Welcome to the School Year!

Greetings to my esteemed English Department colleagues of the Overbrook High School teaching faculty!  Welcome to another school year at the Castle on the Hill.  I hope that you indulged in much rest, relaxation, and reflection during your summer vacation.

As you will learn over the next few days, our mission as a united English Department is an urgent one this year.  We must prepare our students to successfully master the skills of the Common Core State Standards so that our students will graduate college and career ready from our high school and into the wider world.  Their mastery of the CCSS will be measured on the Keystone Exams created by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.  These Keystone Exams will occur in December 2012 or January 2013 for our 11th grade students.  Tenth graders taking English 2 will sit for their Keystone Exams in May 2013.  Our mission is clear: our students, more than ever, need our best teaching efforts if they are to meet the proficiency expectations of these exams and graduate from high school.

This site will be a central repository for everything OHS English Department. Please submit sites of interest, professional development announcements, book links, CCSS sites, and other English-related announcements to me at mkingsbury@philasd.org, and I will be sure to post this information for the good of our group.

I wish you all a productive and satisfying new school year!

Madelaine Kingsbury, MSEd, NBCT
English Leader, Overbrook High School
Philadelphia, PA