Roadrunner Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 I know all about Maya’s class at PAH, but it doesn’t seem like it would be enough feedback for my kid. I also know some about Bluetent, mostly that it takes two hours plus a day and has a lot of moving components. Plus it’s on moodle platform. However, it has been a while since I heard anybody review BT course, so would appreciate recent experiences. I know nothing about AIM, other than the teacher was very much liked when she was at PAH. @Farrar brought the course up. Any reviews? Specifically, does it have a live component, how many hours per day on average, does it have gazillion moving parts, is the feedback all rubrics based or is there a red pen approach? Anything really. I am looking ahead a little, but planning I love. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 9 minutes ago, Roadrunner said: I know all about Maya’s class at PAH, but it doesn’t seem like it would be enough feedback for my kid. I also know some about Bluetent, mostly that it takes two hours plus a day and has a lot of moving components. Plus it’s on moodle platform. However, it has been a while since I heard anybody review BT course, so would appreciate recent experiences. I know nothing about AIM, other than the teacher was very much liked when she was at PAH. @Farrar brought the course up. Any reviews? Specifically, does it have a live component, how many hours per day on average, does it have gazillion moving parts, is the feedback all rubrics based or is there a red pen approach? Anything really. I am looking ahead a little, but planning I love. The Aim class has a live component. The feedback is specific and seems good, but doesn't seem like it's a red pen sort of approach from what I've heard. It's on Canvas (all Aim classes are required to be on Canvas). From the people I talked to, it seems like it's relatively streamlined - basically not like the BT class, with all those moving parts. The readings are very essay focused - not as much fiction. If you're looking for the future, Mushroom is taking it next year so I will have much more specific knowledge by midyear. Blue Tent I have talked to so many people who have recent experiences, but I think I shared those here... they have new instructors now, so that's also something to know. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourisenough Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 My DD has taken both of Lili Serbicki’s AP English classes (one via AIM and one at PAH). I describe them as being rich, but lean. The workload isn’t overwhelming, and they’re well organized. There is a weekly live class, but DD always watches the recorded lecture at 2x speed for efficiency. Average daily/weekly work is hard to say; DD is a fast processor/reader/writer and does 100% of the planning and execution independently. I would say Serbicki is a hard-ish grader who offers specific, detailed feedback; DD has managed to maintain an A both years, but started off each course with one or two lower essay scores before she figured out how to write for each course. Last year was obviously a weird year, but she scored a 5 on the Lang exam. She’ll be taking the the Lit exam in a few weeks; fingers-crossed for another good score. Let me know what specific questions you have and I’ll ask DD. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaSprout Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 9 hours ago, Roadrunner said: I also know some about Bluetent, mostly that it takes two hours plus a day and has a lot of moving components. Plus it’s on moodle platform. However, it has been a while since I heard anybody review BT course, so would appreciate recent experiences. This was all true as of this year. Dd is grateful to have had Mrs. T. She has grown a lot as a writer and feels prepared for the exam next week. I don't know about the new instructors. Dd has decided she doesn't have interest in taking any more AP classes, though, lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourisenough Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 One additional thing I should have mentioned above: my DD took Honors Pre-Calculus and Honors Bio at BT this year. She has taken classes from many different providers, but BT was her favorite, by a long stretch, in terms of their portal/platform and consistent organization. She describes it as intuitive and very easy to navigate, so much so that she decided to take three of next year’s courses at BT: AP Calc, AP Bio, and Senior English. I mention this because their platform seemed to be a deterrent/negative for you (if I’m interpreting your comment above correctly). I believe it was completely new this year, so it’s possible it has been overhauled and improved. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 7 minutes ago, fourisenough said: One additional thing I should have mentioned above: my DD took Honors Pre-Calculus and Honors Bio at BT this year. She has taken classes from many different providers, but BT was her favorite, by a long stretch, in terms of their portal/platform and consistent organization. She describes it as intuitive and very easy to navigate, so much so that she decided to take three of next year’s courses at BT: AP Calc, AP Bio, and Senior English. I mention this because their platform seemed to be a deterrent/negative for you (if I’m interpreting your comment above correctly). I believe it was completely new this year, so it’s possible it has been overhauled and improved. Funny you mentioned it. So we are huge fans of BT calculus course. Actually we are huge fans of the teacher. Platform wasn’t an issue at all because most work was done in webassign. Calculus didn’t have many moving parts. I had one of my kids take the intro English course though at BT, and while it was probably a very right course for many kids, it wasn’t for us. He was chasing his tail constantly trying to line up all the ducks. Sooo many moving parts. And we thought moodle made it worse. But I also realize that nobody in our house juggles things well. So you know how homeschoolers go fill up buckets with books at a library and bring them home to read? We tried once. I nearly had a heart attack trying to keep straight what was where, what was read..... we are one book per trip type of people. One. We don’t get a second one until we finish reading the one we have. Everybody in our house basically is the same. BT English felt like a laundry basket full of books on a weekly basis. Great stuff, but not for people who struggle with organizational issues. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 Does anybody know of an English teacher who takes red pen approach? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammydog Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 I just signed up my DD for BT's AP Literature. She has good organizational skills so hopefully that won't be an issue. The teacher's reviews and the course description both reference detailed feedback, which is at minimum what we're looking for since there is no live component. Does anyone have a read on the amount of writing feedback given in Christine Proctor's AP Lit class? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted May 10, 2021 Share Posted May 10, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, fourisenough said: One additional thing I should have mentioned above: my DD took Honors Pre-Calculus and Honors Bio at BT this year. She has taken classes from many different providers, but BT was her favorite, by a long stretch, in terms of their portal/platform and consistent organization. She describes it as intuitive and very easy to navigate, so much so that she decided to take three of next year’s courses at BT: AP Calc, AP Bio, and Senior English. I mention this because their platform seemed to be a deterrent/negative for you (if I’m interpreting your comment above correctly). I believe it was completely new this year, so it’s possible it has been overhauled and improved. We haven’t been as impressed with Blue Tent’s platform. My kid doesn’t really like it, it seems to be more challenging to see what grades have been assigned, and I feel I have comparatively less information on the assignments and grades than, say, Canvas. I also find it really weird that at any one moment in time, in various places, my kid has three different percentages for a grade. I’m not saying the platform is so bad it would stop me from future enrollment, but I am not a big fan. Edited May 10, 2021 by stripe typo 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted May 10, 2021 Author Share Posted May 10, 2021 (edited) I almost should be asking, for a kid who isn’t a natural writer and needs real feedback (not just lip service of a feedback as I call rubrics), and who doesn’t want an overwhelming course, what comes to mind? I would like a more technical course, if you know what I mean, out of those choices. @stripethats exactly how we felt about moodle. We are most definitely Canvas people here. Edited May 10, 2021 by Roadrunner 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted May 12, 2021 Share Posted May 12, 2021 (edited) On 5/10/2021 at 11:24 AM, Roadrunner said: I almost should be asking, for a kid who isn’t a natural writer and needs real feedback (not just lip service of a feedback as I call rubrics), and who doesn’t want an overwhelming course, what comes to mind? I would like a more technical course, if you know what I mean, out of those choices. Every time I search for discussions on here about English, I come across older threads that have ALL been started by you. So I am very interested in what you’re thinking these days (and what you have tried). Edited May 12, 2021 by stripe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted May 12, 2021 Author Share Posted May 12, 2021 34 minutes ago, stripe said: Every time I search for discussions on here about English, I come across older threads that have ALL been started by you. So I am very interested in what you’re thinking these days (and what you have tried). Ohhhh, that’s terrible ☺️ I will PM you 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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