Wrapping Up Week Two

I know that it’s only Thursday, but I’m already wrapping up the week, so I figured that I should go ahead and make my post and write down my reflections. This week marked a big week at school; there were a lot of firsts this week.

I did my first planning period professional development sessions. I ran four sessions on Wednesday focused on personal development plans, goal setting, navigating the online portal where everything needs to be put, and introducing myself to the staff. The sessions went well and were well attended. There was good energy in the room. There were some technical hiccups in the beginning, so I made some edits and we were smooth for the rest of the day. I was happy that a lot of people were on time, and they appreciated that we were able to finish a bit early. I got a lot of support from the rest of the leadership team in running the sessions: they were a presence in the space, they checked people off who had completed the necessary steps, and they chimed in when needed. They didn’t try to run the show or do anything with the content that I had made except to support it. I also received a lot of positive feedback from colleagues during and after the sessions. One person commented on how she could feel my energy through my emails, and she liked meeting me and seeing me in person to see how the energy kept showing up. Overall, I think that I’ve been making good impressions on staff - they’re seeing me as a resource and someone that can help them make their jobs a bit lighter because it’s heavy.

Another fantastic part of this week was today. I had a full day support session with a beginning teacher who is also coming to us as a lateral entry - no education background or experience. Thankfully, the district provides a lot of resources and curriculum, and she’s well educated, so she knows how to put a presentation together. She doesn’t really know how to teach, and she’s not had any practice at all, so here we go running a methods course. Today we did a lot of observations - so there’s another first, I got into classrooms to see instruction and students working. I made a tool for her to use to process and we reflected. We set goals, we reflected on the first week, we went out for lunch, we started a coaching cycle. Her eyes got bit big when I brought up recording her upcoming observation, but she understood the purpose and the explanation. We talked a lot about setting up the classroom space, establishing procedures and routines, lesson and unit planning — all the essentials, really. I’m excited to start a more intensive and focused coaching cycle with her to give her some of the support and skill development that she needs to be a teacher.

Now that we’ve done the good, let’s move on to the not so good.

One element of this role that I do not like is the fact that I have other parallel duties - Testing Coordinator and AP Coordinator. Both of these roles mean that I handle testing for the school, and this is a beast of a job. It used to be its own job, but now I’m doing it. This week on Wednesday I had a meeting related to the school-wide PSAT administration, and let me say that the PSAT is overwhelming me. There are so many things, pieces, portals, and elements, that I got overwhelmed. It’s also ridiculously important. I’m giving myself most of Monday to focus on this. I’ve given the PSAT in the new method, so at least I’m familiar with the platform and process, but my goodness this is going to be a beast of a task. It’ll be good to establish this framework, though, because later when we do the ACT and Pre-ACT we’ll already have a rough plan laid out.

That’s it for Week Two. I’m continuing to be happy in the choice of school and position. Off to turn 41 and enjoy the weekend.

End of Week 1

The first week with students and second week with teachers is now complete. I've learned a lot. I'm still sitting at my desk as I write this because I know that traffic is a mess out there right now. And I parked in the front lot, so I won't be able to get out until closer to 5:00 anyway. 

So, I'll sit and reflect and think my week away to move into the weekend ready for Tuesday.

First, I love it here. A friend of mine commented that I sounded really happy when describing my work, and I am. It's great to be back in a place that feels a bit like home. It's wonderful to work with people who are warm, caring, and want to work with me. I've already had so many positive contacts and some of them related to coaching. Heck, I've already been a contributing member to several teams already. I feel like I'm having the opportunity to do what I wanted to do, which is to make a larger impact beyond the walls of my own classroom. 

I'm supporting substitutes. This has been a side of my responsibilities that I didn't really foresee. Some departments and teams are supporting better than others, but it does give me the chance to be a bit more connected to classrooms. I'm looking at three piles of Latin work and three folders of English III and IV work on my desk for my review. That's for next week. I think that the students who saw me appreciate that someone is going to be reviewing their work and giving some feedback. It appears that departments and substitutes are happy for my support. I might have stepped on a few toes in my forthrightness to provide assessments and lessons for students, but I think that I was diplomatic and apologetic enough in my follow-up that those parties understand what my intentions were.

