Congrats Honors Freshmen!

You have made it to the final week of the first quarter of your Freshmen year! This week we will wrap up the first major section of The Odyssey and we will take our final Vocab test as well. These will be your last two grades in the first quarter, but they will be worth a considerable amount of points. 

On Friday we will reflect as a class on the first quarter, discuss any changes that need to be made, and look forward to the second quarter at some of the projects and new material we will be tackling. Please come prepared that day with things you want to see continue (MORE OF) and things you want to see change (LESS OF). 

“Enthusiasm is the match that lights the candle of achievement” – William Arthur Ward

Never stop being excited. It lights the world,

Mr. Rodgers

Hail Young Minds and Strong Spirits!

For this coming week shall be glorious! We will embark on a great journey with our hero Odysseus. He shall recount his tale of adventure, misery, honor, deception, and courage. Also we will make a stop on the island of Vocabulary where we shall learn fun new words.....Before traveling into the dark depths of the underworld and confronting Hades himself!

This week is all about diving into The Odyssey and moving forward with the rest of the 1st quarter. Our point totals are wrapping up so we will be preparing for our final big test and last vocab quiz. Make these count!

“A hero is someone who, in spite of weakness, doubt or not always knowing the answers, goes ahead and overcomes anyway.” – Christopher Reeve

In what ways do you overcome?

Mr. Rodgers

Hello Everyone!!

Strap in because this coming week is gonna be CRAZY. 

First off we are moving the Rhetoric Paper due date to MONDAY. The paper is due in class. Hard Copy and Rubric are required. 

On Monday Girls will be going to a presentation during period 4. (This means the ladies from period 4 need to see me at some point in the day with their paper). 

On Tuesday Period 8 all freshman are going to a presentation from Duquesne Pharmacy. 

For English, this means we will do our Introduction to Epics and Heroes on different days with both classes.

Wednesday is the PSATs AND Freshman class elections. We will have a "catch up and breathe" day in class and will be pushing Vocab Wednesday to the following week.

Thursday and Friday we will break into actually reading The Odyssey and begin our final unit of the 1st Quarter!! 

A lot going on, but also very exciting! 

“I think we all do heroic things, but hero is not a noun, it’s a verb.” - Robert Downey Jr.

How have you hero-ed lately?

Mr. Rodgers

Hello Freshies!

It has been an awesome week filled with crazy dress downs and the end of our first big unit! Our week conclude with the big Homecoming game, tailgate, and dance. I hope to see everyone there!!

In English news, we will be writing our first "big" paper. This is big not because of the length, but because of the importance of the topic. We will be learning about Rhetorical Argument and using Ethos, Logos, and Pathos to convince a reader of our point of view. 

Additionally we will have our third Vocab test this Wednesday on lessons 5 +6. Then we will begin our intro to The Odyssey. It is also a short week because the FRESHMAN RETREAT is this Friday. I hope you all have a great weekend and can I just say how excited I am for October!! Sweatshirt weather, pumpkins, black cats, Halloween its all coming up. Enjoy the world around you : ) 

“You may not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.” – Jodi Picoult

Write, write, write. You might be surprised at what comes out,

Mr. Rodgers

Hello Honors Freshman!

We are headed into our last FULL week in September! Insane. Also insane....Homecoming week. We have an entire week dedicated to school spirit, fun costumes, class pride. While we are decked out in our dress down days we will be tackling the end of "The Cask of Amontillado" and then taking our first Unit test on THURSDAY. Kahoot will assist on Tuesday with review and study up. 

Following our test we will be starting our first "big" paper. We will be learning rhetorical argument skills and applying them to the short stories we just finished. Hope you have an awesome weekend everyone!

"If you think you can or think you can't; you're right" - Henry Ford

I know you can do anything you put your mind to,

Mr. Rodgers

Welcome back everyone!

As the five day weeks begin to stack we are moving our way through September quicker than we might be noticing. I hope that everyone can make it out to our PowderPuff game this Saturday at Youthtowne! Fall fun is not to be missed. Football, bonfire, hayride, smores...come on. 

In English class we are moving forward with our Vocabulary units and will have our second quiz this Wednesday. Additionally we are half way through our short story unit and we will begin more student centered discussion in class. We may even try our first socratic seminar! (That is when the teacher shuts his big mouth and the students lead the discussion based on whatever they find important in the story). 

I have attached our weekly lesson plan for a closer look. The only other thing I can say is....get ready for some Poe. 

"There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness." - Edgar Allan Poe

You are all beautiful, so what makes you strange?

Mr. Rodgers

Hi again everyone!

We are moving through our first couple of weeks! Fall is slowly creeping around the corner. Football has begun, powderpuff is coming up, Homecoming, and then I get to start talking about pumpkins...

Before I get too carried away, in the land of Honors Freshman English we are beginning our first official unit on short stories. We will be reading 4 short stories together as a class. Each story will be read and we will analyze various aspects of the genre individually and then compare the collection when we are done. As always a closer look at the week ahead can be found on the weekly lesson plan.

I hope that everyone is settling in nicely and please remember to just ask if there is ever anything I can help you with. 

"We are all dreamers" - Ray Bradbury

What is your dream,

Mr. Rodgers

Hello Everybody!

I don't know about you, but I am fired up about the start of the school year! There is a fantastic energy in this new class of 2022 and I've got a great feeling about September. I hope that you all enjoy a relaxing Labor Day weekend with family and friends. 

In class this past week we took care of some foundation work in both vocabulary and writing and now we can begin in our textbook on Tuesday. Our first unit will focus on Short Stories and we will be reading and discussing them in class. A closer look at our weekly lesson plan can be found below.

My request of the students over the weekend and into our shortened week is a simple one: Ask questions. Starting high school can be confusing and overwhelming. Please do not hesitate to ask questions and gain clarification. No question is silly and I am happy to help you figure things out at OLSH. It may take a bit, but there is so much to do here and I encourage you all to get involved and try new things.

"Be good, be young, be true!" - Alexandre Dumas

When we do those things, we can't help but smile,

Mr. Rodgers