Disastrous Freshman Year

[Anonymous]

Here are some steps to take with the help of the school counselor. Yes, counselors will be working during the summer.

--Map out what the student will be taking as part of the magnet requirement and MCPS graduation requirement in the next 3 years.

-- MAP out the timeline for college admissions (PSAT, SAT, Subject Tests)

-- Pare down on EC activities and take 1-2 that you can excel in and also dwell wide and deep with it. Remember EC should be something that he can do, he likes and he can take initiative in. He does not have to be particularly brilliant in sports or music for doing well. For example - if your kid is interested in butterflies, make sure he starts a butterfly identification website, plants a butterfly garden and volunteers at the county butterfly garden. He should start a butterfly club and get a leadership position in the school for that.
Furthermore, he should help in planting and getting many public and private gardens certified as butterfly habitat (like "Monarch Way Stations". )

-- APs are tricky because you take them in the beginning of MAY, and most teachers have finished teaching AP classes by mid-April. You are only getting a very shortened school year to study APs unlike other subjects. So AP prep for harder subjects should start during Summer.

-- Seriously, get outside tutoring help during summer and also have a framework for the school year if you can afford it. This will be money well spent. Your child was academically able to be selected into the program, so the ability is there. They need some support because MCPS truly have short-charged all students and those who have not studied on their own outside the school day do pay a heavy price.

Remember, you and your child are not alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are some steps to take with the help of the school counselor. Yes, counselors will be working during the summer.

--Map out what the student will be taking as part of the magnet requirement and MCPS graduation requirement in the next 3 years.

-- MAP out the timeline for college admissions (PSAT, SAT, Subject Tests)

-- Pare down on EC activities and take 1-2 that you can excel in and also dwell wide and deep with it. Remember EC should be something that he can do, he likes and he can take initiative in. He does not have to be particularly brilliant in sports or music for doing well. For example - if your kid is interested in butterflies, make sure he starts a butterfly identification website, plants a butterfly garden and volunteers at the county butterfly garden. He should start a butterfly club and get a leadership position in the school for that.
Furthermore, he should help in planting and getting many public and private gardens certified as butterfly habitat (like "Monarch Way Stations". )

-- APs are tricky because you take them in the beginning of MAY, and most teachers have finished teaching AP classes by mid-April. You are only getting a very shortened school year to study APs unlike other subjects. So AP prep for harder subjects should start during Summer.

-- Seriously, get outside tutoring help during summer and also have a framework for the school year if you can afford it. This will be money well spent. Your child was academically able to be selected into the program, so the ability is there. They need some support because MCPS truly have short-charged all students and those who have not studied on their own outside the school day do pay a heavy price.

Remember, you and your child are not alone.

Yes! Don’t jump on the no summer hw bandwagon if your child is taking APs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you all for the replies. They are really helpful. I also really appreciate your help putting this in perspective -- seeing these kinds of grades was just kind of jarring. Also, DC really likes school (it is magnet) and classes -- and seemed in control (a lot of "I got this"). DC wants to continue and we'll definitely take your advice this summer (just got the book recommended above). Thank you for the feedback.

test-in or opt-in magnet?

I don’t think there’s opt in magnet for HS in MCPS.

Is this a code for race? URMs can opt in?

depends upon how you define magnet


IB is IB is IB. However, in RM, it's a test-in. Opt-in programs are located in schools in the NEC and DCC and in other schools like Seneca.

In schools with opt-in programs, there is a need to support struggling students who want to accept this challenge. The county signed on to EOS (https://eoschools.org/), which supposedly is helping teachers to work with students struggling in AP and IB classes. It's BS. The "training" is a joke, and kids are just pushed into courses. Plus, if a kid isn't reading at level, s/he cannot perform at an advanced level given the amount of readings s/he must tackle each night.

Despite these negative comments, kids in opt-in programs should have supports, as the goal of including these programs in challenging schools is to level the playing field.

But if OP's child is in a test-in program, you basically sink or swim, as those who didn't meet the criteria were supposedly weeded out during the application process. So OP's child may need some extra supports outside of the school setting. no shame in that - tips on studying, on organization, maybe a bit of skill-building, etc.

[Anonymous]

"NP and HS magnet teacher here. Your son probably just experienced the first classes that he actually needs to put time into studying for, and he probably doesn't know what studying looks like. I see a lot of students who have just coasted through middle school by "being smart" and thinking they only need to "remember" what is covered in class. Students often think they understand material because they can follow along with what the teacher is doing, but they don't recognize that they can't work independently with different material. Magnet classes are fast paced and demand critical thinking of students. They need to take basic concepts and apply them in new and different situations. In order to do this well and consistently, students need to practice, and some may need to practice more than just whatever homework is assigned by the teacher."

There may be other things that help, but this is the majority of the answer.

OP, this is the ENTIRE reason we sent our DC to a test-in magnet because not learning this in HS and having to learn it in college @ $75K/year is more of a disaster.

During the 9th grade, our DC learned this and the 10th grade was fabulous. By the 11th grade, DC thought they had it all figured out and needed to learn it again.

Again, 12th grade was better but the real payoff came during DC's early college years because knowing what to do immediately when you have a bad test is priceless.

