The Conn: Tuesday August 20th, 2019

Recap:

Bio/AP Bio-Busy, busy, busy! We started class still working on establishing class routines and good habits. I checked everyone's homework and talked about grades and snowballs. I pointed out that snowballs form overtime and get bigger and bigger until it warms up and then they melt away and you don't have what you wanted. In that same fashion, several students have let their work pile up and grow bigger instead of diving in and getting it done. So far, we have three assignments in Skyward. I went through my usual routine of grading:

1. Assign the work 2. check for understanding, 3 collect work, 4. review the work, 5. allow times to correct mistakes, 6. regrade, and 7. finalize the grade in Skyward. After that, I will not go back and change a grade. Please use your time wisely and don't let your work snowball. I clarified that I don't offer extra credit and if you're giving your best consistently, and getting your work done, there is no need for extra credit.

We then practiced how we will study vocabulary in class. I used the word MISCONCEPTION. We broke the word down into it's parts: Mis/con/cep (t)/tion. students worked in small groups to come up with their working definition of the word. We went round robin and then I gave them the word parts and meanings. Mis-= ill, wrong, -con-= with, together, -cep(t)= take, or taken in, and -tion= an action. Taken literally, this word means a Ä thought or conclusion based on faulty thinking or facts applied wrongly. Student groups then discussed other words and we added them to our 4 column notes. Using this method we will be able to decode many more words in science.
Students were reminded that they need one college ruled composition book to take notes in and one graph paper composition book to do graphing. No spiral bound notebooks or loose-leaf notebooks will be graded. These composition books are at Wal-Mart for .50 each.