Parents of the High School Class of 2017/College 2021

[aprilgail2]

Mine was not happy I made him take the PSAT... the freshman have the option. I think the more practice the better. He just finished the first 9 weeks... It has definately been an adjustment but he seems to be more in the swing of things now.

Its not a choice in our school- every single freshman takes it.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

Mine was not happy I made him take the PSAT... the freshman have the option. I think the more practice the better. He just finished the first 9 weeks... It has definately been an adjustment but he seems to be more in the swing of things now.

Our freshman dont have an option. They cant take PSAT's until their sophomore year.
I would have loved DS to get a practice run this year.
Instead they got to go to school 3 hours later that day. ( i'm on my ipad , so no rolleyes icon)

 

[IDoDis]

Our freshman dont have an option. They cant take PSAT's until their sophomore year.
I would have loved DS to get a practice run this year.
Instead they got to go to school 3 hours later that day. ( i'm on my ipad , so no rolleyes icon)

Freshmen don't take it here, either. With the new Common Core Standards being used in K-12th grade now, the SAT will be re-vamped, so it will probably look very different when our kids take it for real as Juniors. The logic here was not to have the kids take one more test. As freshmen, they will have taken 45 district and state tests by the end of the school year that are now required due to the new teacher evaluation system tied to the Common Core.

 

[dreamin_disney]

Well our freshmen are 1/2 finished with their first year of High School-lol!bout D is doing good. Not much time for socializing. She spends a lot of her lunch getting tutoring for Honors Geometry. Plus she gets 2-3 hours private tutoring during the week. We aren't to crazy about her Geometry teacher. A lot of kids transferred out and many Of the A students are getting c's and D's . Most of these kids were "A" student all through honors math in middle school Luckily DD pulled a "B" in that class. It was tough knowing that the last 3 years of "A" in every class would be ruined by this darn class but she was happy just to get a "B" . We've already talked to the teacher but I think its just his way of teaching. He's very smart and I just don't think he know how to break it down. He told dh and I that kids in this country are low and what he's teaching he learned in the 4th grade. I felt like telling him, well we are in your country!!! DD said everyone in the two math classes are having a hard time. She's asked her friends in the teachers other class and they say he's way to hard. I cant wait until this class is over. I'm fed up and am tempted to transfer her to another class but he told the class if they transfer out they are just giving up. I told dd giving up your going to lunch tutoring 3-4 times a week plus private paid tutoring what more can you do your already putting in more than 100%!!! She doesn't want to transfer out because she feels like she's giving up. She's a perfectionist. It just kills me that several kids are stressing out even crying after class!

We are getting ready for summer school sign ups. We don't want to miss sign ups. She will be taking a class to get ahead. Its 2 semesters in summer school so it will cost us a total of $400 and some dollars!!!!! If a student fails and needs to retake class , its free but if you want to get ahead it will cost $200 and some per semester. Each semester is 12-15 days!!!!!

10th grade-$$$
-yearbook $90
-ASB $45
-AP classes exam fees $20 for each AP class I think she will have 2=$40
-testing
-not sure what else

luckily her P.E. clothes will still fit her so that saves us $25 and PE is only 2 years here

How is everyone else doing

 

[scottmel]

Year going ok. Alg 2 Honors is very difficult for DD and so is Biology. The bio teacher says it is a college class in preparation. Luckily though they will allow her to test at the end of the year and have this been the SAT Bio score she can submit to college....She is struggling with it though. Something I don't like here is an A is 93 vs. 92 at most other schools...She has missed an A in a few classes by the one point swing!!

I couldn''t even FATHOM summer school. Ugh. we are looking forward to Spring Break and then Disney in June! Can't believe year is over half over...She was very social the first semester then midterm studying started in late December and January and the social scene fizzled!!! Looking forward to Spring and the fun stuff - dance, spring break, etc.