[Anonymous]

OP you might want to review this thread that, based on the title I thought might be you posting again in another forum. Clearly it’s not.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/811364.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm an outlier in the DMV, buy I'd rather my kid take challenging classes and get Bs and C's than chase As in easy classes. I think learning to be challenged in life, learning to overcome adversity is a better lesson than "my parents made me take gut level courses so I could get into Tufts."

As a matter of personal philosophy, I agree with you, but as a practical matter, my kids need scholarship money in order to attend any school other than an in-state public. Given that, good grades are a high priority for us.

[Anonymous]

best decision EVER to leave the county after reading this thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There were 4 grading periods. Did your DS start out strong and gradually grades got worse? Was he handing in ALL homework on time? Did you look at his grades online each week? Some kids don't magically have good study/organizational skills. And, obviously "I got this" isn't working.

Magnet parent here. I look at my daughter's grades at least twice a week. Sometimes I've found poor grades are lack of focus interest, other times the class is just too hard and my DD did the best she could. I do think monitoring the grades frequently does help a lot though.

My dd also had a challenging Freshman year though she just squeaked out a B in her toughest class with way too much involvement from me making sure work was completed to be sustainable. For us, we suspect that organizational skills is the culprit. We are looking at signing her up for a class over the summer. One of my friends mentioned that Montgomery community college has a high school study skills class if you don’t see an option through your high school or a summer camp (like Landon).

I also asked the high school counselor for advice. The counselor recommended reviewing notes for each class for 10-15 minutes each day. It’s time consuming but it saves you cram studying time. Also you can identify where you have gaps in understanding the material early on and make an appt to see that teacher. Of course I tell this to my dd that half tunes me out. Then she comes home and mention that they were talking about straight A students in her outside activity and her friend admits that she has straight A’s and the secret is studying each subject a little time each day even when there is no test. Yeah, mind blown. So we have the counselor, an article I read, and a real life friend saying the same thing!

With course selection, the only advice I can give is checking in with the teacher. The almost a C Honors class that at points had a D or F, I emailed the teacher to get feedback. The teacher didn’t believe it was the material because in class my dd was following along and would turn in assignments that demonstrated understanding of the material. Given that the grades were B, B+ then F for missing assignment and D on a homework, yet she wasn’t going to the teacher or asking for help seemed consistent with my idea that it was organizational skills plus tough teacher and not motivated in the subject/lecture style class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There were 4 grading periods. Did your DS start out strong and gradually grades got worse? Was he handing in ALL homework on time? Did you look at his grades online each week? Some kids don't magically have good study/organizational skills. And, obviously "I got this" isn't working.

Magnet parent here. I look at my daughter's grades at least twice a week. Sometimes I've found poor grades are lack of focus interest, other times the class is just too hard and my DD did the best she could. I do think monitoring the grades frequently does help a lot though.

My dd also had a challenging Freshman year though she just squeaked out a B in her toughest class with way too much involvement from me making sure work was completed to be sustainable. For us, we suspect that organizational skills is the culprit. We are looking at signing her up for a class over the summer. One of my friends mentioned that Montgomery community college has a high school study skills class if you don’t see an option through your high school or a summer camp (like Landon).

I also asked the high school counselor for advice. The counselor recommended reviewing notes for each class for 10-15 minutes each day. It’s time consuming but it saves you cram studying time. Also you can identify where you have gaps in understanding the material early on and make an appt to see that teacher. Of course I tell this to my dd that half tunes me out. Then she comes home and mention that they were talking about straight A students in her outside activity and her friend admits that she has straight A’s and the secret is studying each subject a little time each day even when there is no test. Yeah, mind blown. So we have the counselor, an article I read, and a real life friend saying the same thing!

With course selection, the only advice I can give is checking in with the teacher. The almost a C Honors class that at points had a D or F, I emailed the teacher to get feedback. The teacher didn’t believe it was the material because in class my dd was following along and would turn in assignments that demonstrated understanding of the material. Given that the grades were B, B+ then F for missing assignment and D on a homework, yet she wasn’t going to the teacher or asking for help seemed consistent with my idea that it was organizational skills plus tough teacher and not motivated in the subject/lecture style class.

That's wonderful that it was a maturity issue rather than an understanding issue. Maturity seems like it would be easier to fix. In my DD's case- it seemed like an understanding issue and 15 to 20 minutes a night wouldn't solve it as she spent much more time on those classes than that. GPA is still pretty good- just not the 4.0 GPA that I wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

That's wonderful that it was a maturity issue rather than an understanding issue. Maturity seems like it would be easier to fix. In my DD's case- it seemed like an understanding issue and 15 to 20 minutes a night wouldn't solve it as she spent much more time on those classes than that. GPA is still pretty good- just not the 4.0 GPA that I wanted.

I think if you find it’s an issue with understanding rather than maturity or organizational issues, then the approach is different. Make sure it isn’t an undiagnosed learning issue. Then look into extra help with teacher and tutoring. Sometimes it has to be explained differently for someone to get it or they have a gap somewhere and need to be brought up to speed. Also look if course selection makes sense.

Maturity isn’t necessarily the easier of issues to fix for the parent because you can’t force it to happen. You also have to decide how much you will let your child fail without stepping in and if you can live with the consequences.