AP GoPo Reading Calendar

In case you wanted a more visual version of the reading calendar handout... tadaaa! I made this in Word for myself, and then I thought, "This'll take two seconds to copy-paste onto the RAM blog, and it might be useful to someone!" Might as well, y'know?

Unit 1  "Constitutional Underpinnings"	Winter Break	Ch 1: The Study of American Government (p.2-19)
		Ch 2: The Constitution (p.20-49)
	1/13	Ch 3: Federalism (p.50-77)
		Unit 1 test
Unit 2 "The Judiciary, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights"	1/20	Ch 16: The Judiciary (p.438-468)
	1/27	Ch 5: Civil Liberties (p.100-129)
		Ch 6: Civil Rights (p.130-160)
	2/3	Unit 2 test
Unit 3 "Political Beliefs, Behavior, Campaigns, Elections"	2/10	Ch 4: American Political Culture (p.78-99)
		Ch 7: Public Opinion (p.162-181)
	2/17	Ch 8: Political Participation (p.182-201)
		Ch 10: Elections and Campaigns (p.234-269)
	2/24	Unit 3 test
Unit 4 "Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Mass Media"		Ch 12: The Media (p.298-324)
		Ch 9: Political Parties (p.202-233)
	3/3	Ch 11: Interest Groups (p.270-297)
		Unit 4 test
Unit 5 "Congress, the Presidency, the Bureaucracy"	3/10	Ch 13: Congress (p.326-363)
		Ch 14: The Presidency (p.364-407)
	3/17	Ch 15: The Bureaucracy (p.408-437)
	3/24	Unit 5 test
Unit 6 "Public Policy, Foreign Policy, and the Budget"	3/31 (selected readings)	Ch 17: The Policymaking Process (p.470-491)
		Ch 18: Economic Policy (p.492-513)
		Ch 19: Social Welfare (p.514-533)
		Ch 20: Environmental Policy (p.564-580)
	4/7	Unit 6 test
Review	4/14	final gov't exam & econ review
	4/21	spring break
	4/28	review
	5/5
	5/12	AP Gov't/Pol exam 5/13 AP Microecon exam 5/15

December 9

Today, Dr. Preston started off class by talking to us about journals and homework. Dr. Preston recommends that everyone take their journals home over the break, in order to review them (personally, I've found that my journals are a good source of personal statement fodder) and/or write more on the prompts that you feel could be improved. The same goes for our blogs-- if you're missing assignments, or just wanna fix that one post that you totally BS'ed at 2:00 in the morning to get it done (we've all been there), you're more than welcome to improve them over the break and resubmit it to Dr. Preston. After all, the school calendar may be ending, but in Dr. Preston's words, "Your learning calendar never stops."

Then Dr. Preston passed back some graded papers. BTW, if you REALLY want his grading system converted to letter grades, here it is:

✓+ :)	A
✓+	A-
✓ (comment)	B
✓	B or C

After that, Dr. Preston asked for volunteers to bring food for our finals period/party, so if you were absent today and want to bring food, you should send Dr. Preston an email. Same goes if you have specific logistics requirements for your final (ex. fridge for food, room opened early for setup, space to store your baking soda volcano, large amounts of paper towels and/or Windex to clean up mess made by said volcano, etc.) and didn't get a chance to tell Dr. Preston today.

Also, if you're looking for a reason to come to school on Dummy Day, Dr. Preston will be available for individual conferences about grades/English/whatever with anyone who's interested.

Besides our final showcase, we have one more assignment this semester: write a time-capsule email to the future you at futureme.org. Then you'll write a blog post entitled "LIFE AFTER THIS BLOG POST," but don't copy-paste your email to publish on your blog (well, unless you really want to). Instead, write about the *experience* of writing the email to yourself.

Finals Schedule

TUESDAY

0 Period	7:30 - 9:20
Lunch	9:20 - 9:40
1 Period	9:50 - 11:40
6 Period	11:50 - 1:40

WEDNESDAY

2 Period	8:30 - 10:20
Lunch	10:20 - 10:40
3 Period	10:50 - 12:40

THURSDAY

4 Period	8:30 - 10:20
Lunch	10:20 - 10:40
5 Period	10:50 - 12:40

December 6

Today Dr. Preston started off class by saying something cryptic about a group that walks among us that's about to shake things up. So be on the watch, folks!

