We are Off to A Great Start!

Greetings PAP English I students.  Thanks so much for making the first two weeks enjoyable.  I am really digging having Freshman in class once again.  It is also refreshing to have so many students "geared" into what we are discussing in class and their academic success.  It gives me great  hope for our future Redhawk leadership.

I though our Socratic Seminar over ASP was really insightful and compelling.  There were a lot of great comments and discussions surrounding the rich text.  I think we all learned a little about the struggles and pressures there comes with "coming of age" in high school a little better after reading and analyzing ASP.  I wish we had more time to devote to the novel, however, because we are starting the College Springboard Curriculum, like - right now, we must move on.

Speaking of the Springboard, we begin that year long curriculum this week with a Writing Workshop.  The concepts of Unit 1 is "Coming of Age" and "Voice."  We hope to have your textbooks to you this week, but if they don't come in we are going ahead with the schedule and simply (well not simply) make copies for all of you.  I will be putting all of the Springboard Unit activities on the resource page in case you need to refer to them at anytime.

I am in the process of finishing up grading your ASP exams.  I am about half way through those.  It will probably take me about a week to get test of that nature graded and back to you.  It takes a while to properly go through those type of test and I take frequent breaks in grading, so it doesn't all run together and I  keep a fresh prospective.  So be patient with me.  So far, I have been pleased with what I have seen.

I look forward to seeing each of you this week.  I am getting there with names/faces, so please continue to bear with me.  I'm not getting any younger and seemingly, learning 185 new names takes longer than it used to.  Don't get insulted - just chalk it up to Coach Miller getting old.  I will leave you with a riddle for your amusement:

There is a terrible wreck on the interstate and a father and his son both suffer life-threatening injuries as a result of the crash.  Because both of them will require life-saving emergency surgeries they are life-flighted to separate hospitals.  When the young son is wheeled into the operating room, the brain surgeon looks at him and responds, "I'm sorry, I can't operate on this patient - it is my son."  


How is this possible?

Welcome Back!

Welcome to Pre-AP English I. I am Mr. Miller and I am so excited about being your teacher this year.  This first post of your Pre-AP English I Website/Blog is intended to introduce you to myself, this class, and also some of my expectations as we journey through the curriculum.  So, with no further ado, let us begin . . .  


Students enrolled in Pre-AP English I can expect a rigorous and enriched curriculum, designed to prepare students for future success in Advance Placement and upper-level courses. Pre-AP English I is about learning to become an effective communicator and complex thinker. The reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills you develop now will play a key role in your ultimate performance and success in high school. Reading literature, having class discussions, learning how to communicate your thoughts effectively in writing, and listening to one another's ideas are all ways to increase the thinking capacity of your own mind.  



Many of you may know me as "Coach" Miller because I have spent the last 13 years as a coach and  teacher.  In fact, I opened Liberty High School in 2006 and have served as the Head Basketball Coach up until this year.  I made a very the tough decision after our banner season last year, to "hang up my whistle" and only teach, so that I could concentrate more of my time and efforts to my family, classroom teaching, and other ventures in my life.  I am a big "bucket list" guy and coaching took up so much time, I realized that so many of life's adventures I had hoped to do were not realistic if I continued coaching.  My time coaching was wonderful and I will miss many aspects of it very much, but I am really looking forward to the next chapter in my life.  I have been extremely blessed with a wonderful family that consist of my gorgeous wife Stacy, of 19 years, my daughter Claire (11) and son Myles (9).  As you can tell from the picture below, I ""out-kicked my coverage" marrying Stacy, and luckily, our kids get their looks from their mom.  I have included some more tidbits of information about me in the page titled - "Meet the Teach."

The Millers

Summer Reading
Students were to complete a summer reading assignment by the first day of class.  The selection was A Separate Peace by John Knowles.  Students will apply their understanding of this work in daily activities and homework as well as with in-class writing challenges.  Students will receive detailed instructions about how to prepare prior to this assessment.  The objective of the assessment is to determine student understanding of the work and to evaluate the analysis skills of each student.  

Units of Study
Students will receive a tentative calendar for each unit detailing daily assignments, homework, and major and minor grades, including quizzes, tests, papers, and project due dates. The calendar is subject to change; however, all changes will be announced in class and students are encouraged to note the changes. The updated calendar will be present on the this website at all times by the Sept. 1.

Springboard
This year, Pre-AP English I students will be using SpringBoard textbooks. This text follows College Board's official Pre-AP program and the use of this book will allow students to consistently be exposed to higher-order thinking skills, to practice close analysis with Pre-AP reading strategies leading to an ability to independently analyze any new text, to confront increasingly challenging texts, and to be challenged by complex writing tasks in persuasion, argumentation, expository analysis and literary analysis.

I am excited to get to know each of you.  One of the best things about being a teacher is developing lasting and rewarding relationships people.  Each year, I get the opportunity to start building a new set of relationships, and before long, we will all know each other very well.  Please try to stay focused and ahead of your studies and get a good start to this year academically, and make sure you see me if you have any questions or concerns about English.  As we like to say around LHS - Work Hard, Be Nice!!

Go Redhawks!!  

Warning about excuses:  I have heard and probably used them all.