Senioritis: Four Things to Ponder

Welcome to your last year!  If you are normal, you will experience senioritis.  Don't feel guilty about being sick of your high school, because...... it is normal.  In my 15 years of teaching high school (most of them with seniors)  I have come to not be surprised nor offended by senioritis.

By Richard Phillip Rücker (Flickr: Waiting for Time to Pass) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The thing I try my best to communicate to my students is that the senior year is really important even though it doesn't feel like it.   You need to fight through the urge to shut down mentally.  Here's some quick points to ponder on this year:

1. If you will be applying for the military, you will need to score high on the ASVAB test.  Score too low and no military for you.  How do you do well on the test?  Keep Learning This Year!
2. If you will be attending a community college, you will usually need to take placement tests.  Score too low on this and you may have to take high school level remedial courses that do not count towards your degree. Ditto any vocational colleges or programs.
3. If you plan on going to a 4-year college, low grades this year could cost you your spot even after you have been accepted to college.   This is one reason colleges have waitlists.  You will also need to take those pesky placement tests.
4. If you plan on doing nothing, then you may expressing to your parents the intense desire to be kicked out of the house as soon as you turn 18.

So there you go.  Just let all that marinate in your head.  Learning is a lifelong thing, so it is best to settle in for the long haul.