Aaron's Story - A Call To Readers!!

A Typical First Day at School...

Hello everyone,

I'm sorry to bother you again and this time, this has nothing to do with religion, but I have spent some time on the internet looking for some information regarding the education system in the US and I have found a lot of stuff that I needed but not all. The fact that it varies from one State to another, or even within the same State and city doesn't help, but I guess I can use a mix of this and it will be fine.

Now, what I couldn't find is: what does a typical first day at school looks like? I'm impressed I couldn't find anything about this so I'm going to ask these questions to the readers who are just fresh out of high school or who just experience that recently:

What I need concerns Senior year of high school, so the last one in high school...

What do you do on the first day at school when you return from the summer break?

- Is there like a general meeting of all Seniors to start with the day?

- Do you get your schedule in advance (in which case, when do you get it?) or do you have it on that first day?

- Is the first day a shorter day (that's the case in some schools in France for example ;) ) or do you really start and follow the schedule right away?

- Are there specific events on this first day? like meetings with the principal, or teachers, or whatever?

- When do you get the list of school supplies you need to buy?

- When do you get the textbooks for the year?

Then more general questions that I have, related to the same chapter I'm writing...

I found this on Wikipedia and have a few questions:

       

       

The twelfth grade is the twelfth school year after kindergarten. It is also the last year of compulsory secondary education, or "high school". Students often enter the grade as 17- and 18-year-olds and graduate as mostly 17 or 18-year-olds. Twelfth graders are referred to as Seniors.

Many students consider the twelfth grade a year to relax and prepare for transition out of their old lives into college/university or the workplace. Others take advantage of the opportunity to complete additional higher level courses, such as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate, to earn credits for college/university.

-            Mathematics courses normally include Pre-Calculus, Trigonometry, College Prep Math, Advanced Placement Calculus, Advanced Placement Statistics, Probability and Statistics, or SUPA Calculus.

-            Science courses include Advanced Placement Chemistry, Advanced Placement Biology, Advanced Placement Environmental Science, Astronomy/Meteorology, CSI Forensic Science, Marine Biology or Advanced Placement Physics B, Advanced Placement Physics C: Mechanics, or Advanced Placement Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism.

-            Social Studies courses include Government Law, Economics, Advanced Placement United States Government and Politics, Advanced Placement Comparative Government and Politics, Advanced Placement Psychology, Advanced Placement European History, Advanced Placement Microeconomics, or Advanced Placement Macroeconomics.

-            English classes include Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition, Film and Literature, Sports and Literature, or Contemporary Lit. Popular works include Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, Pygmalion, The Handmaid's Tale, Frankenstein, Othello, Inferno, Goethe's Faust, Hamlet, and Brave New World, as well as works of Romantic poets such as Edgar Allan Poe, John Keats, William Wordsworth, and Emily Dickinson.

-            Art classes include Advanced Placement Art History, Advanced Placement Studio Art, Advanced Placement Music Theory, Applied art in Theatre, Music Theory For Garage Band Musicians, IB Musical Analysis, IB Theatre Arts, Advanced Technical Theatre, Advanced Photography, Advanced Cyramics, Fashion Design and Illustration, Theatre Dance, Jazz Dance, IB Dance Studies Madrigal Singers, Jazz Singers, or Wind Ensemble.

-            Technology classes include Advanced Placement Computer Science, Java, Advanced Web Design, and C++ Programming.

-            Business classes include College Marketing, College Entrepreneurship, Sports and Entertainment Marketing, College Preparatory Interview Classes, and Advanced Fundamentals in Business.

-            Wellness classes include Physical Education, Health (if not yet taken), Weightlifting, and Advanced Training in First Aid.

Questions:

- Do you have to pick some subjects from each category? Can you drop Science for example?

- When do you have to make these choices? Is it toward the end of the previous schoolyear?

- What about foreign languages? For example, if Aaron takes Spanish, how many hours would he get in Senior year?

- Are days the same every day of the week, or can you have different classes on different days (which would mean having to choose many more subjects in all these categories...)?

- If the answer to the above question is that days are not the same, how many hours a week would you have of the same subject?

- How many periods are there in a day? From what I gathered, it seems to be 5 in the morning and then 2 or 3 after lunch break...

- From what I have read in other books or seen in movies, it is the teacher who is assigned a specific classroom and students move from one to another between periods, right?

- How long is the break between two classes? I've seen many times that students have time to go to their locker to gather what they need for the next class...

- Also, I have the first day of school on August 26th and I know that summer break's end varies from one school to another, but that can be end of August, right?

Sorry for so many questions but I have a chapter that covers the first day back at school and I'm stalling a bit on these details because I really couldn't find much on the internet. Thank you again for all the help!!