Respect: It is my hope to give you and your classmates a great deal of freedom to express your ideas, opinions, concerns, and allow you to debate each other. However, with freedom comes responsibility - If you are to be treated as adults you must behave as adults. Respect each other!

Attendance: I cannot emphasize enough how important your attendance is in my class. It is essential that you try your best to come to class each day attentive and ready to work. All students will adhere to Mt Juliet High School policy. It is your responsibility to find out what you missed while absent; it is up to you to get any notes and or materials that you missed. This includes lecture notes, homework, tests, in-class activities, or whatever else was missed. Missed tests must be made up before class on either Tuesdays or Thursdays. If you fail to make up a missed exam on the following week you will receive a zero for that test- No exceptions.

Cheating and Plagiarism: Don't do it! Fair warning - you will have earned a zero and that is what you will receive.

Late Assignments: I do not accept late work! No exceptions.

Extra Credit: There will be no extra credit in this class; if one student has an opportunity to better their grade than all students should have that same opportunity. If you are having difficulty with any material or you have any questions, I will do everything in my power to assist you. I will meet you by appointment before or after school. If you are willing to work hard, I am more than willing to help you.

Homework: Much of your homework will involve reading and being accountable for the information in your text and handouts. Take notes while reading and ask yourself questions about what you are reading. Students who are willing to participate in class exercises will learn that it will not only benefit their grade but their overall learning experience in my class.

Quality of Work: All assignments will be evaluated on completeness, neatness, grammatical usage, structural organization, content, and adherence to specific requirements. Proofread all assignments - use spell and grammar checks on your computer. Review the instructions frequently to make sure you hand in high quality work that shows your understanding of the material and effort. I often use rubrics to grade your work. You will be given a rubric prior to major projects so that you will know before hand the information that I am requiring.

Exams: Exams will be given following the completion of units. Students will know well in advance what material will be covered and the date of the exam. Once you have taken an exam, that grade will stand. For this reason it is extremely important that you devote adequate time to studying for tests.

Reading assignments, homework, lectures, and in-class discussions and activities are all fair game. I highly encourage you to never miss a test review.

Notebooks: I suggest you keep a folder or notebook for this class. Folders or notebooks should include reading and lecture notes, homework assignments, handouts, papers, book reviews, exams, and quizzes. If you are struggling this will help me find area(s) that could use some improvement. NEVER throw any thing out until you have received your final grade report! I know it’s hard to believe but teachers are not perfect - they sometimes make mistakes when recording grades or when they are totaling semester points. Your only recourse is having a documented source to highlight the error.

Materials: You will need to purchase a: 3-ring notebook, a highlighter, a floppy disk, notebook paper (no spiral notebooks please!), and two black or dark blue pens.