<p>@sbjdorlo, My daughter is taking AP chemistry and doing well in her class. But I don’t think she’ll be able to tutor - or maybe I should say, if she decided to try to do it as your son is doing, it’d really help her. I actually may suggest that. </p>
<p>@maxwell, I hope your county coordinator allows her to be in county band. She deserves it. The teacher is really being very unreasonable. I agree with mihcal, it is never appropriate to tell a student not to tell their parents things, especially when they are this young. Does the teacher have any children??</p>
<p>Twogirls, I get it now. It’s a bit like that here with the SAT subject tests. I looked at the different class college counseling links. Sophomores are only told to look into taking the Physics SAT II if they’ve taken AP Physics B or a modern language SAT II if they are taking French or Spanish and are at the appropriate level. Nothing else, even though when you hunt a bit more you find that it is possible to take the Chem SAT II if your kid is enrolled in honors chem. </p>
<p>Then I looked at the junior class page. Juniors are told only that they should have 3 SAT subject tests completed by the end of the year and they get this information in January. Nothing more. No guidance as to which tests or when to take them. So the sophomores go from a situation where they are conceivably taking no SAT IIs to a situation where they are told they must (1) take the SAT I…but not too early in the year and generally no earlier than April and (2) take THREE SAT IIs in May or June. Ugh. I fell for this the first time because I didn’t know any better but my eldest was a complete mess between EC demands, 4 APs, 2 SAT IIs, and the SAT I. I really feel that the counselors should be a lot more specific and provide a much clearer roadmap so that it’s not up to the savvy parent or kid to find out what’s really what. But then again, these are the people who told me that it’s not necessary to take the SAT at all to gain National Merit finalist status. </p>
<p>Maxwell, I’m SO happy you stepped in and got this righted. What is with this band teacher? I’m appalled that he actually told your daughter she shouldn’t have told you of his decision. What was she supposed to do the next day when you were planning to take her to the All County band rehearsal? I’m even happier that she’s elected not to pursue band in school next year. Sounds like she’s well rid of this guy.</p>
<p>Maxwell - my head is spinning after reading your post about the evil band director. Wow. So your D isn’t doing band anymore after this year? I tend to think bullies need to be stood up to - they pick on easy victims. I’d be inclined to write a letter to the band director, copying someone appropriate (principal? dean of faculty?) asking for clarification on the timeline and the situation. I wouldn’t chew him out necessarily, but I’d state my understanding of the confusion about participation in county band and clarification about his philosophy on students communicating to parents and if he in fact advises student not to do so. By careful in your wording and tone, keeping calm and reasoned and asking questions more than stating your own opinions. It’s my experience that people like this band director learn who is easy to pick on and who to avoid picking on. i’d send a clear message that your D has back up and parents who expect fair and honest treatment. </p>
<p>Twogirls - our HS has a rubric of some kind for NHS. It’s fairly straight forward - GPA, some service hours, teacher rec, ect. It’s frustrating for sure to find things out through the grape vine that should be communicated in a timely and organized way. I don’t NHS means a hill of beans in college apps though - it’s just way to inconsistent from school to school, and college know that.</p>
<p>Funny how different schools handle things. Our school does not tell current sophomores to do community service, but then expects them to hand in 45 hours in the fall of junior year. If you don’t investigate this yourself you are in trouble. Meanwhile they do an outstanding job of advertising the SAT 11s. My daughter received a letter early on in 9th grade encouraging the students to start these tests early in their HS career. Her honors bio teacher freshman year strongly encouraged them to take the test at the end of 9 th grade.</p>
<p>Does anyone else have a child changing schools next year or waiting for summer program notifications? I panicked this morning because my S15 called my cell phone from China while I was in a meeting. I thought he was in the hospital. It turns out he is worried about technology issues for his boarding school scholarship interview. Considering the fact that this is the first time he has called me since he left for China in August, he is quite concerned. He needs to interview via Skype on Friday. Admissions notifications will be April 23.</p>
<p>twogirls - for our district, 75 community service hours are required to graduate. Most college bound kids do a lot more than what’s required – D has about 500 hours; doing about 8 hours a week. Not too much activities on NHS though. Some kids do it, many kids don’t. I don’t think it’s treated as a big deal either way. Most of kids/parents discussions center around (AP and SAT) test scores, grades but not too much on SATII and ACT (yet).</p>
<p>@GoAskDad, yes they must be related. I remember reading your S’s case. It’s surprising how insensitive or even immoral some of the teachers are. It’d be interesting to see how they react if they are reminded of how they go down in their students’ memory. </p>
<p>@FromMD, Thank you. those are very good words and precautions. </p>
<p>@3girls, yes he had the guts to tell my daughter it was wrong for her to tell us, but didn’t have to guts to talk to the parents.
