Finals were last month here, we have early August to end of May school schedule, which I love. Kiddo did as good as we thought, all As but in two classes: English (sob) and History.
Finals were very stressful for her, and I think it introduced her to tension headaches. One thing she noticed is there were a few kids transferring out of some classes mid-year, which I thought was unusual for non-semester length classes.
Covid is EVERYWHERE. At least 1-2 kids out per class, delay in sports, and sports are returning slowly and with no spectators allowed. I feel really bad for the seniors.
I literally got access to Naviance today. That is a pretty cool tool, but I’m not going to encourage kiddo to use it until she absolutely has to.
Shes debating her sophomore year schedule. I’m letting her drop Spanish. She really needs to learn it (shes Latina) but I think would respond better if immersed in it. She’s in Spanish 3 this year and struggling.
They want her to take accelerated geometry which she isn’t thrilled with. She wants to take AP psychology. She’s looking at Creative Writing as an elective even though her grammar is poor. She’s struggling to find a 1 semester only course sophomores can take that isn’t online and that shes interested in.
Wow, I went to college in a place where 1st semester exams are after the New year and I never really liked it as it make it hard to relax during the break. I’m sure your kids are used to it though and have the weeks after to review and prep for exams.
It’s nice that the teachers are forgoing the exams. It’s such a crazy time. We are trying to hunker down especially as we have forecast for bad weather this weekend and my D25 is not happy she will miss serving in church. Oh well!!
DS’s semester ended in December before the break. He ended up rallying on his final exams (he’s a much better test taker than a homework turner-inner), so he ended with all As and a B+ in one class. New semester is off to a better start than I expected. We’re in the south in a state where masks weren’t required for most of fall semester, but the school (thankfully!) is requiring masks again. No idea how many kids are out, but things are progressing as if nothing is going on. It’s been good from a routine standpoint, but I worry about COVID spread. Hoping the kids stay safe and healthy.
Our stress right now is DS’s extracurricular schedule. This was a kid who was involved in almost nothing in middle school, as he’s not remotely athletic. This summer he decided to take up the clarinet and has managed to practice his way into honors band this semester. He also joined the skeet team at school and has applied for the “scholars program” which he may or may not make. I don’t know how he’ll juggle it all, but I hope he can find a good balance. I’m excited that he’s joining some things though. He’s a quirky kid, and I really want him to find his tribe in school.
DD25 had the option of accelerated geometry and other than a rigor bump (I assume), it doesn’t provide any GPA benefit at our school. We know a kid that dropped from accelerated geo to regular geo at the break because accelerated was just more material faster and she was struggling. Do you know what the accelerated offers? Is your daughter strong at math?
My daughter wants to take AP psych, too. When do kids normally take it, is 10th too early?
Our GCs lock in core courses based off teacher recommendations. Her dad (my ex) is already pushing for her to do Spanish 4 so I feel she may keep with acc. Geometry to keep the peace with her dad. I’m going to talk with her about it more. She isn’t looking to do a math focused career so not sure issue the benefit of accelerated except rigor for college apps.
Many do intro psych sophomore year then ap psych junior year. Shes really interested in it so I think she would be okay with the work.
Just checking in here. Semester ended well, she’s pretty happy with her grades, as am I. We are on a semester block schedule, so all new classes that started early this month. She likes her Ceramics class but she is slow (just like her sister was in the same class) so struggling to get projects completed on time. Unlike her dad, she struggles with the concept of “it’s good enough, move on.” Honors English and Algebra 2 seems fine, Honors Algebra is moving at a quick pace but she is handling it so far. Physical Science is a bit of a struggle for some reason, and it shouldn’t be based on her past performance and that of my other kids in that class. She blames the prep she got in middle school, they changed the curriculum after 6th grade and she said the rigor dropped significantly. I suspect the actual problem is the teacher, I am friends with a teacher for that class who was being diplomatic talking around some concerns with the teacher my daughter has (a first year teacher). So I’m going to try to get more info from her, then talk to him, both because he is the senior teacher for that class to let him know, and more importantly see if he has some ideas for her to self teach the class a bit.
Journalism should be an easy A this semester, but she is not a fan of the teacher. The teacher claims to be neutral, but wants them to use unbiased sources like Drudge Report instead of liberal ones like CNN. m’kay. They have talked about how the media overblows January 6 and underplays concerns about the legitimacy of the election. Oy vey. My SJW daughter is not impressed. It may be an issue, because the reason she is in this class is that it is a prerequesite for either yearbook or student paper, both of which are overseen by this teacher. She isn’t sure if she can spend 3 1/2 years in daily contact with this teacher, and have her editing (or censoring) her work. The school does have a good multimedia program, and that teacher stays out of picking sides in politics (I know his opinions but I suspect most people don’t because he doesn’t make a big deal of it). That focuses mostly on sports though, and D has a bit of a speech impediment so isn’t super excited that the program frequently involves stepping in front of the camera. She may talk to the teacher and ask about that though. She also needs to talk to some kids on yearbook, and find out if the politics is an issue. I suspect it is for the newspaper but not the yearbook.
