Hello Friends!!
Whew! I took the weekend to UN-PLUG and I strongly encourage you to do the same thing next weekend! I put away my computer and didn’t even check email all weekend (well, until Sunday night!). It was great. I learned how to make crepes (and I ended up actually pretty good!) I put together a 1000 piece puzzle, I did yard work, I watched a TV show on Hulu (Private Lives of the Monarchs from the BBC) that told me more about the English monarchs than I ever needed to know (I saw Queen Victoria’s underwear?!?!). So while I apologize for not answering your emails, I come back entirely refreshed!
Now for you — Congratulations — you are now EXPERT online students with a whole week under your belts! Be sure to appropriately mock any friends in Plano who are total newbies this week — just do it gently because we’re all in this together!
The short form: (or in online lingo TL;DR)
Check THIS form for your assignments. By Friday (which really means Sunday at 11:59) you need to have completed 30 minutes of Membean, completed at least 3 personal blog entries (Nick B, McKenna, Nick T and Anya — we do not have your blog link yet! PLEASE SEND THOSE TODAY OR WE HAVE TO COUNT YOU ABSENT!), and you will be completing a lesson on World War II on THIS Noteguide.
To do the Noteguide, we’re trying out a new technology, the Chrome extension “InsertLearning.” Basically this extension allows us to make any website “interactive,” by adding questions, discussion boards, sticky notes, and highlighting important information. For this week I’ve set it up so you will use the noteguide to prove you’ve gotten the information, but in the future we’ll just use your responses on the websites themselves instead of the note guide.
To set up the extension, follow the instructions at the top of the noteguide. If you have any problems, let us know.
Other things to know about this week:
- AP Tests — UGGGGH. I wish I knew what to tell you. Like my email said, College Board has decided that ALL AP tests will be 45 minutes long, JUST writing (no multiple choice), and will be taken at home. I have no idea how it’s going to work, and don’t know anything about what KIND of writing. I SUSPECT for APUSH it will be either all SAQs or maybe SAQ+ a shortened form of LEQ? Or maybe something entirely new! For APLANG the general consensus is that it will be an RA, though it could be an Argument, or it might be a shortened form of synthesis or some new thing they come up with. In short, we have no idea. I will let you know as SOON as I know. For APUSH they’ve said it will only cover units 1-7 (so basically up to the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War.) We are considering how to move forward and would love to hear your thoughts — so I’m making a Google Form here for you to give us quick feedback. I know what WE think, but we want to know what you want.
Overall, expect more writing as we move forward to help practice for the exams.
Reach out to us if you need anything. Holtrop and I are working on some new stuff for next week for the cold war that will hopefully be fun(ish).
That’s all I’ve got! Have a great Monday!
Ciao…
Ms. T