PISD High School (Jasper) Classes Help!! Summer School, etc. (Point: credit, colleges)

[Nitare6679]

Would someone explain how the GPA works if a course is Summer-Schooled or e-Schooled? Okay, so I know a year of PE, .5 of Health, and .5 of Communications is mandatory. I would like these requirements to be done before 11th grade of course, but currently the schedule is filled:

4 Core Classes (9th and 10th)
Spanish (9th and 10th)
Orchestra (9th and 10th)
.5 of Medical terminology (9th) and Principles of Health Science (10th+Health credit)

Clearly there is no room for all of PE and Communication, so at this point, what is the recommended thing to do? I have heard of kids CBEing Communication, doing PE over the summer, eschooling courses..etc.etc.

Originally, I thought I should take Creative Writing for that free semester, (I heard Creative Writing is a great class to take, and colleges like it), CBE CommApps, and just do PE over the summer.

What should I do?

Should any of the above courses be dropped, or are there any other useful courses to be taken? I do have very high expectations for GPA, so is there something I can change to not screw up the GPA (because I honestly have know idea how it works with summer-schooling and electives).
Which is preferred eSchool, or regular Summer School? And will Medical Terminology & Health Science even be useful to one who wishes to go into the medical field? Or is it not necessary?

I apologize for all the questions and Thank You!!

[Big G]

eSchool does not show up in the GPA calculation. Neither does CBE. Summer school does.

Conclusion: eSchool & CBE >> Summer School for GPA purposes.


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My $0.02:

Your plan seems sound, with one change.

Do both semesters of PE online. Sounds ridiculous, but the in-person PE classes are a joke. Not missing a thing - in fact, you'll actually learn a little bit about keeping fit online, which is more than you'll learn in the in-person class.

Other ideas:

1) CBE'ing Comm Apps is doable. Another idea would be getting rid of medical terminology and instead doing a full year of speech or debate in 9th grade. (This used to not count for communications, but now it does.) The class would be more enjoyable, and it would look better on the transcript.

2) Principles of Health Science is a good class. If you change your mind on that, CBE'ing Health is VERY doable - probably without even studying, just applying common sense to the exam questions.

3) Creative Writing is a great elective. There's a pitfall, though. It can happen that you get a teacher who, for whatever reason, doesn't like your writing. Then you're getting an 80-something in an unweighted course that is listed as a core class (English) on the transcript - not good.

[GlobalGuilt]

Keep it in mind that in the end all scores show up on your transcript so for colleges that recalculate GPA or put emphasis on unweighted GPA, these things have little value.

Enrolling kids in summer school can help them make friends, actually learn the subject and get familiar with new schools and new town. CBE leaves holes in learning and eSchool stretches well into school year, kids hate having extra work on top of school work. It may make adjustment more stressful.

Weigh all options, a 70 on transcript looks bad,no matter if it's a regular course, summer, AP or CBE.

[GlobalGuilt]

Online PE is something where we must draw a line.

[GlobalGuilt]

My son sent this when I mentioned online PE.

[Big G]

You can laugh, but here's the reality. My kid did one semester of PE online, and one semester in-person during the school year.

Online:
1) Required to design a 6-week exercise plan, and record performance (situps, 1-mile run time, etc.) at the start, midway point, and end of the 6 weeks. Also required to submit visual and video evidence of the performance. (Yes, you could fake that, but that would be more trouble than just doing the assignment.)
2) Required to design nutrition plan appropriate for teenager, as well as track food intake for a full week.
3) Required to schedule, on their own, a visit to a local gym, and interview salesperson about equipment, costs, contract requirements, etc.

Also a bunch of other stuff whose details I don't recall. Point being, it wasn't a complete blow-off.

In-Person:
1) Required to put on gym clothes.
2) Required to stay out of coach's hair while he/she works with varsity athletes during the hour - or just sits in his/her office.
3) Occasionally required to do "one lap" of walking around the gym before/after 45 minutes of a$$-sitting on gym bleachers and chatting, surfing on phones, etc.

[GlobalGuilt]

If a kid and/or a coach or both aren't interested then that's a different issue. It doesn't change the fact that online PE isn't physical, just some busy online work that a kid doesn't care about anyways because it won't count towards GPA.

Communication Application is a useful course too,supervised class participation teaches one skills that getting rid of it by doing some online assignments to get a 70 wouldn't do.

Now if you want to do online creative writing then it makes some sense. You need to write and teacher can edit it and give input.

PE, Fine Arts, foundation courses related to your field like medical terminology and health have their value, if it wasn't about balanced learning then we can just order a great fake transcript or enroll them in some small private that inflates grades and doesn't rank.

[Big G]

Originally Posted by GlobalGuilt

... It doesn't change the fact that online PE isn't physical, ...

Neither is the in-person PE.

It's clear you just don't believe me, but re-read what I posted.

tl; dr version:

Online PE involves SOME (admittedly, not that much) physical activity.
In-Person PE (at least as my kid experienced in PISD) involves next to NO physical activity.

Either way, the requirement is a big waste of kids' time. No point in having it ALSO lower your GPA, just for the sake of some imagined fitness benefit that won't actually happen.

Honestly, the BEST way to satisfy PE: take band. 2 years of marching band gives you the PE credits AND the fine arts credits. But that's not an option for the OP.

[GlobalGuilt]

I believe you. This is your opinion and I respect that. It's just that I don't agree with you.

[Souleiado]

Originally Posted by Big G

Neither is the in-person PE.

It's clear you just don't believe me, but re-read what I posted.

tl; dr version:



Either way, the requirement is a big waste of kids' time. No point in having it ALSO lower your GPA, just for the sake of some imagined fitness benefit that won't actually happen.

Honestly, the BEST way to satisfy PE: take band. 2 years of marching band gives you the PE credits AND the fine arts credits. But that's not an option for the OP.

I was going to say the same thing , take band for two years and you are done! The art of combining multiple classes together!