I believe it's required IF your kid is doing MC2 at Northwood - not sure otherwise.

NP here - back on Connections. It is apparently required of freshmen taking APUSH at Northwood, but optional at Einstein if you're enrolled in those other high-level classes. From my experience - it's a useful class. My friend's kid who took it along with APUSH killed the test, whereas my kid who didn't (at Einstein) only did so-so.

Good luck OP - you sound like a great person with a great kid with good attitudes about friendships and peers! The arts at Einstein are great and your kid will be happy there! (I think you can take gym every year as long as you have an opening in your schedule - it doesn't matter what you fill the slot with, so long as you get your other stuff done).

Oh - and FYI, get Tech and Health done online over the summer. Health you can't do til your kid is a rising 10th grader, but Tech you can and it's a stupid class in person (quote from the counselor!) so if you can swing $600 I would do it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if your child is not an AP kid, which it sounds like, ignore the AP posts. MCPS calls some regular classes honors to make parents happy. Einstein is a good choice, I'd just worry about the math piece. MCPS is a mixed bag before covid and now during. We are barely getting any education and will be basically homeschooling over the summer, especially math as there has been very little the past few months. But, its very school and teacher specific as some schools/teachers are really going above and beyond and some are doing the absolute minimum.

Hopefully, since it's 16 months away he'll be there in person.

I don't know if he's an "AP kid" but he definitely won't be an "AP freshman", if that makes sense.

Algebra 1 is one class, though. If it's terrible, we'll get a tutor. He'll come in in a good place, because we have the time to make sure his preAlgebra is really solid, and we have an online tutor now that we got because he's home due to covid and bored so we figured why not. A year of math tutoring is cheaper than private school.

But after the first year, he'll be in a classroom with 9th graders who took Algebra 1 in 8th right? So the concerns people are expressing disappear?

No, he will be with kids who have basically taken remedial math or the lowest/lower level math in MCPS and those kids then transition generally to Algebra in 9th. Standard for MCPS is to take Algebra in 7th or 8th and then in 9th those kids will be in Geometry or Algebra 2. The kids that take Algebra in 7/8 do not repeat it in 9th. A few middle schools allow Algebra in 6th so what we are saying is his math could be 2-3 years behind his friends in Math. Other classes shouldn't be that much of an issue and depending on the school, some of the privates are much stronger in writing/reading/language arts so he could be ahead.

So, is it possible he take Algebra in 8th at your school and do pre-algebra this summer so he can be with his peers in 9th in Geometry?

Algebra in 9th is fine but what we are saying is most of the average to above average will have taken Algebra in 6-7-8 so the kids who will be taking Algebra in 9th will be kids not very strong in math, which is fine but some of his friends will be much further along and in 9th will be Geometry, Algebra 2 or above. If he struggles in math, taking Algebra in 9th is a good choice but his peers will probably be in a higher level math.

Any child at my child's school is his peer, and his potential friend. So, the other kids in Algebra 1 will be his peers, and knowing my kid who makes lots of friends, his friends too. If he takes preIB English, or Dance as PE or whatever else, those kids will also be his peers and his friends.

I am still confused as to why my bolded statement isn't true. After Algebra 1 he'll be in Geometry, are you saying that a 10th grader taking Geometry wouldn't be in a class with a 9th grader taking Geometry? If not, then wouldn't the issue that people seem to be concerned about, that the class would have too many kids who need support, be an issue for literally one year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if your child is not an AP kid, which it sounds like, ignore the AP posts. MCPS calls some regular classes honors to make parents happy. Einstein is a good choice, I'd just worry about the math piece. MCPS is a mixed bag before covid and now during. We are barely getting any education and will be basically homeschooling over the summer, especially math as there has been very little the past few months. But, its very school and teacher specific as some schools/teachers are really going above and beyond and some are doing the absolute minimum.

Hopefully, since it's 16 months away he'll be there in person.

I don't know if he's an "AP kid" but he definitely won't be an "AP freshman", if that makes sense.

Algebra 1 is one class, though. If it's terrible, we'll get a tutor. He'll come in in a good place, because we have the time to make sure his preAlgebra is really solid, and we have an online tutor now that we got because he's home due to covid and bored so we figured why not. A year of math tutoring is cheaper than private school.

