Jablonski: English

Life is a journey. It is an adventure that is personal and individualized to the adventurer. It allows one to delve into one's aspirations, dreams, idealism, and allows one to discover his or her own unique potential. As such, everyone's adventure is unique and it is up to the individual to learn and grow from the experiences encountered along this journey. This journey should also be treasured.

As Captain Jack Sparrow famously said, “Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.”

Part of this journey through life is navigating through academia, and I believe that everyone wants to find success, wants to be self-assured and confident in their progress and ability, and wants to be truly happy about where he or she has been, and, where he or she sees him or herself going. During this journey for success, there will be struggles and obstacles to overcome, and some will struggle more than others, and it is conquering these struggling that will help one find their potential. Learning, obtaining knowledge, and education are integral components of achieving this success. As your teacher, I will work with you and guide you along this journey to success. Whether English is an area of strength or an area of struggle, I will work with you to help you attain your goals and to help you feel truly proud and confident in what you accomplish this year. I hope these experiences and lessons will serve you well on your adventure through life.

Despite the guidance and encouragement of teachers, it is up to the individual student to make the best educational experience for him or herself. In order ensure he or she has the best educational experience possible, students must reflect on the following questions:

What do I want from school/Why am I here? What do I want to take away from my education this year? How can I best work towards meeting these goals?

What do I want to achieve? What goals and skill-sets do I want to improve upon and develop this year? How can I best practice this skills so that I can improve upon them?

How hard am I willing to work? Learning is not always easy, as some topics, skills, and ideas come more easily than others. The more one struggles, the greater the sense of achievement is once a goal is reached, mastered, and surpassed. Are you willing to put in the time and effort required to learn a skill? Are you willing to reach out to your teachers to help facilitate this process?

As your teacher, I am here to help you to reach your goals for this year and help guide and encourage you to be the best that you can be. I am here to help you to develop your critical thinking skills, help to guide you along your journey to become an eager life-long learner, foster your inquisitive and curious nature, and help to guide you in becoming an accountable, compassionate, empathetic, thoughtful, and reflective and introspective, individual.

In order to achieve such ambition, we will engage with the New York State Common Core standards: we will critically and closely read, write, explore, analyze, and discuss works of literature, and the ideas, philosophies, and criticisms put forth from these works of literature. Furthermore, we will explore important themes reflected in those works and examine literary characters, and the choices made by such characters, in order to attain a better understanding of the world in which we live. From these literary works we will make connections to our own lives and to our current world.

We will also practice writing critically and analytically, as well as creatively, in order to find, and develop, our own voice as we explore the myriad of complexities that are presented within literary works from variety of genres.

We will also look at language as a whole. Language is powerful. Having a command of, and respect for, language is crucial in helping you grow as an individual and better understand the world in which you live. Words have the ability to inspire and bring hope, to motivate and spark goodness in the word. Words also, unfortunately, have the ability to spread hatred and destruction. Part of growing, learning, and navigating through this world, is to confront and study language so that your words are used to make a positive difference in this world.

Students are expected, and will be held responsible, to do the work assigned. Each student will be held accountable to give his or her best effort as we learn and grow as thinkers, readers, writers, and individuals.

I look forward to having a fantastic year with all of you.

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