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. 

25 March - End of the Quarter

English 11

An easy day to end the quarter today, everyone! I hope that you had a great day getting the time that you needed to finish up major assignments, presentations, and extend your knowledge and skills around poetry. If you were absent, we do have next week to finish up this quarter. I'm available on Wednesday, April 2, to complete any last assignments for Quarter Three. Please be in touch and make an appointment if needed. I'll continue to accept work submitted online.

Next class we'll be starting our work on Drama and Character - Unit 4. I've got some videos for you to explore, author research, and some discussion boards. I won't be with you, so you'll need to complete all of your tasks online. I posted your video to go over your tasks for Thursday's class on Schoology. I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of the plays we have coming up! As always, if you have questions, please reach out!

5 March - Happy Spring!

English 11

Happy Wednesday Everyone! It was great to be back with you all today. Today was a bit of an everything class, but we were focused on assessment of learning and improving our skills for the future. We started things off by completing our vocabulary review and studying before our quiz. I've updated the grades in the gradebook based on your most recent demonstration of your skill. Remember, if you didn't complete the review activity then the quiz will count for both. If you missed today's quiz or you'd like a retake, just make an appointment for Friday, and we'll settle it up.

After the quiz we rolled into some feedback and review on our upcoming presentations. We did a great lesson on the different types of argument because I see a lot of you needing to extend your skill to meet a new need. Think about the flavor of argument that you're presenting and be sure to include key language related to that. We also focused on the idea of defining key words and phrases with specificity and the important distinction between EFFECT and AFFECT. 

At the end of class, we took time as we needed for questions and concerns and to develop the ideas of our project. I'll begin presentations starting March 17. You can come during lunch, Lion Time, or we can do it during class. When you're ready, we'll complete the task. Remember you're getting writing grades and oral communication. Next week we'll be focused on our creative book projects - this is your reading score. If you're missing your quiz, please get that turned in by Friday to avoid a zero. The last major grade we have for this quarter is our Poetry Test. This will happen in the last weeks of the quarter. We'll do a bit more study and review before.

Let's keep crushing our goals as we move to the end of the quarter. Come visit at Lion Time for the extras you may need.

18 December - Wacky Wednesday!

English 11

Y'all gave me so many gifts today and that is records of your work and your thinking. Thank you for being so productive during our testing day. If you were absent, you'll want to schedule a Lion Time pass to take your reading test AFTER Winter Break. 

If you have missing major work, try to get that in. Let's make a plan for Lion Time when we return, if necessary. You can complete the vocabulary on your own, but please plan to work with me to do the letter. I'll be updating grades throughout the next few days, and I hope to have them finalized by the time we go out on Friday.

On Friday we'll do some book shopping to prepare for the next unit. If you'll be absent, please complete the Google Form, so I can make some recommendations for you. As always, reach out with any questions or concerns.

6 December - Friday Feels

English 11

Solid end of the week in English 11; the only bad thing was that we were missing so many of you. I hope that all of you are doing well. Today we engaged in our final reading for Unit 2 and looked at Brent Staples and Langston Hughes. We chose our adventure for reading and then dove in. We explored ideas like racism and segregation and the way in which each author used personal experience to convey their argument on the topic. We also looked at some art that engaged in similar ideas. The end of class brought out a fantastic synthesizing conversation. See the recording for all of this.

We didn't quite have the time I wanted for the end of class, so I extended your Research Write-Up to Tuesday. Tuesday will be the last day to collect evidence for your letter. We're writing on Thursday. Complete and submit the Write-Up so that you're as prepared as possible. I'll be grading and providing feedback throughout the next few days. Enjoy your weekend and your time with the substitute on Tuesday. Make it a productive day! 

7 March - Tuesday's Reminders

English 10

Easy day in English 10, a bit, as we studied our final two texts on the concept of the doppelganger, and then we took our Membean vocabulary quiz. I was really happy with everyone's attention today as you were plugged in to close reading. Remember that this strategy is great when you're reading a short text for a clear purpose. Ask yourself questions while you read. Dig into the text. Always go back to the text and lock in to support your answers.

Next class we'll have an in-class project to show what we've learned about doppelgangers. I'm excited to see your work.

2 February - Rolling into Quarter 3

AP Language

Today was our Course Selection Day - so a bit of a nothing day for us. Next week we'll get back into the research process with our lesson on the annotated bibliography and our next group meeting. Remember that the group meetings have been rescheduled due to registration. Group Meeting 3 is now on Wednesday 2/8. If you were absent today, be sure that you meet with your counselor during Lion Time in order to get your registration complete.