I've also been enjoying this administration team. It's a small team, and they clearly work well together. The meetings with them run a bit long, but I do a good job of finding my way to excuse myself when it feels as though I don't have anything left to contribute. Again, they're happy for my contributions and see me as a partner. I've been getting consistent feedback and answers to my questions. What more can I ask for.

Next week is a quick week for me, but it's going to be packed. Monday - Labor Day. Birthday week kickoff! Friday - Birthday! I'm 41 and going off to gamble and eat steak. Tuesday - Faculty Meeting. I'm delivering testing training. Wednesday - Planning Period PD for the staff. I'm delivering a session on goal setting and supporting the beginning teachers in their tasks. Thursday - Support Day. Working with a teacher through a day of observation, reflection, and personalized learning.

It's going to be a great week! I also got paid! Everything's coming up Milhouse!

Sorry for the Delay - 8 April

FCPS updated its software, and I lost access to the blog. Here's the update for today.

AP Language and Composition

Pretty easy day to start our week this week in AP Language as we focused on setting some loose ends, finishing assignments, and working through our exam preparation tasks. Let's review. We started today by looking at our notebooks, grades, and feedback so far. These documents and artifacts are so helpful for you as you're preparing for the end of the year. I look forward to seeing your reflections. You should get a copy in your email of your answers.

From there we went into our research work and independent tasks. Your sourcepack is due next class, no matter if you're writing on this prompt or the one I choose for you. This is easy. Follow the examples and avoid overthinking! Submit when ready. The space to submit documents related to your presentation is also available. If you're doing the timed write, you'll see that on Monday. 

Reach out with questions! I'm here to help!

11 December - The Last Week before Break!

AP Language

A bit of a whirlwind day to kick off our last week today in AP Language. Today's class was focused on feedback and preparing for what we have to come next class. Next class you'll be writing two essays in one class period - FRQ 2 (Rhetorical Analysis) and FRQ 3 (Argument). Today we reviewed the scoring guidelines and sample papers to understand the requirements of FRQ 3. We also reviewed scoring guidelines and feedback from your Gatsby essays because these are close to FRQ 2 - you're doing the same task, but not with a non-fiction text. I hope that, as always, you found the feedback and review helpful. 

If you have not yet submitted your Gatsby motif work, that is past due. NHI scores will be entered this week. I would also ask that you submit your reflection letters based on the work that you've done so far. The reflections that we did today on the MCQ and FRQ could be helpful content for you to use as you reflect on your skills.

On Wednesday we'll have our timed writing, and then on Friday it's our end of the year potluck! Hooray! We'll do some signups next class for items. Please sign out your copy of Invisible Man using the book signout form in the Unit 4 Folder. Use your resources to prepare for next class and our essays. I'm excited to see your work.

18 and 21 March

AP Language

Today we completed our first full-length multiple choice set. I'll have these returned to you soon so that we can review your data from the first of these. Over the weekend, you have a few assignments to settle up. I'll review them in terms of importance.

1. Complete your AP Classroom checks from Unit 6. This includes the MCQ and FRQ. These close on Sunday night. 

2. Submit your personal reflection. Remember to focus on at least two communities and use evidence to explain how you are a member of that community. The response is only 200-300 words. Keep it casual.

3. We'll have another seminar next class. Go into the folder and pick ONE of three articles posted for you. We'll be looking at other marginalized communities and liberation movements next class.

Outside of this remember to work through your vocabulary cards as you meet new words and consider your book for the unit. You'll submit your book form next week, but if you know what you want, go ahead and submit that now to get ahead. 

English 10

Today's class was a look at the beginning of "The Night Face Up" by Julio Cortazar. It's a great story! Super engaging and exciting that starts off with quite a bang. We read the first half of the text and will finish it next week as we complete our study of the doppelganger.

