CLASSROOM/BEHAVIOR EXPECTATIONS

  1. Follow all guidelines in your handbook.
  2. Be in your seat when the bell rings.
  3. Come prepared to class. Bring your own pens, pencils, paper and book.
  4. Please don’t talk when I am talking, you will miss important information and directions will not be repeated.
  5. After you have been absent, check the website first before asking what you missed.

ABSENCE FROM CLASS

When you come back from being absent, please give your admit slip to me and check the makeup file with your class period on it to get your makeup work. ( you should already have checked the website blog before returning to class.) If you missed a test or a quiz, you have 4 school days to arrange a plan to makeup the work. It is your responsibility to come to me and arrange a makeup date. Everything not made up will be recorded as zero (“Z”). Your absence must be excused.

NOTEBOOK INFORMATION

Notebooks will be checked at the end of every unit. The major portion of your formative grade is comprised of your notebook check. All the notes, assignments, classwork, and homework for each unit will checked as it is completed and them collected for a formative grade at the conclusion of the unit (usually on the day of the test). This will allow students the opportunity to keep their assignments for study and preparation for summative assessments.

TESTS & QUIZZES

Tests and quizzes will be announced ahead of time. They are posted on the side bulletin board, as well as being on your syllabus. It is your responsibility to be aware of these dates. “I didn’t know about it” is no excuse. Should you be absent the day before a test, you are still expected to take it.

LAB EXPECTATIONS

CHEATING

Cheating of any nature will result in an automatic zero on that assignment. You don’t cheat by degrees or amounts. Cheating is constituted by either being the “giver” or “receiver” of information. There is a difference between working with a partner and copying another students’ work. It is expected that ALL work you complete in this class is a product of your own effort and not your buddies. If I find you cheating, your work and the work of the student you copied will be thrown away and you will both receive zeros.

PROJECTS

You will have projects during the semester. Projects will not be taken after the due date, as stated in your handbook. Any plagiarism will result in a zero for the project. (Plagiarism is passing another’s work off as your own, or copying word for word from a book or the internet.)

RESTROOM

Students may use the restroom as long as you have your handbook. Passes will not be given out at the beginning of class (go before the bell rings) or at the end of class.

REASSESSMENT

Grade Books

  • All grade books will be standards-based.
  • Grade book categories will be representative of units or topics of study.
  • The title of all summative assessments will indicate the standard(s) which it measures.
  • The total weight of all formative assessments shall not exceed 15% of the students’ final grade.

Reassessment

  • All students will be allowed to reassess on any of the standards for the course provided the following conditions are met.
  • The student must attempt the original assessment.
  • The student must complete and turn in the following–
  • All zeros from formative assignments for that particular unit
  • Test analysis/corrections
  • Review sheet/packet
  • The student must schedule the reassessment with the teacher for a time outside of class.
  • The reassessment grade will replace the original assessment grade.
  • All standards may be reassessed.
  • November 30th is the last day to reassess.

Students absent on or prior to the day of an assessment

  • If a student is present on the day of an assessment, then he is required to participate in the assessment regardless of having been absent for any of the instructional days leading up to the assessment.
  • If a student is absent on the day of an assessment, thenthe teacher may require the student to participate in the assessment immediately upon returning to class regardless of any instructional days the student may have missed. Doing this is a benefit to the student as it will prevent him from receiving a zero if he fails to make up the assessment within the allotted time. This also makes the student eligible to reassess on those standards when he is ready.

Units and Percentages

Entered High School fall 2012Entered High Schoolbeforefall 2011

Midterm 5%5%

EOCT20%15%

Units / Entered High School fall 2012
Formative Summative / Entered High School beforefall 2011
Formative Summative
I Nature of Science/Cells / 4% 12% / 4% 13%
II Genetics / 5% 15% / 5% 16%
III Evolution / 2% 11% / 2% 12%
IV Ecology / 2% 11% / 2% 12%
V Organisms / 2% 11% / 2% 12%

Quick guide to biology topics, standards, and tentative test dates:

Test Schedule

Biology Class

Nature of Science: Scientific Method, Characteristics of Living Things

Quiz 1/14

Biochemistry

Quiz 1/18

Microscope, Cells, Transport

Test 1/31

Photosynthesis/Respiration

2/7

Genetics Part I DNA, RNA, Protein Synthesis, DNA Technology

2/22

Genetics Part II Cell Cycle, Meiosis, Disorders

Test 3/12

Evolution/Classification

3/27

Ecology

4/18

Organisms

TBA

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