Bella was absent from class today. I used the period to lesson plan.

Bella completed a homework assignment today in class provided by her teacher, Bari.

In today's lesson, Bella learned about carbohydrates, including their structure and function in everyday life. She was given a copy of the notes, and we went over review questions at the end on which Bella did well.

The Founding Fathers were concerned about limiting the federal government's powers. No one branch of its structure would become more powerful than the rest. The Constitution creates a system of "checks and balances" to protect American freedoms while ensuring that no one branch becomes too great. Checks and balances, otherwise known as the separation of powers, is a principle of government that empowers other branches with some powers of the remaining two. This structure prevents abuses of power by one branch and shares power with other and we we will as necessary. Bella was introduced to basic examples of checks & balances today and we will expand this concept in our next class.

Today, Bella and I reviewed the major stages of the Hero's Journey. I then introduced the story, The Epic of Gilgamesh, explaining how it is the oldest known story in human civilization. We briefly discussed its history and geographical origin, and how it is the prototype of all succeeding stories/literature and based on oral tradition. We watched a short cartoon narrative video of The Epic of Gilgamesh.

In today's lesson with Bella, we continued our studies on organic molecules, specifically covering the topics of monomers and polymers. We also briefly introduced carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids and lipids. Bella was attentive and answered the review questions well.

Bella was absent from class today. I took the period to lesson plan.

Today, Bella and I discussed each step of The Hero's Journey and she drew a detailed reference diagram of each stage. She will refer to this for each story we study during this unit. We then discussed how the movie Tangled follows each stage, tracking Rapunzel's progress through each stage of the journey.

The Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787 and ratified the Constitution of the United States of America. The first three Articles of the Constitution make up the Separation of Powers clause, also known as checks and balances. Checks and balances create three separate branches of the federal government and ensure that no one branch becomes more powerful than the others. The 3 branches of government are executive, judicial, and legislative. The legislative branch makes the laws of the United States through a Congress of elected representatives and senators. The House and Senate maintain their role as a check and balance to the executive branch by impeaching the President as necessary and approving presidential nominations for federal office. Congress also approves treaties. The executive branch executes laws and proposes a federal budget. It is overseen by the President of the United States. The Vice President serves in the absence of the President and as a special member of the Senate. The Vice President does not impact the Senate as a non-voting member and can only vote in case of a tie. The judicial branch upholds the Constitution and interprets federal laws and court cases. The Supreme Court heads the judicial branch. There are nine justices appointed by the President and approved by Congress. Supreme Court justices serve for life.

In today's second lesson with Bella, we began an introduction to functional groups, including but not limited to ethers, esters, hydroxyl groups, and carbonyls. Bella had some time to work on her assignment and ask questions as needed. Bella paid attention well and always asked questions when she didn't understand something.