This weekend is a good weekend for you to complete any work from Unit 4 which may be missing including your SOL Essay, Unit Project, or Vocabulary. If these assignments are missing they need to be turned in. I'll be scoring your work this week and finalizing grades, so be aware of what needs to be done. I'm available during LT and after school if you need me.

14 and 15 March

AP Language

Today was a really wonderful day to start a new unit, which is exactly what we did! Unit 5 is our exploration of ignored American voices. In this unit we're going to explore various communities that have been marginalized for whatever reason in our country. There will be a lot of self-direction and choice in this unit, so I'm very excited to see what you all come up with.

Your first assignment for the unit is your personal reflection which is due on Friday. Follow the guidelines and reflect on the various communities to which you belong. By understanding this, you'll be able to select a novel which is a window on another world. You'll submit this electronically to Schoology on Friday.

Next class we have a seminar on our first core text from the unit - WEB DuBois From the Souls of Black Folk. You'll be reading Chapter One. Be sure to use the reading guide posted to understand each paragraph in the chapter. We'll work through this text together as a group next class! Be sure to read and annotate!

English 10 

We took time at the beginning of class today to work through the last part of our projects from Unit 4 on Russia and Eastern Europe. Be sure to complete these projects tonight if you haven't done so, remember you can't get back your points if the work is late.

After that, we began on our newest unit - Latin America. We went over several concepts that we'll study in this unit, the countries, and our first key concept - the doppelganger. We explored this in ourselves by creating our doppelganger and considering how they're similar and different from us. If you didn't turn this in at the end of class, be sure to get it to me as we start next time.

End of the Week - 8 April

AP Language

Chapter 10 and 11 of Invisible Man are some of the hardest chapters to read in this portion of the novel. Chapter 11, especially, is a doozy. It'll take you on a bit of a journey through postmodernism and throw some different modes of story telling at you. Focus on what you can get out of it and bring questions to me next week as we work.

This weekend you should find time to finish your Veil Self Reflection, MCQ 3 and a bit of reading in Invisible Man. Next week, we'll be focused on reviewing Chapters 11 and 12 as well as completing our first team MCQ for an accuracy score. If you need anything, please visit on Monday during Office Hours. I hope that we will keep moving in a good direction this quarter - remember we only have 16 meetings left.

English 10

Today was all about characters and characterization. We spent a lot of time working through pages twenty six to thirty six and focusing on the characters we meet in the squad of prisoners and in the camp. We'll keep learning more about some of them as we go. We worked through some Russian words which tell us more about our characters and understood some of their key elements. Be sure that you're updating your annotations as we work.

Over the weekend, be sure that you finish your Illustrated Quotation assignment as well as any missing work from last class - the poetry notes. You should also read to page forty six. This will take you to the work site the prisoners have and their job for the day.

Homework for A-Day Students: 5 February 2020

I will not be with you all on Friday since we have the NC State Swimming Championship Meet. Go AquaFalcons! I hope you enjoy the day I have planned for you while I'm away!

AP Research

It's a lot of working days as we are going through this unit. It's good to build in time to break - but make sure that you're continuing to meet your goals as we go forward. Continue to use this time to develop your draft, collect your data, and analyze/group it as it's coming in. This can be a helpful strategy to get ahead on the process of data analysis. As you work - be sure that everything is logged in your PREP Folders (Task Log/Research Records/Assessment Task Drafts).

For those of you who need help with statistical testing, see the post from a few days ago. There's a great resource there from Ms. Saveliff on calculator programming for statistical testing.

You should be prepared to work on a second draft of your paper toward the end of next week! Get ahead!

Russian I

Today we spent time to finalize our work on Unit 1 - The longest unit of the year as it provides a lot of the foundation for our work with the Russian language this year. I hope that you felt prepared for the assessment. You'll have a chance to make test corrections next week.

