Shaping Your Future

Midterm

Congratulations for all of your hard work this week. We finished our midterm exams and are ready to start the new semester. Your exam was a mix of open and closed questions. While an open ended question gives you the opportunity to write from many different perspectives, you have to be careful to avoid generalities and sweeping statements. When you are responding to an open ended question make sure you anchor your comments with examples and evidence. Some students wrote about disease as a challenge in Africa without mentioning the types of diseases, why diseases run rampant in some countries, or steps being taken to eradicate the diseases. Another common mistake on the exam was not answering all parts of the question. You did a great job on the cartoon interpretations but some students did not explain if the message was accurate. When the question asks you to discuss or explain you need to think about writing more than one sentence. One sentence reads like a list…you need to expand on your thoughts so your reader sees that you have more than a surface understanding of the issue. Keep these thoughts in mind as you move on to other assessments.

Half Way Home

We are at the half way point in the school year. This is a perfect time to pause and reflect on your track record and plan for the second half of the year. For those of you who are meeting standard — keep up the good work. For those of you who have been struggling, let’s put together a corrective action plan: a more serious approach to your studies, doing the homework, staying after for extra help, and making up missed work after being out. It is your choice!

Miss MacRoberts Takes the Helm

With the start of the new semester, Miss MacRoberts is now taking over. She will be working with you until May and she has some exciting lessons planned. I will be assisting her so do not hesitate to ask either one of us for assistance.

CWI now becomes Modern America in a Global World

As we start our new semester, we switch our geography text for an American History text. Make sure to turn in your book ASAP. The new course will start with the Great Depression of 1929 and end with the Obama Administration. While we will be looking at the US we are not forgetting that we live in a global society so we will be integrating world issues into our study of America.

Due to the increased number of students, we will not be issuing textbooks to all classes. A set of text books will remain in the class for your use. This will mean that you will be expected to make efficient use of your class time for reading and you will have other reading assignments for homework that may be internet based.

This unit gives us the opportunity to talk about money. You have to be smart about money and know how it can work for you or how it can lead to big problems. As young adults who will be out on your own in a few short years, learning the importance of budgeting, saving, investing, and credit is essential. You don’t want to be someone who starts off their adult life with all-consuming debt.

Finally, take the time to speak with family members about their experiences with economic slowdowns. You may have a family member who can tell you stories about the Great Depression or someone who lived through the economic slowdowns of the early 1970’s. You can even talk about how your family may be coping with today’s recession. Perhaps you have reduced spending by cutting back on Friday pizza nights...renting DVDs instead of going to the movies...carpooling instead of everyone driving in different directions...the list goes on and on.

Rhode Island High School Student Makes News

Jessica Ahlquist, a 16 year old student at Cranston West, made news by challenging the school’s display of a religious banner. Jessica believes in the separation of church and state and felt the banner violated this principle so she sued the school district and won. Her efforts were supported by the American Civil Liberties Union. Since the ruling, which requires the banner to be removed, Jessica has been subjected to taunts, threats, and bullying. She has even had to be escorted to school with police protection. The school is considering an appeal to the ruling but an appeal would be costly and most legal analysts believe it would ultimately fail.