Parents of the Class of 2019

[mjkacmom]

That's a loooong time! Do y'all start after Labor Day? I know DD couldn't participate in several summer programs because they extended into late August. It's interesting how different school districts time their years.

Am I the only one who thinks finals on top of AP tests is redundant?

Yes, after Labor Day, and lots of classrooms aren’t air conditioned. Dd definitely feels the same about the finals, she has 4, but since school ends so late here, I guess they have to keep teaching and grading after the exams. I do think they should be able to get out of the final if they score a 4 or 5. Also, some kids don’t take AP exams.

NHS inductions are Monday night, we’ve decided to go out to eat with 5 of her bff’s and their parents after. Only one in her core group didn’t get in because she didn’t have enough volunteer hours. I don5 know why, the6 can start them freshman year.

 

[soccerdad72]

Our son isn't sure what his finals schedule will be. He has two AP tests (Comp Sci and Calc AB) and he said that AP gives a final but their teacher told them after the AP Exam, it's a piece of cake.

Complicating things for him is that 4 of his courses are primarily Senior classes and senior finals week is in a couple weeks (graduation is before Memorial Day). So he's not sure what he and the handful of juniors in his classes will do for their final couple weeks of school (they're done around June 6th, I think?)

 

[Eureka]

My kids don't have finals in any class, not the way you all mean (and the way I had them when I was in high school). They do have some end-of-year tests in classes that aren't AP and even some of the AP classes still have projects after the tests are done.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Our final day of school here is 4 weeks from today. Prom is next weekend. They'll be seniors soon!

I kind of like having them start in mid-August. It's ugly hot then so they might as well be sitting in an air conditioned classroom.

It's sort of freaking me out that graduation is just over a month away. This is our last, so definitely a different set of emotions.

I’d love for them to start later, but being able to finish 1st semester before Christmas is a plus. That and finishing the year before Memorial Day. That stretch from Christmas to end of year is always the pits anyway. Can’t inagine extending it into June!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

DD’s pre-calc class is finally getting better. She eeeked out a B- 1st Semester - her first non-A ever - and then a B+ for 3rd quarter. But, she was failing 4th quarter so badly that at the midway point of the quarter, her semester grade was a D-. Apparently, Admin has put pressure on the teacher as it turns out DD’s D- was the only passing grade in the class. Mind you, the entire class is full of the best students at the school. So, the progress reports sent up a huge red flag (this isn’t the first time this teacher has been in this predicament). In a week’s time, DD’s grade improved from D- to C+ and we’ve gone from praying for her to pass to hoping she can squeak out a B-. Fingers crossed!

 

[mom2rtk]

DD’s pre-calc class is finally getting better. She eeeked out a B- 1st Semester - her first non-A ever - and then a B+ for 3rd quarter. But, she was failing 4th quarter so badly that at the midway point of the quarter, her semester grade was a D-. Apparently, Admin has put pressure on the teacher as it turns out DD’s D- was the only passing grade in the class. Mind you, the entire class is full of the best students at the school. So, the progress reports sent up a huge red flag (this isn’t the first time this teacher has been in this predicament). In a week’s time, DD’s grade improved from D- to C+ and we’ve gone from praying for her to pass to hoping she can squeak out a B-. Fingers crossed!

That's ridiculous. When the entire class of high achieving kids is flunking, someone needs to take a look at what's going on in class. Is she taking calculus next year? I'd be concerned about how ready she will be for it.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

That's ridiculous. When the entire class of high achieving kids is flunking, someone needs to take a look at what's going on in class. Is she taking calculus next year? I'd be concerned about how ready she will be for it.

No, this is it for her math wise - thank goodness since she’d have the same guy next year if she moved up. With DW working in the district, we’d been warned about this guy. One friend’s daughter only had one non-A in 4 years of HS and that was a D from this guy

 

[mom2rtk]

No, this is it for her math wise - thank goodness since she’d have the same guy next year if she moved up. With DW working in the district, we’d been warned about this guy. One friend’s daughter only had one non-A in 4 years of HS and that was a D from this guy

That's too bad she couldn't have avoided him. I'm glad at least she won't have him next year.

