Anonymous
11/04/2023 08:12
Subject: What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
There's one English teacher who teaches a lot of magnet students including the 9th period block which is all magnet students and this teacher assigns a ton of homework, much more than the other sections, and is a really tough grader.
Anonymous
11/04/2023 08:09
Subject: What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Anonymous wrote:Challenge classes for my current freshman are APUSH, English and foreign language. He also said he learnt new things from research and engineering class. All the rest STEM courses are just repeating things he already learnt and not challenging enough. I can see him spending the majority of the homework time on the ELA courses, and barely brought back any STEM homeworks. Easy-peasy to get an A.
English? Really? Doesn't Blair just have "Honors (For All) English," which is LCD English for all?
Anonymous
11/04/2023 00:53
Subject: What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What are the most challenging classes in the first two years? Any advice for a freshman to help them manage this? Should you buy textbooks for the classes where the teachers don't teach?
Challenging classes for DC are math and comp. sci. The rest are just 1 year science classes simply compressed into 1 semester per science subject. Not a challenge for kids with stamina and focus. If that is challenging, then taking notes in class is a good habit to cultivate. DC doesn't complain that teachers don't teach. But if that becomes a problem, have the kid should go straight to the source: ask the teacher how best to prepare for tests. And, if that doesn't produce positive results, email the teacher yourself and ask how you can best support your child at home. S/he would hopefully recommend strategies.
We have gotten a fair amount of negative feedback about the Precalculus teacher in 9th. We found a tutor that my DS meets with once every week or two and now he has an A, so I don't think it's that the material is too difficult but that the teaching isn't fantastic. Every other class has been great including non-magnet classes.
Surprised to hear this. DC and their friends think she's very good.
My DC says everyone in their class has problems with her. Most struggle to understand her teaching. Are you sure you aren’t confused? Lots of complaints. This year and last.
Is this the one that does reverse teaching? There was a long post about it last year. I think they may have videos of the material for the kids to watch and uses class time for kids to work on problems and answer individual questions,
So she basically does little instruction or teaching. She tells students to watch a video on the materials or pre-read, then work together on some problems during class while she sits there. “Flip the class.”
I remember Maret talking about that during a tour of their upper school. Sounded lazy there and then, as it does here.
Anonymous
11/04/2023 00:52
Subject: Re:What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Are 9th grade magnet students taking APUSH or Honors US history?
They were strongly advised against taking APUSH but some ignored that advice.
I wonder if they regret it.
I’ve heard so.
Some can handle it, some can't. I wonder how students in both Functions and APUSH are faring. How many of them are there?
Anonymous
11/03/2023 23:15
Subject: Re:What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Are 9th grade magnet students taking APUSH or Honors US history?
They were strongly advised against taking APUSH but some ignored that advice.
I wonder if they regret it.
I’ve heard so.
Anonymous
11/03/2023 23:10
Subject: Re:What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Are 9th grade magnet students taking APUSH or Honors US history?
They were strongly advised against taking APUSH but some ignored that advice.
I wonder if they regret it.
Anonymous
11/03/2023 22:59
Subject: Re:What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Anonymous wrote:Are 9th grade magnet students taking APUSH or Honors US history?
They were strongly advised against taking APUSH but some ignored that advice.
Anonymous
11/03/2023 22:54
Subject: Re:What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Are 9th grade magnet students taking APUSH or Honors US history?
Anonymous
11/03/2023 18:30
Subject: Re:What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Anonymous wrote:How about ADSA course? Heard it is very challenging? Teacher is tough.
Would like to hear more about it? Do kids have to self-study? What's so hard about it? Is there a textbook? Has anyone found a way to make this work for them? My kid will likely be taking this next semester.
Anonymous
11/03/2023 16:31
Subject: Re:What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
How about ADSA course? Heard it is very challenging? Teacher is tough.
Anonymous
11/03/2023 16:28
Subject: What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Challenge classes for my current freshman are APUSH, English and foreign language. He also said he learnt new things from research and engineering class. All the rest STEM courses are just repeating things he already learnt and not challenging enough. I can see him spending the majority of the homework time on the ELA courses, and barely brought back any STEM homeworks. Easy-peasy to get an A.
Similarly my TPMS magnet kid breezes through the STEM classes but spends more time on honors Spanish 3 than all their other classes combined.
Really? My TPMS kid is breezing through Spanish 4 but spending a considerable amount of time on precalculus homework. Research and engineering is easy. English and history barely challenge. I’m not sure that either of our anecdotes are helpful.
Anonymous
11/03/2023 16:12
Subject: What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Anonymous wrote:Challenge classes for my current freshman are APUSH, English and foreign language. He also said he learnt new things from research and engineering class. All the rest STEM courses are just repeating things he already learnt and not challenging enough. I can see him spending the majority of the homework time on the ELA courses, and barely brought back any STEM homeworks. Easy-peasy to get an A.
Similarly my TPMS magnet kid breezes through the STEM classes but spends more time on honors Spanish 3 than all their other classes combined.
Anonymous
11/03/2023 15:48
Subject: What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Challenge classes for my current freshman are APUSH, English and foreign language. He also said he learnt new things from research and engineering class. All the rest STEM courses are just repeating things he already learnt and not challenging enough. I can see him spending the majority of the homework time on the ELA courses, and barely brought back any STEM homeworks. Easy-peasy to get an A.
Anonymous
11/03/2023 13:32
Subject: What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Don't you people have your own listserv instead of mucking up this forum with more of your complaining posts? Please move this discussion over there.
Maybe it’s not anonymous. Also, others considering the program may want to hear this information. The real question is why are you on this thread?
Posts like this are the only reason to come here. Most of the other posts are far-right propaganda, bigotry, and fearmongering.
C'mon! DCUM may be a toxic cesspool, but it's our toxic cesspool!
Anonymous
11/03/2023 13:01
Subject: What kind of grades do Blair magnet kids get?
Anonymous wrote:I looked at the BLair math website and there are several female teachers of pre-calc. My kid has one of them but he's not in the magnet so maybe it's a different person? She is So Very Mid but my kid likes her, and can just approach her out of class to get her to explain stuff that she just didn't in class. She's young. New. Doesn't make much of an effort. Sigh.
There’s only one magnet precalculus female teacher.