AP Research

Another great day with presentations. Our final four will present on Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing what we have ahead. Remember to submit your slides and have them in your PREP folder if they exist elsewhere. After we finished up our presentations, we reviewed our major assignment for this unit - the BoK Analysis. This assignment is mostly completion, you'll be copying and pasting or paraphrasing from your best source paper. The reflection question at the bottom is worth half of your points on this assignment - be specific in your response to this question.

There is a new PREP Reflection question opened for your thoughts and writing. Start to collect your Quarter 3 Reflections. Submit your plan for Weeks 22-27 by the end of next week. Have a plan and be ready to work through this portion of the course!

Kicking off Quarter 3 - 30 January

English 10

We had an easy start to the beginning of the third quarter today with our class based research day. We spent time on the databases looking for information related to our problems that we can use to fill our letter with solid evidence. Then, we pivoted and considered the person. Remember, it has to be a real person to whom you can write. You'll need to pick a person and then research them. LinkedIn is a great place to go to see their educational and working history. That can help you to write your letter and choose information that will really relate to them.

If you've fallen behind, it's time to get caught up. We'll be working on this first major assignment for part of every class this week. It's a lot of points to start the quarter! Make them count!

Thursday the 20th of October

AP Language

Solid day today in AP Language land. We discussed Joan Didion's "Keeping a Notebook" and focused on the ideas of truth, memory, and accuracy. I loved the outcomes that we came to related to the purpose of truth and the way in which it can be modified as needed. I also really enjoyed the conversation around credibility and irony. The thinking is getting pretty high level, which I enjoy. Keep in mind connections to The Great Gatsby as we are working through parallel texts. 

Over the weekend there are a few things to settle up - here they are listed out for you:

1. Complete your Unit 2 Tasks. You have a project due. Some of you are still missing vocabulary. All assignments are due so that I can complete your grading for first quarter. 

2. Select an article from the folder and read this weekend. Annotate for the ideas of power and privilege. These articles are all written by African American authors, a population absent from The Great Gatsby. We'll be having a seminar on these texts next week.

3. Begin tracking your color from The Great Gatsby. This novel exists as a PDF, so find that and use the find feature to find your color easily. Use the tracker posted and begin to track your color. I think that white, blue, green, yellow, and grey are really productive colors.

AP Research

Easy day to end the week this week in AP Research as we are in a working day. To end the quarter, you need to submit your Annotated Bibliography and your Quarter 1 PREP reflections. There will not be an additional question this week to give you the chance to get caught up. Today we spent our time in class writing, practicing our pitches, composing our posters, and/or reflecting on our research up to this point. 

Next week we'll have a short week due to Diwali - Happy Festival of Lights! We'll see a College Board lesson on turning our AB into a Literature Review and have additional time to write. Your posters and pitches will be due the week of November 1.

30 September and 1 October

AP Language

Over the weekend, you should be focused on reading in Act I of The Crucible. Begin your front and back cover annotations. Track the ideas that you collect on the covers in the body of the text. Remember don't just blindly underline or highlight. Always give a word in the margin or a symbol to remind you of what you saw.

Next week is all about The Crucible. We'll be reading Act I and Act II. You may find it helpful to read it all in one sitting - it does move pretty fast. Pay attention to irony, the characters, the elements of Puritan society that you're seeing, and especially the idea of power.

Any missing work should be submitted as soon as possible. I should have everything graded and reviewed by the end of next week. Be sure to check SIS for any updates.

English 10

Today was a great day in English 10. We took a trip to Turkey to read the work of Mr. Nazim Hikmet and his poem "Some Advice to Those Who Will Spend Time in Prison." The goal of today's class was to understand the way to analyze a poem and break it down to discover its meaning. We focused on paraphrasing the poem, finding the emotions of the poem, and noticing the shifts in the emotions. All of this led us to our theme.

Over the weekend, you may not have any homework to complete. If you have submitted your project, then you are in a great place! Be sure that your vocabulary is nearly complete and keep reading if you would like. If your project is not yet in, this is the final chance to submit without a late penalty. Complete your tasks as soon as you can - reach out for any help you may need.

Updates for All Classes - 13 March - Before the Closure

AP Research

Welcome to crazy town everyone. Over the next few days (or weeks) I hope that all of you stay safe and secure. Remember to think and be smart. Don't panic. Plan! Don't freak out. Focus!

