Friday, February 1, 2008
On-Line Check In
I’ve been thinking about the first semester some and wondering about your experience. This might not be a blog we can dialogue with everyone about – though you never know – I think the possibilities for dialogue are endless. I want to know what worked for you, what you enjoyed, what you struggled with, what you really learned, what you think you want to do differently in the second semester…..kind of like a semester internal/on-line check in. Give it a shot. Make your one entry longer, if you don’t plan on commenting on others. This will be due next Friday at 1:30.
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13 comments:
First semester was very stressful. I'm happy with how I did but it took a LOTTTT of work. But I know that what you put in is what you get out, so the stress was worth it. I'm really happy with History--last year history was soooo hard for me and I absolutely sucked at it (maybe because it was world history and not so relevant to me, or maybe because it was supremely boring). Charlie and I were in the same class and we would complain about it every day. This year history is easily one of my favorite/best subjects. I love the style that we're learning it--it really suits me. Big themes are much easier to process and connect with than superfluous details. My other classes are on all ends of the spectrum: I hate spanish (always have). Not because I hate the language but because the teachers are annoying and never like me (probably because they can tell I have limited enthusiasm). I love AP Environmental Science. It's reeeeally hard because there is just so much information, but it's such a relevant and contraversial issue for my generation, and I find it so interesting. I'm starting to realize that I'm very pro-environment, and I like discovering those kind of things about myself. Math is whatever. English is the most frustrating thing in the world. English has always been my favorite subject, but it takes an unparalleled amount of work to write an A paper. I personally think it must be impossible. Essays are so hard to perfect when you have so much else assigned to you. I sort of wish the English dpt. would lower their expectations a TINY bit. But I know it's good experience for college, and I love the books we're reading. I feel really proud of myself for having a good grade in English given the level of literature we're studying--which is, according to my teacher, college level books (Beloved). I also love how our courses kind of tie together-like how we're learning US history and studying American literature in English. One of my hardest classes right now is suprisingly Chamber Singers. We're learning a peice by Bach that is double choir and 46 pages long (plus a 2 page aria). Aka rediculous. So the hard part in that class is just starting. Jazz Singers is so much fun, definitely one of my favorite classes. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep my grades up for second semester while dealing with the stress of SATs and everything.
I agree with norah that first semester was pretty hard. I worked pretty hard in all my subjects but the turnout was alright i kind of expected better but its no biggie. Hisotry is good becaues instead of putting adding to the stress we arleady have, we have check-ins to help us ease our minds and relax. I think my favorite time this semester was football. I'm really disappointed with out season and what not but it's all good. The games were so much fun however, i didn't play the position i liked but it's all good. English is a good class and the books we're reading are pretty interesting. The same goes for math and french as well. APES is a hard class for me but i'll try harder in the new smester. I took the sat's already and they were hard too but hopefully it all turns out good.
Nora it seems like you worked pretty hard and you had a lot of stress on your mind. However, it's a good thing you were able to pull out those good grades and you're really making an example as a model student. I never heard you sing but i heard you're pretty good so i'm happy to hear that. i hate apes but i guess you like it so i guess thats good for you. Foreign languages are always hard so dont stress about that. I think you're one of the hardest workers i know so keep up the good work and i thought the sat's were hard which in turn means you will think it's easy.
This year's first semester was actually a lot better than last year. I had Yaron last year, and he was a fabulous teacher, but he pushed us really hard. Jumping into a super tough history course from 9th grade was a big struggle. So i got like a C+. Maybe I like US history more or i'm more used to the class, but this semester was WAY better. I do find US history to be more interesting and i love the sort of interactive discussion style that we're learning with. With all the complex, more analytical things, it's so much more effective to talk about it together in class than crazily writing notes in class and not knowing what you're writing.
For 2nd semester, i'm just going to try maintaining my grades. For me nothing's too hard because i'm not taking any APs or honors. But i'm kinda scared that i may have to pile a bunch of APs senior year.
