@CoolCakes You’re taking Robotics too?! I’m taking Engineering Explorations 1/Robotics this year!
Hey guys! I’m currently in the middle of lunch right now! My day has been fantastic! I’ll tell you more about it later!
@apple1893 do you go to private school? My high school is public and is made up of MY tiny town AND half of the next tiny town over haha I know it’s not the smallest out there but everyone knows each other and it’s suuuuper annoying haha
So here’s how my day went.
Walking to My Bus Stop: As I predicted, I had to walk for 20 minutes in the dark. Luckily, I had my phone to help me see. I got to my bus stop just two minutes before the bus showed up, meaning I’ll be leaving my house five minutes earlier, at 5:35am, tomorrow to make sure I’m not late.
Bus Ride: When I got to the bus stop, I saw some familiar and new faces. Then the bus came and we saw that we were the first ones there, even though we shouldn’t have. We then went to next stop, which had like 20 people! We went to all of our other stops and by the time we got to school, at least 40 kids were on the bus! It wasn’t that loud though, but it was crowded! I saw a lot of new faces and a couple familiar ones. Overall, our bus driver is definitely a better driver than the one I had last year (he sped all the time).
Homeroom: So I get off the bus at 7am and instantly feel this euphoric rush of nostalgia. We all walked in together and I saw so many of my old friends! Once I got into school, I went straight to my homeroom. Once in my homeroom, I found my Spanish teacher from last year and gave her a hug. I love how she’ll be my first period this year. After that, I told her I was going to visit some of my teachers before the bell rang. I saw some old friends roaming the halls. I saw how much older we’ve gotten in 2.5 months. It was quite sad actually :((
Here are what I got from each of my teacher visits:
2nd Period - Functions/Trigonometry - Mr. H - When I actually met Mr. H, I realized I had mistaken him for another teacher. Once I went inside, I greeted him and told him I would be in his 2nd period class.
3rd Period - Engineering Explorations 1/Robotics - Mr. M - I just greeted him and said I would be in his 3rd period class tomorrow.
4th Period - AP English Language - I saw her I was walking away from Mr. M’s room, greeted her, and told her I would be in her 4th period class.
5th Period - PLTW Principles of Engineering - Since no one was in the room that the class would take place in, I decided to go to Mr. S’s main classroom and found him there. Since he already knows me, I just told him I’ll have class with him 5th period tomorrow.
6th Period - U.S. and Virginia History - I just kind of greeted the teacher and didn’t really talk to him.
7th Period - AP Chemistry - I finally saw my AP Chemistry teacher, Mr. L, in person. I would later realize how he seems to have a little Australian mixed in with that British accent of his.
I have one class starting tomorrow, my multivariable calc class. My teacher emailed me the syllabus today and it included all the homework for the semester so I started working on the first section. We’re only going over 4 chapters total and the 1st one looks like its pretty much review from AP Calc BC lol.
@marg532 Yea, I go to a private school lol
@CoolCakes What is AP Algebra 2?
Hey guys, I’m at home right now. I just decided to take a nap because yesterday was tiring. I’ll go ahead and finish my recap of the first day.
1st Period: Spanish 2
So class starts and I see some new freshmen and some sophomores. This class was primarily a sophomore class. So Mrs. M, formerly Ms. T, introduces herself and recognizes her returning students, me included. After she hands out our schedules and a bunch of papers and forms, we read her syllabus and then do some icebreakers. There are couple of cool things I found out about the class through the syllabus.
- Because our textbooks don't exactly align with our curriculum, we won't really be using them this year.
- We will be studying Chapters (Capitulos) 1 - 4, and 6. We will skip over Chapter 5.
- **Homework, at least in this class, is now considered independent work and WILL NOT be for a grade!** :D Homework will, however, be checked for completion, but only as a way to monitor students' work habits.
- We will allowed to retake quizzes ONLY, not tests, and you must have completed all homework, for the topic, ON TIME in order to retake the quiz.
Class ended after our icebreakers. As I was going to my next class, I saw my nemesis. I instantly looked down to avoid him. He’s kind of my nemesis because he kind of gave me the cold shoulder last year in Chemistry. I honestly hope I never have another class with him ever again!
2nd Period: Functions/Trigonometry
This class, like math class last year, was pretty boring! Mr. H just introduced himself, made us fill out a sheet to get to know us, read over his syllabus with us, made us do this review on graphing parent functions, and then we took some notes on interval notation. I have to admit, the class definitely felt like it was going pretty fast, but hopefully, it should be nothing I can’t handle. He seems like a great guy, but I hate how his voice is so monotone. It’s probably going to put me to sleep one of these classes.
Interesting thing about the syllabus:
- He said that we WILL NOT be going over Matrices. Apparently, Matrices are not included anywhere in the Virginia High School Math curriculum, which is really weird. Guess I'll be self studying this!