After that, we did our journals, of course (and it happened to be the last journal topic of 2013! Can you believe that?).

Then we each filled out an evaluative introspection, and for the rest of the period we talked with our groups about our final presentations, which will be Wednesday for 3rd period and Thursday for 4th and 5th. If you'd like a tool for communication with your group, our shoutboxes are still up for grabs!

December 4 & 5

On Wednesday and Thursday, we busted our brains out on the vocab and essay finals, respectively. 'Nuff said.

Oh, except also you should follow Dr. Preston on Twitter. Now 'nuff said :)

December 2

This post is a little late but I figured later is better than never (:
On Monday, December 2nd, we started off with our journal as usual then Dr. Preston discussed what we would be doing for the rest of the semester. He said that on Wednesday we would be having our vocabulary final and on Thursday we would be having an in-class essay; also that we will be presenting our English presentations during finals week.

November 25

Today was mostly a group day to talk about No Exit, our literature groups, and vocab. Tomorrow we'll be having a vocab quiz, so be sure and study! No Exit is due tomorrow also.

BTW: have you noticed our pretty shoutbox in the sidebar? Everyone's welcome to use it for questions, announcements, suggestions/bug reports for RAM, etc. I was also thinking, wouldn't it be cool if there was a page here with a bunch of shoutboxes on it, and if you wanted a shoutbox for your literature circle group you could "claim" one for your own use? I used 5th period as a focus group to test this idea, and they said they thought it would be really helpful. So, taadaaa! The shoutboxes are there for the taking :)

November 22

Today, Dr. Preston started off class by reminding us to have fun during our senior year, and try not to get too caught up in homework/college/scholarship apps/etc. And, if you're having trouble keeping up in English, let him know.

Also, he pointed out this post on his blog, saying that if anyone's interested in becoming a professional writer, talk to him.

Then we took some notes on No Exit. Here's the gist of mine:

• written by Jean Paul Sartre, a French writer, intellectual, and existentialist
• existentialism is concerned with the question, what is the purpose/meaning of our lives?
• what is important/meaningful and why?
• disorientation/confusion in absurd life
• "existence precedes essence"
• Descartes remix-- I am, therefore I think I am
• in No Exit, 3 people (btw, they don't like each other) are sitting in a room, trying to figure out meaning/nature of reality for themselves
• famous line, "Hell is other people."
• Sartre quote: "Men are condemned to be free."
• meaning, freedom requires work! independence isn't easy, we're usually dependent on instruction and characterized by limitation
• for homework, we need to read No Exit, take notes on the story, and answer the questions within the text.
• notes and questions/answers can be put in the same blog post, due Tuesday, 11/26
• as we're reading, we should be drawing parallels between No Exit and the Allegory of the Cave (hint hint essay hint)

AP Government and Politics - Discussing Second Semester

So today in AP Microeconomics, Mr. Nesper briefly talked about what we would be doing in second semester for AP Government and Politics. Here is what I gathered/remember:

• AP Government will be more like history classes than Microeconomics.
• We will be learning AP Government and Politics for three months and a half during second semester, after that we will go back and review AP Microeconomics to prepare for the AP Exam.
• Although Mr. Nesper will be teaching us about the government and about politics, he said that we would have to do a lot of reading to understand the material on our own because he can't go over each subject thoroughly since we will only have three months.
• Yes, we will have homework during winter and spring break.
• We will be taking a test? quiz? the first day we come back to school on the reading material that we will be assigned to read during winter break.

November 20

Today we wrote an essay about Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave" and we took a vocabulary quiz (from vocab lists three, four, five, and seven). Because the vocabulary quiz and the essay took the whole class period, we did not have time to write in our journals (unless you wrote yours after the quiz and the essay). So if you didn't write your journal in class, make sure to do so for homework!

November 19

Today we journeyed to the library to check out Tale of Two Cities/Great Expectations with our groups. At the moment, Dr. Preston hasn't specifically told us to start reading, but that doesn't mean you can't!

