<p>I’m not Catholic (or religious at all, for that matter). So I’m really not looking forward to junior year if I have him. But my theo teacher this year is a super devout, preachy Catholic, and he’s like, “If you’re not religious, and you don’t let God into your life, then you’re only half a person.” So to keep myself entertained in his class, I play devil’s advocate in my head and come up with counter-arguments for every single statement in his lectures haha.</p>
<p>Teachers here are generally okay, I guess, and the school also chooses to let a lot of ex-pupils come back to teach. So like, 6/10 of our current teachers were from the school or our brother school, and the kids of many of our teachers school here too. But I really can’t imagine myself (or any of my classmates for that matter) coming back here to teach. </p>
<p>Also, our class sizes are like 30+ and all lecture-style, so it does get boring. Plus, I sit right in front of the teachers’ table this term (for all the classes - everybody’s got the same classes except foreign languages till we go to 9th Grade, so we just use one classroom and the teacher moves around). The teacher can hear and see everything we’re doing from where they usually lecture (at the teachers’ table). That’s going to make it hard for me to do a lot of homework (that I usually do in other classes). Also, it’s rather freaky and because I can’t chat with my desk mates it makes classes 10x longer and 10x more boring. I wish I had my old seat - it wasn’t that far back so I couldn’t see (I’m far from 20/20), but it was in a corner in the classroom, I could do my own thing during boring classes, plus the teachers never called on me when they walked around the class. But I guess with our finals so near, having to really pay attention in class may be a good thing after all.</p>
<p>@elf ah, preachy people. This kid once told me that I worship the devil because I don’t go to church. 
lol</p>
<p>@BurningIce that sucks that you sit in the front for the majority of your classes. But at least it forces you to focus, right? Haha. You should just be like “Move me to the front come time for finals and leave me in the corner any other time so I can talk to friends and do homework for other classes. Capisce?” :D</p>
<p>@Swinter LMAO, and what did you say back?</p>
<p>@BurningIce My school’s faculty is around 25% alumni, and I thought that was a lot! But that’s good that you sit in front in all your classes, right, because that forces you to focus on what the teacher’s saying. (Or you could be like me last year in history and just tune out half the things your teacher says lol.)</p>
<p>The only classes I really pay attention in are those where we get to discuss interesting stuff. I hate lectures though - we went through a billion proverbs during Chinese today, we spent the whole lesson going through proverbs, which aren’t exactly the most interesting things. I think I was fidgeting or looking bored or something, because usually I’ll just do my own stuff but I couldn’t today, and the teacher kept shooting me weird looks. So yeah, 1 day into this new seating arrangement, and I’m already not faring very well. Oh, and our class chairperson who did up the arrangement did it such that this kid who sleeps through every single class (well, almost) was placed first row, right in the middle. Thought that would’ve kept her from sleeping? Nope, she slept through like all our lessons today. I wonder what time she sleep every night - or if she even sleeps at all.</p>
<p>Also, just asking how does your school takes attendance? Our school has this weird new method - basically we have a bunch of electronic fingerprint scanners around school and you’re supposed to scan in when you reach. You’re considered late for school if you don’t scan in by 725. Our assembly starts at 730, and if nobody sees you in the parade ground by then you’re considered truant for class. Also at 730 our class secretaries go around marking attendance, and if you’re not in your class rows you’re considered late for class. Weird stuff. Like you can be present in class but absent from school if you don’t scan your finger at the machine lol</p>
<p>At my school, if you’re not in the classroom by the time the bell rings, you have to go down to the security desk to get a stamp on your pass, and once you get three you get a detention. Luckily, all of my classes are pretty close together so I haven’t gotten one yet.</p>
<p>@BurningIce electronic fingerprint scanner? must be a pretty rich school. our late policy is if you’re in the class by the time the bell rings, you go to sweeps. sweeps is when you go to the cafeteria and sit there for the entire class period. going to sweeps counts as an unexcused absence, which means you’re not allowed to make up the work you missed. like homework and stuff. you don’t get an extra day.</p>
<p>Wow, your schools are so strict with their tardy policies. At my school, three tardies in one quarter gets you a detention. At least, that’s what I think it is. . . . I just realized that I don’t actually know my school’s tardy policy (I’ve never had to worry about it, plus punishment differs from teacher to teacher.), and I’m too lazy to look it up haha</p>
<p>@ Swinter - It’s pretty rich I guess, but still a public school, so not thaat rich. Apparently it gets the most funding for each pupil from the government out of all local Secondary schools here though. But some of these are weird priorities - we’re able to send hundred over pupils over the Summer overseas for competition every year, plus a bunch of other sports training or cultural immersion trips, but they can’t seem to find the money to repair the really worn track. And our campus in general is just run-down - we’ve been in here nearly 50 years and there are more kids than it was originally designed for. 1st years are to have homerooms in containers like those in warehouses, and these are separated from the rest of the school. No proper buildings, but there’s air-conditioning inside. Weird priorities. We’ll be moving in a couple of years to a large new campus that’s many times our current campus’s size though, and accordingly it’ll be much better. Our batch won’t be able to enjoy the new campus though, which is rather sad. Still, our current campus is walking distance from the central business district and shopping haven which is cool. New school would have to share a local shopping mall which 3 other schools haha. </p>
<p>Also, speaking about policies, another thing that’s pretty strict here is the attire policy. We’ve got a uniform and our shoes have to be 80% white, strictly black or dark blue hair bands, plus badges must be neatly pinned, etc. Prefects do attire checks during assemblies really regularly. Do any of you guys have uniforms?</p>
<p>Nah, we’ve got a pretty lax dress code at my school. The teachers send you to the office at their discretion so it’s basically as long as you’re not naked. Especially since it gets super hot here (like 115° hot) and we’ve gotta stay cool somehow, right? lol.</p>
<p>So. Freaking. Tired. But I’m so excited. Policy debating is stressing me out, but my first tournament is coming up in a few weeks, so my partner and I are working reallyyy hard. Our league’s pretty bad, so we’re not allowed to run counterplans, unfortunately. I was looking forward to hearing “But you’re the neg! You can’t do that!”
