Ten on Tuesday (One Day Late)

1. Clearly, the "Ten on Tuesday" name shouldn't be taken too literally.

2. Finishing a post on Tuesday wasn't possible since yesterday was Back to School Night. This was the first Back to School Night in several years and I much prefer this format to the Report Card Night we've employed at Alta Loma High School for the past few years. I tried to address a few major points for each of my three different classes.

3. For journalism, I emphasized the idea that the Brave Times is a student run paper and that remaining timely and relevant are the staff's biggest priorities. Additionally, the main focus of the grading deals with whether or not someone has met their deadlines. A staff writer, for instance, needs to make sure to turn in each draft for both of his or her articles on time or there will be a 5% deduction of the possible points on that particular issue.

4. The emphasis for the seniors focused on the lit project. Besides the fact that everyone has to have a copy of their book by Friday, I also made sure that parents knew the lit project due dates would be posted on School Loop and that the project accounts for roughly 60% of the semester grade. Granted, it could be more and it could be less, as I don't like to lock myself into numbers like that on account of the fact that teaching English isn't an exact science. Also, puns!

5. The biggest turn out this year by far was in the Frosh Honors classes. My goal was to introduce myself and hopefully communicate my style and philosophy to the parents in the nine minutes allotted. I covered that we're smack dab in the middle of our Animal Farm unit and engaged in a fairly lively discussion earlier that day, as well as the fact that we'll (tentatively) be starting Fahrenheit 451 the week of September 26. Also notable was a parent's cell phone going off during the middle of the nine minute period immediately following my discussion about my cell phone policy where I ask students to sing a song in order to keep their phone. Said parent was very relieved that I did not ask for a jaunty tune.


6. Images from Zach Snyder's currently filming Superman reboot, Man of Steel, surfaced today and, wow, do I hate Henry Cavill's new costume. I've discussed my distaste for the new Spider-Man outfit, but, geez, removing the iconic red trunks from the Superman costume does not work in a real world setting. (And, while Cavill isn't wearing a cape in this picture, that's not a point of contention since it has appeared in pictures elsewhere which means that it was either removed between scenes or, knowing Snyder, will probably become a CGI eyesore later.) What works on the page does not always translate well to film, which is part of the reason that oft-referred-to spandex from the comics transmogrifies to stylized rubber on the silver screen. I'm not a stickler in the traditional sense that whatever appears in the source material automatically must make its way into the movie because that's just a road to unhappiness and discontent. It's a different medium, and as long as filmmakers stay true to the character concept, I accept and anticipate the changes they make as a means to allow the character to work in the new medium. Lots of people complain that "wearing the underwear on the outside" look of Superman, Batman and others turns the characters into cornballs that no one can take seriously. This is such a ridiculous argument: it's acceptable that a guy can fly and shoot lasers out of his eyes among other abilities, but trunks on the outside of a character's pants?! Oh, ho, Heavens to Betsy, you've destroyed my delicate suspension of disbelief. Those red trunks serve a purpose aesthetically because they force the eye towards the important part of Superman's outfit -- the symbolic S shield. Instead, there's now a giant blue blob that distracts from the fact that this guy represents truth, justice and the American way.


7. Speaking of costume changes, Justice League #1 hit comic book store shelves and digital newsstands everywhere today in DC's half-hearted attempt to reboot their entire universe. In my mind, the company misses the boat in more ways than one if they're trying to lure in readers who have never thought to pick up a comic book before. Case in point with this particular issue: there are seven characters on the cover of this comic book, yet only three actually appear, and one doesn't show up until the very end. Geoff Johns wants to present the first installment of a longer story, I'm sure, but if the uninitiated fan finds this cover intriguing when they see it in the supermarket, while visiting Barnes & Noble or walking by the newsstand, won't they be disappointed by the fact that less than half the characters he or she figures are promised on the cover actually show up? Heck, if someone decides to download the DC Comics or Comixology app for their iPad just to try this out, I'd wonder if they would think the endeavor was worth it.

