Meta Blogging

This guy is almost as frustrated
as I am with my lack of posting.

See what happens when I get bogged down with doing my job? I fail to update the blog about my job! THIS IS A TRAVESTY AND UNTOWARD! This is a disservice to myself more than anyone because holding off on writing the daily happenings of the class means that I tend to forget aspects of each day, resulting in this blog entry becoming a chore. If details are spotty, that's why. Also, I don't get to do the fun pre-amble as I instead focus on some expository writing on why I haven't been writing, which is the most boring writing to ever exist. But here we are.

Frosh
Monday, September 26 - You needed to have Fahrenheit 451 by this day. We began covering the Elements of Theme in our notes. When creating a theme statement, the key is to first decide on any of the number of topics a story addresses (what the story is about), and then figure out what the story reveals about said topic (what the story is trying to say).

Tuesday, September 27 - We continued our discussion on the Elements of Theme. You also began reading The Scarlet Ibis

Wednesday, September 28 - You continued reading The Scarlet Ibis and worked to fill out your story charts, which, hopefully, led you to creating a valid theme statement.

Thursday, September 29 - Everyone turned in The Scarlet Ibis story chart and then spent the rest of the period working on the newspaper projects in their groups.

Friday, September 30 - Newspaper projects were due this day, and we spent a portion of the period looking at everyone's work. We also attempted to come up with our own theme statement for The Scarlet Ibis so that everyone else could come up with three possible theme statements for the story by the following Monday.

Monday, October 3 - Students received an annotation day to work on their reading of Fahrenheit 451.

Tuesday, October 4 - You received the Thematic Paragraph assignment and we went over themes you created together as a class.

Wednesday, October 5 - I gave you a series of statements that are thematically linked to Fahrenheit 451, and asked you to respond to them with whether or not you agree or disagree. Meanwhile, I also checked your books for annotations on the first 35 pages of the book.

Thursday, October 6 - In small groups, you discussed your opinions on the Fahrenheit 451 anticipation/reaction statements. This led to a whole group discussion where we talked about the views of your group.

Friday, October 7 - You turned in your Thematic Paragraph and took a quiz on the first 35 pages of Fahrenheit 451.

Tuesday, October 11 - We graded the first quiz together as a class as a means to discuss the first half of Part One of Fahrenheit 451.

Wednesday, October 12 - I collected your annotations for the rest of Part One and you took an in-class essay addressing the need for people to read books.

Thursday, October 13 - We finally went back to discussing your take on the anticipation/reaction statements. The goal here is to make connections to the book and clarify some of the more confusing aspects of it by framing your understanding through these statements.

Friday, October 14 - You received a day to annotate your books.

Monday, October 17 - We spent this day becoming acquainted with the library.

Tuesday, October 18 - I assigned your Censorship Project and answered questions on it. In groups of your choosing, you began working on a worksheet that explored the meaning of censorship.

Wednesday, October 19 - Your group turned in the censorship survey and then used the rest of the class period as a work day.

Thursday, October 20 - You took a quiz on the rest of part one and all of part two of Fahrenheit 451. After finishing the quiz, you wrote down ten questions on anything that occurs in the first two parts of the book for our discussion on Friday.

Friday, October 21 - We discussed all of part one and two of Fahrenheit 451.

Seniors
Monday, September 26 - You received the Persuasion Portfolio, formed groups and began working.

Tuesday, September 27 - Everyone turned in their Timed Writing 1 Revisions and worked on the Persuasion Portfolio.

Wednesday, September 28 - We watched No Logo and you answered questions regarding the documentary/speech.

Thursday, September 29 - Everyone took the comprehensive lit terms test and turned in the No Logo questions by the end of the period.

Friday, September 30 - Students worked on the Persuasion Portfolio for the last day.

Monday, October 3 - Persuasion Portfolios were due this day. I gave you a proofreading assignment to ensure your understanding of sentence run-ons and fragments.

Tuesday, October 4 - We corrected the proofreading assignment together as a class with some explanation. You then received a day to annotate your lit books.

Wednesday, October 5 - I gave you a list of forceless words that you should avoid in your writing that also contained a few lists of suggested words to improve your analysis. We then explored what analysis looks like by looking at examples and discussing how much summary should be included when analyzing literature. The answer? Very little. Remember that the assumption when writing any type of analysis is that your reader is familiar with and has read the work in question.

