Counselors implement Google Classroom among BVH grade levels

The start of the 2019-2020 school year has brought many new changes, one of them being the arrival of a new BVH counselor Lalaine Torres, who arrived after working at San Ysidro High School for four years. With Torres’ arrival came the implementation of a Google Classroom organization system, which she created for all four grade levels at BVH. 

 “I find the Google Classroom helpful,” junior Victoria Webb said. “It gave me help as to when I should take my ACT and SAT, and find a time that was right for me.” 

The Google Classroom system is used by all counselors to help facilitate the spread of flyers, files, important dates and other crucial information to the grade levels of students at BVH. 

“Flyers get lost- you’re never going to remember where you put them,” Torres said. “As an adult, I’ll get a flyer and I’ll forget about it, and I won’t remember the dates. My son had issues with the same thing, being a senior. Google Classroom provides that arena where information is always going to be there.”

Apart from creating a space where flyers can be stored and organized, the system opens up the potential for other benefits. Torres commented on the digital aspect specifically, noting the importance of using Google Classroom in a technological age.

“It’s been beneficial because every company is [distributing information] digitally. Technology is taking over, and we need to learn how to adapt to that technology,” Torres said.

Torres also noted the benefits the system brought regarding class-specific announcements. 

“Last night, [September 10th], we had the senior parent night. [The event was] only advertised to senior parents on Google Classroom,” Torres said.

Torres’ success with the parent night speaks for itself, with over 200 parents attending the event At the event, parents received insight about the process of the Google Classroom and the goals that the school aims to accomplish with its implementation of the online system.

“Parents really love [Google Classroom] because [they] want to know what the students are doing. They want to know how they can invest in their students,” Torres said.

While this event attracted a lot of attention from the parents themselves to grasp an idea of how to approach the college application process, the parents aren’t the only ones who benefit from this system of digital organization. BVH students gain increased access to announcements ranging from College visits, to parent nights, and many other events.

“When we just get a flyer, you lose them. And I feel bad when it’s like, ‘Hey, UC Berkeley’s in here, but you didn’t know about it,’” Torres said.

The Google Classroom provides a broad range of tools that students can use to learn everything there is about applying to colleges and universities. As of now, there are daily updates about university representatives that come and visit to spread information about the universities they are representing. Among the handful of schools are University of Southern California, University of San Francisco, Brown University, and Princeton University.

“Most students don’t know what college they’re applying to. Now they can see that there are colleges out there that are similar to their dream colleges, which gives students options,” junior Tyler Carter said.

Furthermore, the installment provides students with a tentative schedule of college visits that allows them to make room within their own schedules to be able to acquire that new knowledge about different schools.

“[The Google Classroom] lets me know the dates that were available – and I could compare the times to my own schedule and find a time that was right for me,” Webb said.

The Google Classroom also provides information about standardized tests that are required by some colleges and universities, serving as a resource for test preparation, as well.

“There’s SAT prep and files that tell us exactly what colleges are looking for. There’s also information about the college tuitions, as well. It’s all on the Google Classroom, so it’s really helpful that there’s information available at our fingertips to help us get ready for college and search for the college that we’re looking for,” Carter said.

Ultimately, the purpose of this new installment is to encourage college readiness. Some students feel as if this is a very important development from the BVH staff, as it makes them feel as if they are receiving the help they need to prepare for whatever the future has in store for them.

“It made me feel like I had a personal connection with my counselor and that I could talk to them whenever I wanted to,” Webb said.

While the Google Classroom is a recent addition to the BVH school system, it represents a change that takes advantage of the technology available with the aim to help students across campus.

“It’s perfect. Anything new is good, especially when it comes to technology,” Torres said. “We’re in the right period of time because we have so much technology at the tips of our fingers, so it makes sense to take advantage of the resource.”