Pp- What do you mean by this? It is very disheartening to see my child work 3x as hard as he ever has and get such poor results. Is it the kids that change going forward or the teachers?

Welcome to TJ and December!! Every December, some parents are looking forward to receive TJ admission letter. Some parents are complaining about their students did not do well at TJ. Been there. Done that twice. Everything will be fine for your students after the first semester of Freshman year. TJ teachers just want to give Freshmen some bitter pills. That's all and nothing else.

Another TJ parent with a kid currently there and doing well. We've never supplemented/tutored. I know it exists, but you can succeed without it. Plus kid does travel sport so no chance of weekend class.

You may want to have a good talk with your kid and really listen to what they are saying. While your kid may be smart enough for TJ, it may not be the right fit. And that's ok.

Anonymous wrote:Have a kid in TJ as well. Not sure if I like the homework culture there. My DC has now begun to hate the subjects that he was passionate about primarily because of the pace of the classes and the "teaching to the test" approach his teachers seem to take. He says, a lot of the kids continue to take supplemental classes outside school so they stay on top but he doesn't want to give up his sports/rec activities to go to school on weekends. Can't believe we will have to go through 4 years of this.. To what end?

Go to school on weekends? I had 2 kids go through TJ who are now doing very well at excellent colleges and neither one took supplemental classes. There are some crazy parents at TJ - don't let your kid get caught up in their neuroses. He'll do fine doing what he enjoys.

Have a kid in TJ as well. Not sure if I like the homework culture there. My DC has now begun to hate the subjects that he was passionate about primarily because of the pace of the classes and the "teaching to the test" approach his teachers seem to take. He says, a lot of the kids continue to take supplemental classes outside school so they stay on top but he doesn't want to give up his sports/rec activities to go to school on weekends. Can't believe we will have to go through 4 years of this.. To what end?

My guess is that although you insist that he can keep up with the work if he tried, maybe he has doubts. Maybe he sees kids around who he thinks are smarter and feels like even if he worked hard, he wouldn't be able to succeed anyway, especially if he prepped hard to get in.

Maybe try taking the pressure off and letting him know that you're okay with lower grades but you want to see him trying?

Anonymous wrote:My son is a freshman. His first quarter grades were all at A, A- & B+. His math 4 grade was at B+ ( almost close to A- which he is ok with as he knows that Math 4 is hard). but definitely he is not happy with his other grade( B+ one) which is English with a hard IBET teacher. My question is the first quarter the most rough one? Do the kids learn to do and come to realistic expectation of their grades? Any of your kids changed their study habits changed over their freshman year and they got better grades than first quarter? Any help on this very much appreciated.

Not sure which IBET your child is with, but I remember my DC also struggled in English as a freshman. What he hated most about it was all the group papers the kids had to write. For most quarters, 2 out of the 4 essays they had to turn in was group essays, so a lot of his grade depended on his assigned partners, ie luck, which didn't really seem fair to me. I guess the teacher would rather read 10 essays than 30.

Anonymous wrote:My son is a freshman. His first quarter grades were all at A, A- & B+. His math 4 grade was at B+ ( almost close to A- which he is ok with as he knows that Math 4 is hard). but definitely he is not happy with his other grade( B+ one) which is English with a hard IBET teacher. My question is the first quarter the most rough one? Do the kids learn to do and come to realistic expectation of their grades? Any of your kids changed their study habits changed over their freshman year and they got better grades than first quarter? Any help on this very much appreciated.

He's probably doing better work in the other classes than in the English class, and it might be that his strengths lie more in the other subjects. And that's okay. Most of us aren't equally good at every subject nor de we like every subject equally.

A lot of kids at TJ like math and science more than they like English and history, so it's not unusual for them to find English and history to be more difficult, especially since TJ requires them to work at an equally high level in all subjects.

My son is a freshman. His first quarter grades were all at A, A- & B+. His math 4 grade was at B+ ( almost close to A- which he is ok with as he knows that Math 4 is hard). but definitely he is not happy with his other grade( B+ one) which is English with a hard IBET teacher. My question is the first quarter the most rough one? Do the kids learn to do and come to realistic expectation of their grades? Any of your kids changed their study habits changed over their freshman year and they got better grades than first quarter? Any help on this very much appreciated.

DD said her teacher told the class a few points will be given for test corrections. She doesn't think he ever mentioned about a grade limit, ie she got 83 and should still be eligible.
IDK, kids from other classes are mentioning that they do corrections to get 5 points as Homework grade even though they got over 80. Her teacher just lumps homework grade in one big chunk (out of 10 or 15 points) so who knows if those test correction points were accounted for. It would make sense to me if test corrections are extra homework points and not part of homework points since the kids who got over 90 would not bother with the corrections but still deserve all their homework points. I hope i'm making sense. Nothing in this Math class makes much sense...

