<p>My junior is still waiting at the bus stop in the morning! She won’t have her license for a few months, and there will be no guarantee that she can get a parking permit at that point. She was lugging her sports gear too as there is a game tonight. She called me after school before the bus left for the game, said she was nominated for an honors science program, which I am afraid will conflict with forensics as both are on Saturdays during the late fall and winter. With her fall and spring sports, forensics is her only other EC, so she will have to see if she can manage both or choose one.</p>
<p>D13 doesn’t start school until Friday so we visited big state u yesterday…she liked it…alot! Love thy safety…</p>
<p>Day 3 of the new school year and so far so good. He is taking journalism, AP English, APUSH, AP Bio, Trig, Spanish 3, Cross Country and production drama. Production Drama is a couple evenings a week (and more right before a production), but they also have a class during the day. Tuesday they announced if you are not in the class you can’t try out for the plays, so it looked like he would have to decide between journalism and production drama. But, he talked to the teacher yesterday and she and the student leaders are going to discuss it again and decide by Friday. I am secretly hoping that he can’t do both (and chooses Journalism) because I think he has too much on his plate.</p>
<p>Thank you for your nice words geogirl1, blueshoe, and fineartsmajor mom.</p>
<p>The first week is almost over and I’m a bit nervous as there has been no hw except for french (which my d does during lunch since she hasn’t met anyone yet). It’s like she’s gained another day. She was going 100mph, traveling 50m a day and getting home 6-7pm getting hw in every subject (at least 4-5 hrs a night); and now she gets home at 2 with no hw. The APUSH teacher put all the hw for the year online and so she is doing that to keep herself busy. I guess I should appreciate the down time, but I’m afraid she won’t be prepared for the AP and SAT II tests in May. I read the stats and it said 87% of the kids score a 3 or better in APUSH and AP Lang and only 27-50 kids took it last year. Not good. Do your kids get a lot of hw? </p>
<p>Is anyone’s child using Invent America and For the Record for APUSH? </p>
<p>Also, gym (sigh). They only have it 2 days a week and it is coed, GRADED and called “gym games” with 50 kids (boys and girls, definitely not used to that!) in it. No organized sport (you have to try out for varsity and my d always did dance at her school, since she’s not an athlete - although she tried track last semester and was good at discus throwing due to her fluidity). The gym teachers threatened to fail them if they miss class.</p>
<p>Which brings me to a really sore point - if you are out sick or have a planned absence, you are only allowed 5 days. After that, you get .2 point deducted from your credits for each day missed after that…could that really be possible? Is it legal? What if you are really sick or have an important event (my d was planning to work the winter olympics and had been approved at her other school since it was considered part of her global scholars program, and they had many kids doing overseas programs). All she had to do was keep up with the hw and take her mid-terms a week ahead of everyone. </p>
<p>I’m afraid to ask for the time off here, but I don’t want my d to miss this oppty since it correlates with her plan for college. </p>
<p>Also, she was scheduled for APES and AP Bio, but since they couldn’t arrange her schedule here to fit it in without changing everything around, they told her to keep physics (despite the fact that it does not pertain to her interests or needs). If she does badly in this physics course (which she might very well since math is not her forte), she might be disqualified from going on to the either of the other two. </p>
<p>I do believe we may be in a bit of a bind here…</p>
<p>Meda…don’t panic. Let the dust settle on the first TWO weeks of school and then have D (make sure it is D not you) talk to her counselor about her plans for missing school and how this can be arranged without the attendance issues. Or even wait longer. Once your D has an established reputation as a solid and dependable student, you will be surprised how rules are flexible for the good, self-representing student. </p>
<p>At least in our school, there is a strong preference that students bring their issues to staff and faculty first and parents only get involved if the issue can’t be resolved at t his first attempt. For example, my D wanted to change English classes and was shy to ask the counselor. She thought that I should use my influence at the school (earned by being a consistent PTA volunteer). I told her to try to change it herself and it was surprisingly easy and gave my D a lot more confidence to approach her counselor in the future. I didn’t have to email or call teacher and I am saving my mental free pass in case there is a real issue which D can’t resolve on her own. When I see counselor around school, I will thank her for taking the time to help D but that is the extent of my intervention. Counselors love kids that speak for themselves. </p>
<p>We have an even tougher attendance rule (on paper). More than 5 days absent, automatic fail for the semester, even if planned/vacation absences. For illness, automatic I for 5 days out and material must be made up–S had mono junior year and missed 3 weeks entirely one quarter so that dragged into the summer. However, if a student misses school for an activity that the school deems as school related and arranges for approval to do work on their own then there is a special code so they don’t actually “miss” school. There is no work to make up because student does it ahead of time or submits online during absence. We took kids out of school for an extra week one winter and both were told to do extra school work before the trip, submit a plan of action and we got the nod before the trip. </p>
