TJ Freshman year - Foreign Language

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it look bad to take one year of language in MS and then switch to a different language for 2-3 years in high school? Kid is taking Latin in ms and might drop it for Russian or Japanese at TJ.

No. But realize you must take 3 years of the same language at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Oh, I didn't know that!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, I didn't know that!

https://www.tjhsst.edu/studentservices/academic-resources/docs/advstuddip2015.pdf

Yep. Sorry (I have an I hate foreign language kid)

Look at the TJ diploma carefully. It has different requirements:

Must take Bio, chemistry, physics and geosystems
Must take 3 years of the same language
Must take AP Calc
Must do a senior research lab, and take the necessary pre-recs
Must take Design Tech
Must take CS
Must double up on social studies somewhere, because you need 4 years, and don't take it as a freshman.

You don't end up with much flexibility. Hence-- summer school.

[Anonymous]

German is very useful in STEM subjects. Some TJ kids consider college in Germany.

Most TJ kids take a language every year.

[Anonymous]

Thank you 18:44! So kind of you to take the time to post this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spanish will be more work than the other languages.

+1

That's the reputation and my kid's experience at TJ. It's like the Spanish teachers are determined to make this a "TJ" level class. I guess that's a good thing, but it by far has been the class my kid has struggled with the most. Anecdotal evidence from friends taking Russian and German is that those are fun/easy classes. YMMV

Every person has different aptitude for language learning. One student may do well in Spanish but other may not do so well. If your DC is taking a language in the middle school and likes it then I don't see any reason for not continuing it at TJ. All the courses at TJ need same determination so blaming a teacher for it, is not right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spanish will be more work than the other languages.

+1

That's the reputation and my kid's experience at TJ. It's like the Spanish teachers are determined to make this a "TJ" level class. I guess that's a good thing, but it by far has been the class my kid has struggled with the most. Anecdotal evidence from friends taking Russian and German is that those are fun/easy classes. YMMV

Every person has different aptitude for language learning. One student may do well in Spanish but other may not do so well. If your DC is taking a language in the middle school and likes it then I don't see any reason for not continuing it at TJ. All the courses at TJ need same determination so blaming a teacher for it, is not right.

No one is "blaming" the teacher, just sharing our kids experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spanish will be more work than the other languages.

+1

That's the reputation and my kid's experience at TJ. It's like the Spanish teachers are determined to make this a "TJ" level class. I guess that's a good thing, but it by far has been the class my kid has struggled with the most. Anecdotal evidence from friends taking Russian and German is that those are fun/easy classes. YMMV

Every person has different aptitude for language learning. One student may do well in Spanish but other may not do so well. If your DC is taking a language in the middle school and likes it then I don't see any reason for not continuing it at TJ. All the courses at TJ need same determination so blaming a teacher for it, is not right.

Not the PP, but the PP is right. Spanish at TJ is God awful difficult. And the teachers (mostly the department head) are proud of it. Sometimes one teacher really is more demanding. Welcome to TJ Spanish, where one teacher in particular really is more demanding. Not bad. Not unfair. Is, in fact, a great teacher, But expects much, much more aptitude and effort than the other language teachers. Now if you have a kid who loves foreign language and wants to eat, sleep and breathe it, that's awesome. But most kids don't go to TJ for the foreign language experience. And end up putting more effort into unweighted Spanish than they do into some +1 weighted APs. And still getting lower grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spanish will be more work than the other languages.

+1

That's the reputation and my kid's experience at TJ. It's like the Spanish teachers are determined to make this a "TJ" level class. I guess that's a good thing, but it by far has been the class my kid has struggled with the most. Anecdotal evidence from friends taking Russian and German is that those are fun/easy classes. YMMV

Every person has different aptitude for language learning. One student may do well in Spanish but other may not do so well. If your DC is taking a language in the middle school and likes it then I don't see any reason for not continuing it at TJ. All the courses at TJ need same determination so blaming a teacher for it, is not right.

Not the PP, but the PP is right. Spanish at TJ is God awful difficult. And the teachers (mostly the department head) are proud of it. Sometimes one teacher really is more demanding. Welcome to TJ Spanish, where one teacher in particular really is more demanding. Not bad. Not unfair. Is, in fact, a great teacher, But expects much, much more aptitude and effort than the other language teachers. Now if you have a kid who loves foreign language and wants to eat, sleep and breathe it, that's awesome. But most kids don't go to TJ for the foreign language experience. And end up putting more effort into unweighted Spanish than they do into some +1 weighted APs. And still getting lower grades.

Can someone explain the "weightings" for each course? Why are some courses weighted +1 while others are 0.5 or zero. What does this mean at the end of the day (graduation, overall GPA, college admission, etc). If a course has zero weighting, does it matter if one takes it for grade or pass/fail?

[Anonymous]

This is the school profile sheet TJ sends out to colleges. Most regular classes get the 0.5 weighting for being honors.

https://fcps.tjhsst.edu/coursemgmt/media/300/resource/TJ%20Profile%202016-17%20online.pdf

"The Class of 2016 Final Grade Point Averages (after 8th semester) ranged from 3.463 to 4.617."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the school profile sheet TJ sends out to colleges. Most regular classes get the 0.5 weighting for being honors.

https://fcps.tjhsst.edu/coursemgmt/media/300/resource/TJ%20Profile%202016-17%20online.pdf

"The Class of 2016 Final Grade Point Averages (after 8th semester) ranged from 3.463 to 4.617."

Thanks! So if someone does AP Computer science and gets a 4.0, does that become 5.0 in the transcript? So colleges just consider the weighted GPA or do they consider also look at the number of AP, Post-AP courses?

[Anonymous]

FYI, it is not just at TJ, the +0.5 bump for Honors and the +1 bump for AP is the FCPS standard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI, it is not just at TJ, the +0.5 bump for Honors and the +1 bump for AP is the FCPS standard.

But not foreign languages. For some reason, they get no bump before AP-- at TJ or base schools. Which is why people get upset they they are so hard, and kids get such low grades. They aren't getting an honors .5 bump.

[Anonymous]

Right. If you look at the TJ course catalog the only world languages with a bump are the senior level 5 type classes or the AP level. And I agree this is why many kids opt not to take Spanish and French at TJ, especially if they will be Level 1 language kids. No need to buy yourself a hard class when there are options. Other than languages, the only other TJ classes without at least an honors bump are the arts classes and PE.

[Anonymous]

What grade does someone get for taking a course Pass/Fail? How does that translate into credits?