Not finished with course selection for next year? Looking for something new? Here’s the Tricorne’s guide to all the new courses being offered at HHS.

Disclaimer: the Tricorne staff has allowed teachers of these courses to share information about the courses themselves. Information provided can be expanded upon by contacting the designated teacher.

Art and Music

Introductory Guitar — Coach Carlson

“All through my childhood, I remember my mom possessing a guitar that she got on a day trip to Mexico. It sat untouched in a closet for decades, and while I always wanted to learn how to play, the resources I needed just weren’t available. When I was 16 years old, I got a job working at a summer camp where I met a good friend named Shane Solomon. He was very kind to teach me how to play and, ever since, I have wanted to pay that gift forward.

Taylor Swift recently was quoted as saying, ‘People haven’t always been there for me, but music always has.’ Likewise, I believe that an individual’s ability to create music is one of the greatest elixirs in life; it can give us hope, fill us with joy, and beautifully frustrate us all at the same time. 

By offering this course, I hope to help students find a similar creative outlet via an unplayed acoustic guitar sitting somewhere in a closet. By the end of the semester course, I hope to see several students who had never held a guitar before possessing the ability to sit on their back porch and experience the joy of their own musical creation; that is why this class is designed and reserved for those with no prior experience playing.” – Carlson

Media and Careers

Fashion — Mrs. Hasenfuss

Students interested in fashion, clothing, sewing and careers in the textile industry are encouraged to sign up for Fashion next year. It is a semester class that will focus on clothing selection, design and construction.

Content provides opportunities for students to explore factors that influence garment choice, apparel history, current fashion trends, proper care and maintenance of clothing, wardrobe planning, and career options in the apparel and textile industries.

This class will be full of hands-on activities and projects complete with designing and sewing clothing pieces. I am very excited about the opportunity to teach this class and already looking forward to next year.

Youth Leadership II — Mrs. Drake and Mrs. Stoffragen

Youth Leadership is a year-long course designed to increase students’ abilities in all facets of leadership. The class is targeted toward rising juniors and seniors with the goal of mentoring skills such as presentation, communication and assuming responsibility.

Students are expected to leave campus once a week for mentoring or for presenting to other schools or groups in the area. This year the Youth Leadership I class met with Mayor Randall Woodfin, Mayor Patrick McClusky and administrators of Homewood City Schools.

Next year, students who have already taken the class can take Youth Leadership II, where they will have more leadership opportunities inside the classroom, creating lesson plans and mentoring students new to the class. For more information, the course description and application can be found here or on Schoology.

Improv Comedy II — Mrs. Marchino

Improv Comedy II is for students who have already taken Improv Comedy I and want to move on to the next level. These students will participate in more advanced games and enjoy more performance opportunities. Improv professionals will also provide instruction from time to time so that students have exposure to this theater art form as it exists outside the walls of Homewood High School.

AP Classes 

AP Seminar — Mr. Cooley

The College Board developed the AP Capstone Diploma program at the request of higher education professionals, who saw a need for a systematic way for high school students to begin mastering these skills before college.

The Capstone program is a 2-year program built on two courses: AP Seminar and AP Research. At Homewood High School, we will offer AP Seminar for the first time during the 2023-24 school year. It is an interdisciplinary course with transferable skills; it is meant to improve writing, researching, critical thinking, public speaking and presentation skills.

AP Seminar allows students to explore various topics from multiple perspectives and grow in their unique interests.

History

History of Movie Musicals — Mr. Kennah

This course will dive into the history of musicals on film. Starting from the early days of Broadway musicals up to today, we will watch, comprehend, and critique how these films reflect their contemporary society. Here are examples of movie musicals students would be watching:

Traditional: The Sound of Music, Showboat,  and Fiddler on the Roof

Contemporary: La La Land, The Greatest Showman, and Encanto

The films students will be watching must not be recordings of live theatrical performances; students would be watching movies like Singin’ in the Rain rather than Disney’s production of Hamilton. The movie’s characters must be singing songs that further the plot. So movies like Bohemian Rhapsody, which has plenty of wonderful music in it, would not qualify because the songs are not directly a part of the plot.  

Other Courses

Some other courses being offered include, but are not limited to AP Pre-Calculus, Business Software Applications, Sports Media and Events Production, and Engaging Words. More information on these courses can be obtained by contacting school counselors.