Resources

DON'T GET HOOKED BY MISLEADING SCHOLARSHIP OFFERS!

Warning Signs of Scams:

• High application fees
• Guaranteed money
• Everybody is eligible
• Masquerading as federal agency
• Claims of government approval
• Time pressure
• Unusual requests for personal information

For more helpful information on how to spot a scam, visit:
Scholarship and Financial Aid Scams

Mapping Your Future

You can explore careers, prepare for college (help with selecting a school and applying for admission), pay for college (financial aid!), and manage your money (student loans and more). Mapping Your Future is your free resource for career, college, financial aid, and money management information. The goal is to help individuals achieve life-long success by empowering students, families, and schools with free, web-based information and services.
http://www.mappingyourfuture.org/

---

Pell Grants

A Federal Pell Grant, unlike a loan, does not have to be repaid. Pell Grants are awarded usually only to undergraduate students who have not earned a bachelor's or a professional degree. The amount you get will depend not only on your financial need, but also on your costs to attend school, your status as a full-time or part-time student, and your plans to attend school for a full academic year or less.
For more information, Click here

---

Free Application for Federal Student Aid

https://fafsa.ed.gov/ For federal aid, submit your application as early as possible, but no earlier than January 1, 2015. We must receive your application no later than June 30, 2016. Your college must have your correct, complete information by your last day of enrollment in the 2015-2016 school year.

For state or college aid, the deadline may be as early as January 2015. See the table to the right for state deadlines. You may also need to complete additional forms. Check with your high school guidance counselor or a financial aid administrator at your college about state and college sources of student aid and deadlines.

If you are filing close to one of these deadlines, we recommend you file online at https://fafsa.ed.gov/ This is the fastest and easiest way to apply for aid.

Be sure to respond promptly to requests for information - delays can mean losing funds for which a student is eligible!

Parents -If you have already completed the FAFSA for one of your college students, you can transfer data from your original application to another new application.

Saving for Your Child's Education

  Saving for Your Child’s Education: 529 College Savings Plans

What is cyberbullying, exactly?

"Cyberbullying" is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyberstalking.

(definition provided by the STOP Cyberbullying website)

---

Cyber Bullying Research Center

https://cyberbullying.org/ "I think that it is not right and that people need to have respect for other people as in the saying treat others how you would like to be treated. The people that do bully people just want to show of how much bigger and cooler they think they are. Bullying isn't just threatening or any thing else, it is spreading rumors and like sending mean messages with threats in them. If that does happen you should either block their email address, save them and call a local police to come and read it (they could serve time for hate mail). But one of the things you should not do is RESPOND TO THE HATE MAIL!"

(11 year-old girl from Tennessee)

---

Stop Cyberbullying

http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html

Preventing cyberbullying

Educating the kids about the consequences (losing their ISP or IM accounts) helps. Teaching them to respect others and to take a stand against bullying of all kinds helps too.

How can you stop it once it starts?

Because their motives differ, the solutions and responses to each type of cyberbullying incident has to differ too. Unfortunately, there is no "one size fits all" when cyberbullying is concerned. Only two of the types of cyberbullies have something in common with the traditional schoolyard bully. Experts who understand schoolyard bullying often misunderstand cyberbullying, thinking it is just another method of bullying. But the motives and the nature of cybercommunications, as well as the demographic and profile of a cyberbully differ from their offline counterpart.

What's the Parents' Role in this?

Parents need to be the one trusted place kids can go when things go wrong online and offline. Yet they often are the one place kids avoid when things go wrong online. Why? Parents tend to overreact. Most children will avoid telling their parents about a cyberbullying incident fearing they will only make things worse.

Parents need to be supportive of your child during this time. You may be tempted to give the "stick and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you" lecture, but words and cyberattacks can wound a child easily and have a lasting effect. These attacks follow them into your otherwise safe home and wherever they go online. And when up to 700 million accomplices can be recruited to help target or humiliate your child, the risk of emotional pain is very real, and very serious. Don't brush it off.

Let the school know so the guidance counselor can keep an eye out for in-school bullying and for how your child is handling things. You may want to notify your pediatrician, family counselor or clergy for support if things progress. It is crucial that you are there to provide the necessary support and love. Make them feel secure. Children have committed suicide after having been cyberbullied, and in Japan one young girl killed another after a cyberbullying incident. Take it seriously.

Parents also need to understand that a child is just as likely to be a cyberbully as a victim of cyberbullying and often go back and forth between the two roles during one incident. They may not even realize that they are seen as a cyberbully.

We have a quick guide to what to do if your child is being cyberbullied: Your actions have to escalate as the threat and hurt to your child does. But there are two things you must consider before anything else. Is your child at risk of physical harm or assault? And how are they handling the attacks emotionally?

