Meeting with Mr Moore on the 16th of December

During my meeting with Mr Moore today, we looked over the grades table and decided on the team that will be traveling to Albuquerque in April. 


The final team (in alphabetical order) is...


Sophie Bodanis (co-captain)
Edoardo Cimatti
Leyla Gumusdis (co-captain)
Lucas Hoffman
Abigail Jean-Baptiste
Darius Khosrowshahi
Caroline Nutter
Caitlin Pley
Samantha Rasin


Congratulations to everyone who got in to the team!!!


The alternate list will be made when school opens again in January.

Grades Table

I have translated the scores of each exam into scores out of 100, and made a table that shows the scores of each student. This means that each student will receive a final score out of 500. This table is posted below, and I asked Mr Moore to give me the candidate number of each student so that I could construct this table.

Candidate	Language & Literature	Essay	Interview	Speech	SuperQuiz	Total
1 (Leily)	0	17	62	62	0	141
2 (Caroline)	30	89	94	80	33	326
3 (Caitlin)	36	98	67	74	49	324
4 (Eddie)	26	83	70	62	34	275
5 (Abigail)	56	91	100	68	47	362
6 (Darius)	22	97	84	82	44	329
7 (Sophie)	34	96	88	-100-	36	354
8 (Lucas)	34	82	61	69	52	297
9 (Sammy)	28	91	53	66	32	270

Grading Essays

Last night, I graded nearly all of the essays, and I will finish the last three tonight. So far, most of the essays have scored highly, and I will post each students score here as soon as possible.

Draft of Personal Project Report

Over the weekend, I wrote the draft for my personal project report and handed it in to Mr Moore. I am hoping to get feedback before the end of the term.

Speech Schedule

Here is the final schedule for the speeches...

Tuesday:

Caitlin Pley - Period 5 (12:50 - 13:00)

Samantha Rasin - After School (15:35 - 15:45)

Thursday:

Darius Khosrowshahi - Break (10:40 - 10:50)

Edoardo Cimatti - Break (10:50 - 11:00)

Abigail Jean-Baptiste - Period 5 (12:50 - 13:00)

Lucas Hoffman - Period 5 (13:00 - 13:10)

Caroline Nutter - Period 5 (13:10 - 13:20)
Leily Radseresht - Period 5 (13:20 - 13:30)

They will all be in 2.06, which is Ms Saleh's office. Sophie will be present for as many speeches as possible.

Speech Schedule

I have created a schedule for the speeches this week that I have sent to Ms Saleh. If it works for her, then I will post it here. Sophie's schedule is incredibly complicated, meaning that she may not be able to make it to every speech, and so some speeches may have only one grader.

Interview Schedule

As it happens, many changes had to be made to the schedule for the interviews at the request of the students, and so I have posted here the full schedule with the actual times when the interviews took place.

Thursday the 8th:

Caroline Nutter - Period 1 (9:00 - 9:15) in Conway Street

Caitlin Pley - Period 1 (9:15 - 9:30) in Conway Street

Darius Khosrowshahi - Break (10:40 - 11:00) in Conway Street... You will be excused from the last ten minutes of Biology so that you have enough time

Leily Radseresht - After School (15:45 - 16:00) in Portland Place G.05

Lucas Hoffman - After School (16:00 - 16:15) in Portland Place G.05

Samantha Rasin - After School (16:15 - 16:30) in Portland Place G.05

Friday the 9th:

Edoardo Cimatti - After School (15:45 - 16:00) in Portland Place G.05

Abigail Jean-Baptiste - After School (16:00 - 16:15) in Portland Place G.05

Tuesday the 13th:

Sophie Bodanis - Period 5 (13:00 - 13:15) in Conway Street

Personal Project Specification

This is the specification for my Personal Project:


- A team of 9 people, including myself, must be selected through the entrance process I create, and there must be more than 8 students competing in order for an elimination process to be necessary.
- The tests I make must contribute to the selection process.
- Each student must sit one interview, one speech, one timed essay, and two multiple choice tests.
- The tests created must be based on the Resource Guides of the United States Academic Decathlon.


