Can TJ students take online HPE during the school year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From TJ staff the general recommendation you'll hear is sign up for bare minimum course rigor each year, no need for summer courses, and make sure your kid doesn't stress out about grades. This is their CYA stance. But following this approach alone, leaves the student at a huge disadvantage compared to the top half of the class enrolled in much more comprehensive and rigorous advanced coursework.

It is not until parents talk to other parents, and students talk to their peers or upperclassmen that they learn of effective course planning and possibilities to fully utilize student's full potential.

They are not disadvantaged by taking PE during the school year. Your child is in a Race to Nowhere if you try to match the extremely tiger parented students. You won't win and your child will be burned out.

It's not "race to nowhere" to be realistic that if your kid does Band/Orchestra and a language that it's really hard to make those work w/o summer PE. Band/Orchestra also aren't "academic" so for kids who do those and aren't super into PE they are the "stress relief" class in the schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From TJ staff the general recommendation you'll hear is sign up for bare minimum course rigor each year, no need for summer courses, and make sure your kid doesn't stress out about grades. This is their CYA stance. But following this approach alone, leaves the student at a huge disadvantage compared to the top half of the class enrolled in much more comprehensive and rigorous advanced coursework.

It is not until parents talk to other parents, and students talk to their peers or upperclassmen that they learn of effective course planning and possibilities to fully utilize student's full potential.

They are not disadvantaged by taking PE during the school year. Your child is in a Race to Nowhere if you try to match the extremely tiger parented students. You won't win and your child will be burned out.

It's not "race to nowhere" to be realistic that if your kid does Band/Orchestra and a language that it's really hard to make those work w/o summer PE. Band/Orchestra also aren't "academic" so for kids who do those and aren't super into PE they are the "stress relief" class in the schedule.

NP. DC is in band/orchestra and a language, which is a required class at TJ, and took PE over the summer. However, it is not necessarily required. Something needs to be taken over the summer, and if HPE 9 was not taken before starting 9th grade, then something else needs to be taken over the summer between 9 and 10. That could be HPE 10 or it could be CS or it could be a different class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No, you cannot take it as an 8th class. You can take it as a "9th period" class but it is discouraged. Just take it over the summer next year. It doesn't have to be during or before 9th grade, it can be later.

You sure? You can take HPE 10 in the summer before 11th grade?

This summer (2024) , I asked TJ counselor if my kid could take PE (for 9 grade) next summer so the kid had space for other elective class and they said No.

Thanks for the info. Wondering if you can take it during 9th grade as an 8th online class. Probably counselor will say no too.

The general rule is a class already being offered at TJ cannot be taken outside TJ, online or anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No, you cannot take it as an 8th class. You can take it as a "9th period" class but it is discouraged. Just take it over the summer next year. It doesn't have to be during or before 9th grade, it can be later.

You sure? You can take HPE 10 in the summer before 11th grade?

This summer (2024) , I asked TJ counselor if my kid could take PE (for 9 grade) next summer so the kid had space for other elective class and they said No.

Thanks for the info. Wondering if you can take it during 9th grade as an 8th online class. Probably counselor will say no too.

The general rule is a class already being offered at TJ cannot be taken outside TJ, online or anywhere.

I think that's truer for the TJ-specific courses.
We were able to get DC's middle school to approve an online PE class (done summer before 9th) and then also got the extra SS credit approved to be through Loudoun instead of FCPS (although they weren't wild about that).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From TJ staff the general recommendation you'll hear is sign up for bare minimum course rigor each year, no need for summer courses, and make sure your kid doesn't stress out about grades. This is their CYA stance. But following this approach alone, leaves the student at a huge disadvantage compared to the top half of the class enrolled in much more comprehensive and rigorous advanced coursework.

It is not until parents talk to other parents, and students talk to their peers or upperclassmen that they learn of effective course planning and possibilities to fully utilize student's full potential.

They are not disadvantaged by taking PE during the school year. Your child is in a Race to Nowhere if you try to match the extremely tiger parented students. You won't win and your child will be burned out.

Any student better than their own has to have a tiger parent. LoL!

There's no point in competing with or comparing oneself to the top hundred students of the TJ class, as they are skipping lower levels and filling up their coursework with AP and post AP courses, and have time for sports and clubs. Counselors would be risking trouble if they suggest such challenging course load path to a novice freshman, who potentially can complain about stress and poor grades if matters go south.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

No, you cannot take it as an 8th class. You can take it as a "9th period" class but it is discouraged. Just take it over the summer next year. It doesn't have to be during or before 9th grade, it can be later.

You sure? You can take HPE 10 in the summer before 11th grade?

This summer (2024) , I asked TJ counselor if my kid could take PE (for 9 grade) next summer so the kid had space for other elective class and they said No.

Thanks for the info. Wondering if you can take it during 9th grade as an 8th online class. Probably counselor will say no too.

The general rule is a class already being offered at TJ cannot be taken outside TJ, online or anywhere.

I think that's truer for the TJ-specific courses.
We were able to get DC's middle school to approve an online PE class (done summer before 9th) and then also got the extra SS credit approved to be through Loudoun instead of FCPS (although they weren't wild about that).

