16th is last day of school and they return on Jan 2nd. They take finals when they return (block system).
D '17 has finals starting wed 12-14 till 12-16. Then break continues till 1-3 so 2+ weeks. This year is the first time theyāve finished the semester before winter break. We all think that this change is great.
She does have to trudge through 6 finals in 3 days, but after that a nice break. (On said break, cruel father will be pushing to finish the last few scholarship apps. Cue scene, āPlease father, may I have the whole Christmas day off, if it is not too inconvenient.ā āChristmas day is a poor excuse for a college to pick a manās pocketā)
**Winter Break ** - For us, finals are Tues - Thurs (12/13 - 15). But, then again, the kids have been in school since 8/13. Return 1/3/17ā¦ graduation 5/21/17.
Coming TOO fast for me!
D aced her MV final! That class was the source of much stress this semester, and especially the past few weeks. Thatās also her last final of the semester.
Now, the earlier she gets those last 2 essays done, the more time sheāll have to enjoy winter breakā¦and not stress her poor mother out with her academic angst. 
@IABooks The legislature decided because of the date of the State Fair, nothing to do with what was good for the kids? (Yikesā¦)
I think the issue is the early August start is better for H.S. Students for many reasons, including semester ending before Xmas, giving kids a real break. (And thus better for their emotional health) Plus an earlier starts allows schools to ending shortly after AP tests. (We used to have 6 weeks left of the semester after AP tests were done.) But adults making these decisions often donāt really care about teenagers. On the other hand parents & teachers of younger kids would really like a later start for a number of reasons. I know thatās why it took so long to change in my district.
Iām glad our district move our scheudle to a late August start the way we did. (About two years ago) S17 wouldnāt be able to get the job his hoping to get this summer if we still had the very very late start we used to have. As it is if he gets the job heāll have one day between graduation & the start of training. (not local) Our district finally happened after one really really late year when many many H.S. parents complained that their kids couldnāt take summer school at the local community colleges because they were still taking finals when the semester started. Couldnāt get into various prestigious summer programs because of the dates etcā¦
Finals here are 12/20 - 12/22, and school starts again on 1/10. Seniors who opt out of finals are done on the 19th, and have a full three weeks, which is the longest break theyāve done in years!
Music: DD loooves Billy Joel, even wrote about it a bit in her essays. She also has bought of few of his record albums - you know, those old physical sheets of vinyl - even though, ummm, we donāt actually own a record player.
As I mentioned before, sheās a special snowflakeā¦ :-/ :-/ :x
^^ Maybe she wants to make one from scratch!
Google DIY record player. Hilarious.
Kohlās has a $50 player. :D/
@thshadow I loved Billy Joel in the 80s. Those classic videos with Christie Brinkley. I even saw his Broadway show called Movin Out. Iām truly showing the dorky side of my personality here. B-)
@itsgettingreal17 Big congrats on her acing her MV final. Yay!! <:-P This was an online MV class, right? DS had one before and it was so stressful. For him, it was the time pressure on the exams that made it stressful. (It was stressful for me too dropping him off at the proctoring place, knowing how stressed he was.)
@jedwards70 I was a big Billy Joel fan in the 80s, too. Iāve probably listened to the whole Glass Houses album a zillion times.
Holidays:
HS break: 12/17 through 1/2, but finals are not until 1/17 to 1/20.
UC break: now through 1/8, finals were last week.
UC winter quarter ends 3/24, so HS and UC spring breaks match up! Yay!
HS graduation is 6/8.
I like the late August start. It seems like a good compromise. The teachers are advocating moving back to a post-Labor Day start, but it will never happen because of inter-district athletic schedules.
Schools here have discovered a loophole that by adding one day to winter and spring breaks, they can delay their deadlines for special needs IEP meetings and evaluations by significantly more than if the breaks were one day shorter.
More details on winter break: I mentioned upthread that break begins on 23 December here; they go back to school on 9 January. Finals are before break. (The school year itself starts late August, and ends late May.)
Progress! D17 has gone back and forth on applying to Alabamaās horribly-named Computer-Based Honors Program* (the deadlineās Thursday), and finally decided this afternoon that yes, she should, and churned out a shockingly good, tightly written essay in three hours. Itās a little bit crazy, it is.
