What can my rising 9th grader take in summer school this summer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You student can take Foundations of Technology (FOT) or Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS) and get their required tech credit out of the way. This frees up schedule space for courses of higher interest in HS. They are blended learning - mostly online with a couple of mandatory attendance days. Registration usually opens March-ish.

https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/onlinelearning/courses/index.aspx

Thank you! This would be a perfect option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would definitely look into a writing class. Our oldest is a senior and can write a strong essay. Many of her friends can not and it has made the college application process very hard for them. Having strong writing skills will serve her well in any major she chooses.

Can you recommend a course? I do work on writing with DD at home, but it would be nice to have an objective assessment.

[Anonymous]

Taking Foundations of Technology of the FOCS is a good idea - just make sure that's the one you can take as a rising 9th grader. If PP is right, that means you can't take Health until you're a rising 10th grader -- another required course that is good to get out of the way during the summer.

A warning about FOT during the summer -- it is surprisingly time-consuming for what is a complete blow-off class during the year. I say this as the mom of an all-A magnet kid. People kept saying that, and I found it hard to believe beforehand, and then I witnessed it in action. It's not hard, just time-consuming -- like you had to build a model of an organ of the human body that performed one of the major functions of that organ, and yes, you can do a bad job, but still, you have to do it.

A second warning -- make sure your kid needs this requirement. I've heard that kids from certain middle school programs have already satisfied it. Blair SMACS kids also satisfy it through their program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Taking Foundations of Technology of the FOCS is a good idea - just make sure that's the one you can take as a rising 9th grader. If PP is right, that means you can't take Health until you're a rising 10th grader -- another required course that is good to get out of the way during the summer.

A warning about FOT during the summer -- it is surprisingly time-consuming for what is a complete blow-off class during the year. I say this as the mom of an all-A magnet kid. People kept saying that, and I found it hard to believe beforehand, and then I witnessed it in action. It's not hard, just time-consuming -- like you had to build a model of an organ of the human body that performed one of the major functions of that organ, and yes, you can do a bad job, but still, you have to do it.

A second warning -- make sure your kid needs this requirement. I've heard that kids from certain middle school programs have already satisfied it. Blair SMACS kids also satisfy it through their program.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

My son took gt python classes the summer before high school and I regretted not having him take some kind of Algebra 2, because he is struggling in his Honors Algebra 2 class!

If your daughter has the slightest weakness and is slated to take honors or AP classes next year, consider previewing those classes in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taking Foundations of Technology of the FOCS is a good idea - just make sure that's the one you can take as a rising 9th grader. If PP is right, that means you can't take Health until you're a rising 10th grader -- another required course that is good to get out of the way during the summer.

A warning about FOT during the summer -- it is surprisingly time-consuming for what is a complete blow-off class during the year. I say this as the mom of an all-A magnet kid. People kept saying that, and I found it hard to believe beforehand, and then I witnessed it in action. It's not hard, just time-consuming -- like you had to build a model of an organ of the human body that performed one of the major functions of that organ, and yes, you can do a bad job, but still, you have to do it.

A second warning -- make sure your kid needs this requirement. I've heard that kids from certain middle school programs have already satisfied it. Blair SMACS kids also satisfy it through their program.

Thank you.

Talk to your HS guidance counselor about your plans. We kept health in the regular year curriculum because they don't offer the honors version during the summer. It's an easy A and your kid may as well get the extra GPA bump from an honors course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taking Foundations of Technology of the FOCS is a good idea - just make sure that's the one you can take as a rising 9th grader. If PP is right, that means you can't take Health until you're a rising 10th grader -- another required course that is good to get out of the way during the summer.

A warning about FOT during the summer -- it is surprisingly time-consuming for what is a complete blow-off class during the year. I say this as the mom of an all-A magnet kid. People kept saying that, and I found it hard to believe beforehand, and then I witnessed it in action. It's not hard, just time-consuming -- like you had to build a model of an organ of the human body that performed one of the major functions of that organ, and yes, you can do a bad job, but still, you have to do it.

A second warning -- make sure your kid needs this requirement. I've heard that kids from certain middle school programs have already satisfied it. Blair SMACS kids also satisfy it through their program.

Thank you.

Talk to your HS guidance counselor about your plans. We kept health in the regular year curriculum because they don't offer the honors version during the summer. It's an easy A and your kid may as well get the extra GPA bump from an honors course.

Depends on the school. RM offers Honors Health as blended learning in the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taking Foundations of Technology of the FOCS is a good idea - just make sure that's the one you can take as a rising 9th grader. If PP is right, that means you can't take Health until you're a rising 10th grader -- another required course that is good to get out of the way during the summer.

A warning about FOT during the summer -- it is surprisingly time-consuming for what is a complete blow-off class during the year. I say this as the mom of an all-A magnet kid. People kept saying that, and I found it hard to believe beforehand, and then I witnessed it in action. It's not hard, just time-consuming -- like you had to build a model of an organ of the human body that performed one of the major functions of that organ, and yes, you can do a bad job, but still, you have to do it.

A second warning -- make sure your kid needs this requirement. I've heard that kids from certain middle school programs have already satisfied it. Blair SMACS kids also satisfy it through their program.

Thank you.

Talk to your HS guidance counselor about your plans. We kept health in the regular year curriculum because they don't offer the honors version during the summer. It's an easy A and your kid may as well get the extra GPA bump from an honors course.

Depends on the school. RM offers Honors Health as blended learning in the summer.

I think honors health is available to everyone now in the summer.