TJ allows transferring summer PE, EPF, world language, etc credits earned from outside TJ, because there are not offered at TJ during summer. The only other course that significantly affects TJ coursework choices is the level of Math accomplished in middle school and summer before entering TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From TJ staff the general recommendation you'll hear is sign up for bare minimum course rigor each year, no need for summer courses, and make sure your kid doesn't stress out about grades. This is their CYA stance. But following this approach alone, leaves the student at a huge disadvantage compared to the top half of the class enrolled in much more comprehensive and rigorous advanced coursework.

It is not until parents talk to other parents, and students talk to their peers or upperclassmen that they learn of effective course planning and possibilities to fully utilize student's full potential.

Yeah you can't trust them for good honest advice, they are trying to cover their ass.

One of my kid's friends tested into 7th grade algebra and when the parents asked about it, the school told them that it just created unnecessary stress for kids so they didn't do it and they ended up taking a math class over a summer because it was actually not great advice for a math focused kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From TJ staff the general recommendation you'll hear is sign up for bare minimum course rigor each year, no need for summer courses, and make sure your kid doesn't stress out about grades. This is their CYA stance. But following this approach alone, leaves the student at a huge disadvantage compared to the top half of the class enrolled in much more comprehensive and rigorous advanced coursework.

It is not until parents talk to other parents, and students talk to their peers or upperclassmen that they learn of effective course planning and possibilities to fully utilize student's full potential.

+1
We don’t come from a zone with a lot of TJ families so I had no clue what was typical going into it beyond what I read on DCUM and a surprisingly helpful Facebook thread. Doing Summer PE was one of the tips I got from that.

They really should offer a parent to parent tips manual to incoming families to help share the advice around. The school is not really that helpful on giving advice about “how do most TJ students handle this” since they want to tone down the competitiveness. I am not gunning for DC to take 5 million APs but there’s a balance that’s needed.

I remember being the child of poor immigrant parents who had noone they could talk to but other poor immigrant parents. It was the blind leading the blind and the administration was no help. Their agenda did not align with the priorities of poor immigrant parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From TJ staff the general recommendation you'll hear is sign up for bare minimum course rigor each year, no need for summer courses, and make sure your kid doesn't stress out about grades. This is their CYA stance. But following this approach alone, leaves the student at a huge disadvantage compared to the top half of the class enrolled in much more comprehensive and rigorous advanced coursework.

It is not until parents talk to other parents, and students talk to their peers or upperclassmen that they learn of effective course planning and possibilities to fully utilize student's full potential.

They are not disadvantaged by taking PE during the school year. Your child is in a Race to Nowhere if you try to match the extremely tiger parented students. You won't win and your child will be burned out.

It depends on the kid.
Some kids need the PE class because they are taking a ton of AP classes and don't have time for extra electives and are frankly grateful for the PE taking up that slot in their schedule..
Other kids are taking a bunch of electives and need the room in their schedule.

Don't think your way is the only way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The general rule is a class already being offered at TJ cannot be taken outside TJ, online or anywhere.

Make sense.

Then can I take a class offered by TJ and another class not offered by TJ in summer? Is there any rule that you can only take one class in summer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The general rule is a class already being offered at TJ cannot be taken outside TJ, online or anywhere.

Make sense.

Then can I take a class offered by TJ and another class not offered by TJ in summer? Is there any rule that you can only take one class in summer?

Yes there is. Only 1 summer class is allowed at all. Only exception is you can also take EPF on top of that in the summer and it doesn’t count.

[Anonymous]

My kid is charting his own path. Skipped on CS for band and doing CS in the summer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is charting his own path. Skipped on CS for band and doing CS in the summer

That's supposed to be a good summer class, not too hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From TJ staff the general recommendation you'll hear is sign up for bare minimum course rigor each year, no need for summer courses, and make sure your kid doesn't stress out about grades. This is their CYA stance. But following this approach alone, leaves the student at a huge disadvantage compared to the top half of the class enrolled in much more comprehensive and rigorous advanced coursework.

It is not until parents talk to other parents, and students talk to their peers or upperclassmen that they learn of effective course planning and possibilities to fully utilize student's full potential.

+1
We don’t come from a zone with a lot of TJ families so I had no clue what was typical going into it beyond what I read on DCUM and a surprisingly helpful Facebook thread. Doing Summer PE was one of the tips I got from that.

They really should offer a parent to parent tips manual to incoming families to help share the advice around. The school is not really that helpful on giving advice about “how do most TJ students handle this” since they want to tone down the competitiveness. I am not gunning for DC to take 5 million APs but there’s a balance that’s needed.

I remember being the child of poor immigrant parents who had noone they could talk to but other poor immigrant parents. It was the blind leading the blind and the administration was no help. Their agenda did not align with the priorities of poor immigrant parents.

That's how America has evolved over the centuries. Most first-generation immigrants start with very little, but work hard to improve their situation and pass on the lessons they've learned to their children, helping them pursue better career opportunities than they had. Your child will benefit from your experience, and their children will further benefit from their improved situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From TJ staff the general recommendation you'll hear is sign up for bare minimum course rigor each year, no need for summer courses, and make sure your kid doesn't stress out about grades. This is their CYA stance. But following this approach alone, leaves the student at a huge disadvantage compared to the top half of the class enrolled in much more comprehensive and rigorous advanced coursework.

It is not until parents talk to other parents, and students talk to their peers or upperclassmen that they learn of effective course planning and possibilities to fully utilize student's full potential.

They are not disadvantaged by taking PE during the school year. Your child is in a Race to Nowhere if you try to match the extremely tiger parented students. You won't win and your child will be burned out.

Do you call yourself a sheep parent?