 

[aprilgail2]

Well our freshmen are 1/2 finished with their first year of High School-lol!bout D is doing good. Not much time for socializing. She spends a lot of her lunch getting tutoring for Honors Geometry. Plus she gets 2-3 hours private tutoring during the week. We aren't to crazy about her Geometry teacher. A lot of kids transferred out and many Of the A students are getting c's and D's . Most of these kids were "A" student all through honors math in middle school Luckily DD pulled a "B" in that class. It was tough knowing that the last 3 years of "A" in every class would be ruined by this darn class but she was happy just to get a "B" . We've already talked to the teacher but I think its just his way of teaching. He's very smart and I just don't think he know how to break it down. He told dh and I that kids in this country are low and what he's teaching he learned in the 4th grade. I felt like telling him, well we are in your country!!! DD said everyone in the two math classes are having a hard time. She's asked her friends in the teachers other class and they say he's way to hard. I cant wait until this class is over. I'm fed up and am tempted to transfer her to another class but he told the class if they transfer out they are just giving up. I told dd giving up your going to lunch tutoring 3-4 times a week plus private paid tutoring what more can you do your already putting in more than 100%!!! She doesn't want to transfer out because she feels like she's giving up. She's a perfectionist. It just kills me that several kids are stressing out even crying after class!

We are getting ready for summer school sign ups. We don't want to miss sign ups. She will be taking a class to get ahead. Its 2 semesters in summer school so it will cost us a total of $400 and some dollars!!!!! If a student fails and needs to retake class , its free but if you want to get ahead it will cost $200 and some per semester. Each semester is 12-15 days!!!!!

10th grade-$$$
-yearbook $90
-ASB $45
-AP classes exam fees $20 for each AP class I think she will have 2=$40
-testing
-not sure what else

luckily her P.E. clothes will still fit her so that saves us $25 and PE is only 2 years here

How is everyone else doing

There is no time to socialize after school with all the homework that's for sure. I have to send in checks for ap tests next week, 85.00 each I believe. My daughter would love gym to only be two years lol. It's every single year of school here. But no special clothes, just sweats and a tshirt.

Our district got rid of summer school-you don't want to fail and have to repeat classes the next year!
My daughter is breezing through honors geometry with a 99 but ap world history is her lowest grade! She just managed to stay in the 90's in that class with a 90-it does get weighted though so that will help. First quarter was better.

 

[dreamin_disney]

Well our freshmen are 1/2 finished with their first year of High School-lol!bout D is doing good. Not much time for socializing. She spends a lot of her lunch getting tutoring for Honors Geometry. Plus she gets 2-3 hours private tutoring during the week. We aren't to crazy about her Geometry teacher. A lot of kids transferred out and many Of the A students are getting c's and D's . Most of these kids were "A" student all through honors math in middle school Luckily DD pulled a "B" in that class. It was tough knowing that the last 3 years of "A" in every class would be ruined by this darn class but she was happy just to get a "B" . We've already talked to the teacher but I think its just his way of teaching. He's very smart and I just don't think he know how to break it down. He told dh and I that kids in this country are low and what he's teaching he learned in the 4th grade. I felt like telling him, well we are in your country!!! DD said everyone in the two math classes are having a hard time. She's asked her friends in the teachers other class and they say he's way to hard. I cant wait until this class is over. I'm fed up and am tempted to transfer her to another class but he told the class if they transfer out they are just giving up. I told dd giving up your going to lunch tutoring 3-4 times a week plus private paid tutoring what more can you do your already putting in more than 100%!!! She doesn't want to transfer out because she feels like she's giving up. She's a perfectionist. It just kills me that several kids are stressing out even crying after class!

We are getting ready for summer school sign ups. We don't want to miss sign ups. She will be taking a class to get ahead. Its 2 semesters in summer school so it will cost us a total of $400 and some dollars!!!!! If a student fails and needs to retake class , its free but if you want to get ahead it will cost $200 and some per semester. Each semester is 12-15 days!!!!!

10th grade-$$$
-yearbook $90
-ASB $45
-AP classes exam fees $20 for each AP class I think she will have 2=$40
-testing
-not sure what else

luckily her P.E. clothes will still fit her so that saves us $25 and PE is only 2 years here

How is everyone else doing

Well. here an update to my above post.

