M and C start their first semester finals today. I\u2019m pretty sure that CHS has changed their finals schedule all four years that M has been there, which she finds annoying. This year the days are split between two morning exams and two afternoon review sessions. So, technically, finals began yesterday with two reviews after lunch. We\u2019ll see what the girls think of this schedule when they wrap up next Tuesday.<\/p>\n
This could be M\u2019s last time taking high school finals. CHS seniors are excused from second semester finals in classes they have A\u2019s in. She has one A- in nearly three and a half years of classes, so she\u2019s pretty confident this is her last go. The senior-itis has started to kick in, though, and we\u2019ve already started reminding her that she can\u2019t slack off too much between January and May.<\/p>\n
I freaked the girls out a little last week when I told them that I loved finals in college. <\/p>\n
My friends will recall that I wasn\u2019t the most focused student in my extended college years. But finals week always got me locked in. I loved getting the exam schedule and sitting down to plot out the days I had tests, when there were review sessions, when I had papers\/projects due, and when I would be done. There was something about that tight schedule, without regular classes, that got me super-focused. I was stressed, to be sure, but it was the good kind of stress. I know I wrote some of my best papers then, sitting down at the typewriter with a general idea of where I wanted to end up and, two-three-four hours later, finishing with something I was excited to turn in. <\/p>\n
I shared this with the girls in an effort to relieve some of their stress. I wanted to try to get them to view the week the way I did: as a chance to prove that they learned something over the semester rather than just another set of tests that can affect their grades. Finals, and the essay questions that came with them, were an opportunity for me to dazzle my professors not just with my knowledge, but with my writing ability. I know<\/strong> there were years that B\u2019s turned into A\u2019s because I could organize and clearly communicate my thoughts, while I had friends who couldn\u2019t make the same leap because their essays and papers were a mess.<\/p>\n I\u2019m telling you, if college was nothing but finals, I would have graduated on time with straight A\u2019s!<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think any of that worked. The girls looked at me like I was crazy. M especially seems stressed out. She is very smart, smarter than I ever was, something she for sure gets from her mom. But she also got her mom\u2019s tendency to stress out over tests. I\u2019m glad M got my writing ability; her teachers are always telling her how good she is at it. I just wish I could have passed on some of that finals zen to her, and her sisters, as well. <\/p>\n It was kind of fun for me to have her come down and sit by me last night while I watched the Pacers beat the Warriors. She said she needed a change of scenery. As I watched the Pacers try to blow the game, she was on the other end of the couch with her AirPods in, banging away on her final paper for her English class. It made me think of those nights I was cranking out papers late into the night. It was also a reminder that this time next year she\u2019ll be doing this in a dorm room or at the library on whatever campus she is living on. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" M and C start their first semester finals today. I\u2019m pretty sure that CHS has changed their finals schedule all four years that M has been there, which she finds annoying. This year the days are split between two morning exams and two afternoon review sessions. So, technically, finals began yesterday with two reviews after lunch. We\u2019ll see what the girls think of this schedule when they wrap up next Tuesday. This could be M\u2019s last time taking high school finals. CHS seniors are excused from second semester finals in classes they have A\u2019s in. She has one A- in nearly three and a half years of classes, so she\u2019s pretty confident this is her last go. The senior-itis has started to kick in, though, and we\u2019ve already started reminding her that she can\u2019t slack off too much between January and May. I freaked the girls out a little last week when I told them that I loved finals in college. My friends will recall that I wasn\u2019t the most focused student in my extended college years. But finals week always got me locked in. I loved getting the exam schedule and sitting down to plot out the days I had tests, when there were review sessions, when I had papers\/projects due, and when I would be done. There was something about that tight schedule, without regular classes, that got me super-focused. I was stressed, to be sure, but it was the good kind of stress. I know I wrote some of my best papers then, sitting down at the typewriter with a general idea of where I wanted to end up and, two-three-four hours later, finishing with something I was excited to turn in. I shared this with the girls in an effort to relieve some of their stress. I wanted to try to get them to view the week the way I did: as a chance to prove that they learned something over the semester rather than just another set of tests that can affect their grades. Finals, and the essay questions that came with them, were an opportunity for me to dazzle my professors not just with my knowledge, but with my writing ability. I know there were years that B\u2019s turned into A\u2019s because I could organize and clearly communicate my thoughts, while I had friends who couldn\u2019t make the same leap because their essays and papers were a mess. I\u2019m telling you, if college was nothing but finals, I would have graduated on time with straight A\u2019s! I don\u2019t think any of that worked. The girls looked at me like I was crazy. M especially seems stressed out. She is very smart, smarter than I ever was, something she for sure gets from her mom. But she also got her mom\u2019s tendency to stress out over tests. I\u2019m glad M got my writing ability; her teachers are always telling her how good she is at it. I just wish I could have passed on some of that finals zen to her, and her sisters, as well. It was kind of fun for me to have her come down and sit by me last night while I watched the Pacers beat the Warriors. She said she needed a change of scenery. As I watched the Pacers try to blow the game, she was on the other end of the couch with her AirPods in, banging away on her final paper for her English class. It made me think of those nights I was cranking out papers late into the night. It was also a reminder that this time next year she\u2019ll be doing this in a dorm room or at the library on whatever campus she is living on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26,85,14],"class_list":["post-11634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family","tag-high-school","tag-parenting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11635,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11634\/revisions\/11635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}