Hi from the spring intern!

Hi everyone!

 

My name is Zan and I’m the new SEAD-Raymond intern for spring 2015. I will be arriving at Raymond High School this Thursday, April 2^nd.

 

I am currently a junior at Dartmouth College, and I’m double majoring in Engineering modified with Art, and French Studies. In my free time I like to draw, rollerblade and cook. I most recently worked at a product design firm in Milwaukee during an off term. I also recently got back from traveling in China during the Chinese New Year holiday in March. I am originally from Shenzhen, a city in southern China. However, my mom and I moved to the U.S. when I was 10, and I went to middle school and high school in Shorewood Wisconsin, a small town near Milwaukee.

I am so excited to get to know the SEAD scholars and to help them learn more about moving towards young adulthood. Having gone through that process not so long ago, I would love to do anything I can to make it easier for them. I am also excited to continue the work that Katherine and Roberto did earlier this year. If any of you have any questions or concerns, or if you just want to say hi :), please feel free to contact me at (603)-369-8778 or email me at zan.song.16@dartmouth.edu. I would also love it if you would follow my weekly updates about our work at SEAD-Raymond at the SEAD Raymond blog:http://seadrhs.blogspot.com/.

 

In other exciting news, the SEAD leadership team (Director Jay Davis, Program Coordinate Danise Olague, and College Pathways Coordinator Jenni Gargano) will be coming to visit Raymond High School on Thursday, April 9^th. That’s next Thursday! We will be having a SEAD family dinner at RHS (exact room TBD) starting at 6:00 pm. All SEAD Scholars and family members are invited and highly encouraged to come! We would love to see you at the dinner, and I would personally be honored to meet all the lovely family members. I

 

I am truly looking forward to working with all of you at RHS. See you all very soon!

 

Best,

 

Zan ​

Week 8 and My Finale

Hey there team!

To start off this blog, I want to say congratulations to Jade for feeling better this week! For those of you that didn't know, Jade hasn't been with us very often this past couple of weeks because she hasn't been feeling very well. But, regardless of all of this, Jade has been very persistent on completing and turning in all of her missing assignments. This is a very respectable action because it shows her diligence and her determination. (Plus, it shows a significant level of responsibility!) Hopefully, she feels better, and stays better, this week!

In other news, this week is a short week as we don't have school on Friday. So, let's give our best the rest of this week, especially since we have some pretty big assignment due dates coming up. Those of you in chemistry with Ramsey need to have completed your PowToon by today.  Also, those of you in Algebra II with Hayes have an exam on Quadratics this Thursday. In order to help you guys prepare for this, I will be holding after school study sessions today and tomorrow from 2:15 PM to 3:30 or 4 PM. I could stay longer it just all depends on your turn out. I called home yesterday to notify your parents of the exam and the study group I plan on having. I hope to see you all there! Regardless, I am here as usual whenever you need help so feel free to reach out!

Additionally, as you all know this Thursday is technically my last day here at RHS. I was thinking of having a family dinner this Friday. I'll be telling you all more about this today and tomorrow to gauge you and your families' level of interest and availability.

Best of luck team!

Best,
Roberto

Week 7 and the Hourglass

Hey there SEAD Team!

I hope you all had a wonderful vacation and are rested and refreshed! Can you guys believe that I have less than two weeks left here at RHS? I know that I'm still processing how fast this term has been. So for these next, and my last, couple of weeks, let's put the pedal to the metal.

Let's make sure to get all of our work done and submitted! This means no more missing homework, which some of you have really turned around. This is amazing team! Homework is worth 20% of your grade. Yes, that means that you literally have a free 20% for your grade. A FREE 20%! With those free percentage points, you all should be passing your classes with flying colors. I have already spoke to a couple of you about staying after school with me and I'm happy to have gotten such positive responses. Thanks Team!

I will be holding a mock SAT and a mock ACT for a few of you this week and potentially next week. You may be asking yourself questions like, "Why do I have to do this again?" or "Why do I have to go?" And well, to be quite honest guys, there are three reasons. First and foremost, if you put in effort when taking these mock exams, it WILL help you improve your scores on the real exam! I hope you guys notice but I am literally giving you guys a released ACT or SAT exam to take. So if you actually try, it will tell us what you actually would have scored on the exam had you taken it! Secondly, and a bit more on the regulatory side, this is a SEAD requirement. Yes, SEAD knows that practice has been found to have an undeniable positive results on the real exam; so, they will do whatever they can to make sure you score well. And well, the third reason relates to everything I've just said. It will get you better scores; and, better scores, unfortunately, do make you look a bit more favorable to colleges and universities.

But on a positive note, one of our team members is finally better! Jade is feeling well and is working to catch up on her missing assignments and upcoming assignments! This is a great thing to do Team. Remember, you really are the person with the most power over your grades so take a hold of the reins and trot onward!

Best,
Roberto

Week 6 and the Vacation

Hey Team!

I hope you are all enjoying your vacation! It's a bit unfortunate that we are missing so much time together but we'll just have to make due with it.

Anyhow I want to bring it to your attention that I was at RHS from 9 to 11 waiting for a couple of you to show up to take the mock SAT exam. Because we didn't do it today, I want to inform you that I expect to see you all this Saturday at RHS from 9:30am to 1:00pm. All of you, with the exception of Katie, will be taking the mock SAT. This is to help you practice and prepare for the SAT, either the May or June one, and to let us gauge where you are in preparedness for the exam. So, even if it isn't the most entertaining way to spend a few hours on Saturday, it will be very helpful for you and us.

