Wow, no idea about those type of programs. The WPI one is not nearly that competitive, think it should be fun and give the kids an experience in an engineering field that may be new to them (at least to my musician kid!)
Good luck to him with other programs, hope he finds one he enjoys.
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We have soccer state cup games here so thatâs kept us busy and Iâve started traveling more with a new assignment after 2.5 years of no travel. Second trip in, two coworkers I was with tested positive for COVID. I have no symptoms and will keep testing thru Sunday to make sure Iâm really negative. Wearing masks while at home, which is as annoying as when hubby had COVID and we all masked up while he was in isolation.
Some good news. D24 had taken her AP Chem final the week after winter break and finally got the teacher to grade the final (itâs now April, peeps). She ended up with 89.9%, so A-! Miracles.
D24 is wrapping up the last two UCDavis health academy mentoring sessions. She said she hopes to continue to mentor the future academies. She started her UC Davis Adolescent & Young Adults research advisory board job. I guess it is a job since itâs a paid thing. They meet throughout the year on research-related issues. This last one was around marketing messaging and communications and what works with A&YA. This was natural to her since sheâs a GenZ, herself, and well, itâs momâs work specialty :). But she earned enough to pay for a year of Spotify so sheâs happy. I think this weekend she is going to apply for our local city agency for a volunteer job this summer. I think any youth work that isnât paid is a travesty and I wished they would move away from that. Even min wage would work.
Driving on freeways this weekend as part of driverâs ed.
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I totally agree about stipends and grants too. My S21 is a first year drama student and is applying for NYC based âinternships.â The ones that pay anything pay a tiny stipend that barely covers their expenses, even if you can live at home. I thought we would be past this by now.
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same boat here, S24 is not doing that great with Spanish and I told him that I hope he learned his lesson: put in the effort, you may get something in return; no effort, definitely no return!
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We just wrapped up third quarter - S24 is on pace to finish his first two years of HS with a UW 4.0. He is waiting to hear what classes he got for next year - although he signed up for 4 APs (most you can take at our HS) we wonât know what he got until closer to year end. He will have a lot of summer work, so between that, volunteering and our trip to Italy he will be busy. In other news, S22 is deciding on colleges now - he is doing admitted student events at the schools he got into. Hopefully, we will have a decision soon. He went TO but was still pretty successful - 4 admits, 2 WL and 2 rejections. Iâve learned that applying early is key!
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Italy sounds so fun!! Which part of Italy?
What colleges does your s22 have on the decision menu?
We will be going to Marche. Weâve got some friends that live there. In terms of schools he is picking between UMASS Amherst, UConn, Syracuse and American.
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D24âs honors chemistry teacher practically gave me a heart attack today. Got an email from school counselor earlier today to notify us that D24 has a 53% in chemistry, with instructions on how to schedule a parent-teacher conference if youâd like.
What. The. Heck.
I am SO. DONE. with this particular teacher. ALL of the other teachers are great except for this one.
So I scheduled a parent-teacher conference. Then I emailed the counselor back and asked her to please not fwd the email to the chem teacher. Said in the email that @ the end of Trimester 2, D24 had an 84% in the class and at least as of a couple of weeks ago, we thought she had a high C or low B in the class, so what happened? Also asked if this teacher will be teaching the class next year if, by some reason, D24 had to repeat the class.
Well, guess what? Chem teacher goofed and hadnât entered a bunch of grades into the online gradebook, which feeds into the system that the counselor uses when determining which parents to send the âOh poop, your kid is failing a classâ emails to. Before the most recent unit exam, D24 had an 84% in the class. And the ENTIRE class is getting an opportunity to totally retake the recent unit examâŠbecause they ALL did terribly on it.
Thatâs how itâs gone all year longâŠteacher presents a topic ONE time, gives them a worksheet to do, then thereâs a test or quiz on itâŠ99% of the students perform terribly on the test or quiz, teacher then teaches the material again only using a different teaching method, then they can do rework on the test or quiz to bring up the grade.
Earth to the chem teacher: If most of your class is failing the test or quiz the 1st time around the entire time, then they do not understand it based on how youâre teaching the stuff.
D24 has complained all year about how this teacher is rude, passive-aggressive and plays favorites with 2 students in the class. Itâs bad enough that NONE of the 10th graders in Honors Chem this year are taking AP Chem next year (which is pretty unusual, normally at their school, if you take honors science 1 year, you take the AP version the following year).
I also told the counselor that this teacher is THE reason why D24 is opting to not take AP Chem next year. This instructor taught college before working at D24âs schoolâŠum, theyâre good students at this school, but theyâre not college students.
