Ohio Means Jobs

Recently the Ohio Means Job website has added a student section to their website that will hopefully get students in grades K through 12 thinking about their careers at an earlier age and hopefully more often. If any of you are familiar with the old OCIS website, this will be the replacement to that. We had a small seminar the other day that was an introduction to the website and how, as educators, we can help each and every student in our school. I feel this is really a great tool to use with our staff and students and everyone will immediately see the benefits from using it. If you get the opportunity, please go to the Ohio Means Job website and take the guided tour that is available. Please feel free to create an account, you will definitely want one whether you are a student or a staff member.

One of the things that I really like is the "Backpack" feature. Basically this is all your information, such as career inventories you filled out, any assessments you have taken, or any other information that you have gathered. It is all put into your "backpack" so that you can review it any time you want. For the current juniors, that means we can look at it together for the next year or so and work together to decide your future. What is really nice is the student in 2nd grade will work on it every year and when they eventually get to Vantage, they will still have that same backpack with all the information in that we can use to create a career path for them.

There are so many features that I liked but I will just mention a few that stand out. The student can create a budget by typing in a typical rent or house payment, grocery cost, utilities, etc... when they determine what their budget is, the site will let them know if the job area they are looking at will be adequate enough to meet their budget. The student can also upload their resume and the site will grade it from A to F based on the job you are going for. Another great feature is that you can search any area in Ohio to see what jobs are available in the student's area of interest. The website will also guide the student to whatever college in Ohio offers their major of interest. For example, if you are interested in Aerospace Engineering, the will list all the colleges and universities that offer aerospace engineering. Finally, there are all kind of assessments available on the website. You can take the PSAT, ACT, SAT, COMPASS, ASVAB and AP practice tests. There is also help for your current math, english, science and social studies classes.

There really is just to many things to mention. You must really get on and explore. You will be glad you did. If you have any questions, please stop by my office and I will help you start your account or any other information you may need. Thanks and have a great weekend.

Failure is not fatal

I couldn't help but laugh as I read the news tonight and the critics are jumping all over the weathermen and politicians in upstate New York. As you may know, everyone was predicting the snowstorm of "historic significance" all along the East Coast last night and today. The Governor, the mayor and anyone else who had any authority was making news statements telling the people to stay home, don't travel and don't go to school. The Governor authorized the closing of the transportation industry and warned anyone if they were out on the street, they would be arrested. According to all sources, they were getting two feet of snow with severe winds. Well as you are aware, New York city did not get the big snow storm that was called for and today everyone is apologizing and making excuses. The people of New York want to know how something like this could happen, especially in this day and age with all the technology we have available to us today.

As I read all this chit chat, I couldn't help but think...I guess the weather people failed us this time. This is one time that the people should be glad they got it wrong. I also thought that I am glad that the meteorologist don't just feel defeated and quit. What I have read is that they are going to go back and analyze their models and see what went wrong. I think that is a great idea and one we can all learn from.

See, there is nothing wrong with failure. If I can quote Winston Churchill "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts". We all make mistakes throughout our life, however, it is what we do with those mistakes that counts. We should always try to learn from our mistakes and then continue on. If we learn from our mistakes, we can become better people and better students. Did you know that Henry Ford failed in previous business efforts five times before he finally founded the successful Ford Motor Company. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas". He started several other business that ended in bankruptcy until he finally hit it with Disney Land. Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four and did not read until he was seven, causing his parents and teachers to think he was mentally handicapped, slow and anti-social. Thomas Edison is quoted as saying "I have not failed. I just found 10,000 ways that wont work".

That is my hope for each and everyone of you. I hope that no matter what you work at in life, you will realize that failure is a part of life. It is said, if you never fail, you never have tried. You will fail, but you need to understand that you can learn from your failures. Please get back in the game and don't let it bother you. Remember all the great people throughout our history that have failed, and then think, maybe someday everyone may be quoting you and recognizing your great accomplishments. I have faith in all of you, and as always, remember... you were created for something great! I believe you truly were.

Why do you do what you do?

