Welcome to José Caballero’s APES class! I’m really excited to be here, and I hope you are too. If you or your parents have any questions, please get in touch with me right away. WARNING! Failure to carefully read this packet WILL endanger your overall class grade, as most of these policies will not be discussed further in class.
KEEP IN TOUCH (really!):
Email: . Best way to reach me.
Web: Our course has a website on EDU2.0 You will need your period’s access code, so note it below: Period#__ Access Code:_____-_____
Phones: My classroom is 805 966.9101 x5065 (during school only… bad place to leave a message) and my cell phone is 805 570.7722 (OK place to leave messages… usually best to text… always bad to call when my kids are sleeping!).
WHAT YOU’LL NEED THIS YEAR:
Don’t let these sneak up on you! The following needs will all affect your grade this year.
- A binder, filing system, or other means to organize paperwork. Bring the current unit’s paperwork to class every day, and keep all older paperwork at home. You will be graded on the completeness of your paper collection at the end of the year, so don’t throw anything out. This is your warning.
- Water, gas, and electricity bills. When we get to the Energy/Water units, you’ll need to analyze your household’s resource consumption as part of your personal lab work. Please ask your parents to hold on to one of each of these (they’ll be due in the winter), and please have them reach me if they can’t.
- Review book. If you plan to take the AP test, I recommend “The Smartypants’ Guide to the APES Exam” (linked on my website). I strongly advise students NOT to use the review books sold in most bookstores.
WHAT I EXPECT FROM YOU:
Only one rule: “Always be responsible for your own learning, and don’t impede anyone else’s learning.” That’s it. I believe that students want a successful learning environment, so I’ll trust you to be a constructive member of our classroom culture, and you can trust me to help. I view my job as nurturing and protecting a learning space for all who are in it.
GRADING:
I use a “weighted category point system”: And fairly common letter grades:
Tests and Quizzes 50% 90-100% A
Homework 30% 80-89% B
Warm-ups, Labs, Projects 20% 70-79% C
60-69% D 59% and below F
HOMEWORK:
We will use modified flipped classroom (a two-stage process) for APES: You’ll do 90% of the total learning on your own, and I’ll use class time to clarify the most challenging 10% of the content. My homework is for you to gather the basic information and prepare the bulk of your notes, and my class time allows us to tackle the more difficult issues and interesting implications. I write all due dates on the board (and usually post them on the class website) so you should always know what to expect. It’s a sweet system if you take it seriously, but doesn’t work very well in half-measures.
LATE WORK:
Because homework is time-sensitive – you do it before class so you’ll have the necessary background to understand that day’s content – I award quarter credit for late work. See the Extra Credit section below to find out why it’s worth doing anyway…
ABSENCES:
If you miss a day in the class, you’ve missed material that I cannot re-teach for you. Neither tests, nor class work, nor homework, will be accepted after unexcused absences. It is your responsibility to recover from your excused absences, but I have a few ways to help: All paperwork distributed during a unit will be in the shelves next to the door, all due dates and planned activities will be posted on the board and website, and all lectures will be uploaded to our YouTube channel (technology permitting). I strongly recommend you make a note-taking pact with someone you find compatible, as I am NOT able to re-teach classes after the fact.
MAKING UP THE WORK (heads up! This policy has sunk many battleships):
If I assigned homework before your absence, then you miss a few days of school, and then come back on or before the due date, I expect you to turn in the work on the due date; if you’re absent on the due date, I expect you to bring it upon your return (either way, there is no due date extension). If work was assigned while you were away, but you return before the work is due, your due date is the same as everyone else’s. Contact me well before the due date if you need to request an extension, but due date is too late.
Class work (labs and movies) is a more challenging matter; please talk to me as early as possible, as advance preparation is usually required for you to recover the content and credit. If you are absent on a test day, you must take the test IMMEDIATELY upon your return (there is absolutely zero grace period on tests!). Obviously, all the policies described above assume your absence is excused; if you ditch, you forgo any points available during that day’s class.
I teach roughly the same content in periods 1-5, so if you are missing only part of the day I suggest you drop into another APES section to stay on track.
CHEATING:
Any use of anyone else’s work is considered cheating in my class. I consider viewing, discussing, sharing, duplicating, purchasing, selling, trading, or having another student’s class work, lab, homework, test, or notes to be cheating. Any cheating will result in whichever consequence is most severe: either a “double zero” in that assignment type or a 20% semester grade drop. This may or may not reflect our school-wide policies, but please know this is my personal policy and it will be enforced!
PAPERWORK:
Keep all your work, all year. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. It’s in writing. More than once.
TESTS:
For every unit you will receive a Study Guide, which serves as your roadmap to navigate the content we discuss. First, you record everything you can scrape from the book (HW); then, in class, we add details and drawings and explanations and other genius. The study guide is not a list of stuff to memorize, but instead, a place to start digging for deeper understanding.
All my tests are miniature mock-ups of the AP test, reflecting the College Board’s test format, timing, grading rules, etc. It is very important that you scrutinize your results, not only because they evaluate your content proficiency, but more importantly, because they evaluate your testing proficiency in a way that prepares you for the AP test in May.
Finally, each semester will have a high-stakes cumulative final, which keeps older content fresh, further helping you to prepare for the AP test. I encourage all my students to build up their test average in anticipation of a stressful finals week, as the final can easily push you up/down to the next letter grade. Please note that I do NOT “round up” (thus, an 89.99% is still a B).
