My Freshman Year in New Tech
In New Tech, we learn all the same things as we would normally, we just learn it differently. We use project-based learning, which is learning our subjects by doing projects that range from 2 weeks to about 1 month long. For every unit in that class we have 1 or 2 projects. I like this way of learning because it gives you a lot of independence and you have some freedom in what you learn. You don't have to just sit in a classroom and listen to a lecture about things you might already know or that you might not be interested in, you get to learn what you need to learn without it being boring. If you want to learn more, click here.
21st Century Skills
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In New Tech, we have a lot of different ways of learning than Freshman Academy. One example is that for our projects, we have an overall grade that is split into about 8 categories, rather than having one huge grade. The things we split the grade into are the 2 content grades (for example, in SciTech there would be Science content and Technology content.) which are based on if we got all the right information and if we included everything. There's also Critical Thinking, Written Communication, Work Ethic, Technology Fluency, and Oral Communication. The last one is Collaboration, which is a grade given by your group based on how well you worked with the group.
My Classes
SciTech
The first class I have of the day is SciTech. SciTech is Science and Technology integrated into one class. The class is blocked, which means I have it for 2 hours instead of just 1. In SciTech, we learn our Earth Science content while also learning technology content, which count as 2 classes. My favorite project in SciTech was when we made a website all about a star and how it was born and how it would die. Our star was Spica, and I learned a lot of interesting things about it. Here is the link to our website.
American Studies
The next class I have is American Studies. American Studies is English and History blocked together. Like SciTech, it's a blocked class, and counts as two classes. My favorite project in American Studies was the Romeo and Juliet project, where we had to integrate Romeo and Juliet with WWI and create a movie trailer. This was my favorite project because the groups were grouped by their peer collaboration grade, and my group got along well and are video turned out really cool. Here it is:
Math AG2
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For math, my schedule did not allow me to be in New Tech, orchestra, and advanced math, so we came up with an online math class for me and one other person to do. We are in Mr. Lamb's class during his prep hour (5th hour) and we take our math classes online. I am doing AG2 in my math class, so next year I will be going into FATS in Pinckney High School. I don't have projects in math like others do in New Tech math, but my favorite part about it is getting 100% on my quizzes, which is hard to get sometimes. The picture about is a screen shot of when I got 100% on a quiz.
Orchestra
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As my elective for freshman year, I do orchestra. I am the 5th chair cellist in the orchestra, and only 1 of 3 freshman cellists. I really like orchestra because it's kind of a break from doing schoolwork and doing more of the things I love, like making music. Plus, I get to see some of my friends that aren't in New Tech in orchestra. I have been playing cello in the orchestra since 6th grade, and I plan to do it all the way through high school.