Thursday, October 6 - I collected your second Article Selection assignment. We then read about and discussed the Radical Honesty movement and how it could feasibly apply to a person's everyday life. We also started to go over level questions. Here's a lovingly crafted example using a then recent episode of Mad Men as a base that I wrote last year.

Friday, October 7 - We continued going over level question and applying them to your lit books.

Tuesday, October 11 - You received a day to annotate your lit books.

Wednesday, October 12 - As a way to introduce ourselves to Beowulf, we went over a truncated (and sometimes sarcastic) look at the Anglo Saxons and their history.

Thursday, October 13 - This day was focused on your second in-class Timed Writing and turning in your books for an annotation check.

Friday, October 14 - After looking at laws that existed between the fifth and eighth century, you discussed what these laws said about the Anglo Saxon society in small groups.


Monday, October 17 - I assigned the CD Creation project and showed off examples, both good and bad, of past projects. The key for this one is having a viable theme statement that can apply to your lit book before you even attempt to choose any kind of song. Please keep that in mind, since this project is worth 150 points and due on November 17.

Tuesday, October 18 - You turned in your second Timed Writing Revision. I assigned two theme-based worksheets, one asking you to write down subjects and revelations and another exploring level questions leading to a theme, both of which are due Tuesday, 10/25.

Wednesday, October 19 - This was a CD Creation project work day.

Thursday, October 20 - We discussed the hero's journey and where we've seen examples of it in stories we have all experienced before. In a longer form, we applied the hero's journey to Finding Nemo and then you were given time to work on the bonus assignment that was due the next day.

Friday, October 21 - As a class, we discussed the idea of evil, and you answered some questions about its nature.

And SCENE.

COMICS and Costumes

With DC's relaunch of their entire line of titles, I decided to pick a few of them up to test the waters of reading comics on a regular basis again since I'd given up the habit and switched to trade paperbacks for the last few years due to the cost of individual titles. Not surprisingly, comics are still expensive and for some unknown reason that I'm sure DC and Marvel will both regret given the hindsight of enough time, they charge the same price for issues digitally. But having a solid, new jumping-on point for an increasingly insular and serialized world helps, thus COMICS.

Action Comics - Grant Morrison is my favorite writer, and he's attempting to bring Superman back to his Golden Age roots where he fought for the poor and downtrodden against the wealthy and powerful. Unfortunately, this has also led to a costume downgrade where he merely wears a t-shirt and jeans with work boots and a cape...and that's strange. I'm not a huge fan of Rags Morales doing the art duties, but I'm intrigued enough in a somewhat depowered Superman that isn't Smallville that I'll stick around for as long as Morrison steers the ship.

Batwing - The dialogue is corny, but I enjoy that Batman is helping establish a global identity for his brand of justice, establishing that the Batman Inc. storyline from a few months ago isn't entirely dead.

Stormwatch - This felt like writer Paul Cornell was breaking the cardinal rule of writing of "show not tell." There was way too much expository dialogue that didn't really explain all that much. There's no problem with dropping the reader in on the middle of a story and allowing them to catch up, but this issue didn't present the opportunity for that catching up. There was a lot of standing around and talking, but without witty dialogue and then very little action.

Batgirl - This...this was awful. Batgirl is portrayed as weak and ineffectual, her roommate is right out of Stock Modern Hippie Characters 101, and the villain is stupid. Plus, the police are stupid, especially in the final scene. DC made a lot of waves in taking Barbara Gordon out of her wheelchair-bound persona of Oracle and placing her back in the cape and cowl of Batgirl, and even that was glossed over in a lazy fashion. However, in the comic's defense, it wasn't the WORST thing I read this week.

Detective Comics - This was the absolute worst thing I read this week. Jim Lee's redesign barely works when it's drawn by Jim Lee, and it completely misses every mark when drawn by anyone else. NOT EVERYONE IS GOOD AT DRAWING UNNECESSARY SEAMS, JIM LEE! However, the art is better than the nonsensical story, which is filled with an over-the-top climactic scene at the end that literally saw me say "Ew...!" A review I read described this as an issue of Spawn where someone went through the script and just did a Find and Replace on Microsoft Word to insert Batman and the Joker's names. On top of that, none of the characterization felt true to the core of the characters. The Joker has friends? What? Has writer Tony Daniel ever heard of the Joker? I'm glad I had to buy this digitally because that allows me to delete the issue and never have to read it again.

