9 May - Victory Day and End of the Week

English 11

It was a good end to the week in English 11. We took time to finish our assignments from Unit 4 to include our formative assignments and our summative assignments. Be sure that you're focused on submitting any assignments this weekend so that I can update the gradebook and send out formal progress reports on Monday. Remember that you've got your summatives (Drama Project and Vocabulary) and then formatives (Game Plan and Reading Bank). Don't get zeroes here at the end of the year, get your work submitted and let me know what I can do to help!

At the end of class, we started A Raisin in the Sun as a means of understanding our final challenge of the year - the design challenge. With this play, Hansberry is designing a solution to a problem. This is a great way for us to prepare and see the way in which we are acting as authors to design solutions with reasoning. We'll keep reading, viewing, and studying across the next few days. 

21 April - Welcome Back!

English 11

Welcome back, everyone! I'm so excited to have seen so many of you today. For those who were away, know that you were missed. I look forward to seeing you, soon! Today was a bit of an everything day as we worked through some key reading tasks. I hope that everyone will note my intentionality in the next few classes. It's all about reading right now as we do our final preparations for the Reading SOL. Personally, I'm a bit anxious about this test because it's an unknown for a lot of us; however, I'm sure that if we work together to prepare with purpose, we'll do great things together! On to the recap...

We started out with some time for reading. We're in different places with our plays, which is okay, but the goal is the same. You should be done reading the majority, if not all of your play, by Friday. I've posted videos and audio books to help. In some cases, watching while reading will really help. Plays are meant to be seen, ya know. After reading, we processed by discussing and note taking. I loved the engagement and connections we drew between stories. Be sure that you're actively checking in with your Reading Review Bank assignment after every class. You should be getting more devices each day. Check in with a peer or with me if you need help.

After lunch we played a bit of a bonus round from our discussion before vocabulary. The end of the day was independent working time. If you're missing the Vocabulary Summative from Day 68, that's a major priority. You can do the test or the project, but it needs to be done. Zeroes will go in the gradebook on Friday. We also need to finish up the MAP test. If you already started it, you can probably finish it in a LT B or C. If you haven't started, you might want to reserve a whole LT for this. I appreciate that many of you made appointments.

As always, reach out with questions! I'm here to help as much as I can. We've got about three weeks until our Reading SOL and six weeks til finals...Let's finish strong!

13 January - Happy New Year

English 11

Great day today, y'all. It was so good to see everyone and reconnect after the extended winter break. Today we had a bit of a strange class because we divided at the beginning, but then we came back together and finished strong as a whole group. The main focus of this unit will be our book studies. We'll be doing a lot of reading, thinking, discussing, and processing of these books and what they're telling us about the United States. Today we looked at the major assignments that we'll be completing related to this book and began to make our group contract. We finished class with some vocabulary work.

I also gave out progress reports today for the end of the quarter. If you are missing a major assignment, it's important to get that in as soon as possible. If you are interested in retaking the reading test or in revising your letter, these are also available to you to raise your scores at the end of the quarter. I'm available for Lion Time on Wednesday and Friday to help with retakes, revisions, or with dropping zeroes. Please put in a pass as soon as you can. Enjoy your books! Enjoy your day! I'll see you on Wednesday!

23 September - Kicking Off the Week

English 11

Today we had time for our first round of feedback and grades. I know that there was a lot of information provided to you today, so here's the basic recap. You get two types of grades - summative (70%) and formative (30%). We generally get grades in three types of skills - reading, writing, and oral communication. Today you got back grades and feedback on reading, writing, and oral communication. We looked at the feedback, understood what it meant about where we are right now, and understood how grades and feedback can help us get to where we want to be. Now what we'll do is start the journey for improvement.. 

The bulk of class after that was focused on our first poem - "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus. What we did in this part of class was do a close reading of the poem to identify key literary devices from this unit. We explored how they created tones and added to the character of the Statue of Liberty in the poem. Then, we put it all together to understand the theme for the audience. Keep in mind that this type of thinking and reading is what we'll need to do in our project as well as how to be successful in class. Continue to practice with this as you work with your project.

Next class we'll take time to do our last reading of this unit and also have time to work on our projects. It's time for us to start preparing for our unit assessment, as well. Be ready to move on to Unit 2 in the next few classes.

17 September

English 11

Another solid day today in English 11 as we finished studying "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" by Tim O'Brien from his novel called The Things They Carried. If you're interested in reading more from this book, let me know if you'd like to check out a copy. It's a fantastic collection!