 

[PollyannaMom]

No, this is it for her math wise - thank goodness since she’d have the same guy next year if she moved up. With DW working in the district, we’d been warned about this guy. One friend’s daughter only had one non-A in 4 years of HS and that was a D from this guy

Uggh - we have one of those math teachers too. I have no idea how she is still there.

 

[mom2rtk]

Uggh - we have one of those math teachers too. I have no idea how she is still there.

We have some bad teachers I'm aware of, but fortunately not in math. My older son had one so bad in 7th grade that they let her go mid-year. They have to be really bad to be let go mid-year. We called it his "lost year of math".

Thankfully our high school math teachers have been very good. The same ones are still there from when our sons went through. If we can eek out one more year before anyone retires, I think we'll be good.

 

[yeahdisney]

Yesterday we drove to Purdue university. DS and I both liked the campus and tour. After that we drove to U of IL to pick up DD and bring her home for the weekend.
DS believes he too would like to go to U of IL; how convenient if he would be able to go there too.
After we got home I took a short power nap and 6 of us went to Infinity Wars, the theater does not have assigned seats, the show was sold out and they shared if we wanted to sit together we needed to be there an hour early.

 

[lovesdumbo]

Can’t inagine extending it into June!

We don't get out until June 27th this year. We usually start after Labor Day. Only when Sept 1st is a Tuesday do we start before Labor Day. We have reservations to go away starting 6/27. I would like the kids to just skip school but my youngest DD doesn't want to do that. They get out at 10:30 so it isn't a huge deal to wait til then. And as I explain below my oldest will be in summer school so I think I'll have to wait a day with her anyways.

DD’s pre-calc class is finally getting better. She eeeked out a B- 1st Semester - her first non-A ever - and then a B+ for 3rd quarter. But, she was failing 4th quarter so badly that at the midway point of the quarter, her semester grade was a D-. Apparently, Admin has put pressure on the teacher as it turns out DD’s D- was the only passing grade in the class. Mind you, the entire class is full of the best students at the school. So, the progress reports sent up a huge red flag (this isn’t the first time this teacher has been in this predicament). In a week’s time, DD’s grade improved from D- to C+ and we’ve gone from praying for her to pass to hoping she can squeak out a B-. Fingers crossed!

Crazy! Either he isn't teaching it or on a power trip with testing or both. Sounds like my oldest DDs calc 2 professor in college. She had to withdraw or risk her scholarship. Now I have to pay for her to take it this summer-at home at a different university. She won't be able to work as much this summer. All her very smart friends are struggling too. She's heard the calc 3 professor she'll have in the fall is awesome thankfully. Then she'll still need a 4th calc after that. She has to redo calc 2 this summer to stay on track as they are pre reqs for other classes. She had a bully as a math teacher in middle school who left after she had her so my younger 2 didn't need to deal with her.

Yesterday we drove to Purdue university. DS and I both liked the campus and tour. After that we drove to U of IL to pick up DD and bring her home for the weekend.
DS believes he too would like to go to U of IL; how convenient if he would be able to go there too.
After we got home I took a short power nap and 6 of us went to Infinity Wars, the theater does not have assigned seats, the show was sold out and they shared if we wanted to sit together we needed to be there an hour early.

My DS wants to visit U of IL.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We don't get out until June 27th this year. We usually start after Labor Day. Only when Sept 1st is a Tuesday do we start before Labor Day. We have reservations to go away starting 6/27. I would like the kids to just skip school but my youngest DD doesn't want to do that. They get out at 10:30 so it isn't a huge deal to wait til then. And as I explain below my oldest will be in summer school so I think I'll have to wait a day with her anyways.

Crazy! Either he isn't teaching it or on a power trip with testing or both. Sounds like my oldest DDs calc 2 professor in college. She had to withdraw or risk her scholarship. Now I have to pay for her to take it this summer-at home at a different university. She won't be able to work as much this summer. All her very smart friends are struggling too. She's heard the calc 3 professor she'll have in the fall is awesome thankfully. Then she'll still need a 4th calc after that. She has to redo calc 2 this summer to stay on track as they are pre reqs for other classes. She had a bully as a math teacher in middle school who left after she had her so my younger 2 didn't need to deal with her.

