Middle school course options

[Anonymous]

Do usually high ranked middle school electives are assigned or not?

My DS ranked Spanish 1 as first and Engineering 1 as second. Are there any chances he would not get them?

How is coding and innovative tech elective?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do usually high ranked middle school electives are assigned or not?

My DS ranked Spanish 1 as first and Engineering 1 as second. Are there any chances he would not get them?

How is coding and innovative tech elective?

They are guaranteed to get year long ekectives. So Spanish 1 is a definite. Semester ones are not guaranteed.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! What is the path if
Spanish 1 - grade 7
Spanish 2- grade 8
Spanish 3- grade 9
Spanish 4- grade 10
Is there Spanish 5 or then it’s AP Spanish - grade 11

4 years of language can be completed by grade 10, if not interested in AP Spanish, or it will negatively impact college admissions if no Spanish is taken in grade 11 and 12?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks! What is the path if
Spanish 1 - grade 7
Spanish 2- grade 8
Spanish 3- grade 9
Spanish 4- grade 10
Is there Spanish 5 or then it’s AP Spanish - grade 11

4 years of language can be completed by grade 10, if not interested in AP Spanish, or it will negatively impact college admissions if no Spanish is taken in grade 11 and 12?

4 years is perfectly fine. It won’t negatively impact admissions. If your child wants to continue and has room in their schedule, they should go ahead and take AP Spanish. But it’s not necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting that kids in advanced Math and AAP Math can choose the same classes in middle school but there are AAP only tracks for English, History and Science.
Most kids good at Math will also be good at Science, but may not be that interested in English/History. I wish the Science courses get treated similarly to Math.

This is honestly how they should do it in elementary schools. Kids who are good at math should get advanced math. Kids who are great readers/analytic thinkers should get advanced English/Social Studies. Everyone should get the same science, no advancements necessary in elementary school science.

+1 but the AAP parents would never allow it.

If you do research into gifted education (which is what AAP initially was called and still is used for), that isn’t best practice. Gifted kids need to be in a class with like minded peers. Constantly switching classes for each subject like you are suggesting isn’t practical. And then they are stuck in class in science with kids who can’t read? Nope. Not gonna happen.

I would love for you to find me other examples of program sas broad as AAP (which is absolutely NOT gifted education, hahahaha). FCPS is an outlier with this mode and it's not workingl.

I am certified in gifted education from UVA so know exactly what the research shows. I don’t have the time or inclination to explain it to you. But yes, the FCPS program started out as a true gifted education program and meets the state mandated requirement for a gifted program.

I really don't care what your degree is in. I think every single person on this board can agree that only a very small percentage of kids in AAP are actually gifted. I would say that 50% of them aren't even actually any more advanced than many of their general ed classmates.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the PP. it’s not a gifted program and not more than 5% kids in each grade per school are gifted.
It’s an advanced program, with more extensions and PBL. Kids do not need to be gifted to be in AAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting that kids in advanced Math and AAP Math can choose the same classes in middle school but there are AAP only tracks for English, History and Science.
Most kids good at Math will also be good at Science, but may not be that interested in English/History. I wish the Science courses get treated similarly to Math.

This is honestly how they should do it in elementary schools. Kids who are good at math should get advanced math. Kids who are great readers/analytic thinkers should get advanced English/Social Studies. Everyone should get the same science, no advancements necessary in elementary school science.

+1 but the AAP parents would never allow it.

If you do research into gifted education (which is what AAP initially was called and still is used for), that isn’t best practice. Gifted kids need to be in a class with like minded peers. Constantly switching classes for each subject like you are suggesting isn’t practical. And then they are stuck in class in science with kids who can’t read? Nope. Not gonna happen.

I would love for you to find me other examples of program sas broad as AAP (which is absolutely NOT gifted education, hahahaha). FCPS is an outlier with this mode and it's not workingl.

I am certified in gifted education from UVA so know exactly what the research shows. I don’t have the time or inclination to explain it to you. But yes, the FCPS program started out as a true gifted education program and meets the state mandated requirement for a gifted program.

I really don't care what your degree is in. I think every single person on this board can agree that only a very small percentage of kids in AAP are actually gifted. I would say that 50% of them aren't even actually any more advanced than many of their general ed classmates.

Ok but that wasn’t your or my original assertion at all. I said the program started out as a gifted education program and met the state mandated requirements for a gifted program. That is still true. The research also shows that gifted kids need to be in class with like minded peers. All of that is still true. So having gifted Larlo in a class with dumb as rocks Larla isn’t the solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting that kids in advanced Math and AAP Math can choose the same classes in middle school but there are AAP only tracks for English, History and Science.
Most kids good at Math will also be good at Science, but may not be that interested in English/History. I wish the Science courses get treated similarly to Math.