My classes aren’t very bad. I dislike my gym teacher, she’s really, really mean and ugh. I love English class- we’re reading a book I read last year, so it’s been pretty easy. The homework is somewhat…too much. It seems like she’s giving us homework just to give us homework. French class is going pretty well- we haven’t really learned anything so it’s really easy, and my teacher’s out a lot. I would like to start learning some more, though.
I’m guessing there’s a reason that this school is the second worst in the district…of course, there’s only seven high schools, but still. It’s supposed to be academically challenging, but it really isn’t. I’m hoping it’ll get more challenging as the year goes on, because this really is the only option for education. (The private schools in the area are horrible, and my parents refuse to pay for boarding school which I guess I understand)</p>
<p>@gonewiththeair good luck with your debate tournament!</p>
<p>Ahh, the homecoming dance is this Saturday and I’m so excited! I wasn’t going to go, but I’m afraid I’d regret it if I didn’t. I’m still looking forward to it, though, especially since the only other school dance I’ve been to was last year.</p>
<p>So what’s the hardest class you guys are taking? For me it’s World History. The teacher gives out so much homework and I really don’t like his teaching methods. But once you manage to stop procrastinating I guess it’s not too bad.</p>
<p>@kimm your homecoming dance is this Saturday? Dang. Mine isn’t until October. And you just started school too. Anyway, I wouldn’t really say hardest but my least favorite class is bio. The teacher is annoying and science is my least favorite subject as it is. </p>
<p>@gonewiththeair your district has seven high schools? Wow, that’s a lot. About how many students attend each school? Does your district have a bunch of medium-sized schools?</p>
<p>@Swinter I know, usually it’s in October. I don’t know why they moved it so far up. I’ve barely had any time to make friends and actually have someone to go with. 
Luckily a girl in my algebra class is going too so I’ll probably just stay with her for most of the time.</p>
<p>@swinter Yeah, it is a lot, rofl. (Actually, according to the district’s website, there is only five high schools! There’s two high schools nearby not in the district, though) There’s about 1,800 students at two of the ones, including the one I’m at, probably only 400ish at another (it’s a charter school), and I think over 2,000 at the other two? I’m not sure.</p>
<p>@kimm1234 thanks! I think Homecoming should be fun. Hanging out with the girl from algebra seems like a good idea. My hardest class right now is probably gym because I am not at all athletic and I do not have good upper body strength. My gym teacher was saying “If you and a college applicant have the exact same stats but they did better on their physical fitness test in high school, they’ll pick them over you!” Um, no. I don’t think that my fitness test scores freshman year would impact mine- or anyone’s- getting into colleges unless they plan on doing athletic stuff. I don’t think the number of pushups I can do impacts how great of a politician I’ll be or how well my company will be doing on the NASDAQ.</p>
<p>There’s a welcome back dance happening Friday night that I’m not attending. The last time I attended a school dance was in fourth grade. I’d honestly rather be at home reading. I’ll definitely go to Homecoming if my friends are going, though, and I’ll go to winter formal if someone asks me.</p>
<p>@gonewiththeair oh, that makes sense. My district’s got four high schools and two of them are 3200+ while the other two were built in the last eight years in a still-developing part of town so they’ve both only got about 2800.</p>
<p>Our school’s single-sex so we don’t have dances. We do have a graduation dinner at some hotel or something though, but no homecoming or winter formal or anything. Anyway I wanted to ask what is homecoming? Is it just a dance - held at the beginning of the year? </p>
<p>Also, finals are drawing near and I’m getting pretty worried. First test is a science module called CSI Investigation and we learn about stuff like blood (how the angle of impact / velocity affects blood print, DNA/gene structure, hereditary and genetics stuff, how to use certain chemicals to ascertain that it is blood, etc.), we also learn about different types of fingerprints (not as interesting as it sounds), etc. Test is next week, and I totally screwed up the formative with a 66%. They basically test nitty gritty details of a hundred plus slides and I’m horrible at memorizing :(</p>
<p>^Our homecoming is in a few weeks, but I don’t think I’m going. I think homecoming is a dance, usually after a football game. you probably shouldn’t take my word for it though, I’m not even 100% sure why homecoming exists. xP</p>
<p>It seems like everyone at my school is getting sick. I think I jumped on the sick bandwagon, considering my French, English, and math partners are all sick.</p>
<p>Lol everyone in my classes was getting sick about four weeks ago but it’s all good now.</p>