High school counselor

[Anonymous]

At our hs, to see the counselor for anything you have to make a request for an appt on an app/school website. My daughter made an appt bc some of her grades are bad and wanted to speak with the counselor. It has been two days and she hasn’t heard anything back, reply back comes thru school email. What is the normal time it takes to hear a reply or speak with the counselor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our hs, to see the counselor for anything you have to make a request for an appt on an app/school website. My daughter made an appt bc some of her grades are bad and wanted to speak with the counselor. It has been two days and she hasn’t heard anything back, reply back comes thru school email. What is the normal time it takes to hear a reply or speak with the counselor?

I’m sure each HS varies. Why not call the school directly and ask? You can leave a message for the counselor or ask your child’s administrator (usually assistant principal)?

[Anonymous]

Counselors work 12 months so they get more time off during the school year than teachers do. Are you sure the counselor is even in? PP is right. You can call the school.

[Anonymous]

Don't bother, the counselors don't actually "counsel" they schedule classes and write college recommendations for kids they've barely met (which with Nov 1 and Nov 15 deadlines is their focus right now). The best solution is to reach out to the individual teachers for guidance on how to improve grades, though there is little time left in this quarter, with MCPS grading, the second quarter grade can improve the semester grade. If your child wants to change their schedule for second semester they can reach out to the counselor at the end of Q2.

[Anonymous]

Her grades are D’s and F’s bad or C’s? The counselor isn’t going to care or do much if your child has C’s. Why aren’t you getting your child a tutor or helping her reach out to her teachers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Her grades are D’s and F’s bad or C’s? The counselor isn’t going to care or do much if your child has C’s. Why aren’t you getting your child a tutor or helping her reach out to her teachers?

Op here, she has a D in one of her classes. She has already spoken with her teacher who has given no feedback or comments, he literally said “do better on the tests” like common 🙄 obviously that’s the goal but how to do that?. He also offers retakes but doesn’t return the original test for the students to review over. This is our first child in high school so confused in what to do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her grades are D’s and F’s bad or C’s? The counselor isn’t going to care or do much if your child has C’s. Why aren’t you getting your child a tutor or helping her reach out to her teachers?

Op here, she has a D in one of her classes. She has already spoken with her teacher who has given no feedback or comments, he literally said “do better on the tests” like common 🙄 obviously that’s the goal but how to do that?. He also offers retakes but doesn’t return the original test for the students to review over. This is our first child in high school so confused in what to do?

You should email the teacher directly.

[Anonymous]

First, right now counselors are crazy busy with last minute things for college recommendations and applications for seniors. First deadline is Nov 1. The next priority for counselors will be mental health and attendance issues for struggling students.

Counselors don’t get involved with questions about grades, unless it is because the course level is too challenging and the student wants to drop levels (AP to honors, honors to regular) and needs a schedule change. That could happen for 2nd Qtr, but your child will finish the quarter in this course.

The first point of contact for grade questions is the teacher. If your kid needs additional help, is she going to the teacher’s office hours to ask for it? Is she seeing out other help in the school like homework club or honors society tutoring? How about using the vast internet resources to study? Tons of websites and videos on all content areas. If a couple of communication attempts, documented by email from the student, hasn’t resolved the concern, then forward the concern to the department head (resource teacher).

-HS teacher
(Who just gave a survey that showed that the struggling students are also the ones not using the study supports I’ve provided.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First, right now counselors are crazy busy with last minute things for college recommendations and applications for seniors. First deadline is Nov 1. The next priority for counselors will be mental health and attendance issues for struggling students.

Counselors don’t get involved with questions about grades, unless it is because the course level is too challenging and the student wants to drop levels (AP to honors, honors to regular) and needs a schedule change. That could happen for 2nd Qtr, but your child will finish the quarter in this course.

The first point of contact for grade questions is the teacher. If your kid needs additional help, is she going to the teacher’s office hours to ask for it? Is she seeing out other help in the school like homework club or honors society tutoring? How about using the vast internet resources to study? Tons of websites and videos on all content areas. If a couple of communication attempts, documented by email from the student, hasn’t resolved the concern, then forward the concern to the department head (resource teacher).

-HS teacher
(Who just gave a survey that showed that the struggling students are also the ones not using the study supports I’ve provided.)

Op here.Thank you for the advice. You sound like an excellent teacher.
Unfortunately, my child’s teacher is beyond reproach they has gone multiple times to him asking for help and he keeps brushing them off. Today he actually “pretended” like they have never talked about this before. It’s ridculous. I will email him next…just wanted to first let my child advocated for themselves, but that’s not working well. .but I don’t anyth8ng can be done. Apparently, everyone knows he is a horrible teacher and he has Been at the same school for two decades. So his lack of understanding or teach8 g skills don’t matter and he has immunity against all complaints. I think it’s time we got outside help for our child in this subject. She has high A’s in all her classes, just a D in this one class. I think that has to mean something about the effectiveness of this teacher.

