AVID 12A
Ms. Price
Teacher Email: mollie.price@rentonschools.us
Syllabus and Trimester 1 and 2 overview
AVID 12th Grade
This is the part where YOU take on the gift/burden/gift of your own academic success.
The purpose of this class is to give you access to resources for you to get yourself into college or another credential-baring postsecondary opportunity of your choice.
The purpose of this class is to give you access to resources for you to get yourself $$$ for college or another credential-baring postsecondary opportunity of your choice.
The purpose of this class is to get you prepared for the intellectually rigorous and emotionally challenging - yet joyous! - journey you are about to embark on.
I not only want you to get into college (which you can), and go to college (which you can), but I want you to take ownership over developing the skills and mindsets needed for you to maximize your time as seniors this year and be wildly successful in college or your other postsecondary credential-baring path. Over the course of the next two Trimesters, if you let me, I can help you develop the cognitive stamina and cultivated curiosity necessary to hit the ground running once you graduate from Hazen.
Each of you have done incredible things over the last three years. You’ve made friends. You’ve gotten through difficult classes. You’ve found things that inspire you. You’ve weathered all kinds of challenges across many aspects of your life. You have proven that you have the fortitude to overcome obstacles. Now you get to decide how you want to tap into that for the benefit of your future self and community.
Some, ahem, real talk: If you’ve spent the last three years dodging classes, blaming others for your own lack of curiosity (sometimes referred to by miscreants as “boredom”), and/or thinking it’s someone else’s job to get you engaged in school then, I’m not going to lie, the hill you’re climbing this year is going to be steeper than it could have been. The reality is, the choices you made as a 9th, 10th, and 11th grader that negatively impacted your GPA or your reputation as a scholar or community member won’t magically disappear over night. HOWEVER. The choices you made previously are NOT determinants. Your previous choices will influence this year, but NOT determine this year. Taking ownership over your own learning is hard. Taking ownership over your own choices is even harder. But you can do hard things.
Syllabus Highlights:
- This class is opt-IN.
- More-so than other classes, what you put into this class is what you get out of this class.
- Citizenship is worth 20% of your overall grade.
- Phone violation (notice there is no s) or misusing your chromebook, airpods, etc. will result in the complete loss of your citizenship points. I won’t give warnings other than this one.
- If this happens, the only way to earn BACK your citizenship points is by attending class for 15 straight days with ZERO acts of electronic malfeasance (Phone, computer…anything more advanced than a sundial).
- You will not be allowed to submit or make up work for unexcused absences.
- Late work will be accepted, but at a reduced rate (see below)
- Every class will begin with a 5-minute writing activity. You will write for 5 straight minutes.
- If you are tardy (this includes the consequences of, “Ms. Price, can I use the bathroom before class?”) you will not be allowed to make-up your entry task.
Course Overview:
Trimester 1:
- College Applications: You will complete at least two. Ems, etc - you are not allowed to only apply to BC.
- College scholarships: You will apply for at least one.
- Letters of Recommendation: You will put time into making REALLY GOOD impressions to secure letters of recommendation. Teachers will say “yes” to an inquiry, even if it’s from a less-than-stellar student, and their letter of recommendation will convey that. Don’t let that happen to you.
- FAFSA or WAFSA: Yup. That, too.
- College Interviews: You may not all apply to schools that have an interview option, but many of you will, and ALL of you will learn how to do it successfully.
- GPA: All A’s and B’s this Tri. Unless you currently have a 3.2 or above. Then all A’s.
- Personal essay: ZERO grammatical errors. Could ONLY be written by YOU. No hackneyed topics - disabuse yourself of any notion of writing about that overseas trip, overcoming adversity in sports, how teachers/parents/coaches just don’t understand, or how hard online school was.
- Purpose and community leadership: You’ve met me before. You knew that was coming:)
Trimester 2:
- Complete and submit college applications
- Complete and submit college scholarships
- Complete your community service hours by doing something meaningful that speaks to who you are as a person. Cleaning the Opportunity Center or organizing a teacher’s desk doesn’t count.
- College preparation. Includes, but is not limited to:
- How to successfully research and write college-level papers. You need to know how to do this by day seven of college. I will teach you.
- How to successfully study for a large, complex, survey course exam. You need to know how to do this on day one of college. Mrs. Mason and I will teach you.
- How to impress your professors in your first Seminar class in college.
- Strategies for maximizing your social and cultural capital opportunities in college. This sounds transactional and honestly, it is. But it’s also one of the most fiscally important reasons to attend and be successful in college or an apprenticeship program, etc.. I will teach you.
- Things to avoid and how to mitigate against the forces that may lead you to drop out before you’ve even begun.
- A’s and B’s and making a good impression on your teachers this year (continued from Tri 1).
Late work policy:
Late work will be docked 10% per day late, up to 50%. You may turn late work in (as long as you were not absent for an unexcused reason) through the end of a Unit.
Late work submitted within the Unit will be accepted except if you were absent and it was unexcused or if you did not turn in something for a group project that screws over your group. Don’t do that! That’s just rude!
If you miss an in-class Debate or Socratic, you will not be able to make it up, but you will have the option of completing a make-up assignment IF your absence was excused.
PLEASE NOTE: If you don't turn in work, I will mark it as a "0". After you turn in late work, that "0" is probably going to remain in place for longer than you would like. This is because I need to prioritize moving on to grading more current projects, rather than prioritizing an assignment you've turned in weeks or months after the due date.
Grading:
20% Citizenship as measured by appropriate use of technology (see previous pages)
30% Assignments, including Entry and Exit tasks
50% Assessments
School Information
If you are experiencing stress, anxiety, or thoughts of self-harm call Teen Link at 866-TEENLINK (866-833-6546) and ask to talk to a peer. The phone line is open 6 p.m.– 10 p.m. and chat is available 6 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. daily. https://www.teenlink.org/
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