On Wednesday, Oct. 10, the freshmen participated in the annual Freshman Transition Day. While the sophomores and juniors took the PSAT, the freshmen were split up into alphabetical groups and moved through different rotations that taught them how to be good high school students.

There were several different rotations including schedule-making, introduction to Naviance, stress management, community service, and online safety. Each rotation was led by several different teachers and gave helpful tips on how to be successful.

In the schedule-making rotation, the students were asked to write a schedule of their daily routine. After the students completed the schedule, they were given a presentation on proper time-management and how to divide time accordingly for each of their activities. These activities included sports practices, homework and breaks between each task. The students were then asked to create a new schedule that followed the suggestions that were given from the presentation.

In the stress-management rotation, the students filled out a survey about their school and homework life. The questions were answered on a five-point scale. If the student disagreed with the statement, they would choose the number one. If they agreed with the statement, they would choose the number five. If they sometimes agreed, they would choose somewhere in between. Each statement corresponded with a factor of school-related stress. Once the students completed their surveys, they added together the rankings of each of the statements in each of the factors. The students’ highest numbers were their leading causes of stress. They then worked together with their classmates to brainstorm solutions.

In the online safety rotation, the leader of the rotation showed a presentation that asked objective questions about online safety such as, “How many social media accounts do you have?” and “Have you ever taken a picture that you would not want to show to your superior?” Every time the students answered “Yes” to the questions, they gave themselves between 10-50 points, depending on how many were assigned to that specific question. When the group finished the presentation, they were ranked into how safe they were online. The higher the student’s points, the less safe they were.

In the introduction to Naviance rotation, the students learned how to use the website Naviance. Naviance is where students can collaborate with their counselors about colleges, service hours, GPA and more. The students learned their logins, how to input service hours and how to create their college resumes. They were also assigned surveys about themselves and their interests.This rotation was many students’ favorite station because it taught them about something that is really important for their high school career.

“It was the most helpful, so it was less boring than the other ones,” freshman Anna Cooke said. “Because I was like, ‘I actually have to pay attention to this one!’ and you get to take all of the fun personality quizzes.”

Lastly, in the Community Service rotation, the students learned how to log their service hours on x2vol.com. They learned about the Community Service Council and National Honors Society. The sponsors of each group gave the students an introduction to what each group does and the requirement for the students who might be interested in joining.

The freshman ended their rotations when the sophomores and juniors completed their testing. After that, they then went through shortened class periods to finish off their days.