How will these all fit into my backpack?
 

I think I took too many classes this year...take a look of the stack of books I need to bring to school everyday (this doesn't even include the separate 3 ring binders for every class and my instrument!).




Now, I'll be able to leave one book and one three ring binder in my car that I can pick up at lunch, but the rest have to be lugged around all day long.

I really think its riduclous that my school just installed a 5 million dollar football field, yet can't afford class sets of textbooks. Or lockers (though that is more of a drug issue I hear).

The least they could do would let us go out to our cars to get stuff during transition periods or brunch (they don't...we can only go off campus at lunch).

Just had to vent some steam :mad:

If you go to school and open the textbook more than once a quarter you're doing it wrong.

Well, you're doing it differently than I did.

Every class syllubus I recieved today said that textbooks are required in every class period, plus all of our homework for subjects such as math and physics is contained in the book...

That is so annoying DF. I wore several backpacks a year out during high school. We had lockers though, so I was able to trade books several times a day. How about a really good hiding place in a few classes to leave a book in? Although you probably have to take each one home for homework.

That's how I did it as well.

What's the teacher going to do, take textbook attendance?

Go get yourself a little red wagon. Put your books in it and then pull it around. Tell your school administrators that this is how it will be until they provide an alternative to carrying 25 pounds of books around all day.

One year I was really sick of having to go back and forth to my locker, so I started bringing a duffel bag filled with my books. Probably about 50 lbs. The bag eventually gave up.

No, but we do a lot of stuff inside the book during class, and it would be impossible to keep up if you didn't have it with you.

I would seriously do that whole wagon thing if our school wasn't constructed on three levels :D

I have seen people use rolling luggage for school

Something like this:

CA schools are weird. We had lockers. And hallways that are inside! :eek:

What's the difference between stashing drugs in your locker or keeping them in your ginormous-locker-on-wheels suitcase?

My schools had lockers. It had both kinds of classroom hallways (open indoors into a building, open straight to the outside world). The no-lockers thing is a relatively new thing I think.

They can legally search your locker, but they can't search your backpack :)


And we have inside hallways too, but all the classrooms are also accessible from outside, save for a few on the second story that overhangs a cliff (its hard to explain). No one uses the hallways since its just faster to walk outside.

Some of the people in the same boat as me were talking about rolling backpacks, but that would be wayyyyy too geeky. Plus, it would be a pain to carry up and down the stairs.

Christ. I forgot you're in high school (and thought it was kind of weird you'd think they might have lockers).

If you want a real solution and have a bit of spare time. Start each week by going to Kinko's and photocopying the relevent sections of the textbook for the upcoming week. Put it all in a single 3-ring binder and then you have the added benefit of being free to mark it up all you want.

You're carrying around 25 pounds of paper when in any given week you're only using 1.

So to deal with the drug problem they force you to put them where they can't look? The obvious answer would be to ban backpacks.

Yeah, but with all the AP's (4) and the college Spanish I'm taking, it feel like I'm not! :D

I just started my Junior year today (which is weird, considering I first joined MousePad when I was in 6th grade :eek: ).

And the Kinko idea is actually really good. Would there be any copyright implications with that?

With the backpack issue, one of the Junior Highs out here now gives each student a clear backpack they are required to use. If you ask me, thats a little overboard, considering I know more than a few girls put stuff in their backpack they wouldn't want other people seeing...

For just your personal use, no not really.

If you have a scanner at home you can also scan and print.

Do you know anyone that is in more than one of your classes? What if you make a deal where they bring the book for one class and you bring it for another. During class you share. My classroom is composed of table-style double desks. With two students each using a book, notebook, pencil box, protractor, etc., it gets crowded. They always share books. As long as they are paying attention to the lesson, I can't complain. Heck, 11-year-olds are great problem solvers.

If your teachers have a problem with sharing, have them supply a few extra books in class. I know on my campus there are always places we find extra books sitting around. Or, have them call me! :fej:

I did that last year, but its really hard for me to do since I'm a fast reader, so I end up sitting around waiting for the other person to finish. It would only work in my Physics class, anyway, since that is the only classroom in a lab (where we have tables rather than individual desks).

