I hope that this web site will help arm you with materials you can use to enhance your education. As a current student of mine, you are aware of my desire to place as many useful tools as I can at your disposal. To that end, I want you to make this website a regular place you visit (right after YouTube and MySpace, of course). Seriously, I will post supplemental activities, examination reviews, assignments, syllabus details, PowerPoints, and more to assist you with your learning.

As we have discussed in class, while I will employ a number of different devices to trigger your learning, I will not degrade your sense of what it takes to learn or your preparation for post-secondary (college or trade school) education. Therefore, you should not EVER expect that I will create an entertainment activity or a craft activity that does not stimulate your understanding of your coursework as a FIRST priority. If I entertain you at the expense of educating you now, you might enjoy it now, but you will learn to despise me later because I didn't help prepare you adequately for your future. The bottom line: I will not dumb down the material or my expectations in order to let you have fun. You and I should have a shared understanding of that now.

If you find anything on the internet or have had experiences in your past that have been helpful in your learning, please pass them on to me. Ask yourself FIRST, however, "will this improve my understanding of the material?" If it does improve your understanding of the material and I can fit it into our routine, I'll be pleased to include it.

Please understand that you are the master of your future. Count on others to help facilitate and enable your success, but realize that YOU have to command it and make it happen. Plan for excellence in EVERYTHING you do and know that highly successful people tend to be "high performers" in many aspects of their lives, not just when they find immediate personal satisfaction in it. Please resist the temptation that all of us have faced in high school to lower our expectations of our potential and our performance in the belief that that mindset might help us fit in with others better. Realize that those "others" around us who might not be high performers will one day comprise the great mass of people who are merely "average" (or worse!), and don't allow yourself to be coaxed into becoming one of them.

Whatever your record of performance has been in the past, make today the day you make a transformation that changes your life and determines your potential for success. Undertake activities and mindsets that multiply your potential, rather than merely add to it. Believe that if you can dream a thing, you can do that thing. Realize that excuses easily become "excuses to fail" and are often the first subtle steps on the slippery slope of failure. Excuses are different than reasons; understand the difference. Envision your future, then let's get busy creating it.

Finally, if your study habits aren't getting the results you're hoping for, please make time to discuss them with me so I can help you create strategies that work for you.

NOTE: Please invite your parents to monitor this site as the term progresses. You, your parents, and I have the power to create a partnership that gives you every opportunity for success in this class. I want you to be challenged and to expand your comfort zone - and I want you to succeed.