School

School

So I'm in my computer applications class at school right now, and I finished all my assignments for this week so I get some free time.  I was just kind of wondering what you all are doing in school right now.  I'm sure you have your language classes, social studies and all that.  And since school curriculums are so different in countries and even between the US and Canada, I just want to know what's all happening.  And also, like what classes you like, and what you don't really like, and how good your grades are .. or how BAD your grades are .. haha .. and things like that.  I'm just interested.  I think we briefly talked about schools in another thread but I thought I should just make a whole thread about school - how much fun it is ... or otherwise

Later days!

Re: School

Hmm... good idea Masa!!  Well, right now I'm taking:  Pre-Calculus (math), Physics, English, French, Band, Drama, Canadian History, Biblical Studies, and Gym.  Of those, French, Band, Drama, Physics, and Pre-Caculus are electives (you don't have to take them).  BUT you need to take at least one science (I chose physics) and one type of math (I chose Pre-Cal).  Our school is a Christian (Xn) school so we take Biblical Studies, and even the non-Xns who go to my school have to take it, it's more like history and english mixed together than a religion course.  It's treated like a core course, if you don't pass Bible, you don't pass the year.  Pretty strict.  Also, if you're late more than three times, your course can be "put in jeopardy" (aka you might be withdrawn from it) so you do NOT want to be late.  My favourite classes are Band, Drama, Physics, and Pre-Cal.  I love music, math, and acting.  They're so much fun!  Physics is just math with a purpose, it's not even a science!!  I love it!!  My marks... are pretty good I'd say.  I'm getting a 94% in Phys so far... and an 87% in Pre-Cal so I'm happy  I'll let you know what the rest of my marks are when I actually get my report card...  But yeah, I love school too!  And this thread was a really good idea!  I think this is the most I've written in one message... glad to see someone else thinks the same way as me!

Oh yeah, my social status in school:  Total Nerd... Geek... Brain... whatever you call it... but I love it

Re: School

I´ve some questions:

.) I can´t imagine to choose each year a class! I mean at university it´s pretty normal, but at school we don´t have any choice. We get our timetables at the beginning of the school year and then we are sitting the whole year long and mostly for 4 years or more with the same people in one class. You don´t have any fixed classes, have you??

.) You call your marks in % ?? Don´t you have an A,B,C,... system?? We have a system from 1 to 5, 1 is the best mark...

____________________
*It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority say it is so.*
Friedrich von Schiller

Re: School

Nope, we don't have the ABC system... though it would be handy.  And yeah, we get to choose some of our courses.  There are the core courses (those you have to take) like English, Geography/History, Math (at least one type), Science (at least one type), and Gym. In elementary school we had the 1-5 system... where 5 was the best... but we use percentages in junior high and high school, then you know exactly what your mark is, not just A or B where three people with As have the same mark.

Fixed classes, what do you mean by that?  In grade 7 and grade 8 we had the same people in our class (except for your electives) but from grade 9 up we have different people in each class, depending on what courses you take.  Like, in my physics class I have Shelby, Devyn, Allie, and Stefan who are my friends in my class, but in Pre-Cal I have Jon, Jenn, Jamie, and Leah who are my friends in that class.

Re: School

But in US there is an ABC-system, isn´t it?? And your 1-5-system is similar to Switzerland,...

When you say you have to choose at least one type of math courses and one type of Science you could theoretically take every year the same type - how is this problme to handle?

With fixed classes I mean that there are always the same people in one class (with little exception) and that´s every year the same except in years of choice for example we can choose between French, Latin and Science and after this choice all "Frenchpeople" form a class and stay together for another 6 years and all "Latinpeople"....

And one disadvantage in our system is certainly that you have to repeat the whole class with all its subjects if you just fail in one or two subjects (depends). YOu just have to repeat this failed cours, am I right??

Re: School

Mergh, school.  We're on semester system, so we have four classes a day of seventy minutes and one with forty-five minutes, and then in February we have final examinations and we rotate to new classes.  This semester i have:

Comphrensive English

Band

Physics

Jazz Band

Literature

Chemistry

I am also in Wind Ensemble in the mornings.  I was doing Computer Science over the Internet, but I dropped it because my computer crashed and I have no time for it.  My marks are ok this semester.  I have an A+ in Physics with something like 92%, an A in Chemistry with 88, I have no idea what I have in band, a A in Literature with 87, a A+ in Comphrensive with 96, and I have no idea what I have in Jazz or Wind Ensemble.