Tonight you should begin to work through your Chapter 2 Vocabulary. Begin with the adjectives and focus on colors. This will be our first set of words to focus on learning as we develop our case knowledge with adjectives. Also, complete a Falcon Notes sheet to summarize Unit 1. If you didn't have time to do this in class, be sure to finish it for homework.

I hope that you all like the movie I have for you on Friday!

Advanced Russian

Today in class we had a rapid-fire review of verbs of motion before launching into our first assessment. I will have these graded and returned to you next week. If you were absent, be sure to see me to make up the quiz that you missed today.

Be sure that you are continuing to study your cards regularly. Some of you are having trouble with conjugating - learn these patterns well so that you will have them moving forward. For tonight, there is no homework except for vocabulary work. Be sure that you are focused on your vocabulary for the unit so that you have the verbs, means of transportation, and the destinations.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 15 February

AP English III

I hope that all of you enjoyed our foray into philosophy today. Emerson's text is definitely one that makes a lot more sense the second time that you read it. I would highly suggest working through the text again, especially if you did not have any visible annotations on the article. Not good enough. Not anymore.

This weekend you should begin your Transcendentalist for a Week project. As we discussed in class, it doesn't have to be giving up something - but you should be aiming to simplify your existence in some way in order to discover a higher truth. Keep in mind that you have daily reflections as well as your overall reflection - everything will be collected via Google Drive. The due date for this work is 2/25 (seven days from the 18th).

Your reading for this weekend is Thoreau's "Where I Lived and What I Lived For" - this can be found in 50 Essays, or via this link. As you read, consider the similarities and differences between Thoreau and Emerson. Why is Thoreau so focused on simplicity? How does he continue to build on the trends of Transcendentalism and use paradoxes in his writing?

Both Thoreau and Emerson give you a wonderful opportunity for vocabulary cards - your next set for these two texts will be due on Thursday (on paper or electronic submission - if you're doing electronic, please continue to build on the same set as before).

Lastly, you should be actively researching and continuing to refine your research scope, focus, and question. I'll return the research question forms to you on Tuesday. Your next step is the outline. Be sure that you are working on this daily! Collect sources and consider how you will develop and prove your argument.

English IV

Today in class we focused on correcting our vocabulary unit tests as well as understanding how to use context clues when working on filling in the blank type of activities. From there it was a lot of independent work as we went through our poems and focused on determining the theme of the poem we are studying. This weekend, we don't really have any homework to complete. I would suggest though, that if your Poet Research Project is incomplete or has a low score that you work on that this weekend to make sure it has all of the needed parts.

Homework for Monday - 1 October

We're on to October which means that the quarter will end at the end of the month! Keep staying focused and prepared as we move forward!

AP English III

Thank you to those of you who submitted your papers today on time. If you are submitting it late, please have it in to us ASAP as we should have them back to you all next week. You also received progress reports today. If you would like to use your rubles for extra credit, please do so. Come outside of class (A lunch, before or after school) with your rubles and progress report.

Extra point on classwork will cost 25 rubles. Extra point on major work will cost 50 rubles. There is a maximum of five points that you can put on any one assignment.

For tonight, you have a few things to settle -

1. Be sure that you have read and annotated Act I of The Crucible for next class. As you are reading, add to your cover annotations. Be sure that you are connecting the text to the larger background and context that we have been discussing in class.
2. Your next set of vocabulary cards will be due on Friday. This will be cards 6-10.
3. In One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich you should have read the scene at breakfast and in the infirmary.
4. We'll be starting a group project soon around social commentary - consider what you think are some appropriate ways of commenting on society's flaws.

Be ready with your reading everyone! You never know when the coin toss won't be in your favor!

English IV

Today we began class by looking at gender roles and gender expectations from an excerpt of The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. The next unit is focused on gender roles and expectations, so it's a bit of a jumping off point for us. Then we went to the lab to begin typing our rough drafts of our "This I Believe" Essays. We will continue to work on these through the week. Be sure that you are keeping your belief at the core of the essay. How did you learn this? Why is it important? Where and when did you learn it?

