Sunday, May 30, 2010

Inspirational Story - Jonathan Brown - AVID

This is a superb story.  Jonathan Brown and  his success through AVID.  He is inspirational and shows that if he can do it, anyone can.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Lone Star College - College Fair

MINI COLLEGE FAIRS
at
Lone Star College

Meet with Admissions Counselors
from approximately 20 different colleges:
     Lone Star Kingwood Fine Arts Building)      
Monday, June 14         10:00 am to 1:00 pm 

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Agenda: Week of May 24 - May 28, 2010

Quote of the Day:  "What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade."  ~Gertrude Jekyll

Agenda:
MONDAY:
1.  Goal of the Week - we'll work together in groups to do these and discuss them.
2.  Juniors will look at this video:

Sophomores will do a socratic seminar on the first chapter of their US History AP book for the summer: "Lies My Teacher Told Me."  They will annotate the text, ask and answer questions and read through the chapter in groups.  We'll discuss as a big group at the end.
3.  ALL - Plan tutor celebration on Tuesday.  Cards?

TUESDAY:
Last day of Tutoring for the year!
View our end of the year AVID Video with the tutors.

FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE

WED/THU:
Discuss final exam essays.  Give the students time to organize their essays.  They will do them in class for the final for a timed writing.

FINAL EXAM DAY:
We'll do our final exam timed writing essays over these choices:
1.  AVID Summer Institute Speech (The What has AVID done for me speech)
2.  Roadtrip Nation - Write about the experience and how it impacted you.  What did you learn?
3.  Life Goal.  This is the AVID Life Goal Essay.
4.  College Trip Essay - Students can pick a college trip from this year and write about the trip and what they learned.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Lauren and Angela - Former Tutors Guest Speak Today

So proud of Lauren and Angela, two of our former AVID Tutors.  They are doing a great job at Texas A&M and Boston U. respectively.  We were really pleased to have them come in on Friday and share their stories and advice about the freshman year with the AVID students.



Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Meeting in Red LGI for AP/Dual US History Students for Next Year

Could you briefly tell your kids that Mark and I would like to see anyone signed up for AP/dual US in the Red LGI today, tomorrow, or Thursday after school? It will take about 5 minutes. Sorry for the short notice!
 
 
John Gillespie
AP Dual Credit US History
Social Studies Department Head
 

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Agenda: Week of Monday, May 16, 2010 to Friday, May 21, 2010


Fact – As each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71 percent greater flying range than if one bird flew alone.
Lesson Learned – People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the strength of one another. [Source]

MONDAY:
Goal of the Week.  We'll work on goals in our tutoring groups and discuss them with the Geese Quotes and Teambuilding information from this site:  http://www.teambuildinginc.com/article_geese.htm

Socratic Seminar Project
Then we will do a small group socratics seminar on the following articles: 

Group 1:
WHAT’S the key to success in the United States? May 14, 2010
Group 2:
There are ways to use social media and ways not to--make sure you know the differences.
By Jeff Greer, May 12, 2010
Group 3:
Study examines prevalence, perceptions of cheating May 13, 2010
Group 4:
Time Magazine: Why Do Women Still Earn Less Than Men? By Laura Fitzpatrick Apr. 20, 2010

Each group will read their articles (10 minutes), annotate the text and write at least 1 question (5 minutes), then they will discuss in their group.  One person in the group will write out the two most important things that they have learned from the article and write an overall summary of the article and reflection of their groups work.  

We will rotate these 4 articles through each group over the next week and then present the findings of each group to the class next week.  

TUESDAY:
Tutoring

WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY:
Tutoring first 1/2 of the period.  Then we will do our group socratic seminar project on the 4 articles above.  We will rotate the next article through the groups.

FRIDAY:
Socratic seminar: we will do our group socratic seminar project on the 4 articles above.  We will rotate the next article through the groups.

