TJ- Spanish 3 and Spanish 4 over the summer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do kids even want to learn anymore? Is everything just a checkbox for them? Taking a foreign language all crammed up into one summer, then taking a year break to then taking that language again the next summer is not conducive to learning a foreign language.

Of course they want to learn.
Just not a foreign language in a world where AI is about to make language translation so easy and accessible that it will be like having a UN interpreter in your pocket.
English is becoming the lingua franca of AI.

by that argument, why learn social studies for four years, when AI is handy for all facts? or why learn math when calculator or AI is handy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Virtual Virginia Spanish 3 asynchronous? If so, how to they monitor and test for speaking skills? Can someone who has taken Virtual Virginia Spanish 3 comment on the time requirement for this class?

Yes, it’s all asynchronous, but lot of time consuming online assignments, few hours a week. The assigned teacher sets a weekly schedule and holds a short live meeting around 8 or 9 a.m. about four days a week, mostly for answering questions and making sure everyone is keeping up with the online work. as long as running grade is above 90+ which is easy to maintain they are not worried about live class participation. For the speaking part, students just record short sentences or conversation through the course platform, and it is all part of the regular assignments. Easy A, in general.

Depending on enrollment, VV pulls teachers from FCPS or similar to run the classes. Couple of years back, a group of TJ students who signed up for the VV summer Spanish course thinking they had enough of tough-love from TJ Spanish teachers, were coincidentally yet ironically assigned a TJ Spanish teacher. But still the VV course is run through the online platform, so the grading is mostly done by the platform.

Keep in mind, the TJ transcript clearly indicates the course was taken online at Virtual Virginia, not in-person at TJ.

The only reason TJ kids do this is because the Spanish department at TJ is insane.
Kids just want their 4 years of language so they can apply to schools that require 4 years of language but the TJ Spanish department wants you to get so good at Spanish that ICE will arrest you.
If I could go back in time and give my TJ kid one piece of advice, it would be to choose a different language to begin with.

Just want? How about encouraging students to earn, instead of just wanting an easy grade! Many hardworking students not only enroll in TJ Spanish 3 but also TJ AP Spanish.

If only parents can step back and didn't constantly reinforce the narrative that TJ Spanish is impossibly hard and TJ Spanish teachers only exit to make it difficult, there is a good chance students can draw inspiration from upperclassman enrolled in TJ Spanish, and level up to the challenge, instead of defaulting to an inferior online summer option.

It's not a narrative promoted by parents.
Its the experience of the students.
Tiger parents would much rather have their kids spend their summers more productively than try to fulfill the TJ world language requirement.

There is no other language that has a steep drop off between freshman year and sophomore year other than spanish.

Experience of which students? clearly not the ones who continue on to TJ Spanish 3 and TJ AP Spanish. Like other course sequences at TJ, plenty students choose to take on the challenge and move to higher levels instead of stopping at the minimum requirement.

If TJ Spanish were truly difficult as many parents seem to reiterate, one would expect very few students to continue into the third year or AP level, compared to any other language. But that's not the case. In fact, student demand for Spanish is so strong that TJ has four Spanish teachers, while most other languages each have only two or one.

Hypothetically, if students were given the option to complete the minimum graduation requirement of TJ Calc AB through a similar online summer course option, quite a few students would jump on that option. And their parents would bad mouth the entire TJ Math faculty for making the TJ Precal or Math 4/5 unnecessarily difficult to pursue Calc AB at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Taking Spanish 3 & 4 over the summers allows TJ students to take more electives. Students who go to TJ didn’t choose the school because of the Spanish Department. There are so many interesting science labs, advanced math courses, CS, and Engineering courses that these students would rather take than the required foreign language classes. These students chose TJ for STEM, not Spanish. Perhaps some students would rather waste their time taking Spanish at TJ instead of the other amazing courses that are offered at TJ. Duolingo is free, they can keep up with their Spanish between summers that way if desired.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do kids even want to learn anymore? Is everything just a checkbox for them? Taking a foreign language all crammed up into one summer, then taking a year break to then taking that language again the next summer is not conducive to learning a foreign language.

Of course they want to learn.
Just not a foreign language in a world where AI is about to make language translation so easy and accessible that it will be like having a UN interpreter in your pocket.
English is becoming the lingua franca of AI.

by that argument, why learn social studies for four years, when AI is handy for all facts? or why learn math when calculator or AI is handy?

Because history is more than facts.
Math is more than calculations.
Language is mostly language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Virtual Virginia Spanish 3 asynchronous? If so, how to they monitor and test for speaking skills? Can someone who has taken Virtual Virginia Spanish 3 comment on the time requirement for this class?

