Dear Students,

About the Instructor shawn.coughlon@lubbockisd.org

My name is Shawn Coughlon. I’m very serious about the courses I teach, both AP English Language & Composition as well as AP Seminar. This fall will mark my twelfth year teaching high school, my ninth year teaching AP Lang., and my fourth year teaching AP Seminar (the AP Capstone Diploma Program has existed for six years, total). I have been a reader for AP Lang. as well as a reader and table leader for AP Seminar; this means that I contract through ETS (the company that actually produces the test) to work for College Board in the summer and score AP exams on a national level. I’m also a College Board Consultant, which means I instruct other teachers in how to conduct AP classes; I’ve also attended lots of College Board workshops and summer institutes - this translates into a week or three every summer and a weekend or two during the school year. The reason I’m willing to dedicate so much of my time to these programs is that I believe in them; these two classes do more to get students ready to succeed in college than any other high school courses. Period. I firmly believe this; I also firmly believe that a teacher who doesn’t believe that the course he or she teaches is the most important class in the building, whatever that class may be, doesn’t feel strongly enough about that class.

I’ve spent the last eleven years teaching at Coronado High School, so this will be my first year at Lubbock High as a teacher; I actually graduated from LHS way back in 1998, so I’m not a complete stranger to the school and its ways and/or culture. I bounced around a little bit in my college years, starting out as an IT/Business major at Marquette University, and ending up with an English degree from Texas Tech and a graduate certificate in Education from Shenandoah University in Virginia (long story). I’ve taught every grade from middle school through high school; I actually even spent two years as a kindergarten teacher (even longer story). You’ll find that my diverse background and experience make for an interesting and eclectic classroom environment. You’ll also find that my expectations for student performance are extremely high.

I look forward to meeting and working with all of you this fall.