I am facing a tough choice about next year's classes. I am on track to graduate under Texas' distinguished degree plan, which requires four advanced measures and a third year of the same foreign language.
I am in my second year of French, and I have an amazing teacher. I'd follow her pretty much anywhere, which is just about what I'll have to do next year because French III may only be offered as a Pre-AP class. The problem is that I'm in the regular French classes and since I'm a junior I won't be in high school for French IV, AP or not. French III is supposed to be tough anyway, and PAP French will be that much tougher.
I wish I had started French in my freshman year so that I could take AP French in my senior year. Instead, I pretty much wasted a year in American Sign Language with the kind of teacher that can make you want to run away from a subject (hard to do, but it happens) so here I am, with a great teacher and a language I love but one year short of a goal.
Guess that's one thing college is for.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
It's just a little circle
This is a small, tiny thing. Just a circle that you draw on the top right corner of a piece of paper that your teacher hands out in class. It can be a circle about the size of a dime, or a nickel, that's all.
What the circle means, when it's empty, is that whatever is on that page will be due sometime, one day soon. It also means that you need to fill in that deadline or due date. So the empty circle sits there as a reminder that you need to write in the due date, and then you need to do the assignment, and after that you need to turn it in.
We get a blizzard of paper every day, all day. Pages and pages. My AP Psych teacher says we get so many in that class because our textbook is so out of date that she has to add all the rest of the information we need by passing out all these papers. She also tries to save paper by putting different stuff on the back side of a lot of the papers, so it's easy to miss that an assignment is on the back that has nothing to do with what's on the front.
The problem is that some of all these papers are just for you to read, and some of them are for you to actually do something with. What makes it even worse is that some of the papers LOOK like they are assignments, but the teacher says they aren't, and some other papers look like things to just read but the teacher assigns something you're supposed to do with what you read.
So your best friend is that circle. And it works best if you can try to make a habit of asking right when you get the paper: is this read only, or when is it due?
Better to be the one who asks all those questions than get a zero.
What the circle means, when it's empty, is that whatever is on that page will be due sometime, one day soon. It also means that you need to fill in that deadline or due date. So the empty circle sits there as a reminder that you need to write in the due date, and then you need to do the assignment, and after that you need to turn it in.
We get a blizzard of paper every day, all day. Pages and pages. My AP Psych teacher says we get so many in that class because our textbook is so out of date that she has to add all the rest of the information we need by passing out all these papers. She also tries to save paper by putting different stuff on the back side of a lot of the papers, so it's easy to miss that an assignment is on the back that has nothing to do with what's on the front.
The problem is that some of all these papers are just for you to read, and some of them are for you to actually do something with. What makes it even worse is that some of the papers LOOK like they are assignments, but the teacher says they aren't, and some other papers look like things to just read but the teacher assigns something you're supposed to do with what you read.
So your best friend is that circle. And it works best if you can try to make a habit of asking right when you get the paper: is this read only, or when is it due?
Better to be the one who asks all those questions than get a zero.
Monday, January 30, 2012
"Disappeared" posts
Over the past few months I've been experiencing lots of problems with my posts staying up on this blog, and I've been playing around with Wordpress and some other options. But for now I've decided to keep trying here, and when I find a little more time I may add Twitter as a backup for those of you who have asked for this. Now just hve 2 b brief!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Trouble in project team land
Is it me, or does everyone have problems with projects where you have to work in teams?
I used to think it was the project, or the people on the team with me, or even the way the instructions were set up. Now I think it's just the way these things go.
Once or twice the work's been divided pretty much equally, or we've all worked together to get it done. But for most of them I've carried the team, either because I cared more about the grade or just because I started early enough to be able to pull it off when everyone else waited until the last minute.
I've written skits (with costumes, set and recording!), made posters, created illustrated books, constructed science models, printed up brochures, and completed countless PowerPoint presentations. And my name was the first of two, three or more who got equal credit.
I know that I could and should have done it differently, and I'm getting better. But maybe I'm a little more creative, or maybe willing to work a little harder, or just like to do projects more.
My grades are great for these things, but so are my teammates's grades. But I notice that when the teacher asks to keep the project to show as an example for future classes, the question is asked of me. Too bad there's not a bonus grade for that.
I used to think it was the project, or the people on the team with me, or even the way the instructions were set up. Now I think it's just the way these things go.
Once or twice the work's been divided pretty much equally, or we've all worked together to get it done. But for most of them I've carried the team, either because I cared more about the grade or just because I started early enough to be able to pull it off when everyone else waited until the last minute.
I've written skits (with costumes, set and recording!), made posters, created illustrated books, constructed science models, printed up brochures, and completed countless PowerPoint presentations. And my name was the first of two, three or more who got equal credit.
I know that I could and should have done it differently, and I'm getting better. But maybe I'm a little more creative, or maybe willing to work a little harder, or just like to do projects more.
My grades are great for these things, but so are my teammates's grades. But I notice that when the teacher asks to keep the project to show as an example for future classes, the question is asked of me. Too bad there's not a bonus grade for that.
Monday, January 16, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Bigger books, better tools
Do yourself a favor and buy a book stand for these massive textbooks we've got these days. Amazon has a bunch of choices under $30. Mine is plexiglas with adjustable angles and flexible arms for holding different sizes of books. Lets you turn the loose pages or not. Really makes a big difference for the next time you've got a long study session, especially if you're outlining or doing something besides just reading the text.
Here's one to consider.
Here's one to consider.
Monday, January 2, 2012
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