I'm in 8th grade, and I'm homeschooled! That's why it's possible for me to be at my church right now. I get let off of some schoolwork if my church needs me to help them with their computers. Though I will have a math test later today, if all goes well.

What I love about being homeschooled is that I can do schoolwork whenever I want. A lot of times I stay up until midnight or three AM or whatever doing school, so that I can sleep late the next morning. I also get to choose what subjects I want to take (i.e., I'm taking Cosmology, Chemistry, Biology, and Physical Science all at once!).

you're lucky (if your parents/guardian allow(s) it)! my parents go crazy if I stay up later then 12 (Although I do stay up till around 1:30-2:00 - see signature)! I wish I didn't have to go to school every day, and I could do it all at home. Are there any bad points? I like fixing computers, and everything science-related, so I'd probably have fun taking the same courses as you (math is ok-I'm good at it, but it isn't the most fun thing to do-ohhhhhhhhhhhh calculating solid shapes' areas....), but there must be something bad. And what's cosmology? Is it like astrology and everything space-related?

There are some bad things about being homeschooled. I only see my friends at church! And then my mom (a.k.a. the "Teacher") gets mad if I don't finish enough schoolwork every day. I don't do much grammar or English, but I sort of teach myself that. And then there are the things that I have to teach myself, because my mom's forgotten everything she learned about them. Like algebra. And science.

Cosmology is really similar to astronomy, the only difference is that astronomy is an observational science, and cosmology is an experimental science. It's also more interesting to me, because the chapter I'm currently reading in my textbook is about linear time (which reminds me of the Transcendent Pig) and areas outside the universe that scientists label "Elsewhere" (which sort of remind me of Kit's alternate universes). The book also keeps going on about Entropy, Dark Matter/Dark Energy, etc, so that if I didn't know better, I'd have thought that they based some of their ideas off of the YW books.

I guess I like school a little bit. Sometimes. My school is the pro at making stupid rules (that make no sense) and punishing the wrong people. Example - some people were caught drinking (cheerleaders and friends - hope that doesn't offened anyone here) while tailgating before a football game. My school discontinued tailgating and didn't punish the drinkers.

Anyway, I love history. Right now I'm in a World War II class as an elective. I signed up because I wanted to learn about many of the different Operations - what the plan was and how they actually happened - in the Atlantic, the Pacific, and Europe. But no. I get a teach who has never taught the course before and has no clue what she's doing. All we do is watch movies. It's really becoming frustrating.

Sorry, I'll stop ranting. Also now I have chemistry. I really like the class and I'm good at it. But, I'm in the traaditional class and it goes very slow. I would have taken honors but those students have to do a science fair project. I cannot do another one because the past two have not be good (or even OK) experiences. Sorry about the long entry. I tend to write too much sometimes.

Acckk...I got an 88 on my math test. Which isn't good, for me. I like math, and I'm good at it when doing the normal excercises, but somehow, I don't do as well as I'd like to on tests...

Spring break is HERE! I passed my English and government, and science quarterfinals with flying colors, but I flunked my geometry quarterfinal. Probably because I was gone the day they went over the stuff that made up the majority of the test. Ah well...she showed us our grades, and mine went down two percentage points because of my final. It's all good, though, because I still have an A. Barely, though. 94%. Hey, I'm not fussed.

Spring break isn't going to be school-free, though. District music competitions are week after next, so I have choir practice Sunday, band and choir Monday and Tuesday, and more choir Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. *wipes brow* Geez. It sounds like a lot more when I type it out. Anyhoo, I'm quite confident that the choir will do fantastic, as my school's choir program is superb. Band, though, I'm not so sure about.

Speaking of band, our assistant band director is leaving at the end of the year. Supposedly, he misses his family, but most of us think certain students drove him off. See, he's only been here a year because his predecessor left last summer without giving much notification. Sadly, no one really gave him a chance, so he's hated by a good majority of the band. At least he gave plenty of notice. I just hope whoever comes after him is really good--AND manages to stay longer than a year. Guess who else is leaving? Our principal's retiring! So a bunch of people are doing interviews. Including, I think, my incredibly awesome science teacher. She was telling us how her fourth hour class hadn't had a teacher because the sub left before she was supposed to. Apparently, Mrs. Shannon was at a job interview, and when we asked her what she was interviewing for, she said she "wasn't allowed to say". So I think she's interviewing to be principal, which I think would be good.

