BY SAVANNAH KEYSER
Now that the second semester has officially begun here at CCHS and the school year is halfway over, students will soon have the responsibility to select which courses they want to take next school year. Students will be given a course selection sheet during their personalization period; these forms are very important and each student will only receive one.
“I’m really excited to pick out my senior year classes,” Junior Madison Worley said. “It’s pretty nerve-racking because they’re my last classes I’ll ever take in high school.”
On the course selection sheet, there are directions which should be followed to a T. Students should read through everything on the form before marking any classes they might want to take to make sure they don’t make any mistakes. There are eight spots for the primary classes that the student would prefer: four core classes, three elective classes, and one personalization class which is already printed on every student’s sheet. Below these spaces are four spaces for alternative classes; students should fill out all four spaces for the alternative classes for in the case that an alternative is not available there are three more to choose from. It is important that students choose alternative classes that they actually want to take because there is a good chance that they will be put into one of the classes if there is an issue with the scheduling.
“Its extremely important that students pick the appropriate choices for them,” Junior Guidance Counselor Mrs. Childs said. “They need to check Virtual Counselor to make sure that they’re satisfying all their graduation requirements.”
Students are required to get their current core teachers to sign off on the core classes that they plan to take next year. If certain teachers do not agree to sign off on a class choice, students always have the option of waiving into the class of their choice if they really feel that they are capable of performing well in said class. There are risks to waiving into a class, such as not being able to switch out if the student ends up not doing as well as they expected; it is important to take into account the teacher’s opinion because they might be right.
“A lot of times students want to take a course but the teacher has a good understanding about how they work,” CCHS teacher Lisa Jones said. “Both respect to the output of work, the quality of work, but also with attendance and other things that might factor into something as complicated and challenging as an AP course.”
Attached to the sheet that students turn in is a long list of the classes offered to them along with their course numbers. Course numbers are very important; it is imperative that, when selecting their classes, students provide the correct corresponding course numbers. The course numbers are inputted into a computer system that develops a schedule for the students; if a student doesn’t put the correct course number, they are at risk of not getting the classes they had chosen.
Once the student has selected a total of 11 classes, they should discuss these choices with their parents. If the parents agree that these classes are ideal for the student to be taking, both the student and the parent are required to sign the bottom of the form. After the student and parent have made sure the form is filled out correctly, the student will then bring the course selection sheet back to their personalization teacher and turn it into them by January 25th.
