Hello and welcome to a new school year!

After all the challenges and unexpected lessons learned over the past year and a half, I'm sure we are ALL ready for a new start. I know that I am thrilled to start a new school year and hopefully do as many labs and fun activities as possible! 

As a blanket statement for all students - Honors Biology and AP Environmental Science - and parents of students. PLEASE communicate with me about any questions, concerns, or thoughts that you may have. I am more than willing to discuss anything you want to discuss and to help you with anything that you need help with, I just have to know you need it! Communication will be the key to starting successful, and maintaining that level of success.

For those taking Biology...

Biology and science in general is a true passion of mine that I can't wait to share with everyone I meet. Throughout the course, we will explore a lot of very interesting material, and I will hopefully be able to mold your thought process into one of a scientist. You will find that throughout the semester, I continue to ask questions that you may not know the answer to, but want to know what YOU think and WHY you think that. It's not always about being right, it's about how you get to being right. Never hesitate to ask a question! I want to pass along some advice from some students I had last year. "Don't put off for tomorrow what you can get done today." "Don't procrastinate." "Start out organized, and stay organized!" "Participate in the warmups. It'll help in many ways."

As most of you know, we now teach science by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The NGSS are a more progressive, skill based set of standards, and will be used throughout EVERY science course from here on out, and will culminate at the end of the third science course (physics or chemistry) with the Maryland Integrated Science Assessment (MISA). Each course will build upon core science practices and skills while using the course content as a framing structure. I believe that you guys should be pretty familiar with this from your middle school days. Of course, things will change a little bit now that the exploratory exercises of a normal classroom will need to be adjusted, but I will still do all that I can to make sure that you get to be as hands-on as possible.

Keep in mind as well that this is NOT like last year in any way in regards to grading. The lowest grade that you can get is now a zero, not a 40% and that will make a HUGE difference on your grades. It isn't like last year either where grades cannot go below a certain percentage. You can earn anywhere from a zero percent to a 100%. I think you want the latter! I can't stress enough how much those zeroes hurt your grade.

For APES students...

As we begin a new year, I'm so excited about this course. I've learned a lot over the past year and have so many new things to implement and augment the curriculum with.  There's a lot of material that we have to go through, but I hope to present it in a way that makes it just as interesting and enjoyable to you as it is to me. I am incredibly passionate about environmental science and hope that some of this rubs off on you. The course material is fascinating - we cover everything from biology, to politics, to economics, to ethics, to job potential, and so much more. Most kids walk away saying it was one of, if not the most, interesting class they took. 

Strangely, a lot of students sign up for APES because they hear its the "easiest" of the AP science courses. I'll tell you that this couldn't be further from the truth! If you signed up for it purely for this reason... you may want to reconsider. Of the 26 or so AP courses, APES consistently is one of the lowest scores across all AP exams (seriously, bottom three https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores/score-distributions). This by no means says that you can't be successful, it just means that you have to put work into the class. (Our school scored SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the national averages.) Don't underestimate it like many across the planet do! I promise that regardless of how you do on the AP exam, you will take a lot away from the course and you will have fun. While I say that, I want to also mention that last year's group had 13 out of 17 students who took the exam score a 4 or a 5! So... trust the process!!

Finally, I'd like to add that I utilize a variation of a flipped-classroom model. In other words, you do ALL of the textbook reading at home, then we do activities and discussions with the material in class. 

Coaching/Advising

If you are an ice hockey player or intend on becoming an ice hockey player, please contact me! I am the school-based, assistant coach for the Kent Island High School Varsity and Junior Varsity ice hockey teams. We take players of all skill levels - from the kid who has played since he was three, to the kid that wants to start as a junior or senior, all are welcome! In other words, there is NO experience necessary for you to join the team. All we ask for is enthusiasm and a positive attitude! We'll take care of the rest. If you want any information at all, please ask! 

I also work with Mrs. Andrea Schulte as the NHS advisers. This is my sixth year with the program and we are working diligently to keep acquiring more activities and events to put into our club's calendar. For more information on National Honor Society - how to become a member, what the requirements are, what the benefits are, etc. - please e-mail me! We have a great program with a lot of amazing students and are actively seeking out ways for us to be more involved in the school and the local community.

For everyone...

CHECK YOUR EMAIL EVERY DAY! In fact, I highly recommend having your email open the entire school day so that you can see what new updates you have. 

If there are EVER any questions about grades or a lack of understanding about material, please, let me know. I am more than willing to work with anyone, BUT I need you to make the effort. Simply reach out to me, and we will make something work. I love getting questions and trying to figure out the answers together, so make sure that during class you are open to thinking and applying new ideas.

Please, check Schoology DAILY to find any assignments and/or to turn in assignments to me. If there isn't an assignment submission link in the stream, please e-mail me about that specific assignment. 

The syllabi for my classes are provided in the link to the left. If there are any further questions, feel free to e-mail me or talk to me before/after class.

Thanks,

Mr. Hazy

P.S.

My picture is from a trip down to Costa Rica in 2019 with current and former students! I WILL be taking another trip this coming summer, 2022, to Hawaii! If you're interested in jumping onto this opportunity, please ask for more details!!