Suggestions for Senior Advisors
You will do important and interesting work. There are so many possibilities. This is your first time as senior advisor; your second time going through a SLUH freshman first semester. Take some time to remember when you were a freshman, the thoughts and the feelings. You need to deal with where they are as incoming freshmen, not where you are as a senior. That takes remembering, sensitivity and effort.

You are coming in to a special situation. There are real unique challenges and needs in freshman year and in homeroom, prayer services, class masses and assemblies. Senior advising system can really make a difference.

Senior advisors need to learn how to help the freshmen develop leadership and do things for themselves. The tendency of senior advisors is to do what is needed for the freshmen rather than helping them learn to do for themselves. When things come up, ask a freshman or two to "chair" the efforts and help them do this--but let them do the organization and work. Various activites my seniors in J127 put freshmen in charge of during 2004-05 homeroom included: October Food Drive, Loyola Academy Money Collection, Family Christmas Drive, Mother's Club Coat Drive, Cashbah Ticket Sales, end of year diaper drive. Try to put different freshmen in charge of each of these and give them support. Can you think of a better way to develop leadership and let freshmen take ownership of their homeroom?

Teach them how to be good leaders by what you do. Do this by showing them that the essence of Christian leadership is service (John 13, 1-17,). Show them by action: do the things others do not readily do and do it quietly. Show them how to be good followers: let others lead; help them succeed; follow directions; offer suggestions gently. Read the passage from John when washes the feet of his disciples.

Please be careful of what you say in the presence of freshmen. Watch out how you speak about teachers, administrators, other students or clubs or activities. What you say can affect how these freshmen view these people and activities greatly.

Freshmen need to learn organization and discipline. They need to learn how to use theri assignment book and how to organize their lockers. They also need to learn how to get and retain an assigned reading and how to study. These are habits they did not need in grade school. You can help them first by telling them how important these things are and letting them know they can be learned pretty easily. You need to tell them the importance of studying. In my experience, seniors often communicate this to freshmen much more effectively than teachers.

Thank you for all you will do for this freshman class and for St. Louis U. High. I've had a freshman homeroom for about ten years now and I've taught freshmen about that long. My freshmen tell me how important their senior homeroom advisors have been to them. Your predecessors have done great work. They give their time and care to incoming freshmen, offering them any help these nervous and unsure boys might need.

M. Sciuto

Freshman Orientation Day and the first days of homeroom

On the first day of freshman orientation, there is a lot of time to help the students get adjusted and begin to get into the swing of things. Freshmen will go to their desks and sit there silently. This is to get them up and walking around and interacting. But they will not do this unless Senior Advisors actively get them going.

Put questions on the board and let them find out about each other. Get them talking and learning about each other right off the bat!
Do “Stand up...” activity. Come up with your own. Challenge them to come up with some of their own.

Send around a sheet asking them to list their phone number and e-mail address and other important information. Ours from this year is attached.


homeroom _______

name _______________________________________________

what do you want to be called? _____________________________

address with zip _______________________________________________

_______________________________________________

phone number with area code

home: _______ - _______ - _________________

cell: _______ - _______ - _________________

e-mail address _______________________________________________

Any other important information for the homeroom teacher and senior advisors to know?

Under "other important information" specifically ask things we need to be aware of as homeroom teachers and advisors: if they are not Catholic, let us know their religious faith; if a parent is deceased or arents are divorced...

Use this information to produce a class seating chart with phone numbers and e-mail addresses for the first class day homeroom. This enables them to start learning names and have phone numbers if in need. Adding the teachers and senior advisors also shows oneness and gives them someone who they can always go to if in need.

Ask for a volunteer to be "class secretary" in charge of the bulletin board outside the classroom and to put weekly and daily on the board for his classmates. Show them how to do this. You can change this every month or every week. See who volunteers, who is responsible, who takes initiative, who shows some eladership. Can we find a better title than "class secretary?"


Begin this advice on the Orientation Day but continue offering these ideas and reminding the freshmen. Give them good advice and show them how to do these things.

Freshmen need to be taught about lockers. One of the senior advisors who has an organized, neat locker might talk to his homeroom about the importance of being able to find his books quickly and easily. An advisor with shelving should take freshmen over to see his locker and suggest that the freshman gets shelving for his locker. It would be good to show them the different kinds of shelving.
  • single plastic shelving
  • wire mesh
  • four leg multilevel plastic
  • and the best (and cheapest) three wooden squares made at home.

Click image for larger image.
Click here for more locker advice.




In preparation the Orientation Day homeroom, you might consider Please come to homeroom at least a half hour before the Orientation begins. Talk to the students. Introduce yourself. Introduce them to each other. Use their names. Ask questions. Notice the freshman who are most hesitant, shyest, and take time to go out to them.

A few suggestions on what you can do with the freshmen on Orientation Day
  • Do a "Stand up if..." as an ice breaker
  • Senior advisors can introduce themselves and say something about their interests and activities.
  • Give out and talk about: demerit card, assignment book.
  • If there is time do a short "Q & A Panel" with the senior advisors. A few suggested questions fom the teacher. These can be followed up by questions from the freshmen.
    Senior advisors should get to their homeroom about a half hour before the start. They need to make sure their 35 minutes is planned well. There shold be a clear scheudle with each seniror advisor leading portion of the program. Senior advisors should talk to the homeroom teacher so that all were on the same page.

    This is a summary of what we did in J127 with our 35 minutes on August 15, 2008
    I gave out the demerit cards, to each freshmen indiviudally, said their name (I wanted to make sure I got their name right and their classmates heard it), and shook their hand (taught some how to shaek hands) and we all welcomed them. I also asked them about what Dr. Moran and Mr Kesterson said and being open and what that really means.
    -> beginning with a brief introduction of each senior advisor
    --> doing the stand up exercise to break the ice.
    ---> giving students a tour of their planner. Show them the calendar and how to use the planner. Let them put today's assignment (complete the questionairre's from the counseling department) on August 15.
    ----> talking about the need to organize their locker and suggest ways to do this.
    -----> talking about some of the student rules freshmen need to learn ASAP: dress code, cell phones, what to do if tardy or absent, activity period, etc.
    ------> I asked each senior "What advice would you give to these freshmen?"
    -------> We took questions from the freshmen.
    One of my senior advisors, Rick Shipley drew a map of SLUH floors on the side board and gave a brief overview of buldings, in preparation for the tour.

    In my homeroom we did not have enough time to do all of this. We cut the the tour time down to twenty minutes.

    If the senior advisors could not fill the 35 minutes well, they did not learn anything from the senior advisor training I offered nor did they read this handout. This would not surpise me, but it does bother me. These guys never did this before and if they came in unprepared then this time could be a waste. Might this be a bit of hubris? All I do is make suggestions and offer my experiences. I don't think Tim or Matt tell them what to do, but they urge them to listen to me and to be prepared for their time with the freshmen on Orientation Day.

    Return to Senior Advisor Home Page
    Please send any corrections or suggestions to M. Sciuto
    Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

    1