Declaration of Intent to Home School Bellevue School District Bsd405 Form

Departments of education and school districts always have to make decisions about what to include in their curriculum.  There are a lot of life skills that people need that aren't taught in school.  The question is should those skills be taught in schools?I teach high school, so I'll talk about that.  The typical high school curriculum is supposed to give students a broad-based education that prepares them to be citizens in a democracy and to be able to think critically.  For a democracy to work, we need educated, discerning citizens with the ability to make good decisions based on evidence and objective thought.  In theory, people who are well informed about history, culture, science, mathematics, etc., and are capable of critical, unbiased thinking, will have the tools to participate in a democracy and make good decisions for themselves and for society at large.  In addition to that, they should be learning how to be learners, how to do effective, basic research, and collaborate with other people.  If that happens, figuring out how to do procedural tasks in real life should not provide much of a challenge.  We can't possibly teach every necessary life skill people need, but we can help students become better at knowing how to acquire the skills they need.  Should we teach them how to change a tire when they can easily consult a book or search the internet to find step by step instructions for that?  Should we teach them how to balance a check book or teach them how to think mathematically and make sense of problems so that the simple task of balancing a check book (which requires simple arithmetic and the ability to enter numbers and words in columns and rows in obvious ways) is easy for them to figure out.  If we teach them to be good at critical thinking and have some problem solving skills they will be able to apply those overarching skills to all sorts of every day tasks that shouldn't be difficult for someone with decent cognitive ability  to figure out.  It's analogous to asking why a culinary school didn't teach its students the steps and ingredients to a specific recipe.  The school taught them about more general food preparation and food science skills so that they can figure out how to make a lot of specific recipes without much trouble.  They're also able to create their own recipes.So, do we want citizens with very specific skill sets that they need to get through day to day life or do we want citizens with critical thinking, problem solving, and other overarching cognitive skills that will allow them to easily acquire ANY simple, procedural skill they may come to need at any point in their lives?

Once, a Psychologist conducted an experiment for a group of socially awkward students. He wanted to help them in becoming socially confident.He put a Piranha and a small fish in one big aquarium. As expected, Piranha quickly ate the tiny fish.Then, the aquarium was divided into two parts by a transparent glass wall.Piranha was kept on one side of the glass while fish was on the other side.Piranha immediately attacked the fish and hit her head hard into the glass.This game was repeated many, many times….After hundreds of failed attempts, Piranha made a conclusion: “I can’t eat this fish”. She was damn confident in her conclusion and finally stopped attacking the fish.Then, the glass barrier was removed from the aquarium, and the Piranha could easily eat the fish. But she didn’t even try to catch the fish.The psychologist then, spoke to his students, “Piranha had hundreds of failed attempts. She had gained some negative experience. Now, she can easily swallow the fish, but instead of making another attempt, she is stuck to her negative experience. Just one more attempt can change her fate, but this Piranha will live with this bad experience throughout her life”.Why do we lack confidence?Because we once tried to do something but failed, therefore, we lost confidence in ourselves.To become socially confident, we need to think less and do more. Over-thinking kills the confidence. Bad experiences happen in life, but does it mean that good experiences will never happen?Ok, you failed ten times, but eleventh attempt will change everything.Confidence comes with experience, experience comes with multiple attempts.If you’re thinking that you can’t do something, believe me, you will behave in a very underconfident manner. Always speak to yourself with confidence and talk to others in the same way.No one will kill you if you say something wrong or make a mistake. But at least say/do.If you’re very shy, pretend to be confident. People can’t detect that. After sometime, you will gain experience and no more need for pretence.Keep trying. Fake it, until you make it.Dress well, go out everyday, walk like a badass guy and forget that you failed in something yesterday. Today is a new day, make a new attempt.I fully understand that once you were rejected by a cute girl. Maybe she was in a hurry? Maybe she was just not feeling well? Maybe she had a problem at home? Maybe she failed the exam and didn’t feel like talking to you.But you - my friend, instead of giving it another try, made a conclusion that you are ugly or fat or short and killed your chance and thought it’s better not to try again.Ohh really???Don’t be a piranha!

My district has a window of time that allows students to transfer to chosen schools. Almost all transfers are accepted.There is a specific procedure to do this correctly.If the student lives in a different district, they have to officially notify that district that they are planning on going to a neighboring district. Paperwork must be signed by both districts.Please contact all the districts involved. They can help you with the steps.Each year the student must reapply for the transfer. My district only denies transfers when attendance or behavior has been an issue.

Depending on where you live, there will be laws that support an online education, or restrict it.If your local laws support that, you might find that your school has online classes available. If they are offered by the school district itself, your parents might be willing to let you do it for a year.Don’t ask them to let you do it for the rest of your education, because they won’t agree to a long term plan they haven’t seen proven.Ask for one year, just to get a break from having to deal with being at school.Many places have homeschool communities that get together at a park or community center once a week. (Often called “park day.”) Even homeschooled kids who are doing their courses online, can meet up with a community of homeschoolers to have that “socialization” so many parents are afraid is missing if kids don’t go to school.Middle school age is definitely the very worst age for a kid who tends to be bullied, to be in school. Parents sometimes ask me, “I want to homeschool my kid for a year or two, but I’m not going to do it for their entire education. What is the best time to homeschool them?”And I always say if they’re only going to homeschool for one or two years, do it in middle school.Some kids are just bully magnets (I was). By Junior and Senior year in high school, I wasn’t being bullied. But in middle school I felt never safe. And in high school, it got better, but not as fast as I would have liked.If you can look up the laws in your location, and the online school options, and put together a kind of “sales packet” for your parents, a sales presentation to sell them on the idea of letting you learn from home.Include in the pitch, contact resources for the local homeschoolers’ groups, what coursework you would do, how, how much will it cost them, and what you will do if you have lessons you need help with. Parents like having teachers their kids can ask questions to. If you are doing classes online, there may not be teachers to ask, and they might be worried you will want their help. They may not remember all the history they learned in school, anymore, or may not have progressed far in math, etc.In other words, make it easy for them, and have a plan for how to get help if you need help they cannot provide.Look up “homeschooling” and your location (city/county/state/country, whatever makes sense for where you live) and you will find local resources.

LOL I went to Kennedy Middle School, not sure about the other middle schools. Kennedy is a feeder school to Monta Vista High School. Both are rated highly for their dedication to academics. But there’s also rampant bullying and it’s rare to find a neurotypical student. Many of my peers were objectively successful from a shallow standpoint. Competing in national teams, straight A’s (or close to), young entrepreneurs, etc. But those same individuals would also have mental breakdowns over

It's all about time management (and many times, a little compromise)! Every student does this in their own way, but i'll try and give you a general example. School: You have 35 hrs of school a week. If you're super productive (and depending on what classes you're taking), you can usually manage to finish your homework/study in no more than 4 hours a night (on avg.)Exercise: Play a sport - practice 2/3 days a week (4+ hours/wk)Sleep: I for example, don't get 8 hours of sleep (i'm a night owl!). However, if this is very important to you, then it is possible to devote 8 hours a night!Let's break it down; school and sleep add up to 15 hours a day (5 days/wk). That means you have 9 hours a day left - 5 if you consider the time it takes to do homework/study. That leaves you with plenty of time every school day, and all weekend long, to participate in extra curriculars, help out your parents, hang out with friends, and even waste your time on Facebook (or Quora!). As you can see, it is possible! It can definitely be hard, and some weeks I do have to compromise and not attend an extra curricular, or sport's practice; but that's life! Good luck!