Schedules
Fri Aug 05, 2005 10:23 (UTC -5)The other day my schedules for next year finally appeared online. Here they are in all their glory.
1st semester:
Spanish III
AP European History
Chemistry Honors
English Honors III
2nd semester:
Programming II
AP European History
Pre-Calculus
American History Honors
Believe it or not, this is the schedule I wanted and this is the schedule I got. Okay, I would have preferred to have Programming in the first semester and English and Spanish in the second, but at least it’s correct. Yes, even AP Euro is supposed to be there.
As for the saga involving that class, I’m not really sure of the official story because there was so much flip-flopping going on in my head. I guess I originally decided not to take it:
April 12: “My history teacher wants me in her AP European History class and has recommended me for it. NO!!!!!! I WILL NEVER, NEVER EVER HAVE A CLASS WITH HER AGAIN!!!!!!!!” [emphasis in original]
April 18: “There’s no way I’d go into AP European History even if you’d given me a million dollars and a pony.”
April 20: “Also my history teacher recommended me for … AP European History …. You and I and she know(s) that I don’t want to take that class.”
So I was recommended for the class, which presumably meant I was going to take it. I objected to this, but then my mind started to change:
April 22: “… another guidance counselor … said that I needed to have my changes in course requests in writing, signed by my teacher …. She signed it and told me I was making a mistake. The words kept haunting me: ‘You’re making a mistake.’”
Apparently I never got around to saying that I did change my schedule to ensure that it would include AP Euro, and that I’ve warmed up to the idea of taking the class. I reason that it will be good for my writing and coping-with-really-hard-classes skills, which will be needed later.
My erstwhile world history teacher and future AP Euro teacher passed out packets of work, to be done over the summer, at the end of last year. Guess what they are? The first four chapters of the book, including lots of questions, places to know, readings, and essays! “Napoleon by Christmas,” she affirms. “I’ve taught this class twice before and it’s never failed.” I started working on the chapters a month ago and I finally finished yesterday. It’s good to have that load off my back. Now I can relax for the summer’s remaining… three days (counting today).
Actually, I can’t, because I have to finish the summer reading project required of all students. We read a book, then create a “double-entry journal” where we select 25 quotations from the book and offer an explanation for each. When I was going to be a freshman, we had to read “Fahrenheit 451,” a thought-provoking work. I turned it into my English teacher, as we were supposed to do, and it was an easy 100%. Last year we had to read “Tuesdays with Morrie,” an inspiring story rich in quotable material. Toward the end of the school year, I noticed it had never been collected, and I asked my English teacher about it. She said she didn’t know, and so I still have it (if I didn’t throw it away).
This year they’re serious about the book, “The Bean Trees.” It’s undoubtedly a chick book, one of those mass-market paperbacks you’d find next to the big-font-author mystery novels at the supermarket. It’s about a young woman who grows up with only her mother, manages to have a kid without a man (someone gives it to her), and treks across the country, where she meets new friends, none of which are men except this particularly hunky Latin guy.
I finished reading it in June, but I’ve been putting off doing the quotations. I doubt there are any good ones. This time it will count for our third period class, which is Chemistry for me, and it will be collected right away. Or so they told us. Oh well. Have fun reading Amazon’s lowest rated reviews for the book.
If you like these kinds of puzzles, try Whose Fish?, allegedly (but probably not) written by Einstein himself. There are five people of different nationalities. Each lives in a different-colored house, drinks a different drink, smokes a different cigar, and keeps a different pet. Using the hints given, you have to figure out who owns the fish. If you e-mail them the right answer by Monday, August 8, you might win some CD or something.
My sister and I tried it and it took us nearly an hour. But we managed to figure it out, and I submitted our answer. I hope it’s right. We shall see.
