Welcome to Mrs. Roman's Road to Excellence. Just a couple of quick notes:
Remember that you need to take the survey from your class and fill in the last text box with your initials so that you get credit for doing the survey. We'll be talking about this in class so be sure and get it taken care of early on.

Next up: I invite you to tell a little about your most recent read.
My latest read was the third book in Dean Koontz' Frankenstien trilogy, "Alive and Not Dead". It is a great supernatural thriller with engaging characters, a twisty turny, fast paced and sometimes heart stopping plot lines as well as a truly evil megalomaniacal villain. This book had me hooked in from the first paragraph. In fact, I couldn't put it down and read the entire book in one day.
So, your turn, use the comment button to tell me about your latest read.
Best -
clr

The New Now

The end of the year has come and gone and we are now knee deep in summer vacation. Yet I find myself already thinking about the coming year. Some things that are in the works:

1. Summer Bridge: Freshmen, if you haven't attended this one week program already you still have two sessions available. Learn the layout of the school, meet some of your teachers, find out what is expected of an FCHS student and in general, get ready for highschool. A number of other benefits are also available along with some pretty cool prizes. Check the main FCHS website for details.
   
2. Beta Club: I will be sponsoring a new club for FCHS next year called Beta Club. Meetings are tentatively scheduled for the fourth Monday of each month. Beta Club is a national, merit-service organization whose motto is "Let us lead by serving others. There are a number of benefits to being a Beta Club member including access to SAT/ACT practice websites and scholarship opportunities. Membership is by invitation only. Qualifying students must have a clean conduct record and a fairly high GPA.More details to come.
   
3. Campus Light Bible Club: There will probably be some changes to this club next year. We are hoping for bigger and better. Details to come.

Next year looks to be bigger and better in a lot of ways. Teachers are already talking about what we can do to improve your academic experience. Now is a good time to start thinking about what you can do to take responsibility for your academic career. Coach told us during Summer Bridge that ninth grade is a time to start fresh: new GPA, new environment, new teachers, new students. Believe it. Own it. In a lot of ways, your ninth grade year is the first year in the rest of your life. Colleges start looking at you now, not in your junior year. Now is the time to start thinking about your career path. A lot of the classes you take can help you in that decision. If things weren't that great in Middle School, now is a great time to start over. If things were great in Middle School, now is the time to continue that tradition and go on to even greater heights. Whatever your position, now is your time. Take advantage of it - Now.

Bits and pieces

Well, here I am, Blogging. Never thought I'd see the day. But there you have it. I'm a blogger. Weird, huh? But enough with the self analysis.
This is actually an experimental blog. I'm honing my blogging skills, learning the trade until next year, when I plan to do an official launch. I'm excited, but enough about me: current issues and all that...
I hope everyone is working hard on their projects. One of you guys has already turned hers in! Go RN! Remember, turning it in early is extra credit AND it means one less thing to worry about during finals week. Waiting until the last minutes brings nothing but heartache, indigestion and, most likely a rushed product that will earn a correspondingly lower grade. So, as a certain comedian once said (on multiple occasions) "Git 'er dun".

Does it seem odd to anyone else that we are already at the end of the school year? It all seems to have flown by very fast. But that's as it should be. So - hit the books, finish well. I know you can, I've seen you do it. You have all grown significantly this year and I am not necessarily speaking of your shoe size, though for some of you, there is that too. Many of you may be tempted after all this hard work to ease up, take a load off, rest a bit. DON'T!!! June 4th will be here all too soon and with it the loss of any chance to makeup, fixup, redo, revise or repair anything left poorly done. I won't be accepting any makeup work after the 4th of June. Other teachers have similar deadlines so don't get behind and if you must be absent, get caught up asap. Leaving things until the last minute has a tendency to make for nasty surprises in the report card envelope.

My daughters and I had the most wonderful experience last night. We went with a group of teachers and students from FCHS to see the stage play, "Wicked". It was fabulous. The costuming, lighting, ACTING, SINGING were all phenominal. Thank you Mr. C for arranging the opportunity. "Wicked" is a coming of age story/fairytale/cautionary tale all rolled into one. The coming of age angle leads me to our own study of that topic this year. And I wonder... has your opinion of the definition of coming of age changed any? Have you any new insights or ideas about what "coming of age" really means? How do the examples of "coming of age" characters we've seen this year compare to your own experience? Are there any outside sources that you feel express the idea better than the ones we looked at? Let me know what you think. Until then, be well and see ya in class.

So Much From One Sonnet