<p>We had our annual PTA meeting last week to ask for volunteers for the PTA committee, when the headmaster asked for any volunteers all eyes shot to their feet and started examining their shoes.
This has meant that the 1 lady who showed some interest before the meeting and myself (because I felt sorry for the headmaster) becoming the PTA committee by default. The lack of interest in their kids education is staggering.
The most common comment was I would help but I work, do they think I don’t or the other mums (always mums) in the past didn’t.
Our school has started doing the SATs this year, we are in Germany and are an international school. We did the PSAT this week too for the first time, I was asked by one of the teachers what is PSAT, help!!. He is the teacher I am not.</p>
<p>Other than this my D is thriving in grade 9, she has realised that these are now important years, partly because we have IGCSE exams at the end of grade 10 and the results of these will determine her IB options.</p>
<p>Welshpixie, Just moved back to the states after 4 years in Germany at an International School, not the same as yours (we don’t have IGCSE’s) but I know what you mean about parents not volunteering over there. I ended up being the PTA President for 2 out of 4 years and getting people to volunteer, let alone attend things like sporting events, weird. We had a lot of non American teachers so most did not know about PSAT although our (my old) school did give them and the SAT a few times a year. The majority of the kids went to UK schools after graduation so I ended up helping a lot in the college process for my three older kids who are now in college.</p>
<p>Ellie sorry for the delayed response but I want to tell you the first thing I would do is not let your daughter look at this place if she had that reaction. </p>
<p>My son looked at it a few times and felt like a loser! He is a college freshman and very happy at his school. He didn’t get into his “dream” school-it is, as you already know, very hard to get into the Ivy level schools even if you are a qualified candidate. If she doesn’t have any “hook” like your son did it is even harder-not impossible but highly unlikely. That doesn’t mean she shouldn’t try but I would encourage her not to put all her eggs in one basket.</p>
<p>My daughter is very competitive and obsessed with grades and being “better” than her brother. I find it challenging to keep her from being like this and since it is coming from within-we are not high-pressure parents and certainly have never encouraged her to be so focused on being the “better” one-there really isn’t much we can do but try and reinforce it is wonderful to work hard and do the best you can do but not to be comparing yourself to anyone else-particularly your brother. </p>
<p>I have no idea what schools she will end up applying to but after seeing what he did I don’t think she will try the “elite” route-maybe that’s just me being hopeful? </p>
<p>Freshman year is going pretty well. She has been very busy with her soccer and was pulled up to be a swing player with the varsity which is a pretty big deal in this town. That has done wonders for her adjustment to HS and her confidence. She is making new friends and socially doing very well. She is by nature very shy so this is great. She listened to her big brother when he told her not to waste the first two years of HS being afraid to do anything and shocked everyone when she ran for class president. She didn’t win the vote but she won big time by just running. So many people came up to her after and told her they voted for her she was starting to think the miscounted the votes! She took it well-she was surprised at the kids who were telling her they voted for her-the “popular” kids.</p>
<p>The academics are OK-she is fairly happy with how she is doing-most kids would be very happy but she is just one of those who never will be. It’s too bad really-and now that they can go online and check grades constantly I really do have to keep an eye on her. </p>
<p>Isn’t it fun and interesting how siblings can be so very different?</p>
<p>D2 ,the softball player, took a pop fly to the face this weekend. Broken nose and 17 stitches. We live near by a top children’s hospital that we could take her to. They had a plastic surgeon on staff who stitched her up. Followed up with a plastic surgeon today and she is scheduled for surgery Friday to " mosh the fragments together" Possible reconstruction in a year depending on how she heals.</p>
<p>She is devastated, swim team has just started and she is out from that. No softball for 4 weeks which is basically the fall season. For a kid that is athletic this is torture for her. She will have lots of free time to catch up with all the school work that she is missing.</p>
<p>I feel for her, the kid never gets a break. She was just starting to enjoy her new High school and enjoying meeting a big group of kids on the swim team and now she is out.</p>
<p>Could have been a lot worse, but when you are 14 it is hard to see that.</p>
<p>Oh Gibson I am so sorry to hear this. My daughter got hurt on Saturday in a town rec game and was carried off like she was on a stretcher-she was lucky though and it was nothing more than a bad bruise-it was a terrible collision with the goalie who is much bigger than my daughter.</p>
<p>I know what a blow this is to your girl-there have been times when she has missed months at a time due to a growth condition in her knees and it is hard at first.</p>
<p>Gibson1514 – So sorry to hear about your D’s injury! Sending healing vibes her way. Please keep us posted on how she’s recovering from surgery and catching up on missed work.</p>
<p>Pepper03 – Did your D outgrow her knee condition, or is it on-going?</p>
<p>@Gibson1514-Sorry to hear about the injury. Wishing your D a speedy recovery!</p>
<p>@Pepper-Glad to hear your D is ok.</p>
<p>Cant believe it will be only 6-7 more weeks to go before finals. S is not happy with his H Geometry test grades. He understands the concepts, does homework (even helps others with theirs), goes to tutorials and studies for the tests, but he gets C or low B for the major tests. His teacher thinks that he maybe puts too much pressure on himself and/or does not pace himself well during the test. It is just not fun getting an upset text from him during the day about his test grade and I know I wont have a pleasant evening …</p>
<p>EAO1227 - Thanks for that, I don’t feel so bad now, at least it is not just me.
Gibson1514 - I hope your D is doing better, just tell her she is getting the facelift we all want :)</p>
<p>Gibson, your poor D! That must have been so scary for all of you. I know you say it could be worse, but it could also be so much better (if it never happened). Four weeks is a lifetime at her age and not getting to swim is icing on the cake. About the only upside is anyone at her HS who didn’t know her yet knows her now…maybe she can translate her new visibility to a run for student council or something next year? (Joking).