In class we did some practice SOL problems before our reading time. I loved the engagement, the notes, and the ideas that you all got to when it came to our discussion on American problems reflected in the story. At the end of class, we took time for finishing missing work and preparing for our quiz on Thursday.

Focus on learning your vocabulary for next class. You have a quiz coming! Remember to complete the practice assignment for a grade - I attached it here. We'll get into our first projects next class and some feedback on the first essays. Here's to Thursday!

End of the Week - Homecoming Friday

English 11

It's Friday the 13th and the end of a busy week at Fairfax High School. Solid end to the week today in English 11. We had picture day, and we completed our first timed essay. Remember that in this class, grades replace. This first essay is often the worst of the whole year. As we learn and grow, we'll be rewarded for that. Continue to do your part. Be actively engaged in class, and focus on improvement! I'll have feedback for you next week.

Over the weekend, be sure to complete your syllabus form, your discussion board post, and study for your vocabulary quiz. Be sure to complete your practice assignment. If you were absent or need to get caught up. Make a plan for Lion Time next week. Request a pass on Securly and I'll approve. All the best for a great Homecoming and weekend!

Getting into September - Mid Week Check-ins

English 11

Thank you all for being so good while we had technology problems in class today. Unfortunately, this means that we won't have a recording for today posted over on Schoology. Oh well. 

Today's class started with a quotation response in our notebooks followed by our first graded class discussion. Y'all did a fantastic job reviewing the four authors that we've read so far and discussing some of their major conflicts, resolutions, and perspectives in their texts. We made some great connections between the various authors as well. Some of these connections were a bit ironic, but that makes them even more powerful. As we keep going through this unit and year, consider how more texts combine together to create richer meanings and ideas.

We started reading one of the longest pieces of this unit called "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" by Tim O'Brien. This is a war story that blends a bit of fact and fiction. We'll finish the story next week. To end our day, we looked at vocabulary. Remember that you have a quiz next week (Thursday). Be sure to complete your review assignment before Thursday. Don't forget that you also have your discussion board due this week.

On Monday we had a good day as we read and studied "The Gettysburg Address" by Abraham Lincoln to review the ideas of the rhetorical situation as well as the ways in which emotions are created in a text by an author for a purpose. We also closed out our first vocabulary list. We'll have time next class and Friday to prepare for next week's first quiz. Remember to focus on learning the words and their meaning. This will take you into most of the quiz. 

Next class is Picture Day! We'll take pictures at the beginning of class. After that, we'll take lunch and finish our day with writing. I hope you enjoyed today. See you on Friday!

1 April - Welcome Back, No Foolin!

AP Language

Welcome back, everyone! I hope that you found some time over the break to rest, recuperate, and relax. The trip to Mexico was a blast. I think my top highlight was seeing whales in the ocean each morning while I was having breakfast. The breakfast was pretty tasty too with all sorts of tropical fruits, juices, and Mexican flavors and products - like cactus (yum, nopales!)

If you have finished with your copy of Invisible Man, please have it ready to return. I'd like to get all the books processed. If you see a stray Gatsby around, be sure to bring him back to me too. If you have any work left to submit, now is the final time to do so. I am still missing a few annotated bibliographies in both classes. Be aware that failure to submit this major reading assignment will negatively affect your grade for the third quarter and could drop you as low as a D. My grades will be finalized and submitted at 3:00 on Tuesday, April 2. If you would like your work scored and reported on this report card, your deadline is clear.

Next class we'll be taking time to understand this final major unit of the year and take time to understand and complete our presentations of research. I'm excited to see you all very soon!

Thanksgiving Break - 20 November

AP Language

Happy Thanksgiving AP Language! I hope that all of you have a wonderful break filled with people and things that you love. I'm gone to Oregon to be with my aunts, cousins, uncle, and my grandparents. For class today you have a pretty simple day focused on your project work for the end of The Great Gatsby. The substitute form is posted below. Here's your checklist for your day with the substitute:

1. Be sure that you've submitted your formative assessment. I would like to have feedback for all of you when we return from the break to lead us to our final project days.

2. Have your reading, annotating, and motif trackers done to Chapter Eight. Remember to use the recordings, slides, and earlier key passages. 

3. Decide how best to proceed once these things are done. You have Chapter Nine to read for the class after break. You may want to go ahead and read that now and finish up your motif tracker. Some of you have an idea of what you may want to do for your visual of the motif and/or your writing assignment. If you think your time is better spent on the project, spend time there. Use the materials in the classroom, but remember to clean up after yourself.

