This is my final post. One chapter of my life is closing and a new one is opening up! Thank-you to all of my wonderful students that used College Prep Jabber to increase writing skills and learn to properly use electronic communication systems and forums such as Facebook and Blogger. May your pages be professional, may you be able to network professionally, and may you stay out of trouble online! God Bless all of you in cyberspace forever!
Love,
Mrs. Atkinson :)
Jun 28, 2010
Apr 26, 2010
Michigan has too many people and too few jobs!
I attended a charter school job fair over the weekend and it was a crazy zoo. This job fair was specifically aimed at teachers. The people attending the job fair were mixed. I saw young, old, experienced, and inexperienced individuals. I also saw desperate individuals who were not teachers at this job fair (there is a myth that charter school teachers do not have to hold certification). The lines to see representatives from the schools criss-crossed one another. You could hardly find the end of each line. I waited in line over an hour to see representatives from the top schools and 20-40 minutes in lines for other schools. Use this information to make an inference about the state of employment and the economy in the state of Michigan. What does the crowd at this job fair tell you about what is happening with the conditions surrounding both the economy and education?
Apr 18, 2010
Say a Kind Word
I know that many of you were upset and saddened by last Wednesday's news. Here is a way to express your feelings publicly on this matter. Please go to the Great Schools link and write a review of the school. Include reasons you feel the school should not close. This is a way to let our authorizer (CMU), our management company (CSAS), our school board, and Academy of Inkster Administrators what you think. These organizations and individuals review this site on a regular basis. Please be sure to answer on the Great Schools link, not Blogger for this response. I would like students to type their answer into microsoft word, then I would like to review the answer for grammar, mechanics, and sentence fluency. Once I approve the answer, then you may go to great schools and copy/paste the answer into the site.
Apr 13, 2010
You are just a test score! All classes answer
This weekend I gave the ACT national test. In the room I supervised, I had four older students taking the test. Apparently, if you are an adult student with no college credits, you must take the ACT test to be admitted to a four year college. With the economy the way it is, there are more adult students trying to get into school. These adult students were scared. As the high school students finished tests early, I saw the adult eyes look around in panic. I had one woman who was so "out of it" that she dad difficulty with even bubbling in the answers in the correct place. I feel if my high school students feel the pressure, these adults must really feel horrible. It is hard for adults to do school. I went back as an adult to get my teaching credential. Not only did family commitments make studying more difficult, but I forgot how to do math. I failed the math Praxis because I could not remember how to do geometry. I had to review for a summer and retake my math Praxis test before a could be admitted to a teaching program. In this entry, please tell how standardized test make you feel. Also, tell me how you think those adults taking the ACT must have felt. Then state if you feel standardized testing is a fair way to evaluate students for potential college success and why?
Mar 30, 2010
AP: Please read!
This is how the rest of this week will work: Please be present! If you start your vacation early, the results and consequences will be your problem, not mine. In the real world you can not pick and choose the days you want off. If you do this in the real world, you can loose you job or fail classes.
Today:
2nd: Finish papers and make portfolio pages. You may print from the teacher's desk computer to the printer on the desk.
3rd: Have Taylor distribute unfinished Baldwin prompts. I expect these finished in essay format before the end of this period. Taylor is to collect them and put them into the folder for grading.
Both midterms are Thursday to allow for proper time for portfolios and review due to the conference I am attending. The following reading selections from the McGraw Hill Reader will be sources for the final writing question:
Jefferson: 443
Lincoln: 115
King: 447
Baldwin: The Fire Next Time
Thanks,
Mrs. Atkinson
Today:
2nd: Finish papers and make portfolio pages. You may print from the teacher's desk computer to the printer on the desk.
3rd: Have Taylor distribute unfinished Baldwin prompts. I expect these finished in essay format before the end of this period. Taylor is to collect them and put them into the folder for grading.
Both midterms are Thursday to allow for proper time for portfolios and review due to the conference I am attending. The following reading selections from the McGraw Hill Reader will be sources for the final writing question:
Jefferson: 443
Lincoln: 115
King: 447
Baldwin: The Fire Next Time
Thanks,
Mrs. Atkinson
Mar 26, 2010
AP Language and Comp (11-12)
Hello,
This is just a reminder to to make sure you have completed the following tasks:
Before Monday:
1. Please complete the March 19 Blogger. Only six of you have completed it and it is worth Blogger points.
2. Make sure you have at the very minimum emailed me a draft of your first paper today. I have not seen several papers and portfolios are due March 31st. I can't and will not take portfolios or papers after April 1st. You will get a 5 point deduction for turning the portfolio in on April 1st and no credit if you try to turn it in after that.
3. Make sure your are working on your Declaration of Independence. Time is short and some of you have squandered your lab time.
4. If you owe me an outstanding assignment from third period, I need it by Monday or I am not grading it.
5. I am fully aware that 3rd period's grade book is not calculating correctly so don't freak out because you have a yucky grade. Once all assignments are through the grade book, I will be able to calculate how many points I need to add to each assignment category to straighten this out. No one has an "F" mathematically and I will make sure this is reflected by the end of the term.
6. Do a good job on third period's writing prompt. I think this one will be easy.
7. Final exam: Prompt will use texts read in class. You will have three AP style reading exercises for 3rd period.
P.S. I am baking cookies sunday! I have a new recipie for toffee oatmeal raisin!
