3rd Hour 15-16 AP Language and Composition
Friday, May 27, 2016
Alexis Farmer Assignment 22
Thursday, May 26, 2016
I'm Bad at Goodbyes but You Made Me Give One Anyway: Rachael Gilbert
There are a couple of things I'm not good at:
Physics
Human interaction
Goodbyes
I especially don't like number 3. Goodbyes seem final, and for a person who hates change, they're super horrible. At the end of every school year, I typically just pretend that everything's fine and I'll show up in your classroom tommorow....but, this is a grade.
So.
you made this more difficult.
I've really appreciated this class, English has always been one of my better subjects but I think what made your class different and more effective was that you oppened up writing to more than just informative school papers (blog posts).
Blog Posts were super great because it was the first time that I'd written for simply the fun of it in a long time (like since 3rd grade me write poetry...good times). And I felt like they really helped develop everyone's voices, through the blog posts I got to know the people around me in ways I never had in the three years (or more) that I've known them.
On the other hand, I think reordering the way you teach the three different types of essays could be more effective. Like, we all basically know how an argument essay works so I would teach that first and then the ones we're less familiar with last (so that you've had more recent practice by the time you get to the AP test), other than that I thought that this class was awesome and I learned a bunch and I really appreciate you as a human being.
20 points to Slytherin.
Monday, May 23, 2016
Suggestions for next year? Jodi Kirkner
STREss! Jodi Kirkner
To say it old school, Junior year went from 0 to 100 real quick.
The year started out like "oh yeah Junior year is great what's everyone talking about?" and suddenly second semester hit and it kinda felt like ????? hey??????? where did my peace and sanity go????????????
Luckily I cruised through all my AP tests and finals are coming up (like tomorrow lol) which is okay too besides one thing. I DON'T KNOW PHYSICS?????? WHAT IS PHYSICS????????? I took the AP test why do I also have to take 2 finals? It's really sad.
I have no good stress relieving tactics. I eat a lot and sleep more than 25 hours each weekend trying to make up for the 3-4 hours nights I had all week.
Like, I'll wake up on Sunday at 12, think of the video I have to edit, and my brain just nopes out, I'm back to sleep until 2:30. True story.
Once I tried baking because that's what a lot of my friends do, but I just go even more stressed out and burnt my finger.
I guess obsessively sudying Korean could be my stress tactic but that also doesn't make me less stressed out... when I was little I used to hide in my closet and snap those weird plastic hangers in half when I got really mad or stressed out. I'm still not sure if my parents know. Hahaha
Well anyway, I think we all see the moral here. Hide in your closet and break hangers if you're feeling stressed!
Jodi out.
THE FUTURE JODI KIRKNER
In March I found out that I was accepted to be the recipient of a NSLI-Y scholarship to study abroad through immersion in Seoul, South Korea this summer. This would be cool to anyone, but for me it was like I had just accomplished my life dream. This is what I want to do with my life, so it feels like a step on the right path to my future.
Also, I recently visited Ohio State University. Although people always take it upon themselves to implore me to apply to every ivy league (and UChicago too!), after visiting all these and more, I really think Ohio State is where I belong. I'm so happy to have made this type of realization early in the process and that makes me excited for my future (hopefully at OSU) as well.
So I guess after I power through my summer work and have a great time in Korea I'll have to come back to real life and work on college apps and "do" my senior year... but for now, I think I'll just forget about all that.
Assignment 26-Cameron Combs
Assignment 25-Cameron Combs
Assignment 24-Cameron Combs
Rick Marino 24
Its been a peculiar year. Overall, Junior felt like a blast of fire to the face. It happened quickly, yet it left me singed and charred. I hope that senior year will be a more chill affair.
This summer I will be going to gsp. To be honest I don't really know what people do there. I was told to apply and got in, which is kinda dope I guess. I look forward to spunky adventures at gsp and my life.
26 Hannah Freibert
25 Hannah Freibert
Sunday, May 22, 2016
24 Hannah Freibert
- Mastered an array of advanced dance moves, centering my focus on dabbing and whipping.