After that, Dr. Preston gave us some background on Plato/"Allegory of the Cave." Here's the gist of my notes--

• dialectic: formal argument between two people (you can tell because it starts with "di" like "dialogue") about the nature of truth
• (btw, argument ≠ conflict; the modern connotation is sometimes misleading)
• Plato was the son of a wealthy family, and was destined for a life of politics
• he also became a student of Socrates
• when Socrates got in trouble with the government for "corrupting the youth," Plato became a teacher to carry on Socrates's legacy so his way of thinking wouldn't die with him
• Plato used the dialectic format because he believed it was the best way to write
• he used Socrates' name as a way of paying homage to him
• the other character, Glaucon, is Plato's brother; as the author, he didn't want to insert himself into the dialectic, but using his brother's name is a pretty close second
• Plato's philosophy states that real understanding only comes from intellectual pursuit
• humans are unable to understand truth through the senses only, because what we see ≠ reality (shadows on the cave wall)
• reality requires logic and study to see/understand (the prisoners couldn't understand the outside just by hearing about it; you actually have to SEE the sun and GO outside for yourself to get it)
• furthermore, you can't learn from experience, only from reflecting on experience
• Dr. Preston mentioned "extended metaphor," but didn't explain it-- from the Norton Anthology of Poetry website, extended metaphors are "[d]etailed and complex metaphors that extend over a long section of a poem." From changingminds.org, "An extended metaphor is one where there is a single main subject to which additional subjects and metaphors are applied." I also found a slideshow here which explains it very nicely.

November 15

Today Dr. Preston told us about this weekend's mindmap collaboration. The class voted on MindMeister as the preferred platform, so this weekend Dr. Preston will send an email invite to everyone so we can all collaborate (if you didn't get an invite, just send an email to Dr. Preston and he'll [re]send it). The text of the article is copied to an etherpad for students to claim their paragraphs, and the mindmap itself lives here.

As for next week, here's an outline:

• Monday: it's an early out, so we'll have a rather short in-class review of "Allegory of the Cave." (Also, at lunch is the meeting for the new collaborative working group, "The Game.")
• Tuedsay: in-class essay on "Allegory of the Cave." (At lunch is the meeting for the new collaborative working group, "Mentors and Educators.")
• Wednesday: the official start of the literature circles mentioned in today's agenda. The first time Dr. Preston did this, the only two choices were A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations: two novels by the same author, but on very different themes. However, that was before Class of 2013's Sarah Gutierrez stormed into the room and declared, "I'm not done with Shakespeare yet!" So, Dr. Preston added Henry V to the list (in Dr. Preston's words, "Open-source learning is like your friend who always says 'yes.'") So, make sure your group agrees on a book (or agrees to disagree-- yet another option is to read two different novels within your group) by our class library trip on Wednesday.
• UPDATE: loljk. switch Tuesday & Wednesday (except for the lunch meeting).

Dr. Preston also said he was impressed at how many great articles everyone suggested for the mindmap, so we might also be having additional "Article of the Week" mindmaps in the future for anyone who's interested.

Haiyan Fundraiser

This just in from Lesther Valenzuela:

"Project Humanity - a RHS Club of concerned students - would like the entire student body to join in and help send our support to the people in the Philippines after the devastating typhoon last weekend. We are asking that tomorrow during 3rd period - a coin can will be sent around to each class. Please just drop in any coins you might have in your pockets. Many have been affected so every cent counts. Let's show that the Righetti Warriors are always willing to help out in times of need so that they will push on and never give up on life which are the true warriors in life. The people of the Philippines will be ever so grateful for your support! Thank you so much!"

November 14

Today in class, we started off by looking at the recent posts on Dr. Preston's blog. Dr. Preston also told us that we should vote in order to choose which mindmap platform we preferred (the poll is located at the right side of Dr. Preston's blog) Here's a picture for those of you who can't find it. The poll is boxed in red:

He also informed us that he will have another poll in order to vote for the article that we will read and discuss on the mindmap platform. After discussing the polls, we started reading and discussing "Allegory of the Cave."

November 13

Today, Dr. Preston started off by pointing out some recent posts on the course blog, and then we took our vocab/reading quiz and corrected it. He also talked about our upcoming mindmap collaboration and invited us to suggest both mindmap platforms and interesting articles in a comment to today's post. If you're interested in seeing an example, you can check out last year's finished mindmap here.