**We may have a guest speaker or two from college over the next couple of weeks.  AHS students are returning from colleges and universities all over the country and some have asked to come in to address our AVID classes. If we have a guest speaker, we'll postpone the socratic discussion groups until the next class period.


Monday, May 10, 2010

Agenda: Week of Monday, May 10 through Friday, May 14, 2010

Quote of the Week:  "The principal goal of education is to create people who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done."

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Swiss cognitive psychologist.


May 10, 1992 - Mr. Duez graduated from Juniata College.  Beside July 4th, 1995 (My wedding) and October 27th, 2004 (Aidan's birth) it was one of my best days as a human.  I hope every one of my students experiences the same feeling of accomplishment that I was able to have that day.

AGENDA:
Monday - 
1.  Goal of the Week
2.  Timed Writing Essay for Aerie Yearbook:

From Guy Anderson, our Journalism teacher.  Here is the prompt . . .
From 2010 forward, all classes will have attended AHS for all four years. All students are welcomed to submit an essay, and all faculty are also welcome to submit an essay, not just those who have been here all four years.
Describe what it means to you to be Red, White & TRUE, to yourself, to your friends, to your teammates, to your school and community. Basically, what's it mean to be PURE EAGLE.
Two winning essays will be published in the opening pages of this year's Aerie Yearbook - the first thing readers will see and read when they open the annual.
Be creative. Let it flow. Good luck.
3.  After students complete their essay:  Students will work on completing their 4 year plan and also the reading of "The Gatekeepers" if they did not complete it for the sub last week.
4.  (if time remains) We will do a couple of team building activities:
First, Mr. Duez will pull up this website: http://www.teambuildinginc.com/article_geese.htm
We'll read and discuss how geese use teamwork and what we can learn from them.

Directions, Directions

Students work in groups of 4-6. One person starts, identifying and performing a small task (i.e. “Clap hands three times”). The next person repeats and performs the same tasks, then adds on one of their own (i.e. “Clap hands three time, stick out tongue”). Play continues around the group, with each person performing and adding a new task to the mix. Students who cannot complete the sequence correctly are out until the next round. This game requires students to follow directions, focus, listen carefully, and utilize memory skills.


Tuesday: TUTORING

Wed/Thu: TUTORING & then students will work on their second draft of their Life Goals.  

Friday:
Guest speaker  
OR Socratic Seminar over College Tips.
We'll divide into our tutoring groups and each group will have one article:
Each group will read and discuss the article and annotate the text.  They will summarize it and then present it to the whole class at the end of the period.  Then we will discuss each groups findings.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Permission Slip for SFA for Sophomores

Permission Slip Sfa

Agenda - Week of May 3rd through May 7, 2010

Quote of the Week:  "Great people talk about ideas. Small people talk about other people."
 Tobias S. Gibson


AGENDA:
Monday - 
1) Goal of the Week in Road Trip Nation groups.  Answer 3 questions - 1) Favorite part of the experience.  2) Things they learned 3) What they would do differently.  The video is what Mr. Duez will add to the class RTN videos that he'll put together this summer.
2) Pick up Embedded Speech applications, Summer School Applications, and also pass out Field Trip permission forms to sophomores for Friday.
3) Pass out "The Gatekeepers" - "The Tortilla Test" -- The first chapter of the book by Jacques Steinberg about the process inside the admissions office at a premiere college.  We will be using it this week to mark the text and also reflect on a prompt.
4) While students are reading "The Gatekeepers", Mr. Duez will conduct exit interviews from Road Trip Nation in their groups.

Tuesday - 
TUTORING

Wednesday/Thursday - 
TUTORING first 1/2 of the period
Then we'll get "Analyzing a Writing Prompt" - it's an AVID Critical Reading packet that will help students analyze different writing prompts that they may see in college.

Friday - 
Sophomores are at Stephen F. Austin University for their field trip.
Juniors will continue to read and mark the text on "The Gatekeepers."  They will write a reflection about the chapter and discuss in class.
The substitute will also show the 2nd half of the Road Trip Nation documentary.