On another note, most of you are doing very well academically and have gotten your grades up, in respect to last quarters grades. Let's keep making sure to turn in your work, which many of you have actually started doing! This is a free 20% to your grade, so there should be no reason why you don't do it. Also, last week Tati went to a high school fair where she talked about SEAD! I don't quite know the details but I'm sure that she'll be willing to share with us on Wednesday of next week.

Enjoy your vacation but I'll see you all on Saturday.

Best,
Roberto

P.S. Jade, I hope that you are feeling better now!

Week 5 and the Anabasis!

Hey there SEAD Team!

Can you guys believe that our time together is almost over? I'm astonished by the pace that this term is moving at. It's already week 7! I feel like it was just yesterday when Tati walked into the counseling office and told me "Where you going? I just came to talk to you." I had no idea who she was and was completely baffled by the random and very bold girl that stood before me. It wasn't until she said that her name was "T-Money" that I felt more comfortable because I knew that we had a "T-Money" in SEAD. I didn't say this before but thanks for that Tati. You have no idea how relaxing it was to have a SEAD student come to me first. Well that's enough reminiscing for today, let's move onto more pertinent matters.  

Hold it up Cam! Be proud of your scores!

As you  all know, RHS has all of next week off. In honor of the upcoming vacation, let's power through this week and put in as much effort as possible this week. This will look a bit different for all of you but I want you all to try it so that you don't have to stress about your grades after the vacation. For example, those of you in Ramsey's Chemistry class might want to study real hard for Friday's Exam on Ch. 6. For those of you in either Koch or Burn's English class, this might look like making the rough drafts for your character journals (or actually reading, if you haven't been doing so- Ms. Burns is aware that you may not be reading as well as you should be). Regardless of the subject, make sure to stay on top of everything! Remember, the fate of your grades rest in your hands so take a hold of the reins and steer them in a better direction.

Someone was a little camera shy.

These past few weeks have been rather agitating due to all of the snow days and delays. They really shorten your already limited school time, so this Monday was a great start to this new week! And even before this some pretty amazing news came to my attention last week. Tati got into Johnson and Wales University! This is some pretty amazing information! Another great thing to note is that Cam did exceptionally well on his APUSH take-home exam. He got a 100% on it! 100%! Keep up the good work Cam! (If you guys get a score on an exam share it with me. I'd love to see how you guys are doing and I'd like to brag about it for you.)

We'll be meeting tomorrow to go over a few things so I'll see you all tomorrow!

Take care Team!

Best,
Roberto

Week 4 and the Zero Hero

Hey there Team!

This past week was rather hectic. Delayed starts and snow days hamper the feel of the school week pretty well; but, hopefully things will be more normal and full this week. So let's get into work mode! I noticed that quite a bit of you were out sick sometime last week. I hope that you guys are feeling better this week. If you aren't feeling well and it's affecting your performance in class please let me know immediately so that we can talk to your teachers about it. 

On that note, I want to bring something to your attention. When you are absent it is your responsibility to turn in the work that was due the day you were absent and to ask for the homework or assignments that were given that day. Your teachers have a lot of students so they cannot be on top of you everyday. If you do not do this, then it is very likely that you will get a F (0%) on those missing assignments (some of you will notice this if you look at your current grades). Yes this hurts a lot (remember what we learned with Jay about averages)! 

I will be contacting those of you that are failing classes this week. I will also speak to your teachers to see what can be done to ensure that you do not fail. But, remember that I see your grades after they have been submitted, if you know you are missing something that has yet to be inputted speak to your teachers and see if you can still turn it in.  I know one of you missed the deadline last week, so please don't let this happen again. 

This week I will also be working on College Knowledge activities with each of you. So we will be working in a sort of hybrid between former interns' CK activities and the new CK activities. If you have any question feel free to ask. If not, we'll jump right into it! 

Have a good week team!

Best,

Roberto

Week 3 and the PowTO.on

Hey there SEAD Team!

I hope that you all enjoyed your long weekend, or used it to be a bit productive and catch up. Anyhow, I hope these snow days are behind us, because I don't really like them. They take away time that I could be using with you all. (Not that you guys enjoy it all that much.)

For a quick recap of last week, let's just say that it was too short. 3 days of classes is like having no classes at all. But, on the bright side of things, we had our Applebee's dinner last Friday and I was able to work with a couple of you on college applications and homework assignments. It was a nice way to spend some time together after not having seen each other all week. I hope that you all enjoyed it and liked what you ate. Sorry for those of you that had to leave us a bit early; but, I hope that your respective activities (Zumba, basketball practice, etc.) went well.

Someone was a bit camera shy, so
I had to use this picture of a picture.

I want to make a quick shout out to Shae and Tati for their performance last week. Shae came in every day during 1st to work on her PowToon Project for Chemistry and Tati came in to work on and submit another college application! I love to see this effort being put in! Keep up the good work!

For this week, I'll be meeting with you all during focus to discuss the College Knowledge website and a few other things. For those of you in Ramsey's Chem class also keep in mind that tomorrow (2/4/15) your PowToon Presentation is due. These are the only two immediate announcements that I need to make. As usual, come to me if you ever need help on anything. Oh yeah, I brought in some more candy so stop on by.

Have a good week team!

Best,
Roberto