You should continue to move forward with your work for this class as it related to your Academic Paper and Presentation/Oral Defense. I have posted the reflection questions in the document to take you to the end of the quarter. Additionally, I have posted PREP Check 3.2 to outline what is due for your final PREP Check. Be aware that you will need to be creative in your approach to peer editing during this time, but I think that you can do it.


Once I have an idea of the expectation related to instruction, I'll let you know. Let's just keep moving forward with what we know we need to do. Remember, 46 days are left until we submit!

AP Literature

If you did not complete your sonnet group projects today and submit them, please be sure that they are submitted by the end of the day on Monday so that I can assess them and get them in the gradebook for you all. Remember that we will not be evaluating each other as members of the group. Since we are not able to present in person, I would like for you to submit a recording of what you would say to accompany your slide. You could also submit a video with your slides if you would like.

Outside of this be sure that you are finishing Twelfth Night in advance of our timed writing on this text. I'll post reading and analysis guides for you next week. The timed writing will likely be the final assessment for Q3. We will return and jump into our independent novels. Go ahead and get started on your pamphlet, heck, go ahead and read a few extra books if you can!


Stay safe during this time, I'll keep you all updated as I learn more.

Russian I

Today in class we took time to work on our floor plan projects to close out Quarter 3. If you did not finish and submit your floor plan project, there is a space for you to turn it in electronically on Google Classroom.

Advanced Russian

I hope to see all of you very soon. Stay tuned to this website as well as your Google Classroom pages as that's where I'll be posting my updates for our classes.

Homework for B Day Students - 10 March 2020

AP Literature

Today in class we had time to review the various ways in which language is manipulated to create meaning in Shakespeare's sonnet as well as in key moments of Act 3. We finished our day by watching the comedy come alive as worked through the Globe Theatre production.

For tonight you should spend time reviewing Act II and III in advance of the assessment on Monday. Remember that vocabulary cards will also be collected. The tenth card can be one of your own choosing. Remember that we have multiple major assignments coming up soon to prepare for including a timed writing, MCQ, and our group presentation. Next class you should be coming in with a clear idea of what your portion of the presentation will be.



AP Research

Today was our final working day for this unit. Hopefully by the end of today you were able to get to the point that you are either done with your POD/PAPER through to the data section. If you don't have this complete, I hope that you have a clear plan by which to complete this.

I will be checking all PREP Documents for you today. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Be sure that you are continuing to work as you can daily to maintain your progress toward your eventual goals.


Our next drafting workshop will occur on March 16. We'll take another look at another sample paper before then. We also have another round of pitches coming up soon! Be ready to keep going through the process!

Homework for B-Day - January 27, 2020

AP Lit

Today in class we had some time for independent and small group study of poetry so that we could really compare and contrast the stylistics of poets in order to discover the period and other related elements of the author. This is a great skill to have as you are working with poetry - especially with the FRQ. Having the ability to discern and discuss these elements of poetry really differentiate a good essay from a great essay.

Tonight you should be focused on preparing for your assessment. On Wednesday we will have multiple choice and a full length essay. The assessment should take you one hour to complete. Any remaining time will be for you to work on your analysis and criticism projects. Hopefully if you didn't select a poem today, then you will on Wednesday. We'll begin Twelfth Night on Friday! There are also two more vocabulary cards to complete and add to your collection. Remember to include the quotation with the word as poets tend to use words in a non-traditional sense.

AP Research

Today in class we watched a POD presentation on sleep, cognition, perception, and placebos. I hope that the POD was helpful for you all in the idea of how to design your presentation in such a way that you hit your main ideas and guide your audience through the development of your conclusion.

The main task for us to work on right now is the work on our Elevator Pitch 2.0. This is a good time to do this as you have solidified much of your foundational work; having this work complete will give you the time you need to complete your data collection/analysis and the writing you have ahead of you.


We'll be presenting Elevator Pitch 2.0 this week on Friday as a major assignment. I hope that you are all beginning your process to collect and analyze your data. It's important that you are using this time to get what you need to answer your question.

Homework for B-Day - 10 September

AP Literature

Congratulations on exploring Marxism today in class. One thing that I appreciate about the critique is that it allows us to see a lot of these texts really boil down to a fight over power and control. That helps us to navigate a lot of these texts and cut through the noise.

Tonight you have Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery". As you read, consider our discussion today, and the way in which the decisions are made for the characters. How would we see Marxism help us to understand and interpret the text further?

We'll have your outlines back to you next week and we will begin the revision process then. I appreciate that so many of you are working on revising your college essays - please see me or Ms. Metcalf outside of class for additional conferencing.

