Course recommendation for rising 9th graders

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finish your health using 8th grade or 9th grade summer. That's my only useful suggestion. Health A and B are completely waste of time and they appear absolutely no use at all for college application. For fine arts, maybe your kid would find it interesting and want to pursue AP 2D arts or 3D arts later. For PE, if your DC does not plan to involve in varsity sports, then taking PE before senior year might help demonstrate they are not too nerdy, otherwise, using PE as a relaxing timeslot to take a break from senior year application stress is not a bad idea.

Except they just changed summer options. Look closely at the schedule for in person and virtual. Seems like it will conflict with a lot of common teen summer activities like swim team B meets.

Yes, I’ve heard that from this week’s BOE meeting, and that’s because Taylor is a strong believer of in-person learning. That’s also the reason why he cancels the virtual institution.

Scrapping over health in freshman summer is still better than waiting till later when internship and summer jobs really conflict with the scheduling.

[Anonymous]

PE was a nice break in 9th given the transition to high school and the more demanding classes in general. Mine took PE and fine art in 9th, health over summer, AP Comp Sci for Tech in 10th

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finish your health using 8th grade or 9th grade summer. That's my only useful suggestion. Health A and B are completely waste of time and they appear absolutely no use at all for college application. For fine arts, maybe your kid would find it interesting and want to pursue AP 2D arts or 3D arts later. For PE, if your DC does not plan to involve in varsity sports, then taking PE before senior year might help demonstrate they are not too nerdy, otherwise, using PE as a relaxing timeslot to take a break from senior year application stress is not a bad idea.

Except they just changed summer options. Look closely at the schedule for in person and virtual. Seems like it will conflict with a lot of common teen summer activities like swim team B meets.

Yes, I’ve heard that from this week’s BOE meeting, and that’s because Taylor is a strong believer of in-person learning. That’s also the reason why he cancels the virtual institution.

Scrapping over health in freshman summer is still better than waiting till later when internship and summer jobs really conflict with the scheduling.

+1. Your kid can live without swim team B.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is your DC planning to take in 9th grade? Is it better to get done with Fine Arts and PE requirements in 9th or do one in 9th and one in 12th?

Can't they take both in 12th when they will take more difficult classes ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The easiest thing to schedule is to dedicate 1 slot each year for PE, Health, Fine Art, Tech, in any order.

Optimizers do Health in summer, Tech in middle school (or maybe summer), and then free up extra elective some years. If you love Fine Art (or Tech?), you might already be planning to take multiple years of it .

Since advanced courses usually have prereqs, and schedule space is limited, there is not so much free choice to choose in scheduling.

Aren't tech classes obsolete? Or do they try to offer pertinent tech classes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mine is doing fine arts and tech as the 2 extra classes. Doing health in the summer and will do PE in 10th grade.

No need to pay for health or tech during the summer when they can do 0 or 9th period for those credits. (That is they take it before or after school during the school year and it doesn’t cost you money.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When do students typically start taking AP classes? How many APs are considered enough to be competitive for state flagship like UMd or Va Tech?

The counselor at WJ told me that roughly 40 percent of their 9th graders take 1 or more AP classes, with AP Gov being most common. She thought 40 percent was too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is doing fine arts and tech as the 2 extra classes. Doing health in the summer and will do PE in 10th grade.

No need to pay for health or tech during the summer when they can do 0 or 9th period for those credits. (That is they take it before or after school during the school year and it doesn’t cost you money.)

She'd rather just get it done with over the summer. She has a lot going on during the school year. We are lucky that we can swing it financially. I know that's not an option for everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finish your health using 8th grade or 9th grade summer. That's my only useful suggestion. Health A and B are completely waste of time and they appear absolutely no use at all for college application. For fine arts, maybe your kid would find it interesting and want to pursue AP 2D arts or 3D arts later. For PE, if your DC does not plan to involve in varsity sports, then taking PE before senior year might help demonstrate they are not too nerdy, otherwise, using PE as a relaxing timeslot to take a break from senior year application stress is not a bad idea.

Except they just changed summer options. Look closely at the schedule for in person and virtual. Seems like it will conflict with a lot of common teen summer activities like swim team B meets.

Yes, I’ve heard that from this week’s BOE meeting, and that’s because Taylor is a strong believer of in-person learning. That’s also the reason why he cancels the virtual institution.

Scrapping over health in freshman summer is still better than waiting till later when internship and summer jobs really conflict with the scheduling.

+1. Your kid can live without swim team B.

For a lot of kids this is their main sport. Kids are 15 between 9th and 10th grade so they are definitely swimming events at B meets on Wednesday nights.

What is the attendance policy for the virtual and in person summer classes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is doing fine arts and tech as the 2 extra classes. Doing health in the summer and will do PE in 10th grade.

