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Post by gatormom on Jan 24, 2009 10:15:27 GMT -5
This is the time of year when our 8th graders are selecting courses for next year. Many parents are working with their children and trying to decide whether to encourage honors classes or not. I was so positive I didn't have to worry about it, I skipped the Honors night presentation, my bad. I am in a quandray and would like advice. They have recommended both English and biology for my daughter. Any help, insight, advice would be appreciated.
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Post by WeNeed3 on Jan 24, 2009 10:37:57 GMT -5
This is the time of year when our 8th graders are selecting courses for next year. Many parents are working with their children and trying to decide whether to encourage honors classes or not. I was so positive I didn't have to worry about it, I skipped the Honors night presentation, my bad. I am in a quandray and would like advice. They have recommended both English and biology for my daughter. Any help, insight, advice would be appreciated. Funny, I was about to post this myself. My daughter has never been in the accelerated program/Project Arrow at MS. So naturally, I didn't attend the honors night either. Now, she's being recommended for Honors English & Honors Biology. When she came home, she said even her teacher said Honors Biology was very hard so she is hesitating to take that. IMO Honors English seems important so if I push her to do anything, it would probably be that. Has anyone had any kids that took multiple Honors classes and how hard was that? I've heard freshman year can be challenging as it is and I don't want to put too much pressure on her. Also, I don't know yet if her Spanish teacher will recommend Spanish 1A or Spanish 2 for her since she had a year of Spanish in 8th grade. I was assuming she would just take 1A but have heard of kids getting recommended for Spanish 2. She's starting to freak out as am I. Any advice would be appreciated.
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Post by warriorpride on Jan 24, 2009 12:13:42 GMT -5
This is the time of year when our 8th graders are selecting courses for next year. Many parents are working with their children and trying to decide whether to encourage honors classes or not. I was so positive I didn't have to worry about it, I skipped the Honors night presentation, my bad. I am in a quandray and would like advice. They have recommended both English and biology for my daughter. Any help, insight, advice would be appreciated. My notes from the meeting: Honors courses require more work outside of school & have higher expectations. NOT taking Honors classes freshman year WILL NOT prevent a student from taking Honors or AP classes in future years. If you get onto the AP track, you can take AP exams in the Spring of Sr year, to possibly get college credit. Honors and AP classes get an extra point on their grades when calulating GPA (i.e. an A is 5, a B is 4, etc.). Based on what I've heard of some honors and AP classes, it sounds like less students may be A's. So students used to be gettting mostly A's need to be prepared for this. The teacher recommendation is based on on what they know & see about the student, however it is only one data point. Other things to consider: - Is the student comfortable with difficult school work? - How many activities are they involved in outside of school? - Can they handle stress? - Are they highly organized? - Does the student want the extra challenge?
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Post by momto4 on Jan 24, 2009 12:44:03 GMT -5
My notes from the meeting: Honors courses require more work outside of school & have higher expectations. NOT taking Honors classes freshman year WILL NOT prevent a student from taking Honors or AP classes in future years. If you get onto the AP track, you can take AP exams in the Spring of Sr year, to possibly get college credit. Honors and AP classes get an extra point on their grades when calulating GPA (i.e. an A is 5, a B is 4, etc.). Based on what I've heard of some honors and AP classes, it sounds like less students may be A's. So students used to be gettting mostly A's need to be prepared for this. The teacher recommendation is based on on what they know & see about the student, however it is only one data point. Other things to consider: - Is the student comfortable with difficult school work? - How many activities are they involved in outside of school? - Can they handle stress? - Are they highly organized? - Does the student want the extra challenge? Thanks, warriorpride. I didn't attend but this is a good list. For the third time I will have a kid in 4 honors classes for 9th grade. It has worked for them but they have come from MS PA. The first two have found honors courses to be hard-to-get B's while they find the non-honors classes to be way-easy A's. I still don't like that there is no middle ground between very difficult and very easy courses offered to our students. Another thing to consider is that in honors courses the other students will generally be kids who want to learn and want to do well. In non-honors required classes there will also be some kids who don't care at all, so you have a very different set of students. Also, there are more AP offerings than before. There are AP courses available starting in 9th grade. Many honors students take one AP course in 10th grade and several in junior and senior year. AP exams would be taken the spring of any year in which a student has taken an AP course. My college freshman got college credit for several AP classes. She skipped taking the AP Microeconomics test last spring because she'd had the course fall semester and no longer felt prepared for the exam. Colleges have vastly different policies about AP credit so that is worth checking into.
