Sometimes you just get lucky...

But sometimes you just don't.

This is the first year of a new curriculum in our district, and so far we've heard from the teachers that they are using tests they haven't seen before.  What does that even mean? is what we're wondering, until we sit down with the test and begin to understand.

And not only that:  a new grading system, weighted grades on a 70/30 split, and a much-dreaded (by the teachers!) cumulative semester exam that will be 10% of our grade. This test is SO ominous, apparently, that we are encouraged not to miss ANY days of school so as not to lose our test waivers. (Which means a lot of us are showing up sick for school, including tests, but that's another post for another day.)

The good news? This will be the first year my class will NOT spend most of the second semester preparing for the four TAKS tests we've taken every year since the third grade.

I know someone who chose to go to a college that doesn't give grades, just some kind of annual evaluation by professors about strengths and weaknesses, growth and development, etc. He said he was tired of all the intensity and competition at his big, crowded high school. I understand, I really do.

What would I choose for myself if I could choose something completely different?

Classes smaller than 35-40,  for one thing; hallways that aren't so crowded that we experiment with one-way routes (like that works any better!); and no 45-minute classes with a 5-minute bell schedule. If I never hear another bell that will be just fine with me, or see another clock on the wall stopped at some impossible time.

It's still a little strange to think that now is the time when I can make a different choice about what I want next for myself.

AP scores!!

AP English Language   5

AP Psychology   5

And this just goes to prove that you really can be the master of your own fate. I'm the one who was so discouraged after making a C in my English class, but decided to work like crazy anyway outside of class. Is there a lesson here?

Grades!

Two A's.

And the things I know about microeconomics...

Finals!

This is it. My grades are good so far, just have to avoid blowing it at the end. You know the feeling.

What's great is that I've taken notes every single day in class, using my laptop which means I can organize and review pretty easily.

This is also where keeping on top of your reading pays off. Now I review information for the second or third time, not the first.

Time to order more pizza.

Research paper, for real

Combine "microeconomics" and "research paper" and what do you get? A weekend of work without a break, my friends. Ordered pizza. Twice.

AP Test season is upon us.

That is the sound of me sighing. And yawning.

I know, I know. Some of you, like many of my friends, are wall-to-wall AP classes this year, with something like 6 tests facing you in a little over a month's time. But hey, my 2 AP classes are lot, for me. I actually know some people - perfectly nice, bright, mostly normal - who are taking NO AP classes at all, apparently using the GPA strategy which doesn't include that "rigor of study" part I keep seeing on college websites. It was a shock to hear, on some of my spring break college visits, that some colleges don't weight pre-AP or even AP courses - they just look at an unweighted average. Not sure if my no-AP friends have it right, but then I wonder if my all-AP friends have it right either.

But I guess that's why there are so many different kinds of colleges out there, and we just have to find our way to the one that's right for us. Right?

Big class, tough lesson

My AP English class has 39 people in it. The teacher has 200 AP English students total. She told us at the beginning of the year that she'd never had this many, and what it meant was that she didn't have the time to write comments on our papers. (I know, right?) She said she would try to use examples to explain in general. She also said that there wouldn't be any projects or extra credit or anything but essays and AP multiple choice tests, less to grade for so many students.

What this REALLY means is that this has been an unbelievably tough year, just really hard and frustrating. I took the course because I've always taken Pre-AP English and earned good grades, A's and B's no problem. I also wanted to take the class because I keep hearing how important writing is in college and I wanted to make sure my skills were what they needed to be.

But that's not how it's working out. I feel like I keep making the same mistakes over and over. Actually, I think I really am making the same mistakes over and over.

I don't know if this means I shouldn't have taken AP English this year. My teacher is great, just really really busy. It's hard to get in to see her. I've started working with a tutor, and she's been great too.

Did you know that on a lot of the AP English III multiple choice questions that there are usually two answers that are right, only one is more right than the other?

And did you know that one of the most important things you can do is study vocabulary, literary terms, etc. ? I learned this when I bought an AP exam prep book, and started using the vocabulary lists. Amazing.

Also, do yourself a favor and search for the websites that other AP teachers create across the country for their students. Some of them are making awesome use of the internet for homework essays. I found several that had students take turns writing essays then critiquing and re-writing after the teacher added some comments, all viewable to the whole class. That was their homework, all online.