8. All of the superhero talk comes courtesy of the fact that I'm currently reading Grant Morrison's Supergods, which is really fascinating in how well he deconstructs the characters from their infancy to today. Also, I just really like superheroes.

9. It's slow going through that book, though, since I'm currently climbing a mountain of grading. I hope to reach a summit of some kind by next week, at which point I'll make grades public through School Loop.

10. In other news, the Blu-ray edition of the Star Wars movies will hit shelves next week, and George Lucas can't seem to leave well enough alone as he's gone and added a bunch of unnecessary changes to something he added a bunch of unnecessary changes to the last two times he's released it for public consumption that used to be perfectly fine on its own. One of the big changes occurs in Return of the Jedi, where Darth Vader used to let his actions speak for themselves. Instead, now we get this.

That's just ridiculous.

Ten on Tuesday

Here's the old Batman Comment
Key wall, prior to it falling into disrepair.

1. Most of last week and a majority of this week is all about getting my class room ready for the onslaught of students come August 9. This means that I get to unpack all of the books and make my desk look like my desk again. It's also high time that I redo or update my "teacher walls," since it's been a few years since I initially committed to putting some thought into them. Most teacher walls feature a collection of student work or are based on a specific piece of literature. I decided to instead make them a reflection of myself since I'm a narcissist and a few students each year say they look cool. My Spider-Man wall is largely intact, as it features motivational frames of Marvel superheroes that my wife found at a .99 cent store. However, the Batman wall with my comment key and the Brave Times based News Flash wall are both getting makeover. I'll post pictures when everything is complete.

2. Spider-Man (the dog) achieved a milestone today by staying in the house alone for an extended period of time. Besides our dog being the normal, everyday jerk that he is also appears to suffer from this weird separation anxiety, the origin of which I couldn't begin to explain to anyone. He just tends to freak out if either myself or Angela leaves and he's aware of it. To combat these howling episodes since we moved into our house, Spider-Man (the dog) goes outside whenever we leave the premises. It's an attitude held over from our apartment living days; in both places where we lived with Spider-Man (the dog), we've received letters from management about his howling. Granted, it was one time (from each place), but it lead us to do whatever we could to prevent the world from ending. Home ownership has chilled everyone out, our dog included, it seems. I left him twice today: once for about two hours while I went to get my car serviced, and the second time when I went to work and then the gym afterward. Nothing was destroyed nor were there any accidents upon my return. He did, however, refuse to leave my side the rest of the night, much to the amusement of my wife.

3. My general rule of thumb is to keep up with two books at the same time, one physical book and another on my iPad. I recently finished The Bell Jar for my physical book and am still working my way through A Clash of Kings, the second thousand page entry in the Song of Ice and Fire series. The problem is that I don't know what physical book to read next, despite having plenty of options to choose from at home. Something light would be nice, prior to the school year beginning.

4. Instead of doing a full rundown on the absolutely cursed UFC 133 card, I'll just say that my brain says Rashad Evans will win but my heart is rooting for Tito Ortiz. This is a combination of Rashad being hateable in every way since he's trying to garner sympathy for himself despite being the one that chose to sit out a year and a half in order to avoid the position he's currently in and Tito being on a roll having beaten Ryan Bader at UFC 132. It might also have to do with the fact that Tito winning at the last pay per view allowed me to cash in on a little wager while attending the show in Las Vegas, so the Huntington Beach Bad Boy did me a solid. The least I can do is back his play against Rashad.

5. In the pages of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man this week, we find that the newest character to take on the mantle of the webslinger is Miles Morales, a fellow of mixed race heritage (Hispanic/African-American descent to be exact). This is pretty cool, and the impetus for it started last year when Donald Glover, from NBC's Community, started a Twitter campaign to cast himself in the role of Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man. While Sony went with Andrew Garfield, Glover's idea of an African-American Spider-Man does raise some interesting questions. What in Spider-Man's make up as a character makes him white? Except for the fact that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko originally chose him to be white, nothing does. He's a poor orphan living with his aunt in urban New York. Describe someone with those qualities nowadays and Peter Parker is the last person that would come to mind. Add to the fact that Spider-Man's costume covers him from head-to-toe, unlike Batman or Superman, and it allows anyone to envision themselves as Spidey, which is an important aspect of the character. I have a near complete run of Ultimate Spider-Man, and this news has me really excited to see where the story takes him.

