from Celina-Marie Kuehne /
So, I go to S.F. Austin High School, a large school with almost 3000 students in downtown Austin on Lady Bird Lake. The trip there takes about an hour each way on the school bus (Yellow Dog) and is sometimes quite exciting because it goes through morning rush hour traffic. But fortunately, the school buses have special rights that the other road users are obligated to consider.
There are four different academies here with different focuses. I chose the Global Study Academy because it best suits me and my career so far.
There are different major subjects that you have to do each year. For example, in my first year, it was English, Algebra, Geography, and Biology. Then there are the electives, e.g., Choir, Basketball, Cheerleader, Dancing, PE (which is regular sports), Fine Arts (which is like school newspaper and in 10th grade, it splits into newspaper and yearbook),…
The lessons are 4 blocks of 1.5 hours a day, with us from 9:00-16:30, before or after is still sports or dance, band, cheerleader or so. There are A- and B-days with the same subjects. They alternate from Monday to Thursday, and Friday is alternately an A-day or a B-day.
There are different school districts (e.g., the county – here Austin ISD [ISD = Independent School District]).
Each school has its profile with specific subjects.
Basically, every year you have four core classes: Math, English, one year each of Science: Bio/Chemistry/Physics/Chemistry and Social Studies: History, etc…
At the beginning of the year, each student gives their “desired subjects” to the counselor. They then compile the schedule for each student INDIVIDUALLY!!! according to their desired subjects!
In addition to the core subjects (typically 2-3 a day), you also have electives: art, Cheer, Choir, Newspaper, and this way, you can prepare yourself for your profession. For example, in the 9th grade, you start with Graphic Design 1, then in the 10th grade, you do Graphic Design 2, then in the 11th grade, you specialize in something like photography, and then in the 12th grade, you do something like film and video production. Then you have already prepared your career path, and after graduation, you can work in this field or go to college.
Here at the school, we have about 20 minutes of FIT daily, free interaction time. During this time we can talk to other students (if we were at school) or go to the teacher and have everything explained to you again. Then we have different “help programs,” e.g., 504K for reading and spelling difficulties or math difficulties or so, so similar to Germany (only that the teachers consider this). The teachers also have office hours where you can contact the teachers if you have questions or want to clarify something about the grading. Otherwise, there is tutoring. This is organized by the school or the parents, called “private tutors” or older students who help the others (of course not for free).
The semester is divided into 3 times 6 weeks. Every 6 weeks, there is a kind of final test. At the end of the semester, i.e., in the last week of school before Christmas or the summer vacations, a “final” is written, i.e., a test about everything from the half-year. But with that, you are done with, e.g., chemistry after one school year and then never have that again. In addition, there are various STAAR tests, which are the same in all schools throughout the country and work similarly to the PISA study in Germany (to compare the students).
We have credits = you need a certain number of credit points to graduate. In English, for example, there are 0.5 credits for each semester/half-year, i.e., 1 credit/year, which means 4 credits for English in total. In addition, there are different grade levels: Regular, Pre-AP, AP… Accordingly, you have a lot to learn and homework…
We always do so-called quizzes in class. This is like a test, and the “grades” – here in percentage points – then go into the assessment.
You can also get credits by exam. I did that for the foreign language section, for example. I only had to take German exams (once 2 hours on a Saturday and once 2 hours on a Sunday) and got my foreign language credits for that.
There are no school uniforms here. That was abolished a few years ago to make the students feel more comfortable. But there is something else: the students here wear “school merch” – T-shirts or hoodies with school logos – voluntarily to show how proud they are of their school. Our mascot is a Maroon, and our motto is -> LOYAL FOREVER!
There are also caps, hoodies, bags, mugs, t-shirts, and many more on the school websites and in local stores.
The two red ones are standard merch, the grey shirt on the top left is from my academy “Global Studies” (in my school there are four different academies (a bit like Harry Potter) and the grey shirt on the bottom right is from one of my school projects…
At the end of each school year, there is a very comprehensive illustrated yearbook that covers the year’s important events and lists all the courses and students. Austin High School has one of the best yearbooks in the U.S. I am happy to be included in this book with my Ballet Folklorico.
Here you can watch an excellent video about a day at Austin High School:
https://youtu.be/wUBr64fpm0U