[Anonymous]

I'd suggest going to the website of the HS she will be going to and searching for *last year's* summer catalog. (This year's isn't out yet.) Our school offers geometry for students who want to get a yearlong class out of the way (so she would take Alg 2 her freshman year, which is what a lot of kids do, anyway.) There are also some prep classes for the hardest 9th grade classes. For instance, to get you ahead in bio, chem, etc. They are non credit, but make the first few months of 9th grade easier. But these offerings are school-specific-- thus, the recommendation to look for the catalog on your HS's website.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you let your kid enjoy the summer instead.

Did you even read what I wrote? She doesn’t want to do camp all summer.

This is what she wants to do. We can afford one session. She normally gets scholarships to pay for camp, but we aren’t FARMS so we will have to pay for summer school. It’s not cheap.

Is there a reason your kid can't veg out part of the summer like we used to do? This is why so many kids don't know how to deal with life when they get into a dorm. Stop being so overbearing and let her do (or not do) what she wants.

[Anonymous]

Just a window into later- high school. My dd took health in the summer to open space in her schedule. She is now going into senior year and having trouble filling out her schedule. She has 5 AP courses she really wants to take and needs 2 more courses. There are plenty of other APs she *could* take, but wow. 7 APs in a year would be hell. The non-AP options at this point aren't topics she's interested in, or would put her in classes with freshmen (e.g., an additional PE class) or are too basic for a senior.
She might do an extra art class or something. She also eliminated a few because they are non-Honors courses, which apparently will hurt her GPA (I don't think it matters, but she does) and puts her in class with non-serious students (which may be the bigger issue).

I say this because if you're trying to get ahead in HS to open things up later on (which is what she did) then make sure you've thought about how things will unfold later on. I bet my DD wishes she still had an 'easy' health requirement to take care of...

[Anonymous]

I think doing the tech credit is a great idea to do over the summer. It will cost $600 though for the full class -- $300 per semester. My DS did the computer science one last summer because neither his computer programming nor his AP Programming Java classes fulfills the tech ed requirement. So ridiculous.

It was so painfully basic and boring that it was better to just rip the band-aid off and get it done in six weeks. I can't imagine how boring a year-long class would have been.

However the blended learning model is three three-hour face-to-face sessions and the rest online modules. It's not a full day's worth of activity so it's easy enough to do other stuff during the day (go to the pool, hang out with friends, go to the library, or something more structured).

My DS also did the health credit over the summer previously -- your kid has to have finished 9th, though, so it wouldn't work for this summer. He took non-honors because honestly a one-semester weighted vs. unweighted A would have made no discernable difference in his GPA.

As to the PP -- I hear what you're saying about filling out the schedule, but for my senior, it was critical to do these two classes as summer classes so he could fit the rest of what he wanted to do in four years in. He's taken band all four years for example, so doing these others during the summer helped protect that slot. He's taking AP Chem this year, which is two periods, so that leaves less flexibility once you add in English, math, AP Java, and band -- he's taking AP macro/micro, which he's always wanted to do. If he hadn't taken tech this summer he wouldn't have been able to take econ. AP Bio is also two periods (and he hasn't taken it) but that can be hard to work around as well.

OP -- somewhat off-topic from the summer class options, but I highly recommend sitting down with the HS course catalog and requirements and sketching out what a 4-year plan is going to look like with requirements like PE, tech, health, English and math all four years, etc. It can get surprisingly tricky to puzzle everything together particularly if your DD has an art interest or a performing art she wants to do all four years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you let your kid enjoy the summer instead.

Did you even read what I wrote? She doesn’t want to do camp all summer.

This is what she wants to do. We can afford one session. She normally gets scholarships to pay for camp, but we aren’t FARMS so we will have to pay for summer school. It’s not cheap.

Is there a reason your kid can't veg out part of the summer like we used to do? This is why so many kids don't know how to deal with life when they get into a dorm. Stop being so overbearing and let her do (or not do) what she wants.

Let me guess, you're in your mid-50s and you don't have kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think doing the tech credit is a great idea to do over the summer. It will cost $600 though for the full class -- $300 per semester. My DS did the computer science one last summer because neither his computer programming nor his AP Programming Java classes fulfills the tech ed requirement. So ridiculous.

It was so painfully basic and boring that it was better to just rip the band-aid off and get it done in six weeks. I can't imagine how boring a year-long class would have been.

However the blended learning model is three three-hour face-to-face sessions and the rest online modules. It's not a full day's worth of activity so it's easy enough to do other stuff during the day (go to the pool, hang out with friends, go to the library, or something more structured).

My DS also did the health credit over the summer previously -- your kid has to have finished 9th, though, so it wouldn't work for this summer. He took non-honors because honestly a one-semester weighted vs. unweighted A would have made no discernable difference in his GPA.

As to the PP -- I hear what you're saying about filling out the schedule, but for my senior, it was critical to do these two classes as summer classes so he could fit the rest of what he wanted to do in four years in. He's taken band all four years for example, so doing these others during the summer helped protect that slot. He's taking AP Chem this year, which is two periods, so that leaves less flexibility once you add in English, math, AP Java, and band -- he's taking AP macro/micro, which he's always wanted to do. If he hadn't taken tech this summer he wouldn't have been able to take econ. AP Bio is also two periods (and he hasn't taken it) but that can be hard to work around as well.

OP -- somewhat off-topic from the summer class options, but I highly recommend sitting down with the HS course catalog and requirements and sketching out what a 4-year plan is going to look like with requirements like PE, tech, health, English and math all four years, etc. It can get surprisingly tricky to puzzle everything together particularly if your DD has an art interest or a performing art she wants to do all four years.

PP here. I can totally see that, and it's how I assumed things would be when she was a freshman, too. I was in band 4 years and orchestra for a couple, which used up all of my electives in HS. But if you're not in something like that (band, chorus, newspaper class, etc) then getting credits in the summer become much less useful.