She wants to get a job instead of going out for tennis in the spring. I have mixed feelings about that, but if she follows through on getting a job I will probably go along with it.
Teachers can really make or break it with my kids too.
As for the SJW, the residents of our town seem to keep voting in these religious right wing candidates to the school board. There is an election coming up and 2 of the candidates platforms are “no CRT” yet they admit there is no CRT in our current curriculum and they have offered zero examples of how this may even be a concern. I am no SJW really myself but as the parent of a non white kid, it annoys me that our highly ranked school district could be taken over by people who have such narrow viewpoints. Sadly, I am not allowed to vote as I don’t live in the school district my kids attend.
My daughter has had some issues with teachers but I think her problems this year are more related to adjusting to high school and all it offers. She wants to try everything at the expense of academics. One of the biggest lessons she’s learning is how to choose what to focus on.
In fall she did marching band and tennis. Our band is a full time sport level of commitment and adding a new sport like tennis really wore her out. In winter she joined swim team which she has some experience with but band continued throughout December between football state championship and Christmas parades/programs. Now in January she is participating in 3 music ensembles. She loves it but her swim coach isn’t happy that a few of his swimmers missed a meet for one of the rehearsals. Next year she isn’t doing swim or tennis and I’m glad. She really looked at what brought her the most joy and music won out. Her grades aren’t great, holding onto a couple B’s and a C in the important classes but she’s grown so much!
She is kind of like my oldest, and a lot like my sisters. I think she and most of her teachers either love or hate each other, not a lot of in-between. Although she has gotten pretty good at playing along, so I think that a couple of teachers she dislikes don’t know it. This one probably does though, because D has been pretty vocal in class discussions.
It’s actually been good for her, because she is finally listening to me about bias and reliability in news, and who to follow. I guess it took someone on the other side for her to see how that works in practice. And she is free to still read some liberal sources, I certainly do. But I also know when I am reading Huffington Post or Daily Beast that it isn’t BBC or Reuters, so I have to factor that in and maybe do a bit of doublechecking of the “facts”, just like I would with Drudge or Fox. It is a good life lesson for her, in news and everything else the speaker or writer probably has an agenda, which doesn’t make them wrong but is something you need to be aware of.
CRT issues here too. Not that there are any real issues, at all, but we have the strawman argument. We also have a bit of censoring going on at the school libraries. I told my wife last night that I wanted us to donate the 2 books that were removed from the school library to the public library. We will see where that goes, she is less of a boat rocker than I am.
We’re just three weeks into the semester, and DS has a 75 in Honors Bio. He moved to a new section with a new teacher who he can’t stand. He’s always been a kid who performs best for teachers he likes and doesn’t put in much effort with those who are condescending or unsupportive. After the fifth time he said the teacher was an “ahole” when probed about his grades I told him that this will not be the last time he’s in this situation. He will have professors he can’t stand and someday a boss he can’t stand. But he will still have to do the work to his highest ability. He seemed to get it and made a plan to put in more hours studying the course. It’s hard to watch from the outside, but I know the kids grow so much from these experiences.
Kumihama-Cho, I feel this so much. My daughter has had some awful teaching especially in math the last 4 years and it really set her up to expect it to always be a struggle. I’ve tried explaining the bigger picture of real life dealing with people like this but there’s such a power imbalance between teachers and students vs bosses and everyone else. She hasn’t started math yet because we’re not done with the second quarter yet but it’s coming in a couple weeks. Her teachers now are half the most awesome teachers ever and half meh but I’ll take that over the math teacher last year threatening to withhold all algebra notes because nobody was calling out answers fast enough through zoom or whatever it was. I hope it gets better in science for your student!
MistySteel, it just breaks my heart hearing about kids with bad teachers. (Or at least teachers who are a bad fit for them) My son is great at math but had an algebra teacher in 8th grade who truly seemed to dislike him. We had to get him an outside tutor because he was so turned off by the teacher. This year he has a stellar geometry teacher, and he’s back to exceling in math. I hope that this upcoming semester is better for your daughter!
