<p>Oh, Jolynne, there but for the grace.....we have mid-trimester conferences tomorrow and I'm just hoping what Sons 2 & 3 say about their grades is true.....</p>
<p>Gee we don't have the class high, low, or median grade feature. 'Twould be nice.</p>
<p>mythmom,
You are thinking of it in terms of parental interference. I see it as a tool that my d uses to monitor herself. Before the online grading, she didn't really "get" the interplay between all the different types of assessment used by teachers in determining a grade. Now that she does she is meticulous about homework and participation and getting extra help. I think the fact that she has monitored her grades these last years will help her in the long run. An added benefit: she has no qualms about approaching the teacher with grading error in hand and politely asking him/her to take a look. </p>
<p>missypie,
You are so right about the hard lessons learned re averaging grades and digging out of holes. Has happened here also, but I'd rather the lesson learned now -although man is it painful. A 0 in a homework grade last year worked itself up so slowly and still never made it past 80.</p>
<p>At my older d's hs - no online grades: some teachers tended to be lax about grading or unclear about exactly how a final grade was determined. My d had more than a few classes where she really didn't have a clue exactly what her grade was - and she was salutatorian so her grades didn't fluctuate a lot. Pity the poor student who had a range of grades. I truly believe that a few - to be fair, very few - teachers didn't bother to grade that paper that never was returned to the student. D was a good student - so jot down a good grade; friend was weaker, so let the final grade reflect weaker. The online grading adds a measure of accountability for teachers, IMO.</p>
<p>AP Scholar with Distinction came in the mail today, in case anybody else is looking for it, and to share good news!</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm absolutely convinced that a major group project that my son did sophomore year and presented on the last day of class before finals was never graded. But that was before online grades, so no way to prove it.</p>
<p>Last year we had "high/low/median" for two six weeks, then they disabled the function. They said it was inaccurate because it factored in 0s for work not turned in, etc. I think it was because the teachers complained. I posted last year that in preAp Geometry last year, the class average was failing for almost every test....I think that reflected on the teacher and not on the students. This year that teacher is gone and the feature is back, but with a warning that the numbers may not be entirely accurate.</p>
<p>Thanks for the sympathy re: not turning in homework. Bad mom: I screamed at son over the phone: "You did what?? Do you know you've screwed up all the hard work of getting into schools?" 50 lashes with the bad-mom-noodle. </p>
<p>The online grades (& projected assignments) have been a life-saver for us. In the past (10th grade, before online grades) son would fail to do work, tell us all was fine & then we'd get a shock when report cards came out (a double shock, since he went through the first 8 years of school w/straight As). So...at least we caught this.</p>
<p>The thing---son's bad sophmore grades were being negated by his excellent performance in junior year. I told him: schools will be looking at 1st sem this year to make sure it wasn't a fluke. And he just needs one good semester to pull his class rank up into an area where he'd be eligible for lots of merit money. No...that would be too good to be true.</p>
<p>Thanks for the thoughts. And yes, I've read those slacker threads many a time. :-)</p>
<p>Jolynne, I don't want to be overly pessimistic about your son raising his class rank, but I have related my son's situation here already. His numerical standing has been quite static throughout high school, but he's dropped 4 percentage points over the year due to student attrition. The type of students who will drop out between now and the end of the semester are most likely not the ones with a rank higher than your son's. As the bottom of the class leaves school, percentage ranks often go down instead of up.</p>
<p>You're also absolved from all guilt for yelling over the phone. My husband and his siblings were beaten for poor grades, so yelling over the phone is certainly excusable!</p>
<p>Thanks for the encouragement, missypie.</p>
<p>Never thought of that (attrition of lower-placed class members). I think it was kind of a half-hope that rank would go up into the magic, merit-money section. </p>