Justice League International - My big problem with the launch of Justice League last week was the fact that it had seven characters on the cover, three and a half of which show up in the actual issue. The whole thing amounted to a Green Lantern/Batman conversation with Superman showing up acting like a jerk on the last two pages while Cyborg isn't recognizable as his namesake. It takes time to introduce these characters, you say? Well, not according to Justice League International, which does a fine job of introducing each person, gives them distinct personality quirks and creates an intriguing arc of playing Booster Gold as the leader of the team because he's an easily manipulated patsy. This is not rocket science and it's been done before to great success in the past. Justice League, take a cue from your B-team, and get it together.

Animal Man - The art is appropriately keeping a foot in two worlds by presenting Animal Man as a down-to-Earth superhero who's been out of the game for a little while while also managing to up the creep factor when he enters a dream sequence. This felt like everything an Animal Man comic should be by making him a relatable family man, an animal rights activist, and a superhero greatly in tune with his power. Animal Man wins the week.

Frosh
Last Monday, August 29, you took the Animal Farm re-test. This is next on my list of things to grade as soon as I finish up the dialectical journals.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, August 30 through September 1, we discussed everything Animal Farm. While you were given a list of discussion questions, I focused more on the questions you had first and foremost. The answers you provided still wound up covering much of the information that I would have liked to have covered had we just focused on the given questions. This is one of those occasions where everyone wins. You also turned in your annotated Animal Farm books

Then on that same Thursday and the following Friday, September 2, we began covering the Jane Shaffer essay terms.

This past Tuesday, we completed those terms and I assigned the Animal Farm plot chart which you worked on for the rest of the period. By the way, the climax is when Boxer gets taken away to the slaughter house. It's at that point that everyone has their dreams crushed, and the animals are resigned to a life similar to or worse than the one that Jones provided previously. Soul crushing, right?

Wednesday and Thursday, you watched The Russian Revolution in Color, the content of which is self-explanatory to anyone paying attention to the title. You took notes on the aspects of history that you could connect to the plot of the book.

You're going to use those notes to complete two chunks (a concrete detail sentence followed by two commentary sentences) on two separate Animal Farm characters where you compare what happened in the book to the events of the Russian Revolution. Depending on your class period today, we created at least one chunk on Old Major and either started or completed one on Mr. Jones. The two chunks are due Monday, September 12.

Seniors
Our look at philosophy continued on Monday, August 29, when we discussed Plato and Aristotle in depth. The thing to remember about those two and Socrates is the following: Socrates asked why. Plato explained why. Aristotle explained how we got to why.

Tuesday, August 30, we read and (somewhat) discussed the Allegory of the Cave. It's amazing how relevant this remains almost two and a half millennia later. In fact, a recent story I first saw on Gizmodo discusses a very similar occurrence that happened recently. These lab chimps saw daylight for the very first time in over 30 years, and their reaction of joy and contentment is something to behold. Notice how they relish the moment and attempt to take everything in by looking around their new, natural surroundings. AND THEY HUG! I've probably watched that video five times just to see how happy the chimps are feeling the sun on their skin. It's amazing.

You took the first lit terms test on Wednesday, August 31. Retakes will be allowed on Monday, September 12, and Thursday, September 15.

We discussed the idea of the cave on Thursday, September 1, and you worked on the questions associated with Plato's dialogue.

Friday, September 2, you completed the first and easiest part of the lit project by having your book or order form for your book. We discussed annotation and how to be successful when attempting to annotate. Check out this list if you're ever confused.

• examples of lit terms in action (especially the proceeding three)
• motif
• theme
• symbol
• unfamiliar words (define them)
• commentary on what happens (explain your thoughts & opinions)
• important/notable passages (briefly explain why you think said passages are notable or important)
• character development (note new characters, character descriptions, or major changes to characters)
• ask questions (provide answers later, when possible)
• chapter summaries (describe three important things that happened)

This past Tuesday, you received the article selection guidelines and were asked to write an article selection-style precis on the Allegory of the Cave using MLA format. This serves as practice for the article selection assignments you'll be completing over the course of the lit project. The first of those is due Thursday, September 15.

