High School Summer School District 8

[AreWeThereYetMom]

Is it just this year or has there always been a lot of high school kids taking summer school classes?
Was by St. Macs on Tuesday am where they hold the summer school classes for district 8 and there was a huge number of kids there.

[kvautour]

If the math continues the way it is in high school, there will be alot more. What happened to the basic math we learned way back when......I'm doing ok with what I learned in school 25 years ago!!!

[sassyblond506]

My daughter has to go to summer school, cost me 150.00 plus a bus pass 49.00 , there are three classes of 20 students and thats just the later class in the am so thats 9000.00 and if the early class has just as many students ,, thats alot of money. I.m thinking if that many student are failing then there is something wrong.

[gilead]

What else would teachers, full, part-time and supply do for work if they didn't have summer school. I'm sure they look at it as a good move on the part of the teachers union.
I'm in Moncton and my son is going to summer school for math. It's the same here, not sure how many but there are a lot of kids going.
My son's math was in the mid 70's for his first 3 reports this year and he failed the last 1 (algebra). Seems you can mess up for the first 3 but pass the last term and your good.
We've always thought that teaching was something that was done for our kids but we have to realize it's business.

[AreWeThereYetMom]

Thats incredibly alarming - my son tells me there's actually quite a few that failed Math alone for grade 8 / grade 9.

Never thought about the $$$ - that's $9000 is for only 3 classes - in one later class for one subject in the morning. Not to mention the other grades 8 through grade 12 summer students from the rest of the district there taking Math, English, and other core subjects for the first early morning class. Big bucks injected there.. wow!!

[harbourchick07]

i was supposed to go to summer school this year but i decided not to, It was one class and i can take it next semester. Why should i pay over 300 dollars basically after everything i buy for transportation and such, And have to crame everything in in 4 weeks when in 10 months i can learn the same thing and get a chance to understand it .

[ilvrotties]

I know a couple of kids in summer school this year. I agree the new math is very hard to understand. Both my kids have a hard time with it and when i show them my way.( the old way ) they think its easier. I hope the number of kids shows them there has to be something wrong with the new way they are teaching math. Go back to the way we were tought. we get the same answer and i say if they get the answer, then it doesn't matter how they get it as long as its right.

[All you need is love]

I don't find the Math cirriculum itself to be really difficult. If anything, it is the Provincial and District given Math exams (written in grades 9 and 11) that are making so many people fail. I've talked to friends from other schools and friends in different levels of Math who are doing the same Provincial and District exams as me and everyone is having a hard time with them. It's mostly how they word the questions and how they change the exams from year to year so teachers have a hard time preparing students for them.

Well, this year, I went into the exam with a 96.6% (the grade 11 District exam, that is). I thought that I understood everything in the course and had even covered some of the material the previous year when I was in higher level Math, and I did a ton of review from older District exam questions we were given, because older students have told me how hard the exam is. I failed the exam with a 58%. In grade 9, I went into the Provincial exam with another decent mark in the 90s, that time I failed the exam with something around 50%, as did most of my classmates. It brought my marks down both times, but I feel bad for the kids that need a pass on that to pass the course.

Maybe if they change those exams around a bit so the wording isn't so complicated or they give teachers more guidelines on how to prepare students for the exams, there wouldn't be so many kids in Summer School. Think about it, you need a certain mark to go to Summer School, 50% I think. These kids in Summer School are kids that are just barely failing, and who probably could have passed with a better mark on these exams.

[mommyd]

i was supposed to go to summer school this year but i decided not to, It was one class and i can take it next semester. Why should i pay over 300 dollars basically after everything i buy for transportation and such, And have to crame everything in in 4 weeks when in 10 months i can learn the same thing and get a chance to understand it .

i went to summer school for grade 11 math. (because i am really bad in math, had a horrible teacher, and did the provincial exam that year which really screwed me up)
I thought that too.. i didn't want to go to school in the summer. But i had an awesome teacher. I did VERY VERY well in summer school.. getting marks in the 80's (where the whole semester in regular school my grade was 60/mainly 50). I still failed the provincial exam but because my mark was so good from regular class work, i still passed with a decent grade. Summer school isn't as bad as some may think. And you don't cram everything in. I think there was about 15 students in the class.
When my senior year started, i was sooo glad that i went to summer school and got the math over with. Because it would have sucked to have to be in a class full of ppl younger than me, and not know anyone (which i hate). It cost 150. Of course my parents paid it, but it was really very much worth it.

Also, not all kids who go to summer school failed classes.. some go for extra learning , or if they didn't get the marks their parents wanted from them, even if they still passed. There's lots of reasons.

[mommyd]

i failed grade 11 math because of this exam.. and needed summer school. However, i was doing horribly anyways.
In summer school i had a mark in the 80s then failed the provnicial exam (i got like a 46 i think, higher than my first time around lol) I did that bad even after i think 4-6 weeks (i forget, it's been a few years lol) straight of the math that was on the exam. I don't think kids should have to do these P.E's.. i did really well on the tests in summer school, but like you said the way that these PE's are laid out is ridiculous. SOOOO many different things are covered, questions are difficult to understand and times. Also, some kids just can't remember EVERYTHING at once. Especially with all of the forumulas and such. That was one of the hardest things for me.
These tests are very unfair because not every child learns the same way, remembers the same way, yet at the same time they are all expected to do well or they are left behind.
I hated my math teacher in regular school.I was in level 2 but he normally taught advanced, and all he really did was teach to the kids in the class that probably should have been in an advanced class.. he scared me too, which made me not want to seek help in the subject. He was uncaring to the students who did badly but was great with the ones who did well.. umm.. that's a huge problem in my eyes.


I don't find the Math cirriculum itself to be really difficult. If anything, it is the Provincial and District given Math exams (written in grades 9 and 11) that are making so many people fail. I've talked to friends from other schools and friends in different levels of Math who are doing the same Provincial and District exams as me and everyone is having a hard time with them. It's mostly how they word the questions and how they change the exams from year to year so teachers have a hard time preparing students for them.

Well, this year, I went into the exam with a 96.6% (the grade 11 District exam, that is). I thought that I understood everything in the course and had even covered some of the material the previous year when I was in higher level Math, and I did a ton of review from older District exam questions we were given, because older students have told me how hard the exam is. I failed the exam with a 58%. In grade 9, I went into the Provincial exam with another decent mark in the 90s, that time I failed the exam with something around 50%, as did most of my classmates. It brought my marks down both times, but I feel bad for the kids that need a pass on that to pass the course.

Maybe if they change those exams around a bit so the wording isn't so complicated or they give teachers more guidelines on how to prepare students for the exams, there wouldn't be so many kids in Summer School. Think about it, you need a certain mark to go to Summer School, 50% I think. These kids in Summer School are kids that are just barely failing, and who probably could have passed with a better mark on these exams.