people and classes. The first day of school for me was messed up between the feelings, it’s because everything was new to me, there were many things that surprised and challenged me in the first day of school.

When I went in to pick my classes for my first semester at college I was super excited. Then they told me there was a mandatory class that all incoming first time in college students had to take. I rolled my eyes and sighed as they described the class to me. I would have to participate in school events, and had to go to the support center, and do things that I thought were going to be the big waste of my time. On the first day of class, we learned about the different topics that we were going to cover, and also about the assignments that we had to do throughout the semester. Even though I wasn’t too thrilled about the G.P.S assignment, I was even more scared about the final essay. I thought I wasn’t going to learn anything, and that I was going to have to struggle to write this final essay. Now that we are wrapping up the semester I can honestly say that my college education has benefited from taking this class. I have learned so much more than I thought I was going to learn. The things that I took the most out of were the financial literacy, time management, and lastly the professor.