Integral Notes (Calc AB)

Since we just started a new section, I thought I'd post my notes from class as well. Hope they're pretty easy to read. Sorry about the crease in the middle, I fold my papers in half when taking notes. If anyone wants me to post notes from past sections just let me know. -Kelsey

November Assignments (So Far) (Calc AB)

November Assignments:
We had a test last Thursday (11/7), and have started a new type of Calculus (moved from derivatives to integrations) hw assignments for this new section are letters not numbers

 #         Date                Assignment

A         11/11               p.389 (7-12)

B         11/12               p. 390 (13-31odd, 40)

C         11/13               p. 395 (2, 5-15)

October Assignments (Calc AB)

October Assignments:

 #         Date                Assignment

 

24        10/1                 p. 274 (1-3, 9)

25        10/2                 p. 274-275 (5, 11, 13, 16, 21, 25)

26        10/7                 Review Worksheet

27        10/9                 p. 296-297 (1-3, 9, 13)

28        10/10               p. 296-297 (4-7, 16, 21)

29        10/11               p. 304 (17, 18, 22, 28)

31        10/14               p. 337 (7, 8, 10, 11)

32        10/15               p. 359-361 (1-3, 11)

33        10/16               p. 322 (7a&b, 8b&c)

34        10/17               p. 362 (38)

September Assignments (Calc AB)

September Assignments:

 #         Date                Assignment

12        9/4                   p.197-198 (22, 24, 25, 27, 29-33, 35, 37, 38)

13        9/5                   p.198-199 (39-41, 45, 76-78)

14        9/6                   p.202 (1-23odd, 26, 29)

15        9/9                   p.208 (1-23odd)

16        9/11                 p.208-209 (25-41odd)

17        9/13                 p.208-210 (45, 46, 63-66)

18        9/16                 p.219-220 (4, 7, 9, 10, 14, 18, 19, 32-37)

19        9/23                 p.253 (11-13, 15-17)

20        9/24                 p.253-254 (21-25odd, 29, 32, 36, 38, 39)

21        9/26                 p. 243-254 (1, 2, 5, 6, 9-33odd)

22        9/27                 p. 260 (1-31odd)

23       9/30               p. 260 (34-38, 39-45odd)

August Assignments (Calc AB)

August Assignments for Mr. Tomooka's AP Calc AB class

 #         Date                Assignment

1          8/13                 Syllabus

2          8/14                 p.124-125 (1-13)

3          8/15                 p.137-138 (1-3)

4          8/16                 p.137-138 (5-49odd)

5          8/19                 p.137-138 (19, 20, 24, 54-56)

6          8/20                 p.156-157 (1-9odd, 11-21all)

7          8/21                 p.157 (23-25, 27, 28)

8          8/22                 p.175 (3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14)

9          8/26                 p.165 (1, 6, 10b&c, 12)

10        8/27                 p.186-189 (1, 2, 4-9, 13, 16, 23, 25, 26)

11        8/30                 p.197 (1-19odd)

November 12

Today in class, Dr. Preston gave us sort of an outline of the upcoming weeks before the end of the semester (which, as you can see from our handy-dandy calendar, include this week, next week, a two day week [thanks to Thanksgiving {no pun intended}], Dead Week, and Finals Week-- really not that much time!):

• we're going to be doing a lot of collaboration in our groups (explaining the seating arrangement)
• ...that includes a mindmap information flashmob! (a side note on mindmaps: if you're interested in viewing my humble creations, see my blog posts here)
• also, there will be three parts to the final:
1. during Dead Week, we will have an essay final.
2. also during Dead Week, we will have a vocab final covering all the vocab words. In the meantime, we'll have a couple review tests to prepare, but no new lists.
3. as for the actual finals period, we'll all put together presentations on what we've learned this semester, in what areas we've improved the most, etc. (Dr. Preston says info will be coming soon)

Note to AP Environmental Science students

Well, here it is. Based on the response from 3rd period today, I set up a blog feed for AP Environmental Science because it sounds like it would be helpful for the class. Since I'm not in it, I'm turning this over to you guys-- please feel free to write posts here as needed (just be sure to label them "AP Environmental Science" so they show up on the right page) and you can use the Google Group for discussions, too. If you're in AP Environmental Science but don't have authorship rights here yet, please comment and I'll send you an invite. I hope this is helpful to you guys!

