Monday, March 30, 2020

Week at a Glance 3/30-4/3

Hi all,

Wanted to give you an overview of what to expect and what to focus on during the upcoming week:

Complete Khan Academy Unit 1 "Foundation of Democracy" Assignments by Friday (4/3) - Excellent job to those of you who have already finished!! These videos/assignments are preparing you for the Unit 1 Test
Take the Unit 1 Test on College Board My AP Classroom (Links to an external site.) - For those of you who finish the Khan Academy early, I'll open the testing window on April 1st and it will close on April 5th at 11:59pm. The test is comprised of MC and FRQ questions. You need to take the test seriously but it is a practice test. It will take you a while (I believe it will allow you to take the test in multiple sittings). Incorrect responses will give you explanations that you can learn from (take notes!!). Seriously...this is going to help you assess where you're at at being prepared for the AP test. How you do will give you feedback on what topics you'll need to focus on during last minute review.

When taking the test you are forced to use a Lockdown Browser by the college board. Be sure to install it on your device before starting. Here is a How to Guide (Links to an external site.) if you're having trouble.

On Friday, the College Board is releasing the rest of the details about the revised AP tests. This will include information about how and when you'll take the test as well as additional resources that they will provide to help all students get better prepared. After I have a chance to review their update, I'll schedule a class Zoom meeting for next week and we'll chat through it all so we're all on the same page.

As usual, send me an email if you have any questions

P.S. On a side note, next week will be very similar...finish Khan Academy Unit 2 and take Unit 2 Test.

Thursday, March 26, 2020

"Mastery Goal" and Upcoming Unit Tests

Good afternoon!

Wanted to send you all a quick update that I've set a "Mastery Goal" for our AP Govt Khan Academy course. You will need to complete the course by April 17th (at that point, we'll start reviewing Microeconomics to get you ready for that test). I'll also be assigning some practice tests on the College Board site for each Unit that will be on the AP exam...more on that next week.
Here's a goal I would set for yourself for next week:

Get through the Unit 1 "Foundations of American democracy" videos/assignments on Khan Academy...by the end of the week I'll assign the Unit 1 test on the college board.

Expect the following weeks to be similar...get through Khan Academy Unit 2...test on Unit 2 at the end of the week.

As always, I'm here to help, so don't hesitate to send me an email.
Hope you're all doing well...miss getting to see you all in person and have personal interaction (I officially hate online teaching...don't tell anyone).

Sunday, March 22, 2020

The latest...

Wanted to check in and make sure that you all have signed up for our Khan Academy class at https://www.khanacademy.org/join/7J8HKKKZ

As of Friday, our district has asked us teachers to make sure all students "that learning expectations are increasing as the re-opening of school gets pushed off indefinitely."

In addition, teachers have been asked to assign content and "begin to document the level of completion and/or participation of your students."

Your Khan Academy lessons and assignments are what I'll be using as data to send administration. Please be sure to log on and make progress.

I'll be sending more info out as soon as I get it. In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions.

Friday, March 20, 2020

AP Exams Updates AND Khan Academy

Good morning, class!

Hope you all are staying healthy and sane during these crazy times.

I have some great news for a change! The AP College Board has made some decisions about AP testing that are very fair. Just announced today, they are giving students an at home testing option, lessening the course content that will best tested and developing tons of online learning resources to help you review and get ready to take the test.

All the details haven't been worked out yet but you can get a sense of what they're thinking of doing by reading the following two explainers:

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/news-changes/coronavirus-update?SFMC_cid=EM288604-&rid=47742452

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/coronavirus-updates#free-ap-classes

I'm still digesting all that they are indicating but I'll be sure to let you know more over the next week. Best news is that we've already covered 95% of what will be on the revised AP US Gov test and 100% of what will be on the Micro exam.

Again, I'll keep you posted on more info as it comes in and I'll make sure to break down what you can do to get yourself prepared!

If you have any questions, send me an email at anesper@smjuhsd.org

ALSO...I'VE UPDATED THE KHAN ACADEMY COURSE TO NOW ONLY HAVE ASSIGNMENTS ABOUT THE TOPICS THAT WILL BE COVERED ON THE REVISED AP EXAM.

IF YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP YET, USE THIS LINK...https://www.khanacademy.org/join/7J8HKKKZ

Thursday, March 19, 2020

Planet Money Podcast

Planet Money

Interested in learning more about all the crazy economics surrounding the coronavirus crisis...check out the Planet Money Podcast. It is, by far, my favorite way to learn about economics in the news.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Update Email

I Just sent the following email to all of you:

Hi Government and Economic Gangsters!

Wanted to give you an update on where things stand and what you can be doing to keep yourself current with AP Govt.

As you could have guessed, with missing at least three weeks of school, we're not going to be able to cover all topics that will be on the AP Exam in May. That being said, I've put together a guide for what you can be doing to help yourself stay current for whenever we do return. As I'm sure you've already heard, these resources are not required assignments but will be tremendously helpful so that you have an excellent chance to pass the test.

What I'm posting now are the topics we would have covered during these three weeks. If it turns out that we are out of the classroom longer, I'll send additional resources. Here is what I suggest you do:

Sign up for the Kahn Academy Class I've created. You may have to create a username and password. I've selected the lessons/topics that correlate to what we would have been learning in class. Here is the link: https://www.khanacademy.org/join/7J8HKKKZ
Read the following chapters in the book (in the order we would have done them in class): 15, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11. Remember to check your reading guide for the exact pages.
Continue to follow our class website. Me or Mrs. Trump will periodically be posting other helpful resources. In addition, I've included the notes we would have covered in class.

Hope you all are managing well in the midst of all this uncertainty. I know its frustrating to not know what the rest of your senior year will look like. I'm really hopeful that we'll be able to get back together and end the class of 2020 the right way!

Notes for the Next Few Weeks

Notes:

Chhapter 15 Notes - The Federal Bureaucracy
Chapter 4 and 7 Notes - Public Opinion
Chapter 8 Notes - Political Participation
Chapter 10 Notes- Campaigns and Elections
Chapter 9 Notes - Political Parties
Chapter 11 Notes - Special Interest Groups

The notes on their own will be tough to learn from so I HIGHLY SUGGEST gong through the Kahn Academy assignments/videos that I have correlated in our online classroom:

https://www.khanacademy.org/join/7J8HKKKZ

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Extended Break Uncertainties

I've received questions from some of you about what we'll be doing during the extended break. Unfortunately, at this point I have no answers. Teachers are still waiting to hear from our administration about how to proceed when it comes to teaching and assessing students while you are away. As soon as I have some information from them, I'll let you know.

That being said, no matter how long our break is and what administration says, I will not go dark on you. I know you all want to pass the AP exam and get your college credit. We were on a roll and I truly believe each one of you, with enough review, can still pass both the AP Micro and AP Govt exams . I will, at minimum, be posting resources on this site which will help you in your preparation.

Updates will be posted on this site when there is something pertinent to report.