But after the first year, he'll be in a classroom with 9th graders who took Algebra 1 in 8th right? So the concerns people are expressing disappear?

No, he will be with kids who have basically taken remedial math or the lowest/lower level math in MCPS and those kids then transition generally to Algebra in 9th. Standard for MCPS is to take Algebra in 7th or 8th and then in 9th those kids will be in Geometry or Algebra 2. The kids that take Algebra in 7/8 do not repeat it in 9th. A few middle schools allow Algebra in 6th so what we are saying is his math could be 2-3 years behind his friends in Math. Other classes shouldn't be that much of an issue and depending on the school, some of the privates are much stronger in writing/reading/language arts so he could be ahead.

So, is it possible he take Algebra in 8th at your school and do pre-algebra this summer so he can be with his peers in 9th in Geometry?

Algebra in 9th is fine but what we are saying is most of the average to above average will have taken Algebra in 6-7-8 so the kids who will be taking Algebra in 9th will be kids not very strong in math, which is fine but some of his friends will be much further along and in 9th will be Geometry, Algebra 2 or above. If he struggles in math, taking Algebra in 9th is a good choice but his peers will probably be in a higher level math.

Anonymous wrote:OP, if your child is not an AP kid, which it sounds like, ignore the AP posts. MCPS calls some regular classes honors to make parents happy. Einstein is a good choice, I'd just worry about the math piece. MCPS is a mixed bag before covid and now during. We are barely getting any education and will be basically homeschooling over the summer, especially math as there has been very little the past few months. But, its very school and teacher specific as some schools/teachers are really going above and beyond and some are doing the absolute minimum.

Hopefully, since it's 16 months away he'll be there in person.

I don't know if he's an "AP kid" but he definitely won't be an "AP freshman", if that makes sense.

Algebra 1 is one class, though. If it's terrible, we'll get a tutor. He'll come in in a good place, because we have the time to make sure his preAlgebra is really solid, and we have an online tutor now that we got because he's home due to covid and bored so we figured why not. A year of math tutoring is cheaper than private school.

But after the first year, he'll be in a classroom with 9th graders who took Algebra 1 in 8th right? So the concerns people are expressing disappear?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS - I don't know anyone who takes PE every year in high school, if that's what you are looking for.

Well maybe he'll be the first, or maybe he'll take it first year, and make a bunch of friends and have people to shoot hoops with and go running with after school and he won't need it. He's a kid who finds academic kinda hard, and sports and music very easy, and I'd love for him to have the things he loves be part of his school day, at least as a freshman. Who knows what he'll want after that? Kids change fast.

There will not be time in his schedule nor is it allowed. He can do after school sports.

No one knows what will happen with music. We are in a younger grade and basically get nothing. They do a weekly zoom session to say hi and that is it. We are in private lessons and aren't really worried about it. I would be very hesitant in my child, who loves music to be in any class that involves blowing in/on an instrument right now or within the next six months.

If my kid is in preIB, so he doesn't take connections, he wouldn't be allowed to take PE and whatever music exists with covid? Why not.

We don't know what things will look like in the fall, that is the issue. Usually freshman take PE but they don't take 4 years of PE. I'm assuming they will subsitiute music for things like the PP said like music theory. We have a music kid and I'm assuming things will be heavily scaled back in the fall if things don't improve.

We've missed out of several things for our grade that were supposed to happen this semester and our principal is MIA.

OP, if your child is not an AP kid, which it sounds like, ignore the AP posts. MCPS calls some regular classes honors to make parents happy. Einstein is a good choice, I'd just worry about the math piece. MCPS is a mixed bag before covid and now during. We are barely getting any education and will be basically homeschooling over the summer, especially math as there has been very little the past few months. But, its very school and teacher specific as some schools/teachers are really going above and beyond and some are doing the absolute minimum.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS - I don't know anyone who takes PE every year in high school, if that's what you are looking for.

Well maybe he'll be the first, or maybe he'll take it first year, and make a bunch of friends and have people to shoot hoops with and go running with after school and he won't need it. He's a kid who finds academic kinda hard, and sports and music very easy, and I'd love for him to have the things he loves be part of his school day, at least as a freshman. Who knows what he'll want after that? Kids change fast.

