Finishing Required Classes
You should check with your counselor and find out what courses are required for graduation. You don't want to be scrambling last minute, trying to find open spots in those classes. Worst possible scenario? You can't graduate.Here are a few options you can take without having to eliminate classes that you actually want to take:
• Summer School: This is your best option, in my opinion. You won’t be as busy as you are during the school year, so you’ll have time to do your homework and find time to hang out with your friends.
• Online: Check with your school to see which courses are offered online, and if they’re in the summer or during the school year. Online courses allow for a much more flexible schedule, so they would work with summer vacations (assuming you’d have access to the internet) and the school year (study for that impossible calculus test without having to worry about random homework from that required course…after all, the due date for all assignments is next week!).
• Zero Hour: The class would be an extra period starting before the actual school day. For example, if your school starts at 8:00 and you have 50-minute class periods with 5-minute passing periods, then zero hour would start at 7:05.
• Eighth Hour: The class would be an extra period tacked on to the last “real” period of the day. Using the example above, an Eighth Hour would start at 3:05 (assuming the school day ended at 3:00), and your school day would end at 3:55.
• Night School: I’m not sure how appealing this sounds to you, but if you really have no other options that work, or you’re in your senior year and can’t cut classes for this required course (shame on your for procrastinating!), then consider night school. It may be different depending on the school, but for many schools, night school is once a week, with class lasting as long as 4 hours.
Make sure you have those required courses out of your way -- early. And again, summer school is your best shot. If you're taking conflicting vacations, see if the course is offered online. Zero Hour, Eighth Hour, and Night School all seem like desperate, last-minute options, so don’t let that happen to you!
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