<p>The advisor is like a homeroom teacher, not a college counselor. Our school has a system where a teacher is an advisor for a group of kids for two grades. She was D2’s advisor in 9th grade, and she is again their advisor in 10th grade. But next year she will start with another 9th grade class again. I am not surprised she is not up with college board testing. This is our second child at that school, so I guess I have bit of a reputation.:)</p>
<p>This year my son’s public hs underwent massive budget cuts and staffing changes. We now have a new BRACE (college) counselor…yes, just one college guidance counselor for the entire school os 3261 kids! We also were assigned new guidance counselors (regular). Each guidance counselor has half the alphabet of one grade (so roughly 425 kids). This guidance counselor does not loop with the grade. We will get a new guidance counselor every year because “each guidance counselor can then focus on the particular issues of that specific grade”. Great, now NO GC will ever know get to know the kids. </p>
<p>My two older daughters graduated from a small private school where they had one college GC assigned for every 50 kids for four years! </p>
<p>How can a GC write college recommendations for students that they do not know?
ARGGHH.</p>
<p>Seiclan - Congrats on your son’s induction!</p>
<p>That stinks about the Guidance situation. When our kids apply to college I think the playing field is going to be so different from today. Budget cuts to athletics, EC, music, drama, etc. will add to the difficulty too.</p>
<p>It will all come back to the parents!</p>
<p>When my older son (sophmore) was going through the college process, I had the advisor- as above more like a homeroom teacher- write his guidance counselor part by calling the school and requesting it. He had talked to the counselor twice in the two years she had been there and I don’t think he would have known him from a hole in the wall. The administrator agreed to let the advisor do it, but he said the guidance counselor spot is not thought of with great weight if they sound like they don’t know the kid. the two teacher rec’s the kids get hold much more weight.
They’ve switched our counselor assignments around a lot- one year they thought it would be good if one did all the college stuff and she was so overwhelmed keeping up with those kids and writing all of the rec’s. We’re back to assigned by alphabet.</p>
<p>Bumping up this thread because I posted something on the Parent forum version of this thread that really belongs here. </p>
<p>Here is the post:</p>
<p>Well, I just noticed that we have only 13 school days left before the end of the first quarter of my son’s sophomore year. Being here on CC has been both therapeutic and toxic for me. My son has the ambition and intensity of the top CC kids but he really dosen’t have the drive or discipline to match (just read some of my previous posts). The result is a very stressful rollar coaster ride (for me). I am too tuned into my youngest child’s karma. I am working on trying to not internalize his ups and downs and to “separate with love” but it is tough when he routinely misestimates how long it will take him to do an assignment, prep for a test or write a paper…then stays up most of the night to complete the task. He does not yet have the …maturity(?) to balance his intense workload but yet, he says that he is happy. We had a discussion (actually I ambushed him in the car when he was a captive audience…you know 15 yr. old boys) I told him that his way of doing things as I just described is not healthy and that my concerns as a parent are that he be happy, healthy and well adjusted. I don’t care about the grades (he cares about them enough for the entire family). I only care that he does he best. He claims that he is happy and is enjoying the intense workload. He did agree that he needs to manage his weekend time better and anticipate the coming weeks workload so that he can minimize the late night studying. He agreed to curtail the xbox time. </p>
<p>When I peruse these CC threads, I try to stay in the cafe type threads. At this point I don’t know what colleges are going to be a good fit for my son…he is such a work in progress. Good fit will be very key in his case. I am hoping that he is truely learning how manage himself now, in high school and that he is learning what he really wants for himself so that he can next year make a college list of schools that he will be successful at (both academically and socially). My proposed college list for him changes every two weeks!</p>
<p>So I guess what I was bringing up was along the lines of “love the kid on the couch…” but, how do we know who that kid really is or could be? Just because our kids could be disinterested in the college search process now or over (or under) interested in academics or just going through normal adolescent growing pains doesn’t mean that the next two years won’t bring about tremendous changes. Both my college age daughters really fundamentally changed between sophomore and senior years of high school. I am guessing that my son will too. I guess that I get very focused on the “getting into college” process because I have just gone through it twice and it comes up so fast on you. I just don’t want to waste efforts and energies on the pursuit of white rabbits. I am not sure what kind of student my child really is yet.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing Seiclan. It is so interesting and informative to hear from someone who has been through this before. As a parent going through it for the first time, I thought it would be hardest without the advantage of experience and a sense of the time horizon, yet you (and Oldfort and some others) show the unique challenges of having the experience already. </p>
<p>If you’d asked me last year, I would have thought the child I have now is the child I will have later (ie. I thought I could imagine how she’d be in say senior year). This year, however, I see so much change on the school and maturity front that I realize the child I have now may very well be quite unlike the child I will have in another year or two. I really don’t recognize her. Talk about moving target.</p>
<p>seiclan and starbright - boy, are we on the same page. only because I just went through it with D1 am I even thinking about college for D2, and she is most definitely a moving target. she too was my “easier” child, but she is changing and growing in front of my eyes. mostly positive change and growth, but I can see some challenges on the horizon. I have absolutely no idea what schools she will thinking about in two years so we really don’t talk about it at all. except for this exchange the other night, while watching So You Think You Can Dance auditions in New Orleans:</p>
<p>me: when we start visiting colleges, let’s go see some in some fun, warm places, like Tulane in NO. wouldn’t that be fun? (we live in the Midwest)
D2: I don’t want to go to school in a warm climate - that’s wimpy.
