Fountain Valley High School Reviews
17816 Bushard, Fountain Valley, California 92708, United States
I took AP Euro last year. I know a lot of people may dislike his class, but honestly even taking it online through hybrid, his class was my absolute favorite so far. His lectures were far more interesting than anything you'd find on an AP book. He has so many artifacts from WWII and WWII along with tons of video clips and stories about his own family background with the war. His class is fast-paced and incredibly straightforward. The only problems I can come up with are with tech (but you usually wouldn't need tech with the AP exam anyway). He doesn't assign a lot of homework, but things like the written homework used to take me at least 2 hours every day to formulate. Overall, don't take his class if you're just looking for the AP credit and doing tons of practice exams and random AP strategies to get a good score. Only take this class if you have a genuine interest in history and want to take in everything he says in the lectures (which tend to be more story-times). I barely studied the AP exam, but still passed with a 5, thanks to his storytimes everyday :))
Mrs. Barro is extremely friendly, fun, enthusiastic, passionate, enthusiastic, and student-orientated (I really mean it! You can tell immediately when conversing with her). This year (2021-22), she has emphasized communication between her and students, and has openly expressed her desire to be flexible and work with students about how the class should work (meaning, if you have any concerns, Mrs. Barro will be more than welcome and happy to hear them! Just be respectful, of course). I can tell she loves teaching, and it really shows during her class lectures when she's going up and about with hand gestures and a little oomph; like the energy she emits can just brighten anyone's day up or at least bring a smile to your face! (I genuinely mean this! ). I think there are 2 main reasons why someone would love a class they're taking: 1. They have a huge fascination in the subject. And 2. The teacher is awesome! And in my opinion, Mrs. Barro ABSOLUTELY exemplifies and encapsulates that amazing connection between teachers and students needed to inspire the students to be active learners and expand their ever-growing horizons! My only complaint is that Mrs. Barro used to have graded pop quizzes in class, where the students wouldn't know in advance which day they would have a quiz on the chapter they're learning (meaning, the quiz could be on any day of the week). The intent of this was to push the students to consistently study and be prepared, but I have to respectfully disagree with Mrs. Barro on this one. Pop quizzes are just added stress and anxiety and I feel that they actually inhibit a students' ability to learn/study since that added stress can do wonders on the mind. Allowing students to know ahead of time when the quiz will be (as is normal with most teachers) allows ample time for the students to study, gain/improve confidence in the concepts they're learning, and overall have a smooth, streamlined, and enjoyable learning experience. Plus, quizzes should be treated as progress report checks to allow students to know where they're at in the learning process and know which concepts they need to study more. And so I actually do support the idea of pop quizzes, but not that they should be graded. Graded quizzes should be announced ahead of time, while non-graded auizzes are ok with being announced suddenly. I feel that having the pop quizzes given out as a grade doesn't do students justice since it again, adds unnecessary stress, but also can be demotivating to students wanting to actively learn. Students should feel at ease, calm, and comfortable when taking pop quizzes since it's a progress report check on their understanding of the concepts. But this is just my opinion on the matter and of course, it's up to Mrs. Barro to teach the way she thinks is best for our learning experience, b/c after all, I think students should remember that teachers want to help them and actually care, believe it or not, about our academic success not just in school, but in life! - Connor Tran (2021-2022, I wrote the 1st review on Oct 29, 2021. I originally wrote this as an additional comment, but it doesn't pop up to view on Rate my Teachers, so I'm putting it here as an actual review :)