--Lisa

November 4

During today's 30-minute period, Dr. Preston went over some recent posts on the course blog, and then turned the class over to us for a Socratic Seminar. Jake suggested a discusssion on "Modern Thinkers" or something relevant like that, except then some girl named Lisa hijacked the class AGAIN to talk about Random Absence Mentoring *looks around nervously*

Anyway, I was basically asking for more feedback about if there were any other classes that people thought Random Absence Mentoring could benefit. Several people had already mentioned AP Calculus AB, and today I believe Brenna suggested AP Environmental Science (and a bunch of people agreed) so I'll set up a tab here for you guys (wow, I sound like a bartender O.O)

Also, Lauren asked about the Google Calendar, which is a pretty new feature that I put up recently. It's pretty much an embeddable, collaborative calendar that anyone (at least, anyone who's been invited, I hate that extra step) can add events to. I'd love for everyone in this class to be able to add to it so it would be like the Grapevine plus the announcements we do in Mr. Nesper's class, all rolled up into one convenient format that you can access even when you're absent. I was a little hesitant to send invites at first, but I asked everyone in 3rd period if I should just invite everyone at once, and they agreed that would be the easiest way to go about it. So, I sent an invite using the Google Group's mailing list, and at the moment I'm still not sure whether it worked. If not, I'll just do it the old fashioned way.

As always, if you have any suggestions for classes that would benefit from a Random Absence Mentoring blog, or if you'd like an invite to the Google Group, the Google Calendar, or as an author here, please comment!

Thursday, October 31st

Today the class was mainly focused on discussion.
First we discussed Act 4 of Hamlet. Any questions students had were discussed.
Then we went on to "Hamlet 2.0". And the question offered was: If Hamlet was in modern age and used the internet would he have been able to create the persona with the other characters that he has in the play? This led to another lengthy but informative discussion.
Tonight for Homework all we are expected to do is finish the play!

Also it has come to my attention that a class, I believe 4th period, have a test tomorrow on Hamlet because Dr. Preston thought they didn't understand the reading very well.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

October 29

So if you missed class for any reason today, here's a summary of what we did:

• Journal (as always), here's a link to today's journal topic. 
• We spent a fair amount of time discussing Act III and various interpretations of the text. The notes that I personally took revolves around the scene with Gertrude talking to Hamlet, and what Polonius' death tells us. This is an example of indirect characterization in a way because it is clear that Hamlet doesn't care about Polonius since he carried on his with his rant with out even thinking about the fact that he just stabbed someone. He didn't even care about the identity too much, be he most likely hoped it was Claudius for sure. Gertrude also has an epiphany of sorts in this scene as well; she is finally able to see herself through Hamlet's eyes and recognize what a terrible person she has been. In my opinion this is important because at the end of the scene Hamlet tells her he knows that his execution is to come, and perhaps Gertrude's revelation will save Hamlet, or she can choose to betray him. These are just the highlights from the conversation my class had, if anyone in a different period had a different take or something to add, feel free to comment. 
• We then transitioned into reading Act IV, which is also homework to finish reading.
• Then finished the period by going from person to person saying a line from "To be or not to be..." so learn it by tomorrow if you haven't.

Our homework for tonight includes:

• Posting to our blog "Thoughts on Hamlet (In Progress)", where we can describe what we have thought about whilst reading. Any ideas or opinions or thoughts! Think about these questions: Explain how your thinking about the play has evolved from the time we began reading to the end of Act III. Has anything changed your mind about the plot or characters since the ghost showed up at midnight? Where do you see things going from here?
• Read Act IV.
• Watch "Filter Bubbles" and comment to this post, answering these questions: a)What new information did you learn from the video? b)How does this information make you think differently about what you see online? c)What questions does this video raise about the Internet in general? and d)How can you improve the effectiveness of your searches? Also post to your blog. 
• Read "The Performative Utterance in Hamlet" and take notes to post to your blog (use same title).

Senior Cap and Gown Information 10/29/13

http://shunterrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
I recorded the presentation and posted the video to my blog.

October 28

Today some of us recited "To be or not to be". We also discussed act 3 in groups and answered any questions posed by our peers to help to get a better understanding of what's going on.

October 25

Today, we started on our individual conferences, and in the meantime we discussed Act III with our groups. Also, Dr. Preston showed us a video of last year's Sarah Gutierrez and Amanda Arnold reciting "To Be Or Not To Be" at a showing of The Hobbit. You can check it out below.