Yes, it’s all asynchronous, but lot of time consuming online assignments, few hours a week. The assigned teacher sets a weekly schedule and holds a short live meeting around 8 or 9 a.m. about four days a week, mostly for answering questions and making sure everyone is keeping up with the online work. as long as running grade is above 90+ which is easy to maintain they are not worried about live class participation. For the speaking part, students just record short sentences or conversation through the course platform, and it is all part of the regular assignments. Easy A, in general.

Depending on enrollment, VV pulls teachers from FCPS or similar to run the classes. Couple of years back, a group of TJ students who signed up for the VV summer Spanish course thinking they had enough of tough-love from TJ Spanish teachers, were coincidentally yet ironically assigned a TJ Spanish teacher. But still the VV course is run through the online platform, so the grading is mostly done by the platform.

Keep in mind, the TJ transcript clearly indicates the course was taken online at Virtual Virginia, not in-person at TJ.

The only reason TJ kids do this is because the Spanish department at TJ is insane.
Kids just want their 4 years of language so they can apply to schools that require 4 years of language but the TJ Spanish department wants you to get so good at Spanish that ICE will arrest you.
If I could go back in time and give my TJ kid one piece of advice, it would be to choose a different language to begin with.

Just want? How about encouraging students to earn, instead of just wanting an easy grade! Many hardworking students not only enroll in TJ Spanish 3 but also TJ AP Spanish.

If only parents can step back and didn't constantly reinforce the narrative that TJ Spanish is impossibly hard and TJ Spanish teachers only exit to make it difficult, there is a good chance students can draw inspiration from upperclassman enrolled in TJ Spanish, and level up to the challenge, instead of defaulting to an inferior online summer option.

It's not a narrative promoted by parents.
Its the experience of the students.
Tiger parents would much rather have their kids spend their summers more productively than try to fulfill the TJ world language requirement.

There is no other language that has a steep drop off between freshman year and sophomore year other than spanish.

Experience of which students? clearly not the ones who continue on to TJ Spanish 3 and TJ AP Spanish. Like other course sequences at TJ, plenty students choose to take on the challenge and move to higher levels instead of stopping at the minimum requirement.

If TJ Spanish were truly difficult as many parents seem to reiterate, one would expect very few students to continue into the third year or AP level, compared to any other language. But that's not the case. In fact, student demand for Spanish is so strong that TJ has four Spanish teachers, while most other languages each have only two or one.

Hypothetically, if students were given the option to complete the minimum graduation requirement of TJ Calc AB through a similar online summer course option, quite a few students would jump on that option. And their parents would bad mouth the entire TJ Math faculty for making the TJ Precal or Math 4/5 unnecessarily difficult to pursue Calc AB at TJ.

PP.

Once again, it is not the parents.
It is the students.
You don't see the German students doing this with German or the French students doing this with French.
Why aren't the parents of those students bad mouthing those classes? Why are only the Spanish parents building this narrative?

It's not the parents, it's the students that want to spend their summers taking Spanish.
If it was up to the parents, the students would do something more productive with their summers than take summer school.

The popularity of Spanish at TJ is not the result of people liking TJ Spanish, it is a result of the popularity of Spanish at the ES/MS level being carried into TJ not because people like TJ Spanish.
Nobody is going to TJ for rigor in Spanish. Nobody.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Taking Spanish 3 & 4 over the summers allows TJ students to take more electives. Students who go to TJ didn’t choose the school because of the Spanish Department. There are so many interesting science labs, advanced math courses, CS, and Engineering courses that these students would rather take than the required foreign language classes. These students chose TJ for STEM, not Spanish. Perhaps some students would rather waste their time taking Spanish at TJ instead of the other amazing courses that are offered at TJ. Duolingo is free, they can keep up with their Spanish between summers that way if desired.

Students enrolled in rigorous TJ AP Spanish are often the same near the top of the class students enrolled in rigorous post AP stem courses.

High achievers are determined to demonstrate rigor across their coursework by pursuing every available challenge, including taking Spanish to the AP level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do kids even want to learn anymore? Is everything just a checkbox for them? Taking a foreign language all crammed up into one summer, then taking a year break to then taking that language again the next summer is not conducive to learning a foreign language.

Of course they want to learn.
Just not a foreign language in a world where AI is about to make language translation so easy and accessible that it will be like having a UN interpreter in your pocket.
English is becoming the lingua franca of AI.

by that argument, why learn social studies for four years, when AI is handy for all facts? or why learn math when calculator or AI is handy?

Because history is more than facts.
Math is more than calculations.
Language is mostly language.