Remember that with personal writing you really want to tell a story - so tell us a story, and describe it all!

Homework for B Day Students - 27 September 2017

AP English III

Lots of good work today on our editing skills as well as our discussion of Edwards and "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry G-d" - I think that you have a pretty solid understanding of who the Puritans were as a people and how they conceptualized the divine. Pay this forward into your reading of The Crucible.

For Friday our main task is to read and annotate Act I of The Crucible so that we can have a productive seminar on Friday and work through acting and viewing some of these scenes. As you read, pay attention for vocabulary. This weekend you'll have another set of cards to make.

Your final drafts of your essays on In Cold Blood and the nature/nurture debate will be collected on October 9. Please come and conference with us later this week or next week to review your draft before the final drafts are collected. Also, make sure that you are using the rubric to guide your revisions as well.

Lastly, if you have any work left to submit, that is due on Friday. We are closing this first unit and moving on, it's important that everything be settled.

English IV

Also a lot of good work today around understanding different types of characterization and in finishing up some of your character project work. Next class we'll start reading one of Chaucer's tales in order to see how he puts these characterization skills to work.

Continue to work on any missing work that you may have, including the essay. That is the most important thing right now.

Homework for A Day Students - 26 September

Russian I

Today we spent time reviewing the ideas of formality and informality in speaking and reviewed some of our greetings, introductions, and farewells related to this concept. For homework tonight you should complete exercises in the packet related to these greetings, introductions, and farewells. Complete exercises 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Practice your vocabulary and writing as you do this.

If you have any missing work - it needs to be turned in ASAP.

Advanced Russian

I've included a link to Battleship Potemkin here. Please use it to complete your viewing packets on the film if you have not already done so.

The main homework that you have for tonight is the reading at the end of Chapter Four. You have an article to read from a Russian newspaper. Don't focus on trying to understand everything, focus on getting main ideas and discovering verbs in context.

As you read, identify the verbs and the subjects for these verbs. After you read, answer the questions at the end in English - identify where in the article the answer can be found.

English IV

Many of you have finished a lot of your character work for our Canterbury Tales projects. If you still have parts to finish or if you need to finish your "Me You Don't See" essay - make sure that this work is complete soon.

Homework for B Day Students - 25 September 2017

English IV

If you did not submit your essay to Mr. Bernhard today then that is your first priority tonight. These assignments will be going on your progress reports, so it is important that you get them turned in so that we can grade them and get you feedback. Also, keep in mind that you will be able to continue working on these by resubmitting them after they are graded.

AP English III

Today we spent time rotating between talking about the 1950's and the 1670's in America. Funny how similar these two time periods were. As you are working tonight, here are your priorities.

1. Complete your rough draft for your In Cold Blood essays. You should complete your introduction (appeal to ethos, define terms, state argument) and one complete topic. As you work through your topic, make sure that you are using convincing evidence and explaining it in a way to prove your argument. Bring a copy of your draft to class on Wednesday for our writing workshop.
2. Get a copy of The Crucible and read Act One for Friday's class. As you read, pay attention to characters and motifs. There's an online version of the play available at this link.
3. Read "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry G-d" by J. Edwards. Remember that this is a Puritan preacher giving this sermon to an actual congregation. As you read, annotate with these ideas in mind: What does this text help you to understand about Puritans? How does Edwards convince his audience of his argument? You can also collect a lot of vocabulary from this piece. There's a ton of great words.

Lastly - remember that after this week you will only be able to continue resubmitting your essay outlines. If there is any other assignment that you need to submit, or resubmit, that needs to be settled this week.

Homework for A Day Students - 20 September

English IV

Remember that on Friday you will be finishing and submitting your drafts to be scored. Take some time before Friday, if you haven't already done so, and log in to your draft on Google Classroom in order to see the comments you've been given by Mr. Bernhard. Try to address these comments before Friday so that you can do some final checking on Friday and then print your draft.

