Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Chemistry Guide

Sorry this post is a bit late, and this probably won't be of much help to people (Ms. Nagel's test was yesterday, and Ms. Smith's the day before), but I thought I'd let everyone know that we have a new set of guides: Pre-IB Chemistry. I am going to be making them on a (hopefully) regular basis. Rest assured that chapter two will be out much faster than chapter one was; I'm over half-way done already! :)

Please feel free to leave comments and feedback on this post or on the actual document at scribd. Here it is:

Read this document on Scribd: Chapter One Chemistry Guide

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Weekly Update!

I hope the first week of school was kind to you all. Time for another update!

This week's agenda:

Monday -
  • AP Calculus BC (Mr. Bobbitt) - Homework from Chapter 8 of the HL book will be due.
  • AP Calculus AB (Mrs. Paedae) - The summer review is due. All future reviews will be due on Thursdays. Keep that in mind.
  • AP Chemistry (Mrs. Smith) - We will have a test on Chapters 1 and 2. Homework will also be taken up and checked. Doing the homework will obviously help you prepare for the test. Reading the chapters appears to be up to you if you feel like you need extra preparation.
  • AP English Language and Composition (Ms. Harvilchuck) - Notebooks are due today. Some classes have their paragraph scans due, while others are to have read Sailing to Byzantium as well.
Tuesday -
  • Pre-IB Chemistry (Ms. Smith) - There is a test on the first chapter.
Wednesday -
  • IB Spanish III (Sr. Alemañy) - We will have a test on the opening chapter: "Para Empezar". You can read through the chapter if you want, but it is pretty much review. We will also be reviewing for the test on Tuesday. Keep in mind 10 points of the test (out of 100) will consist of the essay we wrote on Monday.
  • AP English Literature and Composition (Mr. Murray) - We will have a quiz, either this day or anytime after, on the vocabulary that was given to us on the long, legal size sheets of paper. The format of the quiz will be similar to said sheets. He's apparently not going to tell us when the quiz is, so be prepared.
  • Pre-IB Chemistry (Mrs. Nagel) - Chapter One test is today!
Thursday -
  • AP Calculus BC (Mr. Bobbitt) - The review on functions is due. Juniors, keep in mind that you are not required to do the reviews, but your tests and homework will count more if you don't. It's highly recommended that you do them.
  • AP U.S. History (Mr. Rose) - You should have questions #1-32 on the pre-test corrected on a separate sheet of paper from the second half, as we will be going over them in class and you will be turning your corrections in.
Friday -
  • IB Spanish III (Sr. Alemañy) - We will have a quiz (pruebecita) on the vocabulary from the handout. You will be expected to know how to spell a given ten Spanish words, and then know their definitions in English.
  • AP U.S. History (Mr. Rose) - You should have questions #33-65 on the pre-test corrected on a separate sheet of paper from the first half, as we will be going over them in class and you will be turning your corrections in.
  • AP Biology (Mrs. Bidwell) - The Macromolecule Worksheet is due today. When you are looking for it, the assignment is on a half-sheet of paper.
  • IB Pre-Calculus (Mrs. Li) - There is a quiz.

New Contributors

Now, since the new school year is beginning, we've been getting several requests from students who would like to contribute guides. We've been thinking it over and have decided to amend our policies on contributions somewhat. There is a difference between being an administrator on the blog and contributing guides, just because of the fact that we don't need many administrators.

Administrators publish Weekly Updates and maintain a consistent series. We feel it is sufficient to have one administrator for each grade level. This year, since Helie and I are in our sophomore year, we will not be needing any 10th grade administrators. Seth Friedman is currently filling our junior position.

Contributors, however, are free to submit documents to add to our collection provided they meet the guidelines outlined on the sidebar. They assume no administrative responsibilities.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Weekly Update!

Greetings! I hope you all had a splendid first day of school. I know I did. Already we have some dates that we need to keep aware of:

This week's agenda:

Wednesday -

  • AP U.S. History (Mr. Rose) - We will have a diagnostic test of sorts on Chapters 1 - 5 of the textbook. The test will not count against you, and Mr. Rose is expecting everyone to get a lot of them wrong. There will be test corrections due next Friday, the 29th. You also should plan to read the first chapter "carefully" fairly soon.
  • AP Chemistry (Mrs. Smith) - We will have a quiz on Chapter 1. You can prepare by doing the homework problems.
Thursday -
  • AP Calculus BC (Mr. Bobbitt) - The summer review is due. All future reviews will also be due on Thursdays. Keep that in mind.
Friday -
  • IB Pre-Calculus (Mrs. Li) - The summer review is due. There will also be a quiz on Chapter One and the summer review.
  • AP Biology (Mrs. Bidwell) - There will be a quiz on basic biochemistry, which is covered in depth in Chapter Two of Campbell and Reece.
  • AP Chemistry (Mrs. Smith) - We will have a quiz on Chapter 2. You can prepare by doing the homework problems.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The First Day of School

As we all know, school is starting tomorrow, and we are looking forward to the 2008-2009 school year! (Not really)

For those of you who aren't "in the know", tomorrow morning, you show up to your alphabetical homeroom, which is the "TM" in the upper right corner on your schedule. From there, you can head to the rest of your classes normally.

