Course+Syllabus,+Rules+and+Procedures

=Ms. Zebrosky= Biology azebrosky@hvrhs.org Availability: Monday-Friday after school, periods B and F, or by appointment

Syllabus: (CP Biology is responsible for current event articles)
 * Statement of Purpose **

I recognize that every person has a unique way of learning, way of socializing with others and setting goals for themselves. For instance, I learn best in an orderly, exact environment, but can also thrive on sharing with others and being creative. I am a visual learner so pictures and videos help me retain information. Your learning style may be different from mine, but the job I hope to fulfill is to make sure my style accommodates others’ styles. I am an authoritative, not authoritarian, teacher; I place controls on you but I also want you to have independence. I want you never be afraid to ask a question, no matter how unintelligent you think it may be because likely enough someone else is thinking the same thing too. Making mistakes is a vital part to learning; without mistakes we cannot grow because we will never learn what //not// to do. Learning is collecting and storing information that we experience or intake from our environment. Learning requires practice, patience, confidence, and persistence. I want to teach life lessons such as discipline (in regards to disciplining oneself towards one’s goals), how to logically make decisions and experiment with knowledge.

Every life has intrinsic, or inborn, value, and thus should be treated with love, respect and dignity. My upbringing was full of acceptance, support, ambition and love; it has become a part of my moral compass, which points to the direction of helping others. Every person has the right to learn and be respected, learned members of society and to ultimately make a difference in the world we live in. I hope as a teacher I may infuse you with my passion for biological life and processes; but if not, then I hope I may teach you about respect, decision-making, experimenting with ideas, and deducing information. I believe science is collaborative, meaning it is a joining of ideas from different points of views in order to reach a goal, such as finding a cure for cancer or researching the migration habits of Canada geese. This is why you will rarely be working alone; only when you are taking a test or quiz will you be by yourself.

By having high and positive expectations of myself and my students, we can together make great things happen; this positive, self-fulfilling prophesy will allow you to obtain your goals and prepare for the next steps in life. In my classroom, I want you to BARK. No, not actually “bark!” but B.A.R.K: **Believe** you can succeed; **Achieve** your goals, no matter how high or far they are; **Respect** others but also respect yourself as a human being worthy of success and love; and **Kindness** towards others will allow a healthy and safe environment to thrive in. To expand on respect, I would define it as uplifting yourself and others in self-confidence and having positive expectations of yourself and others. Part of that respect is honesty, which I believe to be one of the highest expectations I have of you as people. Being honest with me will earn you respect in my book; being honest with others is //truly// for your benefit because lies deceive who you are and who other people think you are. People trust honest people because honesty is being fair to others, which ties into my belief that every life deserves to be treated with equal value.


 * __ Room Arrangement __**

As soon as you walk through the entrance, I want you to feel at ease and feel like you are a sponge for knowledge. When you enter, you will see the “hand-in” tray, labeled with your class period; this is important to notice because this is where you will be handing in your work! On my desk, I have each class, with three trays: each one has the class label on it. If you are in forensic science class, your handouts for the day will be located in the tray labeled “forensics!” I wanted to have a vibrant environment, visually stimulating with the colorful posters, bulletin board for news and interesting facts. On the side of the classroom, I have a collection of textbooks as well as specific biological subject books, such as my deep sea book, for you to look at (I almost became a marine biologist, so the ocean is one of my favorite places). I have arranged the room to what I believe to bring out the best “learning aura” or atmosphere for learning and focusing. The desks are all facing forward towards the whiteboard so that while I am lecturing or talking you can see me. The lab stations are long and each cover a side of the wall in order for big groups to work together, but also for groups to spread out while doing lab experiments. It allows me to walk right up to your station without interfering with the experiment and your personal space. I want you to have a feeling of openness because school can be claustrophobic at times. If you have anything you would like to share with the classroom or ideas for a better atmosphere, please let me know. I hope the space becomes a place you can be stimulated and feel at home in!