Advanced Russian

You have been given the new vocabulary for Chapter Four - focus on the nouns and adjectives. As you study and review these vocabulary words, try to work with them in different cases. If you need a refresher on your case declensions for nouns and adjectives, check out this really great online resource. You can follow each link for work on each case.

Russian I

Today you were given some new vocabulary words as well related to greetings, introductions, and farewells. Start to study and learn this vocabulary. Also, if you haven't turned in the handwriting packet or the name project, you have these things to complete too.

Russian Students - Keep in mind that if you would like to redo the quiz you took today that you can. You should study and prepare so that you do better next time!

Homework for B-Day Students: 19 September 2017

English IV

Keep in mind that on Google Classroom you now have drafts of your essays as well as feedback from Mr. Bernhard as to how to develop your ideas in to full drafts. Before Monday of next week make sure that you address these comments so that you can quickly revise and print your draft to turn it in to us.

AP English III

On Thursday we will have our first timed writing opportunity and it will be an argumentative prompt. To prepare for this complete the assignment on Google Classroom. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Go to http://classroom.google.com. Login using your DPSNC credentials which are first-last@dpsnc.net and the password is your computer network password.
2. Enroll in our class. 3B is 0xpab07. 4B is 69gnon6.
3. Once you enroll you'll see the Quick Argumentative Outline Assignment. Create a Google Doc, give your argument on the prompt, at least one topic with evidence and explanation, and a clear refutation with evidence and explanation.
4. Turn in the assignment when you're done.

Additionally, bring your copies of In Cold Blood on Thursday if you would like a new grade for annotations on the text. If you have any resubmissions to turn in, those should come in too.

Remember that you will have a rough draft workshop on Wednesday, not Monday. This is a change.

Homework for A-Day Students - 18 September 2017

English IV

Good work today on your characters everyone. Next class we should have a chance to finish up the first portion of the Character Project and continue reading more of The Canterbury Tales. For tonight, it would be most important for you to revise and check-in on your essays. Mr. Bernhard went through your work on Google Classroom and left comments for you all. Go in and revise your essays to address those comments. We will print and submit drafts on Friday - so it's important that you finish these revisions before that.

Advanced Russian

Next class you will have a quiz on the One Stem Verb System. You will be expected to know:

• how certain stems operate.
• how to tell stems from each other.
• how truncation and addition function in past and non-past forms.
• how mutations are triggered.
• how to transcribe infinitives, non-past, and past tense forms.

Hopefully our workshop in class today was helpful in addressing these areas. You should work with the verb handout I gave you as well as the textbook in order to discover more about stems.

Additionally, continue to review our work on cases as they are paired with verbs. Complete exercise 7A, numbers 1-10. Read and analyze the sentence, then change the verb and case in order to make a synonymous sentence. We'll review this work on Wednesday, after the quiz.

Russian I

You also have a quiz next week that will focus on your knowledge of the Russian alphabet and handwriting. You should know:

• the sounds that each letter makes.
• the shape of the letter in print and in handwriting.
• the cognate vocabulary from English.

On the quiz you will be asked to listen to Russian and write what you hear, to write words given to you in print, and to explain what cognates mean. Study and be ready!

Also, keep in mind that handwriting packets and name projects must be turned in on Wednesday or they will become zeroes.

Homework for the Weekend - B Day - 15 September 2017

AP English III

Today was such a productive day! We've got some of the big conceptual understandings now about how to approach argumentative writing. Remember that over the weekend you have a major task - the revision of your outlines. All revised outlines should be turned in no later than Thursday the 21st. This is so that we can give you feedback to develop rough drafts. As you revise follow the steps:

1. Edit your argument so that it passes the DADS test. It's gotta be Debatable, Analytical, Defensible, and Specific!
2. Reorganize your textual support around clear and specific topics. Generate topic sentences that explain the connection to your argument.
3. Develop a refutation from the evidence in the text.
4. Explain all of your evidence in the context of your argument. Show how this relates and why it is important.