The problem with the class sets is that since our school is new, we have all new textbooks, and there are literally none left over. We had the same situation last year, and we did end up getting class sets, but not until March, when the extras for the class below us came in (our class is around 700 people, the class below us is around 950, and the class below them is around 1200).

Do you teach 6th grade? My sister just started it.

Oy

I started my junior year in high school in 1980. I suddenly feel very old.

If it makes you feel better...I could very well be a senior...that would give you an extra year :D

Oh bite me ya little whippersnapper

My back hurts just reading this thread. I say, just drop out of school. ;)

I should taunt you that so far one of my classes has only one book, another has only one paperback workbook, and the third nothing but the stuff available online. But if I do that, dollars to donuts my fourth class will have three hardbacks and a coursepak. So I'll just offer sympathy.

Wait - no lockers? So you never get that thrill of coming back after a holiday and realizing you can't really remember your combination so you try to not think about it and hope muscle memory will take over?

I go back and forth between 5th and 6th. I used to keep the same kids for two years. Last year I had 5th and will have 5th again this year. All new kids. I love 6th, I hope she does too. Does her 6th grade still go to elementary or is it middle school? We are elementary K-6, middle 7-8, high 9-12. I like keeping the 6th graders away from 8th graders. So much better on their self-esteem and behavior.

Sorry about the book issue. Hopefully the teachers will let you know when you must have it so it will help with the load. Welcome back to school!

Yeah, she's still in elementary school. Funny story...when we lived in the Valley, I graduated from 5th grade, and I attended middle school as a 6th grader for a few months. Then, I moved out here, and attended 6th grade as an elementary kid for the rest of the school year, before graduating again and moving on to junior high for 7th grade :D

We had lockers when I went to middle school (as a 6th grader) in the valley. I thought it was the coolest thing ever. They took them out of all the schools out here about 8 years ago.

High school lockers went extinct in California not long after Columbine. Maybe the experts in charge decided it would be more convenient for the kids if they have their piece within arm's reach at all times.

So, how many hernias are reported each year?

I think you should sell your books and buy some weed, since it is no doubt easier to transport.

Well...considering my least expensive textbook is $112 and the most expensive is $225, thats not such a bad idea...:D

The best method of conveyance for both weed and heavy backpack is a mule.

Hrmm, it's been a while since I've had the good ol' "How my inalienable rights are being trampled by the concept of random locker searches" debate (a favorite AP History/AP Government class passtime), but it might actually be easier for them to search backpacks than lockers. With lockers there were all these hoops to jump through to ensure that it remained "random", whereas I believe if they decided to haul you into the office, they'd search your backback by default.

But again, it's been 10 years, so I may be wrong.

Can they search the mule?

Depends, did they find him in the trunk via a random search, or by illegal profiling?

Illegal profiling of the trunk, I believe. Apparently the trunk looked like the kind of trunk that would have a mule in it.

I attended Senior classes for the first time in 1974 so I've got you beat. Of course, it was in the arms of my recently pregnant mother, but I still claim seniority.

We had this same debate last year in my AP European History class. Since the locker was school property, the school has the right to open the locker and look inside for any reason at all, and it didn't have to be random. However, they could not go inside any of your personal stuff. You could only be procecuted with visible items.

To search a backpack, the school needs to obtain parental permission or the consent of the student, unless they have probable cause (which can only be determined by a police officer...not hard since we have one stationed on campus).

A few years ago when I was in Junior High, they would do random drug dog searches, where they would come into a classroom, tell everyone to leave their bags and jackets, and tell them to wait outside while they swept the room. That stopped a few years ago after it was ruled an invasion of privacy.

The consequence for having drugs (or any other illegal substance..even medicine not approved by the nurse) on campus is expulusion, no questions asked. Everyone expelled in my district is sent to a special school called Opportunity for Learning (OFL) which is, and I'm not kidding here, surrounded by a 8 foot high wall and has x-ray machines and metal detectors at all openings.

