P and the Unicorn
I think I may have solved all my academic problems with P.
My dad wanted to know if this involves a unicorn. Well, kind of maybe yes.
It's that time of year again. That time when it's not even officially spring, but you need to go ahead and get all your ducklings (the ones that haven't hatched yet) lined up in a row for the next academic year. You gotta go ahead and lay your plans, because it's already time to jump through whatever hoops are necessary for that particular student.
For L, this means applying to Durham Tech's dual enrollment program. (Check. He's been accepted.) He will fulfill all his high school requirements for the remaining two years by taking college courses at DT, and he will end up with some academic credits he can take with him to his college of choice—the usefulness of which remains to be seen. Next step: we wait for them to send out info regarding Orientation Sessions, which start this month, after which he will meet with his advisor to plan out his course load. Very exciting.
(Or not. L does not get excited about anything less than landing a difficult trick he has been working towards for weeks. And even then he won't actually show it in any way that you can detect. But he has finally figured out that dual enrollment means actual college-level courses, all the way. No more assignments graded by me, no more online high school level classes through The Potter's School or anywhere else. And that he willprobably unquestionably hate it much, much less than he hates his current high school load.)
For P, this means figuring out what online classes we want him to take, because registration at TPS opens this week.
Enter the unicorn, which came in an email from TPS announcing that they have revamped their English 3 courses. Eng3 is usually taken in 9th grade, and it is the defining English course at TPS, because it sets the foundation for all high school writing. They've just redesigned the course to put much more emphasis on mastering the skill of writing the analytical essay—"the assignment that drives performance and grades in every humanities, social studies and even social science course," to quote TPS. This is exactly where P needs to be challenged, so this is good. But the unicorn itself is a new honors course that combines American history, literature, and composition. Basically, it's their newly revamped Eng3 course and Am. history rolled into one.
My first thought was that it's expensive, because of course it's a two-credit course: He will come out of it with a full credit in English as well as one in history. But actually, when you factor out the price of the Sonlight history/lit course we would otherwise have chosen for him—because gone are the days when he and L share a Sonlight core together, two for the price of one—it's not that much different. My next thought was that it's a heavy workload. An honors humanities course, and this is definitely a math and science kid we're talking about.
Turns out he's all for it.
You see, my problem with P is that he cannot seem to take me seriously as a teacher. He can keep up with the online stuff, no problem. (TPS does have a system that makes it easy to do this.) I spend hours and hours and HOURS manually inputting my courses into an online resource (which is free, and therefore rather limited, hence the hours of manual input) called Schoology that helps him by showing him on the calendar exactly what is due, and giving him an easy way to submit it online... and he ignores it. He just cannot seem to give a... finish that sentence with whatever works for your sensibilities. He's acknowledged this. He knows he's taking all my work and throwing it out the window. He knows he's earning a C or worse in history, simply because he isn't handing in assignments. I'm not talking about big papers, here. I'm talking about a memory verse, or a one-minute oral current events report, or a paragraph summary of the book he read—all of which have multiple neon arrows pointing to them well in advance of the due date on the calendar.
😑
😤
😡
He jumped at the idea of doing a history course, ANY history course, even an American history course for the second year in a row, as long as it does not report to me.
We had a conversation at the dinner table that went something like this:
Me: "P, I want to make sure you realize that this is going to be a butt-load of work." (That elegant description was the way I thought would best resonate with my 14yo male.)
P: "Yeah. We've discussed this."
Me: "No... we've mentioned it. But I want you going into this with your eyes open. There's no question that it would be good for you to be challenged more in general, and specifically more in this area. But I don't want you to find you got more than you bargained for. It's an honors course. Lots of paper writing. And it's going on your high school transcript, so you need to do whatever it takes to get a good grade."
P: "Yep."
Me: "You've thought this through?"
P: "Yep."
Me: "You're sure."
P: "Yep."
Me: "Let me get this straight. You'd rather sign up for a butt-load of work than go anywhere near more teeth-pulling from me, trying to get you to submit simple assignments."
P: "YES."
Me. "Oh. OK. Well, I'm glad we had this chat."
This means that everything P is doing next year is online. He will have the double Eng/history course at TPS, and will also place into French 2 there. I know this because L had no trouble doing so this year, after taking the French 1 course I cobbled together myself, and P finds foreign language comes more easily to him than L does. Foreign language classes at TPS are also a bit pricey, but you get what you're paying for, because the class meets twice a week, the better to actually USE the language you're studying. I'm quite happy with it.
For math, P will continue on into Precalculus via the Shormann Math e-learning system. I cannot say enough about the quality of Dr. Shormann's courses. EVERYONE should be taking Shormann Math. Period.
And that leaves biology, which he will also be doing online via Dr. Shormann's DIVE science course.
Throw in taekwondo and tricking for his physical education, and BOOM! He has a full credit-load of courses taken care of for his 9th grade year.
And none of them report to me (except for the fact that I oversee all of them as both parent and school principal).
YASS!!
IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE!