Woot! Bye!

gr... i wish we had spring break... we have to wait another few weeks... ARG!!!! i really need a break from math review... (begins rant) every single day, my schedual consists of homework, other stuff, then MATH REVIEW!!!!!!!! lots and lots of extra problems that i cant turn in for extra credit 'cause none of my teachers accept it anyways, and it does NO GOOD! i end up doing the same problems over and over again!!!!!!!! like i said before: ARG!
other then that, school's kinda fun

Sheesh, I just realized I'm less than 6 weeks from having been graduated from College for a year, and am still looking for a job... I remember the days I was taking classes, and to some extent miss the pressure of having to keep yourself on track for all those tests. Now I just substitute teach I get to hear the students complain about their teachers and all the work they have to do... I just smile and tell them to wait until they get to College, then they'll know what work really is...

Yeah as I said on TOGR I selected my new courses for next year. Let's just hope I get them. There's one class I'm so worried about not getting because it's generally a Sophomore and Junior class, not a senior class. But I didn't know I wasn't going to get in to the Intro this year!

So classes I chose:
English 12 Standard A (required)
Contemperary Asia
Holocaust
Television Production I (that's the class that I might not get and desperately need)
Musical Theatre
Modern Literature

alternatives:
Photography
Sports and Entertainment Marketing
Con Law

I hope I get one block off! Anyway that's all I wanted to say.

See ya!

I'm feeling kind of depressed about school lately. I mean, I used to love it, but lately, there's been so much work that I've had to do. I've had several group projects, essays, and tests do in this month. Of course, it is kind of expected that stress will cause my liking for school to decrease...

But not only is all that stress going to my head, my teachers this year are (most of them, anyways)NOT interesting. Sure they can teach and they're brilliant at their field of teaching, but most of my teachers just lack that sort of spark that motivates students to actually look forward to class everyday.

Furthermore, I'm not really engaged and interested in what my teachers teach. Some subjects bore me to death while others I simply don't understand. I despise reading the textbook for homework; I despise even more taking notes of FIFTY pages collectively in my textbooks every day...

I miss biology horribly.

Awww, I'm jealous of you guys. My school has no neat courses, unless you like things like discreet math and differential equations. Calc is enough math for me. At least most of my colleges have a plethora of intriguing courses :P

As for Paine, eh, that's the inevitability of life. There will be good times, but eventually things will disappoint you. For me, I'm the type of person who is smart, interested, but is only a motivated, hard worker when it pleases her or out of necessity. Many projects, essays, papers, and extended assignments = too much stress. I have trouble dealing with frustration in a big way. But whatever you do, don't give up. Don't let the suckiness of your classes be a reason to lower your grades so that you can push for a good college.

<-- loves biology XD I get anatomy & physiology this year

quote:

Originally posted by quelt:
I guess I like school a little bit. Sometimes. My school is the pro at making stupid rules (that make no sense) and punishing the wrong people.

Thats just like my school. Its really stupid

I started High School this year but Im still at the same school I have been since 7th grade (its a Jr/SR high).
Im doing tons of stuff with Venturing and Cub Scouts. So that eats up most of my free time when Im not at school or reading/writing.

GRYPHON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LONG TIME NO SEE!!!!!!!

I've had a bit of a "Wait, what?!" this week. Was the calc final on Thursday really our final for the course? Which would make sense, because it was designed ostensibly for the "regulars", as opposed to the near-impossible-if-we-weren't-IB-kids quizzes we usually get. (Thank goodness for standardization, I always say. Elsewise, my math average would probably be hovering around the 50s, instead of the low 80s.)

The funny thing about my school is that, either because of the demographic (high Asian percentage) or the IB programme, there's basically a two tier hierarchy. There's never been things like the "popular clique" or the "cheerleaders" or the "nerds" or any other overt stereotyped labels; just IB kids and regulars (also known as relatively sane). Regulars could also be subdivided into "above 80%", "average" and "slacker", I suppose, but everyone's a pretty uniform bunch.

Gryph: We don't even have discreet math and differential equations- those fall under Math 31 (Calculus). The only distinct courses I can think of at my school are Cosmetology, Musical Theatre, Tech Theatre, Psychology 30, and Theory of Knowledge (which is a mandatory IB thing and only listed separately because of the diploma IB vs certificate IB anyway, I think).

Paine: The only thing I can say is to try to find something that you like within school. Or find another source of information, if you hate th texts. What I've heard here in IB land is that it's okay after your first couple nervous breakdowns- not sure how true it is, but it's worked for me. [But then, I can't really give the same advice to you that I give to any new IB kids. I love my IB classes and teachers, except math class, and it's really the drive for knowledge that keeps me going.]