October 24

Today in class we took a vocab quiz. One of the questions mentioned "fluency" in vocab words, which Dr. Preston said was just like foreign languages. (I noticed a lot of people were like "whaaaaat" when he spoke in Spanish, so I'll translate: "Hay muchas palabras en español que no recuerdo porque no practico bastante." = "There are many words in Spanish that I don't remember because I don't practice enough.") Even if you're able to understand a language, but you're not actually fluent, then when you listen to someone speak you have to sort of translate the words to English and THEN you understand it. It's the same with vocabulary-- really owning the words requires practicing until they are a seamless part of our speech and writing, preferably without immediately remembering that they're "vocabulary" words at all.

Also: Literature Analysis #3 is due at the beginning of class tomorrow.

October 22

Today in class, we did our group presentations on what we learned from Act II of Hamlet, and how we learned it. Dr. Preston has links to prezis and his own in-class notes here, which will be great for recap/review.

Explanation of homework #1: on tomorrow's vocab test, there will be two questions. The first question will be about one word that Dr. Preston picks, and alllllllllllll our vocab words (which you can see here) are fair game. The second question will ask us to pick a word we've come to own-- maybe you have started to use it a lot, or it became an inside joke with you and your friends, or you just like it for some reason. Either way, be prepared to tell a story/explain why you chose it.

Princeton University

Hi this is Ian Steller, and I know it's been quite a few weeks, but here is an update from when a representative came all the way from Princeton University to interest students from Righetti High School into applying.

Princeton University is located in Princeton, New Jersey, and it is a fantastic Ivy League school known for its dedication to research.  Ivy League schools are private institutions, and if you're shy to the hefty prices of attending these universities, do not stress, because Princeton has its own financial aid system built into the school.  If your parents make less than $60,000, and you make it into Princeton, they will pay for your full tuition, and the list goes on.

To apply to Princeton, use the Common App.  You must complete 2 SAT subject tests to apply as well.  Like all great schools, Princeton has many attractions, activities, and fun clubs that might catch your eye.  Although the school is ranked in the top 10 for the nation, tutoring clubs and other fun activities will always be there.  Also, there is a subway that can take you straight from the university to the heart of New York City in a couple hours; so the college life isn't completely filled with rigor.

As far as academics go, I personally asked the representative from Princeton what academics are like.  He stated that students from Princeton end up doing what they want to do in life around 93% of the time, which is an incredible ratio.  If you attend an undergraduate school as prestigious as Princeton, you are very likely to be accepted into the graduate school of your choice.  Note that you don't have to declare your major at Princeton until your Junior year, and you must complete a huge Senior project during your Senior year in order to complete your curriculum and obtain your undergraduate degree.

I'm still on the fence about applying to Princeton.  The representative that came to speak to us was from the University of Pennsylvania; so his word was slightly debased.  Princeton is a great university, though.  If you're looking into a career in research or just a great place that's far away from home to start your college education, look at Princeton.  There are a few informational documents in the career center that contain extensive information on Princeton, and the rest is up to you!

October 21st

Dr. Preston is still out.  Due to the fact that he didn't read our journals, today in class our Hamlet groups put together 5 to 8 minute presentations that we will share tomorrow in class.  The presentation is in two parts: 1) What did you learn, and 2) How did you learn it. 

Don't forget, our next literary analysis is due this Friday, and "To be or not to be," recitals will begin Monday.

Your Computer Needs More RAM

No, not random access memory, Random Absence Mentoring! That's right, we're expanding :)

On Friday, I talked to people at the lunch meeting and 5th period (which I totally hijacked while Nik Koyama was getting lunch) about how to bring Random Absence Mentoring into other classes. Someone in fifth period (forgive my bad memory, I can't remember who or else I'd include a link and a name drop) suggested that I write a post here and on the Google Group with a list of subjects, and in the comments we can have a conversation of what classes it would be most helpful to have a student-run blog for, and ask for volunteers of who can lead each the blog for each class. Here's a list I came up with-- if I missed anything, please comment!

• AP Econ/AP Gov't
• AP Calculus AB
• AP Calculus BC
• AP Chemistry
• AP Physics
• AP Biology

What do you guys think? Which classes do you think Random Absence Mentoring could help the most, and is anyone interested in writing for any of these classes?

UC San Diego

Hello, this is Brenna! After the UC San Diego session in the Career Center, I can give some insight about the university based on the questions I asked. I'll try to provide information that isn't exactly stated on their website.