me: huh?!</p>
<p>I’m dropping the subject… for now.</p>
<p>Speaking of sophomore year issues…how are the driving lessons going for everyone? Although I have been down this literal road before, I dread driving with my son (who has had his permit for 6 1/2 months now). I don’t know if it is because I am older or that he is my baby or that he is a teen male but despite his growing competence, I am so tense in the car with him. They drive very young here in Florida. He is not a reckless kid but he is still a young teen boy. He has probably had about 30 hours behind the wheel so far but I am telling you, there is no substitute for experience or age and we both are not yet ready for March (his birthday month to come around).</p>
<p>D2 went out with H for her 2nd lesson driving D1’s Mini Cooper (a stick). She got confused with which pedal to step on, she stepped on gas, turned the wheel just a little bit too far to the right. The car ended up on top of a very high, sharp edged curb. It caused close to $3000 damage. D1 was yelling at her about destroying her car. D2 told her not to worry because she’ll get it back in a better shape. We just got the car back 2 days ago. Did I mention that D2 is a bit high strung?</p>
<p>Wow, she is learning to drive stick? I didn’t learn stick until I was 23 years old and even then, I was not smooth. Hills scared the begeezus out of me. Three K in damage is a lot. Guess I am not getting a new car this year. I don’t want to share a new car with a new driver. Thinking I will wait another year.</p>
<p>Yikes, oldfort! Not sure who I feel sorrier for, your D2 for accidently damaging her sister’s car, D1 for the damage to her car, or you for being in the middle (and presumably footing the bill :()</p>
<p>D1 went off to college without learning to drive (not as uncommom as you might think - there was a thread on this a while back), but D2 has her permit and is eager to learn. Turns out I am a VERY nervous passenger, so our deal is H will teach her, but in MY car. I assume by the time she is ready for a car of her own, she will inherit mine and I will get a new one ;)</p>
<p>seiclan, my dad insisted I learn on a stick. I hated it then, but am so glad now to have the ability, even though we don’t currently have a standard transmission car.</p>
<p>Our D can not wait another second, but fortunately (or unfortunately, depending upon how one looks at it), it a) won’t be until next year, and b) lessons will be with paid professionals (the norm here). </p>
<p>I was getting excited about giving up all the chauffeuring but then realized, with our system of graduated licensing, she won’t actually be able to take herself anywhere by car until she’s at least 17.</p>
<p>I learned on an automatic then a few years later moved to a stick (which I found took just a few hours to get the hang of by then, once all my other driving skills were second nature). I can’t imagine having had the brain capacity to absorb driving, rules of the road AND a stick and clutch at the same time.</p>
<p>Starting drivers ed in a couple of weeks. She wants to get the permit the first day she is eligible which is beginning of Dec. She will have 6 in the car lessons with a professional as required by law. But practice will be with the parents. Been through this before and I am not looking forward to it.
