Strongsville AP Students Aren't Letting Strike Stop their Learning
With teachers on the picket lines, high schoolers are teaching themselves
Advanced Placement students at Strongsville High School have banded together to form the AP Army and are basically teaching themselves during the ongoing teachers' strike.
The AP student meet in the media center for most of the school day, working in study groups and even dividing up into classes.
"Students study together and even deliver lectures of new material to each other based on our own independent study," said Ryan Lawler, a senior.
The group has also launched a website, AParmy.weebly.com, to serve as a "resource for the dedicated AP students of Strongsville High School."
"While there may be some occasional chaos, confusion, and general apathy among several of the classes at the high school, we, as AP students, need to keep our act together and remain self-motivated so that we can still perform well on the AP tests this coming May," the site says.
It includes tabs with study material and assignments for each AP class and has gotten more than 2,000 hits, Lawler said.
Lawler said the school administration and aides have helped the students create an atmosphere where they can learn, and said some of the substitute teachers have also assisted.
The website says that with no way of knowing how long the strike will last, the AP kids have to stay focused.
"There's more to our school than just kids yelling and twerking in the hallways," it says.
Related stories:
Teachers' Strike Day 1: Picket Lines in Strongsville
Strongsville Teachers Vote to Strike
Schools Face Deficit, But Teachers' Strike Could Erase It
A Few Teachers Cross Picket Line; One Teacher Says She was Hit By Car
No New Talks Set in Teachers' Strike; Sides Still Far Apart
Strongsville Teachers Shout at Subs as They Apply to Replace Them
Scene at the High School 'Chaotic,' Students Say
Strongsville Teachers Won't Honor Subs' Grades During Strike
School Board Files Unfair Labor Practice Charge Against Teachers' Union
Teachers' Union Criticizes School Board for Truancy Policy
Strongsville Teachers, School Board End Talks with No Deal
200 Subs Now in Strongsville Schools
Picketer Arrested for Blocking Driveway
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Sville Will
3:57 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
AP students are more mature than the sheep (SEA teachers) that are following the out of touch union managers. Go students!
John Strong
4:00 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Attention Strongsville Teachers::
Everybody is replaceable.........................................
Remove your grand illusions that you are not replaceable..........
Morgan
4:22 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Our teachers are not replaceable. I take part in the AP study group every day, and its fantastic that everyone is maintaining the motivation to learn on their own and prepare for these upcoming AP exams. However, we are still not getting the same clear, focused instruction from the administration/subs/each other that we would be getting from our real teachers. I am going to continue my education and prepare for my AP exams without my teachers, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't be better off with them there. The extremely intelligent, kindhearted, and overall fantastic educators of Strongsville that I have been so lucky to have had for the past 13 years are not as replaceable as you may assume. You aren't the ones in the classroom every day, the students are.
Ryan
4:28 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Well said, Morgan!
Sville Trouble
6:11 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Sorry Morgan...but they are replaceable. Everyone is. That is a fact of life that you don't learn in High School. I am sure that those teachers who have been working with you have been wonderful and helped you out immensely. But right now, they have brought you in to a situation that no student deserves to be in under any circumstance.
I hope they come back soon for your sake. Your High School years are irreplaceable and the actions of the SEA are ruining them and putting your futures at risk.
Great job to all of the students who have stepped up in these trying circumstances. I am sure you will go far!
Bernie Madoff
9:17 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Morgan, I can appreciate you chiming in as a student and exercising your right to your opinion, but let me lend you a bit of experience from the real world: Everyone is replaceable. I'm going to guess that students 5 years ago said the same thing about their teachers. Guess what? Some of those teachers are now retired or perhaps (not likely), lost their jobs. Did the classes they taught cease to exist after they vacated the school? I highly doubt it. Now they have become the new "irreplaceable" teacher. The cycle will continue. Sorry kid, but you're argument holds about as much weight as a Bill Gates' barbell.
Tad Taderson
4:09 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Great work kids...check out MOOC (I'm sure you already have). A lot of thought leaders see this as the way we will be learning effeciently and effectively in the future.
