Welcome Back. This website was designed for those students in my 11th grade AP class, but will now be utilized by all of my students. Those of you from AP, and those of you in the coming year's 11th and 12th grade AP classes, can continue to visit the site for info, messages and other cool stuff, but the assignments and prompts are really for the benefit of this semester's 10th graders.

Periodically AP students will be directed to another link, so please continue to check the website often.


I hope you all had a great summer, but let's go to work. The first novel of the semester is George Orwell's Animal Farm. Before we begin to read the novel, we'll explore the background which led to Orwell's publishing this book in 1955 and his more famous novel, 1984, in 1948. The Cold War ended with the dismantling of the Berlin Wall (see the pics above) and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Most of you don't understand what it was like living under the cloud of the Cold War, but America today is once again facing dangerous times, this time with an enemy who is harder to spot. Indeed, we're not even clear who the enemy is.

In Orwell's era (post WWII), the enemy was a nation (a country) with borders and differing ideologies. Today the enemy is less defined and willing to take his own life for "the cause". That's very different than what we've experienced in the past. The Germans and the Koreans, the Japanese (with little exception) and the Viet Cong were all essentially afraid to die and adhered to articles of war. The new enemy without borders, has brought warfare to civilians. On September 11, 2001, America suffered more peacetime casualties than any day in our history. 3000 innocent people died at the hands of suicide terroists. This is what George Orwell was afraid of.

Only by reading and knowing the history, only by remembering the past, can we create a safe world for the future. The things we read and do in class are not meant to scare, but to educate. For those of you new to my classes, you are required to visit this website at least on a weekly basis. Here is where you will find insight into what we read, extra credit assignments, links to other insightful websites and even some fun stuff. Please offer appropriate comments, email me with suggestions and visit all the links. Use this website to your advantage, and have a great semester.