6. Qdoba always feels like a much lighter meal than Chipotle.

7. My iMac currently runs on 1GB of RAM, so I'm contemplating purchasing some more (4GB) and installing it myself. While I'm very Internet savvy, I've never been too tech savvy, so I hope that YouTube video I saw showing the step-by-step process of how to make the switch doesn't steer me wrong.

8. The toughest part about going back to school is trying to get my sleep schedule back under control.

9. That CM Punk shirt I was so hyped up about before is now available for pre-order, and I'm wondering if I should buy that instead of the RAM for my computer. THESE ARE ACTUAL THINGS THAT I CONTEMPLATE!

10. Unfortunately, while CM Punk and his shirt are still the best in the world, WWE pretty much did what they always do and caused me to lose interest in the angle. It's too bad, too, since Summerslam is taking place at the Staples Center on August 14.

YES! TO JOURNALISM!

Many of you may recognize the poster on the left from my classroom. Cleaning out a filing cabinet one year, Ms. Beeley happened upon this little treasure, which sends a great message but is, like just about anything given enough time, hopelessly dated. But, at the same time, it's charming because all of those kids are incredibly enthusiastic (except for the one in the middle row of the center who looks like she got hit in the head with a sandbag just prior to the photographer snapping the picture). When my journalism students mentioned that they wanted to recreate the picture at the beginning of the year, I laughed at the idea but quickly forgot. Besides lots of students will often say they want to do something in a whimsical flight of fancy and never follow through with it.

However, this is the class that met every deadline in order to see me do a backflip. These are the students that have impressed me as a group in ways that I can't even manage to put into words. These are the students that have made my job the easiest that it's ever been in my six years as adviser to the Brave Times. Should I have really been surprised that they followed through with their intentions? Of course not. I don't think I was prepared for how much it would make me laugh.

This poster is going to be a high water mark for any future class to live up to. Seriously, future Brave Times staff, this is what you will be measured against so the onus is on you to make a bigger impact than the "Say NO to drugs and YES to Journalism" folks.

Frosh
Last Thursday, due to the STAR testing schedule shortened period, you received a work day.

Friday, we began reading chapter 6 of To Kill a Mockingbird and you were assigned to read through chapter 8.

Monday, you took a quiz on chapters 6 through 8 and we then worked on creating a thesis statement for chapters 1 through 5.

Tuesday was another shortened day due to STAR testing, and we used the time to continue revising the thesis we started on Monday.

Wednesday, I was under the weather and you had a reading day to hopefully finish chapter 11.

Today, you had a work day to give you time to complete the Character Chart and Themes worksheet for chapters 1-11 along with ORU 7, all of which are due tomorrow.

Seniors
Last Thursday, you continued working on the questions from Tom Wolfe's chapter of The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test called "What Do You Think of My Buddha?" during the shortened period for STAR testing.

Friday, you finished working on the aforementioned chapter and started to work on questions for section two.

Monday, you finished the section two questions, and we discussed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest up to that point.

During our final shortened period on Tuesday, we viewed Jill Bolte Taylor's TED talk on her experience having a stroke. I enjoy having you watch this short speech because it ties in to how Ken Kesey explains his experience in dealing with writing the first chapter of Cuckoo's Nest and gives us some insight into how Chief views the world. Living in the moment without context and then immediately seeing the world in full view using both sides of one's brain has much in common with how Chief views the world in such a figurative way. Chief feels the connections the world shares, much like Taylor describes, and he dislikes the way machinery attempts to make everyone the same. Her book, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey, is available in paperback. I plan to read it this summer so I'll be able to have a review up then.

I felt a little under the weather on Wednesday, so I stayed home and you had a reading day. The day allowed me to get caught up on some grading, so at least there's that.