Remember that you have reading due for Monday when we return: have the book finished so we can have our final conversations on Nick, Daisy, Gatsby, Tom, and the America of the 1920's. See you after Thanksgiving Break!

31 January - The End of the Month

AP Language

Solid day in AP Language as we got our feedback from Exam 2 in all of our essential skills. The tools that you have on AP Classroom for feedback are really essential in this process of developing goals and being accountable to yourselves for your learning. Use the feedback to chart a course forward. As you read, consider the skills in which you see a weakness and apply it to your books. There are also several Progress Checks unlocked for you to practice. For the FRQ checks, come in during a Lion Time and we can review it together and I can explain your grade as I score. This is a great way to improve your writing skills.

The second part of class looked at our Synthesis SourcePack assignment. This is a crucial completion task. Remember that you're cobbling together your sourcepack to include your prompt and five to seven sources with citations. Use the examples provided in AP Classroom (Exam 2, Question 1 and Progress Check Unit 6) as well as the Synthesis Prompt PDF in Current Lessons. These are great examples of your final product. I'm also here to help. Failure to complete this assignment will mean that I choose your prompt for you.

Keep working through the research process. This is the week in which you should finish developing your question. The SourcePack Template is the most important task to complete now. Use the earlier work to complete this essential task.

AP Research

I love days like today in AP Research. They really are some of the best days. I was very pleased with the presentations we saw today for our second round of elevator pitches. We'll continue to pitch on Thursday with another round of four presentations. Remember that we're at the point in the class where the work that you see each other do and the relationships you form in this class are among your most powerful tools. I can't tell you what to do, but you can tell each other and give specific suggestions.

Continue working to collect data, write, review sources, and do the work that you need to do. Remember that you'll have a graded assignment each week to help me get grades for you this quarter. Your next graded assignment will be your plan for Unit 4 and Data Collection. Next class after our presentations we'll look at another major assessment for this unit - the BoK Analysis. Have your best source selected for next class - it'll be a great help.

End of Week 1 - Blue Day - 10 September

Good Afternoon Everyone -

Today was a great day in class - we all were engaged in some critical reading and thinking in all of our classes today as well as some getting to know each other activities. Our week in this class officially closes every Monday - so remember that assignments described below are due on Monday.

AP English Language

Today was a day to start our work on "What is America?" by looking at Thomas Jefferson's "Declaration of Independence" in order to understand the elements of and relationships between elements of the rhetorical situation. We'll be considering this with many of the texts we study this year.

For your first homework assignment, I've presented to you the "rough draft" of our document as well as a TEDEd video related to the revision of the document and Jefferson's writing process. Follow the instructions and submit your work via Google Classroom. If you have questions, please let me know via email or Office Hours.

Other graded assignments for this week are as follows: Notebook Cover + FlipGrid Recording. Tell Me About You Survey. You can also submit your Summer Assignment. It's due on Day 3 - Tuesday.

English 10

Today we investigated the idea of the "single story" by watching an EdPuzzle video and considering the connection between culture clash and stereotypes. I enjoyed our chat in the class and seeing your responses to the questions. Remember that if you didn't finish the video, or the survey, both are still available for you.

Your homework assignment is available in Google Classroom, and it will have you consider the idea of the single story in your own life. Follow the outline in the instructions to construct your slides. Be as creative as you'd like, but be sure to follow the outline. I'll be available for help via email or in Office Hours if you need me.

Other graded assignments for this week are as follows: Notebook Cover + FlipGrid Recording. Tell Me About You Survey. EdPuzzle - Single Story Questions

Also, as a final reminder for everyone, BTSN open office hours for parents will be next Monday, the 14th, from 11am to 12 pm, and next Wednesday, the 16th, from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm.  Students will need to make sure that their parents have their teachers’ office hour links and that they need to share their school laptop with their parents.

As always, let me know if you have any questions!

End of the Week - 8 May 2020

It's the end of the week! Next week we will begin AP Exams for all classes (except Russian which will occur in the first week of June). Remember to go to myap.collegeboard.org in order to access your demo, check your email address, and ensure that you are ready to test.

If you are a ninth, tenth, or eleventh grader, remember that you have the opportunity to decide how your spring semester grade will be shown on your transcript. You can either get the grade (factored into GPA) or you can get a PC19 (a pass, but no GPA). If you are trying to improve your grade be sure that you complete assignments here and when you submit, let me know if you want to improve your Semester 1 or Quarter 3 score.

Next week I will be working at school on Monday to distribute signs for graduating seniors - assignments for the week will be posted on Sunday afternoon. I will not be available for Office Hours on Monday, but I will be free on Tuesday for extra time if you need me.

