<p>Not only are sports not a class here, but D who plays 2 sports and has after school conditioning all year round also has to take PE as a class! I was surprised that band was a class here also; it was not when I was in school. It seems like having all those EC’s as a class would not allow time for academic subjects though - do classes like debate, student council, etc, meet every day? </p>
<p>Our schedule allows for 7 classes at a time, with science labs and PE taking up the 8th period. D is taking 5 AP’s, one honors class, PE, and a study hall. We’re still working on next year’s schedule.</p>
<p>Sports are a class here. In California 2 years of PE are required. But the sports count as PE. That being said, even though they start their sport at about 1:30pm or 2pm, they still don’t get out until 5pm (later for football). We used to have 6 periods (with ASB & Journalism offered “0” period), but we switched to “block” scheduling (basically you go to half of your classes each day) a couple years ago which is 8 periods, but if you are in a sport periods 7 & 8 are your sport since they don’t want you to miss class for games (which depending on the sport, can be at 3pm). My son takes APUSH, AP Bio, AP English, Spanish 3, Trig/pre-calc, Journalism and then his sport (either cross country or tennis) during the regular class periods, and then Production Drama meets at night 2-5 days a week.</p>
<p>D13 is at an IB diploma only school so the extra-curricular activities (CAS, involving service, arts and physical activity choices) are integrated into the school day and are considered almost equally important to the academics. Schools where you can do the IB diploma don’t always work this way. In a lot of them the CAS is an extra burden so I appreciate UWC’s attitude. S14 doesn’t have sport as a class but we did arrange for him to do community service during a class period (ie. peer tutoring) because I recognized how important community service is for scholarships etc. He does so many extracurricular activities that it would have been impossible to get in the hours if he didn’t do it during school hours.</p>
<p>I met with D’s guidance counselor on Wed., now that she is officially a JR. she has a different counselor. I know the new counselor already which is nice but the 10th grade counselor and I had a very good relationship, I am not sure if it will be the same with the 11th grade counselor. We discussed D’s current schedule which is crazy, 3 classes at the HS, 3 DE and 2 online and her GC said she will check in with D regularly to see how she is doing. We then discussed her Sr. schedule, it is hard because the only classes she has to take are English and Gov’t, but here is what we have come up with so far:</p>
<p>D is taking English 101 this summer so she will have the same number of core classes as a traditional Sr. when she applies to EA school.</p>
<p>For next year:</p>
<p>Fall Spring
German II HS German II HS
AP American Gov HS ?
English 102 DE Pre Calc/Trig DE
Chem 1 DE Bio DE
ASL I DE ASL II DE
Photography or Socio DE Photog II or ? DE</p>
<p>I am not sure it is very rigorous but after this year it is well deserved.</p>
<p>Our school is like mamabear1234’s… sports are definitely NOT a class and PE is required (all four years), and band/choir/drama are all classes also. I truly wish that we could use our PE requirement as sports practice/games. Many, many days my kids will go to school at 7:30 and not return from just a normal day until 6:00. Practices run a solid 2:30-3:00 hours every night. Being able to get practices started an hour earlier would make things so much more bearable! Those nights of away games you can count on not being home until midnight or later, which is not a lot of fun when you’re taking adavanced classes. But, making it a class definitely won’t be an option around here, as they’re not forward thinkers unfortunately.</p>
<p>Currently we have a block schedule (4 classes for 1:45 hours each day approx.) and I personally have liked it. That being said, our school is changing layout and we will be going to an 8 period day with much shorter classes next year. I totally understand that for the kids that have trouble focusing/sitting still or the ones who lose a lot of time to band/choir don’t like this system as well. It’s been great for D13 and S15 as they can take advanced classes and get a lot of credits in and have quality learning from their teachers.</p>
<p>Anxious to schedule next year’s classes for D13 with this new system so I can see what is available and when… S15 will just go with the flow… Amazing how different they are!</p>
