hello & welcome

Welcome! 

 

Hi,
I'm looking forward to meeting with students at Santa Maria High School in a few weeks.  Since we don't have the opportunity for an orientation or a summer prep plan, I'm starting the course blog now.  (It's July 22.)  SMHS students - and anyone else who wants to learn along with us - can visit anytime.  Everything you need for the course will be right here.  As we get rolling next month, we will also use this space and other online media for collaborating, sharing information and online tools, finding scholarships, posting multimedia projects, and anything else we dream up and/or find useful.

Please bookmark this URL and follow the blog so that you can receive updates automatically.  If you don't know your way around blogs or the Internet, have no fear-- we will be dedicating class time to this, and you also probably have friends/relatives who can help.*  (*Working with each other to do a task and achieve shared goals is the definition of collaboration.  Collaboration is not cheating.  We learn better when we learn together, and we will be doing most of our learning together this year.  [I hate writing this next part because it feels so high school teacher-y, but I want to avoid any misunderstanding-- so...] Please Note: Some tasks, such as the AP exam and associated practice assignments, will require you to demonstrate your individual mastery of close reading, literary criticism, and written organization/ expression.  Don't even think about cheating when you know it's cheating.)

In time I hope every single person who participates in this course connects with a personally meaningful interest, discovers people & resources who can help pursue that interest, and takes charge of his/her own learning journey.  For now, please feel free to post any questions or comments here or email me at dpreston.learning@gmail.com.  Sapere aude.  I look forward to meeting you!

Best,
Dr. Preston