[Anonymous]

When I was in HS mine was terrible. If I asked them to do anything, they'd get mad at me. I can't think of a more worthless human being.

[Anonymous]

OP, consider reaching out to Resource Teacher (ie, the head of the department).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her grades are D’s and F’s bad or C’s? The counselor isn’t going to care or do much if your child has C’s. Why aren’t you getting your child a tutor or helping her reach out to her teachers?

Op here, she has a D in one of her classes. She has already spoken with her teacher who has given no feedback or comments, he literally said “do better on the tests” like common 🙄 obviously that’s the goal but how to do that?. He also offers retakes but doesn’t return the original test for the students to review over. This is our first child in high school so confused in what to do?

Get a tutor through MyMCPS Tutor Me. It's free and will help prepare her even if she doesn't have the test in hand. They can work with the concepts. Also, there should be a depth of study materials available on MyMCPS -- videos, study guides etc. Mine finds these for herself, but sometimes she's like "oh, I just found this set of videos explaining x. Why didn't I see these before?" I don't know, Kid. Get it together (is what I'm thinking)! But, hey, she's doing pretty well. Book rarly, you can always cancel if you don't need it.

Also, maybe find a kid who is acing the class or did well the year before and ask to study with them or help with certain concepts. Offer to pay them. My kid had a very difficult teacher who refused to explain concepts. It was a college level niche subject, so even other teachers couldn't help. Kid asked a friend who was good at that subject and had taken it the year before with the difficult teacher for help. She was way better than the teacher and helped things really click for my kid. We paid her. She did 1/2 hour sessions via zoom or in person at lunch.

Good luck to your kid!

[Anonymous]

Book early, not rarely! Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her grades are D’s and F’s bad or C’s? The counselor isn’t going to care or do much if your child has C’s. Why aren’t you getting your child a tutor or helping her reach out to her teachers?

Op here, she has a D in one of her classes. She has already spoken with her teacher who has given no feedback or comments, he literally said “do better on the tests” like common 🙄 obviously that’s the goal but how to do that?. He also offers retakes but doesn’t return the original test for the students to review over. This is our first child in high school so confused in what to do?

Get a tutor through MyMCPS Tutor Me. It's free and will help prepare her even if she doesn't have the test in hand. They can work with the concepts. Also, there should be a depth of study materials available on MyMCPS -- videos, study guides etc. Mine finds these for herself, but sometimes she's like "oh, I just found this set of videos explaining x. Why didn't I see these before?" I don't know, Kid. Get it together (is what I'm thinking)! But, hey, she's doing pretty well. Book rarly, you can always cancel if you don't need it.

Also, maybe find a kid who is acing the class or did well the year before and ask to study with them or help with certain concepts. Offer to pay them. My kid had a very difficult teacher who refused to explain concepts. It was a college level niche subject, so even other teachers couldn't help. Kid asked a friend who was good at that subject and had taken it the year before with the difficult teacher for help. She was way better than the teacher and helped things really click for my kid. We paid her. She did 1/2 hour sessions via zoom or in person at lunch.

Good luck to your kid!

Op here, thanks for the helpful advice. Will look into these options!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Her grades are D’s and F’s bad or C’s? The counselor isn’t going to care or do much if your child has C’s. Why aren’t you getting your child a tutor or helping her reach out to her teachers?

Op here, she has a D in one of her classes. She has already spoken with her teacher who has given no feedback or comments, he literally said “do better on the tests” like common 🙄 obviously that’s the goal but how to do that?. He also offers retakes but doesn’t return the original test for the students to review over. This is our first child in high school so confused in what to do?

Get a tutor through MyMCPS Tutor Me. It's free and will help prepare her even if she doesn't have the test in hand. They can work with the concepts. Also, there should be a depth of study materials available on MyMCPS -- videos, study guides etc. Mine finds these for herself, but sometimes she's like "oh, I just found this set of videos explaining x. Why didn't I see these before?" I don't know, Kid. Get it together (is what I'm thinking)! But, hey, she's doing pretty well. Book rarly, you can always cancel if you don't need it.

Also, maybe find a kid who is acing the class or did well the year before and ask to study with them or help with certain concepts. Offer to pay them. My kid had a very difficult teacher who refused to explain concepts. It was a college level niche subject, so even other teachers couldn't help. Kid asked a friend who was good at that subject and had taken it the year before with the difficult teacher for help. She was way better than the teacher and helped things really click for my kid. We paid her. She did 1/2 hour sessions via zoom or in person at lunch.

Good luck to your kid!

Also, check with the National Honor Society at your HS to ask for contact info for tutors. DS is in NHS and he tutors younger kids in the HS math subjects during lunch.