<p>Continuing the discussion of scheduling, etc: Our district has 7 periods of 50 minutes each. Every class meets every day. So, yes, student council meets every day! They do community service projects, plan school dances, meet with administrative staff, etc. My D’s friend was on the council and liked that she got an “off campus” pass to drive to meet with dance vendors, the superintendent, etc. </p>
<p>The district does allow “zero” hour and “8th” hour classes for kids who want to squeeze in more. This year S2 is taking English in zero hour so that he can take a 2 period directing class. </p>
<p>The school day runs typically from 9am to 4:10pm, unless you have a zero hour or 8th hour. When D1 played sports (girls’ soccer) she started practice during 7th hour and was usually done by 5:30. Same with foster son’s football schedule. During the offseason, they do weight training or run during that period.</p>
<p>ACT scores~ DD did not request to send her scores to any schools when she registered for the 2/11 ACT, and we did opt out of sending them to the high school. They include all ACT tests on the test card that they send, and since this will be DD’s first ACT test we have no idea what she will score. </p>
<p>Shedules~DD’s school is also on a block schedule, so 8 classes. They are required to take two semesters of PE and one of health. Her schedule does include band and theater. Sports are not counted for credit here, and I had never heard of that. But, it would be nice as my 8th grader is a runner and during cross-country and track seasons has two hours of practice afterschool. Not much time or energy left after that for everything else. I talked to DD about math, she said she thinks AP Stats sounds better than HN Pre-Calc. She will have a heavy load next year. </p>
<p>HN Spanish(only 4th year Spanish offered)
AP Stats(probably)
AP Lit
Physics
Gov’t(can take AP, but might not)
Forensics or Debate
Band
Theater</p>
<p>Evidently, because our high school doesn’t require 4yrs of anything, some seniors only go to school part time to get the credits needed to graduate. I anticipate that many of DD’s classes will be very small.</p>
<p>Sports are not considered a class here either although band and chorus are along with JROTC. There’s a mandatory 1 year P.E. class for everyone with another 1 semester class that can be waived by participation in a school sanctioned sport, band, JROTC or IB.</p>
<p>6 classes are standard here; you have to have permission from the administration to waive the study hall and take a 7th class. </p>
<p>Mom24boys: seniors have to have a 1 semester economics class and a 1 semester government class (which they usually take senior year) and both have an AP option. It’s counted under the Social Studies dept. so econ isn’t counted as a math.</p>
<p>midwestmom: through this year, the graduation requirements were less so kids would stop math, science, language early. The only class you had to take all 4 years was English. For 2013 it’s 4 years of math in HS (so not including the MS classes for HS credit) 3 lab sciences, 4 English, etc. A lot less wiggle room :(</p>
<p>Texas is 4 years each of math (includes Alg I in 8th grade), lab science, social studies and English. S2 took Alg I in 8th grade and Econ/Government at the community college during the summer - so only Science and English for him next year!! (And surprisingly he will graduate with a distinguished scholar diploma!!)</p>
<p>For science, S2 is trying to decide between AP Environmental Science or Forensic Science (part of the law magnet program but open to all students). I think he’s waiting to see what his friends choose. He’s kind of a herd animal.</p>
<p>And I’m pushing him to take AP English Lit. D1 loved the teacher and I think S2 will as well.</p>
<p>Yeah, I guess it would be a shock to many CC parents if they had to put their kids in our Texas urban public - it’s definitely not “college prep.” But the kids who want a good education can get it. We usually have one or two kids accepted to Ivies every year (mostly URMs) and we also have a strong track record for the US Service academies (Air Force and Navy). But most of our graduates go to community college or smaller state schools. The top 8% get automatic acceptance to University of Texas or Texas A&M. Honestly, there’s just not a lot of “college” talk here - that’s why I like CC.</p>
<p>RobD~ I went back and checked our grad requirements, and they do have to have 4 years of english and 3.5 of social studies, so all seniors will be taking an english and gov’t course next year. </p>
