Parents of the HS Class of 2016 (Part 1)

<p>D is taking SAT Math 2 on Saturday. Does anyone know how much time after score is out we have to kill the score if we are not happy with it? </p>

<p>Petrichor as a teacher and a parent I hate when teachers demand something be due on a certain date and then take forever to grade it. I have a policy where if I give a test or we do classwork, all grades are in the grade book and emailed home by the end of class. Parents love getting updated so quickly. This is harder to do for English teachers, or reports, but everyone else it should not be a problem. I also hate when teachers leave a bunch of work to be graded until after the semester is over, because if my kid does bad there is no way to bring the grade up. It is like sudden death in a sport. </p>

<p>That being said, if your kid is out of the running for val/sal, have you thought about having them take classes at a CC instead of AP classes? Think about it, if they go to a CC and pass a class, it automatically transfers to a 4 year. AP and IB do not. Also, AP and IB are really tough classes in high school, and they may not be as hard at a CC. Plus, once your kid transfers to a 4 year they will register sooner than the freshmen who took AP classes.</p>

<p>@seal16 – My understanding is that you have until the Weds after the test is taken to cancel an SAT score. You certainly can’t cancel a score after the score is out. You can choose to not send the score to the schools to which your daughter is applying, although there is a list of schools that demands that ALL scores be sent to them.</p>

<p>What about AP exam scores? Are you sending them before you see results, waiting to see results or know the schools your S/D are interested in do not care to see them?</p>

<p>my S is taking the Chem subject test tomorrow too. studying
haven’t seen much. But, that does not mean he isn’t. It just means he does not want me to see
???</p>

<p>Finals are over at this house, now we wait to see the grades. We do not have online grade book,so its the old fashion way.
Grades will be posted sometime next
week.<br>
Good luck to those who are taking SAT subject test and the SAT tomorrow. </p>

<p>@Mysonsdad - how in the world do you grade the same day (let alone the same period)?? Do you give a lot of multiple choice tests or something?</p>

<p>I’m a teacher (and I would have said, speedy grader) and parent too, and that would be way beyond any expectations of mine.</p>

<p>I don’t really like the online portal as a parent or a teacher, because it’s way too much and leads to “issues”. For example, my DS16 appeared with an average “A-” in Biology though I was pretty sure he had been doing 95%+. Well, it turns out that the new quarter only had two homeworks entered so far (4/5 and 5/5) which made a 90%. I’d rather go back to strictly quarter/semester grades “the old fashioned way” from both ends of the picture.</p>

<p>I absolutely would never want to go back to the “old way.” I love the online portal and having the ability to know what the kids’ grades are the minute they are put into the computer. Each of my kids also have their own login so they can check on the grades themselves (and they do). </p>

<p>I have mixed feelings about the portal. I find that it’s helpful for me with S16; but with D’14
she freaked out each time there was a blip downwards
and it made our whole house crazy
</p>

<p>I like portal. It helps a lot to see the progress and to plan intervention when needed. I am glad I do not have to rely on my teenager to make sure she is doing the best she can. If it was not for portal she would have one B when she told me she has it under control after a B on 5 weeks report, then 10 weeks and then 15. </p>

<p>I like the portal because our school is predominately paperless. Very little graded work comes home for me to see in hard copy. It also makes it clear if there are missing assignments, extra credit opportunities, etc. while those things can still be addressed. </p>

<p>Fretfulmom I don’t want to get into a debate about teaching styles but here goes. I give quizzes weekly in my class. They are fill in quizzes usually timed, 15-20 questions long with one word or very short answers. The kids get 10 minutes to study at the beginning of class. They then get 10-12 minutes to take the quiz, I then collect them and we grade them in class. After we collect them, the students give them back to who they belong to so they can see their grade and ask questions about what they got wrong and debate with me about why their answer should be right. After that I collect them I then put notes up on my projector for kids to copy while I put the grades in the computer (takes about 5 minutes). I then hit the “email scores” button and the scores are emailed home. I then have the students names changed into their student id number and project the quiz score (so the kids will know I put in the right score, I have made mistakes before) and their overall grade. This way the kids know their score and grade right away, and the parents can’t say I don’t communicate with them. So far it has worked great and I have had lots of positive feedback. For chapter tests in use a scantron, sometimes I am able to have two students who I really trust and who don’t really know each other to grade them and those are put in during a passing period or by the end of the day at the latest. </p>

<p>At my school I don’t have any special ed kids who require more time on the quizzes so that is not an issue. I do have some kids who are slow test takers so I allow them to go to another teacher’s room if the need more time. The reason I time my quizzes is because I don’t want those kids who take 40 minutes on a 15 question quiz hoping the answer will magically come to them if they just think about it long enough. I tell them they need to study and that they “either know it or they don’t.” After a few quizzes most everyone starts getting done on time. </p>

<p>Btw, like I said, English teachers obviously can’t grade all their assignments in one period. I taught 11th and 12th graders</p>

