What we've been up to...

It's been a while since the last post and there's been a lot going on.

In all classes book reports were due and students have begun presenting.

Titles so far this semester (Click to view student created Prezis):
Now You See It
7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens/People
The Happiness Hypothesis
A Brief History of Everything
Animal Rights
Flesh of My Flesh
How Children Succeed
Freakanomics
Hitchcock: Piece by Piece
The World Is Flat
No Choirboy
Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth
Born To Run
Solo

In Contemporary Issues students are utilizing a problem solving process to examine issues such as: War, Obesity and the Economy.


Oh... and there was an election. Students studied the policies and platforms that candidates were running on, analyzed charts and graphs ultimately predicting the winner and exploring our contentious political system.

ACE/Gifted Mentorship: We're almost done with our first semester! Great job so far, 6 more weeks to go.

SLC and More

Next week on October 23 & 24 EHS will be holding Student Led Conferences (SLC). Please attend at your scheduled time.

Please take a look at he APS Education Foundation website for information on how to make donations.

Progress Fiesta

Hi Everyone,

You should have received the 1st 6 weeks Progress Reports by this point. You've also been sent updates on your child's progress via e-mail. If you have any questions regarding this please let me know.

Updates on Contemporary Issues Page: Debate Schedule and Book Report Rubrics.

Ace Students Make sure to check in with me this week.

Links have been updated to open in a new window.

Enjoy your Friday.

If you missed Advisory last week please see me ASAP.

End of the 1st Six Weeks

Congratulations to all of my students who participated in Homecoming this week. From members of the Court, to football players and those in marching band, La Cuadrilla and the cheer leading squad you all are amazing!

Grades are entered in to Grade Book Wizard. Please check to make sure everything is correct. If you thing something needs to be changed you have until the end of the day on Monday to discuss this with me.

For those of you interested in viewing more of the RSA's animations here you go: RSA Animate

Homecoming

It's been a busy couple of weeks.

From taking a look at the 60s, to headlines, to all of the wonderful work the mentorship students are doing things are moving along quite nicely.
Next Monday, September 24th, will be the end of the 1st 6 week grading period. If you need to redo any assignment to improve grade Monday is the last day that work will be accepted. Parents look forward to progress toward goals for child being sent to you.

I had the good fortune to be able to attend this year's Fall Institute for the Gifted. More info here: NMAG

Lastly, this week we will be on Super Special Long Homecoming Assembly Schedule for ADVISORY. That's Wednesday and Thursday. So seniors with no morning classes don't forget to show up!

ACE Updates

The "ACE" Tab as been updated and now reflects the proper name of the course: Gifted Mentorship.
New class documents have been added to the Gifted Mentorship page.

The syllabus link should work for Contemporary Issues II.

For those of you who attended EHS Open House last night it was wonderful to meet you and to see some familiar faces as well. Thanks for being here! 10 minutes isn't much time to discuss everything we do and all of the wonderful qualities your children bring to these classes. If you'd like to chat more feel free to contact me.

Open House

Tomorrow is Open house from 6-8:30. I'm looking forward to visiting with those parents of returning students and to meeting those of you new to Eldorado are at least to me.

The next advisory periods will be September 5 and 6.

Interesting Article of the Week: http://michaelhyatt.com/19-what-the-internet-is-doing-to-our-brains-podcast.html

Beginning of Year Updates

New files are now available on the ACE and Contemporary Issues Pages. There are now running logs of our daily activities.

New announcements are available on the clubs page.

Welcome Back! 2012/2013 School Year

Week of 8/13-8/17

Greetings! I look forward to teaching each of the students in my classes this year. Please use this website as a resources for assignments, to stay informed about what we're doing in class and to communicate with me regarding the needs to your son or daughter. 

Students will be receiving a syllabus for the Contemporary Issues and ACE classes. Parents, please sign and return the films and videos portion. Copies of the syllabi are available on the course specific webpage. 

Assignment Update

Contemporary Issues 3: Debate will begin on Monday April 9th. Please come prepared. The format is Parliamentary.

Please check the WiR blog.

Contemporary Issues 2 and 3 we will have our first Week In Review discussion in a while. I'm looking to forward to discussing the topics you bring in this week.

