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"Why bother creating our own goals," a student asked me once, "when we're already told what it means to succeed in school?  Aren't we just supposed to get A's?"

Being able to set and achieve goals is important in every endeavor: sports, organizations, self-improvement, emptying the dishwasher before your mother gets home.  Even though they know their roles and agree on the idea of winning, for example, Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski requires his players to set goals for themselves and the team each season.  In Coach K's words, “Mutual commitment helps overcome the fear of failure—especially when people are part of a team sharing and achieving goals. It also sets the stage for open dialogue and honest conversation.”

When you share your goals you're sharing ideas that inform and inspire your colleagues.  These goals will form the basis for your Learning Plan over the spring semester, so please read this post and get the job done.  Knowing more about each other will also be important because none of us will prepare for the AP exam alone. 

Keep something else in mind.  Unlike players on a basketball team, you are being allowed, encouraged, and required to change the game itself.  Why not analyze a Russian novel by comparing it with its modern film adaptation?  Watch Anna Karenina and then think about how to demonstrate what you know in such a way that it will help us.  Huh?  You'd rather build a robot that writes, reads, interprets, and explains Russian novels to irritating teacher types?  Cool.  You can do that too.

If you are still thinking of this as a high school course to be gamed, please immediately find your closest friend and ask her to roll up a newspaper and smack you on the nose with it.*  (*If this doesn't work the first time, ask a friend who reads the newspaper on a computer.**) [**In this day and age, I should probably point out that this is not an actual instruction. Hands are not for hitting. Baseball bats are, but that isn't really relevant or appropriate here and now I find myself wondering how Montaigne ever righted the ship once he got off on one of these tangents.] If you're one of those people who cut corners last semester and thought we didn't notice, she will be doing you a favor.  It's better that you get your act together in private before we get started, before everyone sees what you do all the time, before 70% of your course grade is determined by your learning network.

Last semester was rehearsal.  This is showtime.

More on how to achieve your goals and develop your community of critique tomorrow. 

Happy 2014

Hi Everyone,
I hope you and your families have enjoyed your time away from school.

Welcome to the next chapter of our adventure.

Originally I planned on assigning work throughout the break as a way to sustain our momentum.  At the same time, however, I was also aware that (most of) you had done a lot of work and I wanted to avoid burn out, so I decided to give all of us a proper break.  (For the record, no one objected. :)

Now it's time to revisit what we accomplished in the fall and figure out how best to build toward achieving our goals in the spring.  Over the next few days I will post steps for you to take so that you're prepared for the first day.  These are assignments that will be evaluated not just by me, but by your entire learning network (which you will build

The first step is to figure out what you want to accomplish.

I'll go first. My goals for the spring semester are as follows:

1. To help every member of our learning community accomplish his/her goals;
2. To help every member of our learning community pass the AP English Literature and Composition exam

In order to accomplish my goals, I will obviously need to know more about yours.  So, as the first steps in this process, please do the following:

1. Comment to this post with a brief (1-2 sentence) description of what you want to accomplish by participating in this course over the next six months. (NOTE: This should be about your personal passion, not a Hallmark-y "I want an A" or "I'll try real hard" nod to the assignment.)
2. Post a longer description to your course blog under the title, "What's In This For Me?"
3. If you haven't yet, write yourself an accompanying email here for delivery in one year.  Ultimately, the future you will have the best idea as to whether or not you have truly succeeded.

Think back on all of the threads we began last semester (Collaborative Working Groups, Big Questions, traditional academic study, Open Source Learning technology, gamification) and literally ask yourselves, "What IS in this for me?"  Some of you want to create entrepreneurial ventures.  Some of you want to explore a question or an idea through original research.  Some of you want to game and continue growing our AP learning network through technology and shared experiences.  Some of you want to keep your focus narrow and get a 5 on the AP exam.  Whatever your priorities, this is the chance to declare what YOU want out of this process so that we can design your experience together.  You may work with others or you may see this as your personal journey, but if you wait and rely on an authority figure or colleagues to tell you what to do, you will fail.  I will post more about how we can go about this in the next day or two.  My reason for posting this first is to get feedback from you about what it is that interests you most so I can plan accordingly.  As promised, you will also have input on the core curriculum.  For now, the key is for you to wave the magic wand and imagine an experience that enables everyone to pass the AP exam and emerge from this course (and HS) having created tangible value in the world.  Another way to think of this: Your senior project begins now.  If you have questions or want to bounce ideas around, please feel free to use the comments and/or email.  The idea here is to give you the opportunity to start the conversation without rubric-style limitations, but if you need structure/help I'm here.  

Wishing you and yours a Happy New Year,
Dr. Preston

spring literature analysis schedule

Let's keep this simple and easy to remember.  The minimum requirement is three analyses, due at the end of January (31), February (28), and March (31).  Each additional book you read and analyze will be considered extra credit-- there is no limit.

NOTE: As we are now 121 days away from the exam, please either select your titles from the AP Reading List or check with Dr. Preston to verify that your selection will help you get where you want to go.  

find yourself on the member blogs page

I've updated the Member Blogs page to reflect this semester's schedule changes.  Please double-check the page to make sure you're in the right place with the right URL.  Mahalo.

kudos: december

Congratulations to the following students on their college admissions and scholarship wins!


Jasmine Zavala (admitted to Fresno State)
Erik Santos (admitted to Fresno State)
Cesilio Sanchez (admitted to Fresno State)
Daniel Rucker (admitted to Colorado School of Mines)
Kendall Villa (admitted to Fresno State)
Jason Limon (admitted to Azusa Pacific)
Eli Esparza (admitted to Fresno State)
Kelsey Robertson (admitted to Saint Louis University with $1400 scholarship)
Jenna Noce (admitted to University of the Pacific)


If I missed anyone, or if you've done something amazing since I posted this, please let me/us know in class or comment below.

are you ready?

Do you remember your Dickens (or Shakespeare, or Heller) well enough to write an essay?  Do you remember your vocabulary well enough to use it effectively?  Do you remember how to balance your time between binge/purge for optimal performance?  Do you remember our conversations about learning well enough to dive in and build the spring semester together?