My D26 started her Junior year today! She is in student council for the 3rd year in a row which kind of messes up her schedule a little. She ended up having to take an easier math this year because of it. She will need to take precalc next year. Our high school doesn’t have a lot of AP classes so the kids end up taking more Dual enrollments instead. She has a 4.0 UW/4.1 W through Soph year.
Her classes:
Dual Enroll Human Bio
Student Council
AP US history
Dual Enroll College Algebra
Dual Enroll Spanish 101/102
AP Lang & Comp
We are actively trying to get her recruited for soccer as well. She is a GK and wants to continue playing in college. She is my 3rd and final one. I thought I knew all about college admissions but recruiting is on a whole other level! She will hopefully have a verbal commitment by next June/July.
S26 goes to highly competitive high school, and his GPA will definitely be considered average at his school. But I get what you are saying. Thank you for sharing your perspective. And I am not worried about my kid getting into a college of his choice. Just that UCs might be hard for him to get into which is what he wants right now. We’ll see how it goes in a year.
He is registered for SAT this August and Nov. Let’s see how that goes.
Wow- I am guessing you must be in the south with such an early start date. Up here in northeast we do not go back until after Labor Day! You are lucky they have good DE classes. At our high school DE is sort of a joke They offer 1 or 2 classes and they are really random. For the fall they are offering criminal justice. I mean that is great if your kid is genuinely interested in that, but otherwise a waste since she could not get college credit for it (she wants nursing).The classes are also after school for 3 hours and with D26 athletic schedule, she could not do it even if she wanted to. I wish they made it easier and had better course options.
On the subject of 11th grade classes, my DH is pushing D26 to try to take Comparative Government at a local community college. She’s not interested in pursuing that option, would rather take in person classes at her high school campus.
Besides, between the classes she already has (+ the course change request to switch to Human Geography), she’ll already have plenty of HW on her hands. And D26 needs time to do some extracurriculars.
I’m not gonna sweat it right now. We’ll find out early next week if her class change request is granted.
D26 isn’t going to do mock trial this year. She felt that mock trial last year involved way too much ‘acting’/drama class type of stuff and she’s an introvert. While she found the case interesting, she hated having to practice memorizing everything, said the amount of work involved was like having another class at school.
She’s going to apply for a humane society volunteer position, probably apply for a part-time job somewhere, probably join the student ambassadors club at school (they do campus tours and such at info session nights at our charter school + help out at big school events).
D26’s college search is going to end up way different than D24’s. At the moment, D26 really wants to stay in state for college and we’re cool with that (we’re in AZ). She went w/us on our campus tours w/D24 at UNM and NMSU and said she doesn’t want to live in NM for college. CA colleges are out of the question because of higher cost + she doesn’t want to live in CA. I have found 2 colleges in TX that have a specific major she wants + UAH in Alabama. So at least at the moment, I think D26’s college app list will be smaller than D24’s (D24 applied to 7).
just got notified by school that the class change request was approved. Kiddo has to pick up the new schedule first this Monday morning before school starts. She’s pretty happy to not be taking 3D art.
Here in AZ, my kids’ school year has always started in early August. By comparison, growing up in CA, we always went back to school the day after Labor Day. However, my kids’ school year is done the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, whereas MY school year didn’t finish until 2nd week of June.
A couple of the local school districts near us are on a year-round school year system, and they started classes 2 weeks ago (in July)! We’re not in either of those districts, though.
Things have changed now in a lot of places in CA. My kid starts school next week and school year ends end of May. Good luck to your daughter for junior year!
Today is S26’s first day of 11th grade. He received his schedule earlier this week and is not thrilled. His school requires two English courses in 11th grade. Usually students take one each semester (block scheduling). He is scheduled for both Literature 11 and AP English Language first semester. He has until the end of the school day tomorrow to request a schedule change. As of this morning he was not planning to make changes because he likes his second semester schedule. We’ll see if he changes his mind after seeing the course syllabi. It may be a very long first semester.
