Parents of the HS class of 2010 - Original

<p>Does your school have to have a membership to use naviance?</p>

<p>A school has to pay for naviance.</p>

<p>jackief - that's great that your D took the practice PSAT. I wish my D would. She took a practice SAT as part of the course she was taking, and they tested them in CR and Math, not writing, and D did very well. I think that there's a practice PSAT on the collegeboard website, but not positive. </p>

<p>D's school does not have membership to naviance as far as I know, but they do plot out a naviance-type chart showing the same information. Not sure what program they use.</p>

<p>Do you have to take the PSaT. It seems that if you won't qualify for NMS that you can just take the SaT. Won't it be possible for our kids to just send in their highest scores?</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure the PSAT is optional, but why not take the chance? Plus, it's like practice for the SAT (without the essay, of course).</p>

<p>No PSAT on collegeboard :( , only the answers to the questions to the practice test they give out with the PSAT application.</p>

<p>I was just working on lesson plans (I teach sophomores and juniors), and thought I would post something I include in the first week here in case anyone finds it helpful, and this thread seemed like a good place to put it.</p>

<p>I show my 10th-11th graders the entire Common Ap and give them each a copy of the teacher recommendation form/checklist. I first assure them that I won't be reading it, then I ask them to pretend they are a teacher and fill out the recommendaton form about themselves as honestly as they can. Most of them take it seriously. Then I give them an envelope to put it in, seal, and label with name, and collect the envelopes. I give them back near the end of the first semester. Students have told me that they found it really helpful to know that early what teachers whom they might ask to write recommendations would be evaluating, and the mid-year reminder was a useful self-correction for some of them. I could actually see a few who were getting a bit lazy make a conscious change in their effort.</p>

<p>Renee, you are a genius! Great idea.</p>

<p>Renee, what a great idea. Thanks for your input. I have a feeling there are a great number of students who would benefit from trying this.</p>

<p>QMom...sounds like my son. AP Eng Lang assignments are to read 4 books, annotating three passages each and collect 6 asrticles to read and annotate (I don't even know what "annotate" requires; hope he does). Bought all the books first of July, before family Cape Cod vacation. Gentle reminders all July and into August. S finally started reading books last week, and I've seen maybe two articles cut out of mags/newspaper. This morning he's playing Magic online...schools starts on the 28th. Exam promised first week of school. We'll see...</p>

<p>We're packing today. Organizing all the clothes, accessories, electronics, books, and supplies for our D's 6 month AFS adventure in Maugeuge, FR. Tomorrow is her last day at home. When she returns in Febuary she'll be playing catch-up with APs, SATs and college research.</p>

<p>archiemom - I'm sure your S will get his work done - it sounds like he's making an attempt, at any rate. My D's AP Lang assignment involved a bit less reading - only 2 books and a writing assignment. No articles to annotate. She completed her writing assignment this morning and is now doing her reading for APUSH. Not sure if she has a writing assignment for that, but last summer, she had a huge amount of work for AP Euro, and she said this is nothing compared to the Euro work, so that's good for her.</p>

<p>Maximus - Good luck getting your D ready for her trip to France. That's a long semester abroad, isn't it? Don't most second semesters start by Feb. 1st?</p>

<p>We're going to be leaving on our college tour on Wed. Wish us luck - it should be an adventure.</p>

<p>Good luck to all of you. My oldest is part of high school class of 2010.</p>

<p>Wow, tokenadult - all this time, I thought you had an older one who had been through the process. Good luck to you too.</p>

<p>One more week until school. Boy, this summer flew by FAST.</p>

<p>D(age 9) will be in camp next week, giving my older one more time to finish her summer work (they hang out together a lot).</p>

<p>That's so nice, Queen's Mom. My kids don't spend much time together at all, although they are very close.</p>

<p>Similarly, since S1 leaves for college Wednesday morn, hopefully S2 w will spend more time on that AP summer work and getting prepared for school in the next week. We have allowed him to set his own bedtime this summer, and subsequently has stayed up until 1-2am most mornings with older bro. Now its time to readjust that schedule. But (for being 3 years apart) they are close and its always difficult for S2 when S1 leaves.</p>

<p>Yes, adjusting that bedtime is going to be difficult. D's school starts at 7:30 in the morning. This summer, she's been getting to be after midnight and she just can't physically do that during the school year. I see a lot of posts on this board about kids staying up all night studying and I just don't get it. If D does not get enough sleep (at least 8 hours) she gets weepy and is pretty useless for anything the next day.</p>

<p>School year bedtime is 10:30pm. S2 recognizes that he needs the 7 hours of sleep (school begins at 7:20am; I drive him as its on my way to work, but we leave the house promptly at 6:50am). Not yet had the need to stay up late studying/homework and hope to keep it that way. Even during spring sports season, he knows to schedule carefully and use free periods during the day. It'll be harder this year -- just got his final schedule yesterday: no lunch and only free period is the first one of the day.</p>

<p>We don't get the final schedule until the first day of school. D knows what she is taking but not when. I hope she does not have any real classes 1st period when she is still groggy. She had SAT prep last semester 1st period and could basically sleep through the class and still get an A. Maybe this year, she'll be lucky again and get something like her required tech credit first thing.</p>

<p>D doesn't stay up late for homework/tests/studying. If she's not done by 10 pm (IIRC this never happened), it will just not get done. D has no free periods at all at school, but she is home by 2:30 so there is plenty of time for everything if video games are not involved ;)</p>

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just got his final schedule yesterday: no lunch and only free period is the first one of the day.

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<p>No lunch? Wow. I don't think that's possible at S's school. Will he be allowed to eat something in class?</p>