WELCOME TO MY CLASS PAGE EVERYONE

Chemistry is the study of what everything is made of and how things change when they interact with one another. Although physical sciences such as chemistry and physics are often perceived by many people to be challenging subjects, it is essential that students enroll in these subjects because they help improve students' critical thinking abilities and help bridge the gap between life outside the classroom and the classroom curriculum.

AP Chemistry: Course and Exam Description 

Regents Chemistry: Learning Standards

In my class, I follow a pragmatic and a flipped instructional approach in which students learn while engaging in multiple activities.

In this page you will find information about the following:

1- Information about the way I structure my classroom to promote Autonomy, Expand Learning, Develop Social Skills, Provide Feedback, Address Misconceptions, and Provide Hands-on Learning Opportunities.

2- Information about how students are graded. If you are interested in this section, please scroll all the way down to the accountability section.

3- Information about how to check classroom announcements and view students' grades

Autonomy

Prior to every lesson, students watch and write a one-page summary of an instructional video taught by me (the teacher). The purpose of exposing students to the lesson before class is to allow them enough time to process the information at their own pace and to give them some background information that they can use during classroom discussions.

Expand Learning and Make Connections

At the beginning of each lesson, students engage in a brief discussion with their teacher to share what they learned from the instructional videos, and discuss possible solutions to problems. Throughout the lesson, the teacher expands on students' knowledge by making life connections, clarifying misconceptions, demonstrating through the use of guiding questions how to solve problems, and suggesting practice problems for students to solve at home.

Developing Social Skills- a sense of belonging via peer interactions / using evidence to support HW answers

The teacher asks students to work in groups to justify their answers to the problems they solved at home to their peers. During group discussions, all students are expected to interact with one another by asking/reading questions or by using their notebooks as a reference to engage in academic arguments to support or oppose each other’s claims. Students in one group may interact with students from another group. During this entire session of peer interaction, the teacher serves as a secondary resource for all student to provide them with additional feedback or clarify complex concepts as needed. 

Feedback

When students work in groups, they use the classroom's red books to select and answer questions that align with the instructional videos. Each group is composed of two carefully selected, high-achieving students who serve as mentor and vice-mentor to other students in the group. The job of the mentor is to direct a group member's thinking by asking guiding questions to help the mentees make connections and reach conclusions. Mentors do not give away answers. Students may use the yellow books (green books for AP students) to check their answers in bulk and identify their mistakes/ seek alternative explanations to help them comprehend the material. Prior to the end of the period, the teacher instructs students to complete problems online via the castle learning/probem-attic websites, which provides students with hints and explanations to problems, or via the College Board website (for AP students).

Ps. Mentors are awarded bonus points if the average assessment scores of their mentees improve.

Street Data- addressing general misconceptions

The teacher uses the projector in the room to display a cumulative report of students' performance on each question and addresses misconceptions. Both castle learning/problem-attic or College Board websites provide detailed item analyses that display the percentage of students who answered each question correctly. If the percentage is low, the teacher will address the problem with the class as a whole. At the end of this session, the teacher may allow students to practice more problems from the classroom's redbooks. Prior to the end of the period, the teacher announces a quiz date and an exam date.

Interactive Demonstrations/ Hands-on Investigations

Students engage in laboratory activities/ investigations. During lab time, students make observations, create a hypothesis using information they learned in class, collect and analyze data, and finally make conclusions/ answer lab questions. AP chemistry students are expected to work in groups to write professional lab reports using the provided laboratory rubric. At some point throughout the lesson, a lab quiz may be assigned to provide the teacher of an accurate assessment of students' understanding of the laboratory procedures.

Accountability / How Students are Graded 

After students watch the online videos and engage in classroom discussions, they are asked to solve problems at home and/or complete labs. Students are not penalized for answering questions incorrectly on homework or lab assignments. Instead, they are rewarded for their effort the following day. A 100% score for a homework or lab assignment does not necessarily mean that a student answered all the questions correctly, instead, it means that a student attempted to answer the questions. There are many discussion sessions that take place after these assignments to address students' misconceptions and give them the opportunities to ask questions prior to administering a Homework Quiz. The purpose of these assignments is to allow the students to engage in the process of learning and not penalize them for trying to learn.

Only a 100% score on an assignment titled "QUIZ" indicates that a student understands how to answer the homework questions which were discussed in class for several days prior to the quiz. Quizzes serve as homework/ laboratory check points to provide an accurate assessment of students' understanding. Quizzes only measure students' understanding of a limited amount of information and count towards the students' homework grades.

Exams are generally cumulative and are scheduled after enough time has been granted for students to reflect on the quizzes. All students are expected to create flashcards which contain questions on one side and answers on the other side prior to every assessment. Students do not need to purchase flashcards, they can use online websites such as www.Quizlet.com to create them. Students will use these flashcards to evaluate themselves and evaluate each other. 

Quarterly Grade Calculation: 

25% of the grade is based on students' performance on homework-related assignments.

25% is based on their performance on lab-related activities.

50% is based on their exam performance.

End of Year Course Grade Calculation:

(Q1 grade x .225) + (Q2 grade x .225) + (Q3 grade x .225) + (Q4 grade x .225) + (Final Exam Grade x .10) 

Extra Credit Opportunities 

After every test, students are expected to perform test corrections by following the guidelines provided by the teacher. Students who complete the test corrections will earn a 5% bonus that may be added to their test score. 

There is one extra credit project that is worth 100 exam points; details about this project are often announced to students during the second quarter. The teacher may also suggest a second extra credit project during the fourth quarter.

My office hours are after school on Thursdays. All students are welcome to come into my class with a pass during any period to practice problems.

Announcements About Upcoming Events

All exams and quizzes are often announced via Microsoft Teams.

All students' grades are uploaded on PowerSchool and are viewable to both parents and students in real time.

Information about how to join the Parents Updates Group is presented during open house.

Information for parents to view students grades can be accessed via the following link: https://www.yonkerspublicschools.org/cms/lib/NY01814060/Centricity/Domain/4776/PowerSchool-Parent-Portal-User-Guide-V2.pdf