We have that kind of block schedule as well. If you are unlucky, your AP classes are in the fall semester, so you’re done with AP coursework in late December. Then you have four different classes until you take the AP exam in the spring. S26 has been lucky, his AP classes were all in the spring semester. But I remember D22 having hers in the fall. It makes no sense.
A couple of observations from D26 about classes so far:
she thinks, so far, that AP Human Geo is going to be way easier than AP European History was last year (same teacher).
in AP Spanish, there’s a sub until the regular hire teacher starts middle of next week. They were given a packet on Monday to work on for the week. D26 finished it the same day. She has low expectations for the spanish class this year, so it’s probably a good idea that we’re going to have her do the Modern States spanish course online also.
friend of hers tried to convince her to change her mind and take AP Chemistry. D26 said, “No way. I barely survived honors chem last year. I don’t want to take chemistry ever again. Mr ___ teaches AP Chem and he was my teacher for honors chem last year and he’s not a very good teacher.”
The August app cycle is open right now for our area’s Humane Society and D26 is going to submit an application for their teen volunteer program. Requires 2 letters of rec, so there’s 2 teachers at school she’s going to ask today.
Household debates are in process with regards to other extracurriculars. For example :
Spanish Honor Society - D26’s BFF wants her to do this with her. D26 totally uninterested.
Leadership Club - BFF is in this club. Participating in this club requires you to attend 3 school dances. D26 is allergic to school dances, so this was a strong-willed ‘NO WAY!’
student ambassadors - I think this would be a good fit for her. D26 doesn’t want to because she said “I’ll have to talk to people.” You can’t reject everything. You have to pick SOMETHING. You can’t just go to class.
mock trial - She did this last year, hated it because it felt like having a ton of HW for another class. Hated all of the acting required for it and she pretty much hates drama class sort of stuff. Big no from her re: doing this again this school year.
part time job - this is a top contender. Probably a fast food job.
debate team - I think she’d be really good at this. She’s afraid it’ll be like mock trial with lots of research and HW.
general disclaimer *
At no point were we entertaining her doing ALL of these extracurriculars at the same time. But we did tell her that she has to pick a couple and stick with them.
Good luck to you son!
Classes start next week for S26. Got his schedule today. Got AP Lang which he didn’t ask for! He is not a great writer, so its going to be a long year here too. Our public school is notorious for not entertaining any schedule changes unless you are literally missing a class.
First day of junior year is in the books for S26. He said it was good. We had just returned from an extended summer trip the day before so he missed prep day at his new school.
The school is brand new and just officially opened this week. Our suburban area is growing like crazy, so this new high school had been in the works for years.
It will be an interesting experience as students in our district had the choice to stay at their previous school are attend the new one. Most seniors stayed at their old schools, so the senior class at the new school is tiny, junior class a bit bigger and soph and frosh classes are normal size. So his class will be at the forefront of building all new traditions.
One downside, lack of class offerings for juniors and seniors. What irks me most, is that they were not able to offer Spanish 3 and 4. Languages are S26’s thing. So we hope for next year.
That’s tough. Is there a plan or option for him to be able to do something in Spanish this year so as to retain his base and continue to grow in the language?
My S26 doesn’t start school for a couple more weeks. He just arrived home from a 6 week art program in Napa. I’d say it was transformative for him on a lot of levels—he discovered sculpture, wood working and oil painting. He’s been an illustrator until now, so I’m excited to see where his new interests take him.
He also found like-minded people who accepted him, something he’s felt sorely lacking in his school experience since middle school. Upon arriving home, he said, “I’m going to stop trying to hide parts of myself because I want to fit in and I’m afraid people will think I’m weird or lame. I want to be the whole me.” I was so happy and grateful to hear it… he’s starting a new school this year because of bullying and social issues at his old school. I’m so so hopeful that this can be a positive transition in his life. He’s an amazing person who marches to his own beat.
He also landed a new internship with a local nonprofit, so I’m excited to see how that goes too.
We have a lot to be excited about but I can’t help but also be a little anxious.