I also sit right next to a guy named T (it’s abbreviated), who was on the Robotics team last year. I asked him if he’s seen the new Engineering teacher, he said no. I asked him what engineering classes he’s taking and what the periods were and that led to us finding out that we have both of our engineering classes together. So not only do I have 2nd period with him, I also have both 3rd and 5th period with him, which means I’ll definitely be getting to know him this year.
4th Period: AP English Language
I honestly love this teacher already! She’s so funny! I also like my class as it’s filled with a couple of my friends. She made write little short paragraphs about our strengths and weaknesses in the following areas: reading, writing, listening, speaking, research and technology, and just little things about us. It was really fun though. The funniest thing was when she, “a middle-class white lady” her words, not mine, starting dancing to trap music. :)) She’s been teaching at my school for 29 YEARS and I can already tell she’s going to be one of those teachers I’ll visit once I’m out of her class.
We had lunch in this period, so we had her for an hour, went to lunch, and then came back for half an hour with her.
6th Period - U.S. and Virginia History
This teacher, I have to say, will likely be one of the most inspirational teachers I will ever have! He’s pretty young too. He reminds me so much of my 7th grade science teacher. The reason why: they were both educators. If I’ve learned anything from my many years in the public school system, it’s that there are educators and there are teachers. A teacher’s job ends once they leave the building, but an educator’s job becomes their life. And from what I’ve seen, this man is definitely an educator. Once class started, he briefly introduced himself and we watched a YouTube video on how “Every Kid Needs a Champion”, it was a TED conference talk with Rita Pierson as the speaker. This is the YouTube video that honestly brought me to tears: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw After watching the video, it became clear to me that he IS an educator! We watched another video after that, and then he sat down with us and talked with us. He said he’s taught in states that are considered the most uneducated places in the country. He has turned straight F students into straight A students. He once had a class of 23 kids who were all failing class and had decreased that number to 3 by the end of the year. He said that not only are we a class, we are a family! We then went over his syllabus. He is a guy that doesn’t really believe in a lot of homework and believe we can get a lot done in an hour and a half, so he won’t give out too much! We then did a SHEG Activity, provided by Stanford, about recounting events in history: Who Started the Fight? Then we analyzed and listened to the song “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel. He told us that Billy Joel basically took all of the events that had happened in his lifetime and put them in a song. It was actually pretty great and catchy. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m50p-XScreM After that, he literally gave us the rest of the class to do anything we wanted. A full 20 minutes! This class is honestly going to be really good!
Hi, my first day of school is on September 6th. I’m taking so many advanced courses and I am considering dropping the IB Diploma.
I got my schedule!!! And I didn’t have to wait forever on Parent Portal because I’m the only kid up this early haha so here are my classes and what I think of the teachers:
Algebra 2 - Mrs. F.
I haven’t had her before, but I’ve heard good things about her from my friends who have already had her. I’m excited for this, even though I hate math 1st period.
Study Hall (full year) - Mrs. C.
I had her last year for Geometry we didn’t get along too well… I’m definitely getting borrowed out of this study hall as much as possible.
Music Theory (A Days) - Mr. M.
I’ve had him for band the last 2 years, and had him for marching band for the last 4. We get along well, but I hear this course is pretty hard for an elective (compared to every other elective my school has haha), but I’ve been in band since 4th grade so I don’t think it will be TOO difficult.
Music History (B Days) - Mr. M.
Same teacher, but different class on a different day. This is all about music in different eras of history, which I’ve kind of already done last year in Intro to Music Theatre (a community college class taught at my school by my chorus teacher). I’m excited for this class because of all the weird projects that I’ve been hearing about!
Human & Social Biology - Mrs. L. and Mr. K.
They co-teach this class, mostly because Mr. K gets bored during free periods if he isn’t teaching or leading a study hall, so they signed him on as a teacher for this class because it was pretty much already happening. I’m excited for this class because it’s basically a merger between Health, Psych, and Bio. I’m also excited because I’ve had both of these teachers already, and I’m in extracurriculars with both of them, so we get along pretty well!
AP Literature & Composition - Mr. C.
I have been waiting to have him as a teacher for soooooo loooooong, because he is the coolest teacher in the school and pretty much gets along with everyone! I’m kind of nervous about this class because I’m one of 3 juniors in a senior class, but I’m friends with a lot of the seniors that are taking this class, so I should be fine.
Gym (A Days) - Coach K.
In between those two classes are lunch, but that’s pretty self explanatory, so I didn’t mention it. BUT gym is right after lunch, which means the coaches don’t push too much physical activity on you rather than if you had it any other period. Also, my school has 3 coaches for gym, and they all like me, so I was pretty much guaranteed an easy year in gym this year.
Study Hall (B Days) - Mrs. S.