No need to pay for health or tech during the summer when they can do 0 or 9th period for those credits. (That is they take it before or after school during the school year and it doesn’t cost you money.)

Where do we find this information? Are the counselors the gatekeepers for those too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is doing fine arts and tech as the 2 extra classes. Doing health in the summer and will do PE in 10th grade.

No need to pay for health or tech during the summer when they can do 0 or 9th period for those credits. (That is they take it before or after school during the school year and it doesn’t cost you money.)

She'd rather just get it done with over the summer. She has a lot going on during the school year. We are lucky that we can swing it financially. I know that's not an option for everyone.

They have low income waivers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is doing fine arts and tech as the 2 extra classes. Doing health in the summer and will do PE in 10th grade.

No need to pay for health or tech during the summer when they can do 0 or 9th period for those credits. (That is they take it before or after school during the school year and it doesn’t cost you money.)

She'd rather just get it done with over the summer. She has a lot going on during the school year. We are lucky that we can swing it financially. I know that's not an option for everyone.

They have low income waivers.

It is not free for anyone. It is less expensive, but for some families, stoll cost prohibitive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finish your health using 8th grade or 9th grade summer. That's my only useful suggestion. Health A and B are completely waste of time and they appear absolutely no use at all for college application. For fine arts, maybe your kid would find it interesting and want to pursue AP 2D arts or 3D arts later. For PE, if your DC does not plan to involve in varsity sports, then taking PE before senior year might help demonstrate they are not too nerdy, otherwise, using PE as a relaxing timeslot to take a break from senior year application stress is not a bad idea.

Except they just changed summer options. Look closely at the schedule for in person and virtual. Seems like it will conflict with a lot of common teen summer activities like swim team B meets.

Yes, I’ve heard that from this week’s BOE meeting, and that’s because Taylor is a strong believer of in-person learning. That’s also the reason why he cancels the virtual institution.

Scrapping over health in freshman summer is still better than waiting till later when internship and summer jobs really conflict with the scheduling.

+1. Your kid can live without swim team B.

For a lot of kids this is their main sport. Kids are 15 between 9th and 10th grade so they are definitely swimming events at B meets on Wednesday nights.

What is the attendance policy for the virtual and in person summer classes?

It’s mandatory attendance. It’s only 9 days of instruction covering the semester and they squeeze in tests and quizzes that can’t be made up if you miss. I’m sure if you have a super extenuating unexpected circumstance there could be flexibility but no, you probably can’t skip 2 out of 9 zooms for a swim meet without messing up the course grade. If the 7pm time slot doesn’t work you should do the daytime in person class. I empathize and think they should offer two zoom options like they did last year (1pm).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is your DC planning to take in 9th grade? Is it better to get done with Fine Arts and PE requirements in 9th or do one in 9th and one in 12th?

Most do PE in 9th although you don’t have to. I’d recommend getting them out of the way in 9th and 10th because you don’t have a lot of other interesting electives available yet, and many more great courses are available in 11th & 12th that your child would probably like room in the schedule to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finish your health using 8th grade or 9th grade summer. That's my only useful suggestion. Health A and B are completely waste of time and they appear absolutely no use at all for college application. For fine arts, maybe your kid would find it interesting and want to pursue AP 2D arts or 3D arts later. For PE, if your DC does not plan to involve in varsity sports, then taking PE before senior year might help demonstrate they are not too nerdy, otherwise, using PE as a relaxing timeslot to take a break from senior year application stress is not a bad idea.

Except they just changed summer options. Look closely at the schedule for in person and virtual. Seems like it will conflict with a lot of common teen summer activities like swim team B meets.

Yes, I’ve heard that from this week’s BOE meeting, and that’s because Taylor is a strong believer of in-person learning. That’s also the reason why he cancels the virtual institution.

Scrapping over health in freshman summer is still better than waiting till later when internship and summer jobs really conflict with the scheduling.

+1. Your kid can live without swim team B.

For a lot of kids this is their main sport. Kids are 15 between 9th and 10th grade so they are definitely swimming events at B meets on Wednesday nights.

What is the attendance policy for the virtual and in person summer classes?

It’s mandatory attendance. It’s only 9 days of instruction covering the semester and they squeeze in tests and quizzes that can’t be made up if you miss. I’m sure if you have a super extenuating unexpected circumstance there could be flexibility but no, you probably can’t skip 2 out of 9 zooms for a swim meet without messing up the course grade. If the 7pm time slot doesn’t work you should do the daytime in person class. I empathize and think they should offer two zoom options like they did last year (1pm).

Do they still offer zoom session this year? I thought it's in-person only and they host summer school at several HSs, so you should be able to find one in proximity to your home. Transportation is still a headache if they have to select day-time course. Do MCPS offer summer school bus rides?