Checking Off Graduation Requirements

The school year is rapidly coming to a close. This is the last week in April (where did the time go?!), and graduation is the first week of June. There are three requirements every senior in Pennsylvania has to complete before they can graduate:

1. Earn 24 credits throughout high school.
2. Score Proficient on the PSSA tests in English, Writing, Math, and Science.
3. Complete and pass the Senior Project.

Here's a breakdown of each one:

1. 24 credits:

There are three class lengths: Full year worth 1 credit, 1 Semester worth 0.5 credits (half-year, 18 weeks), 1 quarter worth 0.25 credits (half-semester, 9 weeks).

A student has to get a certain number of credits by the end of each year to be promoted to the next year. They must have 24 credits by the end of their 4th year (senior year) in order to graduate.


2. PSSA tests

PSSA stands for Pennsylvania System of School Assessment. They are a series of test students have to take in grades 3-8 and 11th (junior year). Students are tested in Reading, Writing, Math, and now Science. For the 3rd-8th grade tests, it doesn't matter what score they get because those are used to measure how well the school is teaching; in other words, it grades the school instead of the student. The 11th Grade test score does matter. You have to score Proficient on each section in order to graduate the following year. If you don't pass a particular section the first time, you have to retake it the next year. If you don't pass it then, you have to take another state test (4Sight Test in Pennsylvania). If you still can't get Proficient, then there is a computer thing called Study Island you have to do and pass. If you can't pass that then you shouldn't be graduating anyway lol


3 Senior Project

I've already explained this one before, I think. Basically, you have to write a 5 page career research paper, do 10 hours of community service, job shadow and interview someone, then make a presentation about the job shadow experience and present it. You have to pass all the parts to graduate.


So that's a lot of stuff to accomplish. Here is the status of each of the requirements for me personally:

1. 24 Credits

When I completed the last school year, I had 14.5 credits. So this year I had to get at least 9.5 credits to graduate. I took 8 full year classes and 4 semester classes equaling 10 credits.

So far I've completed 4 full year and 3 semester classes (5.5 credits). I have 4 full year classes (British Literature, World History, Earth Science, and Business Math) and 1 semester class (Life Skills) left to finish.

There are two deadlines. If I want to walk at Graduation then I have to be totally done by the end of May. If I'm not done by then, then the absolute latest I can finish and still get my diploma is the end of June.

Since I have 5 classes, I (try to) work all day long on one class. By all day I mean from the time I get up until 8 p.m.; minus time for lunch and dinner. By 8p, I'm pretty well burned out.

I don't know if I'll be done in time to walk at Graduation, but that isn't really important to me. I'd rather not rush through 5 classes in a month and not learn anything just to walk around in a stupid cap and gown, but I'm still going to try and make it by that deadline. If I don't, then it's no big deal because I can definitely finish by the end of June.


2. PSSA Tests

I took them last year and got Proficient in Reading, Writing, and Science but not in Math. I took the retake test for Math earlier this year, but still didn't get Proficient. Then we took the 4Sight Tests a month or so ago and I did get proficient in Math.

So that requirement has been crossed off the list.


3. Senior Project

I'm pretty sure I already explained what I did for my project, so I won't expand an already long post. Anyway, today the principal met with me and the other cyber kids. I didn't get to see my exact score, but I got this:

(the square shadow is my mouse pad lol (long story))


:D

So that's another requirement checked off. Now I just had to finish my classes...


I leave you today with an updated picture of my model that I work on at night after I'm burned out from school work...


(pictured is the nearly completed Navigation Bridge front and the start of the Officer's Quarter's and First Class Entrance on the Boat Deck)

... and some music

Slightly Modified Plan, Comments, College.

Okay, so here is the new plan for tomorrow:

Dad takes me up to school, hopefully ahead of the buses, and we go into the office. There we'll find out if anything has changed. If not, then we'll withdraw me right then and there, go home and contact the cyber school. If things have changed, then I assume we'll work on a new schedule of classes.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Now, let me take this time to respond to a few comments on the last post.