Speaking of September 15, that's when you'll be taking your next lit terms test, the terms for which you received on Wednesday and Thursday. Once we finished going over those terms, you received time to read and annotate. Hopefully, you used that time productively. Here are the terms:

1. Symbol
2. External Conflict
3. Internal Conflict
4. Denotation
5. Antagonist
6. Protagonist
7. Point of View
8. Foreshadowing
9. 1^st person pov
10. 3^rd per. Limited
11. Dramatic Irony
12. Verbal Irony
13. Tone
14. Setting
15. Mood
16. Connotation
17. 3^rd per. Omniscient
18. Situational Irony
19. Irony
20. Simile

Today, the practice article selection assignment was due. After turning that in, we discussed advertising slogans, something to which no one is immune, myself included. As promised, here's a compilation of Mac Tonight commercials. Apparently, Mac has been revived in CGI form for a Singapore ad campaign that informs customers that McDonalds is now open 24 hours. Maybe he'll get a similar revival in the states sometime soon.

If you're interested in seeing a picture of me in that infamous costume, I posted one over at my Facebook page. You'll also find that my dad knew exactly where it was in the garage and fished it down. My mom is quite the craftswoman since that moon head has survived almost 24 years, which is pretty impressive for paper-mache and cardboard.

The 60 Sixties Party

My dad turned 60 over the weekend, and my mom threw him a Sixties themed party -- not in the number sense but in the hippies and tie-dye sense. We had a great time and, as you can see, enjoyed getting into the spirit of things. My mom said that I looked like someone she would have met in high school, which means that my attire for the evening was a success.

Frosh
Blogspot allows users to view certain stats, such as page views, referral links and web search keywords that lead to the user's particular blog. In the close to two years that I've maintained this blog, no post has come close to the number of page views as the one that I wrote that mentions plot diagram. It's never made sense to me; the picture that accompanies that post isn't unique to my page since I nabbed it from someone else on the Internet. Also, I can't help but wonder how many people must be disappointed when they do a search for "plot diagram graphic organizer" and discover that the extent to what they can find consists of just those words and the idea that it was assigned on a Thursday. That can't be too helpful to prospective educators. Maybe I'll include a link once I update School Loop later this week.

Anyway, besides a cheap ploy for more page views on a different post, all of that is roundabout way of saying that we finished our notes on the Elements of Plot this past Monday.

Tuesday, you received a day to annotate your Animal Farm books. While my chief concern is that everyone find a way to annotate their books that best works for them, do your best to have at least something on each page. Granted, that might not always happen, but make the effort, especially considering the book is so short, it shouldn't be hard to find notable ideas throughout the novel. Also, you're responsible for noting the climax of the story with a stickie note. Those annotations are due on Wednesday, August 31.

Meanwhile, you read through The Most Dangerous Game this past Wednesday and Thursday. Once you finished, you were responsible for filling out the Plot It Out graphic organizer.

Friday, we came together as a class and discussed specific events that contributed to the rising action, and everyone did a great job in identifying moments where the tension increased, which is the whole point of rising action in the first place. Noting the climax of the story was a little more difficult, although I was impressed the number that correctly named Rainsford jumping off the cliff as the correct moment. Keep in mind that a climax will not take place anywhere in the first half of a traditionally plotted story. Following that powwow, I handed out the Animal Farm discussion questions. You'll need to plan out your responses for the class discussion on Tuesday and Wednesday so that you can earn points.

Finally, don't forget the Animal Farm re-test on Monday, August 29!

Seniors
Monday, you turned in the ethical dilemma questions and we spent the period discussing your answers. These are supposed to be difficult choices, so going for the easiest loophole doesn't quite get anyone off the hook. But emphasizing that to everyone as a class is part of what makes that discussion so fun for me as a teacher.

You received an overview of the lit project on Tuesday, and we spent the period discussing the expectations as well as the book choices. Remember that the lit project takes up roughly 60% of the semester grade, and it's a project that's broken up into smaller chunks over the course of the entire semester.

Wednesday and Thursday were focused on the first set of lit terms, listed below.

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

Your test on these terms will be on Wednesday, August 31 and will follow a matching format. If you wrote down and studied the definitions given in class, you will be prepared. These are ideas and concepts for which you should attempt to find examples over the course of reading your lit project books and doing so can go a long way in your attempts to annotate that novel.

Additionally, I handed out the collection of due dates for the lit project on Thursday and only managed one typo for the entire document. This bit of planning is always the part of the year I dread because I really have to focus my attention the calendar to make sure that I'm not overwhelming the students nor overwhelming myself with my own grading deadlines. I'm hoping the changes Ms. Windt and I have implemented this year help everyone in that regard.