Lincoln Douglas Debate Practice

As chosen the topic for our Friday debate will be:

"Public high school students in the United States ought not be required to pass standardized exit exams to graduate."

Please be prepared to debate on both sides of the issue on Friday.

Is it Spring Yet?

Welcome back from Spring Break.

This week we'll be preparing for SBA testing which occurs next week.

Seriously though, Contemporary Issues III please remember to check the Week In Review page and submit  both of your posts on time.

Spring Cleaning

As I sit here typing this, gazing at the snowflakes falling, it's hard to believe but it's almost Spring Break! Great job to all of you so far this semester. I hope you enjoy your time off and come back ready to finish your 2011/2012 school year strongly.

This week there will be an important meeting for students registered to take the ACE class. Please check the tab above for more information.

Contemporary Issues III students: Your next Week in Review will be on April 4th!

Sundry Items

A special thank you to Dr. William Hershey for coming in and speaking about the 1960s and 1970s! The Contemporary Issues and Mr. Sprague's classes appreciated the information and insight.

The final ASCL meet for this season was on February 21st at AIMS. Thanks to all those who participated this year. We'll continue to hold lunch meetings throughout the semester.

Students enrolling in ACE. You and/or your parent should have received a couple of e-mails informing you of  a meeting mandatory for students to attend on March 6th during lunch. Check out the ACE page for more info.

Sharkentines!!!

Good job to all of those who participated in delivering Sharkentines on Valentine's Day. It sounds like the lucky students to receive these were thrilled and the classes we visted together really appreciated us stopping by.

Remember that this Friday the 17th is the final day of the 4th 6 weeks. If you've got any late assignments or make up work please turn it in ASAP!

Electives Expo 2012

This week EHS will be holding advisory classes on Wednesday and Thursday. The focus of these advisories is to prepare for registration. Registration cards will be given out on Feb  3, (juniors), 10 (sophomores) and 17 (freshmen). On the 2nd students will attend the EHS Electives Expo which gives them an opportunity to learn about our course offerings.


The EHS Gifted Department, along with representatives from Chess Club and Science Fiction Club, will be at our 8th Grade Parent night starting at 5pm, January 30th. 

Redesign...

After watching that riveting 18th debate I'm sure you're wondering what's next for this great country of ours. 

A redesign of this blog/site!!!

I know, I know just when you thought it couldn't get any better. From now on, general announcements will be posted on this page. If you're looking for specific class or club information just click on the links at the top of this page. 

Happy surfing.

Mr. M

Possible Participation...

On January 30 the POTUS will be hanging out on Google+ and taking questions about the State of the Union. State of the Union will occur on the 24th at 7pm Mountain Standard Time, followed by the Republican response from John Cornyn.

• Hang Out Info

Speaking of Google: Google 4 Doodle could earn you 30K, that's right $30,000 for college. Or a free trip to NYC and a t-shirt.

And the Debates Continue.... tonight 1/23/12 on NBC will be the 1millionth, err 17th/18th (?) GOP Debate.

New Info!

To help keep you more informed about upcoming due dates and club events there's been a link added. On the left side of the page, under "Helpful Links", just click on "EHS Event Calendar". Here you can check due dates for upcoming assignments and events for Chess, Sci-Fi and Magic Clubs.

This week the students in the ACE class will be giving presentations on Friday to the 9th and 10th grade Gifted Classes. These students have been dedicated to their mentorships and have some important information to share.

All Contemporary Issues classes will be having their Week in Review 2.2 this week.

The Written Component for the College Project is due this Friday the 27th!

Have a great week :)

College Info

For those of you in Contemporary Issues Three:

College Information Format

What we're up to...

I'm glad to have everybody back and at this early date things are on track.

CI 3: We've begun the College Project and held our first WiR of the semester. Great job contributing to the blog everyone.

CI 2.4 has begun tackling some of  the problems they see in the world using the Big Deal Process. After choosing and analyzing some of these issues they are now in the process of developing solutions.

CI 2.7 is continuing our exploration of Contemporary History and has begun to research the 70s.

It's 2012!

Welcome back and Happy New Year!

Below are links to the Syllabi for the different CI Classes.

Contemporary Issues 2 per 4
Contemporary Issues 2 per 7
Contemporary Issues 3

Check back weekly for updates.