As the teacher, I hold myself to higher standards because I am responsible for all of you for learning and being a leader. I, too, shall come to class prepared and respectful of you. I will be organized, professional, and supportive of your interests and goals. I will be a role model as well as a communicator. My job is to lift you up to allow you to succeed. I say succeed a lot because it means a lot to me: success is being proud of what you have done and who you are. Although being successful financially is always nice, being a successful person in regards to helping others, loving and being loved, supported and being supportive makes you into a person who can not only survive this world, but thrive in happiness in it.
 * __ Expectations of Teacher __**

Students will be held at a higher standard because more responsibilities will be given! Students are expected to be respectful, meaning no bullying, teasing, interrupting, intentionally sabotaging or performing other interfering activities. You as students are here to learn and grow as people! You should be attentive in class, come to school prepared and organized, as well as staying in constant communication with parents or guardians regarding your education. Being attentive includes eyes on me while I am talking, listening to statements or questions, as well as being quiet when I need to explain something. To get your attention, I have a three-step procedure:
 * __ Expectations of Students __**

1. I raise my hand.

2. You turn your eyes toward me.

3. Stop talking.

The materials I expect to be brought to every class are the textbook (unless you leave it in the class), notebook for notes, a journal/composition book for the bell work, and a pen or pencil. All of you can work wonders if you put your mind to it. You will all be successful people, not just in a monetary sense, but a holistic sense of having joy-filled, productive lives. Do your best because not putting 100 percent effort into your work will lead to future regret (such as “if I had only doneI could have done___”).__


 * // The main classroom rules are: __//**
 * 1) 1. ** Leave your issues at the door so that you can be positive and be successful learners. ** //Always have a positive attitude, even when others make mistakes. If you tease, bully or put down a student in any way, there will be consequences (see negative consequence section). As I have stated before, each person has rights of being respected, loved and successful; thus these bullying acts can lead to an interruption of people’s well-being.//
 * 2) 2. ** Please remain in your seats unless I instruct you to. **// This way traffic noise will not detract attention from learning! My procedure for using the bathroom or visiting the nurse will be explained so no disruption of class is made! //
 * 3) 3. ** Be respectful and be quiet while I or another student is addressing the class with a statement or question. ** //Raising your hands will help prevent bursting out in song or argument. This enables students to freely express what they need or do not understand.//
 * 4) 4. ** Be careful around in the lab because there are instruments, chemicals, beakers and such breakable items that cost money to replace and if broken, can result in someone being hurt. ** //Accidents happen, but please do your best from flailing your arms around breakables.//
 * 5) 5. ** Be moral and honest like I previously discussed ** . //Cheating is not fair for others, but is mostly unfair to yourself because you are not learning when you cheat.//

I will try to give students a chance to make up for breaking rules, but once it becomes a habit, I will start to take action! I will remind you for the first few weeks of school what the expectations and rules are so that you will not only learn them but understand them. Remember, you always have a choice to do or not to do something! If you //chose// to do something you need to accept that there are consequences, negative //or// positive. If you break a rule:
 * Negative Consequences ( **// from breaking rules //** ) **

1. Warning

2. 2nd Warning

3. Move student to a designated area, possibly the corner of the room, and given My Action Plan sheet to fill out

4. Lunch detention with me and phone call home

5. Sent to office and detention after school

6. Parent-teacher meeting

**My Action Plan is a sheet of questions to help you reflect what “went wrong” in class. I will keep these and refer to them if problems continue**

__ Rewards (//aka positive consequences)// __


 * Rewards are given to encourage and respond to positive students. If you B.A.R.K. consistently then I will make class (more) worthwhile to you! I //want// to give you rewards because I want you all to be happy people! I want to recognize hard work and honesty. Hopefully by giving rewards we will avoid discipline altogether. As soon as you walk in my classroom, you will have my respect, kindness, encouragement, love and the benefit of the doubt. If you misbehave and break rules, I will stop the rewards and ultimately you will start seeing negative consequences. **


 * Ø 30 minutes of free time on Friday given randomly depending on positive attitudes! **