• For their arts program, they do not require a portfolio or live performance with the regular admissions process. I found this odd because I assumed you'd want to see if someone has artistic talent before you admit them, but they are different in that sense. If someone is doing poorly artistically, even if admitted, they'll get the hint eventually, as well as a suggestion to switch majors.
• They do not have a business major (closest would be Management Science).
• The difference between a UC and CSU is that a UC is more theoretical than technical. An example given was that while UCSD students will come up with an idea and how it will work, someone from a CSU will be the one to design and create this idea into a "real thing". 
• Very big campus!
• There are six colleges in UCSD, each catering to diverse ambitions with different requirements in each. They said no one college is more popular than the others (even though I've heard Muir is most popular). And though it is possible to switch colleges, it is very difficult.

Here are their six colleges within the university:

• Earl Warren: "Toward a life in balance"
• Eleanor Roosevelt: "Developing global citizens through scholarship, leadership and service"
• John Muir: "Celebrating the independent spirit"
• Revelle: "Purpose, truth, vision"
• Sixth (creative name): "Preparing effective citizens for the 21st century"
• Thurgood Marshall: "Developing the scholar and citizen"

I gathered some student opinions on the different colleges. Though keep in mind these are opinions by some, not everyone.
Earl Warren:

• Cramped dorm rooms.
• Where all the engineering majors lean towards.

Eleanor Roosevelt:

• Inflexible GEs.
• Nicest looking dorm (clean, new, and around a grass field).

John Muir:

• Popular because of its GE requirements, but you have to take them in sequence.
• Nice view of the beach from the dorms, but the dorms look like prisons.
• Best "college-dorm feel" because of the social environment.
• Closest to Price Center (student center).
• More flexible GEs.

Revelle:

• Very close to York Hall (bio and chem).
• Has a "mini-library" that's convenient for studying.
• Inflexible GEs.
• Old dorms.

Sixth:

• Least desirable dorm.
• Inflexible GEs.

Thurgood Marshall:

• Has the best food.
• More flexible GEs.
• Lots of 'singles' (single-occupied dorm rooms).

October 15

Dr. Preston is going to be gone for the next three days, so today we discussed with our groups what we need to do during his absence so that we will have read and understood Act II of Hamlet by Friday. From what I heard, some groups talked about just going over it quietly, while other groups were talking about actually sort of performing it in the front of the class. I was part of the second group, so I'll share the ideas that we brainstormed in my conversation with Uri (who seemed to be the ringleader) and Jason: we all really liked the idea of having an actual performance, but I was concerned that Shakespeare didn't write much blocking in his script beyond "enter" and "exit," so it would basically just be people standing there talking. However, Jason said that the actors would be able to just "go with the flow" and make up their own blocking that makes sense. He also suggested that we could stop periodically and discuss what the scene means as a group so everyone understands it. I had the idea of having several people with devices be responsible for looking up words, phrases, and references (like the mythology allusions in Hamlet's first big soliloquy) that are confusing, too. Maybe someone could even record it!

If anyone has feedback or more ideas about a Hamlet performance, please feel free to comment!

(Also, third period hijacked the schedule to debate about to memorize or not to memorize, I assume fourth period was pretty much gone at pictures the whole time, and fifth period started on Act II Scene ii.)

October 10

Presenting: Thursday, October 10, brought to you by Lisa Malins and Edmond Yi.

On Thursday, Dr. Preston was out, so we had a sub. We also had a vocab quiz, and maybe a lucky few students got to see the preview on the blog before starting the quiz. After that, we spent (sold?) a lot of time going over Hamlet Act I scene ii.

Also, today (writing this on Friday) I asked Dr. Preston what he meant by the agenda item "Chart a course for Chaucer-esque characters and P2P evaluation." For the Chaucer part, he said the question was basically should we continue doing stuff with Chaucer, or do people want to be done with Canterbury Tales already? As for the P2P evaluation, turns out no one showed up to the meeting on Tuesday, so he's transferring the discussion to the Interwebs. What systems can we create to give our classmates credit where it's due? You can respond to both questions (and their answers) here.

October 9

Presenting: Wednesday, October 9, brought to you by Lisa Malins and Edmond Yi.