<p>megpmom~ The TX requirements exceed the KS requirements! We usually have one student every few years go to a service academy, and two years ago when a student went to an Ivy League school it made our town paper. The requirements into the state schools are not that high, and most kids that attend college from the school go one of the large state schools(which are good). DD has only one friend that even wants to attend school out of state. I often wonder how DD and her school will look during the app. process compared to schools with more of a college prep emphasis, but it is what it is and I think she has taken a pretty solid college prep curriculum.</p>
<p>Wow! I don’t pay attention for a day or two and the thread lights up. Really good stuff going on here. So…</p>
<p>SAT Score Reporting - S’13 took the SATs in December and had 5 days (I think) to decide whether to send them and where. So he decided to send them when he finished and felt really good about them. He’s taking them again in a week and I figure he’ll make the same decision after he’s done. I suppose this time it matters less since he can have them report only the top scores from each section (right?). I didn’t even know you had a choice whether the scores went to the HS or not. The HS does report PSAT scores (Junior year only) and top SAT scores by section as part of the transcript (along with weighted and unweighted GPA and class rank).</p>
<p>HS Schedule - I never heard of sports as a class. It’s all before or after school around here. It makes spring semester very busy during tennis season. English and math are required all 4 years of HS, even if you take a HS class in Middle School. So, since S’13 took Algebra in 7th grade and so on, he’ll be taking AP Stat next year since that’s all that is left for him. There is also an econ requirement, so he’ll take AP micro/macro next year. The HS (a pretty large urban public - nearly 600 in the 2013 graduating class) is very college focused and as such offers many honors and AP courses. They also have ECs in mind and offer many opportunities for community service as well. So the attitude is to encourage as much as you think you can handle. GCs do ask if you are sure when signing up for a heavy load and you need teacher recs to move on to the harder APs, but parents need to be aware of the load and help their kids manage. S’13 is taking a heavy load this year (5 APs plus French 4 and phil/socio) and he’s doing very well. So when he decided it would be 7 APs next year, we asked if he was sure and agreed when he said he was. Time will tell I guess, but he’s organized and responsible, so I trust he can do it. After all, he’ll be making these decisions the following year for himself.</p>
<p>Not quite, dad2 - SAT score choice means you can choose to send only the scores from a certain date, not the highest from each section from different test dates. You can pick which SAT II scores to send individually though.</p>
<p>My bad. Guess I misunderstood. So, is it the college that does the superscoring then? They see all that you have done and then promise to only consider the best scores?</p>
<p>Yep. Most say they superscore, some want to see all scores and some will let you choose which scores to send. Some superscore the ACT by section; some don’t. Some consider the SAT writing section, some don’t. There are a lot of variations!</p>
<p>^ Most don’t superscore the ACT because the ACT charges for score reports in a different way. With the SAT, you pay a single fee for a score report that includes as many or as few test dates as you want reported. With the ACT, you pay a separate fee for each test date that’s reported. Superscoring the ACT would put lower-income kids at a severe disadvantage because many couldn’t afford to purchase multiple score reports. Consequently, only a only handful of schools superscore the ACT. Many, but not all, superscore the SAT.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that in a way it’s to the school’s advantage to superscore the kids they admit and enroll. It gives them higher entering class stats, which boosts their US News rankings. So it’s in their self-interest to interpret your kid’s scores in the most favorable light.</p>
<p>Congratulations! I can relate. At one of my son’s last soccer games ever (because he changed sports), the other team’s parents were yelling for our unconscious goalkeeper to get up and play, accusing him of stalling for time, as we waited anxiously for the ambulance to come and take him to the ER for treatment for a concussion.</p>
<p>I read this on the HS Class of 2012 tonight:</p>
<p>Raise child - check. Nag child to apply to college - check. Fret that he won’t be accepted anywhere - check. Rejoice that he is accepted - check. Realize that wait-a-minute-he’s-going-to-go-away-to-college and cry - check. </p>
<p>How true! A friend of mine asked me what I was going to do when DD actually leaves for college. She said that she will plan to take a week off of work to be there for me :)</p>