There will not be time in his schedule nor is it allowed. He can do after school sports.

No one knows what will happen with music. We are in a younger grade and basically get nothing. They do a weekly zoom session to say hi and that is it. We are in private lessons and aren't really worried about it. I would be very hesitant in my child, who loves music to be in any class that involves blowing in/on an instrument right now or within the next six months.

If my kid is in preIB, so he doesn't take connections, he wouldn't be allowed to take PE and whatever music exists with covid? Why not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS - I don't know anyone who takes PE every year in high school, if that's what you are looking for.

Well maybe he'll be the first, or maybe he'll take it first year, and make a bunch of friends and have people to shoot hoops with and go running with after school and he won't need it. He's a kid who finds academic kinda hard, and sports and music very easy, and I'd love for him to have the things he loves be part of his school day, at least as a freshman. Who knows what he'll want after that? Kids change fast.

I was going to mention that some MCPS schools let kids shoot hoops in the gym during lunch. It depends on the policy of the principal and the PE department. Someone needs to agree to supervise because occasionally fights break out. So, you might want to survey DCC schools regarding who allows hoops during lunch and the longevity of the policy. It is also possible that one of the other DCC schools (not Northwood) might have 8 periods, which would give your son more options. Since Northwood doesn't have the mandatory Study Skills class (Connections), he would have more flexibility there as well. I don't think the Northwood marching band is as good as the Einstein marching band, but maybe the Northwood people will have something different to say. Good luck, OP!

Einstein is OP home school and given it has the music program it makes much more sense and if he loves music that much hopefully he'll find group of music kids to be friends with. Kids come from lots of different middle schools as there is some middle school choice so he will not be the only kid not coming from the home middle schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS - I don't know anyone who takes PE every year in high school, if that's what you are looking for.

Well maybe he'll be the first, or maybe he'll take it first year, and make a bunch of friends and have people to shoot hoops with and go running with after school and he won't need it. He's a kid who finds academic kinda hard, and sports and music very easy, and I'd love for him to have the things he loves be part of his school day, at least as a freshman. Who knows what he'll want after that? Kids change fast.

There will not be time in his schedule nor is it allowed. He can do after school sports.

No one knows what will happen with music. We are in a younger grade and basically get nothing. They do a weekly zoom session to say hi and that is it. We are in private lessons and aren't really worried about it. I would be very hesitant in my child, who loves music to be in any class that involves blowing in/on an instrument right now or within the next six months.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PS - I don't know anyone who takes PE every year in high school, if that's what you are looking for.

Well maybe he'll be the first, or maybe he'll take it first year, and make a bunch of friends and have people to shoot hoops with and go running with after school and he won't need it. He's a kid who finds academic kinda hard, and sports and music very easy, and I'd love for him to have the things he loves be part of his school day, at least as a freshman. Who knows what he'll want after that? Kids change fast.

I was going to mention that some MCPS schools let kids shoot hoops in the gym during lunch. It depends on the policy of the principal and the PE department. Someone needs to agree to supervise because occasionally fights break out. So, you might want to survey DCC schools regarding who allows hoops during lunch and the longevity of the policy. It is also possible that one of the other DCC schools (not Northwood) might have 8 periods, which would give your son more options. Since Northwood doesn't have the mandatory Study Skills class (Connections), he would have more flexibility there as well. I don't think the Northwood marching band is as good as the Einstein marching band, but maybe the Northwood people will have something different to say. Good luck, OP!

Anonymous wrote:PS - I don't know anyone who takes PE every year in high school, if that's what you are looking for.

Well maybe he'll be the first, or maybe he'll take it first year, and make a bunch of friends and have people to shoot hoops with and go running with after school and he won't need it. He's a kid who finds academic kinda hard, and sports and music very easy, and I'd love for him to have the things he loves be part of his school day, at least as a freshman. Who knows what he'll want after that? Kids change fast.

PS - I don't know anyone who takes PE every year in high school, if that's what you are looking for.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again,

What is connections? I had assumed that my kid would be able to take both music and PE, but it looks like maybe that's prevented by connections? Is it optional?