StrongsvilleMother
6:44 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
I heard that some student asked Mr. Scott for help in preparing for the AP tests while the strike goes on and he told them NO. But remember it is all about the kids. Sure it is.
Lucy Mae
7:58 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Strongsville parent and tax payer: Fire them all. This is not the time to have your hand out. We are all having problems with the economy and have no sympathy for your woes. You work 8 mos/yr, no evenings, weekends, holidays or summers. You make more than most of the parents here and we do half your work, with 2-3 hrs of homework, etc. You make more than nurses who keep your children well and alive, now what exactly are you doing??
Former 13 year Sville Resident
8:02 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Two of the ugliest words in the English Language are "I heard".....sorry not trying to start drama here but there have been so many rumors flying around on both ends of the situation....
Linda T.
9:07 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Well said.. In so few words. Thank you..it is nice to read a post without name calling and derogatory comments.
dh
11:25 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Facts are facts. Over $60k average salary for 9 months of work? Benefits that are better than the average worker. 15 sick days? A term life insurance policy for $100k paid for by us tax payers? READ the actual contracts. In the 80's Reagan fired the airc traffic controllers, replaced all of them. No planes went down. If someone does not like their working conditions, guess what.....they get another job. Fire them all
Frazee's Brain
8:31 am on Friday, March 8, 2013
Where is this magical world of qualified teachers? Teachers that will just accept whatever contract you offer them. Teachers that will never ask for more. Teachers that don't care how many kids are in the classroom. Teachers that don't eat lunch. Teachers that can get all their work done during the school day. Where are they? Those in place right now are talented at pressing "PLAY" on the DVD player, letting students lead the class because they don't understand the material, and talking about porn.
Student
2:38 am on Friday, March 8, 2013
Our teachers are harder to replace than you think
Student
3:13 am on Friday, March 8, 2013
Clearly they are not easily replaced since the " highly qualified" substitutes the board hired are unable to teach ap subjects and the ap students therefore must teach themselves
dh
6:44 am on Friday, March 8, 2013
Listen student, when you get out in the real world you will realize how wrong the teachers are. Do not defend what you are obviously uninformed about. Work for 20 years then come back and let's see what your posts will look like.
Larry
10:28 am on Friday, March 8, 2013
What a mess.
Is this Strongsville OH year 2013?
Some posts makes it look like Salem MA year 1692.
I'm watching a witch hunt unfold before my eyes.
Strike!! How dare they! Fire them all!!
Burn the witches!
We will bring in new cheaper, thinner, better looking, smarter, docile and obediant witches. Then what? will everyone get a 40% rebate on taxes? Hire 40% more teachers 153 more?
If not... call in replacement politicians? Two years from now... What if the ungrateful replacements dare to breathe a word of a levy? Benifits or maybe a pay increase?
No problem re assemble the mob re light the torches dust off the pitch forks and burn the new witches!
Face west toward MI and beckon Huffmaster to deliver another batch of teachers plenty more where the others came from.
So goes the district.
Another bit of news the (few) incompetent teachers in place were not hired by the union they were hired by MANAGEMENT The union has the job and obligation to defend members within the four corners of the contract that mangement agreed to.
Management needs to build a case and remove under performers.
Union reps do not like poor performers any more than management.
Who is right? I do not know.
Flip a coin and settle.
John Strong
12:57 pm on Friday, March 8, 2013
Larry
Perfect lets do it better than what we got know...........
Over paid living off of taxpayers teachers on strike.................
Amazed citizen
12:59 pm on Friday, March 8, 2013
LOL John, I think you have no idea what Larry wrote...And the subs are not better than what you have "know".
SHSstudent
1:49 pm on Friday, March 8, 2013
want to see how shs students are behaving? or what their opinions on all this are? watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYfRDQAWYPs&safe=active&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1
Student
1:51 pm on Friday, March 8, 2013
How do you parents know the subs are better. YOU AREN'T THE ONES IN THE CLASSROOM! we are and we are telling you these subs can't teach! Now stop fighting the teachers and work with them because fighting and being divided isn't going to get anyone anywhere.