<p>I don’t know if there is a specific time frame for when they do each lab. And it could have been that my son was just being overly cautious with his little friends- who knows? All I know is he had these little pill bottles with flies in them, and he didn’t want to leave them at home (we were only gone two days!).</p>
<p>Hey, have a blast at Disney! It’s sort of in our “backyard”. Where are you staying? Even though we can day trip it, when our kids were younger we used to go over there and stay in a Disney hotel for a few nights every year. Our favorites- Port Orleans, Beach and Yacht Club, Coronado, Grand Floridian (pricey but oh so nice); my bro always stays at Polynesian when he goes- they love it. I’m dying to do Hard Rock at Universal. You’ll love the decorations at that time of year, and if they have the Christmas concert at Epcot- it’s worth it. 300 high school chorus students from all over the country- they do 2 or 3 shows a night at the American Pavilion.</p>
<p>MissyPie, you’re probably right in that the way they do the AP class, with its time sensitivity, is more indicative of teaching to the test than what they’d find in a true college level course. However, I’d rather have that then what is occuring in my D’s APUSH class (another middle school teacher moving up to H.S. and being assigned AP). During the parent night, she proudly pointed to the back of the room to the row of posters hanging on the wall … posters that the kids had spent two days working on, with stick figure people, and bubble lettering, as how she’s approaching her class using educational theory. They spent SIX DAYS on a mock continental congress (not a problem if you’re in an honors class and have that kind of time to devote to one topic). They lost six days of instructional time on any other subject, but the kids got participation points for speaking … didn’t matter what you said, whether it was on topic or correct historically … but if you spoke, participated in the free for all that was ‘teacher facilitated’ discussion where kids got in each other’s faces and called it stimulating debate … you were fine and dandy. Didn’t matter that the teacher then tested on several chapters of info that she’d never taught because she was facilitating mature discourse. Aaaargh!</p>
<p>zebes … who thought the posters looked like they had been done by first graders with their toes.</p>
<p>I teach AP US History. My tests are hard from the beginning, but I do not impose any time limits until after spring break (for us, generally three weeks before the AP exam). On the APUSH exam, the average time allowed per question is closer to 40 seconds, but it would really only be valid to apply that expectation for in-class tests if it were a full-length (80 question) exam, since over the course of the 80 questions, there are bound to be some that students can answer instantly, while others will require more careful reading, averaging out to about 40 seconds per question. With a shorter test, say over a chapter, there will probably be 20-30 questions at most–less time for students to get into a rhythm and pace themselves, so I would not feel reasonable in giving them a strict time limit.</p>
<p>Not to criticize another teacher’s approach, but I think it’s more important at this point in the year to concentrate on building a broad, deep core of knowledge rather than speed. I’m not at all familiar with the structure and scope of the human geography exam, but in history, I find it really helpful to start early with sample free response and DBQ questions from past exams that correspond to the chronological organization I follow. This lets students see that they need to learn the material well enough now to still be able to answer similar questions in May. That kind of preparation will also pay off in the muliple choice portion of the exam.</p>
<p>Oh, zebes, now I’m groaning (and yes, criticizing another teacher’s approach). Far too much of what passes for cooperative learning in high schools is really shared ignorance.</p>
<p>We have an alternating block schedule, and I probably average 2.5 days per chapter.</p>
<p>Get your daughter a good APUSH study book (my students seem to like Princeton Review).</p>
<p>Zebes, our 8th grade US History students do a mock constitutional convention. I agree-a great activity for 8th graders where there is no great harm if you barely get into the 20th century by the time the school year ends.</p>
<p>Doubleplay, we are staying at the Poly. (We have stayed at the Contemporary and Yacht Club before.) I know it will be a zoo during Thanksgiving, but we wanted to see the decorations. Thanks for not flaming me for Disneyworld! Spring break was to Barcelona, summer vacation was to NYC, Boston and Maine…so now it’s time for some mindless fun!!!</p>
<p>Oooh…this may be a very long school year! I had emailed the teacher and asked if all of the test were going to be timed like that last one, and she just replied that there were 24 questions and they had 13 minutes in which to complete them. </p>
<p>So that is actually 32.5 seconds per question. Somehow she must think she has answered my question. I guess that means that it’s time to teach my daughter some test taking skills!</p>
<p>“Human Geography??” What exactly is this class? The study of the physcial features/surface of the human body? LOL (Obviously, our local hs does not offer this class!)</p>
<p>It actually sounds like an interesting class. Rather than just studying this river is here and this mountain range is there, they study things like human migration patterns, etc. I wish our school did not push AP classes as much as they do, because I think the kids don’t really have the “life experience” to appreciate the class as 14 year olds. Juniors and seniors would probably really enjoy it.</p>
<p>My son took 9 AP classes, starting in 10th grade. I think ALL his teachers used this “intense” testing system right from the start - letting the kids know what to expect. Most kids begin the year with 1s or 2s on their tests. Kids who are overwhelmed with the idea of having to work that hard usually drop the class. Those who hang in there do learn test taking strategies, along with the subject matter and eventually earn higher scores. Testing doesn’t use up the whole 80-90 min class period (block scheduling) so the students have time to learn new material. Students do alot of reading outside of class, just like in college.</p>
<p>In our HS, these classes are tough. An A really does equate to a 5 so they are difficult to get. I think my son only got B+s in BC Calc but got a 5 on his exam. An 80 in AP Lit all yr long also equated to a 5 on the exam - that teacher had really high expectations, but I know how elated he was to improve his essay score throughout the year.</p>
<p>My DD had a tough time, since she works slowly but she plugged along and got the hang of the testing. I think the practice tests really helped her in the long run (test wise).</p>
<p>I guess we parents are not supposed to be thinking that if our kid was in a “regular” class, she’d probably be getting a 100, which would contribute more to the GPA than an 80 or 85 in the AP class. (90 in AP = 100 in regular). I sure hope the admissions officers really do give value to the “rigorous course of study” and not just the GPA.</p>
<p>The good thing is she is going through that sort of “trial by fire” now, and later she will have an easier time of it. I found that after my kids took that first year of AP classes, the next year was a piece of cake. The initial AP experience stepped up their abilities in a way that no regular or honors class could have. It was tough, but their newly found skills made the subsequent classes easier to handle. Since your daughter is young, the grade she makes at this early stage, will not look “alarming”, and she will probably do much better in her later years of high school because of it.</p>
<p>Quotation from Yale admission officer who spoke in my town last night: “Challenge yourself to a reasonable extent. . . . We’re not looking for perfection. We don’t take a lot of students with perfect transcripts and do take a lot of students with imperfect transcripts.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately some of our HS teachers give grades with the “extra” points in mind - meaning that an 73 is a good grade coz it’s really an 83 (10 points added to AP grades). Obtaining a 90+ is very difficult. What they’re ignoring is that the points are ONLY added for ranking purposes. The 73 appears on the report card and the transcript. That is the grade used by the selective colleges when comparing students. Even for kids who get the 83 on their transcript, if the school explains in the legend that 10 points were added, those points are stripped away by the colleges when they “recalculate” the grades.</p>
<p>On the other hand, my son didn’t have perfect grades like our val and he got into Ivies and top schools. Our val made sure she had perfect grades but she didn’t get into any top schools - so I don’t think it’s all about perfect grades.</p>