HS Administrators Announce New Electives and Technology Geared Towards Career Development

A handful of parents came out to meet with the high school administrators and the district superintendent Thursday night for a monthly community outreach forum.

Topics covered included new elective offerings, dual enrollment courses and how they work, a virtual program which can allow students to take some courses not normally offered by the school online, and an explanation of the Naviance system, a tool used by students and their parents in college and career research. The entire presentation is available via the district's website here or review the PDF attached to this article.  

New electives

Linda Simmons, interim high school and middle school principal, explained they developed a research team to look into career projections of which courses could be geared towards. Some of the careers they found included  biomedical engineering, financial examiner and physician assistant.

The next step towards developing a list of new electives came from the students themselves. Simmons said parents will receive a course sheet in the Friday Folder this week with a list of new elective course that were chosen as a result of a survey given to the students.

“It’s with these electives we can really connect these students to their desires of what they would like to do,” Simmons explained.

Joseph Mastropietro, interim assistant principal, said they saw a major push for the sciences, as well as communications and psychology. A write-in section was also added and 35 students suggested they would like to take sociology.

The new elective offerings include: Forensics, Sustainability, Biomedical engineering, Web design II, Accounting II, Computer Aided Design and Drawing (also known as CAD), Developmental psychology, SAT prep, Sociology, Statistics, Culinary II, American themes in literature and films, Lyricism in music.

In addition more AP course electives will be added which includes: AP economics, AP music theory, AP environmental, AP human geography, AP Italian, AP psychology.

Simmons said they developed a schedule for the selection of new elective courses which beings with the course sheet being sent home Friday via the Friday Folder. Next week administrators and guidance will speak to the students about the courses and they will also offer students the opportunity to learn more about certain courses during activity periods.

Simmons said they hope to have courses for the next year selected by the middle of February in the hopes of having the 2012-2013 schedule in the hands of the students by June.  

Dual enrollment

The dual enrollment courses gives students the opportunity to take a class at the high school while earning college credit, for a fee, that can be accepted by most schools once they move on to college. The school has expanded its list of dual enrollment courses which now includes: AP chemistry, AP Spanish, Anatomy and Physiology, AP Biology, AP English language and comp, AP US history, Accounting, Culinary arts, AP music theory, Sustainability, Forensics and Creative writing.

Virtual high school

Catherine Cassidy, interim assistant principal, explained that since this is a small district the school may not be able to offer certain courses when just a few students are interested but virtual high school can now allow the students to take the course online.  Mastropietro explained that five students are currently testing a pilot program of virtual high school taking Russian, animation, history of photography, pre-calculus and programming visual basics.

Work would be done somewhat independently through emailed lessons and possibly via video lectures, but this would depend on the instructors, the administrators said. All students will be required to check in with the instructor as well as Mastropietro. 

Naviance

Guidance counselor Kerrie O’Hagan went over the basics of Naviance, a web-based research tool that can get students prepared for whatever their future interests are. Through this tool students can look at the courses and majors offered at every school they may be interested in. The students can also look up careers and see what colleges may be best suited for them. They can also review details on what is involved day-to-day for careers of interests as well as what the average salary may be, she explained. 

They can also take a survey that selects careers based on their interests. O’Hagan said she tested this feature out on some students who already know what fields they plan to go into and the results of the survey were accurate. Naviance can also be used for sending college applications and transcripts.

Students in the freshman personal finance classes have been given their log-ins so they can begin using the site, and O’Hagan said she has also done tutorials with other classes and will continue to do to make sure all the students have their log-in information. 

One parent was concerned that not all parents may be aware that their students have access to this tool and suggested that a letter be sent home to which O’Hagan said could be done.  Parents can also email her at ohagank@hhschools.org to get their children’s registration code in order to be able to access the site.