You have everything you need to improve your standing (aka revising outlines and questions) in this class and in your approach to writing. It's time to get it done.

Also, read Eudora Welty's "Listening" for class on Tuesday. There's a link to the article here. As you read, annotate the piece to discover what Welty's argument is.

English IV

If you have not completed your draft of "The Me You Don't See" spend time this weekend developing that so that you will be ready to submit your draft on Thursday next week. On Thursday we'll go back to the lab to do final checks before submitting.

Homework for the Weekend - A Day - 14 September 2017

Russian I

Over the weekend you should be focused on finishing your handwriting packets for the alphabet if you haven't already turned that in and received a grade. If you have a grade then you can work on revising your work for a new grade if you would like.

Advanced Russian 

Over the weekend you should be focused on the reading passage at the beginning of Chapter Four; it's found on page 143. As you read determine the main idea of each paragraph. Find all of the verbs that you can. If the verb is not already in its infinitive form, then derive the infinitive based on your knowledge of stems and conjugations.

Russian Students - Don't forget that you will have your first quiz of the year on the 20th.

English IV

If you have not completed your first draft of your "The Me You Don't See" essays then spend time this weekend to have those completed. You'll be getting feedback this weekend as we begin to turn these into final drafts across the next week. Remember to access these drafts you need to go into Google Classroom using your DPSNC accounts.

Homework for B-Day Students: 13 September 2017

English IV

If you did not complete the draft of your introduction and body paragraph in class today then you should put in time this evening or tomorrow to complete this work. You can access Google Classroom from any computer, just remember to use your DPSNC account in order to login. Keep in mind that your introduction and body answer specific questions.

Introduction: What part of you do you keep hidden? Why?

Body: How did you discover this hidden part of yourself? Why is it important to you?

Next class we'll discuss conclusions, have a bit of time to finish our drafts, and then deal with some business related to being a senior.

AP English III

Very good discussion and conversation today everyone! There were a lot of great ideas shared, and the level of discourse in our class is definitely going up. For tonight remember a few things:

1. Next class we'll be focused on our outlines - learning how to develop a debatable thesis, how to structure an argument, and how to develop topics and examples and explanation. To this end, make sure to upload a copy of your outline to Google Drive. We'll have laptops in class on Friday to use as we go through our Writing Bootcamp. Feel free to bring your own device if you prefer.
2. Complete your resubmissions of your questions to In Cold Blood. You have everything that you need in terms of your Rules for Good Writing to make many of these changes. If you are unsure of what to do, come see me or Mr. Bernhard for help and guidance.

I would recommend submitting your questions sooner rather than later so that you can focus on resubmitting the outline next.

Homework for A Day Students - 12 September

Russian I

Now that we know all of the alphabet and a bit about stress it's time to practice with words. Take the cognates that I have given you and practice with your reading and pronunciation of these words. Play with the handwriting too. If you haven't turned in your handwriting packet, make sure it comes in on Thursday so that I can get it back to you before our first quiz.

We will have our first quiz on the alphabet and sounds on Wednesday, September 20. Be prepared. For this quiz you should be able to:

• tell the different sounds of each letter in the Russian alphabet
• recognize the print version of the letter
• write the proper handwriting version of the letter

Continue to practice and review your letters and alphabet.

Advanced Russian

For our next class I would like for you all to continue working with stems by applying knowledge to past tense. Look at exercise 2B on page 166-167. Complete the exercise by changing the sentence to past tense. Translate your sentences. Look for cases at work in the sentences, especially those triggered by the verbs.

We will review this work on Thursday as we continue to build on our work with stems. Keep in mind that you will also have a quiz on stems soon. Likely on Wednesday of next week.

English IV

If you have not yet completed your introduction and body paragraph for "The Me You Don't See" please make sure that you find time to go back to Google Classroom and complete that work. Next class we will hopefully finish our first drafts with a conclusion. Also, we will begin working in earnest on our Canterbury Tales project.