Send a note anytime. I usually check mail at the begriming and end of the day

Office Hours

I'm usually in my classroom until 3:00 (or so). I've also reserved Thursday afternoon for APC students. Otherwise it's usually best for students to let me know they'll be dropping by as I sometimes wander down the hall or yak with my colleagues after school.

Mr W's GHHS class phone: 253-530-1481

Call anytime but please note that my phone goes straight to voicemail during the school day (7:00 - 2:00).

WELLNESS & STRESS

MR W BIO

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

I believe very strongly in building partnerships with parents/guardians and other folks at home. This class will test us all... it's really, REALLY important that if your student is getting overly frustrated with class that we address that post haste-- playing catchup is very hard.

Needless to say, I'm happy to help whatever ways I can.

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My grading practices are MUCH different in APC than in other courses.... so (especially if your students have had me before) please take a gander at the rest of this page:

• This class is a beast.... I keep saying that and I'll continue to keep saying that.

  Here's Why:  

  1) The PACE is frenetic -- think learning by firehouse

  2) We cover a phenomenal amount of material with dozens of specific formulae and concepts that students need to have learned and can access almost instantly from their cerebellum

  3) We do 1 (count 'em ONE) semester of Mechanics and ONE semester of EM.

  4) VERY few high schools even offer APC. Of those that do, something like 50% take the mechanics course and stretch it over 1 full year of high school (Bellarmine does that).

  Your GHHS physics instructors (Wolgemuth/Ronning/Johnson) and admins here at GHHS believe that slowing down the course does a disservice to our students.

• Spending a year to ace mechanics only to get clobbered with the generally considered MORE NASTY EM once you get to college just doesn't seem like a good idea. Also, slowing down and stretching out mechanics gives students a false sense of the true pace and rigor of the college program.

  Keep in mind, we are already slowing down the course (!) substantially. For example, the U of W teaches mechanics in one quarter, EM in one quarter and spends a 3rd quarter teaching Waves & Optics (which is not in the APC curriculum at all).

  For those students going to a semester school (Like UPS-- where I went), the schedule is usually 1 semester-ish of Mechanics and a little waves or optics, and one semester of EM and a little waves or optics)

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  Back to the Grading --

  The AP Physics C Exam is... well.... REALLY, REALLY DIFFICULT. So much so that we usually expect that they employ what is colloquially referred to as the "rule of 12's":

  Exam Score	Student AP Score
  >62.5	5
  50 - 62.5	4
  38.5 - 49.9	3
  26 - 38.4	2

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  So here's the Scoop:

  I - EXAMS

  Our UNIT exams will usually include:

  1) 10 AP-type multiple choice questions

  2) 1 or 2 problems directly taken (or thinly disused) from the homework

  3) 1 AP Free Response question scored using AP Scoring guidelines.

  I will weight (I *hate* to say curve) the exams per the AP scoring method shown above to match our standard district grading model.

  Exams are given at the end of each unit.

  Unlike my other courses, makeup's are generally NOT available if students bomb a test.

  That's for two reasons-- The first being these tests are a BEAST to put together, typically 2 or 3 hours each, and I have no desire to make more than one.

  Secondly, college physics professor's *rarely*, if ever, give make up exams to students who don't like their grades .....Accordingly, I treat this as a college class, not a high school class.

  I am, of course, happy to accommodate legitimate health concerns/absences (Please stay home if you have beri beri, numonic plague, ebola, MRSA etc..), IEP's, 504's and other such concerns

  II - LABS

  Due to the pace of the class, labs are notoriously difficult to schedule. Nonetheless, we will conduct a number of labs and they will be scored using the Baylor University guide found here. Labs are scored using standing grading practices and are NOT curved.

  III - HOMEWORK

  Homework will generally NOT be graded. That's your (student!) time to learn the material.

  However, at random intervals, at my discretion and AT THE TIME OF MY CHOOSING, I'll ask students to do a problem taken from the current or previous homework set. That problem will be graded and put into the gradebook at a reduced/weighted value.

  The main purpose here is to make sure students are keeping up, and to give the student, me, and you folks at home a bit of a 'temperature' check to see how our students are doing.

  IV: PROJECTS

  First semester students are required to turn in an annotated bibliography on any topic in science as described here.

  Second semester students will participate in (I HOPE) the First Annual Cross-Sound Trebuchet Challenge against students from Bellarine (My former student teacher is the Physics C instructor there).  Students will work with their group in specific project roles to design, build and test a working trebuchet before TROUNCING Bellarmine on the honourable field of battle!

  That project writing requirements are found here.

  V. LATE WORK

  Generally speaking, I'm fine with taking work in late.... PROVIDED that I haven't finished grading the assignment and returned the work back to students.

  I REALLY DON'T CARE why your work is late <sorry>, I'll simply remind you to get it in as soon as possible.

  I am, of course, happy to work around legitimate health concerns/absences as noted previously!

  Excuses or made up ailments just won't fly: Students attempting such nonsensical highschool-type dodgery will find themselves in a very uncomfortable meeting with themselves and their folks and me.

  VI. EXTRA-CREDIT

  There is none, don't ask

  VII. PLAIGIRISM

  ...Goes very poorly for the student. Students SHOULD KNOW that taking any sort of credit for anyone else's work, be it online, in the class or anywhere else without proper attribution is not acceptable in any reality in my class.

  I expect students to collaborate with their groups (especially in labs) -- that is an important part of my teaching.

  However, we all write in our own 'voice' and I expect you to use your own. Copying and pasting anything from anywhere without my consent or proper attribution and treating it as your own work is not acceptable, ever, for any reason.

  I'm a demon on that folks (perhaps you noticed?). I consider it a personal and professional insult when a student does that.... most especially in THIS class.

  To Wit:

  I WILL put a zero in the gradebook for that assignment and it WILL torpedo your grade. You folks are the best of the best and there is absolutely no reason for this to happen ever.

  I also reserve the right to put an annotation in your official school transcript noting your transgression.

  VIII. FINAL GRADES

  There is a feature in our gradebook that allows me to drop each student's worst performing item. I don't know the algorithm by which that is accomplished, I simply check a box and let it do its magic.

  After dropping the worst performing score, I simply post the semester grades that are calculated using the standard district grading policies.

  I don't grade on attendance, class participation, whether you like me, whether I like you or how often you bring kimchi to class. That means that my gradebook is fairly small, which means that students MUST maintain a very high level of engagement to perform well in this class.