We are new to poolesville high school global ecology program and are not impressed.
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Anonymous
| Our child goes to the global program and so far they have gone in one field trip where they walked around ate ice cream, cooked eggs and slept in a tent. The class programs in the school have not been challenging, with one class having a nap session everyday. What is this pre-k? We are not impressed….any other global parents out there feeling the same? |
Anonymous
| Maybe they are starting slow to ease the kids into it? |
Anonymous
| Are you saying there is a high school class where the students are given time every day to take a nap! |
Anonymous
| Lots of high school classes incorporate yoga, etc. My kid’s English class in HS does yoga. |
Anonymous
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They should start later in the day and have more rigorous classes, certainly, just like for most MCPS high schools.
That magnet was never very rigorous. It gets a lot of buzz, and has many interested families looking to get in, but at the end of the day it’s not the strongest set of classes or teachers. |
Anonymous
Yes, apparently this “magnet” program has this feature. |
Anonymous
| Honestly it sounds great. |
Anonymous
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My daughter is a Humanities freshman at Poolesville with friends in Global.
Of course they’ve only gone on one field trip— it’s the 4th week of school, and the global ecology program is so big that they had to do the trip twice with half the students each time. A field trip this early, and an overnight one at that, is pretty good. From what my daughter knows, it was supposed to be a camping trip. They went on a hike and slept in a tent. The classes will get harder, both throughout this year and next year. My daughter hasn’t heard of a nap class, but if you mean yoga in gym, your kid can switch out. Don’t base your opinions on the first 4 weeks. I showed my daughter a thread here about the PHS programs back when she was applying. When I showed her this thread, she said “didn’t that other thread have parents saying Global was so great because it doesn’t have the stress or the workload of the other programs? And now the parents are complaining about exactly that?” |
Anonymous
| Dp. Yes we are also global parents, and no it’s not yoga class. (Which my kid would have enjoyed)it is a class to take naps in. The field trips are fine albeit, maybe a little basic. What worries me is the class curriculum and what’s taught in class is no where near magnet or even advance level material. |
Anonymous
| How selective is this program? How are students chosen for the program? |
Anonymous
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I have a sophomore in Global Ecology and one that’s finished the program and in college. The one that’s in college was accepted everywhere she applied including a school in the top 30- but is attending a top 50 school (Honors program). In her graduating year they had several GE students go to schools including MIT, Harvard, and UPenn. There are a ton of smart kids in the program. We thought it was terrific!
The first marking period of freshman year they do take it very slowly in Global Ecology as kids are coming from all different schools and they don’t want kids dropping out due to the pressure. Watch what you wish for-AP Seminar gets very difficult (unless your kid is a very fast writer) towards the second half of 9th grade. Just curious what electives your child is taking too. I know they often recommend PE for freshman year which IMHO is a mistake. I think PE is a better fluff class to fill in during a later year that’s packed with APs. Also it really depends on what your kid’s math placement is/ language. My 10th grader took AP CS/ Honors Spanish 3/ Honors Alg 2 as a Freshman. I know the ones in Magnet Pre-Cal said it was a challenging class. Both my kids get stressed and study all the time. The GE program was perfect as we enjoyed the field trips as a mental health break and the cohorts fostered friendships. Some of the non-magnet classes freshman and sophomore year are mediocre like English. It’s a problem with the curriculum though. Things really get fun in 11th grade when they are taking almost all AP classes and depending on the track they choose it might be mostly magnet students in all their core classes. You don’t find many non-magnet students in AP English, Chem, Physics. If your kid isn’t finding school challenging by January- it’s probably more of a schedule issue than a school issue. I hope your kid sticks it out. |
Anonymous
It is very selective- 99. Percentile on both sections of the test is common. |
Anonymous
Nope. Totally false. My child had mid 80’s on map m and map r and was accepted in the first round for global. Also, many of her friends got accepted in second round with much lower scores. So it is not as selective as people make it sound. |
Anonymous
PP, do you know what they are looking for, in addition to MAP scores? |
Anonymous
DP here. Who knows with mcps? I would definitely get some extra curricular activities done for my kid if it was me. Awards are also helpful! |