My DS wants to visit U of IL.

My Calc I professor taught everything wrong for the first 6 weeks. It was all stuff I’d covered in HS, so I just couldn’t figure out what he was doing. His methods absolutely didn’t achieve the correct answers, so luckily I was able to fall back on what I knew. Then, one day, out of the blue, he started making perfect sense. My TA clued me in. That was the day after the drop deadline.

 

[MerissaAndMomLoveDis]

I really wish she'd spend some time prepping for it.

Same here. Waiting on DD score on the SAT to come out on May 3rd, which will let us know more about what to do next. Leading up to the test, I wished she would have prepped more, but I know she was juggling a lot of things. She is on such a tight schedule to fit everything in. She had an APUSH practice session at school yesterday to get ready for the AP exam. She is also trying to get ready for AP exams for Biology (this is the class that she did not have a teacher for until Oct 30th and he never taught an AP class before, so this one is is a lot of self-study for her to get ready) and AP English Lang. Today she is going to do some practice subject tests to make a final decision on which subject test she will sign up for by May 3rd deadline for the June 2 test, trying to finish up coursework for her online dual credit class, and working on her AP Lang research paper (and everyday it seems to be like this--I am tired just watching her juggle it all LOL). She planned to sign up for the July ACT, but we have sort of been thrown for a loop this weekend (which I am about to explain in another post). I am really proud of how hard all of our children are working and all they are accomplishing!!

 

[MerissaAndMomLoveDis]

Hi all! You may recall I mentioned that my DD applied for 5 very selective summer programs. So...I’ve got some fantastic news. Perhaps you felt a rumble and lots of noise coming from the Dallas Texas direction. That was ME jumping up and down and screaming with excitement because my daughter was selected for the UT Southwestern Medical School STARS Summer Research program. The selected high school Juniors are matched with a research professor, and spend 40 hours per week for 8 weeks working in that professor’s lab on the research the professor is doing. They get paid a stipend of $2800. The STARS kids also have group activities. Plus the opportunity to be fully involved in graduate level research as a high school junior. Also, it is only 4 miles from my job, so that is tremendously helpful with us only having one car. She is meeting with her matches professor next week in his lab to get acquainted with the research. She thinks she wants to do research in some area of biomedical sciences/engineering, so this will help her know if she’s really cut out for it. I am so excited for her!!!!!

We are in full blown turmoil here. Excited, but DD has a difficult decision to make, and it must be made by May 1st. DD found out on Friday that she one of 40 accepted in the Women's Technology Program at MIT in the Electrical Engineering/Computer Science track. It is a 4 week residential summer program at MIT, and it will be free for our family--I'd just have to pay for airfare to and from Boston. Such an amazing opportunity and she is so honored to be chosen. So is UT Southwestern STARS. This is a "good problem", but wow, such a hard decision. Anyone have any thoughts??? I wonder how college admissions would look at participation in these programs???

 

[MerissaAndMomLoveDis]

DD’s pre-calc class is finally getting better. She eeeked out a B- 1st Semester - her first non-A ever - and then a B+ for 3rd quarter. But, she was failing 4th quarter so badly that at the midway point of the quarter, her semester grade was a D-. Apparently, Admin has put pressure on the teacher as it turns out DD’s D- was the only passing grade in the class. Mind you, the entire class is full of the best students at the school. So, the progress reports sent up a huge red flag (this isn’t the first time this teacher has been in this predicament). In a week’s time, DD’s grade improved from D- to C+ and we’ve gone from praying for her to pass to hoping she can squeak out a B-. Fingers crossed!

Wow. Just wow. That really stinks.

That's ridiculous. When the entire class of high achieving kids is flunking, someone needs to take a look at what's going on in class.

I try really hard to be supportive of teachers (being the child of two high school teachers and previously taught college classes myself), but I have to completely agree with mom2rtk on this. A teacher MUST be able to communicate the material in a way that students comprehend it, and if the highest grade in the class is a D-, that teacher is not "teaching" and administration must step in and assess the problem and make adjustments.

