Archive for category: Student Blogs

Hey students-

Thanks for meeting with me yesterday. I think I’ve heard from all but two of you so far, and it was excellent to see so many of you again online yesterday—especially with the power of the mute button. 🙂

Based on your feedback, here is the plan.

Schedule

I will post our full schedule and assignments on our classroom page tomorrow. That will let you know what you need to get done ahead of time and let you schedule your week. If you take a look at that and need some supplies, let me know.

All of the instruction will use a blended model, meaning that you can participate in live class, in the online classroom, or both. I will make your grading expectations clear tomorrow, too.

For AP Language and Honors English 2, we will have live sessions Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during our normal class times using Zoom.

For Debate, we will hold live sessions on Tuesday and Thursday at our normal class time using Zoom.

For AP Seminar, we will schedule once we have a better idea of what your AP test will look like. I should know that today.

AP Tests

More to come, but this is the big update.

The AP Program will invest heavily over the next month in the following ways:

• For the 2019-20 exam administration only, students can take a 45-minute online exam at home. Educator-led development committees are currently selecting the exam questions that will be administered.
• Some students may want to take the exam sooner rather than later, while the content is still fresh. Other students may want more time to practice. For each AP subject, there will be two different testing dates.
• AP curricula are locally developed and we defer to local decisions on how best to help students complete coursework. To be fair to all students, some of whom have lost more instructional time than others, the exam will only include topics and skills most AP teachers and students have already covered in class by early March.
• Colleges support this solution and are committed to ensuring that AP students receive the credit they’ve worked this year to earn. For decades, colleges have accepted a shortened AP Exam for college credit when groups of students have experienced emergencies.
• Students will be able to take these streamlined exams on any device they have access to—computer, tablet, or smartphone. Taking a photo of handwritten work will also be an option.
• We recognize that the digital divide could prevent some low-income and rural students from participating. Working with partners, we’ll invest so these students have the tools and connectivity they need to review AP content online and take the exam. If your students need mobile tools or connectivity, you can reach us directly to let us know.
• The exam questions are designed in ways that prevent cheating. We use a range of digital security tools and techniques, including plagiarism detection software, to protect the integrity of the exams. Scoring at-home work for an AP Exam isn’t new to the AP Program. For years the AP Program has received and scored at-home student work as part of the exams for the AP Computer Science Principles and AP Capstone™ courses.

AP Seminar Test

• Individual Research Report + Individual Written Argument only (no team or individual presentations or end-of-course exam). The deadline has also been extended to May 26.

AP Language Test

• Information will come on April 3, says College Board, but we do know that it will be an essay question.

Quarter 3 Grades

I will have your quarter three grades entirely updated by Sunday afternoon. Don’t stress too much about grades at this point. We’ll make it work if your grade isn’t where you want it to be.

That being said, you do need to complete your work this coming week. Make sure to log in and get to it!

Quizlet and Kahoot

If you don’t have accounts for these sites, would you please make them?

Office Hours

In addition to the regularly scheduled class times, I will have office hours every day between Monday-Friday from 3-4 and 7-8. The best way to contact me then would be Google Hangouts, but you can also use Remind or e-mail.

Spring Break

Since it seems unlikely that we’ll be able to go anywhere for spring break (yay for social isolation!), I was thinking we could try something like a virtual book club that could meet during those days. If any of you are interested, let me know and we’ll figure something out this week.

ACT Prep

It’s not clear what is going to happen with the ACT, but once we know, let me know if you want to do some virtual ACT prep.

Your Health

Don’t forget to take care of yourself, your family, and your community. Wash those hands, practice social isolation, and help slow the spread of this disease. Don’t feel trapped inside, though. You can certainly take a walk or bike ride for some exercise and a mental break. If any of you find yourselves or your families in need of something like food delivery, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks

Thank you for being so flexible and eager to make this work. And thanks for sharing all of your dogs and cats yesterday. I think they brightened everyone’s spirits.