 * Ø Science video (ex. Planet Earth), //without having to take notes//, for an hour on Friday given randomly depending on consistent positive attitudes! **

Daily Procedures **
 * 1) 1. As soon as you walk in the door, place your homework in the tray labeled “hand-in" with your class period on it.
 * 2) 2. Before going to your seat, get the handouts for the day from the tray labeled “handouts” for your class.
 * 3) 3. When the bell rings, I’d like you to be already in your seats at the desk looking forward.
 * 4) 4. Open your journal/composition book and complete the bell work, or in my class I call it the “Energizer.”
 * 5) 5. I will explain the topic of the day’s lecture and why we are studying it. After expectations of what you should be learning are given, we will begin the lesson or activity.
 * 6) 6. At the bell, wait until I have said the words “Have a great day!” and then you may leave the class. //The bell is really for the teachers, not the students, to keep track of time so I will dismiss you when class is over. This is to make sure you hear if there are any assignments or announcements at the end of the period. If you miss an assignment, the responsibility is on you to talk with your classmates about what will be due.//

__ Bathroom Procedure: __ If you need to use the bathroom or go to the nurse at any time during the period, please sign your name, the time and the date of you leaving and returning from the bathroom on the bathroom sheet hanging near the door. Please try to be considerate of the timing of when you leave for the restroom because I would not want you to miss any key information. __ Emergency Procedure: __
 * If a code is given (like code grey): ** everyone will need to get into a corner of the room, away from the door and windows. NO TALKING IS ALLOWED UNTIL THE CODE IS REMOVED.
 * If a fire alarm goes off: ** everyone will proceed to the nearest exit, which is down the science hallway and out the doors. I will need to take attendance outside and there is NO TALKING allowed until we are back inside my room.
 * __ Lab Procedure __** //(on days we have a laboratory experiment scheduled)//


 * 1) 1. As soon as you walk in the door, go directly to your seats and complete the “Energizer” if there is one posted on the whiteboard.
 * 2) 2. Once I explain what the lab will be about, if you have your handouts, we will go over the objectives of the lab.
 * 3) 3. Once I have finished you may begin in your assigned lab group at your designated lab table.
 * 4) 4. Feel free to ask as many questions! As a scientist, being accurate is very important in science experiments! The more accurate the data, the more facts you can collect and ultimately make deductions or theories about biology! Isn’t that exciting!?
 * 5) 5. I will announce when 10 minutes are left of the period so that you may finish up the lab experiment and clean up. Please wipe down the lab desks with the spray and paper towels, and please put everything back where you found it!
 * __ Lab Reports, Lab Assignments and Homework Assignments __**

I have designated the lab reports, lab assignments and homework to be put into the “hand-in” bin when they are due. A few terms I will be using for assignments are as follows:
 * Homework: work I assign for you to take home; regular assignments.
 * Lab assignments: work I assign for you to finish from our lab activity; note, this is different from a lab report
 * Lab report: a minimum of 6 pages of an introduction, methods, results, discussion and conclusion on the experiment performed. Usually I will give you a week to finish this report and I will give you a checklist of what the lab should include.
 * __ Policies on Lab Reports, Assignments and Homework __**

-Lab reports, assignments and homework that are late are subject to my late work policy -Labs need to be made up if you are absent in the same week we perform the lab, BEFORE the lab report is due -The bell work, or “Energizer,” will be handed into me every Friday so I may look at what you have written. Any rude comments or lack of effort will result in points taken off your responsibility points. The Energizer is //not graded//, but I expect everyone to participate.

__ Preferred note-taking method: __ Example:
 * Scientists’ notebook
 * If this method does not work for you, try the outlining method
 * OR Cornell Method:
 * **Section for **
 * Keywords or **
 * Main ideas **

WW I || **Details of the topic covered **

Causes of the war were MAIN – Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism.

All these factors linked together lead to the outbreak of the war in Europe. ||
 * MAIN || Militarism

Alliances

Imperialism ||