We ended up switching dd to different honors Geometry class . The counselor told me there was no more room in the other honors class and I should just put my dd in a general geometry class because it seem the class is to hard for her. I told her than why was her final semester grade a B. I kept pushing and she gave me a paper to request a transfer but it had to be approved by vice principal. Dh and I made apt with Vice Principal and explained everything and she tried getting us to try the general geo class but once she seen that we wouldn't take no for an answer we said lets try dd in a new honors geo class with a different teacher and if she is still falling then we will move her to general cause at that time dd had a D. Well she is much happier in the new honors geo class. Doesn't come home as stressed or crying. She does request private tutoring as needed. She currently has an A 93 % what a big difference!!

I cant believe theres only 5 more weeks left of school. She will go to summer school to get ahead. I need to start saving for her yearbook, asb card . Luckily her P.E> clothes still fit but she will need a new pair of gym shoes

She mentioned that sophomore year she has to pay for honor class test, cant remember the name of it but the test are $20 each. Any other fees I should be prepared to pay for her 10th grade?

I also plan on starting an account this summerfor Senior year

 

[aprilgail2]

She will go to summer school to get ahead. I need to start saving for her yearbook, asb card . Luckily her P.E> clothes still fit but she will need a new pair of gym shoes She mentioned that sophomore year she has to pay for honor class test, cant remember the name of it but the test are $20 each. Any other fees I should be prepared to pay for her 10th grade? I also plan on starting an account this summerfor Senior year

In 10th grade here they order their class rings so thats a few hundred dollars right there. Next monday is the AP test for my daughter- then the SAT2's are the first Saturday in June. This year in winding down quickly!

 

[mamacatnv]

DD has had a great year! She is getting ready for the Human Geo AP exam and looking forward to summer. Next year she is eligible for a letter jacket due to her athletic training participation and is excited about that.

 

[dreamin_disney]

BTW- dd is doing world history for summer school 2 semesters. Plus if she has any honors classes for 10th grade she will have summer homework for those classes :/ She's going to be one busy kid. DD said its not fair that the kids that world hard all year long get summer school for their honor classes and the kids that don't have honors get to enjoy their summer vacation!!!

I told her yeah it sucks but just think, she will have less classes in college.

Lucky for her no honors math homework or she would really be miserable

 

[aprilgail2]

BTW- Plus if she has any honors classes for 10th grade she will have summer homework for those classes :/ She's going to be one busy kid. DD said its not fair that the kids that world hard all year long get summer school for their honor classes and the kids that don't have honors get to enjoy their summer vacation!!!

I told her yeah it sucks but just think, she will have less classes in college.

Lucky for her no honors math homework or she would really be miserable

My daughter says the same thing about the summer homework- she says the kids that are NOT AP or honors should get loaded up with homework to bring them up to the honors level!

 

[tajz90]

My son started his summer school work for English Honors yesterday. Summer reading of Mythology and a 250 question packet. He's a little ticked that he has to work on it while other kids have total freedom. I asked him if he wanted to be in a regular English class and he said no. It's all about choices.

Anyone use the sat prep apps? I was thinking about having him download one and read a question or vocab word a day. Wondering if it's worth it?

 

[IDoDis]

Anyone use the sat prep apps? I was thinking about having him download one and read a question or vocab word a day. Wondering if it's worth it?

My DD used the question of the day SAT app a couple of years ago. She thought the questions seemed really easy, so maybe this particular app was not reflective of the actual SAT. I used to look at the questions once in a while and answer them to see if I still had some brains left. I learned that I'm still not good at math! It kept a running total of each day, so if DD missed a few days, she could go back and answer the question for the days that she missed.

DD ended up never taking the SAT and only took the ACT which she did very well on.

 

[Xcited4Disney]

New school year. How is everyone doing?

DD15 has orientation tomorrow (receive schedule, school mass, assembly) for a few hours and then starts classes on Monday the 8th. I know many of your children have probably started already. So how is it going so far? Any activities? What's the plan for sophomore year?

 

[bjscheel]

New school year. How is everyone doing?

DD15 has orientation tomorrow (receive schedule, school mass, assembly) for a few hours and then starts classes on Monday the 8th. I know many of your children have probably started already. So how is it going so far? Any activities? What's the plan for sophomore year?

