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PARENTING 1 AND PARENTING TODDLERS - These classes are designed to take the pregnant teen from gestation through labor and birth, and then through all the developmental levels from infancy through toddlerhood. Most students remain in program for the remainder of their high school years. One of the best parts of my job is watching my students and their children grow together.
ENGLISH 9, 10, 11 AND 12 - Depending on academic and student body needs, I teach any of these levels of English in any given year. If Parenting students are in class, we use a variety of literature specific to teen mothers. Otherwise, we use pertinent current literature that our students can relate to on a personal level. Some of the books we have read include: The Last Lecture, The Secret Life of Bees, Ellen Foster, Go Ask Alice and The Giver. This year, I plan to include: The Glass Castle, Breaking Night, and The Kid. We also do units on poetry, short stories and creative writing. I am proud to say that each year, since I began teaching at Northtowns, my Parenting students who were eligible to take the English 11 Regents exam all passed the exam in January of their junior year. This is a tremendous achievement and allows the students to focus on their other Regents Exams in June.
THEATRE - The theatre program is a slowly evolving entity which began as a "Theatre Games" class, moved into a "Theatre and Film Collide" class and turned into monologue and scenework, makeup, set design.... and eventually, in 2009, cluminated in our first theatrical production: "Losing It'. In 2010, we produced the melodrama "The Dirty Dredge of Cedaredge, and in 2011, the spoof on "American Idol" called: "American Idle, Murdering the Music." This production included a dinner and reception and was a huge hit for students, families and cast members alike.