What I do know is that it's going to be my grade, my transcript, my GPA - and that's the reality. It's made me think a lot about college, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to be in huge classes with a couple hundred people. I'm not sure about a lot of things, but I'm pretty sure about that.

Relationships, or not

I know that  I learn better and work harder for a teacher I have a good relationship with. Duh, right?

But what I've realized this year is that if I DON'T have a good relationship with a teacher, I let that get in the way of my learning what I need to learn in a class. What I mean is that I don't go to tutoring to get extra help, or even ask questions in class.

The problem is that this hurts me, and has absolutely no effect on the teacher.

So I'm trying to remember that this is MY education, MY grade, MY high school years. And I'm trying on a new approach - that I'm not going to let it get in my way.

I'm also trying to understand why I have great relationships with some teachers, and not so great ones with others. For me, it's all about sarcasm, impatience and irritability. Some of these teachers just aren't very nice people, in class or after class, with me or anyone else as far as I can tell. Some of them don't seem to care much about teaching whatever it is they're here to teach, and some seem to like teaching just fine but not the students.

It makes the nice teachers who seem to care really stand out.

Sometimes this means I have to decide how bad I want the help. But sometimes it means getting a tutor outside of school. Or using online study websites.

Whatever it takes, is my point.

First, pile it all up

This is getting harder and harder to do, now that I have a multi-section backpack AND a 3-ring binder AND all these pockets AND a car.

Before I get started on my homework, the first thing I have to do is chase down all the various pieces of paper from that day:  folded, crumpled, misfiled, loose at the bottom of the backpack.

Pile it all up in one place, and sort it all out:  to do tonight, to do another time (tip: put the due date at the upper right corner), stay at home, file with the class section of the notebook for use at school, etc.

If I don't, once or twice a week I miss a deadline, or panic and rush to finish an assignment I forgot because I didn't find the paper until I was doing the laundry, or looking for something else, etc. Not a good feeling.

The alternative, of course, is to carefully organize these papers as I proceed through the day. Not going to happen.

Khan Academy

Check it out. Do it now - or immediately after you finish reading this post, anyway.

This really smart guy who lives on the west coast wanted to help his nieces and nephews on the east coast with their homework, so he started recording these really simple video sessions explaining math and science concepts. Here's the magic:  it's just his voice explaining while you see the formula or whatever being worked out.

These are incredibly helpful, and they are more and more useful as I progress through high school.

I read that some schools in California were switching the lesson plans around, assigning for homework the Khan Academy videos to introduce and explain new concepts, then using class time to work on what would have been the homework problems.

This is important. Go check it out here

Turn me in!

Ok, that's not actually what the label says, but that's the message my brain gets when I see it.

Ever do the homework and forget to turn it in? Who hasn't? But this is crazy after you've done the work, to get a zero or a late grade just because you couldn't get your act together to hand the thing in when you were supposed to.

But who can blame us, really. Our parents have no clue how rushed and crowded our days are, and how huge and loud the classes are, and how crazy it is to change classes every 45 minutes and race off the the next one across campus before the 5 minute tardy bell. (I read about how in Japan the teachers move, and the students stay in one place as a team. Cool.)

So this works for me:  at the front of my 3-ring binder I use for all my classes. there's a black plastic page with a pocket, and on the pocket is a label that says, "TURN IN TODAY" and I start every day with my assignments in that packet, in the order of my classes. At the end of the day I should see an empty black page if I've turned everything in.

Of course, this means I have to put all the pages in that one place every night.

Which means I have to do all the assignments.

BUT if I do them this way I at least get credit for doing them.

See? Better.

Chapter outlines

I've discovered that formatting really does matter. Sort of like grammar.

You know all those big headlines separating sections of the chapters in your textbooks? Probably best to include them, then indent stuff under all those other smaller headlines.

If you really want to do it up right, use some color and maybe some underlining. They're kind of like signposts that help you see what's related and what's not. It helps me study later, and has been great for open-notes tests where I have to find something quickly.

And if you do it right, you won't have to open the textbook again except maybe to read the chapter summary.

I'm OK with that.

Quizlet

No doubt there are other versions available, but my personal preference for online flashcards is Quizlet.

You can make your own, or use the auto-fill feature for vocabulary words, terms, even names and dates.

Then you can study, test or play games. You can even use them for translations between languages, or have the audio pronunciation.

Pay $10 and get the premium version, and create study group collections with password protection. Very efficient, easy, and if you download an app you can even access it from your iPhone.

Here is the link.