Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rising freshman is taking Health A and B this summer. I was listening yesterday and the teacher is great. She requires cameras to be on at all times, is very clear on due dates and deadlines, and has them do little participatory exercises and quizzes in class, so they don't just sit there passively.

I was very impressed, although I have nothing to compare it to. My schooling did not include fact-filled presentation about depression, anxiety and suicide (the lesson they were doing yesterday).

I'm impressed with our teacher too but the courseload is a nightmare with 4-5, sometimes 6 small-big, ranging medium.

PP you replied to. DD hasn't found it onerous in the least - she works 30 min a day on it - just not super interesting. But maybe your child is very busy with other things?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My rising freshman is taking Health A and B this summer. I was listening yesterday and the teacher is great. She requires cameras to be on at all times, is very clear on due dates and deadlines, and has them do little participatory exercises and quizzes in class, so they don't just sit there passively.

I was very impressed, although I have nothing to compare it to. My schooling did not include fact-filled presentation about depression, anxiety and suicide (the lesson they were doing yesterday).

I'm impressed with our teacher too but the courseload is a nightmare with 4-5, sometimes 6 small-big, ranging medium.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed! It’s a huge waste of time. Health A should be all that is required and they need to change it up from middle school.

Too bad these busybodies lobbied the state legislator to create more health requirements. I think the same people are pushing more useless classes now. I mean they wouldn't necessarily be useless but after MCPS adds its honors for all treatment it will be.

Anonymous wrote:Whoever it is that needs to get the state to change this Health B class so students either:
don't have to take B at all OR
make changes from health to financial literacy/health,

let's do it! This class is ridiculous. Nothing to do with teachers, they must feel the same way!

Anonymous wrote:Agreed! It’s a huge waste of time. Health A should be all that is required and they need to change it up from middle school.

Anonymous wrote:My rising freshman is taking Health A and B this summer. I was listening yesterday and the teacher is great. She requires cameras to be on at all times, is very clear on due dates and deadlines, and has them do little participatory exercises and quizzes in class, so they don't just sit there passively.

I was very impressed, although I have nothing to compare it to. My schooling did not include fact-filled presentation about depression, anxiety and suicide (the lesson they were doing yesterday).

Anonymous wrote:My kid will be taking Health A in the second session. Can anyone tell me if they’re required to have cameras on during the synchronous classes? And is it a participatory class or mostly the teacher lecturing? We’ll be out of town for the first two classes and she’s planning to log on but trying to figure out the logistics of what will be expected.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid will be taking Health A in the second session. Can anyone tell me if they’re required to have cameras on during the synchronous classes? And is it a participatory class or mostly the teacher lecturing? We’ll be out of town for the first two classes and she’s planning to log on but trying to figure out the logistics of what will be expected. [/quote

The classes are not the issue. She needs to plan to spend a couple of hours a day, every day working on assignments, which isn’t ideal if you are on vacation. It’s not difficult but it’s time consuming and there are 4-5 assignments every single day (including weekends).

Yeah, I’m the one that posted above about this ruining kids summer. My daughter took health A over the summer a while ago and it was such a painful slog. I felt awful for her stuck at the kitchen counter filling out stupid pointless sheets. I’m really not sure what to tell my rising 10th grader—he really doesn’t want to give up a class and refused to register for it next year but I hate the idea of him giving up his summer for six weeks of that misery. The MC DEciption sounds better but I’m not really sure how he would commute up there from HS every day.

He can take half for two summers so he’s only committed to 3wks per summer.

Yes but it’s still challenging to fit that in. Like this summer he could do it because he had two weeks of Boy Scout camp and one week fell in each of the two sessions. Next summer he had a long planned Boy Scout backpacking trip in New Mexico during the second session and the only time we can take a summer vacation is in June which will be the first session. This one dumb requirement is just really stressing me out. And the idea that we’re telling kids to give up 3 weeks of a 10 week summer for half of their HS life in order to do pointless busywork is …..less than ideal. The other choice is telling him to drop AP Econ, which he doesn’t want to do. I know I’m irrationally upset by this but it just seems like such dumb bureaucracy.

I know you are upset but it will be ok. Maybe it is a class that doesn’t provide much value but it can be a nice easy class for kids who are high flyers. Our kids need to learn that sometimes you have to check dumb boxes. Staying calm is our job as parents so our kids can learn to move on and make it work.

If it is truly that hard to fit into the schedule (eg you have a kid that is in band for four years) you can take it as an evening course during the school year online. This is also through MCPS central office. Each section takes half a semester and meets once per week online.

This isn’t terribly well publicized but my DD did it that way. If you look through the archives you’ll see several posters mentioning taking health as an evening class from MCPS during the school year. Have your kid ask their counselor about it if that makes more sense.