For more information, visit
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/prevention/parents_role.html

TESTING

ACEA offers a testing program based on the Michigan Merit Curriculum.

---

Typical assessments taken by ACEA students include:

• 9th Grade: MEAP Social Studies
• 11th Grade: MME (this combines the ACT and the Michigan Merit curriculum assessments)
  ASVAB (optional) an assessment to look at military and career options.
• 12 Grade: ACT retakes (optional)

---

Test-Taking Advice

Try out these strategies while you're still in high school, and by the time you get to college, you'll be a test-taking expert.

Before the Test

• Eat well. Studies show that you need good nutrition to concentrate and perform your best.
• Bring the right supplies. Bring your pencils, erasers, pens, rulers, compasses, calculators or whatever else you need on test day.
• Review the whole test before you start. See how many sections and what types of questions are on the test. Determine how much time to allow for completing each section.
• Jot down your first thoughts. During your first scan of the test, make quick notes about your thoughts. For example, you may want to outline your answers to written-response and essay questions right away.

During the Test

• Read the directions. It’s important that you follow the instructions exactly. For example, some questions may have more than one correct answer.
• Answer easy questions first. Doing this can jog your memory about useful facts. You may also come across information that can help you with other questions.
• Answer every question. Unless there is a penalty for wrong answers, try to answer every question; you may be able to get partial credit for those you begin but don’t complete correctly.
• Ask questions. If a question isn't clear, talk to your teacher. If that's not possible, explain your answer in the margin.
• Identify key words. This helps you focus on the main idea of challenging questions.
• Rephrase difficult questions. To understand questions better, rewrite them in your own words. Be careful not to change the meaning.
• Organize your thoughts before you write. Take time to organize your responses to short-answer and essay questions. You'll reduce the time you need to revise.
• Write neatly. Be sure you don't lose points on answers the teacher can't read.
• Use all the time you're given. If you finish early, don't leave. Use the extra time to proofread and review your answers.

Test taking tips taken from: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/get-in/testing/how-to-prepare-for-admission-tests

---

For more help with: Test Taking, Study Skills, Note Taking, Test Anxiety and How Parents Can Help with Test Taking, visit:
https://www.testtakingtips.com/

ACEA School Counselor Information

Dan Simonds email me
Please feel free to contact me with any questions regarding credits, support services, scholarships, FAFSA and/or resources available.

---

Understanding the School Counselor

Today school counselors are certified, specially trained mental health professionals who focus on prevention and wellness though a counseling program that meets the needs of all students, not just a few. The counseling program addresses three areas: academic, career and personal/social. School counselors advocate, mediate, coordinate, consult, lead and collaborate with teachers, administrators and parents to help students be successful. Professional school counselors also help children to understand themselves.

What do school counselors do? Today's school counselors:

• Counsel students individually and/or in groups
• Provide systematic and developmental classroom guidance to all students
• Respond to student needs in crisis situations
• Orient students to new school settings
• Work with absentees, potential dropouts and other at-risk students
• Refer students to special programs and/or services when necessary
• Analyze test results to provide information about abilities, achievement, interests and needs
• Help with individual school, college, and career plans; coordinate school-to-work initiatives and with post-secondary institutions
• Coordinate efforts with other school specialists
• Conduct conferences with parents and facilitate parent discussion groups
• Coordinate staff support activities
• Adhere to ethical and legal standards
• Pursue continuous professional growth and development
• Conduct an annual evaluation of the guidance program

Following are some questions you might want to ask your child's school counselor:

• How is my child doing in school?
• What are my child’s strengths and weaknesses?
• Are there any areas of concerns?
• What are my child’s goals for this year?
• What are some suggestions for action at home?
• What programs are available to help my child to do better?
• Does my child get along well with adults?
• Does my child get along well with his/her peers?
• What can I do to improve discipline at home?
• Are there ways I can improve communication with my child?
• What can I expect after a change in the family (death, divorce, illness, financial status, moving)?
• If my child is (running away from home, being disrespectful, having other problems), what should I do?
• What resources are available at school?
• What resources are available outside of school?
• What do I need to do to prepare my child for college admission?
• What are the best resources for information on financial assistance and scholarships?
• What do I do? My child is (sad, not sleeping, not eating, overeating, has temper tantrums, etc.)

Studies have shown that children have greater academic achievement when their parents are involved in their education.

You, the parent, are the most important resource for the school counselor and others. Your involvement is critical in helping your child to be successful. Ask the school counselor how you can be more involved in what is happening with your child’s education.

Article by Brenda Melton, M.Ed., LPC, a school counselor at Navarro Academy, an alternative school in San Antonio, Texas, and a former board president of the American School Counselor Association.