<p>Oh…frankly, an 87% pass rate in a public school is a very good AP pass rate. Remember, most schools encourage students to take at least one AP and there is less “filtering” than at private schools (who filter, precisely, so that their students get 100% pass rates). Also, APUSH is known as a relatively tough test compared to world and european. I would be thrilled and surprised if we had such a high pass rate. </p>
<p>Last…coed gym classes…well, again, our experience is that it is a great way for girls and guys to “play” in ways that they haven’t since they were itty bitty and started to hate each otehr in middle school. There is a tendency for the games to be pretty gender neutral (frisbee, golf, badminton, cycling). Also, in our school they divided up kids in basketball and touch football by height so my tiny HS sophomore boy (he grew late) was playing football with almost all girls. He was happy to not risk life and limb with the big guys (and gals) and became a particular favorite amongst the pe staff for coachng a PE team of muslim girls (the Scarves) who didn’t want to play a physical sport with boys; S did insist that they create their own touchdown wiggles and dances and do chest bumps…essential part of US football culture.</p>
<p>In my experiences, public schools really do take absences seriously - more seriously than privates because their state funding is based on attendance. If your child is not in school, the school loses money. That being said, our public does have special allowances for extended illnesses and surgery (they send a tutor to your home or hospital). When my D was chosen to go to India for a month for a peace camp, we were advised just to withdraw her from the school and re-enroll when she returned. Since it is a public school, they couldn’t deny her readmit. We just said she was “homeschooled” during her month long absence. Of course, other states don’t have as liberal homeschool policy as TX (basically you just have to say you’re doing it - no documentation required.)</p>
<p>Agree that the absences in public school are taken seriously mostly due to funding issues. We know a few kids in the music industry who transferred to private schools when they’d be touring or filming & then re-enroll in public school during the down time. As for sick days, usually a note from the doctor will take care of that being an excused absence. Frankly, neither of my D’s would take a sick day when they were in HS unless they were running a fever, having intestinal symptoms or the dr. had put them on an antibiotic and they weren’t past the 24 hour mark yet. Too much work to miss. </p>
<p>We’ve found that the first week is pretty quiet. The teachers have a lot of basic paperwork to take care of and don’t forget there’s a lot of flux in the school population that private schools don’t generally have to deal with. I’d expect that the work will pick up a little next week. So happy that your D will have some downtime! That will really help with her recovery 
And the book our APUSH class is using is the AMSCO one.</p>
<p>Gym. Yuck Always coed here too and always graded. If you don’t change, you get a zero for the day and you usually get 3 “exempt” days that you can use without penalty. Don’t know how it works by you, but they also have written tests that cover what they’re doing in gym combined with their health curriculum. If they didn’t have the specter of failure hanging over them, most kids wouldn’t get changed or participate, so I can’t blame the teachers for that.</p>
<p>Agree with the absences and slow start in publics. Although I know there is some flexibility because we have kids doing all kinds of incredible things (surfing, gymnastics, snowboarding, tennis, acting, etc…) that are given a lot of flexibility. If she doesn’t want to take gym are there any sports she would like to try? Our school is small, and very few teams cut, especially golf, cross country, track, swim, etc… AND another alternative to PE at our school is to be a stat girl (or guy) for various teams. Is that an option?</p>
<p>Reading with interest the attendance policies. Every 1% increase in school attendance represent millions of dollars for our school district, so it’s trying to come up with ways to bring it up. Taking .2 per day? Automatic fail? Ouch. That would work at ds’s school, but I could see in some schools it would create even bigger problems.</p>
<p>Speaking of absences, ds2 missed two days this week as he went with me to take ds1 back to his school. We toured that school and another nearby LAC. He loved his brother’s school but doesn’t want to follow him AGAIN. I can understand that but am secretly hoping he’ll change his mind as it’s a great place. I really wanted him to like the other LAC as it would be more a match/safety. Really bummed he didn’t love it. Oh well. The good news is he’s not as behind as feared for missing two days. He’ll have quite a bit of homework tonight but stayed on top of what he knew about while we were gone, doing some in the hotel. Yea!</p>
<p>Non-coed gym never occurred to me. Our gym always has been coed.</p>
<p>Agree that an 87% pass rate is excellent. Ds’s school’s pass rate is in the 80s, but the state avg is in the 40s. Some schools pay kids to take the AP as incentive. Really drags down the overall rate.</p>
<p>This weekend is his first cross-country meet.</p>
<p>Re PE: S2 took dance class and stage combat to satisfy his PE requirement!</p>
