Sometimes you just get lucky...

But sometimes you just don't.

This is the first year of a new curriculum in our district, and so far we've heard from the teachers that they are using tests they haven't seen before.  What does that even mean? is what we're wondering, until we sit down with the test and begin to understand.

And not only that:  a new grading system, weighted grades on a 70/30 split, and a much-dreaded (by the teachers!) cumulative semester exam that will be 10% of our grade. This test is SO ominous, apparently, that we are encouraged not to miss ANY days of school so as not to lose our test waivers. (Which means a lot of us are showing up sick for school, including tests, but that's another post for another day.)

The good news? This will be the first year my class will NOT spend most of the second semester preparing for the four TAKS tests we've taken every year since the third grade.

I know someone who chose to go to a college that doesn't give grades, just some kind of annual evaluation by professors about strengths and weaknesses, growth and development, etc. He said he was tired of all the intensity and competition at his big, crowded high school. I understand, I really do.

What would I choose for myself if I could choose something completely different?

Classes smaller than 35-40,  for one thing; hallways that aren't so crowded that we experiment with one-way routes (like that works any better!); and no 45-minute classes with a 5-minute bell schedule. If I never hear another bell that will be just fine with me, or see another clock on the wall stopped at some impossible time.

It's still a little strange to think that now is the time when I can make a different choice about what I want next for myself.

Lessons from college visits

You don't know until you stand on the campus, eat in the cafeteria, and talk to some students.

Some colleges are just what you thought they'd be, but in my experience there are usually some surprises, not all deal-breakers, but some sure are.

One college I thought would be perfect turned out to feel like a small private high school, even though the campus wasn't all that small. It's just that the buildings, and all the rooms in the buildings, just felt small and kind of dark. I think it must have been all the big shady tress, but I just didn't like the feel. Great food, though. Gulag style dorms.

Another college I thought would be too big felt just right, a combination of the campus layout and the town it was in. I could see myself living there.

This is going to be tough, but try not to make your decision based on your tour guide, because their experiences may not be what you'll experience.  But I have to say that's really hard to do, because you wonder if all the students are like this one person, who may be annoying or just, well, not like you or your friends.

One of the whole points to going away to college is going away, right? Going away from your high school groups, whatever they were, and going away from your past in a lot of ways. Something new, different and even a little bit foreign might be a good thing. Right?

New element on the periodic table

High-school chemistry students, beware. Japanese scientists say they have created one of the elements still missing from the periodic table. The elusive element 113—an atom with 113 protons—has to be manmade because it doesn't occur naturally on Earth. On Wednesday, researchers at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science announced the successful creation of the element for the first time. If the atom withstands scrutiny, it will be the first element discovered by an Asian country, giving Japan naming rights. So far, only American, Russian, and German scientists have had the honor. There are about 20 synthetic elements, the first of which was created in 1940.

Read it at CBS News

September 26, 2012 4:19 PM

I'm going to need a bigger backpack.

Just when you think you've got your routines down, your desk set up, all your studying ready to go...then, boom! AP Chemistry lands in your life.

Worth it? Yes - just take a look at any college's AP credit page, and then think for a minute about just how big a classroom (auditorium?) would have to be to hold the 300-550 students in an intro chem class.

Bigger backpack. More pizza.

AP scores!!

AP English Language   5

AP Psychology   5

And this just goes to prove that you really can be the master of your own fate. I'm the one who was so discouraged after making a C in my English class, but decided to work like crazy anyway outside of class. Is there a lesson here?

Grades!

Two A's.

And the things I know about microeconomics...

Finals!

This is it. My grades are good so far, just have to avoid blowing it at the end. You know the feeling.

What's great is that I've taken notes every single day in class, using my laptop which means I can organize and review pretty easily.

This is also where keeping on top of your reading pays off. Now I review information for the second or third time, not the first.

Time to order more pizza.

Research paper, for real

Combine "microeconomics" and "research paper" and what do you get? A weekend of work without a break, my friends. Ordered pizza. Twice.

College continued

While this is not easy stuff it is pretty straightforward information to learn, and the classroom lectures have enough discussion to make it interesting. I'm enjoying studying about US government in an election year, and who knew microeconomics could explain so much?

Here's some advice:  do NOT skip the reading. Don't even think about it! On this kind of schedule there's no room for slacking off, because the very next day you'd be lost.

College vs High School

No worksheets, no daily grades, no attendance, no bathroom passes, no tardy slips.

Instead a syllabus and lots of reading, tests and research papers we know about far in advance. Also time for discussion, asking questions, debating opinions.

And no substitute teachers.

College classes

Reporting from my first college summer classes:  My first experience of summer school and college courses is so far a positive one. Two hours a day, five days a week with reading and homework every night makes for an intensive learning experience, but I think I like it. Even with two classes (yes, that's right, boys and girls, four hours a day in class, reading and homework every night x2) it's manageable, but the interesting thing is how much I'm learning. So this is my summer so far...

Do yourself a favor

What I wish...

Is that someone had shown us the Common Application form back in 8th grade or so, but definitely no later than the first two weeks of high school. If we had known then what we'd be faced with filling out 3 years later, a lot more of what we kept hearing about from our parents, teachers and counselors would have made more sense.

These big blank sections really get your attention: Academics. Honors. Extracurricular Activities and Work Experience.

