Following the start of the second marking period, students can now take time to absorb their experience and reflect on the first half of the semester of the new school year. This article wraps up sophomore students’ opinions and expectations of their teachers.
The big talk of any sophomore’s classes is Cresskill’s chemistry teacher, Mr. Mejia, the honors and AP chemistry teacher. Notorious for his pop quizzes and difficult curriculum, Mr.Mejia’s class is full of up-and-down experiences. Sophomore Erin Kim states, “It definitely is challenging. But if you pace yourself and actually pay attention, the topics themselves are kind of easy to understand.” Students from past years exclaim the difficulty of his class however for at least the 1st marking period, it isn’t looking too bad for the current sophomores taking his class. Students have now found themselves studying regularly to prepare for upcoming pop quizzes, but they have also become easier to predict.
Unexpectedly, this year has taken a turn for Mr. Malinowski as he now tackles 4 classes, both honors and regular 10th-grade English. Mr. Malinoski’s classes are light and not work-heavy as most of the time is spent reading one of the multitude of literature books that are taught in his class. His quizzes are a hit or a miss since it is difficult to study without knowing what questions will appear. However, his essays have become a huge grade-changing mark for many sophomores in the first marking period. A sophomore student says, “His essays are a bit difficult because his topics are very broad and there is room for interpretation.” When comparing Mr. Mal’s quizzes and his essays, they state, “These quizzes are a lot easier because when he does read out loud in class, he goes over a lot of the topics that are important and is good at explaining what is going on.” Mr. Mal is a popular teacher that many students have become fond of, but people should be careful of reckless mistakes in the work they are handing in.
Notable for his rainbow-colored papers, Mr. Meier teaches honors U.S. history as well as AP U.S. history. So far many students have noted a positive attitude in his class. They somewhat like the curriculum and his ways of teaching. The kicker of his class, however, is the amount of homework that is given weekly. Students have learned to expect at least 1 homework assignment due every week.
Additionally, his announcements in class make everyone’s hearts drop knowing that a test or quiz is coming soon. This is 10th grader Addison Spelbrink’s experience with taking his assessments, “I think the topics themselves are easy to understand but what makes them hard is the fact that the majority of the questions are multiple-choice and all of the answers either look correct or incorrect. He makes it difficult to interpret which answer is correct because he makes two choices feel right, which can get tricky at times.” Although students share their concerns about Mr. Meier’s quizzes and tests, compared to 9th grade, Mr. Surgent’s world history class, many can say that it is not half as bad.
So far, the new school year is looking different and difficult for the class of ‘27. Tensions have risen as college is now only two years away, and so grades are becoming more important than ever. But now that we are getting into the second marking period, students are becoming more used to the levels of their classes, knowing what classes require more studying. With this growing understanding, they can balance the demands of their classes while keeping an eye on their future goals.