Surprisingly, I didn't find first semester this year to be as bad as everyone says. But to be perfectly honest i don't think i was really working to my full potential. I am expecting 2nd semester to be much more hectic because i have tons of out of school obligations and events in the next few months. I just got my report card in the mail today and I was very happy with all my grades. Math this year is a breeze and its the one class that I don't really need to study for which is really nice. It is a relaxing class that I don't have to worry about. I am doing really well in English this year which I am super happy about. I struggled in English last year to it is very satisfying to have come out with an A- in that class this semester. I just hope i can maintain the grade. AP Bio and AP Spanish Language are getting really tough. There is so much work and there is a lot expected of you in these two classes. History has almost always been a struggle for me, except in 9th grade. I was very pleased with my mid term grade this year though, and I am going to try much harder this semester to push my grade up even further. It is just difficult for me to connect every concept together from chapter to chapter. I guess when i get lost i really have to remind myself that we are learning US history as Dr. Rockenbach always says. I am starting to get a little stressed because the Dance Concert is quickly approaching. The company has worked really hard but i feel like we still are not quite ready for our show. My weekends have been extremely hectic and jam packed with 9-5 rehearsals. I find myself to be having trouble sleeping lately even though I am clearly sleep deprived. My muscles are constantly sore from weekend rehearsals and though I am anticipating our show, I almost can't wait for it to just be over. My full attention and focus is required during our rehearsals but it is hard to concentrate on dancing when I have other things to think about such as loads of homework in every class. I took the SAT last week so i am now awaiting my scores. I am definitely nervous about that and wish i would only have to take the test once but I am expecting to have to take it again.
Ah sorry! that dancinghottie comment was from me. It asked for my screenname and showed up that was. haha wow thats a little embarrassing.
Well... first semester seems to be a blur, but it was so much work. I seem to have figured out a balance between doing school work and not doing school work that works enough to keep me sane. Compared to last year the workload has gotten an insane amount heavier (maybe because of harder classes?) and the expectations of each department seems to have gotten greater. Like Nora said, history is much better this year than last year because of both the teaching style and the relevancy and relatability (if that's a word...) of the material. I have to say I'm not really used to the more lax style of teaching, and I'm not sure I like it, but it seems to be working. Maybe a little more in-class review of what's covered in the book would helpful so its not mostly based on how much we understood the reading for the unit. I agree with dancinghottie289 (Nisha) in that it is difficult to connect the main ideas from chapter to chapter, but when we do go over the basic connections spanning over the entire course of US History and relating it to today, it really helps and relates it to me. As for my other classes, the situation has definately reversed itself from last year. I'm generally good at the science/math and I have to work at the humanities ends of the academic spectrum, but this year because my math and science classes are more advanced it has becoming increasingly difficult for me while the lower level humanities is a little easier. This is a nice change of pace, but my math and science classes (especially AP Physics) has been destroying me this year. On top of all the schoolwork this year is the added stress of getting prepared for college, including preparation for the SAT (which as I was reminded yesterday, is in 3 weeks). Also to add to the stress I started behind this semester before it even started with having a couple midterms to make up (I was sick) so that wasn't fun... Although this year the work has been piling on, I have gained a couple hours every day by dropping soccer, so the stress has been lightened some. We'll have to see how second semester turns out, and I hear first semester senior year is even worse so... we'll see.
I'm definitely liking history a lot more this year than last. Maybe it's because of a new teacher. Maybe it's a more interesting subject matter that I can relate to better. It's probably both. After skimming Caroline's post, it seems like I'm in the exact same boat. I had Yaron last year too, and I found his class really difficult. Couldn't manage to get above a B at any point in the year. Don't get me wrong. Yaron's an awesome teacher and is really passionate about his work which I really respect, but I guess his teaching style didn't really match with my learning style. On the contrary, I absolutely love the way our history classes are run this year. It's not just lectures 24/7 because that would get boring. We mix it up by taking field trips to the maps and playing the games on the board. I like how we actually discuss the history in broad terms instead of simply memorizing minute details. I think the 5-question quizzes are a little misleading, and I don't like them very much. It's really easy to disregard a quiz where you just missed 1 or 2, but in reality that's a 80% or a 60%.