- Did not get kidnapped and trafficked into the Swiss Alp's underground yodeling business despite valiant efforts from perpetrators.
- Perfected my underwater ring bubbles which may be my most prized ability.
- Am congratulated by Mark an estimated 7-15 times per day. Never loses its magic.
- Did not solve my procrastinating conundrum
- Did not get sufficient sleep
- May or may not have at one point taken a dinner knife to my skin when Clara cut me a ridiculously small piece of cookie cake after my request for a large one (instability attributed to lack of sleep)
- Everything I know about junior year I acquired from my favorite classic work of literature, Lessons Learned. Stayed tuned for the sequel, Pages Turned, and finally, Bridge's Burned.
- 8 hours of sleep in whole over a school week's time will. affect. you. Don't do it.
- The school hand sanitizer dispenser's give you twice as much hand sanitizer as you need.
- Appreciate your friends in the time that you have and don't listen to Rivers and Roads on repeat with them in a car or all your marbles will be lost.
- STOP AT ALL THE DAMN STOP SIGNS
- Parallel parked into extremely small space
- Ate multiple of my brother's left over meals from restaurants and consequently risked my life
- Short sleeves to school, it's cold as fuck every gerderm day.
- Expect to be aquatic as usual and also to begin to narrow my college selection.
- Learn how to not be afraid of growing up.
- Learn how to not rather be put through a meat grinder than grow up.
- Become even closer with my awesome friends and cry about how long it took me to appreciate them
Assignment 26- Noah Tapp
Writing With Style- the book was interesting and when writing throughout the year I often looked back at our summary sheet to help me.
Blog Posts- Blog posts help students write because they can implement their own style and use their own creative ideas
Practice Timed Writings- We practiced many times what was going to be on the actual AP test so we were confident before hand and knew how to write in the restricted amount of time.
Revisions- the class reviews of essays helped us receive constructive criticism
ACT practice- the ACT, whether it should or not, is extremely important for college so I think we could do more practice tests.
Review Multiple Choice Questions- you do give us time but I fell like most students do not spend it efficiently. Maybe as a class, we could review the commonly missed problems.
SAT vocab and roots- continue to do them even though they are not tested on because they help build a writers tool box.
Assignment 26 Brian Sato
Assignment 24 Brian Sato
Rick Marino 26
The Good:
- Writing with style book- This book was extremely eye-opening. I expected just another dusty and dry "how-to" manual, but what I got was a deliciously refreshing lesson. However, I do think we spent a little too much time on it.
- ACT prep- The tips and practice multiple choice for the ACT were very informative and aided in boosting my score
- Classroom atmosphere- I felt that the relatively-laid back classroom vibe was very fitting. That's not to say that learning wasn't the number 1 objective. But there wasn't any hesitation to take an internet video break from stressful or mundane tasks
Possible Improvements:
- Essay Grading- I wasn't a huge fan of the full class grading style. If someone voiced their opinion, it seemed like the rest of the class would conform to that opinion. The small-group discussions were much more personal and helpful for me.
- Finals- I really liked the idea of having a speech and a psa for our finals instead of multiple choice or an essay. However, we didn't receive the information until late into each semester. If we had received the instructions earlier I believe we could have produced better work,
Honestly, I racked my brain for more suggestions, but came up blank. Thanks for the cool year Logsdon!
Assignment 25 Viviana Ortiz
Class: English (just as an example)
Current grade: 90.1
Make-up assignments/Anything you can do to get your grade up:
-Corn Socratic Seminar
After that, I would do a whole bunch of math. I would calculate what my grade would be if I made up the assignment. If there were multiple assignments, I would calculate the percentage my grade would go up with each assignment.
While it took forever and a half, I like having everything in front of me and the percentage improvements there to motivate me to actually do it. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't.
One last thing I would do it play oboe. Oboe is kinda my life, just like band is. It helps me destress.
(It isn't a Vivi blog post if I don't mention band at least once.)