OP here. DC is taking RS1 and says the teacher is bad, but that is besides the point as they cannot just afford to sit on it even if teachers aren't good. We looked at the materials and having some experience with this type of statistical work, I found that what is missing is the methodical study of the concepts. Bio teacher is good and DC knows that what is missing is more detailed study of the notes and other materials, and there is time to pull up. Anyway, DC is beginning to work very hard and hope to nail evey test from now on. Hope for the best.

Anonymous wrote:Question for PP. Is your DC in Math 4? and are all Math teachers supposed to give points for test corrections? DD said her grade book does not show any extra points for test corrections. Thanks

I’m the PP. (And feeling like an insomniac tonight). And yes, my kid insists he is supposed to get 1/4 of the points missed back doing test corrections. That seems to be what the badly written syllabus says. Also, he can do test correction to bring a grade of 70 or higher up to an 80. Below a 70, he would need to do a retake. One retake or corrections to get a grade to an 80 per quarter. Confused yet? So is the really terrible teacher.

Ant any rate, corrections were done for unit’s 1 and 2, and no points posted. So ???? IDK. I’pf this continues, I am going to ask my kid to email the teacher. Cc guidance, cc me.

Question for PP. Is your DC in Math 4? and are all Math teachers supposed to give points for test corrections? DD said her grade book does not show any extra points for test corrections. Thanks

I feel your pain OP. We had these issues in our house freshman year. The adjustment is tough. And the grades were not where they should have been. But I’m trying to figure out how bad the grades are.

We transitioned an ADHD kid. And it was rough. Bio varies by teacher. But math does not. As are just hard to get in some math classes. And if your kid went ahead to Math 4, instead of doing RS/ Math 3– this is why people have BTDT sat don’t go into Math 4.

But any kid who belongs at TJ should be able to get a B of some sort, if they do the work. They can retake one test a quarter and get it up to 80. And get points back with test corrections. And depending on the level drop some homework quizzes. And get homework points. So if they get all the extra points, and do the test corrections, they shou,d be carrying a B- or C+ at worst. If they aren’t, then they are likely not doing homework, or aren’t doing test corrections, etc. for reference, my kid was at B- s in both Bio and RS at the end of the first quarter. Got in up to a B for the semester in RS and a B+ for the year in Bio. Since no one seemed concerned about these grades, I’m guessing your kid must have Cs, C-s?

Also, in math, your kid does not have time to get the grade up. Math is done by semester, not the by the year. And the semester is more than half over.

I would hesitate to move a kid mid-year over grades. The TJ/ IBET curriculum does not translate well to a base school. There isn’t a Design Tech correlary, and your kid is not taking World History. And the Bio grade should get a huge boost at the end of the year from the IBET project.

We have always worked closely with guidance, because DC has a 504 plan. And have had a great guidance counselor. So that is where I would head first. Your guidance counselor can set up a meeting with him/her, the math teacher and the Bio teacher and your kid. And help you develop a plan. They can set your kid up with a math and/or Bio peer tutor for free 8th period. All of the teachers have 8th periods your kid can schedule to go work with them.

I would tell my kid if they wanted to stay, they needed to work with a peer tutor once a week. And need to go to 8th period with their teacher once a week. And that they need to carry a Math plus Bio unweighted grade average of 3.0 or whatever by the end of the year in order to return as a sophomore. I would be clear about what the grade is, and I would give them time to get there.

Also, realize two things. One is that sometime when kids are drowning, the stop trying to swim. If your kid is overwhelmed, they may stop trying. Getting a plan in Place can help a lot. And second, the TJ math department sucks. So there is a high probability that your kid has a bad math teacher and needs help outside of class. And if they are in math 4, the entire math 4 teamsucks this year.

Good luck!

DC is learning hard way TJ is not like MS. Did not work very hard on the materials, always says tests will be easy, study just about enough, last minute work, so on .. bottomline got poor grades for math and science for 1st Qtr. Continued saying, will be easy to pull up, going to work so much harder, but then same thing happened. All other subjects are A. Problem is now they are asking for remedial because of not meeting GPA in M+S even though only 1st Qtr over. DC keeps saying no problems, just need to work harder. We know the problem, it's not TJ is too hard and DC is unable to keep up. It is the work ethics, could study better. We said, consider going to base school if hard work required at TJ cannot be put up. DC says, don't want to go to base school as TJ is fun. But to what end? what is the point if not doing the hard work required. Base school will be better for kids who do not wish to study all the time. Anyway, now DC says will pull up by next quarter. We believe waiting for one whole year is not needed, and if DC does not fix by next quarter on work habits then consider pulling out. Too early? We can understand if stydying until mid night every day and getting poor grades then some other problem is going on. But this is not that. How do you deal with this type of situation?