Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Reflections on First Quarter APUSH 2011-12
Please write a self-reflection / class assessment on the first quarter of the year. How did you do compared to how you thought you would do before the year began? How did Mr. K do based on your first impressions and how he managed the challenges of the first quarter? What would you do differently and what would you like to see done differently if you had the first quarter to do all over again in APUSH?
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27 comments:
I did much better than I thought I would with two AP classes, once I adjusted to the APUSH style of testing and the rpojects I felt better about the History side. Having expirence with APWH helped.
I was stressed and over-whelmed with the whole AP setting in a class for the first time. But all it took was getting to know what the teacher is looking for and to adjust to the way things work in the AP setting. Although the class may be a tad stressful sometimes, I do appreciate how open and transparent Mr. Korling is. I feel that I could and will be doing better when it comes to better preparing myself for the tests. Thank you Mr. K for doing what you do and putting us in your best interest. You ROCK!!!
Q: How did you do compared to how you thought you would do before the year began?
A: I did not do as well as I thought I would but I am happy that I am learning what I need to in order to become better.( Is it egotistical to use "I" 6 times in one sentence?)
Q:How did Mr. K do based on your first impressions and how he managed the challenges of the first quarter?
A: Contrary to other teachers I have had in the past whose only hope is to do as little homework and put in as little effort as their Playstation centered students, Mr K has always made me believe that he is there to better the students education and shows it in everything he presents. He has managed the challenges of the quarter well because his goal is to help the student; even if it means he has to humble himself and that is a quality that makes Mr K stand out as a great teacher to me. ( now I wanna go off on those pompous baffonish TINO's I have had in my past years :P)
Q:What would you do differently and what would you like to see done differently if you had the first quarter to do all over again in APUSH?
A: I believe you can always do better with more effort. I pretty much just wish I had studied more. (I would also would like to see more superhero movies)
You really ROCK!
Based on my scores from the unit exams and essays I am doing ok. It can definitely be better though
Mr. K did a fabulous job with first impressions. For example, it actually looks like he put effort into decorating his classroom. Plus he is able to take initiative and create a plan to fix any challenges or disagreements among our class. His style of teaching is different from other teachers in being that he is flexible with how students want to learn the material. As a student, it was surprising to me that Mr.K asked specifics to what was working and what was not. Personally, I like that student teacher connection and I think it makes Mr. K more approachable.
Mr. K is doing a great job with this and should keep it up :)
If I could go back and do things differently I would focus on content rather than memorizing questions and answers that might be on the Unit exams.
first quarter in apush was okay. i didn't really study much for either of the tests so i didn't expect a change or a high mark for the grades. the new contract that we put up will definitely help the lack of self motivation for these tests.
The first quarter was hard, but that was to be expected. I feel like Mr. K is doing a great job of supporting us and offering help if we want it. I was impressed by the creation of the contract for quarter 2 and I am certain that it will help us in reaching the next level. My test scores are ok, but that was all on me. The tools I need to succeed are there, i just needed an extra push to use them. The contract will change that problem. Thanks Mr. Korling for being supportive and understanding, i look forward to quarter 2.
In quarter one I was stressed out on how much the pages were in the book. I was losing my motivation to do better and the homework I didn't do because it wasn't really assigned but now with the contract I hope to improve and have have much more motivation to study and pass my tests.
Coming to a new school and having no experience with AP classes, this first quarter was a little stressful. I think the new study-plan-contract thing will definitely help :)
Well here it is, my psychological confession. How do I begin? First of all, I wish I did better the first quarter, but now that's just wishful thinking. Easier said than done. It's always hard to go back to the studying mode after summer when the brain has turned into mush. I also sort of panicked when I heard that the first two weeks were going to be a nightmare, but all it took was just getting used too. I hope that I will make the extra effort to be more diligent in my studies for the rest of the year.
It's comforting to know that we have a teacher who knows what their talking about. I also appreciate how honest Mr. K is. If there is something that needs to be said he tells it like it is, but in a very humble and appropriate way. He manages to connect with us at our level, while making us into little intellectuals at the same time. That's pretty amazing! Mr. K is also very witty and I enjoy that! He always has something clever to say and it's very amusing. Also, when I asked for extra help, he's happy to help. In the past, when I asked for extra help I felt like I was just wasting their time. It just shows that Mr. K cares and believes that he can better his students' education.
For the next quarter I plan to be more focused and concentrated towards my goals and responsibilities in my educational life. After all you must "keep your eye on what is important."
I thought that it was going to go almost exactly like it did in APWH but APUSH is way different. When you said that it had the lowest passing rate of all AP courses in the country it really freaked me out. However I've been doin alot better than I thought I would.I have been struggling with motivation to study since homework no longer affected our grade, hopefully our new contract will help to improve that.
The First Quarter was hard. I was expecting APUSH to be similar to last years APWH but turns out it was a lot different. Its a lot more stressful and I know I can do better, The new Contract that we had come up with in class should defiantly help with my studying habits.
Its overwhelming with ap classes for the first time but I think if I had a bigger vocabulary, it would make the readings and lectures more understandable significantly. It is a big change but Mr. Korling can also make things easier by his open personality to students. I would also like to get with more classmates for study groups(which we are in the process of), and create more time to discuss and make arguments about chapters, upcoming tests, etc. I am definately more focused and less distracted when I am working with other people.
It is good to get a number of your perspectives on the first quarter. There are still a number of your who have not done your blog, yet, and I hope you will do so soon because in just a few weeks, I will be asking for your reflections of the second quarter.