Assignment 26 Viviana Ortiz
One suggestion I would have though is changing the peer grading system somehow. While I definitely think that the big group discussion and the packets with the numbers at the top is super useful, I felt that as the days went on people would stop trying to actually grade the essays. Changing the order of the numbers around was a great idea to make sure thta everyone was getting feedback at some point, but I would just start that process earlier in the year.
Another suggestion would be about the book we read at the beginning of the year. I was kinda a big fan of it though so I might just be totally biased. I wouldn't have minded having it as summer reading and then debriefing over it during class. Then on the first essay they write, the students could possibly have to point out how they incorporated the knowledge they gained from the book which would also serve as a way to make sure they read it and would make them better writers.
But basically, you're amazing and yeah. Cool? Cool.
Total sidenote: I started watching Lady Dynamite after we watched the trailer in class. It's pretty funny but full of cuss words which I didn't notice until the f bomb was dropped at full volume with my parents at my side :P
Assignment 26- Meriwether Carling
Overall you class was very effective and I felt prepared for the AP test that we took. The book that we read at the beginning of the year was super helpful because it showed us that we can write outside the standard 5 paragraph essay which in my opinion made writing easier. The book also gave us strong examples of essays that had done so to prove that being different in formatting was a good thing, and if done correctly can strengthen your essay. However, I did feel like we read it for too long. Most of what we read was helpful, but there were a few chapters that we could have skipped over and saved a lot of time in doing so.
The biggest thing that you could do to help prepare future students for the AP test is to go over the test questions in more detail and more than once. I know that we went through all of them with our student teacher, but he went through them so fast that there were some that I was still confused as to why that was the correct answer but there really wasn't time to ask questions and get an explanation. If we spent just one or two days per test we took going over questions that would have been really helpful in the long run. But on the essay side of the test I really enjoyed how we graded them as a class. Yes, it did get boring at some points because there were so many essays to grade, but I thought it was the most effective way to gain feedback from everyone in the class.
All in all your class was really helpful because I now feel confident in my writing skills. You wanted us to improve as writers, but the work load you asked of us was very manageable yet you still prepared us well for the AP test. Thank you for always allowing me to put snapchat filters on you and for being the best english teacher in the game. You rock my socks and I will miss you next year :')
Clara 26
Assignment 24- Noah Tapp
Assignment 24 Viviana Ortiz junior year
Clara 25
Assignment 25- Meriwether Carling
1. Running- Whenever I run I don't have to thing about the things that stress me out. Even just 30 minutes outside not thinking about responsibilities helps calm me down.
2. Netflix- This is quite funny because me watching Netflix only adds to my procrastination of things which will eventually lead to more stress, but in the moment it relieves stress.
3. Hanging out with friends- usually my friends can help talk me through little things that I overthink that are causing me to stress. Thanks friends.
Hopefully one day I will be a stress free gal who realizes that some things just aren't worth worrying over.
Assignment #26: Liz Graves
I do have a couple suggestions:
I wasn't a big fan of the book we read at the beginning of the year. I thought we spent too much time on it. It was definitely helpful, but it got a little boring after a while. I think if your future students read the book in smaller doses it will be just as effective.
I thought the editing that we did in small groups was more effective. I got more detailed feedback on my essay. Maybe you could split the class in two or three groups so the groups are smaller, so the feedback is more specific. Also, it would make the number of essays to grade less daunting.
It would have also been helpful if you had spent a little more time going over how to use certain editing software. I am horrible at video editing, and stressed that I am going to have the worst quality PSA ever. I appreciated some of the editing that you showed us in class, but maybe some hands on practice would have also been helpful.
Again, thank you so much Mr. Logsdon, for being an incredible teacher. I had a hard time thinking of any suggestions at all. I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck next year!
Assignment #26- Jessica Sunnenberg
In previous years I have considered English to be one of my least favorite subject, but I found myself enjoying it this year. You're laid back (but not overly laid back) teaching style was just what I needed after coming from Physics and Calc 1st and 2nd hour. The summer work was not overbearing. I actually really enjoyed doing in depth research on a specific topic and found the annotated bibliography useful when writing my speech for the winter final. Reading Writing With Style at the beginning of the year was helpful. I enjoyed reading it and I found myself using the tips/strategies in it when writing throughout the year. Grading essays was probably what benefited me the most. Being able to read what other people were writing and what techniques they were using helped me to develop my own writing. I think we could have benefited from going even more in depth with AP style multiple choice questions.