Well as we continue with our 2 hour delays and another cancellation today, I have to tell you that I am really getting caught up with a lot of reading. I believe we are now officially going to have to make up any more time missed from school. We have reached our limit. Today was a really bad day on the roads though, from what I hear they were totally ice covered. Let's hope we are back on our regular schedule tomorrow and can continue that way for awhile. Oh, the fun of living in Northwest Ohio.

As I mentioned earlier, I just finished a really good book titled "Lead...for God's sake." The book was written by Todd G. Gongwer and is a parable for finding the heart of leadership. I am not going to write a book report here, but I thought that there were some good points in the book that may help our students and our staff. Ideas that we can ponder and try to answer for ourselves. Urban Meyer read this book shortly after his career at Florida. In the summer of 2011 a good friend of Urban's gave him the book to read and he said it changed his life. He obviously found the heart of leadership at Ohio State.

One of the first points that is brought up in the book is the question, "Why do you do what you do?" It's an interesting question and one the author states that most of us, at one time or another, have asked ourselves. I hope you will think about that question and do some real soul searching. Why do I teach at Vantage? Why am I a school counselor? Why am I in this certain program at Vantage? The author states again that without an understanding of and a commitment to one's true purpose, one can never really be the best they were meant to be! And if we're not being the best we can be, we won't be leading others to be the best they can be either.

The second point of the book is that we must lead with our heart. Not only with a passion for our pursuits, but with a passion for those we have the opportunity to lead in our pursuits. When we lead with our heart and really care about the people around us, we will be a success. Believe me, this may not be the success that the world considers, but it will be a success in the eyes of those who matter most in life. You will know who those people are, the ones you are around every day. For me, the author hit it on the head when he said "it is the students that I listen to when they're hurting, encourage when they're down, and help when they're in need. Those are the eyes of the ones who really determine your success in this life. Because you never know when your last interaction with any of them just might be your LAST interaction with any of them".

The final point that I want to touch on that the book talks about is the idea of listening. Now as a school counselor, this really hit home. He states, "so many times in relationships in our hurried society, we fail to listen to hearts. We want to try to fix things quickly so we briefly listen to mouths, and occasionally listen to minds, but very rarely...very rarely, do we really take the time to listen to hearts. My wish is that all of us, me included, will take the time to listen to the hearts of our co-workers, classmates, students and friends. There is a lot of hurt in the world and all around us. Maybe if we listen to others intently and with the heart, we can not only help them but change us for the better.

Take care and hope to see you tomorrow.

Scholarship Dates

As I have mentioned before in this blog, the senior year is going to fly by. Here we are and we only have a week and a half left in January. I can't remind you enough that if you are planning on going to college, you should be working on your FAFSA now. You also need to keep checking our student services calendar for upcoming dates for all our scholarships. I also have all the scholarships listed on our website but you can also click here. The following scholarships are coming due within the next month and one of the scholarships is due at the end of the month:

Jan 31st - Elks Legacy Scholarship
Feb 8th - AG FFA Scholarship
Feb 10th - Paulding Putnam Electric Scholarship
Feb 10th - Stolly Insurance Scholarship
Feb 14th - Educational Office Professionals Scholarship
Feb 15th - AWS Welding Scholarships
Feb 22nd - Ohio Credit Union Scholarship

Once you get to our scholarship page, there will be links that you can click on to download the application. If you have any questions, please stop in my office and see me. Now would be a good time to go through the college checklist I handed out to all of you. If you don't have one, please stop by the office and pick one up. Some of the main points of the checklist are:

1) Take the ACT
2) Apply to your colleges of interest
3) Have parents complete income tax early
4) Fill out the FAFSA soon after Jan. 1st
5) Fill out scholarships
6) Visit colleges that have invited you to enroll
7) Contact the colleges financial aid office
8) Once decided, contact the school you want to attend and let them know you will attend.

O-H-I-O

Well by now everyone has witnessed The Ohio State Buckeyes totally dismantle the Oregon Ducks last night. It was certainly duck season in Texas. Congratulations to Coach Urban Meyer and the 2014 Ohio State Buckeyes. It is easy to look back and say what a great game and what an awesome championship we are celebrating, but what is important is to look at how they got there. Every great team and every championship takes a lot of hard work and planning. One doesn't just show up for practice, go through the motions and suddenly they are winners. I think whether or not you are a Buckeye fan, you can learn a lot from this team and how they became winners.

