How is the year going? What's working and what isn't. I know this only applies to those of us in the N. Hemisphere and probably many of you probably hit the half way through the year as much as 6 weeks ago. My DS15 just finished finals last week and today we received offical 1st semester grades and I wanted to share and see how everyone else is doing?
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For my DS15 a sophomore in H.S. things are looking up from last year and the beginning of the year. His finals went really well. The only issue is how am I ever going to teach him to STUDY for finals. Unfortunately for him finals are only 10% of the grade. He does really well on multiple choice tests with very little studying. Grades have majorly improved from last year. He has only melted down twice this semester. I like seeing those A's. Math/Science grades look a lot better than English/Social Studies but that looks like how it's going to be for DS. DS pulled his Chemistry grade up from an F at first quarter to a B+. After not getting the homework turned the first 1/4 of the semester he couldn't possibly get an A. Those executive function issues really get in his way but I think the implementation of the 504 has helped and he has worked things out with this teacher. (It was a horrible teacher placement & the counselor knew it.)
Currently the class he has to work on is US History. He has a teacher that he likes and I appreciate that he is teaching the kids to think and doesn't give a lot of busywork. But the way he grades is entirely on DS's weakest point. All assessments except the final are based on short answer tests/quizzes and DS gets very inconsistent grades on these assessments. Both his executive function & language processing issues are tripping him up in this class. On the other hand he got an easy 98.5% on the department standard multiple choice final that kept his grade in the acceptable level. I'm a bit torn because a different teacher and he might be getting better grades, but I do value teachers who aren't just teaching to my son's strengths.
He is going to start a crazy semester of a lot of testing. Practice PSAT is this weekend. Exit exam in March. He is going to take the ACM10 the end of this month. State testing in May. Looking at the SAT Subject tests for Math 2 & Chemistry for June. Exit exam and state testing will be a piece of cake. In addition schools suggests sophomores take a practice SAT/ACT to suss out what test would be better for him. And I'm am debating if I should have him take the 'old' SAT this spring or fall to hedge our bets.
Next week we have big parent/student counselor meeting to plan for the rest of H.S. and directions for college. There aren't a lot of choices for classes the first two years, but next year the only required class is English. I'm a bit frustrated we got the luck of the draw to be seen this soon. We won't have the results of the practice PSAT yet so it will be hard to discuss what level of colleges he should start looking at till we have the info. In addition I've got call-in jury duty all next week and might have to miss the meeting. (Meeting can't be rescheduled. DH can go but I'll be annoyed.) The big discussion will be what Science class my son will take next year. I'm pushing for AP Physics 1 but I think he wants AP Biology, and unfortunately because he didn't get an A this semester AP Chemistry is probably unavailable unless he can WOW the teacher this next semester. My son doesn't know what he wants to do but most likely something in STEM so we are pushing for math through Calculus, an AP Science each year, and AP Computer Science senior year.
Last edited by bluemagic; 02/05/15 07:14 PM.