And with that, I say goodbye for the final time.
Its been real.
post 26 mason saunders
Post 25 Mason Saunders
Assignment 26 Tommy Gardner
The socratic seminars did not really help much. They were an unpleasant jolt to those of us accustomed to budgeting more time for classes other than English. Also they did not really serve any purpose, as they did not apply to the AP test much.
A Critic Critically Critiques Core Class- Henry Walther
I do wish we dove more deeply into the practice multiple choice for the AP exam though, even though I'm sure we did fine regardless. I think doing more ACT English practice would be helpful because there are a ton of easy tips and tricks that I learned outside of class and utilized on the ACT. Wow I'm done with blogs, kewl.
Assignment #25: Liz Graves
Drink a Diet Coke- I absolutely love Diet Coke. It's cold. It's fizzy. It has a very distinct, refreshing flavor. It has caffeine. It helps keep me awake at 1 a.m. when I am on the verge of mental collapse because APUSH Unit Assignments are due tomorrow and I hadn't started until 5 p.m. It also reminds me that a world that can make something so delicious is not all bad.
Nap it off- If I'm going to be honest, 99.9% of this time this makes my stress worse because I've wasted so much time, but at least I have one blissful hour of peace.
Talk to my mom- Mom calms me down and puts things into perspective for me. She usually talks me through the worst case scenario and convinces me that whatever I'm stressing about is not anything life-altering or earth-shattering. If she's feeling generous she'll stay up with me a keep me company.
Listen to music- Studying is almost enjoyable if you sing your study guide, flashcards, or textbook to Hollaback Girl and Harder to Breath.
Netflix- If there's nothing I can do to prepare for whatever is stressing me out (or if I just don't feel like doing anything) I watch the Vampire Diaries, or Cupcake Wars, or some other badly-acted, D-rated show. I distracts me from my stress.
Future is overrated- Henry Walther
In the REAL future I'm gonna be doing some real hoodrat stuff with my hoodrat friends. Over the summer I'm doing a student congress, a mock trial thing, and I'm going to France. Oui Oui monsier that's right, I'm going big time. I have a French friend named Max who is a fellow hoodrat and we will do hudratt things in France.
Junior year was pretty cool, we got some good new memes like dat boy and I made good grades so yay.
Senior year will be great as long as Trump doesn't win. I also hope that people who are uninformed about politics will keep their mouths shut because they just muffle the voices of people who actually have educated opinions.
I should chill about politics most likely.
But I probably won't
Assignment 24- Meriwether Carling
26 Alec Dupont
Trucktopia Mason Saunders
Relfection - Emily Sandford
I completed junior year (soon) so thats a success right there. On a more serious note I worked on the thing I'm the worst at, public speaking. While really one instance of this was at school, the speech for this class, I taught a class ay 4-H teen retreat, and another at 4-H teen summit, and I gave a speech at the state fair.
Failures
I didn't truly participate in class, yes I actively listened but the amount of times I vocally gave my opinion can be counted on one hand.
Lessons Learned
It's okay to be scared, and it's okay to go at your own pace. This was learned throughout the year by my public speaking.
Mistakes
Not voicing opinions in class. This has lead to many a late sleepless night thinking over what I should've voiced (mainly about the cornbelt).
Summer
This summer I will be going back home to Disney. After that I will be teaching a super seminar at 4-H teen conference, and I will be a Junior counselor at 4-H camp.
What you want senior year
Senior year I want to put more effort into what I due so I can make it the best. Also like every high school student I want to survive senior year and get into a good college, preferably Oberlin University.
How you plan to reach your goal.