@ Bob:

I think I told you this when we were talking the other day, but I'll put it on here for everyone else to see too. Yes, I can enroll in the cyber school. It's just like a regular public school; you can enroll anytime, and there are no requirements to enter.

@ NG:

I don't want the attempt to get me back into this school to fail. I was actually getting excited about it before we had the first meeting with the guidance counselor last week. We all agree, even you said it I think, that it is dumb to enroll me as a junior in one school while I'm already a senior in another.

@ NG, Torchy!, Steevo:

I don't get how I'm supposed to fight this, assuming they still don't have that transcript tomorrow. I mean, if they don't have it then they don't have it. Fighting it now would just be a waste of time and an interruption to my education.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Okay, now on to college, or uni as the foreigners say.... I think.... Oh forget it, I'll just say post-secondary education :p

I keep floating back and forth between interests, and it's time to decide. Here are three main the interests I keep floating between:

1. Ship's officer (also called mate).
2. Naval architect.
3. Architectural drafter.

Currently, I'm back at interest No. 1.

I requested more information from The Great Lakes Maritime Academy a few days ago. This is probably where I'll go if I choose to do this career. If you are interested, I'd be doing the Deck Officer Program. Also, if you're interested, watch this video.

Here are classes I'd be taking, and their descriptions.


I'm all excited about that ^ now, but let's see if I get through high school first :p

A Plan, Finally!!

So I talked to Mom and Dad today about all this, not both together, and we've finally got a plan!

First of all, Mom says she'll support me in any decision I make, but it's Dad's responsibility to take care of it all. So here's the plan:

I go up to the school Monday morning, and after I get my schedule I go straight to the office. There I ask to see the guidance counselor to find out if anything has changed since my old B&M school resent the transcripts. Actually, if anything had changed then I shouldn't even have to ask, she should just track me down and find me. Anyway, if anything had changed then we would discuss a new schedule. If nothing has changed, then I'm going to tell them that I'll withdraw tomorrow (Tuesday).

Also, Monday morning, Dad is going to get in touch with the cyber school and see how many credits they say I have, and also talk about the possibility of re-enrolling there.

So, yeah, that's it.

Still Waiting...

Mom called and said that my old B&M school sent the local school all the transcripts they had on me again. So now we're waiting until tomorrow morning to call the local school and ask about it all since it was too late to call them once I heard.

I hope she's up there tomorrow. School starts on Monday so tomorrow is the last day.


Alex sent me a message while I was talking to mom. He wanted to know when I was taking my recycling stuff to the thingy cos he had a bunch of stuff. So I said, "Let's go now then." So I get the car to back it up to my door, cos I had a lot of stuff I didn't really feel like carrying all the way to the car, and I notice that his garage door is closed; that usually means no one is home. So I was just about to send a message asking if he was even home when he showed up on his bike.

o.O

So once we're ready to go down to the thing, someone calls him. He looks at his phone and says, " Oh, it's Joe. I was just at his house and he was asleep on his couch." When we were at the recycling thing, Joe showed up. Once we pulled back into my driveway, with Joe following us on his bike, Alex jumped out of the car saying, "See ya later."

*sigh*

Today is the Day

Yep, today we're going to find out what school I'm going to be going to. It's either a) the local school district if they're going to accept that I'm a senior, or B) back to the cyber school where they already know I'm a senior.

I talked to Mom on the phone last night. She said she emailed my old B&M school (brick-and-mortar) about the transcripts but she didn't hear anything back. So, she said was going to call them after she got done talking to me and leave a message explaining what she wanted, then call them again this morning and, hopefully, talk to the lady in person. Whether she has done that yet or not, I have no idea because she has her cell phone turned off during school, and I have no idea what her number is there.