Just finished our first college application for S12, what a pain in the heinie!</p>
<p>mihcal1 yes for the most part-it kicks in once in a while but nothing like a couple of years ago. Unfortunately she has permanent damage in one knee that happened while she was playing and didn’t tell me she was in pain-bone grew in to compensate for what was going on and she has a lump on that knee that hurts her when she kneels.</p>
<p>When the second knee was diagnosed it was done much quicker because I knew what to look for-and she was shut down immediately by me for months-she couldn’t try out for the MS soccer team two years-1st year because of the left knee, 2nd year because of the right-but she was able to try out in 8th grade-and she was also able to try out for basketball in the 7th grade because I shut her down before the soccer tryouts and got her some PT and much better medical advice on how to deal with the condition-</p>
<p>I only go into this detail because if I had known at first all this info-the first doc wasn’t the most informed-she may have been spared some of the pain she had-who knows.</p>
<p>So sorry to hear the injury Gibson. Hope she gets better!</p>
<p>My D’s life this week: band parade, band parade, band parade, band in a football game, out-of-town parade/competition. </p>
<p>First marking period is almost over - today is the last day. I think she made all As. </p>
<p>Have a question - (sorry for the ignorance- first time HS) When is GPA calculated recorded? For example, if she gets a B at the end of the first marking period, will she still have a chance to get an A for the year?
She did well in AP gov. I’m proud of her. She has worked her butt off, learned a ton. It was a struggle in H.biology though.</p>
<p>My D has a lot of band parade as well because of Halloween. But today’s was called off because of bad weather. @Herandhis, I think a B at midterm can become an A at the end. but I’m not sure. I’ve heard one kid got a C the first quarter last year and pulled it up to a B at the end of the year.</p>
<p>My D is not happy with her Math results, she got 3 A’s and 1 D and has a B- overall. The D was a test when she had a cold and should not really have gone to school. The same happened with biology 3A’s and a D (test was the same day as math), the teacher told her she would disregard the D as it was an anomaly and she understood why the mark was so low.
D still has a chance to bring her marks up as the GPA is not calculated til February.
As for English she has not received one marked piece of work back from the teacher.</p>
<p>Wow…three A’s and one D-that seems pretty clear that she had one bad day-do these teachers have to be so rigid? It’s good at least one teacher will disregard it.</p>
<p>I think GPA’s are calculated by semester-it’s funny that I don’t know this since my sone just graduated last spring.</p>
<p>My daughter isn’t happy with some of her grades-of course if she had anything other than perfect scores she wouldn’t be happy. She has been too busy to study with all the demands of the soccer season-getting pulled up to Varsity has been good and bad-she really has little time to study because they work them so hard and when she gets home she is wiped-but it will be over soon! I am now very happy she declared at the start of school there would be no basketball this winter-she knew better than I how demanding this was and she needed a break. Lots of kids play a school sport every season-I don’t know how they do it-they must not sleep!</p>
<p>Marching band sounds as demanding as her sport!</p>
<p>I think of first semester freshman year as a time to try things out with very little risk. Bad grades this early can be compensated for. Lack of adventure or exploration cannot be. Don’t worry about the grades (easier said than done)!</p>
<p>@Pepper-It is so great that your D is in varsity soccer. Way to go! My S1 was in football for three years in HS. It is tiring for the athletes to study after the practice, but the sports and marching band as well provide a great opportunity for them to learn time management skills, discipline and also to get a mental break from all the studies they have to do. </p>
<p>S2 has French and Math tests, Biology quiz, interview for the Communication App and a DBQ for the World Geography today. Last night he fought with H and me about wanting to stay up for the Rangers game. No matter what I said he would not go to bed until H used his “loud” voice.
Talking about how siblings can be so different! S1 is my quiet, disciplined and studious kid. S2, on the other hand, is a chatty and very strong-willed child.</p>
<p>@sunnydayfun - can I ask how the teacher’s are with both yours sons? My D is like your S1 she is quiet, studious and well behaved, but every report she gets we are told that she must talk more on class and that she is too quiet.
This has come to a head this year in English, her teacher appears to ignore her in favour of the noisy badly behaved kids and also is marking her down, we have just found out he has given her 2 C’s for written work when she hasn’t dropped below A’s in previous years. He has only marked 2 pieces of work in over 8 weeks of school. He has no sense of humour and I know she writes in quite a quirky style, but she has not had this problem before. She is debating whether to speak to him outside of the classroom and to find out whether it is her work or as she suspects it is a personality clash and he just does not like her. ( he never calls her by name only the girl with the English accent).
Any suggestions? I am pleased she is trying to do this on her own as she is shy and doesn’t like to make fuss.</p>
<p>Surgery update:
All went well yesterday. She was a little confused in post op, but no more than was expected. This is her first surgery so she was asking lots of questions… over and over again. She is amazing today. I was expected her to be really groggy and sore, but we even managed some retail therapy today! Now we have to wait and see how she heals. Surgeon said she has a 50/50 chance of needing more surgery, only time will tell.</p>
<p>Welshpixie. Sorry your D is having probs. I think her speaking to the teacher sounds like a good plan. You may want to help her plan on what she is going to say to him.</p>
<p>Herandhismom. In our school district only final grades are recorded on the HS transcript. A low grade on a progress report can be made up before the end of the semester. We are on block schedule so the end of semester grade is the final grade.</p>
She has been too busy to study with all the demands of the soccer season-getting pulled up to Varsity has been good and bad-she really has little time to study because they work them so hard and when she gets home she is wiped-but it will be over soon! I am now very happy she declared at the start of school there would be no basketball this winter-she knew better than I how demanding this was and she needed a break. Lots of kids play a school sport every season-I don’t know how they do it-they must not sleep!</p>