I plan to achieve this by throughly organizing my life and efffectively communicating my opinions, and my plans, as well as using my note taking skills to keep track of everything
Assignment #24: Liz Graves
Successes: this is the first year that I have not gotten all A's. Wait, Liz, isn't that a failure? Not necessarily. Having lived through bad test and quiz grades, not being able to finish all my homework because I was just too tired, and being late to calculus a couple times (I'm sorry Mrs.Dewees), I know that the world doesn't end when I'm not perfect. That, my friends, is a very freeing experience, and what I call an unqualified success.
Failures: The number of times I wiped out coming up the stairs during class change. I sincerely apologize to that one person I accidentally tripped when I fell. I know that kind of embarrassment is hard to come back from.
Lessons learned: Never walk to school from Adair if you are trying to break in new shoes. The blisters are unbearable. I have a scar on my heel as a constant reminder.
Risks taken: I ate dolphin for the first time. Why don't more people talk about dolphin??? It is AMAZING!!! I can never watch Flipper again, though.
Mistakes made: Thinking AP Calculus AB was going to be easy. Enough said.
What I will do over the summer: Catch up on sleep, hopefully go to the beach, college visits, come to terms with the fact that I'm going to be a senior in high school.
What I want for my Senior year: At some point do something absolutely insane that will result in a great story to tell in college.
How I plan to reach the above goal: I feel like great stories only happen by accident, so I can't really plan it out.
Assignment #26 - Daniel Kolpek
Assignment #24 - Daniel Kolpek
assignment 25 Will Shapiro
I tend to adopt the policy that I'm gonna get what I'm gonna get. I know that no matter how much I study I'm not going to get the 120% i need on the Spanish final to get an A, but it will be similarly impossible for me to drop below the solid B I have now unless I straight up had a stroke in the middle of the test. This trend continues itself in my other classes as well. My English final, while I will try to make it good, wont drop me down below an A because even if I do terribly and it does drop me, I know I did well enough on the AP test for a grade bump that will bring me back to A range. Basically all my other finals are like this. My grades are not really going to move anywhere if I keep performing at the level I have been performing in those classes, so I don't really stress all that much about them. Maybe that's a bad thing and I should be more worried, but in reality I am just looking forward to Super Smash Bros making a comeback in Mr. Cain's class this coming week.
Assinment 24- Will Shapiro
Assignment 25 Tommy Gardner
Assignment 24 Tommy Gardner
Also, apparently spellcheck doesn't like the word pranking.
Now you know - Emily Sandford
The practice tests, as someone who regularly misses school due to sickness or other things, I only took one practice test during second semester. If we had taken more practice multiple choice I would've felt even more prepared. These multiple choice don't have to be full tests, but could be single passage warm ups once a week, or once every two weeks.
The essays. I'm not good when dealing with large groups, and I hate it when people critique my work. So the essays this year have been a personal form of torture. The satire essay wasn't torture because we were in small groups (but then again satire). Also, the essays werw helpful, but once we got to the AP test I couldn't remeber exactly what I was supposed to do for the analysis essay. Maybe if you mixed up the essays just a little bit more it would make the AP test even easier.
Final projects. I think the projects in your class are really good ideas to get us to think about issues around us, I didn't like hiw we were given them. You wiuld hint at a project through the year but without paper work it just seemed like an empty statement, but then when we did finally get the paper work there was a week to complete it. If you could've explained these throughout the year, I bet the kids next year will greatly appreciate it.
With all that being said, you are a great teacher. And I always looked forward to your class (except essay days). I hope you have a great year.
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Because You're Worth It Hye Jee Kim
First, the things that I thought were the most effective:
- The book on how to become a better writer: This book (its title seems to have fallen out of my brain) blew my mind. It transformed what I viewed as good writing. And although it was incredibly dull to spend a month reading it in class, it helped me immensely.
- Whole class essay grading: I know that we experimented with different, more time-efficient ways of grading essays, but getting feedback from you and the entire class was the most beneficial for me. More range of opinions.
- Socratic Seminars: These didn't necessarily prepare me for the AP test specifically, but I they helped me with my analytical reading skills.
- Speech: It was good practice in formulating a well thought out opinion.
- Practicing AP MC ?'s regularly: This helped me to familiarize myself with the format of the test.
- Switching around styles of grading essays throughout the year: This seemed inconsistent, and I felt as though some of my essays didn't get as thorough feedback.
- What we're doing right now: Maybe it's because I basically had this class in 8th grade, but the whole learning how to correctly manage money isn't the most helpful thing that I feel like I could be learning right now. Maybe we could be reading funny satire pieces on the Onion and debating them or something more related to English. I appreciate that you're trying to help us for the future, but what you're showing us seems to be kind of "there is only one way to correctly live your life and here it is". To be fair, though, I've only been to class like 2 days after the AP test so maybe I missed the other parts that gave it more variety of perspective..
- The days we spent just going over MC: Nobody needs the whole 60 minutes in which we just read out the question and recite the answer. Also, that one chart thing that we did for the multiple choice seemed more like busywork than anything. It didn't really give me a whole lot of new understanding of the material.
Now I'm Stresses Out - Emily Sandford
1. Homework
2. School in general
3. Driving
4. Making phone calls
5. Offending people
6. Being put on the spot
7. Talking to strangers my age or older
8. Ordering food
9. Presenting
10. Heights
Here is a list of ways I deal with stress
1. Cry
2. Cry
3. Sleep
4. Cry
5. Cry
6. Cry some more
7. Get frustrated
8. Eat
9. Cry one last time
10. Actually accomplish the task
So as you can see I get stressed out very easily with no way of properly releaving my stress. While the list of ways to releave stress is somewhat of a joke five out of the ten things are ways I do to releave stress. And despite this, it is still glaringly obvious that I need help getting rid of my stress, and a way could be avoiding stressful situations more than I already do.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
ap testing is hard shocker - Cas Young
Second, although I smashed it, I feel like I could have smashed it harder if...
1. We did more multiple choice.
So honestly, I know we already did a lot, and I definitely improved, but I feel like I wanted to do more at the end of the year. Doing like two at the beginning is fine but I still wish I could have improved my score more.
2. We did essays in a different order.
I am glad that we spent so much time on analysis, that's what challenged me most on the actual test, but I wish that maybe we alternated essays. Did analysis, synthesis, argument and then repeat the cycle, especially in second semester. And I think our last few essays should have been raw, no editing, 40 minute time limit because I think that would have helped gauge me for test scoring better.
And I also wish you'd given us the rubric for the final project sooner or at least gave us more than two weekends, essentially, to work on it. Because I like making videos but wish I had more time for planning, casting (if necessary), and figuring out a date and such.
So yeah, this year was still killer nonetheless and I've gotten infinitely more confident in my academic essay writing skills considering I've written about twenty or so and most of which had been in just an hour.
I'm too relaxed - Cas Young
I am Cas - Cas Young
This year, I made executive decisions to go places I wanted to go and to do things I wanted to do i.e. go to McDonalds after school for a shamrock shake, watch Game of Thrones after school on a Monday, go for Beta Club Officer, watch a movie after an AP test. I figured out where I wanted to go to school and decided what I want to do with my life. It feels like I finally know where I'm going.
However, this year I made some mistakes, I put off telling people things I should have told them sooner, I put off work until the morning, sometimes I got a little too confident in my abilities and rested on my laurels more than I should have, but I'm working on pushing past that for sure.
Next year, I hope to achieve even more than I did this year. I want to push myself past what I'm comfortable doing, I want to ask more questions in class, I want to prepare more for speech and lead more in clubs I'm involved in.
I also want to get the confidence to criticize people that are close to me. Recently, I've been dealing with some people who are making decisions detrimental to their health and inflationary to their ego and I want to be able to say "You don't have to prove yourself to others, you're not above me, and you really need to find self-restraint." in a nice, constructive way. That's my personal goal. It's easy to critique someone's essay in class, but it's hard to tell a close friend that their lifestyle isn't good for them.
Well that got a little personal, but what the hell. It's fine. Feelings and emotions are good. whoohoo.