Well. My first year at Guyer is over! Finally!
While I think I may have gotten used to Guyer, I still don't like it very much. First of all, I only had a few good teachers. The school was helpful in writing up my existing 504 plan, but I don't feel like it was followed that well by the teachers. Not to mention, the school is so big I hardly knew where anything was! For instance, I barely made it from Photo Journalism to English in the 5 minute passing period.
Anyways.
The classes that I took were:
American Sign Language. Yay!
Physics.
Drawing 3. Yay!
English 3.
Algebra 2.
Culinary Arts...which I dropped after the first semester and changed to Photo Journalism and then Principals of Education and Training.
I also had 5th block off too! Yay!
I love ASL and I did very well in that class, even thought the class was filled with REALLY annoying freshmen girls! It kinda sucked to start the day off with them. I've caught on really quick to the language and I think that is cool! It is very easy for me to learn.
I'm also doing really well in Drawing 3, which is really surprising considering my Art 1 and Drawing 2 classes from the previous high schools were a joke! The class is a lot of fun and I actually look forward to going to it. My teacher for that class is awesome, and she really seems to actually care about me. She is my favorite teacher at Guyer and Drawing is my favorite class.
I felt I was doing well in Culinary Arts, but I also felt like the teacher singled me out as the one student he was going to nit-pick about every little thing. The class was not fun and was way too stressful - not because I didn't know what was going on, but because I seemed to be the only student who knew what to do. I thought this class would be full of people who loved to cook like me - but instead it was full of people who didn't even know what a spatula was. So I decided to drop that class, because I can cook at home and not have all that stress. The only good thing that I got out of that class was my Serve Safe Card.
Culinary Arts got replaced with Photo Journalism which I really like! I also took Principals of Education, which I took because it was my only other option. It's not a bad class, I just don't think I plan on being a teacher.
Math is still the same for me, confusing and hard! I had to retake almost every test and quiz! Physics is also difficult. I am so happy that I am finally done with these classes!!
As for English, oh my god I HATE this class! I'm bad at English and it doesn't help that my teacher is unhelpful, rude, mean, and crazy! I don't know how she is still a teacher at Guyer, I don't think she should be a teacher, anywhere, at all. Her 'standards' are wayyy too high for a regular English 3 high school class! One of our last test we took was a 3 question test. It was so confusing it took her 30 minute just to explain it and it took me an hour and 40 minutes to take it. Really?
She also uses only one type of question on her tests. Any good teacher would know that a test should be made up of different ways to gather information because all kids test in different ways - she should have essay, true and false, multiple choice, matching, etc. But no, she insists on only doing really confusing essay questions. This doesn't work for every student - it only works for the ones good at writing short answers. She is one of those teachers who's only given one 100 during her entire teaching career and brags about it.
She gets mad when we don't do an assignment that she claims she assigned - but in reality she never did. When I missed a day, I learned it was pointless to ask her what I missed. She wouldn't tell me. She would just point at the computer and tell me to look it up.
When I talk to her she stares at me like I'm stupid.I wrote a paper that she said was college level material, but she gave me an F. This paper was about fundraising for Hydrocephalus. She laughed at the part in the paper where I said, "...before the shunt was created people just died..." Yes, you read that right. She laughed. She also seemed shocked when I corrected her about my own brain condition when she knows nothing about it. She called it a disease. I could go on and on about what a terrible teacher - and person - she is.
Anyways. Moving on.
Over this year I have found out that the Attendance Office is absolutely awful!! They have one job, and yet they continue to mess it up. They take months to input any excuse notes, claiming that they are so busy - however, if you don't turn in an excuse note immediately, they will refuse to accept it. The ladies who work in the Attendance Office always sound really mean and irritated that someone actually expects them to do their job. I haven't met one person who actually likes them or thinks they are helpful! At one point they sent a letter home saying they would no long accept my mom's notes if I was sick and would only take Doctors notes. My Hydrocephalus affects me in a lot of ways and sometimes I do not feel good enough to even be sitting up, let alone, be sitting in a classroom with annoying teachers and students. My mom sent them a letter back 'politely' telling them that after 18 years of dealing with Hydrocephalus, she and I know more about it then the Attendance Office and that they WILL be accepting her parent notes. She told them that if the school was willing to pay for my MRI (which the neurosurgeon would have to do if I even was able to get into his office the same day) each time my head didn't feel good, then she would be willing to take off from work and take me to the doctors. If they didn't want to pay that, then they just needed to mind their own business. So they said they would waive that rule for me. Sheesh!
The counselors aren't much better. When we talk to them about our problems at Guyer (with teachers or attendance) we were basically told 'if you don't like it, leave'. I asked them if I was able to just take the classes I needed to graduate - I have 25.5 credits and need 26 to graduate - and perhaps only go in the mornings (like other kids have done). Instead of telling me if that's a possibility at Guyer, they said you can come pick up a transfer application to Fred Moore - which is an alternative last chance school.
Sometimes I got to go home at 3:10 pm when 5th block starts, or I stayed and did homework. But when I didn't have homework and couldn't get picked up early, I would hang out in the art room with my favorite teacher! However, I usually ended up using 5th block for doctor's appointments.
I also have like zero school spirit, I don't care to go to any of the pep rallies. I only went to one just so my mom would shut up about it. I refuse to wear a Guyer shirt, my mom keeps saying she is going to buy me one. I haven't gone to any sports games, and quite frankly I don't care if (insert team) wins or loses. Sorry, I'm not a Wildcat.
One of the things that has been probably the most interesting for me so far was Homecoming. No I didn't go, but I was at school. It started when I got to the bus stop and only guys were there. I thought that was strange, but then I got to school and saw and heard all the mums...
That's why no girls were on the bus, you can't mess up your mum. These things are annoying and pointless and there should really be a ban on allowing cow bells on these things! So you probably think I'm talking about a flower, right? WRONG!! Not even close. Here's what I'm talking about - a Texas mum:
I don't know what the point is of these, it's only a Texas thing. Anyways that was one of the strangest things so far and they are very, very expensive too! I'd rather buy concert tickets or something.
