Letter to a Biology Student

To whom it may concern:

My name is Ananya Vadlakonda, and I’m a freshman who is 14 years old. Well, by the time you will be reading this I’ll be 15 years old and a sophomore here at Saratoga High. Outside of school, I participate in the Synopsys Silicon Valley Science Fair, I do indian classical dance, I do indian classical singing, and I play piano. Like many of my classmates, I took 7 classes: Journalism, Spanish 2, PE, Algebra 2 Honors, World Geo/Health, English 9, and Biology. Before coming to Saratoga High, I attended Redwood Middle School, and Saratoga Elementary, so I’ve basically been in this district for a few years now. I came into this year really looking forward to Algebra 2 Honors, and Biology, because I have always really enjoyed math and science.But nonetheless, I was still fairly intimidated and nervous coming into freshman year. I was most nervous about Mr. Orre’s teaching style because I had heard that it was a “flipped classroom” model, but after the first month or so, I started getting used to it and actually really enjoyed it.

Right from the first day of class, Mr. Orre made it very clear as to what his expectations were. Since this was a flipped classroom, we would learn the material at home and apply it in class through labs. As a result, he expects a mature student who is ready to learn and try their hardest every single day. So basically, his everyday in class expectations are that immediately after you come into class everyday, he expects you to quietly take out your biology notebook, look at the agenda, and do the Do Now. Regarding homework, he expects you to not only watch the vodcast assigned for homework but also take the CFU’s, or the Check for Understanding quizzes. Although the vodcasts can get fairly long will sometimes challenge you to stay attentive, it is always important to watch every single vodcast and complete the CFU’s honestly, because first of all homework is weighted pretty heavily in this class, and also if you slack off on even 1 vodcast, you will truly regret it when it comes to the unit test. Also, make sure you do the CFU’s because it will be REALLY helpful when it comes time for the test.

In this class, we also maintained a blog. It became like a journal of all our labs and unit reflections. In order for you to really get the most out of any blog post, it is important for you to try your hardest on your blog post. This is my favorite post because I put my all into it.

There are some pet peeves that you should watch out for. He absolutely hates it when someone talks when he talks. He also hates it when students put their chairs up before he has dismissed them, But his biggest pet peeve is not cleaning up properly after labs. I remember at the beginning of the year, there was one lab where we truly screwed up in cleaning up. There were kids that had no clue what they were doing and were putting the microscopes away the wrong way. This led to Mr. Orre canceling the lab for us and taking out labs for the rest of that unit, which was really bad because it was a really interesting lab.

It isn’t really tough to do well in this class if you try your best. If you do your homework and you study for tests you should do fairly well in this class. And yes, like I said earlier, homework is vital in receiving a good grade, not only because it is weighted pretty heavily when he grades it, but it will help you when taking the unit test.

There were some mistakes I made this year which I really hope you won’t make:

• I had procrastinated on my vodcasts, making it really tough to really put my all into learning the vodcast.
• I had ignored some of his CFU’s, and after I took the unit test, I was deeply regretting that decision.
• I started to slack off on the relate and reviews after some of the vodcasts, but I ended up realizing that, in the end, it doesn’t hurt anyone else but you.

But although I made some mistakes, I was able to fix them, learn from them, and continue on. This class is all about growth and a growth mindset, and as I am writing this letter to you, I’m really starting to understand how much I grew as a student, which is what made this class truly enjoyable. If I would sum this class up in a few words, it would be labs, vodcasts, growth, 20 time (a passion project that we had class time to work on). Next year I will be moving on from Biology and taking Chemistry Honors, a class that I have been looking forward to taking for so long!

Well, good luck to you. This class will be enjoyable at times and feel boring at times, but it will be a class that you will look back and remember. I learned a tremendous amount and I grew so much as a student, and I hope the same goes for you. Give this class a chance, give this learning approach a chance, and give Mr. Orre a chance, because you will really enjoy this class.

Good luck,

Ananya Vadlakonda