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    KADmom #213316 03/26/15 09:10 AM
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    I think you should ignore the teacher. In my book, she lost credibility when she started publicly shaming her students. It sounds like she has some kind of ego problem. Such a shame your son and others had to put up with her this year.

    However, I would have a bit of a hesitation putting my son in an honors class in HS if he was getting Bs and Cs going into it. Remember in 9th grade, the grades start to count and I would be concerned about that. What does your son say about the C? Does he understand everything? Or is it obvious the mistakes he's making are trivial, but add up to lots of points lost? It's very possible he's just not careful enough, but it's still worth a pause to make sure honors is the right placement.

    KADmom #213317 03/26/15 09:14 AM
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    Originally Posted by KADmom
    The options are

    High school Math I (he's taking this now combined w/ 8th)
    High school Math II
    High school Math II honors
    High school Math III honors
    Will High School Math II not let him take High School Math III with honors? My son was dropped out of the honors level this year in high school but he is still accelerated. He is getting A's rather than C+'s last year and will still have the ability to take BC Calculus next year. It's honestly been good for his ego and made him feel better about math. The blip of being in the non honors class won't really affect much in the long run. The hardest part is the class isn't with what he think of as "his" peers but rather a group of older students. I would defiantly have him take Math II. But I would look at what the differences really are between the honors and non-honors course.

    bluemagic #213318 03/26/15 09:16 AM
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    Bluemagic, I'm sorry your son experienced this. My ds was crushed until we reminded him that he gets to choose, and reminded him of his successes. He's young but he's made tremendous growth.

    I do not like to complain about teachers. They have one of the hardest, least appreciated jobs there is to have. But when one uses techniques like this one does, and perhaps she feels it's "tough love," and could potentially cause or exacerbate math anxiety, I think something should be said.

    Last edited by KADmom; 03/26/15 09:20 AM.
    bluemagic #213319 03/26/15 09:19 AM
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    Yes, DH and I plan on meeting with the high school counselor. Hopefully she can shed some light on the situation.

    When the math teacher started missing days of teaching because of pregnancy, we hired a tutor. This woman is a retired Calculus teacher and works part time at the local college. She's worked with ds once a week for six weeks. (He still didn't check over his homework. Ha!) Not a tremendous amount of time but she felt confident in recommending that he go into honors.

    Last edited by KADmom; 03/26/15 09:20 AM.
    KADmom #213320 03/26/15 09:29 AM
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    Originally Posted by KADmom
    I do not like to complain about teachers. They have one of the hardest, least appreciated jobs there is to have.

    No doubt about that. But, with their job also comes "responsibility" - to uplift a student intellectually and not to beat them down when they tend to do well.

    Your son is accelerated so much because he is good at math, obviously. So, there is no reason to hold him back. If I were you, I would let him work on his weak areas in the summer (practicing error checking, slowing down and reviewing work). Go for it!

    KADmom #213321 03/26/15 09:38 AM
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    Originally Posted by KADmom
    Again, if we don't back off a little so he can feel the consequences of blowing things off in 8th grade, before it counts, then how is he supposed to learn?

    This is the part of you post that really struck me - a critical life lesson so many of us fail to learn, or learn when the stakes are much too high. Do you feel like this is a lot of what's been going on? And do you feel like he's coming out of the year recognizing, "OK Mom, point taken"?

    Because if you think that's the case, you're dealing less with math-readiness than responsibility-readiness, and it sounds like you are working well on the latter. So my two cents would be to think hard about which it is: his current math skills or instead his executive function skills which are being over-stretched by this class. Then place and support him next year accordingly, recognizing that generally, more challenging work provides a better environment to encourage strengthening work skills.

    ashley #213322 03/26/15 09:47 AM
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    Thanks, Ashley.

    Platypus101 #213323 03/26/15 09:50 AM
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    Thanks, MichelleC. Yes, I think with the spotty instruction this year, it may be a bit of both, but much more, responsibility. His school passed out chrome books to all the students in January and suddenly the teachers were giving out three times as much homework (they most likely were directed to do so by the county office). Not only that, but all communication about homework was communicated via computer so if the student didn't check he could find himself very behind, very quickly.

    Many, many students' grades plummeted after the computers were handed out. There's actually going to be a meeting about it at the county level.

    Even so, if these are the new expectations, we expect ds will grow to meet them.

    Last edited by KADmom; 03/26/15 09:51 AM.
    KADmom #213324 03/26/15 11:31 AM
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    Also, I've been thinking about changes the local high school (and the whole state) will adopt for next year's high school students. Our 7 point scale will be changing to a 10 point scale. They're also cutting the weighting system. So next year an A in a non-honors course will count as a 4; honors, 4.5; and AP and/or college, 5. There used to be a full point between them with the exception of college which was less than AP.

    It seems then, given this new system in which it's harder to stand out, that taking the more challenging courses would be beneficial.

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