Mrs. Atkinson
This is just a reminder to to make sure you have completed the following tasks:
Before Monday:
1. Please complete the March 19 Blogger. Only six of you have completed it and it is worth Blogger points.
2. Make sure you have at the very minimum emailed me a draft of your first paper today. I have not seen several papers and portfolios are due March 31st. I can't and will not take portfolios or papers after April 1st. You will get a 5 point deduction for turning the portfolio in on April 1st and no credit if you try to turn it in after that.
3. Make sure your are working on your Declaration of Independence. Time is short and some of you have squandered your lab time.
4. If you owe me an outstanding assignment from third period, I need it by Monday or I am not grading it.
5. I am fully aware that 3rd period's grade book is not calculating correctly so don't freak out because you have a yucky grade. Once all assignments are through the grade book, I will be able to calculate how many points I need to add to each assignment category to straighten this out. No one has an "F" mathematically and I will make sure this is reflected by the end of the term.
6. Do a good job on third period's writing prompt. I think this one will be easy.
7. Final exam: Prompt will use texts read in class. You will have three AP style reading exercises for 3rd period.
P.S. I am baking cookies sunday! I have a new recipie for toffee oatmeal raisin!
Mrs. Atkinson
Mar 19, 2010
AP Lang and Comp News and Prompt
News:
Please email me you first paper by today. I will be entering them into the grade book this weekend. I have managed to enter all outstanding work into the grade book. If your grade is below a C, please find out what you are missing. I gave all students with outstanding work due to absences a make-up package. I only received papers back from a few of you. I will be distributing a new makeup package on Monday. All make-up work is to be completed by Thursday, March 25th. I will not accept outstanding work after that. A failure slip will be sent to the office on Monday for a all students with a failing grade on Monday. Absences have hurt many of you this term. You must be in school to do well in school! Declaration prompts will be handed back on Monday. You will have until Friday, March 26 to develop these into a well-developed 3-5 page paper. Portfolios will be due March 31. Directions will be given on Monday. All prompts and your two papers go in this. I will be assigning portfolio points in both classes to boost grades in third period. Next term students need to be here and work hard!
Prompt: Please Respond
Has the world gone mad? For the past two weeks, high school students all over the state of Michigan have been acting crazy. The most dangerous part of this behavior is that many times it has been "mass behavior." Mass behavior was the behavior demonstrated by the town girls in "The Crucible" (Which we all read last year). In Canton, a student was beaten by a group of students and is in the hospital with serious injuries. This student may never walk again. The object of the fight was a girl. Yesterday, a group of students from a neighboring city tried to engage students from my daughter's school in a fight at a choir festival. Students from this particular school always try to engage students from my daughter's school and have caused fights before. Our school has recently had an incident that was dangerous and angered me very much. The students involved thought the behavior was cute,funny, and a good way to irritate Mrs. Atkinson. However, this incident could have been serious and students could have been injured or perhaps killed. Please write a good paragraph warning the students at the Academy of Inkster about the instigation of this sort of behavior in groups. Please include possible risks and consequences. I truly want our school to be a better place. It is up to the good students like you to take a leadership role and let other students know that this type of behavior is dangerous and not acceptable.
Thank-you,
Mrs. Atkinson
Please email me you first paper by today. I will be entering them into the grade book this weekend. I have managed to enter all outstanding work into the grade book. If your grade is below a C, please find out what you are missing. I gave all students with outstanding work due to absences a make-up package. I only received papers back from a few of you. I will be distributing a new makeup package on Monday. All make-up work is to be completed by Thursday, March 25th. I will not accept outstanding work after that. A failure slip will be sent to the office on Monday for a all students with a failing grade on Monday. Absences have hurt many of you this term. You must be in school to do well in school! Declaration prompts will be handed back on Monday. You will have until Friday, March 26 to develop these into a well-developed 3-5 page paper. Portfolios will be due March 31. Directions will be given on Monday. All prompts and your two papers go in this. I will be assigning portfolio points in both classes to boost grades in third period. Next term students need to be here and work hard!
Prompt: Please Respond
Has the world gone mad? For the past two weeks, high school students all over the state of Michigan have been acting crazy. The most dangerous part of this behavior is that many times it has been "mass behavior." Mass behavior was the behavior demonstrated by the town girls in "The Crucible" (Which we all read last year). In Canton, a student was beaten by a group of students and is in the hospital with serious injuries. This student may never walk again. The object of the fight was a girl. Yesterday, a group of students from a neighboring city tried to engage students from my daughter's school in a fight at a choir festival. Students from this particular school always try to engage students from my daughter's school and have caused fights before. Our school has recently had an incident that was dangerous and angered me very much. The students involved thought the behavior was cute,funny, and a good way to irritate Mrs. Atkinson. However, this incident could have been serious and students could have been injured or perhaps killed. Please write a good paragraph warning the students at the Academy of Inkster about the instigation of this sort of behavior in groups. Please include possible risks and consequences. I truly want our school to be a better place. It is up to the good students like you to take a leadership role and let other students know that this type of behavior is dangerous and not acceptable.
Thank-you,
Mrs. Atkinson
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