this is an "update" i guess about no specific topic

i'm going back to canada on the 26th and i can't wait

picked some courses for next year. english and math are mandatory of course but i don't mind them much, as long as the school doesn't put me in AP math. i doubt it will though, cause i talked to my teacher about it and he said he'll make sure i stay in the level right below AP. i'm comfortable there and won't really need math in my career anyway

i wanted to get into AP english but apparently there's no such thing lol. still in the highest level though which is good

also i got to ditch chemistry for history YES. not taking french anymore cause i picked marketing instead. i'll kind of miss french but learning other languages has never really been my favorite thing so yeah

i sorta hoped i'd be able to stick with french and maybe take economics but the way the stuff we had to pick from was grouped made it impossible. still pretty happy with what i have though

anyway for the first half of the year i'm taking art and graphic design, and for the second half i'm taking video production and web design

finally, i had to pick between physics and bio, which was a no-brainer. definitely going for bio, but the problem was that the head of high school told me i'd probably be in the AP class, which i really don't want. i mean bio's alright as far as the other science courses go but i'm not gonna bust my ass over it. i still don't like it that much, and i'm not gonna use it in my career either, so losing my grades to AP bio would be dumb

the real reason i actually protested though was because AP bio requires you to take this other course called "bio lab," meaning i'd have to sacrifice art, graphic design, video production, or web design and like............... i'm not losing an elective to some class that i neither like nor need you know? i told her that and she said something about "wasted potential" and i told her spreading myself too thin would cost me some grades (which kinda happened this year) and distract me from what i'm sure i want to do. i told her i knew what my potential was and that AP bio would just get in the way. but she went on about how i'm "young and still exploring" which was pretty funny because she never says things like that to anyone unless they're pursuing arts

it's stupid and i got mad and complained but she said "we'll see" so i just went away kinda angry and talked to the guidance counselor instead. she was way nicer and it's possible that it was just because i was kinda upset and dumb ("maybe i should fail the bio exam so i don't qualify for AP") but it counts for something. she said that this kind of thing had happened before and that they'd work something out and sent me to talk to my bio teacher. so i went to talk to the bio teacher and she said she'd do her best to keep me in the level under AP

so i've calmed down now but i don't get why the whole scare was necessary in the first place. my bio teacher and the guidance counselor told me that students can't be "forced" into AP so i dunno why the head of section was trying so hard to make it seem that way lol. scaring students isn't exactly a 10/10 persuasive tactic because i wasn't the only one who got pissed off. if they put me in AP my parents are calling the school so yeah. rip

anyway this year wasn't too bad. i got a little taste of that whole "spreading too thin" thing though, so my grades aren't as high as they were last year i think. i'm in the highest level of every subject except math (i asked to be in the second-highest instead) so it was kinda tough and i got a bit stressed sometimes. i made a new friend who i'm pretty close with though, so it was a good year overall

i learned some stuff outside of academics too. this is gonna sound a bit cheesy but i was wrong to think i'd love all my english teachers and "fear" all my math ones. this year was sort of a twist because my math teacher was my favorite of the grade by far, he actually taught really well imo, and i got along with him way better than the others. he focused on motivating the class by praising us for doing well instead of raining hell on us for slipping up. if we did do something wrong, he'd be all "disappointed" instead of "angry." i respond really well to positive reinforcement, so disappointing a teacher or parent is like the strongest negative thing that could push me to do better. if someone gets angry and shouts though i don't really have any incentive to fix what i did and just get put off. anyway that's why my math grades were so much better this year. the dude was patient with us and he wasn't "scary," the only thing we were scared of was letting him down because if we did it would feel so unfair to him. my favorite thing he said was "if you fail, i fail," and i was just like whoa. he spent a lot of time listening to every kid and made lots of jokes, and he made us comfortable in his class, and that's why we all learned better. we were a receptive audience and so we did well. last year i would've bet my life that i'd never "enjoy" math, but i didn't mind the subject as much this year because i didn't feel like i was going to die if i made a mistake. math is sort of alright tbh. meanwhile the english teacher was low-key snape so i guess the moral of the year was ~.+*"you never know"*+.~

