Hayley Kilday
Staff reporter
In these trying times, Ironwood’s seniors are likely affected the most by COVID-19 due to missing out on most of the fun things usually reserved for the end of a mandatory school journey. These activities and classes are not the only things that have been altered because of COVID-19. Senior meetings are now being done virtually on Microsoft Teams. In order to get further information about senior meetings, I got a chance to interview one of our newest of counselors, Ms. Knott.
I asked Ms. Knott a series of questions, the first few being, “How exactly senior meetings would go online?” She responded with “Counselors will be reaching out to seniors in Teams individually and will be emailing them their senior checklist.” “Who runs these meetings?” “Senior meetings are run by the students’ counselors and Mrs. Owen (the college and career specialist)” “When will they be held and when will be the first one?” “I believe most
counselors are starting senior meetings this Thursday. Each counselor will send out a schedule to the students on their caseload.”
In the next set of questions, we touched heavily on the reason we need these meetings. “Why do we have senior meetings?” “Senior meetings are held at the beginning of the academic year to let seniors know if they are on-track to graduate, what core classes are remaining, how many credits they have, and for them to get information about scholarships from Mrs. Owen. If students are behind in credits, we go over the ways they can make up credits for graduation.” “How long do they usually run for?” “Since we are meeting virtually in Teams, these meetings will be brief -less than 5 minutes unless students have questions or concerns.” “Are we going to have
several meetings?” ”We hold individual senior meetings at the beginning of the academic year and a follow up group meeting around April to go over graduation.”
With these last two questions we talked about the helpfulness of these meetings and what all of the other counselors are doing with their students, as well as what websites that they are using. “Do you think the meetings help?” “Yes. I think being proactive and discussing credits, graduation status, and college info is helpful for students. Students who are behind with credits need to know as soon as possible so they can work on a plan to make up credits and graduate on time.” “Are a lot of the counselors doing their meetings on Teams?” “Yes, if students are
unavailable to meet in Teams, counselors can also call them.” With those last few questions, we concluded our interview for this particular article and said our goodbyes. If you have any more questions about the senior meetings, please go to your counselors or Mrs. Owen, they
know more about this than anyone else.
Image Credit: Chris Montgomery on Unsplash
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