 

[MerissaAndMomLoveDis]

Yesterday we drove to Purdue university. DS and I both liked the campus and tour. After that we drove to U of IL to pick up DD and bring her home for the weekend.
DS believes he too would like to go to U of IL; how convenient if he would be able to go there too.
After we got home I took a short power nap and 6 of us went to Infinity Wars, the theater does not have assigned seats, the show was sold out and they shared if we wanted to sit together we needed to be there an hour early.

Do you mind sharing what you and your son liked about Purdue? It has been on my DD's radar lately. She was invited to a Women In Engineering weekend at Purdue earlier this Spring and she wanted to attend, but when we looked into transportation to fly in and out and shuttling to campus, it was impossible for her to fly alone to get her there by the start time.

 

[PollyannaMom]

We are in full blown turmoil here. Excited, but DD has a difficult decision to make, and it must be made by May 1st. DD found out on Friday that she one of 40 accepted in the Women's Technology Program at MIT in the Electrical Engineering/Computer Science track. It is a 4 week residential summer program at MIT, and it will be free for our family--I'd just have to pay for airfare to and from Boston. Such an amazing opportunity and she is so honored to be chosen. So is UT Southwestern STARS. This is a "good problem", but wow, such a hard decision. Anyone have any thoughts??? I wonder how college admissions would look at participation in these programs???

Wow - congrats on both!! But I get that decisions (even between two good things) can be so hard. And which would look better for college will totally depend on whose's reading the application.

Tell her to close her eyes...take a deep breath...let a picture of the right place appear...and go with her gut!

 

[MerissaAndMomLoveDis]

Congrats to everyone pleased with their test scores!

The Xavier open house was great. DD wasn't wowed by the location/campus - too suburban-feeling, too isolated from the city culture - but was really impressed with the school itself so it has gotten a solid "maybe" out of her. But the more important thing we learned is that open houses are so much more informative than standard campus tours! She got to chat with the heads of the programs she's interested in and attend info sessions specific to her interests/situation (honors college, environmental sciences), and was really impressed with their short-term study abroad programs over breaks (ie Christmas break in Jerusalem for 6 credit hours/fulfilling two core requirements). We both walked away feeling like we got a much better sense of the school than we did when we just stopped in for a campus tour. Now she wants to make the effort to attend open houses at the remaining schools on her list... so we're heading out in the wee hours of the morning on Friday for a weekend in Boston for Wellesley's "junior day" open house. The event itself is most of the day on Saturday, but we're also planning on taking the bus or train into the city on Friday night since she wants to know what it would be like to live there without a car and visiting Walden Pond before we head home on Sunday.

Just wanted to mention that we visited Walden Pond during a whirlwind colleges tours visit last summer. It was such a welcome peaceful respite in our otherwise overscheduled time in the area. I am a history geek and literature geek, and I really enjoyed it. I WAS surprised at how busy the swimming beach got in the afternoon, but that probably was not an issue this weekend lol. Hope your campus visit went well!!

 

[bjscheel]

So earlier I posted how I have a hard time adjusting to DD's school and major idea changes. We had found a school that she liked with a great price, we visited and she loved it, and so I have been somewhat getting used to the idea of her going far away. Now she is becoming unsure of the distance and is thinking of staying closer to home, and particularly wants to look at a certain private Christian college. It doesn't have Geography but she thought she could find something else. As much as I would love for her to go there for the proximity, Christian focus, and a good friend or two she would have there, I can't see the finances working out barring a major outside scholarship or unexpected inheritance! I just hope we have a clear winner by a year from now

At least, as we discussed today, she does have a financial safety that she likes if it feels okay to be far away by then. A lot can change over the upcoming year.

She needs to figure out if she'll continue working at the ice cream shop, which she dislikes. She is interested in being outdoors and sort of into organic food. There is an organic farm looking for gardening help with completely flexible scheduling. She'll be gone one week each month of summer, so flexibility is a must. The problem is it's 25 miles away, so I don't know if it's worth it. Any job is going to be at least an 11 mile drive, however. The only other likely choices are the grocery store, or detassling corn which is awful.