Berkeley High School 0 and 7 periods
Is there somewhere I can find a listing of what Berkeley High School classes are offered 0 or 7 period (that is, not using up an elective choice)? There are so many great classes, and we can't find out which are options for my kid, who likes music, dance, and art, but can't seem to do more than one if she is also going to take a foreign language. Help? Either the information about what classes are in these slots or a direction of where to look to find out?
Feb 24, 2018
Parent Replies
I'm pretty sure 0 and 7 periods are mainly used for music and science labs. For instance, my son took IB Environmental Science and IB Biology, and both classes had lab days during 0 period a couple days a week. The academic schedule set up at BHS can be challenging to work around. There are 6 academic classes per day, which includes the 4 "core" classes (English, Social Studies, Math, Science) and leaves one "elective" slot for world language and one more slot for... what? PE (4 semesters of which kids have to somehow fit into their schedule), Art, other electives. Sophomore year in BIHS is difficult because the two elective slots are taken up with world language and World Values and Beliefs/Economics. This essentially means that the first two years of BHS can be spent with not a lot of choices for electives, depending on which learning community you're in.
Since the incoming class are going into Universal 9th Grade, this does give your family time to figure out which learning community suits your student best, and will also give you time to figure out how to set up your student's academic progression plan for BHS. You don't have to decide everything right now. You should all spend some time going over the Choices Catalog and the Course Catalog, and over the course of your student's 9th grade year, discuss options with your student's counselors and teachers. Hope this helps.