High school electives, challenging, interesting classes
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Anonymous
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MCPS has a ton of high school electives. Which ones did your kids talk about because they were engaging, challenging and enjoyable?
I'm asking partly to know how they compare to AP classes and partly to know how they are as high school classes. Which ones help students grow, think and develop academic skills, and which ones are an easy credit and let kids focus elsewhere, or are just plain fun? For example, how do Latin American Studies and Philosophy compare to AP Economics and Psychology? Horticulture and Forensics to AP Environmental Studies and Biology? How is the writing in Creative writing compared to AP English Lang? (And how do they compare to other non AP electives?) Are there well known electives that are especially popular with students? My kid is at Blair but I assume most of these classes are available anywhere. Now if there is a teacher at Blair who makes a certain elective particularly enjoyable... |
Anonymous
| No not all electives and classes are available at every school. Some are listed as being offered but they actually aren't an option at all schools (read a few recent threads). If a student wants to take World Language, they only have one or two more electives they can add to schedule. And if student wants to continue with music (choir, orchestra, band(s)) and world language, there really isn't any other class they can fit into their schedule. |
Anonymous
| The quality of electives are largely teacher-dependent as there is no standard curriculum per se, so your DC should ask their senior fellow students for first-hand experience. A lot of courses can sound good in names, but suck in content. AP electives are more predictable. |
Anonymous
Yeah, with APs (although the teacher can make or break it) we can see the curriculum and there are plenty of websites that talk about them. But sticking to APs narrows down choice. Taking other classes that speak more to a student's interest can help them feel engaged, and provide material for college essays. It's just hard to know what the kid's getting into. So maybe this question is more Blair based. I'll encourage my 9th grade kid to pick the brains of some older kids in his classes. |
Anonymous
| My DD enjoyed Chinese at Whitman. She said the teacher was excellent. |
Anonymous
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ISO interesting HS elective for next year 9th grade student.
If a student takes Health over the summer, what class do you recommend they take during 9th grade? Core 5: English, Math, Science, Social Studies, World Language. Plus, a tech class? What if they also take Engineering in summer school. That frees up 2 or 3 periods. A music student will take a music class. What else? |
Anonymous
PE? |
Anonymous
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It entirely depends on the teacher, OP.
Electives are meant to be fun fillers opening up new avenues of interest. They are not rigorous and should not give as much work as AP courses, except for the post-AP math classes. |
Anonymous
DD took AP US Gov, AP Comp Sci Princ (for tech credit), Spanish 4, English, Pre Calc, Orchestra, Chemistry. |
Anonymous
| Out school only has a limited number of electives and stem so you take what is offered. |
Anonymous
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How many electives can you take in a semester? I mean beyond math, science, English, social studies, world language.
Do you have to take PE every semester? Trying to figure out if my music loving kid will ever get to have another elective! |
Anonymous
Most kids only do one year of PE. Many kids don’t do all four years of language. There are seven periods and four core classes (although I don’t think 4 years of science are required) so in theory you can have 3 electives, although you also need to fit in health and have to take an art credit at some point. |
Anonymous
Kids aiming at the most selective colleges should definitely be doing 4 years of lab science and most likely 4 years of language. |
Anonymous
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Senior year PE second semester is a low key way to have fun and/or stay in shape (if taking something more rigorous like weightlifting).
Forensics is a semester class that also gets good reviews at my kids' HS. If the teachers are recommended, having an open period is a great way to explore an art ore music class...ceramics, general art, guitar. |
Anonymous
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My kids both took AP Micro and Macroeconomics. As an economist, I'll say they got a real intro to basic economics - which has helped them both in college, and is relevant in the real world.
One took forensics and APES and liked both. The first was just plain interesting, the latter is again real world relevant (agriculture, energy, climate/weather) not covered elsewhere in HS. AP Human Geo echoes some of the same subject matter - my DD took same year as APES and said both classes much easier due to this. Both took AP Calculus - one in AB, the other BC. Calculus is just plain hard, so helped them gain excellent study habits although courses were a lot of work. Will echo PPs who said classes all depend on the teacher. Kids report some classes are boring, hard to follow, and/or too easy, depending on the teacher's familiarity and commitment to the course. |