Friday, you received a short history of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. I don't think our discussion went particularly well during class as not too many folks were participating and I felt slightly scatterbrained during our reading, so I hope our subsequent days focused on Plato's Allegory of the Cave go a bit better. Please make sure to read the rest of that sheet so that we may review the ideas on Monday, August 29.

Ode to My Wife

As I get ready to publish this particular entry, it's my lovely wife's birthday. She's a great lady whose company I am lucky to have on a daily basis. Angela is a beautiful woman, and she makes me a better man. She endures all of my nonsense, from cartoons to superheroes to cartoon superheroes, and even engages in some of my weirder obsessions like my love for UFC. My wife is a compassionate, empathetic, loving, gorgeous, crazy cool chick that always keeps me on my toes. Without her, my life would be much emptier.


Frosh
On Monday, we went over the class syllabus and policies for the classroom.

Tuesday, the modified dialectical journals were due. All of the journals will take awhile to grade, so try to keep that in mind when wondering when you'll see those returned. You also took the test on Animal Farm that didn't go so well. Ms. Windt and I are doing our best to see where everyone stands, and we made the mistake of giving you a test that focused more on analysis than whether or not you read, the latter of which was our purpose. Just like you students, teaching itself is a learning process. The plan is to regroup and try again testing-wise next Monday, August 29, this time with a test that focuses on more objective goals.

Wednesday, we made a trip to the library and started taking notes on the different elements of plot. Pay attention to many of these terms as you can apply them while annotating.

We discussed annotation and how to approach it on Thursday. For some of you, this was review, but you'll be applying this idea throughout the school year and your time in the honors program at ALHS. Don't lose the bookmark; it's a valuable tool to focus you any time you read.

Friday, you received the period to annotate.

Seniors
Monday, we discussed the quotes that everyone chose to exemplify their personal philosophy. Many of you clearly put some thought into your choices. My suggestion is to memorize at least one quote over the course of your life so you can use it at a social gathering to impress friends and acquaintances. Never underestimate the implementation of a good quote at an opportune time.

On Tuesday, you wrote down your own definition of philosophy and your thoughts on the distinction between ethics and morals. From there, we started discussing the three ideas so that we came to a consensus of understanding in the class. For the record, philosophy is the love or study of wisdom while morals deal with feelings of what constitutes good and bad and ethics focus on the actions that are good and bad. This is by no means the be-all and end-all definition of any of the three ideas, but it's a suitable foundation for the class. We began discussing essentialism and relativism but our the bell postponed that for another day.

We finished discussing essentialism and relativism on Wednesday so that you could begin the ethical dilemma questions and made a trip to the library. Remember that essentialism means that there is a line where one can measure right and wrong; the line never changes and anyone in the past who fell on the wrong side of the line was wrong. Relativism posits that right and wrong is completely dependent on the culture and era of the time period and location.

Thursday focused on giving you time to work on the above-mentioned questions.

I was gone on Friday, and you wrote a writing sample.

And mustard! Honey mustard, at that!

Dynamic Duo!

Yes, Brock Lesnar lost. I still had a great time at UFC 121, though. There are lots of fighters that I will always pay money to see, Brock Lesnar chief among them, but I'm really a huge fan of the sport. The show demonstrated the sport pretty well, both good and bad but more the former than the latter. Even though Jake Shields stunk up the joint and should write a thank you card to the two judges that gave him the win, the rest of the fights were entertaining enough that I still had a great time despite my guy losing.

The night also served as a welcome distraction from the previous two days as things with the dog we adopted did not work out. My wife and I were very disappointed and saddened by the turn of events but feel we made the right decision for us and, hopefully, for her.

Halloween was also pretty fun, and I enjoyed seeing the costumes of the folks who decided to dress up. I included a picture of my wife and I as Batman and Robin. And before I get any snarky remarks (he says as he laughs at the idea of actually getting any kind of comments on the blog), there was a female Robin at one point in the Batman mythos. Her name is Stephanie Brown who started her career under the alias of Spoiler and served as the fourth Robin (there have been five total) for a brief period of time before Batman fired her. She died, came back to life and now has taken on the mantle of Batgirl. Comics are awesome and confusing. A hearty high-five to the person who can name the other four Robins by their secret identities.