I want all of you to try and relate your school work to that of the National Champion Buckeyes. They came to practice and meetings every day (coming to school every day), even when some of the Buckeyes weren't feeling good they still played and practiced hard (come to school even if you have the sniffles). They worked very hard during their practices (work very hard during your class time). They prepared mentally and studied their play books (study hard for exams and review your notes). As they got closer to each game day, they made sure they had everything covered and they went over anything they felt needed extra work (before a test, review your notes and past homework. If there is anything you feel you need extra work on, then ask your teacher and get the help). When game day came around, they felt confident because they had prepared well (come the day of the test, you will feel more confident because you are prepared). Now the Buckeyes didn't win every game this year. Remember the Virginia Tech game? Well you can also have a bad test day and suddenly "bomb" an exam. Maybe you felt over confident about the test or didn't really put the time into studying like you should have because you thought it would be easy. I don't know the reasons why Ohio State lost that game, but I do know they didn't quit. They didn't put their head down and say "Oh well, the season is over now". They went back to practice and worked harder and got better and better. That is the attitude you should have with your school work. If you have failed a quarter or maybe the semester, don't give up. Fight even harder and study even harder. DON'T QUIT NOW! Remember, quitters never win and winners never quit. Prove everybody wrong and finish the year strong. There weren't many "experts" picking the Buckeyes to get into the top four, let alone win the whole thing. Show others you aren't quitting. Work harder than you ever have and I promise that you to will come out a winner.

Removing our Masks

Well as I sit here by the warm fireplace, it is -12 degrees wind chill outside. We cancelled school today after having two days of two hour delays. I don't know what tomorrow will hold as they are predicting more snow tonight and freezing temperatures for tomorrow. I hope you will not mind but I am reading a book that I have read several times and I would like to share just a little bit with you. I think it has a lot to say and could be helpful to our students here at Vantage.

The book I am reading is call "Molder of Dreams" and it is written by Guy Doud who was chosen as Teacher of the year back in 1986. Guy had an interesting way to teach his class but he always managed to really relate to his students and vice-versa. One assignment that he had his students do at the beginning of the year, was to have them pair up and interview each other. He wanted them to find out something about the other student and then the next day share it with the class. In the book, Guy talks about all the small talk that goes on at this time. One student asking the other about sports, or which music they like or if they are going to prom. This went on the first day and then Guy asked them if he could read them a poem. The poem is anonymous and goes like this:

              Don't be fooled by me.
              Don't be fooled by the face I wear,
              For I wear a mask.
              I wear a thousand masks-
              Masks that I'm afraid to take off,
              And none of them are me.
              Pretending is an art that is second nature to me,
              but don't be fooled...
              Please don't be fooled.
              I give you the impression that I'm secure.
              That is all sunny and unruffled with me
              Within as well as without.
              That confidence is my name.
              Coolness is my game,
              And that I'm in charge and that I need no one,
              But don't believe me,
              My surface may seem smooth,
              But my surface is my mask,
              My ever varying and ever concealing mask...
              Who am I?
              Who am I, you may wonder?
              I am someone you know very well.
              I am every man and every woman you will ever meet.

Guy then asked the class, "The poem mentions that we wear masks - one mask for our parents, another mask for our teachers, a mask for friends. Do you agree with that?" I do said a girl sitting to the right of him. "It's difficult to be honest with feelings sometimes because of the fear of rejection." Guy was impressed with her analysis and her maturity. Guy then asked her, "Don't you think most of us want the same things?" "Yes", she replied, "we all want to be loved."

The next day in class Guy had each student stand up and tell about their partner from the day before. There was one student in class who was wearing a ball cap because he had very little hair on his head. The student who interviewed him got up and explained that he interviewed Kent Soderman. He was a senior, played the saxophone. His dad's a welder and his favorite baseball team was the twins. Mr Doud asked the class if they had any questions and no one asked any. Mr Doud knew this student from a couple years back and knew he was dealing with cancer. I now quote from the book.