School really is a bit love/hate for me. I'll follow a format I saw above:

Hate: Portfolios. Going through a year's worth of physics labs trying to avoid looking at all the red ink. Staying up til 3 in the morning trying to figure out the math assignments, because a week was not enough. (It's typical for a class to have an average of 10/20 on the math portfolios, even a class of sixty.) G-IV. It's terribly exciting when I first heard of it- come up with a topic question, do in depth research on it, design and do a good lab, present it. Almost like a research proposal/grant, without the money that comes with. But it was the cause of my first- second? nervous breakdown, and much stress, and I really don't want to go through that again, even if we did fail because we were two and a half idealists doing a project meant for a balanced group of four. Ugh. Exams. Quizzes. IB level. 'Nough said.

Love: Knowledge. Oodles of it. Give you more than you ask for. I feel like I've learned more in a semester than in a full year of junior high, and SSIB really, really does change your perspective on things. Oh, the many times I've wished I could stuff loud and overly biased people into Ms A's World History IB class. Love it, even if it does take four people thirty minutes to come up with a good, balanced IB thesis statement. The teachers. Going into IB is a good way to guarantee the best and most passionate teachers at my school. Also, the most...quirky teachers. Physics and social studies teachers have scarred my brain more than I care to know. (They know entirely too many dirty, dirty jokes.) The people. Kind of. xD Good way to get together with a lot of people around your academic level, or surpassing it by an incredibly depressing margin, with similar interests and sky-high levels of geekiness. (We stayed after school for half an hour on PTI day to finish up a lab. What can I say? It was a pretty cool lab.) Also, with a class of sixty these people are the people you're going to spend 6-8 hours with, every single day, minus study groups on the weekend or MSN converstions at night. The class atmosphere. Sometimes like a dysfunctional family (interdepartmental barbs, and teachers have passed on lectures to us before). Oftentimes, just plain loud and excited and sometimes you retreat to the background simply because half the class asks the questions before the other class gets a chance to. It was a little hard adjusting to my regular English class after 5 months with just IB kids- the English class was so much less focused, so relaxed xD.

And so on. I really should find something else to talk about, shouldn't I?

Hey Small Town! What's up? I remember you :P

Someone's extremely passionate about IB. XD You make my school sound tame. :P

For people going into highschool, it's great. More responsibility, but you get more freedom too. I run a club with the help of my friend, and currently we're painting a mural on a wall in the school. We have over 20 members, but none of us are tall enough to reach the top of the wall. All of the regulars are short. XD But hee painting

Hang on...is IB a British thing? I've never heard of it before. At my school we have AP (Advanced Placement) and College Preparatory courses, but no IB, whatever that is. I'm very confused.

GRYPH I FEEL LOVED!!!!!! YOU REMEMBER ME!!!!

High School also brings lots more drama, along with more freedom, just don't go and get smashed.

Gryph: Well, since I've been living and breathing and dying IB for nearly a year now, I say it's understandable I'm passionate about it xD

eowyngirl: It stands for International Baccalaureate, so no, it's um...international xD Actually, I think Britain has its own thing like IB, but separate. Same with China. IB has headquarters in and curriculum developed somewhere in Switzerland, and a lot of the work and exams done within the IB curriculum disappears in a black hole in Switzerland/Australia/the Bermuda Triangle, for all we know.
Our teacher gave us the history of IB once >.> It's really a lot like AP, with the college/uni prep and time/stress management and higher standards and stuff, but IB seems to be the source of more angsting than AP and has almost a cult mentality to it. A little creepy, yes. But fun, somewhere along the line, if you're suited for it.

Also, I'm Canadian. So there you go. =D

High school does have a lot more drama. But for me at least, not the drama you might expect. *coughs*
I think sane kids get more freedom, at least. Heh.

For more information on IB, which I wish I had had the option to try: http://www.ibo.org/.

There's also some information on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Baccalaureate.

I went to Classical High, a public college prep school in Providence. Admission was by test, and over 90% of the students went on to college.

so recently we just finished course selection for next year (MY SENIOR YEAR ... not that i'm excited or anything) and i signed up for two AP classes (English and Am. Gov.). I hope that I'm not getting myself into too much stress. Some of my classes now are bad enough. I also signed up for calc and physics. It has just now begun to dawn on me...What in the WORLD did i just get into?!?

I'm also stressed about colleges and majors. Any tips on picking them for someone who is as lost as I am?

Oh, okay....I get it. I think I'd heard of IB somewhere before, I just couldn't remember what the heck it was. Mona--your social studies courses are backwards from the ones at my school. I'm a freshman, and I'm taking Am. Govt. Don't you have Psychology/Sociology or something? At my school there's a bunch of semester courses you can pick from senior year.