By the by, my Xbox came back from its repair trip today and I promptly fired up the Netflix to find that Batman: Under the Red Hood, a direct to DVD animated release from last August, is now available in their Watch Instantly section. If you're a fan of Batman or good (animated) action with an intriguing and at times heart-wrenching story, I'd definitely recommend checking it out. To my mind, it's the best DC animated release so far, even edging out Justice League: New Frontier.

Now it's time to play catch up.

Frosh
On Friday, October 22, I was gone and you moved forward.

Monday, October 25, you took the Elements of Lit test and turned in those notes, which took up most of the period. I've since added those tests to the gradebook. It's definitely a more difficult test than you may have anticipated because there were no multiple choice options and instead relies on your ability to remember your notes. But keep in mind, there was nothing on the test that wasn't also in your notes. That's how I like to operate for your tests so you know how best to prepare for them.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, October 26 and 27, you worked on the Root Words vocabulary worksheet. We went over why root words are important (what with them allowing folks to more easily define new words if able to correctly identify the root) and turned our focus to how many of the roots find their origins in Greek mythology (e.g. narcissist, herculean, titanic).

I collected the assignment on Thursday, October 28, which is when we began our mythology introduction. If you take away nothing else from this beginning portion of our unit, at the very least understand that myth does not automatically equate to something that is untrue. Keep in mind that myths merely explain that which is unexplainable in an attempt to get a better understanding of the world or universe at large.

After moving forward once again last Friday, we concluded the mythology introduction notes today by defining and discussing a few key terms:

• fairy tale
• parable
• legend
• myth (It's kind of redundant, I know...)
• epic
• folk tale

We will be reading some of these in class, and others may or may not show up on a test. (Hint: that usually means they WILL show up on a test.)

You need your student ID cards tomorrow and have an ORU due Friday with a section four that includes a theme statement.

Seniors
Last Friday, October 22, I was gone and you worked on completing the Anglo Saxon laws worksheet in anticipation of our Beowulf reading.

We shifted gears slightly on Monday and Tuesday (October 25 and 26) when we examined the hero journey and hero archetypes, respectively. However, the concept still applies to Beowulf because he's an epic hero. When we start reading the actual (translated) poem this week, it'll make some more sense, but understand that he's the manliest man up to that point in the history of storytelling. If there were a way for me to finagle a reference to The Rock as a manlier man right now, I'd do so, but every attempt I made sounded really weak. Also, neither of these guys stand a chance of losing to Cain Velasquez, so there's no way I would have to eat crow later. Additionally on Monday, you were assigned the theme worksheet which was due today, but I pushed it back one more day so that I could continue checking your theme statements. But more on that in a second.

Wednesday and Thursday, October 27 and 28, we explored evil and all that entails. See, Grendel is the living embodiment of evil and an all around jerk. We're looking at both sides here, but, spoiler alert, the good guy is going to win in the end. At the same time, too often we (in the big picture, humanity sense of we) tend to define things by what they aren't when it comes to difficult concepts like evil. You are all to be commended for attempting to define it on your own, and I look forward to reading the varied definitions you wrote.

Friday, October 29, I began checking your theme statements and continued to do so today. This took a lot longer than I thought and will continue into tomorrow when I plan to really finish checking them. The important idea to keep in mind is that a theme statement needs to be universal and not tied to the text in any way. Remember that just because we framed theme statements as the main idea (or lesson, as some put it) of a story doesn't mean that it needs to be positive. Too many of the theme statements I'm seeing refer to what characters should do or labeling actions as evil. Some of your books are dark and have pessimistic views of the world. The theme needs to reflect that.

I'll collect the theme worksheet tomorrow. On Thursday, November 4, you have your fourth annotation check and Article Selection 4 both due. Don't forget that next Wednesday, November 10, is the due date for your CD Creation project. Finally, your annotations need to be complete by Tuesday, November 16. This is a lot of work, but if you've paced yourself out well, it should be manageable.

Brocktober Beards

BROCKBEARD

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of beards despite the fact that I can't grow one myself. My dad, who has always been a hero of mine, has had a beard for my whole life and the entire length of his marriage to my mom. There was a brief respite in the mid-90's where he went from a full beard to a van dyke goatee when that was the in-thing to do. Otherwise, though, beard all the way! Unfortunately, my beard gets patchy on the sides, which is the most important part of a full beard. Since many people always want most what they can't have, my lack of beard-growing ability only fuels my appreciation for beards more. Heck, that's at least 20% of the reason why I'm friends with McBride.