AP Research

Today I unveiled our first major assignment - the source list. For this assignment you should be collecting anywhere from 40-50 sources which may end up becoming part of your literature review. As you are doing this work, you should categorize the sources into discipline specific sources / current research climate / historical background sources / variety of research methods. Remember that one source may be categorized into multiple areas. Your final product should just be a list of the sources and their category. This work is a clear outgrowth of your Reading Log.

Don't forget to review your first reflections as well as the notes I've left. Don't resolve the comments. Keep them and reflect upon them.

As you work, you may also want to start writing out your question, gap, and problem statement. How are these things changing? What is changing them?

Homework for A-Day - 9 September 2019

AP Research

Today in class we had a great time getting started on our QUESTS and delving into the first major assignment of the course which is our SOURCE LIST. The slides in Google Classroom outline the requirements for the Source List assignment. Hopefully these classes have been helpful for you in setting your pathway forward.

Remember that the assignment is due by the 20th of September. Your sources should be categorized and in APA format. All that I need is a list of your categorized sources for this assignment. Remember to continue working on Reading and Task logs as you need to.

Russian I

This week we will have our first quiz and it's on the alphabet. Today in class we practiced by writing and speaking a bit - this is a great way to prepare for what we have ahead. The quiz will cover just the letters, sounds, and some basic vocabulary.

I am also collecting handwriting packets through the week. They will be late if turned in after Friday.

For tonight, be sure that you have completed your handwriting, and that you are studying your cognate words [words that are the same in English and Russian]. Next class we'll start getting into some culture!

Advanced Russian

Today in class we reviewed how to form all three tenses in Russian - past, present, and future. And that's the main goal in tonight's homework. You should write a super short story -- three sentences, each sentence using a different tense. If you're in Russian III or IV then you should have at least six sentences. Additionally, you will need to complete your verb cards.

Wednesday's class is focused on review before the quiz on Friday. Be sure that it's productive by being prepared.

Homework for B-Day Students: 2 Hour Delay Day - 20 February

AP Seminar

Lots of changes to the Unit Plan and homework plan since I made a massive mistake in taking us through the unit. Here are the recaps for you.

Tonight - You should watch the TEDTalk and use the form I gave you in class to formalize and finish your annotations. Be sure to take notes as you watch as well. We will be having a Socratic Seminar on Friday in which we pull together major ideas between the four documents that we will have studied by Friday's class.

I'll also be forming you into your groups for the final three documents to teach the class. You'll be taking the class through your document on Tuesday!

We'll be finalizing our work with the documents and moving on to the work on the IWA very soon. Be ready to finish our first round of document study next week!

Advanced Russian and Russian I

Today most of class was devoted to a project workshop. If your project is complete it should be turned in to the space on Google Classroom. Additionally, the poems should also be presented this week. If you have not yet completed your poem; it is time to finish your memorization and get it settled up. We will have exams coming very soon to wrap up our units.

Advanced Russian

Be sure that you have finished your exercises related to verbs of motion (Russian II) as well as the work related to conditionals and hypotheticals (Russian III). Friday will be one of our wrap-up and review days as we engage in actual tasks which will help us to prepare for the exam next week. Your Unit 6/Unit 10 examination will fall on Thursday.

A good way to prepare is to correct your quiz. This work should be done by Friday.

Russian I

If you are in need of extra credit for Unit 1, then your questions at the end of Chapter 1 are the best place for you to earn that credit. There are over twenty questions at the end of the Chapter 1 Exercises which you can answer for one half point of extra credit per answer. These questions are found on page fifty-six. The questions must be answered in a complete sentence and they must be done by hand. Any evidence of translator help will invalidate the whole response.

Your examination on Unit 1 is on Friday. Extra Credit will be accepted before the examination begins or on Monday (at the latest).

AP English III Announcement - Beloved Projects

Dear AP English III Students -

By the end of the weekend I will have finished scoring the projects that have been submitted with presentations complete. There are a few of you whose work I cannot find in my email or on my Google Drive. Additionally, there are one or two of you whose work I have, but there's no rubric with a presentation complete.

Please see me Monday or Tuesday to resolve this project work so that we can move to the next unit if you see no grade in your PowerSchool account for this project.

For those of you who would like to put rubles on this work, please let me know. There will be no resubmissions for this project.

Homework for the Weekend - 30 November - A Day

AP English III

During today's class we were really focused on understanding how Chapter 5 and the arrival of Beloved act as a break or a caesura in the text. This is a clear moment that affects the characters now, and it will continue to affect them as we move forward in the text. As we investigated the changes in the characters, I want you to follow this as you keep reading by looking at the changes in the symbols in the text as well.