GOOD GRIEF! Itâs been so frustrating today. Itâs like âOh, your kid is failing a class.â Then 2 hours later, âOh wait, psych! Never mind.â I was thinking, in the meantime, what is going on that my kid isnât telling me? Is she really failing the class? Is she not understanding the material? Has she not been turning in assignments? But how can THAT be when Iâve SEEN the graded stuff that sheâs received back?
Oh. My. Goodness. I have a few more gray hairs today.
I wonder how many other Honors Chem parents today got emails like that.
Yikes!
That stinks! Sorry you had to go through that. It seems like good chemistry teachers are in short supply.
Time flies. 6 more weeks and 10th grade will be done. Glad D24 did well in her AP Chem final. We have finals in May. So few more weeks.
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Argh. The ongoing angst caused by honors/AP Chem. Daughter said they rushed thru the last chapter. Rushing thru this chapter. And they have one more unit to go. The AP exam is 5/2. I told her to try her best but focus on AP World. I told her to take Chem again in college.
Also, anyone has the scoops on USC and Columbia faking their ranking info? I heard it in passing on the radio news but canât find if anything was written on it.
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For USC it is the Rossier School of Education. USC investigating its education school for inaccuracies in submissions to U.S. News & World Report rankings | EdSource
This LA Times article is behind a paywall if you donât subscribe. USC pulls education school out of annual rankings due to 'history of inaccuracies' in data
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My S is taking AP world and our school does it in a crazy way that there is no class but they take asian and african history in 9 and european in 10. So he now is trying to figure out how to study for the test with just 2 after school classes to review in the two weeks before the test. I hope the Barrons book is good! This is going to be rough month with daily rehersals for our school musical and final practicing for a major audition. This has not been a relaxing spring break!
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AP World is a complete joke at my kidsâ school. As far as I can tell, they waste class time on all kinds of silly projects/discussions and then somehow expect them to pass the test. This is my second kid going through the class and once again I am not impressed. D22 got a 3 on the test (every other AP has been a 5 or 4). Donât have high expectations for D24.
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Our school ditched AP World History entirely the year before last when the College Board changed the AP curriculum for the class.
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In college prep news, D24 & I attended an online info session this evening in which 4 schools presented quick overviews:
- Austin College (TX)
- Pomona College (CA)
- Univ of Washington
- Cornell College (IA)
We only took notes on the Austin College presentation. You could type in questions during the session. Pomona College is way out of our price range. So is Univ. of WA, and Cornell College is a no go because of its âone course at a timeâ format.
Hereâs what we jotted down about Austin College. Just sharing here in case anybody else is curious. I didnât know about this place until coming here to CC.
- in Sherman, TX just north of Dallas
- 1282 students. Only undergrads
- 51% students of color
- about 15 students is average class size
- school has team e-sports
- 88% live on campus all 4 yr
- merit scholarships up to $33,000/yr
- known in TX for doing a good job to prepare pre-health students for health sciences grad schools (90% of students applying to such grad schools get in, according to what they said)
- lots of clubs, but every college says that
- talked about lots of integrated learning opportunities, âlearning by doing,â internships, undergrad research, study abroad (but all LACs talk about that)
- choir open to all majors, not just music (this is a factor for D24)
- instead of submitting test scores, you can do an interview & submit a junior HS year English or History graded essay as a writing sample. Has to show the grade from your teacher on the writing sample.
- pre-health students often shadow local doctors or do clinical rotations at 1 or both of the 2 hospitals in town. Also, several study abroad programs available where pre-health students get experience working in clinical settings outside the US. This is an item of interest to D24.
- school has âJan term.â Where you take 1 class during the month of January. Variety of options available, usually are in special interest subjects that the professors pick. Includes study abroad for month of January for just the 1 class. Other options include a month-long service project that you get college credit for and other variety of classesâŠincluding random stuff like a class all about coffee. Lots of social activities on campus during âJan termâ put on by the school. Admissions person described it as an opportunity to âtake a brain breakâ and explore something you didnât know was possible or something youâre interested in.
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We are majorly regretting this in our house. It seemed like a good idea in a kid who has an A+ in honors history (one of about 3 or 4 kids in his grade) but this is unneeded stress for no reason. May cancel the test. I had no idea it was so different from the class curriculum.
I would go ahead and take the test as thereâs nothing to lose. If your child gets a low score, you donât need to report it in college apps. However, if they happen to do well, it will be a nice addition to the college apps and may get your child some credit at their future college. Despite the lack of prep for my D22, some kids did manage to get 4s and 5s and I know some of them did not prep on their own.
He will, my S21 didnt take this one, we shall see what happens! Thanks!!