I don't know how I'm going to convince Mom about me doing cyber school again (if nothing happens with that transcript). But, really, I think going there and being a senior like I should be is better than going to the local school and being a junior (again) just because of a technicality.

Okay, yes, I didn't do so well last year in cyber school. I let procrastination get the better of me (and also blogging :-S), but this has been a big wake up call! I don't want to have to go through this again! So if anyone thinks I'll mess up again two years in a row is crazy. Dad even takes some responsibility because he wasn't watching over me as well as he should have. So even he's had a wake up call.

So, I'm positive I can do it this year... I've got to do well this year... It's my last year before going off to college...

Ugh

The Future.... how scary... That'll be another post later on today maybe.

Grade Troubles.

Oh
My
Fucking
God...

What a day this has been!

Dad and I went up to the school to get me scheduled for me senior (12th grade) year. We got put into the conference room, and waited for the guidance counselor. She was out in the office talking when i heard her say, "... no, he will be in 11th grade." I didn't know she was talking about me at the time. Then she came in and said, "Okay, we are here today to get you scheduled for your junior year (11th)." Thinking she just made a mistake and got me mixed up with whoever she was talking about earlier I said, "I'll be a senior." She said, "Oh, no. You're not honey."

Then it just went downhill from there... We ended up making two trips to the school, but neither resolved the issue:

You need to have at least 18 credits to be a senior (12th grade). According to all the transcripts that she got from my previous schools, I only have 13.5; that makes me a junior (11th grade). Now here is where the weird part is; I got a paper from the cyber school people when we were trying to decide on summer school. This paper has every credit I earned in my high school career. This paper totals the credits as 18.5. So according to the cyber school, I'm a senior (which they told me at the end of last year); but according to my new school, I'm only a junior.

The problem lies with my previous brick-and-mortar school (the school i went to before doing cyber). Apparently, and the guidance lady said this too, they didn't send the transcript that has the credits I got from there the same year I moved back here and started cyber school. I checked it against the paper that has all my credits on it and found that that missing transcript is indeed the problem. If we had that transcript then I would have 5 additional credits, and if I had those 5 credits then my total credits will equal 18.5; just like this one piece of paper says.

However, the guidance lady cannot go by what this paper says because it's not an official transcript. But when she saw it she realized what the problem was too, but she can't do anything unless she gets that missing transcript.

So, officially, I am a senior; which is where I should be. But since there is that missing transcript, she has no choice but to keep me as a junior.

Now, here is a scenario: Bob passes 11th grade with flying colors. However, while making his schedule for the next year, the guidance counselor accidentally throws a transcript of his away, which then forces him to lose X number of credits, preventing him to move on to the next grade level; forcing him to repeat a year he's already taken and passed.

That, essentially, is what's happening here.

BUT

If I do cyber school again, I'll be a senior. If I go to the local school district, I'll only be a junior because of a misplaced transcript...

Which would you choose?

Wasting a whole year of your life doing something you've already done?

Or

Moving on and completing school and get on with your life?


OH! That probably raises a question. What if I do repeat a year, and therefore take classes I already had? Which grade would be looked at by a college? Well, both, but according to the guidance counselor, they only consider the FIRST grade unless you failed the first time. So, that really isn't going to be better.


::EDIT::
I just looked over my grades for the bazillionth time today. Now I'm getting that my total credits minus the missing ones should be 15, not 13.5. Also, if it is 15, then my total credits should be 19.5 instead of 18.5 like that paper says. Of course, that throws everything else off too...

So I've concluded that if that transcript does come in, but if there is still a problem with me being a Senior, then I'm going to have her give me the transcripts and go thru each and every one with her until we get to the bottom of this. If there is still a problem then it should only be by .5 credits. Idk if she'll argue over .5 credits or not, but if she does then I'm doing cyber school again regardless if Mom says so or not; frankly, it's not really her decision. I think it should be mine, plus I don't even live with her. She has a awful habit of making up my mind for me... But that's another post.


Fuck, my head really hurts today.