Today, you took the quiz covering chapters 5 through 14. We only had time enough to grade the quiz and not do my planned activity, which we'll get to next week.

It does a body good.

As the journalism adviser, recruiting new talent each year is a constant struggle. For the third year in a row, I decided to represent the Brave Times at Alta Loma's 8th Grade Welcome Night to attempt to entice eager, incoming students to write for what I consider to be the best newspaper in the district. It's always an interesting sight to see the people who show up, parents and students alike, all on their phones, with earbuds securely in place and video game devices at the ready. Just about everyone was attentive during the presentation, but very few of the people waiting beforehand spent the time interacting with those around them. I was also just as guilty of this, too, so don't think I'm placing myself above the fray. The experience left me thinking about a video I recently caught on YouTube, similar to one I posted back in December. This one, though, is directly related to education and what reform for it might truly look like.

Tell me what you think of the video. I'm curious about what students would have to say about it.

Frosh
This past Monday, you turned in your final review and study guide for Romeo & Juliet. I answered your questions about the essay and then gave you the rest of the period and the whole of Tuesday to focus on getting as much writing done as possible. Always remember that writing an essay out of order whenever you have the opportunity is actually the ideal way to get the best possible outcome. My experience shows that writing the thesis first should be the goal, followed by finding concrete details and evidence, and then writing the body paragraphs. Introductions and conclusions, while important, pale in comparison to the body of an essay. Speaking of which, below is the layout of your body paragraph, using the Jane Schaffer format.

1. Topic Sentence - State a reason why the character(s) you listed is/are to blame relating to one of your sub-topics in your thesis statement.
2. Concrete Detail (CD) - Incorporate a quotation from the play that supports the topic sentence with a proper citation. Your second semester ORUs demonstrate how to incorporate quotations.
3. Commentary (CM) - Explain how and why the quotation in your CD supports the TS using at least two sentences.
4. CM
5. CD
6. CM
7. CM
8. Transition Sentence - Write a sentence that allows you to flow from this paragraph to your next body paragraph. You won't need this sentence in your final body paragraph.

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8. Concluding Sentence - Conclude your body paragraphs in order to flow into your conclusion.

Today, you focused on peer editing. Tomorrow, you may use this marked up draft or modify your existing draft for the purposes of self-editing. My suggestion is to do whatever work now as opposed to later so you can save yourself the headache of having to do everything the night before. If you wrote it out, type it; if you chose to type it, put it in MLA format.

Seniors
We discussed a few terms on Monday that will hopefully inform your reading of part two of The Stranger. Keep these terms in mind as the magistrate questions Meursault and also wonder where the focus is during the trial.

Yesterday, we took a look at the idea of savior symbolism in comparison to our discussions on existentialism. In order to properly study this idea, we're taking a look at Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman. Keep in mind that you're taking notes on this for the purpose of seeing how Luke fits into either idea: savior or existentialist.

Backflip Success!

There's a view from another angle at the bottom of this entry.

And so it happened. The message from my wife after telling her about it was succinct: "Do not make promises like that again."

And I won't. Seriously, unless I start taking up parkour, which is a much younger and stupider man's hobby, this is my first, last and only backflip for any of my classes. Ever. I am not coordinated in the least to be undertaking these sorts of shenanigans. Besides, it took THREE PEOPLE to help me do two backflips and the second one can only be classified as a failure considering I kneed the poor girl in the head. Thankfully, she's an understanding trooper who spends time cheerleading, so she's used to getting nailed in the noggin.

Frosh

We continued reading The Odyssey. You continued filling out the Plot Point notechart. It's worth 75 points and due Monday.

Seniors

We switched our focus from Canterbury Tales to symbolism in film using Pleasantville for demonstration. There wasn't enough time to give anything but short shrift to the former, so we're turning our attention to the latter. 

Now back to the grading!

"I've made a huge mistake."