I think that this specification sets out everything that I want my project to accomplish and that I am well on my way to completing my goal.

Sophie is Absent

Unfortunately, Sophie is absent today because she is ill. This means that I have had to cancel her interview. I will be talking with her when she returns about setting another time, and I hope she gets well soon!


Postscript:
Edoardo is also not in school, and his interview will also be rescheduled.

Interview Schedule

Tuesday:
Sophie Bodanis - Break (10:40-11:00) in Conway Street... You will be excused from the first ten minutes of Spanish so that you have time to return to Portland Place
Edoardo Cimatti - Period 5 (13:00 - 13:15) in Conway Street

Thursday:
Caroline Nutter - Period 1 (9:00 - 9:15) in Conway Street
Caitlin Pley - Period 1 (9:15 - 9:30) in Conway Street
Darius Khosrowshahi - Break (10:40 - 11:00) in Conway Street... You will be excused from the last ten minutes of Biology so that you have enough time
Leily Radseresht - After School (15:45 - 16:00) in Portland Place G.05
Lucas Hoffman - After School (16:00 - 16:15) in Portland Place G.05

Friday:
Abigail Jean-Baptiste - After School (15:45 - 16:00) in Portland Place G.05
Samantha Rasin - After School (16:00 - 16:15) in Portland Place G.05

Talking with Mr Hemmens

I will be meeting Mr Hemmens afterschool today to talk about the USAD interviews. There are some minor changes that have to be made to the schedule, and some students will need to go to Conway Street for interviews. Two students, Darius and Sophie, need to go to Conway Street during break, and I have arranged for them to be allowed to miss ten minutes of class so that they can get there and back on time.


Sophie will miss the first ten minutes of Spanish, and Darius will miss the last ten minutes of Biology.


The final schedule will be posted tonight, though some rooms may not have been decided yet. The rooms will be added on as soon as possible.


Most likely the interviews at Portland Place will be in the Physics Lab, in room G.05. The interviews at Conway Street Campus may be held in Mr Hemmens' classroom. The students going to Conway should meet Mr Hemmens in the reception area.

Interviews

I have created a rough schedule for the interviews this week and sent it to Mr Hemmens to see if all of the times work for him. I will be meeting him at some point tomorrow to discuss how the interviews are graded and what he has to ask the students. 


Once we come up with a final schedule, I will post it here and send it to the students. Hopefully this will be accomplished by tomorrow night. Tomorrow I will also be making bookings for rooms for the interviews, and they may be taking place in the Science office where Mr Moore works. I will ask the other science teachers about this tomorrow.


The final schedule posted on here will also include the rooms in which the interviews will be taking place.

Fears of Cheating

When she gave me back the essays on Friday morning, Ms Joshi told me that she felt one of the essays was possibly of too high a standard for the student who was writing it, and feared that student number four may have cheated.


I asked Mr Moore who the student was, and he told me that number four was Edoardo. I do not think that he is guilty of cheating, and I will check this by a asking Ms Johnson, his English teacher, if I could possibly see any of the class work that he has done. I will also ask him if I may see some of the essays he has written and see if there are any large differences in quality. 


I highly doubt that he is guilty, but I understand that a claim such as this must be investigated.

Catch-Up Exams

Unfortunately, Leily was also unable to attend the timed essay on Thursday as she was ill. This means that Sophie and Leily both have to complete their essays. Sophie will be taking hers on Wednesday during Period 7, and Leily will be taking hers Thursday after school, from 4 to 5. Hopefully, these times will work for both of them and I will be able to mark the essays next week. So far, I have read through them and they all seem excellent.

Marking Exams

Last night, I marked all of the multiple choice tests, and though none of the scores were very good, there was no one who stuck out as having done terribly, except Leily, and she got two zeroes for not attending. I have calculated the mean and range of the exam scores, and these are below.


SuperQuiz (out of 70)
Maximum - 36
Average - 25
Minimum - 0

Language & Literature (out of 50)

Maximum - 28

Average - 15

Minimum - 0