u/Legitimate-Number620

Hi! I’m a junior in very advanced classes (rank 4/318) and planning to take all APs and college courses next year. My schedule is full so I want to take 2 AP courses online (AP Spanish & AP Chemistry) and 2 early college courses over the summer.

AP Spanish isn’t offered in school, and AP Chemistry is, but I previously took honors chemistry with that teacher and didn’t learn the material well in class (he's really known for his bad teaching, respectfully). I ended up reteaching it myself, so I know I learn better independently at my own pace.

I’ve taken online courses before and have notebooks and Google Docs with timestamps showing I did the work responsibly and independently. I’ll also be taking AP exams so cheating wouldn’t make sense at all.

The school says I’d need credit recovery blocks to take online classes especially if they're not required for my graduation, but my schedule is full and I'm trying to maximize my credits not replace them. The meeting with the assistant principal is Thursday. Any tips on how to convince them to approve the online/AP courses? And should I bring the notebook and Google Docs or would that be unnecessary?

Thanks!

I’m a junior taking AP Environmental Science and I genuinely don’t know what to do anymore.

I’ve always been the type of student who likes my teachers and does very good in classes (rank 4/318), so this is really new for me. But this class is completely different from anything I’ve experienced. My teacher actually doesn't teach. At all. There are no lectures or real explanations. We mostly just get long packets (usually same format every unit), do really basic labs with cookies and etc, very unnecessary and help with anything. literally for fun, watch lots of videos, sometimes very redundant, and are told to read from the online textbook (she gives us class time to do this about onfe a week)

The problem is that all of our quizzes (2 per week) are based on multiple modules from the textbook, but we’re basically expected to teach everything to ourselves. There’s no guidance on what to focus on, and it’s a lot to keep up with, especially since I’m taking all APs too. I’m really bad at self-teaching, and I honestly don’t have time to fully learn 10 modules a week on top of everything else. My grade has dropped to a C, which has never happened to me before, and it’s really stressing me out. Grades close this Thursday and I've already retook 2 quizzes and now I failed another one that I need to retake and the problem is the highest we can get after a retake is a 65% (passing grade)

What makes it worse is that a lot of students in the class cheat with their phones (even though they're fully banned) and get high grades, while I’m trying to do everything honestly and struggling. I think that's really unfair and it makes me feel extremely stupid.

I don’t think my teacher is a bad person though, but the way the class is run just isn’t working for me at all. I’ve also heard from other students that they’ve had similar experiences. This teacher is known for this. They also miss school a lot for trips and etc.

What should I do? Talk to my counselor? My teacher? I've tried talking to her a few times but she isn't helpful at all.

Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you