As the journalism adviser over the last few years, setbacks have come to be commonplace. No matter how great the staff -- and each year's staff has been great in its own way -- various things have happened, some the fault of the students, some the fault of me, some through nobody's fault but the fallibility of living in a technological age, that have forced the Brave Times to publish an issue after the scheduled deadline. It stinks, and nobody is ever happy when that occurs. This is why getting an issue out on time is considered a celebratory event. Everyone pulls together to create a product that close to 3000 people see on a regular basis and it takes a ton of hard work and dedication that doesn't always come together, so we rejoice when it does.

This is a result of a Google Image search for
"I've made a huge mistake." I don't understand
GOB Bluth's use of the Apple or Microsoft logo.

This year, I've had the most motivated group in all of my years as the Brave Times adviser. Part of this motivation exists intrinsically in each member of the editorial staff, as they are creative go-getters destined for success and great things. However, the other aspect of their motivation exists because I made a short-sighted promise, which is the reason for the Arrested Development quote that serves as the subject line. See, I knew these students were motivated, and I figured I could play on that by promising that if they made each of the first semester deadlines that I would do a backflip.

Adhering to a fairly regular work out schedule for the last five years or so has allowed me to get into decent shape, but the last time I played organized sports was back when I participated in Little League when I was still in middle school. Little League isn't really demanding or rigorous either, at least not the one in which I participated. Suffice to say, I am in shape, but I'm not athletic. Backflips are something athletes due: gymnasts and stuntmen and acrobats and mixed-martial artists after winning a fight; those guys do backflips. I've never attempted a backflip in my life save for when I was standing in a four foot deep swimming pool. Granted, it's been on my bucket list for awhile, but it's a frightening endeavor, what with paralysis a viable consequence of the attempt.

The staff of the Brave Times have been aware of these circumstances, and yet they've still hit every single deadline for the semester right on schedule with the final issue of the calendar year due to be put to bed tonight and published tomorrow.  This has never happened before in my tenure as adviser to the Brave Times. Ever. There were years that the staff stuck pretty closely to a schedule, but not one staff has managed to follow through on an entire semester's worth of deadlines. It's a commendable feat, and I'm pretty proud of them, even if their motivation has been to see me commit to a comic pratfall that might make me lose the feeling in my extremities. They've even gone so far as to label the checklist for the issue the "Backflip Deadline." Now I have to follow through with a backflip attempt. My wife is worried about me.

I've made a huge mistake.

Frosh
On Monday and Tuesday, you presented your individual mythology research projects. I was impressed with most, not so much with some, but never disappointed with the results.

Wednesday, we began to discuss the qualities of an epic in anticipation of reading excerpts from Homer's Odyssey. You needed to finish reading the introduction (ending on page 908) at home, which includes information on the build-up to Odysseus' journey back to Ithaca.

Today, you participated in a small group quiz by summarizing in 3 to 5 sentences an assigned section of last night's reading. We then went on to discuss your summaries. Next, our coverage of The Odyssey began. The layout of the story is surprisingly non-linear, as the first half is told in flashback as we join Odysseus towards the end of his journey home. We'll only be reading excerpts, the first of which is the one dealing with Polyphemus, the cyclops.

Seniors
You received the portfolio guidelines for the lit project on Monday. Hopefully, everyone has held on to their assignments from the lit project over these last few months as it was one of the big points I've harped on since its inception.

We then continued to read Beowulf, concluding it on Tuesday. Beowulf experienced the thrill of victory  by defeating on Grendel's mom and decapitating the already-dead Grendel and then experienced the agony of defeat by losing to the dragon. The guy deserves some slack, though, as he put up a valiant effort in his mid-70's and FOUGHT A DRAGON. It's pretty remarkable, really, and easy to see why the Anglo-Saxons revered the dude. Also, there's always the possibility of a Wiglaf spinoff. That guy has franchise potential written all over him.

There is a bonus assignment dealing with Beowulf on the Files page called Beowulf Revisited. It'll be due December 13 and have a value of up to 40 points. Last year, a student completed this assignment by re-imagining Beowulf's adventure as a series of tweets. Thinking outside the box like that is the best way to go.