This is honestly how they should do it in elementary schools. Kids who are good at math should get advanced math. Kids who are great readers/analytic thinkers should get advanced English/Social Studies. Everyone should get the same science, no advancements necessary in elementary school science.

+1 but the AAP parents would never allow it.

If you do research into gifted education (which is what AAP initially was called and still is used for), that isn’t best practice. Gifted kids need to be in a class with like minded peers. Constantly switching classes for each subject like you are suggesting isn’t practical. And then they are stuck in class in science with kids who can’t read? Nope. Not gonna happen.

I would love for you to find me other examples of program sas broad as AAP (which is absolutely NOT gifted education, hahahaha). FCPS is an outlier with this mode and it's not workingl.

I am certified in gifted education from UVA so know exactly what the research shows. I don’t have the time or inclination to explain it to you. But yes, the FCPS program started out as a true gifted education program and meets the state mandated requirement for a gifted program.

I really don't care what your degree is in. I think every single person on this board can agree that only a very small percentage of kids in AAP are actually gifted. I would say that 50% of them aren't even actually any more advanced than many of their general ed classmates.

Ok but that wasn’t your or my original assertion at all. I said the program started out as a gifted education program and met the state mandated requirements for a gifted program. That is still true. The research also shows that gifted kids need to be in class with like minded peers. All of that is still true. So having gifted Larlo in a class with dumb as rocks Larla isn’t the solution.

I wanted to add that yes, now the program is bloated and not just for “gifted” kids. It does still meet the state requirement though.

[Anonymous]

Thanks

[Anonymous]

In this new world of AI, does it make sense to choose coding and innovative middle school elective and any other CS, coding type of courses in high school?
Is Journalism/ creative writing better? Asking as my son is interested in both writing and computers, so it’s hard for him to pick one over the other and the deadline to request any changes ends in a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very interesting that kids in advanced Math and AAP Math can choose the same classes in middle school but there are AAP only tracks for English, History and Science.
Most kids good at Math will also be good at Science, but may not be that interested in English/History. I wish the Science courses get treated similarly to Math.

This is honestly how they should do it in elementary schools. Kids who are good at math should get advanced math. Kids who are great readers/analytic thinkers should get advanced English/Social Studies. Everyone should get the same science, no advancements necessary in elementary school science.

+1 but the AAP parents would never allow it.

If you do research into gifted education (which is what AAP initially was called and still is used for), that isn’t best practice. Gifted kids need to be in a class with like minded peers. Constantly switching classes for each subject like you are suggesting isn’t practical. And then they are stuck in class in science with kids who can’t read? Nope. Not gonna happen.

I would love for you to find me other examples of program sas broad as AAP (which is absolutely NOT gifted education, hahahaha). FCPS is an outlier with this mode and it's not workingl.

I am certified in gifted education from UVA so know exactly what the research shows. I don’t have the time or inclination to explain it to you. But yes, the FCPS program started out as a true gifted education program and meets the state mandated requirement for a gifted program.

I really don't care what your degree is in. I think every single person on this board can agree that only a very small percentage of kids in AAP are actually gifted. I would say that 50% of them aren't even actually any more advanced than many of their general ed classmates.

Ok but that wasn’t your or my original assertion at all. I said the program started out as a gifted education program and met the state mandated requirements for a gifted program. That is still true. The research also shows that gifted kids need to be in class with like minded peers. All of that is still true. So having gifted Larlo in a class with dumb as rocks Larla isn’t the solution.

Oh, but due to the way the holistic process occurs you most certainly have gifted larlos in the gen ed classes with the below grade level kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In this new world of AI, does it make sense to choose coding and innovative middle school elective and any other CS, coding type of courses in high school?
Is Journalism/ creative writing better? Asking as my son is interested in both writing and computers, so it’s hard for him to pick one over the other and the deadline to request any changes ends in a month.

He has two electives over each of two years in middle school--that's 4 electives. There is plenty of time to do both. Any coding he learns at age 12 will be dinosaur language by the time he's 22, but the value in learning coding is the logical/ordered thinking, not the language itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks! What is the path if
Spanish 1 - grade 7
Spanish 2- grade 8
Spanish 3- grade 9
Spanish 4- grade 10
Is there Spanish 5 or then it’s AP Spanish - grade 11

4 years of language can be completed by grade 10, if not interested in AP Spanish, or it will negatively impact college admissions if no Spanish is taken in grade 11 and 12?

They offer high school-level language programs in your middle school?

[Anonymous]

Yes in all FCPS middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks! What is the path if
Spanish 1 - grade 7
Spanish 2- grade 8
Spanish 3- grade 9
Spanish 4- grade 10
Is there Spanish 5 or then it’s AP Spanish - grade 11

4 years of language can be completed by grade 10, if not interested in AP Spanish, or it will negatively impact college admissions if no Spanish is taken in grade 11 and 12?

They offer high school-level language programs in your middle school?

This is the FCPS board, so of course.