Assignment 26- Nick Joseph

Overall, this year has been pretty successful.  While I by no means enjoyed every moment of this class, I feel very well prepared for the AP test.  For me, the most effective exercise we did was repeatedly writing essays.  The sheer exposure to the format of the test will be helpful.  I believe that while the intent of the Visual Literacy component of the class was good, the amount of time spent on it (mostly on the explanation of expectations) was lacking.  To me, it just seemed like a way to get another grade in the gradebook.  Additionally a new approach to benchmarks would be nice.  While grading these were EXTREMELY helpful, sitting through three or four classes straight of just grading benchmarks caused many students to lose interest.  Socratic seminars were a major failure in my eyes.  While some of the articles were a little interesting, holding students to such a specific list of guidelines was much too tedious for their partners and WAY too much time was spent on some of the discussions.  Additionally, I would like to address the bikes.  I know many students found them distracting or even a nuisance, but I disagree.  I loved them and I even believe they were somewhat beneficial to our learning.  Finally, I really appreciated the exposure to real world topics that I got from this class.