Connections is a mandatory study skills/ study hall class. I haven’t heard anything good about it. The pre-IB English/APUSH kids don’t have to take it. Your kid still gets two electives. Many of the music kids take Health and Tech over the summer online (for $300 per semester course). You could push PE to sophomore year this way. Some kids like saving PE until junior year when they have a tougher courseload overall. It depends how flexible your counselor is, but most understand dedication to music. The school wants health taken by the end of sophomore year.

Northwood might be on a block schedule with 8 classes. I’m not sure. It worked out well for my DD to have the same 7 classes everyday.

Is it mandatory for four years or one?

So, my kid gets 8 classes at Einstein and could take

English
Math
Bio
History
Language
Connections
Band
PE

I thought it was just 7, but maybe that's an assumption.

Or he could take PreIB English and then skip Connections?

Einstein has 7 periods each day. Yes, if they take Pre-IB English they can choose not to take Connections.

I would check on this. The new schedule specifies APUSH as well for the exemption

Yeah, but we've already established my feelings on APUSH.

It looks, to me, like APUSH has another class that goes with it? So, it wouldn't solve the PE problem, just the exposure to riff raff (kidding, my kid IS the riff raff apparently).

Of course, as a high school teacher, I'm guessing that covid will change things. I think block schedules will become more common, for example, as a way to cut down on the overall number of kids someone is in class with, and singing, dancing, and team sports may all disappear for a while. This makes me very sad, although of course losing co-workers or students to covid would be worse.

Are you an MCPS high school teacher? I don't think you are quite getting what people are saying.

I'm a DC high school teacher. What I got was that people think that the kids in Algebra 1 are somehow different from their children, and their children should be protected from them. But that since my kid has a mom who posts on DCUM, they'll assume he's OK and give me strategies so I can protect him too.

Also, that my kid needs to take connections unless he takes APUSH (which I don't want him to take) or Pre-IB English, and if he takes connections he can't have PE or dance and band or choir in the same semester.

The part about there maybe not being band (My kid plays a brass instrument that involves basically spitting into a valve) or choir or team sports was not from this thread.

OP is not asking about how COVID will be handled when we return. Can people stick to the topic.

The math sequence is a big deal as many kids take Algebra in MCPS in 6, 7 or 8th, not 9th. I would hope band is canceled for a semester and I say this a a music parent. I was surprised to see one band camp still running and talking about some in person meetings as kids blowing into instruments is a bad idea.

Starting a new foreign language in high school is not a big deal. Lots of kids change in high school after taking 3 years in middle school or if they are native speakers of the language they were taking as middle school does not have a lot of choices. We got French or Spanish and that was it.

I am OP. I thought that was obvious when I referred to my kid as riff raff, so I didn't include it. I think that given that my kid will be going to high school during/after covid, and this is a thread about what his high school experience will be like, that what classes will be available is relevant.

I hope that band is not cancelled, but that they come up with some kind of solution that allows music lovers to have what they love at school, but I imagine it to be something like music theory in the classroom and recorded practice at home. I don't want my kid in a room full of trumpet and trombone players anytime soon.

OP, Einstein does have regular Music Theory and AP Music Theory. I think that those are excellent options in the time of COVID. Anyway, I am hoping that by Fall 2021, we will have some level of normalcy. I checked the choices at Northwood and students take only 7 classes per year, although they DO meet on a block schedule. There is no Northwood equivalent for Connections, although English Language learners have a double period English class and APUSH people have a mandatory support class euphemized "Literacy in the Digital Age."

I know students who have done X-country and the school play, as most roles don't practice everyday and the X country coach has been flexible. Track is in winter and spring. I don't know anyone who does Marching Band and X Country. I do know students who have taken both band and chorus classes during the same semester. They are diligent about taking Health and Tech over the summer.

No one thinks that your kid is riff-raff. You obviously care a lot about him to be researching all of this. Of course there is some riff-raff at both Einstein and Northwood, as well as at most schools. Maybe my child just had an unusually bad experience in Spanish 1. She survived. So will yours.

Here is the Northwood Counseling page for comparison.
https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/northwoodhs/counseling/

OP, if you'd like more info about what Pre-IB English 9 is like, last year's summer assignment packets are still posted on the school site:

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/high-schools/a-j/einsteinhs/uploadedfiles/departments/pre-ib9_2019-2020.pdf