Extra Credit Options and Formatting
Extra credit rewards students who engage the curriculum beyond their regular assignments. It does not offer a cop-out for students who realize they care about their grade at the end of the year. I recommend you invest a bit of spare time to protect against bad luck on future exams.
The rules:
All regular assignments must be completed in a given unit to receive extra credit during that unit, and all extra credit must be submitted with the rest of that unit’s work, on the day of the unit exam.
All extra credit points are applied toward your exam category.
The guidelines described below must be followed to receive credit. Submissions not correctly formatted will be recycled, without a warning or opportunity to resubmit.
There are limits; how many examples of each type can be done per unit, how many points can be awarded total per unit, and how many times you can access the same sources or activities.
Some options, and their formatting:
Fact Checks: Students can find and submit articles, websites, or graphics/maps/charts that correct, contradict, illustrate or exemplify the course content. MUST ADD CONTENT to the course! Extra credit: .5-1 pts/submission, at my discretion; Maximum 2pts/unit.
Data Sets: Students can find and submit graphs, charts, and data tables from research relevant to the current unit. Extra credit: .5-1 pts/submission; Maximum 2pts/unit.
After School Environmental Film Series: I offer after-school films that parallel and compliment the class. You will receive a handout to complete and leave with the student organizer before leaving. This is one of the coolest bonuses of APES, and I highly recommend them. Extra Credit: 1 pt/movie night; Maximum: 3 pts/unit.
Environmental Service Activities: I encourage my students to become involved in community service activities that benefit the environment (habitat restoration, beach/creek clean-ups, monitoring of environmental quality, efforts to benefit/protect wilderness or wildlife, etc.). Activities must: involve individuals outside the APES course; take place in the Santa Barbara area; last at least three hours; be pre-approved by José (most GREEN Club activities are approved); and NOT create money/profits for anyone. You may also want to do these for other reasons (community service hours, hours toward the Student Environmentalist Award, GREEN Club participation requirements, personal fulfillment, etc.).
Students MUST submit a one-page handwritten report of their activity explaining their personal role, the activity’s relevance to the environment, a personal reflection of the activity’s effectiveness, and must be attached to a photograph showing the student and other participants. Make sure each write up is titled with the location and date of the event (THAT’S IMPORTANT!). Extra Credit: 4 pts/activity; Maximum: one activity/month.
There’s more! Throughout the year, I may offer other options. The essence of all options, though, is you do extra learning, then find a way to share that with our community or students. I’m open to extra credit options that stay within those guidelines, so feel free to get creative.
Remember, there is NO WAY to bail out a bad grade at the end of the semester; instead, extra credit helps you hedge your bets against a bad grade down the line, but won’t do you much good once you’ve tanked.
Hey, PARENTS: I need you!
You are needed here and welcome to participate in any way you can. While I welcome all ideas and am happy to work out the details, here are a few options to start with:
- Come visit. I welcome all parents, siblings and families to join us in class any time; the more the merrier. Drop in any time (but remember to check in at the AP’s office).
- Talk to your kids about the content. Given the societal implications of Environmental Science, our content is rarely black and white. Personal values, economic cycles, social justice, the US Constitution… our content rubs against some really interesting and sometimes touchy subjects, and I want all my families to discuss and negotiate and challenge the material offered in class. Please add to our discourse.
- Encourage your student to participate outside of class. Environmental Science is WAY bigger than my class, and students have TONS of options to keep learning: guest lectures, movies, community events, the Student Environmentalist Awards, the GREEN Club, the After School Environmental Film Series, independent studies and personal projects, current events in the news… I offer enrichment for all sorts of students with all sorts of schedules and all sorts of interests, and I hope that you can help nudge your student toward these options.
- Keep your eyes open. If you know something cool in the community, please tell me! I’m always looking for research/business internships, new films/books, community events and community-service projects, granting opportunities, interesting news stories, and more. Help me out!
- Know the plan. Clearly, personal accountability is an important part of your student’s education, and while I don’t recommend you hover over every academic decision, I do offer a website with deadlines, materials, and unit plans to support your student’s learning (and hopefully, ease your family’s planning).
- Supervise an after school film. I run a weekly film series, most Wednesday or Thursday evenings (calendar TBA in the next two weeks), which requires an adult chaperone to be in the room. I will have a sign-up available at Back To School Night, but email also works. Let me know if you want more details.
- Check our wish list on Amazon.com (search for “SBHS Wish List”, select “APES”), and keep looking throughout the year. The wish list lets you sort by priority, choose items that you personally value, and best of all, it’s all set up to ship directly to our room!
- If you can, donate. This is a content-rich course, and funding for enrichment is increasingly and critically limited. My annual budget (to cover five APES sections) is about $4,000 over my available funds. I have to fund the film series, my in-class demos, technology-rich lectures, cool labs, excellent field trips, and more. With your support, I can make a great class even better. Our business office has a convenient method for making a one-time $20 donation directly to my account, in person or web-based, which allows us to plan our curricular year based on our total budget.
- Stay in touch! I can’t do this without you, we have lots to talk about, and your kid needs to know you care about their schoolwork. I love being in touch with parents, I do my best to respond in a timely manner, and I like to network in my community, so I really hope that you’ll keep in touch. I can be reached via email () and cell phone (805 570.7722).