My summer school dillema...

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi Everyone,

First of all, please forgive me if this is in the wrong section of the forums. I do hope I'll catch on eventually.

Anyway, I'm new here... I'm 16 and in 11th grade. I've been volunteering at the local nursing home for three years now, and I love it. I've also been volunteering at a hospital, but I don't get very much contact with the patients (I'm more of a laundry gatherer there.)

I know that my direction is somewhere in nursing. Anyway, I haven't done very well in biology class this semester. (I know that's a bad sign. :o) Anyway, my final mark is sitting at about 72%, which I know will not get me in anywhere. So I talked to my guidance counsellor about summer school, and she said I shouldn't go because it will show up on my final transcript. I really want to get this mark up to par, so how badly will this look on my transcript? Will it do more harm than good?

Thanks,

--Jenn

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

if you ask me, the smart thing to do is go the COLLEGE-PREP track (if offered) at your school.This will give you the general education needs that will aid in college course work later on. FORGET the counselor, principal or anyone who tries in any way to sway you. AND I cannot imagine HOW taking summer school would reflect poorlyh on your performance...if ANYTHING it indicates how SERIOUS you are about your education, that you would forgo fun in the sun to do this. Hon, you are getting some seriously BAD advice. Another consideration: think about the college you wish to attend. Try making an appt with a counselor or instructor in their nursing department to find out what THEY look for.....(this ca hold true for any major you consider). These high school counselors you have are small-town small-minded apparantly. THINK BEYOND HIGH SCHOOL----to do so, consider the school(s) you may wish to attend and go to THEM for answers! Sometimes,ya gotta take the bull by the horns,and get what you need in your own way. Don't back down or shy away....do it! By the way, what do your parents have to say? Just wondering.:kiss

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I say you should go for it too. I would also recommend getting your parents involved if she doesn't become a little more supportive of you. I am amazed at what initiative you have and wish I had half that much at your age. I am sure you will go far in nursing with or without the poor grade right now in Biology. That being said you still have half the year left right??? Why not talk to your teacher and see what you need to do to get some support to pull your grade up before then end of the year. That would be my best advice.

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Once upon a time in my life I worked in the records office of a university.I soon learned when people repeat classes, the original grade is not removed from the transcript, but the last grade you earned in a class you repeated is used to compute your GPA. And the GPA is what is important. Most programs don't spend a lot of time mulling over each individual grade, the are interested in the bottom line i.e. the GPA. I am thinking that it would work the same way in high school.

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Jenn . . . always check with the sources. You counselor said that it would look bad on your transcript. Well, call around to nursing schools, talk to their admissions people and see if that is true. I had a nursing instructor who told us that if we had a pinning ceremony after graduation, it would look bad as it isn't "professional" anymore to have pinning ceremonies. Well, I called all the local hospitals, I called the Board of Registered Nursing, I called other nursing schools in the state. All were flabbergasted and had never heard of such a thing. My instructor just had a personal bias against pinning ceremonies. I went to a meeting with all the instructors, told them my findings and you should have seen the instructor's face. Well, we had our ceremony. Always check jenn . . . .

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Thanks again.

This semester ends at the end of January, and I've tried to do extra credit things for my biology class but the teacher won't let me. Two major projects brought me down:

1. I had to do a project about Tourette's Syndrome and say a 5 minute speech about it in class. I thought my project was well organized and that I would do well, but when I got up in front of the class, people started laughing and twitching, trying to act like the stereotype of people that have Tourette's. I kind of got mad and spoke my mind... I guess that was a bad idea, that I didn't stick with my speech. I was just a little peeved that people in a grade 11 university-bound course could be so immature. :( I barely passed that one because I kept repeating, "It's not their fault. It's not something you should be making fun of," etc...

2. I cannot seem to grasp anything about plants. We had an assignment where we were given and handful of random seeds, not told what they were or how to grow them, and we had to grow them in a certain amount of time. Mine grew, but they didn't compare with anyone else's. I don't know where I went wrong, and I sure hope you don't have to have a greenthumb to be a nurse!

