Student Services Update August 21-August 25th

SCHEDULING

Students who have a scheduling problem are allowed to speak with their high school counselor and request changes or speak directly with their teachers.

Sean Schochet all grade 9th-10th sschochet@ssis.edu.vn 

Robert Kostrzeski last name A-L (11th-12th)  ugodirector@ssis.edu.vn

Erin Hawken last name M-Z (11th-12th)  ehawken@ssis.edu.vn.

Students are expected to remain in all requested courses unless the placement is clearly inappropriate. In this event, the high school counselor will work with students and families to provide counseling on other choices. Requests to add, delete, or change a course must be made to the counselor by the end of the 2nd full rotation cycle of classes (September 6, 2017). All requests must be for educationally sound reasons and approved by the student’s counselor and/or teacher. Students who feel a change is required should discuss the issue with the teachers of both classes (the one being dropped and the one newly joined) and the counselor.  The student must turn in any books or materials from the dropped class to the Book Room. The high school principal will make the decision on class changes in the event that consensus on a schedule change cannot be made.

TEACHER  UNIVERSITY RECOMMENDATIONS HELPFUL TIPS AND GUIDELINES:

The teacher letter of recommendation should focus on the student’s academic performance AND contributions etc. within your classroom.  It is okay to mention some extracurricular activities, but the focus should be on your direct observation of the student in your classroom. The reader is trying to get a sense of the type of learner the student is and his/her contributions to the academic and social milieu. Here are some writing tips and guidelines for the format of the letter.

Please use electronic letterhead and format to write your letter (see attached).

To submit the letter of recommendation: 

1. Sign into Naviance (SSIS link-Faculty-Naviance)
   1. ACCOUNT: saigon
   2. USERNAME:
   3. PASSWORD: (ask one of us to reset password if you forget this information)
2. Click on “manage and complete the college recommendation”
3. Select the student you are submitting documents for
4. Click on “prepare forms”
5. Scroll down to teacher documents and select the drop down menu titled “add new document”
6. Upload your letter of recommendation to Naviance
7. Complete the Common Application teacher evaluation (For U.S.)

Once the letter of recommendation and Common Application are submitted the counselor will mark the recommendation as completed.

Please let us know if you have any questions or experience technical difficulty while trying to submit.

UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE VISITS

Please check our board outside the counseling office for our University visits, you are always welcomed to come by and say hi to your Alma mater or spread the word to your students!

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY EVENT SAIGON 2017

You may have heard that on Saturday, September 30th from 10 am -1 pm, we will be hosting a university event here at SSIS with 8 other HCMC Schools and 90 Universities.  Please feel free to stop by, or sit in your Alma mater’s room and listen to their presentation, if they are attending.  Hope to see some of you there!