<p>Wow, our school has no options like dance to substitute for gym. Even kids who play 2 and 3 sports still have to take gym, and if they miss gym because they have an away game, they have to make it up. School is good about absences though, but my kids don’t miss much. They can have several excused absences per year for college visits, and I have pulled them out to travel to weddings, etc with no problem.</p>
<p>oh yes…absences for college visits…they count it as school related (keeps the funding) as long as approved before the visit and they are sometimes asked to write a quick overview for other students in the college advising office. Good point …meda you should keep a list of potential ways to work the public school attendance systems…</p>
<p>I agree Publics get off to a slow start. Not much HW here. It will hit hard in the next week or so. Frankly, the pass rate you listed for APUSH is fine. You need to concern yourself with your D not the whole class. IMO kids who are getting the 4s and 5s are getting them because of self study, not the teacher. This is a good way to introduce the concept of independent work. </p>
<p>As far as co=ed gym, my kids have never known anything else. Coed gym and Coed swim. Grading from my experience is based on particpation and attitude. If you are whiney and unprepared expect a lower grade. If you are polite and participate in the games you will see an A. This is nothing to even miss a breath over. </p>
<p>Absences. We havnt had an issue even when D missed quite a bit of school due to head injury.</p>
<p>Homework troubles are already popping up around here. My son was supposed to watch the President’s address to Congress last night and answer some questions about it. He thought the address started at 8. It started at 7. Already an incomplete only 3 days into the school year? (picture red face with steam coming from ears)</p>
<p>ree, everything gets posted on YouTube. Next time, make sure he looks there for the speech. Or just Google it and get the text. [Read</a> Obama’s Speech to Congress Sept. 8, 2011](<a href=“http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2012-election/read-obamas-speech-congress-sept-8-2011]Read”>http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2012-election/read-obamas-speech-congress-sept-8-2011)</p>
<p>Thanks YDS. I just texted him that info. Hopefully his American history class is after lunch so he’ll have time to work on it. </p>
<p>I hope his phone is on.</p>
<p>Re. Attendance, our local high school has a new policy this year that you have to get a signed note if you take your kid out of school for an appointment. Just learned that today when I picked up my son for an “orthodontist appointment” when I really planned to have him spend the afternoon studying for tomorrow’s ACT. He missed his tutoring job and his independent study. Now I’m trying to decide whether to sign the note myself and admit why I took him out or beg his orthodontist for a note. UGH!</p>
<p>Oh no Apollo! I do that too - I’m taking D out for an hour for her drivers test and calling it a doctor appointment. That would mess up our system. Usually the school just wants a signed note on file to satisfy state requirements, hope ours hasn’t changed.</p>
<p>Dawned on me today that I have been a “high school” parent for a decade this year. My oh my. Things have changed and the schools feel much more strict…more rules, more notes to parents, more hoops to jump through. 3 had to get a car sticker this year, I laughed my head off, that beater has been parked in plain view of the principal’s office for 7 or 8 years. A sticker, really? S1 graduated college, S2 in college and now S3 on the downside of high school. The year started off with a bang and a bunch of homework. 3 already dropped physics for chem when he walked into class and the kids were all seniors. I’m OK with that. He still has a tough year with his AP classes. We had done some college look sees with 1 and 2 their junior year and I asked 3 last night if there were any schools he might want to see and he replied “I need to start thinking about that.” OK that’s all good, start thinking about it 3. 1 and 2 went over 1,000 miles away in either direction…3 just might stick close to home which is fine with me. He likes engineering so we couldn’t be in a better spot in the country for that as far as colleges go…I’m definitely more mellow than 2005 when I joined these forums. </p>
<p>I tend to agree about the self study on the AP exams. 2 used AP study guides toward the end of the year and scored a point higher on them than 1 and my kids are pretty even academically and have mirrored each other through the years. The teachers don’t always cover thoroughly what is needed for the exams so review from a different perspective I think was helpful. 3 has APUSH and AP Econ this year and is “saving” the tough APs for senior year. 1 and 2 pushed sophomore and junior year and “slid” senior year and their GPA took alittle hit, 3 is all about GPA and wants to go into the college app cycle with the best GPA he can muster. It’s one of the differences I see with a third who has watched 2 older siblings go through the HS to college process.</p>
<p>Our public teachers tend to start out with lots of homework for first 3 weeks & then slow down after Labor Day. The progress reports come out at 4 weeks.Our absence policy gets stricter every year but they do make exceptions for prearranged absences. My daughter is a singer who travels & most of her friends who are singers have resorted to home school. We are constantly negotiating with the school but it always seems to work out. Plus the public school has show choir & several theatrical productions that she would not have in home school.</p>