Carlmont’s annual Course Fair is no more.
In previous academic years, this “Course Fair” was an event held during lunch to expose students to the variety of classes that Carlmont has to offer. Various educational departments — English, Art, Math, etc. — set up booths in the main gymnasium for students to visit and ask questions concerning workload and curriculum details.
However, as of the 2017-2018 school year, Carlmont has replaced the event with informational meetings and presentations.
Teachers of Core Curriculum classes such as English, Social Studies, Math, and Science have been instructed to give brief presentations detailing the curricula available for next year’s classes. Rather than students using lunchtime to learn about the variety of courses offered, teachers have devoted time in class to inform students.
Amelia Espinosa, a junior, said, “My English teacher talked to us about classes for next year, and it was pretty helpful and informative. I’m still deciding on what class I want to take, but it was neat to hear things explained all at once.”
It was a good replacement for the course fair because you get more time with the teacher, and you can ask them more questions.
— Ashlyn Wong, junior
Select elective classes, on the other hand, held informational meetings scattered between Feb. 2-9 during lunch. These meetings lasted roughly 10-15 minutes and were designed make students aware of the elective courses offered at Carlmont.
Three of these meetings were held for Psychology and AP Psychology. Psychology teacher Michelle McKee noted that the turnout for Psychology meetings was significantly lower than previous sessions at a course fair booth.
McKee said, “We can hand out 200 flyers at the Course Fair, and we’ve only had about 35 students combined at all of the meetings this year. Now, it’s really going to depend more on word-of-mouth than anything else.”
However, some students have found the meetings to be helpful in choosing classes for next year.
Ashlyn Wong, a junior, said, “It was a good replacement for the Course Fair because you get more time with the teacher, and you can ask them more questions. It’s not as hectic as going around and trying to hit every single booth.”
In terms of accuracy, students already enrolled in some of the elective courses agree that the presentations are a solid representation of the courses.
Lilly Joya-Campos, a junior enrolled in Carlmont’s Racial and Ethnic Studies class, said, “The presentations have been very accurate. It’s a straightforward class — nothing too crazy.”
In the end, students are still being exposed to potential classes for the 2018-2019 school year; the main goal of both the old fair and the new meetings was to pique students’ interests and inform them of the course offerings.
“I still haven’t chosen what classes I really want to take yet,” Wong said. “The Psychology meeting I went to did persuade me in the direction of taking the class, though, and it made it sound like a really fun and cool course.”
For in-depth information about Carlmont’s available courses, visit the Carlmont website here.
