<p>lookingforward: here is from the very first email my daughter’s counselor sent to me. I started to CC this to a head counselor as well, which is why I think he changed the tone and started sounding more helpful(He now is saying that he will look into giving her zero period): </p>
<p>"She planned, and was given the opportunity to take her foreign language and forensics upon completing Health/W. Geography this summer, and will have to either drop one of her electives to include a semester of W. Geog, or complete the remaining 3.5 credits of world geography next summer. She won’t be scheduled for zero period PE to complete the course, and I don’t recommend taking it during the school year without the Health, because she’ll have to be scheduled as a TA for the other semester, and being a TA isn’t favorable on a transcript if she plans to apply and attend a four year college right out of high school. " </p>
<p>So is zero period an earlier time slot during the day, before first period, or does zero period mean a blank in the schedule? </p>
<p>What does “She won’t be scheduled for zero period PE to complete the course” mean?</p>
<p>If zero period is a time slot, is there a way for your daughter to take World Geography during zero period for one semester (and nothing in zero period for the other semester), thus freeing the regularly scheduled slot? If so, it is still miserable, but half a year would be better than a full year.</p>
<p>No, zero period is not blank , it is a period in the morning before school when kids take PE (same as lunch period), so they can fit more classes into a day.
I am confused as far as what he means , which is why I am quoting this counselor here . He first said she won’t be scheduled for zero period , then he said he will look into it. He also said that
taking only part of her Health/Geo combo during the year will create the gap in her schedule that they can’t fill with anything (no other semester long class available) , but friend’s daughter ,who is one grade older , same school, did exactly the same - completed Health during the summer and dropped out of Geo. Her counselor scheduled her for one semester of Geo in the Fall, then change her schedule to a shorter one. That’s all - no problems, no writing back and forth…</p>
<p>OP, I understand. But this is getting necessarily confusing. And now we have a friend’s experience. As one poster said, all this customization can be a challenge for the school, regardless of how it worked in a prior year. Keep it simple and effective.</p>
<p>Obviously, she needs to get in the missing geog class, so it’s done and her schedule is then clear for sophomore year. If the only way to do this is leaves her with an open time slot, get the class done. We’re talking 9th grade. </p>
<p>Some of us feel you were interpreting the TA semester as a negative. Lots of kids are TA’s in hs and suffer no ill consequences, as long as the rest of the schedule and performance over the 4 years is solid. If you want to cycle back to the GC’s word choice, no he’s not clear. But the bottom line is: being a TA is not going to be “unfavorable” to elite adcoms. </p>
<p>Point to QM for intuiting what OP meant by zero.</p>
<p>dusty, I believe he’s saying it’s not the optimum solution- to mess around like this. I don’t believe he meant “unfavorable,” a blot on her record-- just not the preferred way to go. Aggressive kids get these requirements done and move on to more academic challenges. </p>
<p>Call the GC and have a real conversation! Email communications can be interpreted many different ways. No one here knows exactly what TA means at your HS. No one here knows how students from your HS with similar profiles have fared in college admissions. Your GC does have this info. Call and go over all the options and then make your best informed decision.</p>
<p>No real credit to me, lookingforward–just that our local school had zero hour and I really did not like it, so that made it memorable!</p>
<p>I am still not clear on how PE figures into all of this. PE presumably is Physical Education, and it is a separate class from Health/World Geography. Is it yearlong? Is it possible to have PE during zero hour for one semester, and have it during the regular school hours for the second (in the gap where Health would have been)? If so, that would seem like the best available solution to me.</p>
<p>@my-3-sons has a very good point. Our summer GC is very brief and somewhat confusing in his emails, but fairly verbose on the phone and in person. (Our regular GC during the year is great all around.) I had some things to straighten out for next year’s schedule, so sent the summer GC a long list of questions (mostly about a zero period class, as it happens). But, I told him I’d be happy to talk by phone when he had time, and that worked out better than a confusing email from him. For people with more complicated issues, I’ve advised them to go over to the school and talk with him (and take notes), since that is the best way to sort out things with this particular GC. He’s the only GC on duty this summer, so he doen’t like to schedule in-person meetings (because he probably knows he is verbose in person), so people have had better luck just dropping by without an appointment.</p>
<p>Also, make sure you don’t assume that he/she will remember things that were said in email. During the summer, ours is potentiall responsible for 2500 schedules, and is understandably very busy.</p>
<p>Yes, QuantMech, this would be my preference, don’t know why not. This is what I said above about friend’s kid at the same school.This is how it was done for her…
Counselor is on vacation right now .He usually does not like to meet with parents . Maybe I will be able to get a phone call from him…</p>
<p>Ok , went to school .They said there is no way to do zero period in the morning and have her complete Geo that way, then change to shorter schedule, because Health/Geo is a combo. TA is a credit course. You get a F or a P. Only my counselor is allowed to do any changes or advise me and he is away on vacation. I asked why they feel TA does not look good on transcript and it is because colleges “like to see a very busy schedule”…</p>
<p>Well it sounds like the counselor is saying it’s better to have a “very busy schedule” by retaking Health which seems stupid to me. I think the TA thing is fine. </p>
<p>If I am understanding this all correctly, if they would let her take something that is offered during the zero period (probably PE), that then she could have the schedule she’d originally planned plus taking the Geography half of the Health course either first or second semester. But if she can’t move something into zero period she will have to drop an originally planned course because there aren’t enough periods in the day.</p>
<p>If you don’t want the TA in her transcript, seems like the only other solution the counselor pointed out is dropping one of the electives. Probably forensics because taking the foreign language should be more important.
What do they do in forensics? Does it depend on knowledge of biology or chemistry? Maybe she could take it later or is it offered in the summer as a regular class, not the independent study kind?</p>
<p>Forensics is a competitive speech. I understand she will end up with the TA regardless of dropping anything off, because they do not have another semester long class </p>
<p>They require these subjects in 9th grade (for her chosen path) :
English, Math,World Geo/Health,PE,Science, Elective.
They consider a language an elective, same as Forensics . She chose both Language and Forensics as her electives, because she was planning to complete Health/Geo.
She only completed health . Now, it seems best to either drop Forensics or to do zero period PE . In both cases she would still get that TA, in place of health…</p>
<p>In our school district, being a TA is seen as a positive thing–the teacher has to accept the student as a TA, and normally it is a student who has an A in the class already. Maybe she could be a TA for health?</p>
<p>TA for Health sounds like a very good idea to me , I doubt they would let me her do it . They seem extremely uptight . Everything is just so . My daughter just sent an email to her councelor and asked to give her zero PE and both electives and geo. Second semester to keep the same , but include TA in place of Health. Let’s see what happenss. If he is going to refuse to do it, I am going to have to go to the Head Councelor and make sure that this is how it is going to be…</p>
<p>Is the 7th period a class period or lunch then? You said previously that there are 7 periods, but you only listed 6 classes. I can’t believe the school doesn’t offer an elective for just one semester. </p>
<p>I meant it was zero period counted as seventh, but without it it’s only 6. There is nothing for just one semester, it’s correct. Also, no AP classes allowed in 9TH grade…</p>