Letter to Incoming Biology Student

Dear incoming biology student,

First off welcome to Saratoga High! I am Jeffrey Xu; at the time that you'll be reading this, I'll be a sophomore on my first day of school. As a freshman, I have taken English 9, Trig-Precalculus H, Journalism, and obviously, Mr. Orre's biology class. Aside from academics, I play the piano, play badminton in Saratoga's varsity team, and eat lots of food.

Honestly, on my first day of school, I wasn't worried too much about classroom procedure, but rather, that I wouldn't end up with a lot of friends in my classes. You're probably in a similar situation. I wouldn't worry about it too much, think of not ending up in the same class as your friends an opportunity to make new ones.

Mr. Orre is a strict teacher. For late work, most of the time, he just gives a zero, unless it is a vodcast. Vodcasts are nightly homework assigned for your learning purposes, so there's no reason to discourage turning it in after it's late, so Mr. Orre gives full credit for late vodcasts. I suppose if your after school life is very packed, you can do the vodcasts at a later date, but make sure you do them before the end of the unit!

In my opinion, the tests are the hardest category in biology, and I really wouldn't worry too much if you don't meet your expectations on them. Instead, try to make sure you do well on labs and let labs and projects carry your grade. You will have a biology notebook in this class, but it is almost more like a textbook. You must be highly organized, with a table of contents, and there will be notebook checks before every test to make sure that you have kept yourself organized.

One of Mr. Orre's biggest pet peeves is people not following easy directions and making what he calls "rookie mistakes." Make sure you always turn papers into the correct turn in box, and not the handout station. Also, he is big on cleaning up after labs. If you don't clean up well, you will have to stay in for precious tutorial time. Finally, always make sure to do your Check For Understanding quiz (CFU) online after you watch your vodcast, as Mr. Orre will sometimes turn these in for a real grade. I speak from experience so don't make the same mistakes that I did!

Overall, I actually really enjoyed this class and learned a lot. In my studying for the SAT II Biology subject test I was taking, I found that this class actually helped quite a bit. I like the fact that it relies on the student to be more responsible for their own learning, taking good notes instead of just being fed information by a teacher. Next year, I am taking Chemistry Honors, as recommended by Mr. Orre. So yeah, on top of what I already said, take advantage of this flipped classroom, keep yourself organized, and get the points on labs and projects that you should be getting.

Oh right, here's my biology blog. I'm actually pretty proud of it: http://jeffyx.blogspot.com/

Good luck,
Jeffrey Xu