I actually really would like to have a conference with the teacher and the principal, with the presence of the county coordinator. but my daughter is so scared of any more confrontation. she begged me not to do anything, just let it go. She said this was the last time she had to deal with him anyway. I decided not to pursue any further for a while. D. is doing all county happily (I hope) with other young musicians and a great conductor. That’s great. And I did email to the county coordinator and expressed my concern (and anger!). I did not tell D. that I emailed to the coordinator. I hope in her mind, it’ll pass. She really was hurt by this. </p>
<p>There is always two sides of everything - D. told me yesterday that this is going to be one of her college application essays. Our children are learning from things like this.</p>
<p>Pinot I agree with you that NHS is not too important in terms of college admissions. Maxwell- I am so sorry that you had to deal with all of this. I love your daughter’s idea!</p>
<p>Yes, your D can and should tutor! That’s very impressive that she’s taking AP chem as a sophomore. What will she do for her last two years of science?</p>
<p>Apollo - Both my D’s changed schools in 10th grade. It’s a disruption, no question about it, but it works out, and it’s a problem more for the student (and student’s parents) than for the school in terms of mechanics.</p>
<p>D’s school requires 200 service hours for graduation, both within the school and within the community. For some kids that comes easily. For others, it’s a real struggle.</p>
<p>Part of those hours can be peer tutoring, which is a really, really valuable experience, even if it’s just to accrue service hours. It can be very time consuming, though. D is doing a lot of informal tutoring now, so actually being a part of the peer tutoring program would let her log time for the work she’s already doing.</p>
<p>Maxwell – that’s really outrageous, but somehow HS music teachers are either fabulous (and great with kids) or rotten. D went from a fabulous music program (with directors who really like teens) to a rotten one at her current school. We knew about the weakness, so D opted out this year, but for next year she’d like to be involved in the state music festival, which means she must be in school orchestra. I understand why they do it that way, but it’s really a shame.</p>
<p>giterdone - yes, it is a graduation requirement. Students can do as little as what’s required (75 hrs for us) or as much as they want to do. S2 is in college but still volunteering at the same places he helped out in high school. I think it’s a great way to “give back” to the community. Only problem we’ve ever encountered is kids overloading their schedule which is what D is doing right now.</p>
<p>I agree it’s hard for some to get motivated to serve but I think students can find something they find interesting and can give back. It can be as simple as helping clean a stream, help with recycling events, working at the library etc. My daughter has about 200 hours and her school is very active in serving the community. Sometimes she forgets to turn in the hours to have them counted. She’s no longer doing it for graduation since she has met the county requirement, she’s doing it for herself just like FromMD children.</p>
<p>The service requirement is one of my favorite things about D’s school. The school doesn’t just dump the requirement on the kids. There are periodic service days and there are smaller events that the kids can sign on to do in groups. The service days are fantastic. There’s a real feeling of school spirit in working in the community. I volunteered at one event and I was moved by how much the kids got out of their work. It almost felt unfair that they got any sort of credit for these hours! It seemed to me that they were the ones getting the gift just as much as the recipients of their service. D does hours outside of school as well, both on her own and with us, as a family. </p>
<p>On another note, we have JUST been given notification that there will be review classes offered for SAT II subjects this spring. As one who likes to plan ahead, I’m less than happy that this is only being announced now. On the other hand, I am happy that the school is giving the kids more guidance in how to approach the subject testing. So let’s just stick with that :)</p>
<p>Has anyone else considered the literature test for this year? I’m thinking it’s best left to junior year but I’m not sure.</p>
<p>The school requires all students to take AP Literature or AP Language as juniors so I’m assuming that’s when they take the AP. It probably makes sense to take the SAT at the same time if they are so inclined.</p>
<p>My daughter took the SAT 2 bio last year. She is taking the SAT 2 in chem and in lit this coming June. She currently takes 11H English so we will see…</p>
<p>Those are the two D is considering this year. From what I remember about the literature test from older D, there’s no real preparation that’s necessary except for a lifetime of avid reading :)</p>
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