Discussion on cognitive benefits of learning world language in high school is out there. Anyway, VA state standards require it even at the rock bottom ranked base high school. This is TJ, so perhaps aim a bit higher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Virtual Virginia Spanish 3 asynchronous? If so, how to they monitor and test for speaking skills? Can someone who has taken Virtual Virginia Spanish 3 comment on the time requirement for this class?

Yes, it’s all asynchronous, but lot of time consuming online assignments, few hours a week. The assigned teacher sets a weekly schedule and holds a short live meeting around 8 or 9 a.m. about four days a week, mostly for answering questions and making sure everyone is keeping up with the online work. as long as running grade is above 90+ which is easy to maintain they are not worried about live class participation. For the speaking part, students just record short sentences or conversation through the course platform, and it is all part of the regular assignments. Easy A, in general.

Depending on enrollment, VV pulls teachers from FCPS or similar to run the classes. Couple of years back, a group of TJ students who signed up for the VV summer Spanish course thinking they had enough of tough-love from TJ Spanish teachers, were coincidentally yet ironically assigned a TJ Spanish teacher. But still the VV course is run through the online platform, so the grading is mostly done by the platform.

Keep in mind, the TJ transcript clearly indicates the course was taken online at Virtual Virginia, not in-person at TJ.

The only reason TJ kids do this is because the Spanish department at TJ is insane.
Kids just want their 4 years of language so they can apply to schools that require 4 years of language but the TJ Spanish department wants you to get so good at Spanish that ICE will arrest you.
If I could go back in time and give my TJ kid one piece of advice, it would be to choose a different language to begin with.

Just want? How about encouraging students to earn, instead of just wanting an easy grade! Many hardworking students not only enroll in TJ Spanish 3 but also TJ AP Spanish.

If only parents can step back and didn't constantly reinforce the narrative that TJ Spanish is impossibly hard and TJ Spanish teachers only exit to make it difficult, there is a good chance students can draw inspiration from upperclassman enrolled in TJ Spanish, and level up to the challenge, instead of defaulting to an inferior online summer option.

It's not a narrative promoted by parents.
Its the experience of the students.
Tiger parents would much rather have their kids spend their summers more productively than try to fulfill the TJ world language requirement.

There is no other language that has a steep drop off between freshman year and sophomore year other than spanish.

Experience of which students? clearly not the ones who continue on to TJ Spanish 3 and TJ AP Spanish. Like other course sequences at TJ, plenty students choose to take on the challenge and move to higher levels instead of stopping at the minimum requirement.

If TJ Spanish were truly difficult as many parents seem to reiterate, one would expect very few students to continue into the third year or AP level, compared to any other language. But that's not the case. In fact, student demand for Spanish is so strong that TJ has four Spanish teachers, while most other languages each have only two or one.

Hypothetically, if students were given the option to complete the minimum graduation requirement of TJ Calc AB through a similar online summer course option, quite a few students would jump on that option. And their parents would bad mouth the entire TJ Math faculty for making the TJ Precal or Math 4/5 unnecessarily difficult to pursue Calc AB at TJ.

PP.

Once again, it is not the parents.
It is the students.
You don't see the German students doing this with German or the French students doing this with French.
Why aren't the parents of those students bad mouthing those classes? Why are only the Spanish parents building this narrative?

It's not the parents, it's the students that want to spend their summers taking Spanish.
If it was up to the parents, the students would do something more productive with their summers than take summer school.

The popularity of Spanish at TJ is not the result of people liking TJ Spanish, it is a result of the popularity of Spanish at the ES/MS level being carried into TJ not because people like TJ Spanish.
Nobody is going to TJ for rigor in Spanish. Nobody.

is that so? Interesting to way to spend summer!

[Anonymous]

Spanish during school year is hard and it is easy in summer. That is the main reason why students take it in summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do kids even want to learn anymore? Is everything just a checkbox for them? Taking a foreign language all crammed up into one summer, then taking a year break to then taking that language again the next summer is not conducive to learning a foreign language.

Of course they want to learn.
Just not a foreign language in a world where AI is about to make language translation so easy and accessible that it will be like having a UN interpreter in your pocket.
English is becoming the lingua franca of AI.

by that argument, why learn social studies for four years, when AI is handy for all facts? or why learn math when calculator or AI is handy?

Because history is more than facts.
Math is more than calculations.
Language is mostly language.

Discussion on cognitive benefits of learning world language in high school is out there. Anyway, VA state standards require it even at the rock bottom ranked base high school. This is TJ, so perhaps aim a bit higher?

