@eh1234 it drives me nuts that teachers put in a zero until the assignment is turned in while a kid is out sick. It’s probably how the systems are set up but it’s annoyingly
@mom2twogirls Totally agree with the start of school sometimes bumpy. Kids don’t know what’s expected on labs or tests, etc., so have the learn the ropes in these new classes each year. First quarter is always S19’s lowest grades. Takes a while to get in the swing.
@eh1234 Heatstroke avoided! Only 11 minutes of running since they turned the race into two miles instead of three because of the heat. Plus, S19 doused his head with cold ice water right before the start and my husband was at the finish line with a cold coconut water. Believe it or not, they actually did a cool down run afterwards. I totally didn’t get that. Bonus is that homework went faster than expected and S19 should be in bed by 10:30. I’m right behind him. (
Great start to school, @carolinamom2boys ! Over here, my D19 is having a bumpy start, but I hope things’ll pick up for her soon. Her school only has final grades (so, one grade per class per year, not per semester), so messing things up in the fall leaves some time in the spring for improvement.
@JenJenJenJen wow, only one grade per year? No semester long classes? What if a kid wants to make a change or drop a class?
@eandesmom RIGHT?! It’s frustrating.
@eandesmom It’s probably my least favorite thing about her school, but the positives outweigh the negatives. The add/drop period’s last day was this past Monday.
Sounds like great preparation for long-term commitment, @JenJenJenJen! Crossing fingers for all the right choices.
We had a nice visit to Temple, and a very long lunch at a pizza place with the friend who’s a current Temple freshman. She absolutely loves the place and I could tell she’s thriving, she has a boyfriend, an apartment just off campus, interesting classes and tons of friends. My kid loved the diversity of the students, the intensity of the crowds, and the enthusiasm of all the students we met.
But their favorite takeaway from the trip was all the descriptions of the new library that’s supposed to be opening next year. It’s a ‘robot library’, where you type in your book’s name and author and the book is brought to you by a robotic system. I personally wouldn’t enjoy that as much as actual browsing in a library - you see so many interesting things categorized 1 dewey decimal point away from what you’re looking at. But I’m an old fogey and I kept that opinion to myself.
Temple is a GPA and financial safety school for us, but it’s a match for the two girls I brought along. One of them hadn’t even thought of anything beyond community college before this trip. So I feel smugly proud of myself for taking them along and maybe opening up their minds.
And the three kids were so fun to be with, crammed into the back seat three across andgrooving to the radio on the trip up and back. At one point coming home just past the Delaware line they were bopping up and down so hard I feared for my car’s suspension. Then about five miles later a softer song came on and when I looked in the rear view mirror they had all fallen asleep on top of one another. It was so cute.
@JenJenJenJen we don’t have semester long classes either . They get quarterly report cards and then a cumulative grades for the year. I thought that was the norm. We don’t have semester long classes here.
I think our gym classes are considered semester long, but they are required to take it both semesters. Other than that, the only semester long classes are some English electives and health classes. Most of our classes are fully year courses but we have grades quarterly.
Most of our classes are a full year (math, English, foreign lang, science always). History can be a year or a semester. Gym for the full year. That leaves one spot for a study hall or elective. S19 always takes an art class. Most are a semester but AP Portfolio is a year long class next year.
We get quarter grades that are not on transcript but roll up to semester grades. Semester grades show on the transcripts. They are calculated with 40% first quarter grade, 40% second quarter grade, 20% final test. And, boy those kids know what they need on each final to keep their grade. Pretty easy for them to calculate what you need and the kids use that info to decide how much to study for each final. Every semester, S19 has some finals he doesn’t study for at all and some that require hours and hours.
First semester sophomore year, he needed high As on finals and, in two classes, he missed a semester A by .1%. If he would have gotten one more question correct on each of those finals, he would have gotten a A in the class…but B+ is was. He begged the teachers to round because his grade consistently increased as the semester went on and he got As on the finals (but not high enough As) but they wouldn’t budge. Said they have to cut the grades off somewhere and can’t make exceptions or they open the flood gates for other kids to request rounding. So, starting the school year a little rocky is ok in our school but having a really low grade on a test early is still hard to recover from.
Last year my kid got a B in French because she missed some early drills because of another class’ field trips, and the teacher never let him make it up or do enough extra credit. He was far the best French speaker in class, but missing one drill meant he was always a day behind. He didn’t take French this year because of that frustration.
@homerdog D19 had problem with rounding last year also. Our school is divided into semesters, which make it on the transcript. But each semester is divided into 3 6-week grading periods and a final.
For math, D19 got over 90 in each of the 3 6-week grading periods. The teacher specifically told the class that if you have an A going into the final and your grade after the final is an 89, she will round up.
Unfortunately, D19 got a 60 on the final, meaning her semester grade was an 89. But she wasn’t worried because she was told it would round up. It didn’t and she was given a B for the class.
She sent an email to the teacher asking her about the grade. Teacher didn’t respond for two months (she was on summer break, after all). When she first responded, she was incredibly nice. “Oh, you did well in the class and I thought you exempted the final. I’m sure I can get this worked out.”
You can only exempt two finals per semester and she used them on other classes. She told the teacher that. All of a sudden, the teacher became really mean.“Had you taken the final seriously instead of failing it, you wouldn’t have this issue. I’m not changing your grade.” (paraphrased).
Ugh, my heart goes out to our kids. I’m getting clammy hands just reading your post @gusmahler . I don’t think I would have survived such high stakes pressure back in high school…
So this morning has provided some much needed perspective about test prep, grades, & college opportunities. I had trouble waking my S19 up this morning. On top of getting great grades, playing 2 sports & an instrument, studying for the SAT…S19 is a Type1 diabetic. His blood sugar plummeted sometime while sleeping, which required my husband and I to follow our procedures to get his blood sugar up fast. Then it takes an 1 1/2 hr or so to get him back to normal but he will suffer from a migraine for most of the day. And yes, he still attends school the same day this happens. His typical day is less dramatic with him self administering 5-6 shots a day. He sometimes feels down & overwhelmed about dealing with his health and frustrated because he has to work harder (because of the physical & mental side effects) than his peers to compete in class and on the field. We have high expectations for him not to allow diabetes to deter him from enjoying his life. As a result, S19 has high expectations for himself in all ares of his life. I am going to trust that his dad and I have provided every opportunity for S19 to do well on the whole school thing and simply just cherish and love him. I know he will do the best he can even in the face of adversity. There is more to life then class rank, gpa’s, SAT scores & which top name brand university one is going to.
We are not allowed any exemptions from
exams, unless it is an AP class, and that is currently under review.
I’ve never heard of exemptions from exams, so I’m assuming it doesn’t happen in my kids school.
@4MyKidz I hope your son feels much better as the day goes. That sounds so scary.
@carolinamom2boys That’s exactly it for us! quarterly reports, end-of-year grades.
@4MyKidz - very sobering and also admirable that your family has dealt with this with grace and equanimity.
I also have never heard of exempting finals. We could’ve used that in prior years!!
We cannot exempt finals. The two closest public high schools to us let kids exempt finals if they have As in both quarters. Makes both of our kids crazy. Their lives would be really simplified if they didn’t have to take finals. You can still get an A for each quarter and a low B on the final and end up with a B. And some of these finals are rough.