Ok, that's about it with history. Let's move on to my other subjects. My first semester grades overall were not as high as I'd like them to be. Also, I'm only taking 2 APs so I don't get much of a GPA boost. My dean is already suggesting loading up next year. Joy. It finally hit me about a month ago that I'm going to college in a year and a half and that I'm really going to have to step it up if I'm going to apply to any selective schools. So, yeah. I've met with my dean a couple times and looked through that green binder that shows all the applicants for each school. My GPA isn't going to take me very far. So I'm a bit worried about that. As far as electives go, Video Art is awesome. It's a really chill class, and it's great because it's at the end of the day. I'm also in Bookmaking which is a fun blow-off class. There's just 3 kids in it so if anyone as 5th block, come and join us.
Oh! SATs. I took them in January and felt that I did pretty well. So we'll see how that goes. Scores come in on Feb 14.
Volleyball season is starting up next week. I'm kind of right between varsity and JV. I can either start JV or warm the varsity bench. Actually playing is always nice, but my coach wants me to "play" varsity because practicing with the "big boys" will improve my game. And if I practice with varsity, he can keep an eye on me, instead of the JV coach. So I'm getting kind of excited for that too.
So that's it for me. I hope everyone else's year is going great!
Rock: I'd love to hear your comments. Want to share?
First semester was both harder than I expected and easier, as weird as that sounds. I have two blocks this year, which makes school survivable, but even though I have less classes than last year, I seem to have way more work. I think it's actually just AP Chemistry that totally eats up my time, but at the same time, it's super fun and probably higher up on my list of favorite classes. I think English this year is a huge struggle. I was freaking out about my essay grades at the beginning of the year, and as of now, they're not that much better. I find it strange that there's such a large jump between the level at which we were expected to write last year and the level this year. I'm hoping that I'll start getting the hang of essay-writing for English during second semester. Possibly the best decision I've made this year is dropping Spanish. I've never really been too enthusiastic about the language; last year I got by because I really liked my teacher, but this year, I didn't like my teacher at all. Dropping it got rid of one class, giving me more time for other classes and also added a block, giving me even more time. History is way better this year than...ever. I really like class discussion. Lectures tend to put me to sleep, and all the years I've been in school, history has been strictly lecture. Plus, I really like American history because I find it easier to understand than world history. I guess also, we're focusing pretty much only on America instead of on England, France, Spain, etc... The text book is actually interesting to read this year, and I don't feel like I'm eating a block of facts every time I read (unlike last year). Probably for second semester, I'll try to be on top of my work instead of procrastinating, letting it build up, and then spending my whole weekend catching up. I really miss having fairly free weekends.
Now that it's junior year and college applications are getting just that much closer, I'm starting to stress out about what college I'm going to go to and what I'm going to do in the future. It's sort of a silly worry because for now I should just be worried about narrowing down a list of potential schools, but thinking about college triggers me to think about what I'll major in and what I want to do for a living, which I have absolutely no clue as of right now. Anything that seems really fun to pursue looks like it could possibly result in me being dead poor and living in a cardboard box on the streets.
I am extremely pleased with history this year!!! I love how we DISCUSS and DIALOGUE rather than scribbling down whatever we hear the teacher say in hopes of somehow being able to read and comprehend those notes later. Talking about the big themes and ideas and really connecting them to current issues is extremely helpful and makes the class more relatable. Although I may not remember the minute details of our first semester work, I definitely remember the main themes (federalism v. republicanism, states v. federal, etc), which are probably the more important things to remember and absorb from this class, and I think that is because of Dr. Rockenbach's teaching style. I remember at the beginning of the year, when Dr. Rock said that if we were the types of students who like to vigorously take notes from lectures that we would probably not like/excel in this class. I was really nervous to hear that because I definitely thought I was one of those students. Fortunately, I realize that her teaching style really suits me, although it is much more imperative to pay close attention to the reading (which is very easy to fall behind on and takes me a really long time) because we don't always talk about every fact in class. I was actually planning on dropping history next year in order to take 2 sciences, but I am rethinking that because I've enjoyed this class so much.