Wednesday was reserved for peer editing. I gave those of you who brought a draft the Peer Edit Guide. Those who didn't bring a draft were labelled disappointments. Let me clarify here, too. This is not a difficult paper and should represent your best possible work. I would hope that bringing a draft to class is not completely out of the question, especially since the sole purpose is to improve what you have before turning it in for a grade. It's disappointing to me when students don't take advantage of the opportunities they have to improve, especially after hearing the question "How can I improve my grade?" so many times prior to the fall break. It's also the reason why I'm now more disinclined to offer bonus assignments through the blog. The Beowulf assignment will be a litmus test to see which students are really serious about improving prior to the end of the semester.

Today, we went over last minute questions for the big culminating paper due tomorrow. I am genuinely looking forward to reading these as it's as much a reflection of me as it is you. My goal is for everyone to  have improved over the course of the lit project, whether that's as a reader or a writer, preferably both. The plan is to get these papers graded by December 13, if not beforehand. My wife will be gone all day on Saturday for a work training, so in between stretches to limber myself up for my backflip attempt next week, I want to read as many of the papers as I possibly can that day.

After the Q&A, we started talking about Chaucer. He's often compared to Shakespeare, and I enjoy my basketball analogy enough to repeat it here: Chaucer is to Shakespeare as Dr. J is to Michael Jordan. The former introduced something to his respective fields (iambic pentameter and poetry to English, the slam dunk to basketball) while the latter perfected said something. While we won't be spending much time on Canterbury Tales, I really hope you take a liking to it because fart jokes never get old.

Dust. Wind. Dude.

My wife sure does like The Real Housewives of New Jersey and I don't begrudge her that at all since I set up our DVR for just about every Bravo show she wants (I draw the line at The Rachel Zoe Project, though), but the reunion episode airing tonight is incredibly uncomfortable to watch. I enjoy both versions of The Office (UK and US) and many other awkward, uncomfortable comedies. This weird, so-called reality show, though? Man, I don't even know what comes after awkward. Awkwadruple? Sure, why not?

The Brave Times staff had their first "late night" this afternoon. Obviously, "late night" is a bit of a misnomer. The staff stays for a few hours after school, but, instead of staying past 8pm as has happened in the past, everyone is out by 4:30pm.  The first issue is looking great, and the staff should meet the deadline.  I can't wait for the school to see the issue and some of the other great things the newspaper has in store this year.

Frosh
You attended Mrs. Irwin's library orientation. Tomorrow's verse will be the same as the first. Just remember to be prepared for the essay terms test on Wednesday.

Senior
We finished the lit terms. Here's a reminder list for the test on Friday. Keep these terms at the forefront of your mind while reading your lit project books because knowing how to find and identify them will be the key to doing well on the annotation.

1. analogy
2. theme
3. hyperbole
4. syntax
5. foil
6. alliteration
7. oxymoron
8. stereotype
9. pun
10. sarcasm
11. satire
12. imagery
13. diction
14. allusion
15. style
16. tragedy
17. motif
18. personification
19. metaphor
20. paradox

After that we began discussing the history of Socrates but didn't get too far. Prepare for some more big ideas, especially once we get into the Allegory of the Cave. Meanwhile, here's a bit of Socrates' wisdom in 1980's teen time-traveling comedy form.

Welcome back to the world of tomorrow!

As readers (HAH! I assume people read this...) may or may not know, I also serve as the adviser to ALHS' newspaper, the Brave Times, which also includes teaching the journalism class. This semester will start my sixth year in the position. Most of the teaching of that course occurs as the students actively create the latest issue of the newspaper. It is easily my favorite class to teach because it has such a different vibe than my other classes. The atmosphere is a little looser, and I get to know the students better in that class because they often stick around for a second or third year if I'm lucky.

This year looks to be pretty monumental because the staff plans to implement a Brave Times website. Yes, the newspaper is finally entering the 21st century a mere decade after the fact. I'm investigating a few different sources in order to get this venture off the ground, and many of them are promising. It's a pretty exciting time, both for myself as an adviser and for the students who will be doing something new and lasting for the school.

There isn't a better newspaper in our district, and pretty soon we'll have the best newspaper site in the district, too.