Explanation of homework assignment: today (writing this on Friday actually), I asked Dr. Preston what he meant by the second homework assignment (for reference, here's the copypasta: "Find at least three other learning communities that are studying Hamlet [in an AP class, a college/university course, or independently]. Introduce yourself and use the principles of "The Art of Hosting Good Conversations Online" to do exactly that! Report the experience[s] on your blog."). He said that the idea was to find other active communities that are studying Hamlet RIGHT NOW, just like us, in order to "expand our learning network," as he put it. More is better, right? Why study with 80 students when you can study with 800?

And, from Edmond: When talking about finding groups, Dr. Preston really emphasized finding groups that were at or above our level in terms of thought/analysis (the purpose being to effectively learn something new from their work instead of rehashing what we already know or can find out easily).

For further clarification, you can check out some posts by students who've already done the assignment (when I talked to him, Dr. Preston showed me Lesther's post as an example). Hope this helps!

October 8

Today after the journal Dr. Preston covered what was new on the blog; the primary focus was Maddie Klusendorf's new scholarship and college information page, Cracking the Code on College.  We then got our midterms back and talked a little about how they were graded.  He also introduced the new vocabulary list that he failed to put up last night.  We don't have to post the definitions but we do have to use all the words as each group finishes their story tonight and post the end of our stories (containing the new vocabulary words) to our blogs.  For the remainder of the class we split up into our groups and began writing our endings and incorporating the vocabulary.  THE VOCABULARY TEST WILL BE TOMORROW WEDNESDAY 9TH.  We start Hamlet tomorrow.

October 7

Today (at least in 3rd period, I don't know about 4th and 5th) we split up into groups and submitted suggestions for Vocabulary #7, which has now been posted.

Also, Dr. Preston announced that tomorrow at lunch, there will be a meeting to brainstorm ideas for P2P evaluation. For inspiration, check out the solutions from Class of 2012 and Class of 2013!

....Aaaaaaaand that's about it, thanks to Early Out schedule. I hope everyone's enjoying their extended afternoons :)

P.S. HAMLET. (it's coming)

An Hour with Yale Admissions

Hi everybody!
This is Mia Levy,Lisa suggested that I create a post about the Yale session that went on in the career center about a week ago, which I was shockingly the only one who attended. Although extremely intimidating it was an amazing experience to have a one on one conversation with an ivy league admissions.

Unlike when Princeton came to RHS, Yale did not have a speech prepared. Our conversation was fueled only by questions I asked her. 
Here are the main points I remember about Yale that might be of interest to you:

• Every senior at Yale is required to complete a master thesis, report, etc.
• Yale looks for a prospective student who takes the most advance courses their high school offers, combined with incredible achievement in their community, especially their school.
• The main major at Yale is political science and government
• The only offer about 30 majors but they have an extreme amount of courses and professors are required to teach at least one undergraduate course. (I can't really remember but I know it's at least one.)
• They have this thing called Residential Campuses where you are required to live your first year and you don't get to choose, they put you with people who are unlike you to enhance your stay at Yale.
• They're only a couple hours away from New York and Boston
• IT'S COLD!
• You can double major though most freshmen don't
• Study abroad is extremely encouraged.
•  Some firms, such as insurance, actually come on campus at the end of year to recruit seniors right out of college. Though for those with other majors they do have specific staff dedicated to help you transition into a career after college.

I wasn't even planning on going to Yale, I mainly went for the fact that ivy leagues interest me and my 1st period bores me to death. So most of my questions probably weren't what she was expecting. In case you were wondering the lady I talked to did not attend Yale. Get this:
She and the admissions officer of Princeton both attended University of Pennsylvania.

Weird huh?

They have weird clubs too. Such as:

• A Greys Anatomy Club, where the group gets together every Thursday night to watch the show.
• MEAT: men eating animals together, which is a group of guys who raise money on campus to hold BBQs.
• Qudditch. Don't all colleges have this club now a days?
• Anti-gravity Association, they juggle, a lot.
• and tons of others, their amount of clubs is amazing.

All in all the women I met with was extremely welcoming and nice. We got to know each other more then how usual college fairs go and that was an awesome experience. If you have anymore questions, because I basically asked every question known to man then you can email me at levymia@yahoo.com or just ask me at school! I can also give you her email if you would like to talk to her personally, I'm sure she wouldn't mind.

Oh and she also recommended to try a Thai restaurant in New Haven because supposedly it's amazing, just a heads up if you're thinking of visiting. 

Have a nice day:)