You are on page 1of 2

Hello parents / guardians,

Welcome to the new school year! We had a long wet summer, and it already
feels like fall. This is a very exciting year at Chicago Academy High School
because we were able to welcome every student with a chromebook. We are in
fact the only CPS school to provide 1:1 technology! What a learning opportunity
for our students! This year I am teaching Regular & Honors Biology, and Junior
Seminar, and am very excited to be working with your children.
Students in biology have started learning about evolution, and how we can say that these changes continuously happen in
nature. We are already working on labs, and the current lab helps students virtually collect and analyze data to decide
whether environmental factors contributed to the evolution of Stickleback fish. In Junior Seminar, we started by
reviewing goals for this year, and have now moved on to rotations of Science, Math , and Reading. In Science we are
spending a good amount of time working on Reading Graphs & Charts because this makes up the bulk of ACT Science.
Every students is also connected with teachers and students via Schoology, a social platform for education, where they
will be able to see their assignments, homework and grades. I am sure most of you have already signed up for parent
accounts, but in case you need one, or are having difficulty with it, please see/email Mr. Ronald Carroll
(rcarroll2@cps.edu).
Please feel free to contact me via email or Schoology as we make this a great year for your student.
Thanks,
Saswati Koya



S E P T E MBE R 2 01 4
C
h
i
c
a
g
o

a
c
a
d
e
m
y

h
i
g
h

s
c
h
o
o
l





B
i
o
s

l
o
g
o
s

A WO RD o r t wo Ab o ut g rad e s .
September is National
Emergency Preparedness
Month. Are you prepared?
Uncommon respiratory
enterovirus found in the
Midwest
www.idph.state.il.us

These viruses are transmitted
through close contact with an
infected person, or by touching
objects or surfaces that are
contaminated with the virus and
then touching the mouth, nose,
or eyes. Symptoms of this illness
can include fever, runny nose,
sneezing, coughing and body
aches. Because this virus has not
been reported commonly, the full
spectrum of illness it can cause is
not well known.
NE WS ! NE WS ! NE WS !
CPS PORTAL for STU-
DENTS & PARENT S:
You can always login and check
your childs progress report
and report card grades at:
https://parent.cps.k12.il.us/pc/
default.aspx

PROGRESS REPORTS:
When you see the progress re-
ports please be mindful of the fact
that grades get updated on a regu-
lar basis, and so Progress Report
grades and Schoology grades may
be different.
Please email me if you have any
questions.
SCHOOLOGY:
Student ASSIGNMENTS,
GRADES, and more are
available here.
www.schoology.com www.schoology.com www.schoology.com
Contact Ronald Carroll Contact Ronald Carroll Contact Ronald Carroll
(rcarroll2@cps.edu)if you need (rcarroll2@cps.edu)if you need (rcarroll2@cps.edu)if you need
help. help. help.
Contact:
Mrs. Saswati Koya
(773)534-0146
skoya@cps.edu
Chicagoacademybiology.weebly.com
Chicago academy high
school
In class we have started the year with
studying Biological Evolution.
Understanding evolution is key to getting a
good understanding of biology, and also
provides students with a very good
opportunity to make sense of human origin and
evolution. I have been teaching for more than
twenty years now, and teaching evolution
always bring around some challenges because
of peoples religious beliefs. In class we do not
disrespect or challenge anyones beliefs or
sentiments, but concentrate on looking at
scientific evidences.
We are currently working on a couple
simulation labs and model creations to see
what students understand of the origin of life
and evolutionary process. I am hoping to
engage in a few lively discussions with the
students in the upcoming weeks.
In the Chicago Public Schools system,
Biology is the only required science class.
Students are required to study biology because
it lends a very good understanding of
themselves and their environment. It helps
them take better decisions with regards to
their body, their health, and those of their
families.
Starting this year all schools in Illinois are
required to implement the Next Generation
Science Standards in their science classes,
and in my class we will be studying the four
standards listed to the left. We are also
continuing with our Illinois Learning
Standards and the College Readiness
Standards because all students are still
required to take the ACT and the PSAE in
their junior year.
RE GUL AR & HONORS bi ol ogy
J UNI O R S E MI NA R
G E T T I N G R E A D Y F O R T H E A C T
Junior Seminar is a class that prepares
students for those high stakes tests that help
secure their place in a college of choice.
Research has repeatedly shown that higher
education leads to better jobs and overall
happier lives. A competitive ACT score opens
more college doors, and better scholarship
opportunities. As a college prep high school
we constantly prepare and push our students to
challenge themselves to up their scores.
This year a big change for juniors testing
schedule is that the CPS test dates are in
March instead of April. Though this means
that we will have a little less time in hand,
students will be prepared in a way that they
will be ready to do their best.
In class, they have already looked over
their transcripts with their counselor and
every student clearly knows what credit and
non-credit classes they need for graduation.
They have also been shown any deficiencies
they may have in their transcripts, and advised
ways by which they can fix those. We also
started working on skills development and
improvement in the areas of reading, math and
science, and students are regularly taking
lessons, learning strategies, and testing their
skills by taking quizzes. We are using
Prepme, an online portal to work on these
skills, but are also supplementing with outside
resources.
Students are encouraged to start looking
at colleges they are interested in, and also visit
colleges during our Field Study dates.
HS-LS1 From Molecules to Or-
ganisms: Structures and Process-
es

HS-LS2 Ecosystems: Interactions,
Energy, and Dynamics

HS-LS3 Heredity: Inheritance
and Variation of Traits

HS-LS4 Biological Evolution:
Unity and Diversity

You might also like