WELCOME to Fairhope High School! I am looking forward to meeting and working with you!

NEW NEWS: AUGUST 4, 2022

You should be wrapping up your summer assignment and making any last-minute corrections or making sure you have the different assignments labeled and organized correctly. 

Just a quick reminder that the summer assignment is to be completed in blue or black ink. Students who do NOT follow directions will be asked to change their schedule on Wednesday. Students who do not bring the summer assignment to class on Wednesday or try to turn in incomplete work or substandard work will be asked to change their schedules. Parents, please check their work before they enter my classroom on Wednesday. If I can't read the handwriting, then I can't give a passing score.

Please remember to return the signed syllabus statement on Wednesday. It does not reflect well on students when they bring in the statement and expect me to wait for them to fill out the section for their names when they should have taken care of it before they walked in. We need to make the most of our time and I have three textbooks to discuss and assignments for the first week to explain and get the students started on.

OLD NEWS:

Please click here to view the AP College Board website to learn about the course and receive information about the May exam. There are practice test questions, including essays, and helpful scoring guidelines.

Please click here for your 2022-2023 classroom syllabus. The last page will be in your binder on the first day of class. 

Please click here to view your 2022 AP World History Summer Assignment - There are THREE parts to your summer assignment.

1. MAPS       2. READING GUIDES (AP textbook)     3. AMSCO WORKBOOK (MC & SAQ)-      

You have TWO reading guide handouts to answer on notebook paper in ink and several maps to label. After several students had to rewrite essays or receive no credit because they wrote about events outside the region stated in their writing prompt, the students suggested I include geography in the summer assignment. It is something I have been thinking about adding for a while. Lucky you! :)

Some of you will want to print out the reading guides and outlines and that is wonderful. If you do not have access to a printer at this time, you are answering the questions on notebook paper anyway, so I can give you hard copies in class. If you need me to make copies of the maps and leave them at the front desk of the main office, just let me know.

The AMSCO questions are the types of questions you will see in your daily reading quizzes and unit tests.

I will be checking my email a couple of times a week if you have questions or concerns.

Please read over the AP information in the Google Drive folder.  Also, read the syllabus carefully. You need to know about the AP College Board and my class expectations.

Please do not take this class to avoid kids in regular classes. I teach those kids and they're great. IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DO AN HOUR of work outside of school in the evenings, if that is what is necessary, then it will be difficult to pass the class.

If you consider yourself an above-average student who likes a little challenge, you read above a ninth-grade reading level, and you are going to do the work, I will help you be successful. Just do it! Go for it! 

If you are super bright but do not like to write or work with other students daily, then you might want to hold off a year. We will write two or more essays in class a week starting after Christmas. We will start the writing process immediately, but the timed essays without any notes or help start in January. The essays are timed and I need to be able to read the handwriting. Please remember that this is a college-level class. It is AP, not pre-AP or honors. There are ninth-graders who thrive once they relax and settle in. Some ninth-graders are not emotionally mature or academically mature enough to be happy in an AP class, yet. There is nothing wrong with that. I took this class when I was 19 and it was called Western Civ. 

If you are worried about time management, I have athletes who swim before school and march in the band. Some of the best students are the ones who are forced to manage their time because they are so involved in other activities. Yay! We want our kids to be well-rounded. They need to have friends and make memories. You know your child. Will they be mature enough to make time (even on the weekends) to find a quiet place to read and study and do their history homework without being told? Please have a discussion now.

I had 63 AP kids in 2020 and 56 in 2021. I am amazed that any ninth grader wants to take this class. That being said, I work very hard to help them manage their stress while covering the curriculum. I try to make sure they have fun along the way, too. Depending on who you talk to, this is an awesome class with a teacher who will work on Saturdays to help your child, or this is a tough class with a teacher who takes the class too seriously. 

Last but not least, if you want to take this class because I have a coffee station in the room, think again. We do not crank up the Keurigs until the first cold snap. That could be November. ;)

I am not trying to scare you away from taking this class. I have been accused of being too easy the first few weeks of school and then when it is too late to drop the class, it gets real, according to former students. 

Take a minute and view the slideshow- Making Memories- to see what AP students did last year. :)

Have a great day and Go Pirates! I hope you have a WONDERFUL summer break! 

-Mrs. Mahone

AP U.S. Government & Politics/12th

AP World History/9th