Special Announcement - Freshmen through Juniors

Dear Underclassmen (Russian, AP Research),

You have the opportunity to now improve your academic standing by completing work assigned via remote instruction. You can add points to your S1 or Q3 grade by completing assignments. All of you are currently passing, so this is just gravy to improve academic standing and improve your GPA.

Any work must be submitted by May 25. You can email me, submit on Google Classroom or DuoLingo, or you can send me screenshots of your work. Just be sure that you tell me where you want me to put the points.

I'll continue to post assignments next week and the week after to give you opportunities to improve your Russian skills and academic standing. There are plenty of assignments already available on Google Classroom/DuoLingo to begin this process.

As always, let me know if you have questions or concerns.

Beginning of Week Two - Phase Two // 13 April 2020

Good morning everyone! Welcome to Week Two. Today is technically a holiday for Durham Public Schools, so I will not be available today. I will be on my regular schedule for the rest of this week. I have posted the assignments for the week in Google Classroom today and will have everything returned to you by the end of the day tomorrow if there is something waiting for my eyes. For now, let's look at the summary of our week.

AP Research: Complete Week 1 (if needed). Finish paper (original timeline). Review final section guide. Meet with me for final review. Submit paper.

AP English Lit: AP Exam Review Packet - Annotations, Outlines, Responses. Submit one essay to be scored and commented upon.

Russian 1: Begin Chapter Three. Learn about adverbs and how to use and form them. Complete DuoLingo lessons for support.

Russian 2: Begin Chapter Seven. Focus on learning plurals in all cases. Focus on the difficulty of genitive plural (tons of irregularities/exceptions).

Russian 3: Begin Chapter Nine. Using modals and imperatives to tell people what to do. Focus on aspect and how aspect choice leads to mood and emotional connotation. Videos to support.

Russian 4: Begin Chapter Twelve. Final Chapter! Learn about verbs of positioning and placement. Review conjugations.

Remember that we still have AP Examinations (Research, Literature, Advanced Russian) to prepare for and tasks to do in order to keep sharp. I am here to continue to support and help you no matter what it is that you may need right now. Please reach out. I also wanted to say a quick thing about grades.

Seniors - Any work that you submit can be added to your S1 grade. This grade will be used to determine your GPA and class rank for final transcripts this year. You will get a PC19 (Pass due to COVID-19) for the Spring Semester as long as you are passing the class in Q3. If you submit work right now I can add points to S1 or Q3 if you are not already passing Q3. The maximum number of points is TEN.

Underclassmen - Since you are not graduating this year, you will remain focused on your Q3 grade. Any work that you complete right now can be applied to your Q3 grade in order to raise your GPA/Class Rank for the year and earn a credit for the class. Again, the maximum number of points is TEN.

Snow Day #2 and the Russian III Field Trip

Hey All -

I've heard that there have been a lot of power outages in the area. I hope that everyone is able to stay safe and warm; as always, your health and safety are first priority. If you aren't able to accomplish some of your work because of issues with electricity/Internet, please let me know.

Hopefully we'll be back to school on Wednesday. I've seen that some AP English III students have submitted their synthesis writing; please do that if it is ready for me to read. I'll have scores uploaded tomorrow and comments too.

Russian III - Be aware that the trip has been postponed until the Spring. I'll be listening to your spoken presentations in two classes to be assessed. In the next class we'll be doing our dry run. Russian II - I'll also be looking at your visuals. You'll be explaining it in English.

AP Seminar's IWA scores are nearly complete. Remember that there will be a reassessment opportunity. I would suggest that if you want to ask specific questions related to your grade, please do. We can start that resubmission process a bit earlier. I would say that with those of you who have earned lower scores (below middle) did not produce an actual IWA in that it was not presenting an argument with clear limitations, implications, or objections. These papers tended to rely on summary of source material as opposed to synthesizing and applying source material toward the explanation of an argument. As of now, the scores are raw scores - they'll be converted to a scaled score once the scale is determined.

Russian I - I did not see completed projects from everyone. Those that I saw have been scored. Again, feel free to begin reassessing based on scores and feedback. You'll want to unsubmit and then resubmit. Please email me when you've finished this work. Do not use translators at all. Simply perform the task/sentences that you have been asked for. Everything else is coming very soon!

I've also graded the English IV work on A Doll's House - Make sure that you have a clear ACES response and that your work reflects the grammar rules that we have focused on especially related to punctuation and capitalization. If you can, finish and submit the rest of your projects.