Tim Grassel
1/5/2015 12:51:36 am
1. This course though challenging is amazing. The information I have learned, the knowledge I have gained, is truly leaving me in awe. If you are even merely have a interest in science this course will be a great step in a future of science. With this course comes great responsibility, so be prepared to put in the work.
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Neil Pepin
1/5/2015 12:58:28 am
For my fall semester of Virtual High School, I took the course Geometry. Geometry is a great course for students who enjoy math and are strong with relationships and shapes. This course is very difficult for anyone who does not manage time well. With an average of around 10 assignments per week, you need to manage your time perfectly so you are not stuck waiting without a clue of what you are doing for the teacher to answer your question at 9:00 pm on Tuesday. If you do not ask questions when you do not get something, you will get a horrible grade because the grading system for Geometry can be very unforgiving at times. The curriculum is also challenging for anyone who is great at one specific section of math, like tables or graphs. Geometry pulls from everything that you ever learned about math, and in the case of the students taking the course this year, things that you have not learned yet but you are expected to know. This can sound confusing- basically, eighth graders take Geometry and Algebra 1 simultaneously, instead of having already finished Algebra 1 when taking Geometry in ninth grade. At the beginning of Geometry, the things that you are learning in Algebra 1 do not relate to what you are learning in VHS. However, I found that near November the two courses begin to intertwine. I would only recommend this course to hopeful people who can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and keep on working, no matter how rigorous the assignment. It all pays off in the end. The most interesting thing that I learned in this course was Basic Trigonometry. Basic Trigonometry is where you dive deeper into what the functions SIN, COS, and TAN really mean and how you use them. SIN, COS, and TAN really stand for Sine, Cosine, and Tangent, in their respective order. These three words are the three basic relationships involved in Trigonometry. They are used to find out the measures of different angles and sides in a triangle when you only have 2/3 items. For instance, you could have to find the measure of one angle, and you had the measure of the side opposite from it and the hypotenuse of the triangle. Because you have the opposite and the hypotenuse, you can use the Sine relationship. The sine relationship is opposite/hypotenuse=sine of angle. An easy way to remember what the three relationships are is SOHCAHTOA. SOH=Sine, CAH=Cosine, and TOA=Tangent. The last two letters in each fragment of SOHCAHTOA represent the different sides that are involved in the relationship. Trigonometry is important in real life because it is constantly used in astronomy to find different lengths between planets. It is also used in music, electricity, and more. Trigonometry is a great way to incorporate math into real life and figure out when it would apply to you. For my presentation, yours truly will be teaching you about Basic Trigonometry. I chose this topic to present to you because it is a quick concept to understand, but can be extremely complex if you go deeper. It is also an important concept to know in real life, as I already stated. When I teach this to you, I want you to walk out knowing that there is actually a real purpose to some aspects of math. I feel that it is completely appropriate for my audience because it is one of the few sections of Geometry that someone can understand easily. Overall, Geometry is an extremely difficult course, but hard work does pay off, no matter the challenge.
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Yiru Li
1/6/2015 11:26:38 pm
I took Geometry and Chemistry Honors for the fall semester. Geometry was filled with assignments, sometimes reaching 10 assignments per week, so time management is very important. It also requires solid knowledge of mathematical basics such as algebra. It could be rather hard considering it introduces trigonometry. Only people who are interested in math and is willing to devote time should take this course. Chemistry also involves some algebraic equations, but it is mostly based on online research. There are also some kitchen chemistry labs which gives a break from staring at the computer screen, but labs usually need to be done before Monday and you need to share/analyze results. People who are good at finding and analyzing data should find this course interesting.
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Bethany Reeve
1/8/2015 12:46:34 am
This fall, I completed the first half of a Geometry course on VHS.
