Nachdem sich das erste Semester hier in den USA schon zu den Weihnachtsferien dem Ende zuneigte habe ich persönlich mich erstmal richtig ausspannen können. Mit einem äußerst entspannenden Wochenende in San Antonio, der nächsten großen Stadt, einem schönen Weihnachtstag mit meiner Gastfamilie und dem planmäßigen Wechsel meiner Gastfamilie am 26. Dezember habe ich einige Tage im südlichen Texas nahe der Grenzstadt Laredo verbringen können. Heute, zu Silvester ist es in meiner kleinen Stadt, Kerrville, ziemlich ruhig. Meine (neue) Gastfamilie schläft schon (es ist 22:24), und ich finde endlich Zeit um diesen Artikel zu schreiben.
Doch für die meisten Juniors (= Schüler der 11. Schulstufe) und Seniors (= Schüler der 12. Schulstufe) beginnt mit dem Semesterwechsel ein wirklich ernstes Überlegen:
Die Entscheidung auf welches College gegangen werden soll.

Collegebesuch ist eine große Sache hier und wird dementsprechend propagiert. In Economics haben wir immer wieder gelernt wie viel mehr ein College-Gelehrter verdient als jemand der nur einen High School Abschluss hat und in meinem Health-Buch gibt es Statistiken über die höhere Lebenserwartung von "Bachelors" und "Masters" (alles Titel für verschiedene Grade eines College-Abschlusses).
Das ist zwar auch in Österreich bekannt, aber es wird hier doch mehr betont als wir in Österreich es vielleicht gewohnt sind.
Als Senior hier in Tivy High School bekomme ich hautnah mit, wie groß die Anstrengungen sein können, auf ein College zu kommen. Das ist nämlich ganz und gar nicht einfach, und oft versenden Studenten mehr als 10 Bewerbungen für Colleges überall in den USA.

Besondere Wichtigkeit besitzt deshalb auch der Scholastic Aptitude Test (= Studienbegabungstest), kurz SAT. Der SAT ist der wohl wichtigste Test auf dem Weg zum College. In drei Stunden werden die Schüler auf verbales und mathematisches Können getestet, in Form von 138 multiple-choice Fragen.

Hier springen auch die häufigsten Kritiken ein - die multiple-choice Fragen. Meistens wird kritisiert dass ein multiple-choice Test nicht auf College-Tests und schon gar nicht auf das "wirkliche Leben" vorbereitet. Nichtsdestotrotz wird diese Praxis der multiple-choice Tests nicht nur beim SAT sondern bei praktisch allen Tests in allen Schulstufen in den USA angewandt. Ich selber habe wahrscheinlich mehr als 90% meiner Semesterexam Fragen mittels multiple-choice beantwortet, und sämtliche andere Tests während des Jahres liefen nach dem gleichen Schema ab. Während diese Praxis es wohl für die Schüler leichter macht, erhöht sie den Anteil an Bürokratie und Organisationsbedarf im gesamten Schulsystem. Auf der anderen Seite ermöglicht dieses System auch mehr Objektivität, oder was meint ihr dazu?

Link: The College Board

High school high

Howdy, bloggers and readers!
School started this Monday, August 10. I?m attending Tivy high school (http://www.kerrvilleisd.net -> Tivy) in Kerrville. It is a whole new campus, so I?m not the only one who gets lost in this huge building! It takes you about 4-5 minutes to get from one side to the other. And with going to the restroom, etc. this is really hard to make! The ?tardy? policy is very strict here. The first time a student is late, his parents will be called, the second time his parents will be called and he/she has to face detention, and so it goes on?Not every teacher is going to really execute this policy, but it is actually a policy.
Another policy here is the ?closed campus? policy. That means that no student is allowed to go outside the building (or outside the dedicated cafeteria area, if he/she has lunch). And there are no exceptions of this rule. If you forgot your books or the whole backpack in your car (because most students drive to school, since it is outside town and they are allowed to drive by the age of 16) it your own bad luck. Even if you go outside the classroom to go to the toilet or something else, you would need a pass from the teacher. In my ?Health? class we are not even allowed to do this, and it is a 90-minutes period (I think a Health teacher should know better).
Oh, btw, these are my classes (a number indicates the level). Classes marked with ?G? were classes I had to take to graduate:
English 3
Fine Art Photography
Debate 2
Lunch
Honors band (this is the marching band that plays during football halftime, etc.)
US History (G)
Economics (G)
Computer Science 1
Health (G)

In Semester 2, which starts around Christmas, I will have some other classes.
I already had all of my classes, and I think I lit Computer Science, US History, Economics, band and Photography the most. Well, these are almost all of them, and this is because I could choose from almost every course they offer here. This is really cool, and so you are able to really take what you like!

With the band we practice almost every day, except Friday (and I have no school on Saturdays and Sundays). On Wednesday practice even starts at 0630 in the morning (0750 school begins, and it ends at 1520)!

Every morning there are announcements over the TV (every classroom has a TV, and every teacher and computer class (except Computer Science) has shiny new Dell computers and at the beginning of that there is always the pledge to the flag of the USA and to the flag of Texas. I don?t think this is a good way to educate children?But I?m glad to see how my photography class acted during the announcements ? chatting, playing and having fun (even during the ?moment of silence? after the pledges *g*).

Lunch here is quite lousy, I had a fried chicken steak the first day and it was awful! I will never have something like this again, so I chose a Cheeseburger the next day. It tasted better and may have been even healthier. A real cool thing about lunch here is that they offer many fresh fruit. I really like that and it is a good idea!

Tomorrow, Thursday, August 21st I have a concert with band! I?m really looking forward to it because I improved a lot since I came here!

That?s it for today, folks!
I hope you enjoy summer as much as I do!
Have a nice day,
capnez

The Texan weblog

Howdy, bloggers!
Maybe you've read already about the whole thing at http://flashmob.twoday.net, but here is my story again:
I am right now sitting near the town of Kerrville in Texas/USA. I've come here on Sunday, August as an exchange student. It really is great here! The climate is hot, but since everything is air-conditioned, it's not that bad. Yesterday evening I even had to wear a pullover at home. That "home" is a house about 15 minutes off Kerrville, which is a city 95 km northwest of San Antonio, the next bigger city.
It is very beautiful here, and it appears a bit like in West Croatia - only that it's a bit greener.

Kerrville has about 18000 inhabitants. Nevertheless, it is HUGE! It just stretches so far - there are two main roads, crossing in the middle of the town. And most of the city is build along those roads. Also, the space between houses or stores is a lot more than in Austria/Europe.
Well, the US seem to be really huge - also the cars. Over 50% of all cars (and I checked that number carefully) are those SUVs. Of course nobody would need such a car, even here in Texas (every road is covered with asphalt). This is one thing I don't like that much about it...my family has about 4 cars or so, with 4 family members...
We do live here a bit outside the town, so we need the car (there are no busses). But 4 of them...*g*

I'm glad I could finally find the time to write my blog - nevertheless I have got only 28.8kb/s internet speed...and that to me, who is used to 768kb/s of pure cable speed...Fortunately, the twoday.net sites do load really fast! Unfortunately, this is also the reason why it is really difficult to upload pictures - but I'll do my best to post some pictures here too!

Well, I think that's it for today - I'll try to write some more ASAP.
Greetings to you all!
Yours, capnez