She is the teacher of the regents US History, which I didn’t take for two reasons, one of which is because I didn’t want this teacher. Whoops. Well I guess I’m just going to get borrowed out of this study hall, too!
AP US History - Mr. L.
I’ve had him before, and we didn’t get along well, but I went to his office hours this summer for help with my summer project and he seemed more chill than I remember him being. This class will be seriously homework heavy, so I’ll need to brace myself for that, but I will probably have a better year than I previously thought I would due to the personality of the teacher.
Band (A Days) - Mr. M.
I’m pumped to have 3 classes with him this year! Typically band is pretty boring for me, but he said that he would make the horn parts interesting this year and try to limit the marches that we do (horns almost always play off-beats in marches). So I’m excited!!!
Chorus (B Days) - Mrs. M.
(It looks like they’re married, but that’s only because of only using initials for privacy!) I’m always excited for chorus! The music is always great, and the altos always have great harmonies (that’s me). Also, I’m the secretary of the chorus council, which means that I do attendance (which sucks because we are so big of an ensemble), but also that we plan fun things for the chorus to do all year (pumpkin painting parties, decorating the room for holidays, etc). I’m so excited!
There it is! If you couldn’t tell, I’m super excited for school to start exactly a week from now, which I can’t necessarily share with my friends because they all dread the beginning of school haha
I sat down and figured out when I will take which standardized test this year and what my goal scores are so that I can stay more organized and be ready to start college applications next summer!
September 10- ACT (GS 34)
October 19th- PSAT (GS 1500)
November 5th- SAT2 US History and World History (GS 700)
January 21st- SAT (GS 1500)
February 11th- ACT (if needed)
April 8th- ACT (if needed)
May 2nd-13th- AP Tests (GS 4)
June 3rd- SAT2 Physics, Chemistry, Literature (700)
@Marg532 I also did the initial thing for privacy.
I moved into my locker today and did a walkthrough of my schedule and I HAVE TO GO BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN 2 SIDES OF MY SCHOOL EVERY OTHER CLASS!!! I’m going to have a good workout every day at school haha
Today was the club fair at my school for freshmen. My sister and I are presidents of the book club, so we claimed a table. We only got five people to sign up. What can you do? 
I would prefer if it was smaller anyway. I also signed up for the Latin club, since it seemed fun.
My first day of school is tomorrow, AHHHHHH I am currently working on summer homework… Don’t be like me!
Okay, so here’s how my second day went:
1st Period - Spanish 2 - Mrs. M:
So we started the day in Spanish 2 again, turned in all the forms we got yesterday, and did a couple more icebreakers. After that we took a non-graded pre-test to test our Spanish reading ability.
3rd Period - Engineering Explorations 1/Robotics - Mr. M (Not married to teacher above) :))
Note: I forgot to record video on my phone for my YouTube channel, because I was honestly so caught up in the moment. I definitely LOVED this class.
So I came into the classroom to see a full room of students (meaning a full room of potential engineers). Once class started, he introduced himself and gave us a notecard. On the notecard, he told us to write our name, how we define success, what we want to do as a career, and how we plan to get there. I put the usual things down and then afterwards, we shared what each of us wanted to be. I went first and said I wanted to be a Mechanical Engineer and Mr. M’s face lit up. A couple people shared after that and Mr. M was impressed with the amount of students who were already planning on being engineering. After that, we had just jumped right into our engineering project/activity. I honestly didn’t think we’d start it so fast!
He put us into groups of 3 by counting us off and we went ahead and got started. The activity, by the way, was to build a project that would float in water and carry a large number of Lug Nuts. For those who do not know, these are what Lug Nuts look like (No, they are not actual nuts :)) ): http://www.hrsprings.com/application_elements/lugnuts.jpg So the whole point of the activity was to make a project that would hold as many Lug Nuts as it can before it sinks. We went off into our groups and were given 5 minutes to brainstorm ideas. I’m just going to say right off the bat that was group was really great, but it honestly felt like I was doing most of the work. My group basically agreed with almost every idea I had and there was little to no conflict. While I’m okay with this, it felt like I had way too much control of everything. I mean, I like being a leader, but I’m definitely okay just working on the project. Anyway, the materials we had to work with were: 4 popsicle sticks, two pieces of printer paper, a Ziploc bag, and a foot of masking tape. We got right to work on the design of the project once the brainstorming period was over.
I’ll try to explain our design the best I can. We had decided to poke holes in the Ziploc bag and taped in the four popsicle sticks on each of the four corners of the bag. After that, we tore a hole to be able to put the Lug Nuts in and put some paper in on the bottom to balance out the bag and make it more sturdy. We obviously zipped up the top of the bag. Once the building period was over, it was time for the presentation period. The first group went up with a canoe-looking design, which didn’t really work well. After they put in 14 Lug Nuts, they sank faster than The Titanic. :))
It legit went WOOSH all the way to the bottom! :)) After that, presented our project, which wasn’t really that good either. After 21 Lug Nuts, we were sunk! All in all, we placed 9th in our little class competition for most Lug Nuts. The first place group pretty much just inflated the bag and had a little square “thing” to put the Lug Nuts in. The broke the previous of 97 Lug Nuts and got 101 Lug Nuts.