Ok. I would actually really enjoy some feedback on something I’m currently wrestling with and figured this group might be a great place to help me come to a decision. My S25 has never been super studious but he’s sharp and remembers information pretty easily and quickly and that afforded him mostly A’s up until freshman year of high school. That includes honors classes in 7th and 8th in a few classes where offered. He has adhd/add combined type so he does have to put in more work than his peers to get those grades, but the effort he put forth was not really intense at all.
He gets down on himself over grades he doesn’t like and finds great joy when he gets A’s on work. His peer group is highly driven and the all honor straight A crowd. He is currently taking the only two honors classes available to freshman and doing just fine, but in one class he really has to work for it, but he resents it. He wants to level down in one class next year and I’m totally supportive of that, its science and that will never be a part of anything he would want in the future. I made a pact with him after watching his older sister D21 wither away due to stress of getting straight A’s for four years (her choice-which she now regrets) that as a family we have decided to prioritize well being and happiness.
He causes me internal turmoil because he’s very bright with an amazing inquisitive mind and his teachers have always told me from an early age that his class discussions add so much value to the classroom. He’s a self taught guitar player and the recordings he sends me blow my mind. I’m just trying to illustrate what makes him special and how much potential I see in him.
He’s just 14 and has no idea what he wants in life except he doesn’t want a 9-5 desk job. Totally normal and I get it. I don’t see him doing that either. I can’t wait to see what life has in store for him. It’s exciting. His older sister knew from a very early age what she wanted so it’s been a learning curve for me with his journey. For the record I don’t expect teenagers to know what they want to do. That doesn’t cause me to loose any sleep.
So, this is finals week. I found out today he is one point away from an A in math. The teacher told the students this week she’s hosting an optional test next week for any student who wants to try and improve their grade. She won’t lower the grade if they do poorly, she will only raise the grade if they earn it on the test. My struggle is I’m pretty sure he will be happy with the grade he got on his final exam (A) and be totally find with with the 89 (B) for the semester. I’ve already promised him that we are going to stay in his lane and no one else’s but I also feel like there is a lesson here in taking advantage of a supportive teacher offer one more way to boost your grade. Like, he won’t have anything to loose except maybe one more night of review and sitting for a pretty short test. It’s about taking advantage of an opportunity, giving your all and then saying I tried my best. I don’t want to crush his soul but I truly believe he can get the A and then when he sees his first high school GPA in his portal he will be so proud of himself as I’ve seen in the past.
Would your force your teen to take the optional test, or let them make the decision and move on?
I also want to add I’m pretty upset with how much I’m letting this eat at me today. This one math grade in the grand scheme of thing means absolutely nothing! No matter what happens he won’t have straight A’s this semester, so that is not what I am trying to push on him.
Tough call. I’d really try to get him to see it for what it is, minimal effort for possibly a big improvement. But getting a 14-15 year old to “get” things can be an exercise in futility at times.
I do think pushing him on this is different than what you went through with your daughter though. Because you aren’t asking him to grind out a couple classes for 4 years, or even one class for one semester, it’s literally one test, for HS I’m guessing that is less than 10 hours of work. Asking him to suck it up and do that is very different than asking him to do 3 hours a night of homework for a class where he may be in over his head, or at least getting pushed more than he is comfortable with.
I’m not much for “making” my kids do things, although sometimes it comes to that. I try really hard to get them to see why I think they should do something, and either (a) agree, or less preferably but still acceptable (b) they realize that they need to just do it to shut me up, listening to me drone on is more painful than studying for the test (or whatever we are disagreeing about).
Good luck. The only reason kids survive this age is because we love them. They are not always reasonable or fun to have around. And they make HORRIBLE roommates.
It must be more work than I realize to bring a handful of spoons back into the kitchen. I would think navigating all of the dirty dishes and utensils on her floor would be more difficult than carrying them into the kitchen, on one of the many trips she is making there every night anyway.
But what do I know. I’m 50 and out of touch. Respectfully. (which is the word she adds anytime she has a very not respectful comment)
I will admit, when our D23 was in a similar spot freshman year, we leaned on her hard to do the extra credit that brought her (I can’t even remember which class) grade up from a B to an A. For her, though, it wasn’t the academic argument that swayed her, it was the financial argument—she’s known for years that she’s going to have to chase Big Merit Aid™ in applying to college, and we pointed out that banking a low-effort A would help with that.
I’m not saying that that’s the direction you should take with your kid, of course—what I’m saying is that it’s going to take figuring out what motivates your kid. For my D17, for example, a financial argument would never have helped, but she had always wanted a SLAC experience since she was young, and so pointing out the usefulness of good grades for getting into a good SLAC was what we had to use.
I don’t know what the best motivation for your kid is, but I hope you find it.
One thing she noticed is there were a few kids transferring out of some classes mid-year, which I thought was unusual for non-semester length classes.