DD15 has been in school for a week and a half now. So far so good! They got out early for heat a couple of times, probably will this Thursday too.

She is happy to be in the musical. She is Tweedledum in "Wonderland" and very pleased with her part- not too big, not too small. Plus, the bonus of having a Disney connection...

I hear archery will be offered this winter, so she wants to do that. They couldn't get a coach last year. She will definitely do track. Her distance medley got to State last year, so she's looking forward to more track.

As far as classes, she is happier this year. Last year she had too much downtime in class and was bored. This semester she doesn't have any art classes (a major source of downtime, unfortunately), so she feels busier which is a good thing.

This is the year she/we have to work concessions, so we'll need to get going on that so she doesn't have to do any during track season.

School permit is coming in handy already with early outs and musical practice...and she'll have her license in about a month!

 

[mamacatnv]

We started back up last Monday - DD likes her schedule, continues to be in athletic training and was glad to be back in school, as she said, she missed her friends!

She did great on the AP exam and this year is in AP History and I honestly don't remember what else.

On to her second year of French and continuing to contemplate college pathways.

 

[aprilgail2]

We started back up last Monday - DD likes her schedule, continues to be in athletic training and was glad to be back in school, as she said, she missed her friends!

She did great on the AP exam and this year is in AP History and I honestly don't remember what else.

On to her second year of French and continuing to contemplate college pathways.

Ours starts tomorrow- my daughter (14) took AP Bio and AP World last year- this year she continues with AP World (its a 2 year course), AP Chem, AP Statistics and AP Art History. She is in her 4th year of Spanish and its her least favorite subject.

We toured a few colleges this summer- Dartmouth, Columbia and NYU and next summer when we take our road trip we will look at any others she is interested in. Right now she is still sitting in her room trying to finish her summer homework that she put off until the last minute, for the past 2 weeks its all she has been working on!!

She is actually looking forward to getting back to school and excited about taking Chem. She is not so excited about the homework though LOL.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

DS is starting his 2nd week of school today. The AP classes are mostly only available to Juniors and Seniors at their school, with the exception of History/Social Studies. The one Sophomore AP class used to be AP World, but with Common Core last year, they switched up all of the SS classes, and now Sophomores take Government, so DS is in AP Gov. The summer homework and the one week of classes has already proven to be A LOT of homework that he isn't used to at that AP level.

Science classes like AP Bio and AP Chem are only available to Seniors, AFTER they've already taken regular or honors Bio or Chem.

DS isn't even thinking about college much, but he did have the opportunity to visit Notre Dame this past weekend, as well as attend the football game. His only comment was that the school was big. His grades and his class rank are up there to go to schools like this, but I need him to start focusing on test prep.

DS is playing JV football again, and DD is in the marching band for her last year, so we are about to hit our busy season again with the kids and their events. The season opener is this Friday at home. It was weird this past holiday weekend not having all of our days scheduled!

 

[IDoDis]

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the 3rd week since school started for DS. We went to his first football game of this season this evening. His JV team won 37 to 0 which was a great way to start the season! Last year as freshmen they didn't win one single game. DS took driver's ed this summer, so we've been working on the required 50 hours of driving with a parent. It has been nerve wracking, to say the least! So far so good with all of his classes.

 

[mamacatnv]

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the 3rd week since school started for DS. We went to his first football game of this season this evening. His JV team won 37 to 0 which was a great way to start the season! Last year as freshmen they didn't win one single game. DS took driver's ed this summer, so we've been working on the required 50 hours of driving with a parent. It has been nerve wracking, to say the least! So far so good with all of his classes.

Teenagers driving is such a double edged sword, I feel for you. DS who is now 25 could not wait to drive, he had it planned out, had all the hours etc needed by the time he was license age eligible. DD completely different story. She has no desire to drive, I think it scares her and while she is now 16 she still has made no moves towards even getting a permit.

She is an "older" sophomore having turned 16 over the summer. We wonder as more and more of her friends start driving if that will prompt her interest. We are not pushing the subject, letting her do her own thing on her own timeline but I find it really interesting to see the complete difference between her and her brother.