In terms of my other classes and junior year in general, everything has been going pretty well. English is probably my toughest class, but that's always expected for me. I think the english department at our school has really high expectations for us, which is good in the long run ie: college, but it kind of sucks now when it's so hard to write what they consider an "A" paper. Precalc and AP Spanish are pretty good...not too much homework in those 2 classes, which is a relief. I absolutely LOVE AP Bio (I want to be a pediatrician). I think it's so fascinating, and science has always come to me pretty naturally. I took the SATs the day after our last final, which was pretty brutal, but I'm so glad that part of the college process is over (unless I take them again), but the college process has really only just started, and I know it's going to get really stressful. I'm glad that first semester junior year was not too bad, but I hear that second semester is significantly harder (probably a lot of that has to do with more college-based stress) so I'm not looking forward to that part. Nonetheless, we're halfway through our junior year! I'm happy to hear that everyone else is relatively happy with the way first semester turned out, and I'm also interested to hear what Dr. Rock thinks about how much we love her teaching style :)
Junior year's first semester was purposefully not hard for me because I wanted to save my energy for the SATs and music. I took the SAT in Nov. and got a 2080. Is that bad? I don't really want to take it again.
But now I have zero APs, which is very scary. After seeing last week's presentation in class meeting about all the past students' GPAs and what APs they took, I really realized I have to crunch everything in senior year. yikes.
As for history, Billy mentioned how the quizzes are so easy to mess up on. And I totally forgot how those could add up to the total grade until Rochenbach showed us. So that's probably the only bad thing.
I know this is post- Friday at 1:30, but I figured I'd might as well add...
This year is kind of killing me, but I don't even feel like I'm doing anything (if that makes sense). I guess I just feel trapped because everyone else is always busy and stressed and never wants to do anything, which then in turn stresses me out. My math class is way too hard but I couldn't switch down because I would have had to change nearly every class and didn't want to (this was first quarter). I know have a bad grade in the class and don't even know what to do because I don't understand it at all. Bio, history and french are keeping me afloat. The new english essay we were just assigned looks near to impossible, and I don't even want to think about it. I need to make a video with these two people, not for class, but for my own sake because I want to major in film and/or go to film school as an undergrad and so the pressure to make stuff NOW is on me, but not necessarily the people who've said they would work with me. These projects aren't getting done and it's driving me mad. When I go home sometimes I don't even start my work till 11 so I'm constantly tired. Hihglights of my day are history, photo, and video. I love the format of this class- I learn so much better with discussion over lecture. Anyway, yeah.
I love hearing how you all are doing and I appreciate that Nora started us off by talking about the big picture (and I know it’s only a fraction of your big picture). It was wonderful to me to hear how life is in general for you…..quitting soccer, the end of the football season sucks, dance rehearsals and I’m sore, JV or varsity volleyball? Chamber Singers, math sucks, math is great, need to make a film, SAT hell, music, dropping Spanish, AP Chemistry, why is it so hard to get an A on an English essay? Need some more in class review; will I have to take more AP’s in my senior year? Hey I like lecturing, lecturing sucks.
My first semester has been challenging and absolutely amazing. Amazing in that I really get paid to come and share space with not just the minds of incredible young people, but your hearts and souls as well and what can I say…I love it. I love it more every day actually and that feels truly inspiring to me. I do not take it for granted. It has also been challenging, but that’s partly because I am pushing myself more and more. I’m hitting edges around all the creative ideas I have brewing in my mind and the amount of time we actually have to do them. I so want to put together a piece for This American Life and I’m finally at this place where I know I need help to do it. So….that balancing act has been…..well, a balancing act. I trust the process.
I am deeply appreciating you in this moment and I thank you for sharing your truths, especially the difficult ones. I think you are all wonderful and I am so proud of you. I am proud of your kindness to one another most of all. I so respect that you can share your differences with one another and pass the nutella. I think some days, especially in my really idealistic moments, that we are learning so much more than history. Some days I feel like we are learning how to be in a world of differences and think from our hearts. That matters to me….so much more than Chester Arthur…..and maybe we can find that fine delicate line where we can also say, hey….but Arthur passed the Pendleton Act and that’s cool because the Government was trying to do SOMETHING about political corruption, even if it was a very small step.
Thank you for being yourselves. It makes a huge difference in my life.
Rockenbach
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