Pep Band B

This course is open to all wind, brass, and percussion students.  It will include a variety of styles and difficulties of concert band and pep band music.  A cornerstone of this ensemble will be developing technical proficiency on each student’s instrument, as well as establishing a strong level of ensemble cohesion.  Music of all historical periods (including 20th century and popular music), various cultures, and multiple geographic areas will be studied for performance.  Students will participate in a two-week band camp during August (mandatory) to prepare for football season performances.  In rehearsal, students will be graded daily on their preparedness and involvement.  Additionally, periodic playing tests will be given to assess progress and these are also graded with a rubric that reflects the core concepts of intonation, proper fingerings/positions/sticking, correct rhythms, and overall musicianship.

This course is offered during 0 period. (8:00-8:45 am, Tue, Thu during fall semester ONLY) Meets 2 mornings per week, plus:

    • 8 home football & volleyball games (and playoffs, if applicable) for the FALL semester

First Semester Taken:  Pep Band A (6538)

Second Semester Taken:  Pep Band B (6539)

Subsequent Semesters Taken:  Pep Band C (9818)

Advanced Placement Science Lab – Chemistry

AP Science courses require an intensive laboratory component extending beyond the regular class meetings.  Once per week for 50 minutes, the Laboratory course will meet outside of the regular bell schedule.  Meetings will occur before or after school.  Students who anticipate a scheduling conflict in the time period before school are asked to contact the Science Department chair.

*This course receives a half-credit – graded pass/fail

Advanced Placement Science Lab – Physics

AP Science courses require an intensive laboratory component extending beyond the regular class meetings.  Once per week for 50 minutes, the Laboratory course will meet outside of the regular bell schedule.  Meetings will occur before or after school.  Students who anticipate a scheduling conflict in the time period before school are asked to contact the Science Department chair.

*This course receives a half-credit – graded pass/fail

English 460: Fiction into Film

Photographer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy writes: “The illiterate of the [21st] century will be as ignorant of the camera as of the pen.” This single-semester course aims to create conscious and knowledgeable readers and viewers of film and adds a proper balance to the study of fiction and film through the act of writing.  Fiction into Film seeks to help the student see that literature and film go hand in hand by the nature of their common narrative elements despite the differences in their delivery. As you have learned to apply reading strategies and analytical skills to the printed text in your traditional English classes, in English 460 you will also learn to “read” a film, to “read in the dark.”  In the course of the semester, we will study works of cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance, among them, CasablancaCitizen KaneMr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Graduate, On the Waterfront, and Rear Window. The writing component of the course will be largely expository and in the form of critical papers discussing aspects of literary analysis and film technique as found in the particular works.

Photography 1A

The Photography 1A class provides a comprehensive study of photography as an art form.   The course will expose the student to fundamental issues unique to the medium through the study of the history of photography.  The students will experience a variety of approaches to the medium of black and white photography beginning with photograms and also including pinhole photography and 35mm cameras.  Students will create their own photograms, use pinhole cameras to get negatives and make positive images, learn how to process black and white film and enlarge.  Portrait photography is a major aspect of the Photography 1A program and the work of portrait photographers such as Arnold Newman, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Annie Leibovitz, Yousuf Karsh will be presented in class.  At the end of the semester, students will work on a final project on a portrait or self-portrait.

Social Movements and Social Justice

This course is an introduction to the social movements of the “Long Sixties” (1945 – 1975), with emphasis on how the Freedom Movements of Black Americans, Chicano & Latinx/Lantiné communities, Asian-Americans, American Indians, Feminists, LGBTQ communities and other racial, ethnic or cultural communities worked toward freedom and equality. Students will identify and evaluate the core tenets of specific social movements including leadership, organization, strategies, accomplishments, and limits. Familiarity with US History is presumed. Students will also assess contemporary movements to ultimately define “freedom” for themselves. Course methodology includes: lectures, class discussion, films, group work, unit response papers land a final paper comparing and contrasting different social movements.

AP Computer Science A – Java

AP Computer Science A (AP CS-A) is equivalent to a one-semester, introductory college-level computer programming course.  AP CS-A introduces students to computer science through programming.  Fundamental topics in this course include the design of solutions to problems, the use of data structures to organize large sets of data, the development and implementation of algorithms to process data and discover new information, the analysis of potential solutions, and the ethical and social implications of computing systems.  The course emphasizes object-oriented programming and design using the Java programming language.

*Class receives honors weighting in SI weighted GPA and UC/CSU GPA calculations.

**Students are required to take the AP Computer Science exam administered in May.