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Welcome Back! (which probably is not appropriate since you have never been here!)
Introduction (during adademic study hall):
Grading, Reflection, Assessment, and Feedback
Things I have learned form 8 years of distance/hybrid teaching:
1. Design – surgical design with your teaching voice –
2. Assessment (online)
3. Feedback – immediate
4. Connectivity – teacher access
These four constructs enabled me to Have incredible Educational Momentum in and out the class.
Quarter Grade: 10% average of all Quizzes or Homework assignments (Forms)
30% average of all Labs
60% average of all Tests
Congratulations being accepted into AP Biology as a freshman!! Only the top students in your graduating class get to have this opportunity. AP Biology like all AP courses is a college level high school class. Students who pass AP exams can earn college credit but the greatest benefits come from building a strong academic resume or transcript that will help students achieve admissions to colleges and universities. Students who challenge themselves are strong candidates. Students who exceed in these AP course are the best candidates!
Most High Schools only allow Juniors and Seniors that have already taken high school Biology, Chemistry or possibly Physics before they can take AP Biology. Given the fact that most of my students are freshman that have not had any high school biology or chemistry, increases the difficulty. Given the current pandemic and the remote instruction days that we will have, only increases weight of this course.
I say this to you because YOU MUST BE ALL IN to achieve in this class. I have designed this course so that you can exceed even though you are a freshman without any previous high school science classes taken but YOU MUST BE ALL IN! Think about it you are making the leap from middle school directly to college and skipping high school! It can be done and it has been done here in Westhampton Beach High School for the last 6 years!
The
There are only about 5000 freshman who take this test out of the 230,000 students who take AP Biology word-wide. You have an amazing opportunity to distance yourself from other college applicants in your graduating class who do not take this course yet alone be in small group of students internationally that are taking this course as freshman!.
Here is the AP Data from last years test ( which was normal form of the test):
Now you can see that 78.6 % of my students (11/14) achieved an AP of a 3 or better while the rest of the world (it is an international test) only had 59.2. % of the students get a 3 or higher on the test. Everyone who signs up for AP Biology is an above average student by far so think about this. Out of a self-selected group that compromises very intelligent students (AP Bio students who are mostly juniors and seniors) only 59.2 % earned a 3 or better on the AP test. Opportunity to distance yourself! ALL OF my students are 9th graders so they we did really well as compared to the mostly 11th and 12 graders to take this course internationally.
59.2% of 230,641 students = 136,539 students who got a 3 or higher on the AP Chemistry Test
There about 2 million applicants to US colleges and Universities thus
136,539/2,000,000 = only 6.82% of all applicants have accomplished this feat.
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Of course my goal is always 100% of the class achieves a 3 or better and I have had many years that I had 100% but that depends IF YOU ARE ALL IN! Everyone of my students who was ALL IN did get a 3 or better this year. Everyone who was NOT ALL IN did not earn a 3 or better.
BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE! You represent only about 5000 students taking this course as high school freshman in the entire world! So
5000 /2,000,000 = 0.25 % of all college applicants have taken AP Biology as a freshman!
Just being in the this class makes you very attractive to colleges and if you exceed as most of my students because they are ALL IN that percentage decreases!!!!
So my message is clear. Take this course and be dedicated to it! Do not try to “fit this in” to your schedule.
Be one of the very few who takes this course and even the very fewer who exceed at it!
Those that were dedicated to this task finished all 3 Summer Assignments regardless of how uncomfortable you may have been in the process (which is normal). Those that did not get to the finish line may not be in the right class.
Now grades and AP tests are not my only focus here although one of my goals is to provide you with tools necessary to earn a 3 or better on the AP Biology test. My goal is to open up a world around you through your understanding of biology. My goal is for you to understand yourself better through my course. My goal is to give you the possible ability to love biology or at least appreciate it and science in general. All it took for me was one teacher and one science class to change my life.
I will try to do the same for you and it begins and ends with my class website. Everything will be posted here including class worksheets, keys, homework, notes, video lectures and video tutorials, and labs.
If you ever have a question please email me or text through REMIND (which you should have already signed up for in the summer).
In my opening letter to you in the summer institute I said lets enjoy the fall. That was because I asked a lot of you this summer. We will enjoy the fall because of all the hard work many of you put in to establish or begin the process of learning many biology concepts and skills. I will begin the year where you left off in Evolution and start connecting all the individual units together in the process so you can start to see the beauty in this topic. Another goal of mine is to connect the 1st day of school to the last day and every day in between. EVERYTHING CONNECTS!!
Using printer out of class:
My classroom printer is web – connected and has its own email address. Email files to your printer to print from anywhere at anytime.
My classrooms email address:
opfec23onra95@hpeprint.com
Write an email to the following address and then attach file to print.
Homework prior 9/2 / Classwork:
1. Please log into your AP Central Account (or create one) and join the AP Chemistry class (AP Classroom). The AP coordinator at our school must use those online accounts to order AP tests in the spring. IF you do not log in or create an account you risk not having an AP test to take in the spring (regardless if you paid for it or not).
The Join code is posted below.
2. Also make sure you have a private gmail account that you should of established this summer. School gmail account do not allow any incoming mail that is not from the school server. That means you will not get keys or results from forms if you use the school email account.
3. Complete the Introduction Form – this will count as your first Quiz Grade.
It will cover all of the introductory information given above.
Please follow the instructions with this link below to join the Ap Classroom:
