Hey there biologists!! That's something Mr. Orre says all the time in his vodcasts so better get used to it now! My name is Natalie Tarbox and I will be a sophomore when you are a freshman at Saratoga High. I took a bunch of the regular classes, along with my two electives, Spanish and Ceramics. I play three sports; field hockey, basketball, and softball, which I recommend you play lots of sports because it's a ton of fun. I went to Redwood, and if you went there you are probably just ecstatic you aren't there anymore. So for me personally, I was hyped to get out and go to SHS. Here in high school, you are actually treated like adults, the teachers trust you, and you have so much more freedom. I had no idea what to expect on my fist day of biology, but then again you never do. I know grades are becoming really important now, but I assure you that you can get a good grade in this class by studying a decent amount and just completing assignments on time and well.
The biggest thing you need to understand about this class is the teaching style. I know you will learn about how this class works and all, but you learn the material at home by watching recorded lectures (vodcasts) and taking notes on them. One of my peers, Sejal Sripadanna, made a great and hilarious mashup of some vodcasts that I would highly recommend you check out Here. They usually are 12-18 minute videos, and take about 25 minutes to complete the notes. This means when you don't understand something, you should write down your questions and ask him at tutorial. Another thing, tutorial and block schedule has saved my life and you absolutely need to take advantage of it. I know your teachers will say that, but listen to me when I say it's so helpful, especially with so many other extracurricular activities. Anyways, the first thing you do when you come to class is check the board and write down homework, and the Do Now. The Do Now is basically a way to summarize the vodcast you watched the previous night. Because you learn all the material at home, a typical class day is reviewing the vodcasts and doing activities to go along with what you learned. Among these activities are labs, which are way cooler than the middle school ones. This year you get to bleach jeans, simulate the hunger games, extract dyes from candies, and even dissect a pig. Besides labs, we also take tests which are simple enough that you can study for maybe an hour overall for and do well on them. I actually am taking my final for this class next week, and I'm not stressed. People say finals are terrifying but they really aren't. You will be fine as long as you review everything from your notebook. Your notebook is where literally everything you will need all year will be. You take notes on the vodcast there, as well as lab notes, Do Nows, and many other entries. In addition to your notebook, you create a biology blog that you post reflections and lab conclusions, among other things. My favorite blog post is Here. This post is about a project on memes I did. Basically, the way I was able to do a meme project was something you will do the second semester. You choose any topic and do a project or study on it for the rest of the year. I love this blog post because it's just hilarious and I loved working on memes during school.
Mr. Orre loves memes too; he puts them on tests and all around the room. Along with things he likes, he also doesn't like a few things. He really dislikes rookies, so even though the rookie module seems a little unnecessary, just pay attention and do things correctly. He also really doesn't like dishonesty or disrespect. Listen when he talks to you, don't plagiarize, and just be an honorable student in general. You get good grades in this class by being a good, hard- working student; plain and simple. Homework is actually important in this class because you do so many vodcasts, and those are all of your lectures. Complete them on time and fully filled out and you will get full credit. This year I didn't keep a good record of all the key concepts from each unit for my final exam, but you really should do that because when your final comes around, having a place where you have built up a study guide for the whole semester comes in handy. Instead, I had to go back through every vodcast and pick out the important elements, which took me forever. Also, I didn't do this but a peer of mine did and it's really important you don't do this. Do not plagiarize ever. Seriously, the teachers here have zero tolerance and will send you straight to the principal's office, give you a zero on your assignment, and you will have plagiarism on your permanent record that colleges see.
And on that happy note, let's move on to the overall summarization of the class. I enjoyed this class because the lectures are at home and recorded. You can pause him whenever to take notes, plus I would always eat my after school snack while doing biology just because I could. I liked the interactive labs and the fact that Mr. Orre is very knowledgeable and clearly enjoys teaching. Sophomore year I am taking Chemistry rather than Chemistry Honors in part because my schedule is packed, but also because although I liked this class, I know I am not destined for a career in science. Which leads me to my next point; don't view your classmates who take different classes than you smarter or dumber. You're in high school now and need to be more mature. Learn to understand that everyone learns differently and some people may take Earth Science over Biology just because they like the subject more. My final point is to take the classes you want to take, not all the hardest ones that you think will get you into college. If you want to take the honors and AP classes, you should absolutely go for it, but only if you want to (you means you, not your parents or what your peers say). In the end, GPA is just a number and extracirricular activities are just as important, just like having a good time in high school. Whenever I say that, I know it sounds cheesy and false, so I have one last story to tell you to prove my point. Just this year, a senior with a 4.9 GPA and no extracurriculars applied to Princeton and was rejected, while a student with a 4.3 GPA who did countless extracurricular activities was accepted. My point is, GPA is just as important as getting the full high school experience.
