<p>Senior year isn’t so bad for me… last year’s course load was a lot tougher. My school makes you finish IB Math and one science in junior year and my schedule junior year was packed with calc, chem, and bio. I am definetly more of a humanities person, so I love havinig history, french, and spanish for the whole year! English is ok, but the teacher we were told was fantastic is actually a bit repetitive and our marks are based on nothing but commentaries… not a good way to get a superb mark! </p>
<p>The only real problem I’m having is with organic/IB chem. This semester has been alright - I hate the material but the teacher is great, which really helps. The problem is our semester change because I’m supposed to be in this one teacher’s class… and she absolutely hates me. I’ve never had a huge problem with teachers with the exception of her and one other in junior high. The problem is that I frequently miss class because of my involvement in EC’s - Model UN, band, choir, volunteering, etc - and she hates it. So when I was in her class in grade 10, I was going to go on a family vacation but she scheduled our major unit final for the last period on the last day before spring break and then told our class that anybody who missed it for any reason would fail the class. My parents had to change our flight. I don’t see a huge issue, because I always finish my work, ask for help when I need it, and eventually understand everything. For the amount of school I missed last April before IB exams, I should have failed… but the majority of my marks didn’t go down (calculus being the one that did). I’m trying to switch back to the teacher I have now, and it should work… my parents have even said they will talk to admin if they have to. </p>
<p>Senioritis hahaha… after all the work I did last year, I am actually (much to the dismay of my teachers) trying to get to legitimately miss as much class as possible. I regularly volunteer for in-school student’s union sponsored activities (ie. junior high tours, band concerts, basketball tournaments) and get dismissed early to help load the busses for band/choir trips and performances. I guess you could call that “senioritis”, but the funny part is that while I haven’t been in class, I haven’t actually missed much. My marks are still where they usually are, and at this point I can pretty much get into any Canadian university/program I want to, so it doesn’t even matter. </p>
<p>The social part of senior year has definetly been the highlight. I have made more close friends in the past couple months than I had in the two years previously (high school here is 10-12). It has been a blast. I actually broke out of the IB shell (haha) and went to a party (with other IB kids nonetheless), and both honor band and MUN trips helped develop friendships that were previously just on the edge of being acquaintances. Plus I actually have things planned to do with my friends on a regular basis. We go out for lunch every wednesday (to my friends church and we talk with their youth minister, who is also a great cook and gives us a free lunch every week. originally it was advertised in the christian club but now even my indian friend goes) because we get extended lunch due to our TOK spare. I’ve also managed to keep in touch with my camp friends from the summer, and somehow find the time (usually at 2AM after finishing group 4 or some essay) to write page-long e-mails to a lot of my close friends (new and old). </p>
<p>I have to admit, the worst thing about senior year won’t be the workload that is slowly toppling off the bookshelf on to my head (ie. World Lit, EE, TOK Essay, History IA, on top of labs, orals, exams, and regular howework), but having to leave everybody after just really getting to know them. I can see a lot of crying at grad (<em>runs to buy waterproof mascara</em>).</p>
<p>Good luck to everybody for the second half of senior year! It will all be over much too soon…</p>
<p>Edit: I forgot the other worst part of this year - not turning 18 before that damn election! My birthday is in july… grrr. I am so jealous of my friends who get to vote. It’s funny… everybody is like ooh when I turn 18, I’m going to get drunk. I’m going to register to vote! :)</p>