There are cognitive benefits to a lot of things.
NOBODY is going to TJ for rigor in Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Virtual Virginia Spanish 3 asynchronous? If so, how to they monitor and test for speaking skills? Can someone who has taken Virtual Virginia Spanish 3 comment on the time requirement for this class?

Yes, it’s all asynchronous, but lot of time consuming online assignments, few hours a week. The assigned teacher sets a weekly schedule and holds a short live meeting around 8 or 9 a.m. about four days a week, mostly for answering questions and making sure everyone is keeping up with the online work. as long as running grade is above 90+ which is easy to maintain they are not worried about live class participation. For the speaking part, students just record short sentences or conversation through the course platform, and it is all part of the regular assignments. Easy A, in general.

Depending on enrollment, VV pulls teachers from FCPS or similar to run the classes. Couple of years back, a group of TJ students who signed up for the VV summer Spanish course thinking they had enough of tough-love from TJ Spanish teachers, were coincidentally yet ironically assigned a TJ Spanish teacher. But still the VV course is run through the online platform, so the grading is mostly done by the platform.

Keep in mind, the TJ transcript clearly indicates the course was taken online at Virtual Virginia, not in-person at TJ.

The only reason TJ kids do this is because the Spanish department at TJ is insane.
Kids just want their 4 years of language so they can apply to schools that require 4 years of language but the TJ Spanish department wants you to get so good at Spanish that ICE will arrest you.
If I could go back in time and give my TJ kid one piece of advice, it would be to choose a different language to begin with.

Just want? How about encouraging students to earn, instead of just wanting an easy grade! Many hardworking students not only enroll in TJ Spanish 3 but also TJ AP Spanish.

If only parents can step back and didn't constantly reinforce the narrative that TJ Spanish is impossibly hard and TJ Spanish teachers only exit to make it difficult, there is a good chance students can draw inspiration from upperclassman enrolled in TJ Spanish, and level up to the challenge, instead of defaulting to an inferior online summer option.

It's not a narrative promoted by parents.
Its the experience of the students.
Tiger parents would much rather have their kids spend their summers more productively than try to fulfill the TJ world language requirement.

There is no other language that has a steep drop off between freshman year and sophomore year other than spanish.

Experience of which students? clearly not the ones who continue on to TJ Spanish 3 and TJ AP Spanish. Like other course sequences at TJ, plenty students choose to take on the challenge and move to higher levels instead of stopping at the minimum requirement.

If TJ Spanish were truly difficult as many parents seem to reiterate, one would expect very few students to continue into the third year or AP level, compared to any other language. But that's not the case. In fact, student demand for Spanish is so strong that TJ has four Spanish teachers, while most other languages each have only two or one.

Hypothetically, if students were given the option to complete the minimum graduation requirement of TJ Calc AB through a similar online summer course option, quite a few students would jump on that option. And their parents would bad mouth the entire TJ Math faculty for making the TJ Precal or Math 4/5 unnecessarily difficult to pursue Calc AB at TJ.

PP.

Once again, it is not the parents.
It is the students.
You don't see the German students doing this with German or the French students doing this with French.
Why aren't the parents of those students bad mouthing those classes? Why are only the Spanish parents building this narrative?

It's not the parents, it's the students that want to spend their summers taking Spanish.
If it was up to the parents, the students would do something more productive with their summers than take summer school.

The popularity of Spanish at TJ is not the result of people liking TJ Spanish, it is a result of the popularity of Spanish at the ES/MS level being carried into TJ not because people like TJ Spanish.
Nobody is going to TJ for rigor in Spanish. Nobody.

is that so? Interesting to way to spend summer!

Yes, that is so. Summer Spanish is attractive because the alternative is TJ Spanish and TJ Spanish is almost punitive for a non-native speaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Spanish during school year is hard and it is easy in summer. That is the main reason why students take it in summer.

It is also extremely time consuming.
It is not even an honors class and it takes more time than most AP classes.

[Anonymous]

TJ Spanish 3 gives solid foundation, TJ AP Spanish that follows is mostly A’s, and near guaranteed 5 on AP exam.

Most of the sourgrapes comments here is likely from parents of those from Spanish 2, who switched to terminating summer online Spanish 3.

[Anonymous]

My kid who is in AP Spanish has not found it to be that hard and has enjoyed the classes and teachers. Kid doesn’t understand why so many people describe it as difficult and thinks the descriptions on this board are way overblown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ Spanish 3 gives solid foundation, TJ AP Spanish that follows is mostly A’s, and near guaranteed 5 on AP exam.

Most of the sourgrapes comments here is likely from parents of those from Spanish 2, who switched to terminating summer online Spanish 3.

"Terminating summer online spanish 3"

Once again, this is not coming from the parents.