My parents pretty much reflect what you all have said. They don't like the guidance counselor, but being in such a small town, nobody really wants to start a rift. But I think we just might have to on this one. My mom works at a grocery store and everytime that counselor goes through her till, the counselor always says how good I am doing, blah blah blah... as if nothing is happening.

Sorry for the huge essay there, lol! :D It feels good to vent about this stuff though. :)

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You sound like a very smart young lady that knows where you want to end up. Good luck to you.

And I think you'll do just fine, I know lots of caring nurses that don't have green thumbs eather!:roll

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Originally posted by jenn234

1. I had to do a project about Tourette's Syndrome and say a 5 minute speech about it in class. I thought my project was well organized and that I would do well, but when I got up in front of the class, people started laughing and twitching, trying to act like the stereotype of people that have Tourette's. I kind of got mad and spoke my mind... I guess that was a bad idea, that I didn't stick with my speech. I was just a little peeved that people in a grade 11 university-bound course could be so immature. :( I barely passed that one because I kept repeating, "It's not their fault. It's not something you should be making fun of," etc...

First, don't apologize for writing so much...many of us do that here, and it also gives us a better picture of you.

Regarding your project, it's ashame that your classmates acted as such, unfortunately you will see this a lot amongst adults who are ignorant of this disorder. The behaviors of your classmates most likely came from their parents. I had the opportunity to work with an MD who specialized in Tourette and after seeing patients of all ages who suffered from this, I became a lot more informed.

My curiousity is, what did you say to them...

Wishing you all the best,

Kris

P.S. Since I've a "brown thumb" I can't help much with the plant...probably why I didn't do as well in bio either!

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Well, I don't think it was so much what I said to them but that I was too flustered to finish my speech. The bio teacher is kind of an idiot anyway...he was laughing along. I want to transfer schools so bad, but my mom says no. She doesn't want me going to a city school, even though many more courses are offered and I'm sure everyone is a little bit more open minded. I just told my class that they shouldn't ridicule people for things that are out of their control, and things like that. I'm not the best public speaker and I probably rambled on and on...

LOL, I'm so glad to see that I'm not the only brownthumb. I was starting to get worried. :D Stupid plant. It was...uh, defective seeds. Yeah, that's right. ;) :p :D

Thanks again, everybody. :)

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Jenn, your funny. Yawda not bug out over this frivilous stuff like grades. Go lightly. sis. It's not so much your grades but, how you apply the knowledge. Whatever you do, just consider strongly that grades do not judge your ability to think, or how smart you are, depending on the subject. Math doesn't apply, and is an art, IMHO. Jenn, I summon you to move in with and take care of an elderly family member in a different place, just for the experience, which is what yule need to lay a field for any learning. I'm sorry :-(

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Don't be sorry. I respect your opinion!

I agree with you that marks aren't everything, but unfortunetly I'm going to need at least an 80 to get anywhere (supposedly).

Unfortunetly, moving in with an elderly family member isn't really feasable right now. My grandfather has a younger woman living with him (lol, I won't elaborate, I might get a little bit angry... ;))

I spend a lot of time at the nursing home and I'm very thankful for the experience they've allowed me to gain. A little bit of everything, from working with the Alzheimer's (spelling?) patients to helping fix hearing aids, and once I had to treat a burn (since then, I've got a couple more first aid courses!) They put me with the same lady most of the time, she just lost her only daughter and she has dementia. She's a former nurse, and she acts like I'm her assistant. My main job is to prevent her from "treating" other patients. It's hard sometimes but I've learned a lot more than my friends, who insist I'm insane for "working for free".

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I went to community college when I was younger and dropped out. I went in the day before Thanksgiving to drop a class and the staff member was out of the office and I had to go to work, as a waitress. Another staff member said they would take care of it and didn't. It showed up on my transcript 20 years later when I applied to nursing school. The only harm was that it marred my 4.0 in nursing school. Not to fret. Can't get anywhere unless you try.

Good Luck,

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