"Well I know why you don't have much hair, Kent, but some of the other kids might not. Would you mind telling us?" "No, I'd like to talk about it," and he began to relate his medical history. The tumor had been discovered in junior high school. The first surgery had affected the use of his fingers, so his band instructor had taped his fingers to his saxophone keys, Kent laughed as he told us about it. He explained about the treatment that he was presently undergoing. "Does it make you very sick?" I asked. "Sometimes it's not too good," he replied. "It can make your hair fall out- even your eyebrows." And he smiled again. "But it's just one of those things you have to do." ... I had never felt what I felt that moment in my classroom. I looked at my students' faces. They were without masks. "You know, I think it's interesting that Kent has been living with this for some time. We've come to school with him, and yet many of us had no idea what he was going through. I think we all feel better because Kent has shared with us about what's going on in his life." "Kent would you mind if some of the others in class ask you some questions?" "No, that would be fine," he said. A girl looked at him and asked: "How long did you say that you've had it?" "Five years," he responded. I was surprised by the girl who asked, "Do you ever wonder, 'Why me?' " "No", Kent said. "I've been in the hospital and know little kids who have died. I'm just thankful for what I have. I have a good family, a great dog. I've been elk hunting in Colorado." Then he looked at the girl who had asked the question. "No, I don't question God. I'm thankful to Him." A long silence followed before Kent's partner asked, "Do you ever worry about dying?" Kent didn't hesitate in his answer. "No, I don't think about dying. I think about living. I'm looking forward to graduating, just like the rest of you." He could see that several of us were crying, so he joked, "Who knows, maybe I'll even play for the Twins someday." We all appreciated the humor. One girl in class asked Kent, "do you mind if I give you a hug?" Kent wore  a broad smile and answered, "No, I'd like that very much." ... I watched as the young man who interviewed Kent placed his hand on Kent's shoulder. I could detect a tear in his eye, too. The masks were gone.

Thanks for reading this long blog today. I hope you will think about the masks you are wearing at different times and try to remove them. Reach out to others and get to know them. Your life can change for the better and I promise you, your high school years will be better for it.

P.S. I just received a text from the instant alert. Enjoy the 2 hour delay tomorrow. :)

Welcome Back

Well here we go. The excitement begins. It is only our second day back and we already are having weather delays. I understand the Ohio instant alert system is not working again, so I hope everyone got the message on the 2 hour delay. Remember, if the weather doesn't look good outside, then turn the radio or television on and check the school information scrolling along the bottom. We also try to have it on our webpage as soon as possible.

This is the start of our second semester. Seniors, I hope you believe me when I say this will be the fastest semester of your entire school career. Before you know it you will be walking across the stage to receive your diploma. There is still a lot for you to do before that time though, so please don't start slacking off and falling behind. Those of you that are going on to college, I hope you have decided on where you are going by now and have already applied. You now need to start on your FAFSA application. Remember from our presentation, the first "F" in FAFSA stands for FREE. This is the free application that you need to fill out to receive government money (grants), or loans or even scholarships. If you have any questions, please stop by my office and we can discuss your concerns. Also, I would like to remind you there are still presentations upcoming at the home schools. Parkway is having their financial aid night tomorrow at the high school. Paulding, Jennings, Kalida and Ottoville have all scheduled their financial aid nights for January 12th, HOWEVER, I understand there is a BIG football game that night so stay tuned to the morning announcements or twitter to see if the date or the time will change. I will keep you posted. Seniors, continue checking the scholarship page for upcoming dates of any scholarships. I posted to twitter yesterday about the Midwest Electric and the Paulding-Putnam Electrical scholarships. Those have to be turned in by January 22nd for the Midwest Electric one and February 6th for the Paulding-Putnam scholarship. Please take the time to look into these scholarships and all our local ones. Even though you may think a scholarship is only $200 or $300 and it isn't worth your time, wait until you see the cost of books and other cost when you go to school. Plus, if it takes you an hour to fill out the application and you get $300, that is a pretty good hourly rate. Finally, seniors please continue to work hard on your grades. So many of the colleges tell me that they definitely look at the last semester of the senior year. Even though you may get an offer from your favorite college, they can take that offer away if you bomb the final semester. Take it seriously and work hard.

Well once again, welcome back. I hope all of you have a great 2015 and enjoy the rest of the school year. Remember to enjoy each and every day and treat others with kindness and respect.