If you are a parent reading this, it's never too early to show your child the Common App. Think of it as a reality check - what's on this form will determine how they will be viewed, evaluated and ultimately either accepted or rejected by a college, maybe their perfect college.

Think of it as the finish line, and show it to your kid before the race gets started.

School's out!

The end is in sight! No, wait, that's just the start of summer school.

Dual credit classes at nearby college, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week.

I think of it as a practice run for college.

This is way better than dual credit classes offered on my high school campus at 7:00am, which just sounds crazy.

College, so many choices

Parameters

I'm trying to come up with some minimums and maximums for college size, based on the choices a lot of the college search programs ask you for.

Do I want a college that is smaller than my high school? (Will I ever see anyone I don't already know?)

Do I want a college where the football stadium holds more people than the population of the town where I live?

Goodbye to all this?

Junior-itis? Or is it just me?

My best friend is a senior, and he - no surprise - has a bad case of senior-itis. He's more than just a little crazy these days, but he's looking at prom and graduation and a summer job and then the rest of his life...

Me, it's just like I woke up in a new world that on one hand feels so much more serious and full of acronyms (ACT, SAT, GPA, ED, EA) while on the other hand is all about just being a kid (OK, a big kid) just a little while longer. Get a few of us together at lunch, and we are one big pile of crazy.

Is it the pressure? Maybe. Or are we just mature enough to know our days as kids are numbered?

ACT or SAT. That is the question.

Or is it both? Neither?

April 14 is national ACT test day, and I'm taking it to see how my scores look. What's interesting is how many of my friends tell me that colleges want SAT, not ACT.

So I researched it, and found out that it's kind of a regional difference. Most of the midwest states have a tradition of taking ACT tests, but the east coast is all about the SAT.

College websites tell a different story:  they'll take either one, and some of them don't care if you take neither.

What's more important is to take a look at something called "common data set" for each college (Google it for each college; it's faster) which shows the most recent scores for the students accepted to that college, 25%-75%, along with what percentage took ACT or SAT.

It's one way to see if that's a college where you might fit in, data wise.

AP Test season is upon us.

That is the sound of me sighing. And yawning.

I know, I know. Some of you, like many of my friends, are wall-to-wall AP classes this year, with something like 6 tests facing you in a little over a month's time. But hey, my 2 AP classes are lot, for me. I actually know some people - perfectly nice, bright, mostly normal - who are taking NO AP classes at all, apparently using the GPA strategy which doesn't include that "rigor of study" part I keep seeing on college websites. It was a shock to hear, on some of my spring break college visits, that some colleges don't weight pre-AP or even AP courses - they just look at an unweighted average. Not sure if my no-AP friends have it right, but then I wonder if my all-AP friends have it right either.

But I guess that's why there are so many different kinds of colleges out there, and we just have to find our way to the one that's right for us. Right?

Pollen, pollen everywhere

Well, not really, but at some times of the year it sure seems like it. Like now. Oak pollen is everywhere, and Mountain Cedar (Juniper) is still going strong. I found out last year that I'm allergic to both, so I'm pretty miserable these days even with medication.

 I haven't decided whether it helps me to know, but if you think it helps you, there are some great pollen forecast websites around, usually more specific if it's an allergist in your city. At least you can make sure you know why you feel so bad. Sometimes that's something.

links you can try are here, here and here.

Rubrics, really?

Yes really.

We used to have rubrics on the reverse side of the instructions for special projects or research papers. One side explained in several paragraphs what you were supposed to do. The other side was a form which showed specifically what you had to do to earn a specific number of points. It broke it all down. These were great while they lasted.

I started last year doing what I called check-backs on instructions, where I underlined or highlighted the specifics buried in the instructions for assignments. This year I've starting just making my own rubric, going one step further.

For example, in AP Psych we were assigned to do either a PSA, book or case study explaining one kind of condition. The explanation was several paragraphs, and since I was working with two other people on a team (and I'd carried one of them before on projects teams like this) I decided to convert the long description to a form that we could use to divide up the work, like translating it into what we had to do.

That last part didn't quite work out, but I did actually have them come over to my house and used the form to make sure we had done everything we needed to do. It kept us on track, and when we were done it turned out that ours was the best one.

Plans are great when they work. But first you need a plan.

Announcements and why they matter

At our school, which is very large and crowded (5A now), the announcements every morning can be easily confused with white noise and static on a bad radio. I know they are saying words, in English, but it's just that I can't quite hear them over the sounds of everyone moving around, talking, getting out their books, etc.

I know there are lots and lots of posters taped up on the walls in most of the hallways. The problem is that the halls are so packed with kids trying to get to class in the 5 minutes we've got, pretty much shoulder to shoulder and wall to wall. It's so crowded that last year the principal decided we needed one-way halls for traffic flow - not kidding.

I realize that our advisory teachers are supposed to pass along important information about things like major deadlines.

Except, that's not always how it works, and the reason that matters is that the deadlines are the deadlines. Hard fact, but true.

I just missed something very important:  the deadline to apply for National Honor Society, for which I qualified. The announcement the day before was in a newsletter emailed late on the day before the final deadline, and by the time I read my email it was the morning after the deadline. I explained and asked nicely, but the deadline was the deadline.

The only thing that could make this worse was that I realized I missed it last year too. Same thing:  I qualified.

Too bad that National Junior Honor Society membership back in middle school doesn't count for anything. Neither does membership in the spring of my senior year, well after college applications are done.

A deadline is a deadline. Not my favorite lesson.