- Seriouslyāāhorribly-namedā is now part of what itās called, at least in my head. Itās not the CBHP, itās the HNCBHP.
The irony of college essays: D17 has realized that the essay she wrote for CBHP can easily be used as the writing supplement for another college with a deadline next month; similarly, the essay she already wrote for one collegeās honors program will work with only minimal tweaking for anotherās. Self-plagiarism is bad, and you can fail a class (or I, as a professor, could lose my job!) for committing it, but the college application process encourages it. Somebody please explain that to me.
@dfbdfb - Self-plagiarism is only bad if you do it with the pretense of presenting it as original work for a specific purpose (e.g., as a requirement for a class). If itās a piece of writing that you are expanding upon or continuing to conduct research on a topic, reusing your own original work is not only fine, itās expected. That is how research papers get turned into journal articles that later get turned into books. Reusing essays is fine - you are using your own words to answer a prompt.
But thatās a textbook example of self-plagiarism! If someone writes an essay for my class, and then the next semester uses the same essay to respond to a similar prompt in another class, thatās self-plagiarism. This isnāt recycling of ideasāthatās fine, of courseāitās recycling of essays wholesale.
No wonder students donāt get that self-plagiarism is against the rules when they arrive at college.
@itsgettingreal17 which online provider did your D use for MV?
@Ynotgo Yes, online. We are very happy that she was able to get into an on campus section of linear algebra next semester. Sheās hoping to get into differential equations instead, and the prof may let her in (full). But at least, no matter what, her next math class will be on campus, which is much better for her. Math has always been easy for her, but she struggled basically teaching herself MV, and it didnāt help that she waited until the last minute for every assignment, quiz and test. The good thing was she never had to go to the proctoring center. They offered in home proctoring. I paid a bit for proctoring software to run on her computer during exams (it basically watches you through the computer camera and locks out all but the exam), and that was much more convenient given her procrastination.
@shuttlebus The class was through our local CC. None of the on campus sections worked with her schedule.
@CT1417 I agree, the second half is so chopped up, itās unfair (we also have 3 days off the first week in Nov for election day and teacherās convention in addition to the holidays). I think @curiositycat333 is right - Itās been nice starting the school year after Labor Day but maybe itās better for them to start earlier - then they could have a real break over xmas and take advantage of so many summer programs starting in June.
@dfbdfb I agree with you about the hncbhp. The kids do, too. Last year there was a massive push to change the name and old CBH grads pushed back against it. (Ds was here and his phone was exploding bc of groupme texts over the issue.) They pushed for a change again this yr. I havenāt asked him about it. Iāll try to remember. Nowadays kids assume it is something for CS majors or online classes. I guess the name made sense once upon a time.
@curiositycat333 I agree with you about an August start being better for all the reasons you mentioned. In addition, an early start gives kids 3-4 weeks more class time before the AP test, since the dates of the AP exams are fixed nationally and are inflexible. We start school a few days after Labor Day, and there just isnāt enough time to cover everything in AP chem by early May, so the kids have to self-teach certain sections.
And I would love midterms to be finished by Christmas break.
@itsgettingreal17 Congrats on the MV final! Iām with you on the last two college essays - I wanted them done each of the past 5 weekends to no avail. āPlease please, get them done before winter break.ā I kind of donāt see that happening anymore and the angst builds.
@thshadow Oh yes, Billy Joel, my D loves him too (she plays piano). The record player was a huge hit - we got one that was in a red case - so easy to pack away and she loves going to the local record shop to pick up old rock or jazz records - she finds it soothing!! Maybe a great gift idea for you, especially since she already has the vinyl!
@Dave_N Hi, Iāve been meaning to tell you that I copied your avatar and sent it to my dad - it describes him perfectly. Perhaps we took a slightly different meaning from it as he loves to go into chat rooms and argue his point. My whole family was cracking up!
@Ynotgo How nice that both spring breaks line up - that seems very lucky. HS Graduation is 6/22 for us. We always get out that late.
DS submitted one application (actually two separate applications to same school) yesterday. Hopefully that will be the last application. Now all the stressful wait for lottery results tomorrow (Tuesday).