Dear Mrs. Babcock,
Thank you. I’m very grateful and thankful for you as a teacher and as a person. You pushed me to my limits and way beyond them and somehow I’ve managed to overcome, with your help, all the struggles that lie within AP 11. I could not have accomplished my goals as a student and as a person without you – I’ll miss you dearly as I move on to AP 12 which I feel incredibly prepared for because of you. You’re an amazing teacher and I’ll be sure to visit next year.
As a student, I found that the constant repetition of writing theses, transition sentences, assertions, conclusions, essays, and revising all of them, although draining and at times annoying, helped tremendously. The more we practiced, the better we got. Throughout all the attempts, tries, revisions, and mistakes we made we began to realize our mistakes and learn how to fix them. Despite it being stressful, the heavy workload kept us “in shape.” Doing essays consistently and constantly throughout the year was such an advantage to those students taking the AP exam that rarely wrote essays. With all the repetition I felt very prepared and very confident walking out of the AP testing room.
Obviously certain assignments and activities were harder than others but in my opinion I think that peer editing should be changed so that after our assignments are reviewed by a peer, you should also go over the assignment. During peer edits, sometimes the other person did not give much critic which ultimately accomplished nothing. I think that if more emphasis to correct and explain what could be better and to not always be “nice” then the peer edits would be more of a help to students. Also, grading grammar on timed reading quizzes was actually pretty stressful as we were trying to write the correct answer while also writing a grammatically correct sentence within a certain time limit. I think it would be best to keep separate reading and writing. Reading quizzes should be focused on reading comprehension not writing and grammar. Other than those few assignments, I believe that the class overall was taught and performed in an effective manner.
In my opinion I believe that more one on one conferences with you about our writing assignments throughout the year would have prepared us a little bit more. We mainly had conferences in the beginning but as the year went on, we had less and less one on one time. Your criticism makes us a better reader, writer, and thinker which I believe is what we need as the AP exam gets closer and closer. Also, every once in a while we didn’t have homework which was expected but as a student who has finished the course, it would have been helpful to have a little break every once in a while as writing can be very draining. It was very easy to get burnt out mentally with all the work. Yes work is undoubtedly necessary, but at times we had four or five assignments to do which all took time and effort to complete in which not all of them had our best effort. Those are just a few things I would recommend.
Mrs. Babcock, you are an amazing, wonderful, loving, and caring person. Yes your class is hard but you help us believe in ourselves and you guide us. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.
Katie
Thank you. I’m very grateful and thankful for you as a teacher and as a person. You pushed me to my limits and way beyond them and somehow I’ve managed to overcome, with your help, all the struggles that lie within AP 11. I could not have accomplished my goals as a student and as a person without you – I’ll miss you dearly as I move on to AP 12 which I feel incredibly prepared for because of you. You’re an amazing teacher and I’ll be sure to visit next year.
As a student, I found that the constant repetition of writing theses, transition sentences, assertions, conclusions, essays, and revising all of them, although draining and at times annoying, helped tremendously. The more we practiced, the better we got. Throughout all the attempts, tries, revisions, and mistakes we made we began to realize our mistakes and learn how to fix them. Despite it being stressful, the heavy workload kept us “in shape.” Doing essays consistently and constantly throughout the year was such an advantage to those students taking the AP exam that rarely wrote essays. With all the repetition I felt very prepared and very confident walking out of the AP testing room.
Obviously certain assignments and activities were harder than others but in my opinion I think that peer editing should be changed so that after our assignments are reviewed by a peer, you should also go over the assignment. During peer edits, sometimes the other person did not give much critic which ultimately accomplished nothing. I think that if more emphasis to correct and explain what could be better and to not always be “nice” then the peer edits would be more of a help to students. Also, grading grammar on timed reading quizzes was actually pretty stressful as we were trying to write the correct answer while also writing a grammatically correct sentence within a certain time limit. I think it would be best to keep separate reading and writing. Reading quizzes should be focused on reading comprehension not writing and grammar. Other than those few assignments, I believe that the class overall was taught and performed in an effective manner.
In my opinion I believe that more one on one conferences with you about our writing assignments throughout the year would have prepared us a little bit more. We mainly had conferences in the beginning but as the year went on, we had less and less one on one time. Your criticism makes us a better reader, writer, and thinker which I believe is what we need as the AP exam gets closer and closer. Also, every once in a while we didn’t have homework which was expected but as a student who has finished the course, it would have been helpful to have a little break every once in a while as writing can be very draining. It was very easy to get burnt out mentally with all the work. Yes work is undoubtedly necessary, but at times we had four or five assignments to do which all took time and effort to complete in which not all of them had our best effort. Those are just a few things I would recommend.
Mrs. Babcock, you are an amazing, wonderful, loving, and caring person. Yes your class is hard but you help us believe in ourselves and you guide us. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.
Katie