After all 10 teams went, he gave us our class syllabus and we looked over a PowerPoint until the end of class. For this class, I will need a graph paper notebook, a 1-inch three-ringed binder, clear, plastic, paper sleeves and a couple pens and pencils.
Today was technically the first day of school for my school district, but since I’m taking all my classes at college I only had one class today (long story short I’m taking it at a different college cause the first one wouldn’t accept my AP credit).
So, I had Multivariable Calc/ Calc 3. Its in the afternoon so it started at 2:40 PM but I got on the city bus at 1:40 and got most of the way there then walked (its a pretty walk because its right by a river that runs through downtown). I had plenty of time to find my classroom and stuff (using google maps it wasn’t that hard), but I was more nervous than I thought I would be. I went into the classroom like 10 minutes early and there was only one other kid there. We introduced ourselves then stopped talking lol. More kids started coming in, but it was a small class (the registration website said there were 19) and only 4 including myself were girls which I’m kind of used to in STEM classes but still isn’t fun.
The professor came in and said, “This is calc 3, right?” and we nodded. Then he tried to set up his computer and the projector but it didn’t work. He was kind of upset because he needed the computer for his lesson plan (to show the pdf syllabus) but he had emailed the syllabus to us the day before so most of us already had copies. He went over the syllabus, and from what he said, I think he’s going to be a fair, pretty easy to work with professor. He also said he didn’t really follow the attendance policy he put in the syllabus, the university just made him put it in there, so that’s good because unless I can get off a waitlist, I’m going to miss 9 of his classes. He also said, “Everyone took Calc 2 here, right?” and a few of us shook our heads, and he’s like, “oh freshmen.” I didn’t bother correcting him lol.
After going through the syllabus, he started on a lecture about parametric equations. He went pretty slowly and it was basic information that I was expected to know before AP Calc BC which was kind of weird and boring. Our whole first chapter (out of four chapters) goes over parametric and polar functions, stuff I already know. This was my first time testing using my new laptop to take notes (its a mircrosoft surface so it has a pen and I can just use it as a tablet and write on the screen for classes like math) and it worked well so that was good.
After the class I walked to the main bus plaza and took the bus back home. That took 40 minutes, but the college is walking distance from my high school so I can go there after a robotics lunch meeting or something and it wont be that bad, then I can walk back for climbing, which is also near there.
Overall, it wasn’t too bad of a day.
@snowfairy137 I wish my school let me take classes at an actual college! My school partners with the local community college and trains certain teachers to teach a few college level classes, for example I took Intro to American Music Theatre from my chorus teacher, but it counts as high school credit AND college credit. So I already have 3 college credits which is pretty exciting for me haha. I also plan on taking French 4 (3 credits), Career and Financial Management aka CFM (6 credits - combines 2 college courses into 1 full year class), and possibly Statistics (3 credits). So if everything goes the way I want it to, I will have between 12 and 15 college credits! But still, I wish I could get those credits by going to the actual college and getting a taste for the “college experience.” You’re lucky!
I’m at lunch right now! We just had a discussion in my AP English Language class about whether or not we should have a defense squad entirely made up of a selected few students in the case of an active shooter. This option would allow said students to take a defense class and in the case of an active shooter, defend themselves and potentially apprehend the shooter, but would leave other students and teachers in classrooms the role of being somewhat defenseless sitting ducks. What would you guys choose?
@Marg532 yea, my state has this program classed running start where they’ll take the money that was supposed to be spent on your high school classes and use it to pay your college tuition junior and senior year at any public or community college.
Also, the college im taking calc 3 at is private but it has a dual enrollment program where you can take math or language classes for only $445 a semester which is a hugeee discont from their regular tution.
@snowfairy137 my local community college has a scholarship to take one course during the summer before your senior year and/or the summer before your freshman year of college for FREE. I’m totally taking advantage of the scholarship for next summer because I want to take a class in the field that I’m interested in (marketing/social media management) to see if I’m really interested in it. If not, I will at least have a few elective credits out of the way for whatever college I choose!
@ak2018 That is a really interesting choice… I feel that if the “defense squad” was chosen, that the students should be of all grades rather than just upperclassmen so that the chance that there is a member of the defense squad in any classroom targeted by an active shooter would be higher, rather than having a shooter target a freshman classroom and only have the defense squad members being in the junior and senior classes, essentially leaving the entire freshman class defenseless.