Day 2 of school, and I'm already ready for SVU

Well, so far I haven't gotten the independent study that Marisa and I want to do; it's Latin American studies, and initially we were going to do it with my US History teacher, but he's already doing two independent studies with two other students, and apparently there's this whole unwritten rule that a teacher RARELY IF EVER takes more than one independent study, because that'll put pressure on all the other teachers to be open to independent studies. Which makes sense, of course, since all the teachers already put so much time into the classes they're actually getting payed for, and of course they have lives outside of school (hard though that is for students to believe, especially when we see teachers at the grocery store or the movies, or, god forbid, on a date). Still, it's too bad that there's kind of that "don't go there" attitude about indpendent studies. I feel like a student should be commended for wanting to explore academic areas not offered in school. I wonder if it would be a reasonable idea to have teachers on staff who teach only one or two actual classes and then are totally available for independent study. That way, the option would be completely open to students, but not put any pressure on the teachers to spend overtime at work. Win for everyone! Though of course it's way more complicated than that, but still.... seems like a nice idea.

My schedule:

A block: free (day 1); yoga (days 3 and 5)

B block: AP Calculus (I just took the qualifying exam, and I think I get to stay in the class! Plus it was a two hour test, and I finished it -or at least, all the questions I could answer- in an hour. but there's a lot I need to review just to make sure I'm on top of things in class)

C block: AP US History (with the class below me, which I think is going to be cool; I don't know how much actual interest there is in the room, but I didn't talk that much either, so maybe it was just a shy first day)

D block: AP Biology (This class is going to be HELL but SO COOL; it'll be so much work, I know, but we started off with a dissection just to show us it would be a pretty hands-on course, not very lecture-oriented at all)

E block: AP English/Gender & Identity

F block: AP Latin Literature (Catullus and Horace! Yay!)

G block: free!

H block: hell if I know.... maybe that Independent Study class, Latin American studies, if we do succeed in finding another teacher?

The schedule is a six-day rotating schedule, which means we have blocks A, B, C and D on Days 1, 3 and 5, and blocks E, F, G and H on Days 2, 4 and 6, and all the classes are eighty minutes. So my odd days are pretty tough, and my even days are easy classes and two frees, which is pretty kick-ass. At least I get to relax every other day.

Oh, and it's my birthday tomorrow!

Labels: Westridge

posted by Holly @ 5:45 PM