 Welcome to APUSH Online

Netiquette  What is Netiquette?  It is etiquette online.  It is an expectation that you will be polite and respectful of others online during this course.  Remember, this is a course, you are in a classroom even if it is on the internet.  In my mortar and bricks classroom, I ask students to be respectful. This means the use of academic language, not slang, nor anything rude.

What is proper language online?  In forums, class discussions, and s, upper and lower case letters are used. All capitals means that someone is shouting.  As this is a school setting, it is important to use proper grammar and spelling.  Remember to read what you write twice before hitting the send button. It is a good idea to read it out loud before you post it. This keeps posts understandable and prevents errors that might be embarrassing.  Ideas that are discussed should be class based.

What is respectful language online?  During forums and discussions, please stay on topic and make sure your opinions are backed up by firm facts, knowledge, events, statistics, etc.  Disagreement is allowed but opinions will be based on academic knowledge. In history that means opinion is based on facts, events, evidence, historical ideas of known historians, etc.  Respectful language means writing or “talking on line” to others as you wish to be treated. In class, accept the rights of others to have opinions that might differ from your own. Make comments historical not personal.

Take a quiz on netiquette  This is a quiz that introduces many netiquette ideas. Take it and see how you score. This will not affect your grade point but it might help you achieve a higher one in this class.  A netiquette quiz A netiquette quiz  On a PC, right click and click “open hyperlink.”  On a Mac, hit the control button while clicking on the link and click “open hyperlink.”

This is a hybrid course  Your class is now during your regularly assigned block as well as online.  The first few units might help you remember our first few units.  Right now we will have some of our assignments online

Assignments online  You will be taking multiple choice tests online. You will be able to take these tests as many times as you like until you get all of the questions answered correctly. You will be graded on participation not on when you were able to answer all questions correctly.  You will be making reviews that we will share online. For those without computers, I will be able to print those for you. For those with computers, you can access them whenever you wish to study.

PowerPoints and Primary Sources  Each week you will be asked to discuss questions we did not have time to discuss in class on the PowerPoints presented to you. You will answer one question and comment on two other students answers. We will assign questions in class.  Primary sources will be viewed online. You will make your personal observations using the APPARTS model on two of four sources. This will be your personal assignment and we will discuss these in class, too.

Writing in class DBQ’s  Writing using our netbooks in class will give me a way to view your writing in a legible way and have them completed in the allotted time.  It will give me a chance to see and discuss our strengths and weaknesses online but without identifying any student by name.  I will ask you to make an outline then write so I will know, as the readers do, your thoughts and strategies in case you do not have time to complete your ideas.

FRQ’s and DBQ’s Online  I will be posting FRQ’s and DBQ’s online that have been read by APUSH  I will point out the good ideas and ideas for improvement for one of them. You will have to do so for the second one.  All essays written for APUSH are drafts so they all need improvements however I will be highlighting ideas that the readers are wanting to see.

Hands on Activities/Debates  It has been shown that some schools in Washington state have had some positive results from hands on activities and debates.  We will try to use this surrounding ideas for our DBQ’s and see if we like the method.  I feel it could keep some ideas in your heads as we discuss, debate, and then WRITE.

Forums – Ask the teacher  If you are reading a review book and do not understand the information, chances are, other students have the same stumbling block.  You can use this arena to ask me any course related or test related questions. If I don’t know the answer, I will ask my AP teacher from last summer or a fellow APUSH teacher and get the answer for you!