I empathize with many of you about how big of a change the class has been compared to your past experience either with AP or not, and I hope that you will do what is expected of you to improve gaps in knowledge, learn and master skills in studying (especially reading), reviewing, and writing, and that you spend every available chunk of time (put a lot of the socializing away) you have to prepare yourself.
For those who want more of a challenge, I am, as I have ever been, open to designing a specialized curriculum for you that would supplant rather than add to what we are doing in class. There are any number of projects that I have at the ready right now that would perhaps be more appropriate for what you would like to do in pushing yourself. The key is that each of you needs to apply yourself as you have not in the past.
College is about individuals competing against one another, at least, that is what it was for me. I can give you a sense of that, but high school is fundamentally not college, so I can't give you what it is really like. I do believe, however, that regardless of how hard AP level work is, more and more students need to be exposed to it. Whether the expectation of success either in passing the exam in May or of passing the class itself is there, it is important that you all get a taste of what we should be demanding of ourselves.
Having lived and taught overseas, there are young people out there who have far far less than you do and thus much much more to gain if they push themselves - which they do. In a very real way, your futures will depend on the degree to which you are ready and willing to "suck it up and do it", to accept more hardship now in a variety of ways so that you will value the gains you make later. My former Bulgarian students are now in major American, Canadian, and European universities pursuing advanced degrees from the Arts to Engineering, and they are multi-lingual and multi-talented and they carry passports.
Don't let yourself get left behind. There are literally millions upon millions of teenagers around the world in developing countries who want what you have and they endure far more trying lives than many of you have ever experienced or heard of. They will be filling the jobs and defining the careers that will be demanded by the global economy within which we all live. AP is one way to rise to the challenge, to prepare yourself and to show universities that you have game. I will do everything in my power to help you, but there is one thing that I cannot do and that is to make you help yourself. I know this sounds all so very serious and maybe a bit daunting, but it is just the nature of the game in the 21st century.
American teenagers - like you - need to decide how much they are willing to go without so that they can fully and honestly appreciate what they both have and can gain in the future. By helping you, I am trying to do my part in keeping our grand experiment, the United States of America, moving forward rather than backward, moving outward rather than inward, maintaining its importance in the world rather than allowing it to stagnate and devolve as other great powers have in the past. President Kennedy once said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country?" And so, I am asking each of you, what can you do to make sure that you will have a better future, because that will mean that I will have a better future, and so will my children, and so will your children one day. Whether you acknowledge it or not, we literally are all in this together.
The measure of a person or a country is not essentially different: when difficulties arise, do you face and overcome them, or do you turn away and hope someone else will take care of them for you? Now is the time to stand up. Now is the time to push yourself like you never have. Now is the time to stop whining and start winning. As President Reagan once asked, "If not now, when? If not us, who?"
Now.
You.
I came in expecting it to be hard but also thinking that I could get by without studying. Near the end however as we started taking more tests I realized that I did need to study and I have much improved my study skills and overall grade in the class. Mr. Korling is excellent in including and listening to each student. And not leaving them behind just because a student or something insists they do. I admire that he thinks of the good of the class as a whole and does his best to keep us together even if some of us tug away.
Well first quarter of APUSH was completely different from last years AP class. I did way worse than i thought i would do because i figured some last minute studying would still let me pass the tests. I was wrong obviously. But im looking forward to passing the next test because i've realized that i need to take this seriously. Also thanks Mr.K for pretty much making me try. You're awesome!
APUSH was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I did a lot worse than I thought I would, and seeing my grades really made me kick into gear and wake up with my studying habits! I usually don't do very well with studying by myself, but I have started to do better on my tests, minus the ones on the days I've missed ;)
First quarter of APUSH didn’t go exactly as planned. I thought that since I already took APWH, APUSH should be a piece of chocolate cake…yeahhh, didn’t happen. It was completely different. Since homework isn’t technically “homework” anymore I had a pretty hard time motivating myself to read the chapters, but hopefully with Mr. K’s new contract, I will become more self-disciplined. Mr. K is probably one of the coolest teachers I’ve ever had. He’s sarcastic and super inspiring. Whenever He gives lectures he inspires me to do better in my studies. If I could’ve done first quarter different I would’ve definitely been more prepared for the assessments and I would have pushed myself harder to read the chapters
I thought that the AP classes would be much less entertaining and interesting to learn about due to our experience with previous teachers. Mr. K's use of videos and other projects really help bring the material alive and make it interesting and really an actually fun experience! For example the Wiki thing were doing. What an awesome version of an essay... All I can say is way to go Mr. K!
During most of the first quarter I felt as If I was struggling in both my AP classes. This, I feel, was mainly due to my lack of experience in a "public school setting." The first week of AP classes could be described, in my opinion, as nothing less than hell. However, as the first week passed Mr. Korling was able to begin bringing me out of my "academic slump" and in turn I began to understand the "jist" of what had to be done and what was expected of me. I feel now that I am able to rise to any challenge that is thrown before me and I'm able to retain my confidence. My hope, as we continue through this second quarter, is that we will continue to build onto what we have already learned and that Mr. Korling will continue to challenge us as we get near to the all dreaded "death test(as I like to call it)." But anyway to sum this all up, it, for the most part, was extremely challenging but also beneficial not only because of the new material that I have learned but also because it has greatly improved my study skills.
The first quarter went well. I thought I did a fair job and I think the class as a whole is improving and working towards better study habits and becoming more focused. As a teacher Mr. Korling does a great job of offering a wide array of sources and information that proves to be useful on assessment. Much obliged Mr. K, much obliged.
First quarter of APUSH was ok. I think I was expecting it to be exactly like last years APWH, But in reality it was a lot different. Now knowing what it's like, I should have more self motivation. Especially with the new contract we made.
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