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Isabella Hanley
1/8/2015 06:02:47 am
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Sarah Fellingham
1/8/2015 11:02:34 am
This semester I took the course MS Number Theory. I thought it was an okay course, not one of my favorites, but I did learn many interesting things from it. I thought at some points, like when we solved codes and cryptograms, it was fun. Other points when we just read articles about codes were more boring. It made me just want to solve them when I was reading about them! Other times we would do things that really didn’t make much sense like fractals. Sometimes, not enough information was provided on the lesson and it became unclear. I think this course would interest someone who loves to use their mind and crack codes, along with patience. Sometimes the cryptograms and codes were difficult and required patience to solve, especially with ones using addictive ciphers. To be honest, I think the course was pretty tough. I think it required a lot of time and definitely knowledge! The lessons were short, but took a while. You would to know a lot of specific stuff that wasn’t always explained in the lesson and was most of the time, difficult to solve. Number Theory wasn’t also the most intriguing course. I believe solving and creating codes was the only decent part. Most of the stuff we learned wasn’t something I personally took any interest in, therefore, it wasn’t great for me. I wouldn’t recommend it to others only because it wasn’t a good experience for me. Teacher feedback/grading was not strong and the rigor wasn’t something I think many may not be able to handle.
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Grace W.
1/8/2015 11:14:50 am
1. Explain your overall impression of the course. What kind of student would it interest? Include its rigor, level of engagement, your recommendation to register, etc.
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Jessica Iasimone
1/8/2015 12:13:17 pm
Hello, my name is Jessica Iasimone and I took the course MS Teenage Brain. This was an amazing course that was highly interactive, fun, and interesting. I really enjoyed this experience. Since this is a science course, a student that has an interest in neuroscience would be a great fit for it. Teenage Brain was very engaging because you learn about yourself throughout the course and what is going on inside your brain. Some weeks are more challenging than others, however you can definitely get all the assignments done within the week. Also, the teacher was great, always answering questions a day within asking them, giving constructed feedback, and clear directions. I highly recommend this course to anyone for these reasons. The most interesting subject I learned about in Teenage Brain was sleep. In that week, we learned everything there was to know about it, including how to develop a sleep plan, how many hours to get, what happens when you don’t get enough of it, etc. We even had to make an action plan, which was a goal we needed to fulfil by the end of the course, and I chose to make a sleep plan. I was able to get all the information I needed from this lesson. I thought this topic was very interesting and it helped me out a lot. For my presentation, I will be sharing Teens and Sleep. I chose this subject because as stated earlier, I accomplished making a sleep plan as my goal and learned a lot sleep. My purpose of sharing this is because now that we are all in middle school, we can relate to not getting as much sleep as we used to, due to excessive homework and after school activities. This lack of sleep is hard to make up, and I wanted to give everyone some advice on how to get a better sleep, and the benefits of it. In conclusion, the course Teenage Brain is truly an amazing course that I got a lot out of and will benefit me in the future.
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Emma Gianetti
1/8/2015 12:43:58 pm
1. Explain your overall impression of the course. What kind of student would it interest? Include its rigor, level of engagement, your recommendation to register, etc.
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Lily Jacobson
1/9/2015 12:43:50 am
This fall I took the course Journalism in the Digital Age and even though it was a lot of work, I enjoyed taking it. This course is basically all about writing. Almost every week, I’d receive a new topic to write an article about and it would have to be posted by that week or the Thursday of the new week. With that in mind, any student who enjoys writing (a lot) would really enjoy this course. However, the writing is fun and allows you to be creative because the teacher gives out a general topic and then you pick a specific matter to write about. The course did take time though, producing a new piece of writing each week is definitely a long process so you’d have to be willing to go through the writing process each week and take time out of your day to do so.
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Brooke C
1/9/2015 12:46:17 am
My overall opinion of my course so far is that it takes a lot of work to complete a week. It is filled to the brim with new things to learn. While I am only halfway through Geometry, I feel like I’ve already learned enough to last the whole year. The teacher I have is good, he responds to all of our questions in a reasonable time, 1-2 days, and seems to have a good attitude of the course. I recommend people who have taken Algebra I because you will need it to understand most of the content.
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Dalia Suslovich
1/9/2015 12:49:20 am
During the fall semester I took the course World War II Through the Eyes of Dr. Seuss. It is a History and English course. This course is fun but also boring at some points. Throughout the course you would have to read several Dr. Seuss books and answer questions about how they would apply to history. I did my presentation on this and it was extremely fun and I also learned a lot. I learned that his books have many hidden meanings and you really have to read between the lines. However, in this course you will have to be able to analyze political cartoons made by Dr. Seuss. This is one part of the course that I really didn't like. Sure I learned a little bit about his perspective but it was so boring. That is also probably the hardest thing that the course entails and it is relatively easy. The instructor is also good and responds quickly. He takes all problems into consideration. I liked his grading system because even if you get something wrong he tells you and you have the chance to redo it. This is something that some other net course instructors won't let you do so you have to take advantage of it. Overall if you want to take an interesting VHS course about history and/or english I recommend World War II Through the Eyes of Dr. Seuss. All you need to know is don't stress, manage your time well and have fun.