Be prepared for a long lunch line. Actually, it might be smart to bring your own lunch for the first few days.

Hope everyone has a great year! :)

Changes to PHS This Year

From Seth Friedman's note on Facebook, which was much too informative to not have it posted on here as well. ;) All credit goes to him for gathering this useful info. Thank you, Seth!

The following information has been gathered from a variety of sources and is being consolidated here:

- The most blatant change is that school will be starting at 8:30 AM (with First Bell at 8:25 AM) and ending at 3:35 PM.
- The bus routes have changed, as that was the reason for changing the start and end times.
- Food prices have changed to $1.50 for breakfast and $2.50 for lunch, providing you're not eating from the a la carte line.
- Mr. David Williams is the new principal.
- The new assistant principal is Mr. Thomas Rollins, a former mathematics instructor from West Florida Tech.

- Mr. Beard will be teaching one(?) class of AP Psychology in addition to Dr. Robbins's classes.
- Mrs. Paedae will be teaching AP Calculus AB this year.
- Mr. Rose will be replacing Mr. Rettig as teacher of AP U.S. History. He will still have one AP World History class.
- Juniors are no longer required to read Chesapeake for AP U.S. History.
- Mrs. Harvilchuck is now teaching AP English Language and Composition (IB Sophomore English)
- Mr. Murray is now teaching AP English Literature and Composition (IB Junior English) and one(?) class of English I - Pre IB (IB Freshman English)
- Lunch is now 4th period instead of 5th period, due to school starting later.
- Mr. Jones will be teaching three periods of AP European History and two periods of AP World History.
- Mr. Bullington will be teaching three periods of AP European History and three periods of IB History of the Americas.
- Students will only go to their Alpha[betical] homerooms occasionally, on days specified in advance.
- Second period will be extended by five minutes to make up for the lack of a normal homeroom.
- All language classes have moved to Building 5, the gym.
- Mrs. Benson will be teaching two(?) classes of IB Theory of Knowledge in place of Mr. Butcher at least first semester, if not all year.
- Mrs. Brooks will be teaching one class of IB Theory of Knowledge in place of Mr. Butcher at least first semester, if not all year.
- Mrs. Li will be teaching one class of Algebra II Honors in addition to her IB Pre-Calculus and AP Statistics (the new IB Math Studies) classes.

More changes will be added as they are discovered.
All of this information has been confirmed by at least two sources to provide accuracy and efficiency to all PHS students.

Weekly Update!

Wow, we haven't had one of these in a long time... But the return of the school year means the return of your dependable old Weekly Update! This summer has certainly been one of my best, and I hope everyone else had an enjoyable time as well. GuidesByJulie is anticipating a few improvements - our newest staff member, Seth Friedman, will be publishing material for juniors; Helie, who has dependably functioned as "staff" (all by herself) for a whole year, as well as myself, will be publishing information for sophomores.

Freshmen, I am sure at least some of the guides we published last year will be useful to you (I really do hope so...). Welcome to Pensacola High and the I.B. Program! If you need any help, feel free to email us or click on our respective chatback badges to talk to one of us. We are always on the lookout for new staff members, so if you think you would enjoy updating some old freshman guides or add new material, feel free to submit an application. :D

The first week of school will probably be rather hectic, with last-minute schedule adjustments, etc. Teachers are probably going to take it easy tomorrow and tell you what materials you need for their classes, as well as introducing their classroom procedures. Changes in normal procedures will be outlined in another blog post, taken directly from Seth Friedman's useful note on Facebook.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

How to obtain your 2008-2009 school year schedule

In case many of you haven't realized, today is 7 August 2008, meaning we have eleven days until school starts. This almost means we have seven days until we get our 2008-2009 school year schedules. That's right. On 14 August, we are free to travel on up to ye ole Pensacola High and pick up a sheet of paper that elaborates on how we will be spending our next year there.

If you're a freshman and you're reading this, on 14 August there will be a freshman orientation, lasting from 10 AM to 11:30 AM. This will be in the PHS auditorium, and you can pick up your schedules AT orientation.

I hope you all are enjoying the remainders of your summers. I know I am. I hope you have a splendid school year filled with many "A"s.