Mr. Briski's Classroom Site
Welcome!
I made this website to give my classes something of an online resource. Here you will find information on how, exactly, my classes operate and also useful links for these courses themselves.
In designing the course policies, I was particularly influenced by Coloroso's Inner Discipline and Mendler and Curwin's Discipline with Dignity. I desire to create classroom atmosphere where every student is seen as a valuable member of the team and contributor to the community. Every rule that must be given has an explicit purpose, and that purpose can be readily explained.
The one lesson that I would wish you to understand as the semester commences is that chemistry is all around us. "Chemistry" has a connotation of being a difficult and complicated science, but I want to show you how it's really very logical. Nature operates by rules and, once you understand the rules, you can make important predictions on how chemicals interact.
The word "chemical" itself conjures images of mad scientist working in a lab somewhere, with beakers bubbling with mysterious colored liquids and test tubes being mixed with explosive effects. Now, explosions are absolutely cool. I won't deny that. But chemicals are all around us. You, yourself, are made of chemicals. You eat and drink chemicals during your lunch period. Your clothes are made of chemicals. In my class, my goal is for you to gain a better understanding of the world around you, by understanding some of the chemistry that happens every day, even if you can't see it with your eyes.