Over the weekend, read and annotate Chapters 6-8. As you're reading, look for symbols that we have noticed before, but also consider the way that these symbols are shifting or developing in their meaning. You're also going to want to keep an eye out for irony in the text too. As we discovered, irony really is the key device Morrison will be using through her text to communicate big understandings to us.

Remember that for Thursday we'll have the end of James Baldwin's piece as well. There will be an in-class writing/synthesis assignment on this day where you'll draw on many of our different authors to understand how many of them are developing a meaning around a particular idea.

English IV

We're spending our time working our way through Act III. Today we saw the beginnings of the end as Torvald and Nora begin to argue heatedly. For the weekend I think that it's a good idea to work on your projects if you can. We'll have a workshop in class on Tuesday, but I would suggest finishing your paragraph or other project so that we can move on to finishing the play.

Homework for Spring Break - A Day Students - 29 March 2018

And now we have all made it! My break won't start until I get through all of my grading, but that will be soon enough. Here are your reminders for what you should be doing to keep yourself busy over break.

English IV

I hope you all enjoyed the ending to Frankenstein today. Consider if what we watched can help you to better complete your essays. I'll start assessing your introduction and body paragraphs over the weekend, so check in with PowerSchool to see your scores and your document for comments.

Over break, you should all get started with your novels. If you read a bit and decide that you don't like it, you still will have time to switch when we begin. When we return we will finish our essays and then move on to our novel projects - remember that you'll have a weekly assignment with your book!

Advanced Russian

Over break you should all finish revising your rough drafts and probably get everything you have into a Google Document. That will make it easier for us to pull together our work and finish the project.

I would also like for all of you to prepare for the next part of the unit. It'll be a place for Russian III and II to be together for a bit - look at pages 271-282 which go over the plural declensions. Then, check in on exercises 6, 7, and 9 to review the usage and declensions for yourself. We'll go over this when we return!

Russian I

When we return, we'll finish working on Ночные Ласточки - Night Swallows - and complete the guides. I liked that many of you were very enthralled in the first episode. Over break, focus on studying for your quiz. I realize that I didn't hand back your work, so we'll push the quiz to Thursday instead of having it on the day that we return.

Remember that the quiz focuses on adverb formation and usages as well as sentence combining. Focus on your vocabulary and your exercises that we reviewed today in class.

Also, break provides you Russian students (I, II, III) a great chance to interact with some Russian. Maybe some reading? Maybe some TV watching? Maybe some movies? Maybe some new Russian music. As always, if you want suggestions, on Russian options, let me know. If you haven't signed up for Olympiada, take a look at the materials with your DPS login and think about joining our team!

AP Students - If you were planning on turning in a paper today after-school you noticed that I left immediately after school. One paper was given to me in the parking lot as I was getting in my car - no joke! - so now papers will be collected after Spring Break. Please have your paper for me on Monday morning when we return with its supporting documents. Your paper will be subject to a late penalty.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 18 February 2016

English II

Your next reading checkpoint is Wednesday when you have to be to the end of Chapter Three.  For the weekend, make sure that you've read through Chapter One and keep going on to Chapter Two and Three.  If you get into the book, keep going.  It's good to be ahead.  Keep looking for vocabulary.

Your main goal for the weekend is the creative writing project.  These are due no later than Tuesday at 3:00 for full credit.  Remember that you can present a part of your project for extra credit.

Russian I

Some of you have projects that you need to submit.  Please make sure that the work that you do is your own and that you are using the vocabulary in the textbook that you know.  Evidence of Google Translate will not only result in a bad grade, but it will also result in you not actually learning Russian.

You also have your review exercises to complete with adjectives.  You are expected to complete the homework in the packet and have it ready for Monday.  Remember that if you are late with the project but have the homework done I will waive the late penalty.  If you turned in the project today and have the homework done, I will give you extra credit.

Russian II and III

For the weekend we have the task of continuing to write on our verbs of motion projects.  Please spend time drafting your writing so that I can help you if you need it.  We'll present these projects on Wednesday.

For homework there are different things for the different classes:

Level II Students:  Complete Exercise 10 on page 252.  Begin to study and learn your other verbs of motion (flying, swimming, leading, running).

Level III Students:  Read the information on hypothetical and conditional statements on page 419-21.  Then complete the translation exercise, number 13.  Do the best you can with this as we will work through it on Monday in class.

Again, the expectation is that you will have written homework to show on Monday.  Don't let me down.