8th Grade and 4 Year Planning
Parents and Students,
At the bottom of this page you will find the registration information that the Vandeventer, Liberty, and Centennial Counselors shared with our students.
Dear 8th Grade Viking Parents,
It’s hard to believe but it’s time to start looking ahead to 4 year planning for high school . During the first two days back to school I met with all of the 8th grade students to go over their Explore test results, high school information as well as the beginnings of the 4 Year Plan. Let me give you some information on each of these areas:
4 Year Plan:
A 4 Year Plan is simply the classes a student plans on taking during his/her 4 years in high school. The plan that is created will be a working document. In other words, students will make changes to the document as they progress through high school. As they get older their interests, likes, dislikes, and choices will change. The career path a student is considering today may look completely different next week, in a month or a year from now. Because of that, the document that is created is meant to be a guide on their journey and is not set in stone.
I encouraged your students to look at the high school course catalog to find some electives that they think might be interesting. I also shared with them that if they are interested in attending the Career and Technical Education Center (CTE Center), they will want to take the required prerequisite courses in 9th and 10th grade so they will be ready in 11th and 12th grades. I will give them a week or so to complete their rough draft of the plan. At that point, I will collect all of the 4 Year Plans and go over them to see if they are on the right track or if they need additional guidance. Those students that do need additional help will then meet with me individually or in small groups to go over their choices.
The students have so many great choices available to them that it may be difficult for them to pick. That's okay. As a parent, you can help them in their choice selections by talking with them about their interests, hobbies, likes and dislikes. Remember to refer back to your child’s Explore Results as the report has information on interests and possible careers related to your child’s interests. Ask questions about classes your child enjoys: Does your child like science or is he/she particularly good at math? Your child might like to explore the Health sciences classes that are available at the CTE Center. There are 15 or 16 different career pathways that the students will have available to them to explore. I highly encourage you and your child to take full advantage of all that the CTE Center has available to you now, while it is free, rather than waiting till your kiddo gets to college and changes his/her major a half dozen times – all the while you are putting your hard earned money in the pockets of the university or college. Please visit the friscoisd.org webpage and search CTE Center for more information.
To wrap up the 4 Year Plan and the reasoning behind the plan:
· There are really great programs of study in many different fields that your child has the opportunity to explore. If your child is interested in a particular area of study available at the CTE Center, there are always prerequisite classes that must be taken in the freshman and sophomore years of high school before the upper level classes can be taken.
· When a child has a plan of action that usually means that goals have been set. When kids set goals, they are more apt to strive to reach them and thus intrinsic motivation spurs them forward and they are more likely to be successful at the things they choose to do.
· The plan keeps kids on track and there is less anxiety due to not knowing what’s around the corner.
· The plan is a working document, which means there is built in flexibility, so when interests change, the plan will change. Because the plan already exists, usually just a little tweaking of the plan is all that is needed.