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Post by WeNeed3 on Jan 25, 2009 8:45:14 GMT -5
Thanks for the information. Does anyone have any experience with Honors Biology? I know all kids are different and some may breeze through while others struggle. It just seems like I am hearing a lot of rumors about how difficult a class it is and I was curious as to what the kids who have taken it thought about it.
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Post by wvhsparent on Jan 25, 2009 12:36:47 GMT -5
FWIW. My daughter who is a Biomedical Sciences Major (Pre-Med) at Marquette. Marquette advised that while it is probably not going to hurt, They really discouraged using it to test out of taking the Bio class at the college, because it has been their experience that those then taking the next level Bio class have been way behind.
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Post by title1parent on Jan 25, 2009 12:44:51 GMT -5
The Honors Bio, I believe is considered Inquiry Science. If your child is self motivated, and they can do things independently, then I believe they will do fine. I know there is group work involved with researching topics and such. I believe it is more student driven than instructor driven. The instructor is there to more or less advise and not have to go step by step through everything.
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Post by gatordog on Jan 25, 2009 15:23:10 GMT -5
First, I think warriorpride gave an excellent summary (thanks for throwing that out there!)
I agree that a student who shows a willingness to work hard and be focused and organized (within reason!) is a good candidate for honors. I think of it as being for the student who "really likes school". I hope you understand what I mean by that...sure there moans and grumbles....but one who really pays attention to it and gives their all because its something they truly care about.
I personally think, MS PA is pretty good prep for many honors course, in terms of them knowing that its extra work load and requirement for students to really be inquisitive. But even if they werent in MS PA....if they had shown those characteristics as a MSer, that I think would be pretty solid background too.
Honors Bio: I think its a great course (I have a Freshman taking it now). Yes, I hear it is maybe the hardest honors course. But hard challenges are many times the ones must sastifying to accept!
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Post by momto4 on Jan 25, 2009 16:32:53 GMT -5
Honors Bio: I think its a great course (I have a Freshman taking it now). Yes, I hear it is maybe the hardest honors course. But hard challenges are many times the ones must sastifying to accept! I'm curious - do you mean the hardest honors course offered for 9th graders? I think that depends on where the student's interests and skills lie. It is a lot of work but my daughter says it's not too bad as long as you do everything you're supposed to do. I have heard that AP US and AP Calc BC are two of the hardest courses offered. But again, some classes could be harder if it's a subject the student has a hard time with.
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Post by gatormom on Jan 25, 2009 20:05:46 GMT -5
Thank you everyone. This has been great. I am really getting an idea of what to expect. I am sharing these replies with my child. Ulitmately the decision will be up to her. She is leaning towards both English and Biology now and her parents are in agreement.
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Post by WeNeed3 on Jan 25, 2009 21:19:14 GMT -5
Yes, thank you all for your input. It helps to throw things around and talk with people that have been through it before.
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Post by gatordog on Jan 25, 2009 23:50:38 GMT -5
Honors Bio: I think its a great course (I have a Freshman taking it now). Yes, I hear it is maybe the hardest honors course. But hard challenges are many times the ones must sastifying to accept! I'm curious - do you mean the hardest honors course offered for 9th graders? I think that depends on where the student's interests and skills lie. It is a lot of work but my daughter says it's not too bad as long as you do everything you're supposed to do. I have heard that AP US and AP Calc BC are two of the hardest courses offered. But again, some classes could be harder if it's a subject the student has a hard time with. I was just talking about 9th gr. No need to freak out these poor 8th graders with horror stories for later classes!
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Post by momto4 on Jan 26, 2009 9:05:22 GMT -5
I'm curious - do you mean the hardest honors course offered for 9th graders? I think that depends on where the student's interests and skills lie. It is a lot of work but my daughter says it's not too bad as long as you do everything you're supposed to do. I was just talking about 9th gr. No need to freak out these poor 8th graders with horror stories for later classes! I checked and one daughter agrees Honors Bio was her hardest 9th grade class, the other says Honors World History and Honors Algebra II Trig were harder for her. My 8th grader was considering taking one of the AP courses now available to 9th graders but I was glad he decided on his own to stick with the honors course instead. I know Dr. D is really keen on AP courses but I don't think they're necessary for most 9th graders. I also don't want it to take time away from participation in extra-curriculars.
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Post by gatormom on Jan 26, 2009 13:16:13 GMT -5
I think one thing that might have helped here was if they held the Honors night presentation after the kids got their recommendations. Not sure why they don't do that way.
Oh well, fortunately between the information here and contacting her teachers, I think we are headed in the right direction.
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