I don't mind our system.  We have a different teacher for each class and no set classmates.  S'all good

Re: School

Well In my school, we also run by semesters...except, for our we have four seventy five minute classes, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. We have two semesters, so we get for classes from September until the final examinations in January and the other for from Mid-January to mid-June.

My classes right now are pretty great:

Career Studies

English

Music

History

We also have this wierd thing going on with our time tables, I guess you could call it A "Rotating Timetable" See,  what happens is every day you time table changes so you will have something different in the mornings. I don't really know how to explain how it changes but i guess the difference between monday and tuesday is that your morning class are switched and your afternoon classes are switched....Here, this could be easier to show you...

Monday     Tuesday    Wednesday      Thursday     Friday

Class 1     Class 2     Class 3             Class 4         Class1

Class 2     Class 1     Class 4             Class 3         Class 2

Class 3     Class 4     Class 1              Class 2         Class 3

Class 4     Class 3     Class 2             Class 1         Class 4

It might look confusing but You get used to it after a while.

But anyways, my marks are pretty good too....I have an 86 in History, a 79 in English, a 9 in Music, and I don't remember my mark for Civics...

Just to let you know, you saw Career studies up there in my courses list and civics down here in my marks, well if you didn't know...Civics and career studies are half credits so you take each for half a semester.

Re: School

I´m very confused, because you have such a small number of different subjects!

We had every year at least 15 subjects or something like that! For example in 8th form I had:

German

Maths

English

Frensh

Latin

Spanish

Geography

Biology

Chemistry

Physics

History

Music

Gym

Religious Instruction

Philosophy

And all these subjects we had every year! Sometimes there are even others, e.g. you have music and art until 6th form, and you computer science in some years of school....

These subjects I told you, are all compulsory lessons, but there are some you can choose freely (so they are really voluntory) - I took some years French-Olympics, Maths-Olympics, Band, Athletics,...

Re: School

Wow!  That's a LOT of courses! 

Oh, and Jess is only in her first semester (1 semester = half of the year)  Next semester she'll have 4 different courses.

In grade 7 we had all core courses except for band, you either took it or you didn't.  Core courses included: Math, English, Gym, French/German, Science, Choir, Bible, and Social Studies.  We also had this complicated schedule where you took drama for a third of the year, art/electronics for another third, and keyboarding for the last third.

In grade 8 we had all of the core courses (except for choir), but we could choose 2 "electives" or "free choice" options out of:  Band, Drama, Art, Nutrition, Woodworking, and Choir.

Grade 9, we pretty much had the same thing, except we could also choose Electronics, Keyboarding, and Dance as well as the other electives.

Grade 10 we had the same core, except we took Geography instead of Social Studies, no more French/German and we could choose our math:  Pre-Calculus, Applied, or Consumer, and we chose our computer:  Computer Applications and Technology, or Computer Science.  And we had more electives, like: American History, Leadership, French, German, and Digital Media.

Grade 11 we had the same core, except we take History instead of Geography.  We take the same math class that we took last year, or you can drop down a level (like, Pre-Cal to Applied, or Applied to Consumer... or just straight Pre-Cal to Consumer).  You can choose at least one science:  Physics, Chemistry, Biology, or Current Topics.  There are more electives, again: Computer Science, and Software Applications.

Grade 12, we only have Bible and English as core subjects.  Math you choose whatever you took last year, or drop down one.  Science, whatever you took last year (and if you took more than one science, you can drop one, but you can't pick more up).  You take a second English (Literature, Language, or Transitional).  And more free choice:  Urban Studies, Calculus AP, and Calculus 1/2 credit.  No more Gym!  You couldn't take it even if you wanted to!!

My Schedule looks like this:

Day 1         Day 2         Day 3        Day 4        Day 5        Day 6       

Drama        Bible          Pre-Cal       Pre-Cal      Drama       Bible

Spare        French        English       Bible          Spare       English

History      English        Band           Band         Band       Chapel

Physics      Spare         Drama        Physics      Bible         French

Jazz          Lunch        Lunch          Jazz        Philosophy    Lunch

French      History        Physics       French     Physics       History

Gym          Pre-Cal       History        English      Pre-Cal      Drama

Gym         Spare         Spare           Spare        Band        Pre-Cal

It's so confusing!  I know!  Hooray for school subjects!!

In case you're wondering:  Spare is when I have no class.  Jazz is the Senior Jazz Band, we practice every day 1 and 4 at lunch, and Philosophy is my Philosophy Club!

Re: School

 How long does one class take?? Our school "hours" normally last 50 minutes! (at university 1 "hour" is just 45 minutes....)


____________________
*It does not prove a thing to be right because the majority say it is so.*
Friedrich von Schiller