Does anyone else have Edline? D’s school started this year. It is an online grade book. A email is generated to the parent each time anything is posted by the teacher including all test grades, homework, projects and absences and tardies. Most teachers post once a week. It is a great way to stay on top of things. It is also great for those students who aren’t fond of hw to realize how much HW can help your grade or hurt it. Same with run day in PE.</p>
<p>My son has already had 6 hours behind the wheel driving with a profess. instructor…that was my prerequisite before I would allow him to practice in my car.</p>
<p>Our school has something called Pinnacle, which is the same thing as Edline (except that we don’t get email updates). We have a code/password and this brings up all our DS’s class grades as of that point. It is a mixed blessing. Good if you need to keep on top of a student, but bad if you have an OCD tendency to hover. This system is the food trough of the helicopter moms. I do check it but try not to let my son know that I am looking. He is grade driven enough without his having to stress that I am hovering.</p>
<p>I love Edline. Great way to be sure correct grades are recorded, and get errors fixed ASAP. DD had a teacher who kept giving her F’s (failure to complete homework). DD had completed the work, it was in the class room as a good example–not in the instructor’s stack for grade input. Edline made it possible for DD to see what was going on and get it fixed. I think it happened 5-6 times during the year. Right now, the English teacher needs to fix a grade. I have no idea if grade recording errors are generally this common, but Edline makes it easier to spot.</p>
<p>Edline also has a combined calendar feature–gives DD a good overview of homework/quizzes/tests—but not all of her teachers use the homework feature. Some link to an outside webiste.</p>
<p>Interesting about Edline! Sounds great!! We don’t have any such thing. I think I would love it…but then probably just as well it’s not available to me or I would get too into it and it would be a new source of involvement for me (when I’m trying so hard to be less so). </p>
<p>Fixing errors is great, though statistically speaking, errors wash out in the big scheme of things (some to one’s advantage, some to one’s disadvantage). And I’ll be honest here, I’d probably struggle with the ethics of not pointing out errors to my child’s disadvantage, but at the same time be reluctant to do so (pathetic and immature as that sounds). So all in all, I’d rather not know.</p>
<p>Though I have a new question: do your kids have their homework graded? Ours do not. They grade exams, labs, projects and written assignments but the day to day homework is left up to the kids (maybe I’m mincing words but what I mean by day to day is stuff like, say, problems 1-10 in math, make notes on chapter 3 of your history text, finish the review sheet in science). The idea being it is just what you should do to get the best education and grades later on when it comes to assignments, projects, exams, but its not part of the course grade per se.</p>
<p>Mom2M- In almost every class there have been errors. Several times I was already to come down hard and she tells me it is a mistake. Usually in a few days it is corrected. It has been a learning experience for my D. It has shown her the importance of keeping track of her returned work. In her Math class several 0’s in her HW grade were mistakes. By having the corrected graded work she has been able to fit it. What I see happening is that there is a learning curve for the teacher. In several cases the first few tests and quizes came back listed as F’s. When corrected the problem was that the test did not have 100 points but the teacher somehow used a 100 point scale. For example instead of being 19/20 it was listed as 19/100.
Grading homework has been a mix. My D’s math teacher does grade the HW. But it appears to mainly be a glance to see if you did all the work.</p>
<p>Since the school has been using Edline for years, and the teacher involved has been at the school for several years, it was not a teacher learning curve. She simply forgot she was using DD’s work as a “good example” for her other classes. It happened several times over the course of last year, she did fix the errors as they were pointed out. It added up to enough points to significantly impact DD’s grade, so I had no problem sending an email when DD’s request for a grade fix went unanswered for a couple of days. Great teacher, by the way, just not so great at Edline. Just something to be aware of…and yes, DD has asked for changes that were to her disadvantage. It only happened once and the teacher was surprized by DD’s request. And gave her extra credit to make up the difference. Not a big issue, it wouldn’t have changed her grade at all.</p>
<p>As for homework–some classes it’s graded, some it’s not graded. Her Chem H teacher assigns a grade, it seems to be 6 to 9 points a week. I do think Edline gives the students a visual to see how those 6 to 9 points can impact their final grades. Edline (here) posts a running list of assignments at the top of each class page, then breaks it down by group if you scroll down. Those sections can have a comment–English H is broken down to Essays (35% of grade), Quizzes/Tests (25%), etc. Chem is just one long list, Precalc H is homework, tests. I really think it’s great that each teacher can tailor the program to suit their needs.</p>
<p>^That is great. I think it would be SUPER if my D’s teachers provided both the specific details in advance of what goes into each course grade, and the results of each component as they go through the course. The course outlines will say things like "exams 40%, labs 25% but not the specifics that are needed. My D never has a clue for example, of how much a particular assignment impacts the final grade, nor does she have anything but a rough idea of her current percentage in a course. Likewise, I would love to be able to see the spreadsheet that leads to the final grades. I maintain such spreadsheets for all my college students- they can see them anytime if they aren’t keeping track themselves-- and I fail to understand why her HS teachers do not do the same.</p>