Dear bio student,
Hi. I'm Christina. I'm in 9th grade, and at the beginning of this year, I was 13. My classes this year were World Geo/Health/Driver's Ed, Bio, Algebra 2H, Winter Sport/Spring Sport, Spanish 2, English 9, and Orchestra 2. I didn't look at my schedule to type this up, so I might have forgotten a number or something, but that's basically it.
Mr. Orre expects you to pay attention in class and do what is asked of you. When you come to class, the first thing you do is to write your homework in your planner, if you're still using it, and to get out your notebook and write down and answer the Do Now, which is written on the whiteboard.
Typically, our class days consist of either labs or time to work on miscellaneous assignments, like lab write-ups, projects, and blog posts like this one. Labs include writing down data during the lab, and writing a write-up on our blogs after the lab. Most of the labs are pretty different in topic, but they always have something to do with what we're learning with the vodcasts.
The vodcasts, our homework, are videos of Mr. Orre explaining different concepts, kind of like an online lecture. Basically every night, our homework is to watch one and take notes on it, including a Relate and Review and HOT Questions, as well as complete a CFU (Check For Understanding) after we're finished.
We don't have any quizzes, only tests, and we have one test after the end of every unit, as well as finals. This means that there are only 5 or 6 tests a semester, as the units are pretty long. Tests are always multiple-choice, and they should be easy if you really understand the content.
Everyone in the class has a notebook, which contains notes for all the vodcasts, answers for Do Now's, and notes on any movies we might watch in class. Everyone in the class also has a blog, like this one. Blog posts include most lab write-ups, a reflection after every unit ends, and some others. My favorite blog post is the sex infographic, which is exactly what it sounds like. It was a fun project, and it also helped me understand the concepts of that unit.
One of Mr. Orre's biggest pet peeves is having to repeat himself because no one is listening to him. He also doesn't like when students ask him questions like "where is the sharpener?", since we literally have a unit called the Rookie Module where we learn where things are, etc.
Getting good grades on assignments is easy as long as you follow directions and don't mess around during the assignment. Although the vodcasts, as homework, are worth only 10 points, they are the main way to learn the material, so you should always do them unless you want to fail. In order to get a good grade on a test, you need to actually understand the information. Memorization isn't really helpful for most topics, because the questions are multiple choice, and even so, it's rare that the tests have the same wording as the vodcasts. The CFU's are also considered a good way to study for the tests, but I don't tend to use them to study because sometimes there are problems with them. Also, for me, if I take something once, I'll remember the answers when I go to take it again, so that doesn't help me study.
Overall, I would give this class a 7/10. I think that Mr. Orre is a good teacher, but I don't really like flipped teaching. Next year, I'll be taking Chemistry H. To summarize, just do everything you should in class and you'll be fine.
Signed,
Christina