We don't really have many drug problems at school itself, but we have BIG issues at all of our dances. When I went to prom last year, I was literally padded down 3 times, had my wallet, cell phone, boutonniere, and keys inspected, and had to ride on a special bus to the site. My girlfriend wasn't allowed to bring any sort of makeup with her or anything.

It's pretty crazy stuff. Sometimes I feel like I'm in prision rather than school.

My niece is starting fifth grade and it middle school. That seems awfully young. She's really disappointed that there is no recess anymore.

One of the middle schools out here starts in 4th grade (stupid overcrowding!).

And don't they get brunch?

Are we/you overlooking the obvious, or is there some rule that I don't know about?

You have a car, right? That's a locker. Even if you don't get to go to it between all classes, you can still go to it at lunchtime (if I understand you correctly).

So you don't carry 7 books around all day. You carry the stuff for the before lunch classes before lunch, then switch out at lunch for the after lunch stuff.

I always carried my math book with me, and for English we had our own paperbacks (by junior year, we were going to B&N and buying our own). History and Psych books stayed at home since the teacher lectured. My Physics and Chem books weren't needed in class. The French books were always pretty small; I had to carry those. So that's two hardbacks and paperback that I was usually carrying with me. And then for a couple years I had dance gear, and for another year I had photography gear, and then senior year I only had 5 classes and left early.

And as far as I remember, the syllabi all said I had to have my stuff with me every day. The syllabi I give my students says they have to have all their class stuff with them every day. In some of my classes that's true; in others it's not.

I don't think so. I think it's classes until noonish and then lunch then more classes until threeish. I really really hate the public school systems.

Well, last year, I had pretty much all the same teachers (I only have one teacher different this year), and we used our books every day, so I'm guessing it will be the same this year. The only difference is that I have 3 more books this year, and the books are quite a bit thicker than before.

We only have one class after lunch, so keeping it in my car won't make a huge difference, since I'll still have a bunch of books to carry around.

I'm toying with the idea of storing stuff in the ASB office (we have a coat closet no one ever uses), but I don't want to risk something happening to my books and having to pay like 400 bucks to replace them all.

Wow! That really sucks. I have a really weird classes too. We are on a block, so I have one 55 min. class at 7:10, then a 2 hour class until 10, then brunch, then another 2 hour class until 12:15, then another 2 hour class until 3. You have different classes each day.

One of the advantages of the system is that you aren't supposed to need all your textbooks everyday, but my classes were arranged in just a way that I have all my 4 APs one day, then all electives and math the next, so I end up bringing all my textbooks except for one on the same day anyway.

The photocopy option is a good one then (so long as you can predict what you'll need when). Copy double-sided.

See if any of those texts are available in paperback editions (unlikely, but you never know until you check). If you can find a reasonably priced paperback, that'll save you a few pounds.

If any of them are things like writing handbooks, you might be able to get away with a different compact edition. You'd be on a different page, but the rules of the comma are the rules of the comma. All those books are essentially the same, unless yours is full of exercises you will have to complete during class.

And for many, they were phasing lockers out before Columbine.
My area of town turned into a high concentrated gang area before columbine, and they went through and ripped the locker bays out.

I still wonder if they have them at my junior high.

Now the perk of being a music dept student in college was that you had to be able to store your instument, so there were lockers. ;)

If you do the backpack thing, don't do the cool over one shoulder thing. It's bad for your spine. Make sure you put both arms through both straps and wear it on your back.

I second that.

Screw that. Be like the cool hunchbacks!

high school? you must submit to peer pressure.

Put the lockers back and make them out of transparent aluminum. They're supposed to have invented that by now.

Or plexiglass.

How about teachers supply textbooks in their class for classroom use only. The ones the students have to buy stays at home. You check the books out at the beginning of class and check them back in at the end of class?

Text books are expensive. At anywhere from $100-$300 a pop, classroom sets (say, 30 books) cost $3000-$9000. How many classrooms are in a school? That's an investment of a few hundred thousand dollars, easy.

When I went to school, we were issued books that we kept and returned at the end of the year. But budgets are getting tight.