Course Syllabus

Dear Students:

Welcome back! We are excited to have you here. We are fortunate to have you, and you are lucky to have two teachers again. We are here to help you to continue to become better readers and writers, two skills that are essential to not only making it at City High but also in the real world. If you are willing to meet us halfway, we can guarantee that your skills will improve and you will succeed in this class.

Please know that we care a lot about you, and this is why we will push you. We have high expectations for you because we want all doors to success to remain open to you. We are not doing you any favors by letting you take the easy way out. That being said, we understand that your lives can be difficult. When things get tough, let us know. While we are very smart, we are not mind readers. Talk to us and we will work together to come up with a plan to move you through the difficult time.

Because of our focus on learning and giving every student the opportunity to learn and grow, we will not tolerate disruptions to the learning environment. Therefore, the use of cell phones will not be tolerated. Understand that we get no joy from taking your cell phone(In fact, it’s a pain); however, we have learned in the many years of teaching, cell phone use does distract the learning environment. We will ask that your cell phone be put away in a bag during class. It should not be on your person or on your desk. If you do not have a bag, you can put it in the teacher’s desk or you can plug it in at a charging station. This is non-negotiable, and we expect you to follow this policy every day. We also will not tolerate rudeness or disrespect. We will respect you as students by always putting your learning needs first, and we expect you to not only respect us but your classmates. Kindness will get you far in this classroom and in life.

This year will go fast. It’s hard to believe, but before you know it, we will be saying goodbye. At times your work will be hard, but if it were always easy, you wouldn’t be learning. We hope that this year will also be fun. If you can open yourself up to the idea that learning can be fun, you will find yourself learning while also having a good time.  If you have any questions or concerns at any time, please let us know. Here’s to a great sophomore year at City High!

Sincerely,

Ms. Schmitt and Ms. Davis