<p>Is anyone’s kid taking the SAT today? My son is taking 2 subject tests. I told him the SAT gives him an idea of what college is like because no one tells you to study, and your grade relies on a test, so if he does poorly it will be a reflection of how he would have handled a semester in college. He told me last night that what I have been telling him finally clicked, and although he studied, he could have done a lot more.</p>

<p>I’m a fan of Portal because my D is on an IEP, and one of the concerns has been executive functioning. Over the last few years, it’s been helpful to be able to say “Mrs S hasn’t recorded X or Y, does she have them?” so that either D can take the responsibility of checking with Mrs S to be sure it’s just a lag, and no worries, or that Y is still in her backpack from 3 days ago. We’ve been playing with workarounds and this year we very rarely had to resort to that-- so I feel pretty confident that by the time she’s at uni, she’ll not need the “may turn work in late” accommodation. She and S have a few of the same teachers, so I know that one or two teachers lag in recording grades (one because she has a lot of big classes and assigns a ton of work, the other because
well, because).</p>

<p>Mysonsdad, even though he’s out of val/sal range, S is still looking at schools out of state (and a few in Canada). APs will transfer easily to a lot of them (admittedly not all), but cc credits don’t always. So we’re looking at that part of the picture, He’ll still end up at the cc his senior year because even the online classes run out after awhile, but I’m trying to avoid all the schedule conflicts (and there historically have been tons for the band kids, ROTC, and athletes) for as long as possible.</p>

<p>Goog luck to all SAT takers today.</p>

<p>Interesting article about being the valedictorian, from the Boston Globe:
<a href=“The trouble with high school valedictorian awards - The Boston Globe”>The trouble with high school valedictorian awards - The Boston Globe;

<p>Just dropped my son off so he could take the SAT Chem Subject Test. He’s pretty well-prepared, and is usually calm around standardized testing. However, on the drive in he told me that he slept really poorly last night, and got up out of bed at 2 a.m. to look up the difference between ammonia and ammonium, adding that this is something he should have known. . . He took the SAT’s in middle school as part of the Johns Hopkins program, but this is the first standardized test that he’s taken that actually matters. Part of the rites of passage, and he might as well start getting used to it.</p>

<p>@krnBoston – Thanks for the link. I’m of the opinion that this valedictorian stuff is totally ridiculous, and for kids to compete based on their GPA out to the hundredths place is totally silly. All these kids are trying to get good grades, but getting into a competition like this rewards OCD behavior more than anything else. I have a son graduating this year, and on the ‘Class of 2016’ thread some of the val/sal discussions have made me crazy, but I’ve held my tongue. My S16 is a very high performer, but fortunately his high school doesn’t do a val/sal coronation, although even if it did I don’t think he’d buy in.</p>

<p>Asleep, on your post about val/sal discussions, did you mean to post “Class of 16?” Or did you mean 'Class of 14?" </p>

<p>My son is actually going for Valedictorian, but it is something he wants. If I had my way he would skip the AP classes, go to the local CC and knock off a year or two of college before going to a four year. As a high school teacher, what I dislike is how one year the Val is just a standout kid but has no real competition, then the next year there are like 4 kids killing each other for it etc
 </p>

<p>On another note, I have seen some schools where everyone above a certain GPA is a Valedictorian.</p>

<p>I remember with my D I would be happy if she just attended school and got C’s. She got into drinking and drugs in her early teens and run-ins with the police, and that was even more stressful. Now she is in her 4th year of CC and is nowhere near done, so having been on both sides of the fence, I’ll take my son’s situation over what I went through with my daughter. Although she is maturing, I just hope she finishes growing up soon. </p>

<p>I hope none of this sounds rude, that is not my intention. </p>

<p>@Mysonsdad – Thanks for the correction. Yes, I did mean ‘Class of 2014’. </p>

<p>Not rude at all. Similarly, I don’t intend to demean any kid/family where the val/sal thing is important. I do admire ANY kid who’s been able to sustain a strong consistent academic effort and performance throughout high school, but that achievement is not limited to the val/sal’s. I simply hate to see kids (and parents) make themselves crazy over this, but as the craziness is not a necessary (or sufficient) criteria to getting it done I don’t think that every kid who is a val/sal carries an OCD diagnosis. Congrats to your son. The val piece may not mean much going forward, but the qualities that got him there, i.e., the IQ, discipline, and work effort necessary to graduate #1, will undoubtedly serve him well in the future. What a great kid he must be.</p>

<p>When I got married, my wife had two little girls from a prior marriage whom we raised together. Both girls had their trials, and even in their early 20’s I would not have made book on their getting themselves squared away. All along our friends and family reassured us that ultimately they’d be more like us than we’d ever imagine. They’re now 36 and 33 y.o., and are wonderful adults – hard-working, great parents, and are in touch with their mother (my wife) by text or Facebook every day. I know not all stories have fairy-tale endings, but your daughter’s story has a lot of chapters left. </p>