Natalie interpreted two pie graphs illustrating federal revenues and federal expenditures. We noted the deficit created by expenditures exceeding revenues ,and discussed the relationship between the deficit and the federal expenditure labeled "interest on debt". In order to better demonstrate the distinction between a regressive tax and a progressive tax, on the whiteboard I performed some calculations showing how a sales tax is regressive because it constitutes a larger percentage of the gross income of a lower income person than of a high income person. I then distributed a chart showing all the federal tax brackets for 2019 to illustrate by contrast a progressive tax. On the whiteboard,I then calculated the federal income tax owed on a 100K salary and a 500K salary using the standard deduction. Natalie located on the income tax handout the proper percentage bracket applicable to each income level. I then added on the FICA tax of 7.5% to reflect total tax liability. We then discussed per the pie chart previously examined what cost the federal tax mostly defers and the entitlement programs funded by the 7.5% FICA tax. For homework, I assigned a 9 question review quiz on federal expenditures and revenues. Natalie will also be working on her essay at home over the next weeks.

Today, Natalie focused on beginning a character analysis of 2 characters of her choice from the book, "To Kill a Mockingbird." She began organizing lists for each of her characters regarding their effect on the overall theme, outcome, and lessons gained from the book.

I checked Natalie's work on raising expressions to powers and she was highly successful. I told her we would next be studying proportions. Since she likes to try to read the examples and try to work problems on her own, I gave her some examples to read and assigned her seven independent problems to do. After working for almost the entire class, she told me that she was not sure about the answers. I checked her work and found that she had missed five out of the seven problems. Given the short amount of time left in the period, I told her that there was no homework and that I would explain the examples to her next time we met. There was no assignment.

I worked with Natalie to show how expressions including integers and variables can be raised to powers. The expressions in her independent work included some variables and integers that were raised to powers within parentheses which in turn were raised to exponents. She also successfully raised fractions to powers. I gave her an assignment to reinforce the lesson.

We spent the entire period preparing an outline for Natalie's essay on the history of money and the abandonment of the gold standard. We traced the history of money from Colonial times to the abandonment of the gold standard in 1971 , and discussed how the Federal Reserve maintains the value of the paper currency in the absence of the gold standard. Natalie took extensive notes on the outline and is prepared to commence writing. The first draft is due on May 2. We additionally reviewed Natalie's homework on federal expenditures and revenues and added to her notes the two major sources of federal revenues: income taxes and payroll taxes. On the whiteboard,I illustrated the difference between a progressive tax and regressive tax. We will complete the unit on federal expenditures and the deficit tomorrow.

I checked Natalie's homework and she was minimally successful. We then began working on the topic of expressions raised to powers. The properties of exponents was used to raise integers and variables to exponents. Natalie worked independently on seven problems and was fully successful. There was no assignment.

Natalie has completed her research and study guide on the history of money and the gold standard. We added some additional detail to her notes concerning the two stage abandonment of the gold standard and discussed a topic sentence or thesis for her essay. We also reviewed the take home quiz on the Federal Reserve. Natalie 's work was excellent .Natalie then began reading about the federal budget and expenditures and answering study guide questions. We discussed the difference between mandatory and discretionary spending ,including the controversy over social security as mandatory spending. For homework, I assigned reading pages 592-593 and answering the next 3 study guide questions on revenues and the deficit. Tomorrow, we will be preparing in class an outline for Natalie's lengthy essay on money and the gold standard.

Friday Apr 12, 2019
1:30 - 2:30; 105 min. -
English:
Themes in Mockingbird -
Natalie was challenged to identify important themes in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” and find passages that illustrated these themes. She selected the theme of racism and searched for examples. I suggested she look for the contrasting theme, that creates the drama in the book. We discussed how Atticus personifies moral character, and how difficult it can be to be righteous in an era of bigotry.

I checked Natalie's homework and there were many errors so I gave her more problems to work on independently. I checked her work after half an hour and she still had some mistakes so I assigned her to correct the mistakes.

Natalie completed reading Part I of the novel, and completed a good list of events in the novel evidencing racial prejudice. We discussed Harper Lee's sequel in which she depicts Addicas Finch as no different from other prejudiced Southerners during the 1930s. Natalie expressed quite a few insights into the book and has a very good understanding of the reading she has completed.