<p>Son further explained the situation to me (once I calmed down) -- it seems he might have a slightly viable argument about a misunderstanding between him & the teacher re: submission of first draft/final draft. Not sure if the teacher would ever consider altering things. Who knows. Son just knows that he's got to tear it up in that class for the rest of the marking period/year.</p>
<p>Mominva - Congrats to your child! D got her AP certificate in the mail as well - is anyone thinking of mailing copies of the certificate to schools? Or is the mention on the application enough?</p>
<p>Rachacha--from what I gather, less is more for these schools, so I think he'll just put it down under "Honors" section, plus of course the exams themselves are listed. You?</p>
<p>AP Scholar Award - D listed in Honors section and then self-reported the AP scores in the appropriate section.</p>
<p>Congrats on the AP achievements!</p>
<p>Son put AP Scholar on the academic awards section of the apps. If he had a ton of other academic awards I wouldn't have listed it (because they see the AP scores, after all) but he didn't have very many to list as it was.</p>
<p>JoLynne,
About the bad mom moment - my older sister used to say that she intended to be a perfect mom, and then, lo and behold, she didn't have perfect kids - oh how much easier it would be to be the perfect mom if you had the perfect child. (And actually, in the case of the paper that didn't make it where it should have, he - your son - started it :P. Ha - I sound like my own kids.)</p>
<p>Grades came out here yesterday. While not as good as the grades could be, or maybe even should be, overall the moment was better than expected. You see, hurricane Ike and the resultant loss of school time cut into the number of grades a teacher could get. In other words an 81 on the one and only French test taken is not a good thing. D - a good student - was "sweating" a C in math and economics and a B in French. (A's are not given lightly at the school she attends. A B in an honors class is good; an A is truly exceptional.) Anyway, the grades were better than expected, so yea! Now maybe just maybe things can get back on track here. (Although our fence is still down and the carpet is ripped out of the bathroom - leaks from roof damage ... and other reminders that Ike blew through Houston.)</p>
<p>Seriously, if the worst you do is yell at your son and probably a well-deserved shout-out at that, then you aren't in the running for a bad mom award.</p>
<p>Thanks, ignatius. It was just a bad, flash-back to sophmore year w/son (me yelling at him a lot, him not doing his work & grades nose-diving). We all calmed down & regrouped--heard the story from son & I tried to help him a little with the situation (he still has the F grade & now--cringe--F average).</p>
<p>Most hopefully he can work like crazy in there & somehow pull it up before he sends his grades to colleges at the end of this marking period (a few weeks??).</p>
<p>It's a little bit of a worry in the larger picture---how is he going to turn in work in college & manage to keep up his grades in a demanding major? Especially if he's in a school far from home. Right now, his distractions are friends, Halo, poker, facebook, music, a few odd jobs. In college the distractions are going to be 10x as appealing, I'm sure (lots of girls, parties, no supervision). It's making me worry....</p>
<p>Thanks again, though. And--there are people out there with larger, real concerns (like hurricane damage!). Hope that things work out for your D, grade-wise, and that your house repairs go okay.</p>
<p>Jolynne, Sometimes after those "bad mom" moments I remind myself I'm human raising other humans. We're going to have less than perfect times. It does sound like he's learned from this. </p>
<p>Also congrats to AP scholars.</p>
<p>I'd like to apply for one of those bad/crazy mom awards. Yesterday D and her friend were talking about spring track season and how they both hoped to be captains. My first thought? "Why? It will be too late to count for anything on your college application." I have gone completely around the bend!!!! Good thing I didn't say it out loud!</p>
<p>In fairness to me, (and if I'm not fair to me, who will be) I have hosted more than my share of swim team events in her two years as captain. NO MORE TIE DYE PARTIES!</p>
<p>Chintzy, I've felt the same way, about honors that are "too late." But it's fantastic that kids are active in their ECs because they want to be.</p>
<p>Or because I make really good pancake breakfasts.</p>
<p>Ah, you're certainly a better mom than me.</p>
<p>Hi Parents/Students! Just returned from St. Mary's College in Maryland. On the St. Mary's thread I listed the stores/restaurants/banks, etc., nearby to the college. Sometimes people get the impression that this college is just not near anything, but many establishments are about 10 miles away. I hope it helps in your search!</p>