-Natalie Tarbox
The biggest thing you need to understand about this class is the teaching style. I know you will learn about how this class works and all, but you learn the material at home by watching recorded lectures (vodcasts) and taking notes on them. One of my peers, Sejal Sripadanna, made a great and hilarious mashup of some vodcasts that I would highly recommend you check out Here. They usually are 12-18 minute videos, and take about 25 minutes to complete the notes. This means when you don't understand something, you should write down your questions and ask him at tutorial. Another thing, tutorial and block schedule has saved my life and you absolutely need to take advantage of it. I know your teachers will say that, but listen to me when I say it's so helpful, especially with so many other extracurricular activities. Anyways, the first thing you do when you come to class is check the board and write down homework, and the Do Now. The Do Now is basically a way to summarize the vodcast you watched the previous night. Because you learn all the material at home, a typical class day is reviewing the vodcasts and doing activities to go along with what you learned. Among these activities are labs, which are way cooler than the middle school ones. This year you get to bleach jeans, simulate the hunger games, extract dyes from candies, and even dissect a pig. Besides labs, we also take tests which are simple enough that you can study for maybe an hour overall for and do well on them. I actually am taking my final for this class next week, and I'm not stressed. People say finals are terrifying but they really aren't. You will be fine as long as you review everything from your notebook. Your notebook is where literally everything you will need all year will be. You take notes on the vodcast there, as well as lab notes, Do Nows, and many other entries. In addition to your notebook, you create a biology blog that you post reflections and lab conclusions, among other things. My favorite blog post is Here. This post is about a project on memes I did. Basically, the way I was able to do a meme project was something you will do the second semester. You choose any topic and do a project or study on it for the rest of the year. I love this blog post because it's just hilarious and I loved working on memes during school.
Mr. Orre loves memes too; he puts them on tests and all around the room. Along with things he likes, he also doesn't like a few things. He really dislikes rookies, so even though the rookie module seems a little unnecessary, just pay attention and do things correctly. He also really doesn't like dishonesty or disrespect. Listen when he talks to you, don't plagiarize, and just be an honorable student in general. You get good grades in this class by being a good, hard- working student; plain and simple. Homework is actually important in this class because you do so many vodcasts, and those are all of your lectures. Complete them on time and fully filled out and you will get full credit. This year I didn't keep a good record of all the key concepts from each unit for my final exam, but you really should do that because when your final comes around, having a place where you have built up a study guide for the whole semester comes in handy. Instead, I had to go back through every vodcast and pick out the important elements, which took me forever. Also, I didn't do this but a peer of mine did and it's really important you don't do this. Do not plagiarize ever. Seriously, the teachers here have zero tolerance and will send you straight to the principal's office, give you a zero on your assignment, and you will have plagiarism on your permanent record that colleges see.
And on that happy note, let's move on to the overall summarization of the class. I enjoyed this class because the lectures are at home and recorded. You can pause him whenever to take notes, plus I would always eat my after school snack while doing biology just because I could. I liked the interactive labs and the fact that Mr. Orre is very knowledgeable and clearly enjoys teaching. Sophomore year I am taking Chemistry rather than Chemistry Honors in part because my schedule is packed, but also because although I liked this class, I know I am not destined for a career in science. Which leads me to my next point; don't view your classmates who take different classes than you smarter or dumber. You're in high school now and need to be more mature. Learn to understand that everyone learns differently and some people may take Earth Science over Biology just because they like the subject more. My final point is to take the classes you want to take, not all the hardest ones that you think will get you into college. If you want to take the honors and AP classes, you should absolutely go for it, but only if you want to (you means you, not your parents or what your peers say). In the end, GPA is just a number and extracirricular activities are just as important, just like having a good time in high school. Whenever I say that, I know it sounds cheesy and false, so I have one last story to tell you to prove my point. Just this year, a senior with a 4.9 GPA and no extracurriculars applied to Princeton and was rejected, while a student with a 4.3 GPA who did countless extracurricular activities was accepted. My point is, GPA is just as important as getting the full high school experience.
-Natalie Tarbox
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