(If you don't get this unicorn reference, please crawl out from whatever rock you've been living under and go watch Despicable Me.)
My dad wanted to know if this involves a unicorn. Well, kind of maybe yes.
It's that time of year again. That time when it's not even officially spring, but you need to go ahead and get all your ducklings (the ones that haven't hatched yet) lined up in a row for the next academic year. You gotta go ahead and lay your plans, because it's already time to jump through whatever hoops are necessary for that particular student.
For L, this means applying to Durham Tech's dual enrollment program. (Check. He's been accepted.) He will fulfill all his high school requirements for the remaining two years by taking college courses at DT, and he will end up with some academic credits he can take with him to his college of choice—the usefulness of which remains to be seen. Next step: we wait for them to send out info regarding Orientation Sessions, which start this month, after which he will meet with his advisor to plan out his course load. Very exciting.
(Or not. L does not get excited about anything less than landing a difficult trick he has been working towards for weeks. And even then he won't actually show it in any way that you can detect. But he has finally figured out that dual enrollment means actual college-level courses, all the way. No more assignments graded by me, no more online high school level classes through The Potter's School or anywhere else. And that he will
For P, this means figuring out what online classes we want him to take, because registration at TPS opens this week.
Enter the unicorn, which came in an email from TPS announcing that they have revamped their English 3 courses. Eng3 is usually taken in 9th grade, and it is the defining English course at TPS, because it sets the foundation for all high school writing. They've just redesigned the course to put much more emphasis on mastering the skill of writing the analytical essay—"the assignment that drives performance and grades in every humanities, social studies and even social science course," to quote TPS. This is exactly where P needs to be challenged, so this is good. But the unicorn itself is a new honors course that combines American history, literature, and composition. Basically, it's their newly revamped Eng3 course and Am. history rolled into one.
My first thought was that it's expensive, because of course it's a two-credit course: He will come out of it with a full credit in English as well as one in history. But actually, when you factor out the price of the Sonlight history/lit course we would otherwise have chosen for him—because gone are the days when he and L share a Sonlight core together, two for the price of one—it's not that much different. My next thought was that it's a heavy workload. An honors humanities course, and this is definitely a math and science kid we're talking about.
Turns out he's all for it.
You see, my problem with P is that he cannot seem to take me seriously as a teacher. He can keep up with the online stuff, no problem. (TPS does have a system that makes it easy to do this.) I spend hours and hours and HOURS manually inputting my courses into an online resource (which is free, and therefore rather limited, hence the hours of manual input) called Schoology that helps him by showing him on the calendar exactly what is due, and giving him an easy way to submit it online... and he ignores it. He just cannot seem to give a... finish that sentence with whatever works for your sensibilities. He's acknowledged this. He knows he's taking all my work and throwing it out the window. He knows he's earning a C or worse in history, simply because he isn't handing in assignments. I'm not talking about big papers, here. I'm talking about a memory verse, or a one-minute oral current events report, or a paragraph summary of the book he read—all of which have multiple neon arrows pointing to them well in advance of the due date on the calendar.
😑
😤
😡
He jumped at the idea of doing a history course, ANY history course, even an American history course for the second year in a row, as long as it does not report to me.
We had a conversation at the dinner table that went something like this:
Me: "P, I want to make sure you realize that this is going to be a butt-load of work." (That elegant description was the way I thought would best resonate with my 14yo male.)
P: "Yeah. We've discussed this."
Me: "No... we've mentioned it. But I want you going into this with your eyes open. There's no question that it would be good for you to be challenged more in general, and specifically more in this area. But I don't want you to find you got more than you bargained for. It's an honors course. Lots of paper writing. And it's going on your high school transcript, so you need to do whatever it takes to get a good grade."
P: "Yep."
Me: "You've thought this through?"
P: "Yep."
Me: "You're sure."
P: "Yep."
Me: "Let me get this straight. You'd rather sign up for a butt-load of work than go anywhere near more teeth-pulling from me, trying to get you to submit simple assignments."
P: "YES."
Me. "Oh. OK. Well, I'm glad we had this chat."
This means that everything P is doing next year is online. He will have the double Eng/history course at TPS, and will also place into French 2 there. I know this because L had no trouble doing so this year, after taking the French 1 course I cobbled together myself, and P finds foreign language comes more easily to him than L does. Foreign language classes at TPS are also a bit pricey, but you get what you're paying for, because the class meets twice a week, the better to actually USE the language you're studying. I'm quite happy with it.
For math, P will continue on into Precalculus via the Shormann Math e-learning system. I cannot say enough about the quality of Dr. Shormann's courses. EVERYONE should be taking Shormann Math. Period.
And that leaves biology, which he will also be doing online via Dr. Shormann's DIVE science course.
Throw in taekwondo and tricking for his physical education, and BOOM! He has a full credit-load of courses taken care of for his 9th grade year.
And none of them report to me (except for the fact that I oversee all of them as both parent and school principal).
YASS!!
IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE!
(If you don't get this unicorn reference, please crawl out from whatever rock you've been living under and go watch Despicable Me.)
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