bio, art, and computer animation teachers were nice. my social studies teacher for the first term was nice too, and so was the one after her, who'd taught me years ago. it was a pretty nice surprise to have her back and stuff

i didn't mind the chemistry teacher too much but he did get kinda shouty a bit quick. like sometimes i decided against asking him questions because i wasn't in the mood for the "are you stupid" vibe that'd usually come along with his answer. we're here to learn dude c'mon..... anyway even though he was impatient he also made jokes sometimes so it was all cool i guess. a lot of the time he didn't even mean to be funny actually. but sometimes the way he worded stuff made us laugh and he ended up laughing too. like once he was angry at this one dude for complaining to the head of high school about a test he made. he pretended to lecture the whole class but it was pretty obvious he was angry at that one guy because he kept looking at him and stuff. he was super angry and kept yelling stuff like "you should always discuss this with me first" and things were pretty serious but we all lost it when he said "i am the master of this class"

i'm exempted from social studies and french so i only have to take five exams now. first one is on the 13th and the last's on the 19th, i'm gonna give it my all

Have fun in Canada! It's cool that you're able to go there for so long every summer. That AP bio incident sounds pretty silly. AP classes were always meant to be an option for students who actually want to challenge themselves in a subject they like. I never liked biology either or science classes in general. They're a GPA-crusher, meaning that I get A's in most everything but in science classes I get B's or C's. The same thing can happen with math.

Speaking of math, I also had a teacher who made me not mind math. Previously, in 2nd trimester I had a math teacher who wasn't very helpful and her class was brutal. I tried the entire 3 months to bring myself up to a B, but every time I brought it up, it fell flat with the next test. She was nice and she meant well, but I couldn't understand what she was teaching.

Plus she had to have a sub for a week while she went on her husband's work trip. That week we had our most difficult chapter and we had to learn from videos on the computer, some of which she made. Our class exploded with anger because only 1 student in the whole class (not me) knew what they were doing. Our junior class president, also my friend, wrote a petition for our test to be moved to later and she had others in her class period sign it.

Anyway, in 3rd trimester, I had a different teacher who I hadn't met before. It was his first year teaching at our school, but he was amazing! He wouldn't move on until he knew we understood. He was willing to explain things in different ways and show us multiple methods to solve the problems. I bonded with him a lot since I got help from him during study hall and his wacky sense of humor reminded me of mine. He included fun extra credit on our tests that I found challenging but fun. With the other teacher, I ended with a 79%. With him, I ended with a 94%!

Back to the subject of AP classes, I don't know how it is over there but many students take them here. People will try to take them even if their grades are average just so they can receive college credit and save money. Unlike their other classes, they're willing to put in the work necessary to earn a good grade in their AP classes.

That doesn't apply to me since my grades are good consistently, but I'm taking AP Psychology for my final year of high school! I loved regular psychology and it was so easy for me so I thought it would be the one AP class I should take and that wouldn't be too painfully time-consuming.

We've probably already talked about this but where in Canada? I like Canada. I've lived here my whole life

Good luck with school stuff! It's been a long time since I had to deal with any of that so I don't envy you having to be in class.

Pacman+Mariofan : nice man. i'm interested in psychology too. dunno whether my school has any psychology courses for twelfth graders (apparently there are none for next year), but i'm definitely taking at least one course in university. not only is it interesting to me but i think it'd also help with my writing cause i wanna make realistic characters and stuff

geoogree: yeah canada's the best. i'm goin to moncton, new brunswick, which is where i hope to live someday since a lot of my family's there and i heard it doesn't have cockroaches

-Drew- : ah, that's about as far away from me as you could get, which is probably the safest place to be if you have to be in the same country.

Have fun. I've heard it's beautiful out there. Never been that far west in Canada before.

Cool, psychology is a common interest! It's an important one too so people can better understand why we think and act like we do. I've noticed that it's helped my writing and thinking skills quite a bit. I actually plan on getting a job in the psychology field after college, which I should have mentioned in the first place XD

I've been told multiple times that experience with psychology classes can help you just about anywhere. And I've looked into how many types of psychologists there are. It's pretty amazing