A New Semester Begins

Coming back to school after a long vacation, like Christmas break, can be a traumatic change for our bodies. Over vacation I sleep till eight or nine and go to bed at midnight. During the school year I go to bed at 9:30 and wake at 5:45. It has been 8 days since we returned to school and I am just now re-acclimated to “school time.”

Most of my classes remained unchanged for the new semester. I had two students drop Advanced Placement Chemistry after failing the semester exam given before vacation. Another student should drop but hasn’t yet.

One of my Honors Chemistry students filled out paperwork to drop before break, but is still in class every day. I assume that he decided to stay, getting a "C" on the semester exam and saving his ass from failing for the semester. I have collected 3 assignments so far and he has failed to turn in two of them. Before Christmas I filled out paper work for a child psychologist who was looking at his situation to see if he has a learning disability. The questions on the survey asked about his interaction with other students, not his study habits, and unless apathy is a learning disability he probably won’t get the help he needs. I have more to say about his situation, but will talk about that in my next post.

A transfer student was moved into one of my Honors Chemistry Classes and had a shaky start, not having covered as much material as my students did last semester. He seems bright and I assigned another student to work with him on the material he needs, and he has shown improvement. I think he will be OK in a week or two.

My home room completely changed giving me 22 new students to deal with. They seem like a good group and the first week went on without any problems. I took the time to talk to each one personally, checking their grades with them and offering my help with their Math and Biology work. I was shocked at how poorly they had done on their semester exams compared to their regular grades during 1st and 2nd quarter. The semester exam counts for 1/5 of their final grade and most of them did not give it the attention and study that it deserved. It is easy for new high school students to significantly underestimate the amount of study needed for an exam like the semester final, and these freshmen certainly did just that. We had a “Come to Jesus” talk about the importance of study and preparation that I feel they took to heart. I will check their grades every week until the end of the year and speak to each one personally about what I see, good or bad.