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Brendan L'Esperance
1/9/2015 12:52:23 am
1. I am taking a full year Geometry course and I have so far found it very informing. I have learned a lot and hope to learn more. Although, I have found that the lessons don’t explain some topics very well causing you to learn things on your own. I think a hard-working and flexible student should take this class. This class will become rigorous after the first term.
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Marc Rosenthal
1/9/2015 12:54:43 am
Hello, I am Marc Rosenthal and I took the full year course Geometry. Geometry isn't really a fun course, but it is OK for a serious math course. The assignments themselves are easy but tedious but the real difficulty is actually learning how to do the activity in a subject (ex. Trigonometry). Only take this course if you really want to try and not just because your parents tell you to because it isn't a joke!
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Hong Nguyen
1/9/2015 12:57:25 am
Hello! My name is Hong Nguyen and for this fall semester, I took the Course Computer Animation with Scratch. This course contained a lot of interesting activities that allowed me to create stories and games. I had a lot of fun taking this course because it fun looking at other people’s creative ideas and we would also give feedback to each other to make our projects even better. Although, sometimes the assignments becomes very repetitive and it can be boring, but at the end of the course you get to learn how to make games and this part of the course is very fun. I would recommend this course to students who are interested in designing games or animation, itself. There were a few things that were great about this course are the given overviews of each week helps us with time management, the teachers responded to our questions right away, but the grading system took a long time. The most important thing that I learned was about this course is the online community that my teachers and classmates created. We all signed a social contract (basically rules that we created together at the beginning of the course) and we followed it throughout the whole semester. It was really interesting to see how all of us reacted to each other’s comments and responses because we all had different personalities and opinions. Some of us had a humorous side, creative side, and a lot more and we all expressed them in our Scratch projects.
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Matthew Keenan
1/11/2015 08:25:11 am
My course, World History: 1450-Present Day, is both fun and challenging. This full-year course only covers each topic for about 1-2 weeks so this course may not be the best choice if you take more time to learn. To keep up, I have needed to work hard and stay focused. Procrastination will cause you to fall behind and you will find yourself trying to do all of the assignments the night before they are due. But, as long as you stay on task and get work done on time, the course will be fun and engaging. Although it may be difficult at times, I would recommend this to anyone who loves history and can keep track of their work. The most important thing that I have learned so far is time management. At the beginning of the course, I struggled with this. I got off topic easily and ended up doing most of my work late in the week. Eventually, though, I learned to keep track of how much work I have done. Overall, this course is fun and challenging, but not so hard that the work becomes overwhelming.
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Syed-Hasan Raza
1/11/2015 09:27:18 am
1. Explain your overall impression of the course. What kind of student would it interest?
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Matthew Lopes
1/12/2015 03:13:34 am
The course that I took was Young Adult Literature it was a pretty interesting course my recommendation for a student who would enjoy this course would be that if you enjoy reading and writing you should take this course. I enjoyed learning about the many different issues that are found in the world that were discussed throughout this course. We read four different themes of books and had several different types of writing to go with the book that we were reading. “Theme 1: Intellectual, Emotional, Mental & Physical Differences, Theme 2: Tolerance & Diversity for Cultural Difference, Theme 3: War, Theme 4: Young Adult Issues” These are the four themes of books that we read throughout the course and there were several writings to go each one of them. In these four themes we read many different writings, short stories and a book for each one. “Theme 1: Intellectual, Emotional, Mental & Physical Differences, Theme 2: Tolerance & Diversity for Cultural Difference, Theme 3: War, Theme 4: Young Adult Issues". My favorite part about the course was learning about all the many issues through the reading, short stories and books that we read throughout the course. In conclusion, this course would be best for somebody who likes reading and writing and my favorite thing that I learned through the course was learning about the many different types of issues found in the world.
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Nicholas Albanese
1/15/2015 12:47:23 am
1. Explain your overall impression of the course. What kind of student would it interest? Include its rigor, level of engagement, your recommendation to register, etc.
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