Imagine my surprise when I watched UFC Primetime: Lesnar vs. Velasquez tonight and saw that Brock Lesnar, my favorite fighter and UFC Heavyweight champion went and grew himself a mountain-man beard. As if the guy didn't look enough like a viking already, he decides to go and seal the deal with the manliest facial hair around. He really does seem poised to take over The Rock's position as my number one man-crush.

Frosh
Today you turned in your setting questions, and we went over the elements of irony. Keep in mind that you need to be able to differentiate the three kinds of irony. Tomorrow, we look at Alanis Morissette's version of irony.

Seniors
Everyone used the period to catch up on reading and annotation. Tomorrow is our second writing day. This one won't have an easier prompt, and I will be looking at the revisions closer this time around. Make sure to avoid first and second person and to keep the summary to a minimum. The revision for tomorrow's timed writing will be due Wednesday, October 13.

And, if you're reading this in time, don't forget that your second annotation check will take place tomorrow and to turn in your latest Article Selection.

McDonald's ain't got nothin' on me.

There's a whole lot to cover, so let's just get into it and skip the preamble, okay?

Frosh
Last Wednesday, some of you brought in second drafts for revision. Everyone who had a second draft traded papers with someone else and participated in some peer editing. My hope is that you found this practice valuable on two ends: one, by having someone read your work and giving you constructive criticism, and two, by reading someone else's paper and gaining some insight on how you can better improve your draft. I have to admit that I was disappointed in how many chose not to complete their second drafts, and it doesn't bode well for the final drafts.

It's a plot! (Admiral Ackbar would
be proud.)

Everyone who had one turned in a final draft of the personal narrative essay on Thursday. We then switched gears and started our Elements of Literature unit, dealing first with plot. We'll be covering several different aspects of literature and reading a variety of short stories to illustrate them.

Then we had our second Forward Friday. Things did not go as planned, as is often the case when teachers implement new lessons that they haven't tried before. I'm hoping for more success and more focus next time. As we get further along, the plan is to focus on just the task at hand (whether those be released questions or our workbooks) instead of trying to tackle too many things at once.

Monday, we finished our notes on plot and discussed some of the reading strategies that we'll employ as a class.

Today, you received a plot diagram graphic organizer. You'll need to keep track of this as we read Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game, which we began today in class and will continue to do through Thursday. Anything left to read will be your homework that night.

Seniors
Wednesday, we started our second set of lit terms, which are as follows:

1. Symbol
2. External Conflict
3. Internal Conflict
4. Denotation
5. Antagonist
6. Protagonist
7. Point of View
8. Foreshadowing
9. 1^st person pov
10. 3^rd per. Limited
11. Dramatic Irony
12. Verbal Irony
13. Tone
14. Setting
15. Mood
16. Connotation
17. 3^rd per. Omniscient
18. Situational Irony
19. Irony
20. Simile

Again, 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.

On Thursday, you received the guidelines for the Article Selection assignment. Last year was the first year that I ever gave this assignment to students and it required a lot more explanation on my part because I had no experience with it. Students had more questions, probably because I didn't have as clear an idea as I do now about what I expect. This year, I planned for the same amount of time to explain it but found that I didn't need it. This is a half-period explanation now, at most. I'll have to take that into account next year if I choose to keep using the idea. Your first Article Selection will be due on September 23.

On Friday, we finished covering the lit terms.

After revisiting the guidelines for MLA format, we read the article Which High School Students Are Most Likely to Graduate From College? from last year's US News & World Report on Monday. Besides some interesting statistics, this article (or Allegory of the Cave) will serve as the basis for a practice precis  that is due Wednesday, September 15. This will also give you a chance for you to demonstrate that you know MLA format inside and out. 

Today, we took a look at advertising slogans. This is a continuation of our philosophy and media literacy unit that we'll tie back to Aristotle. I'm very much looking forward to having a discussion on this concept with you tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a compilation from the Mac Tonight advertising campaign of which my willful participation is now well-known.

Banner Day, Banner Weekend, and a New Banner

Banner courtesy of Samir's Photoshop skillz (with a z!)

Take the time to check out the new banner of the blog. The previous one was made with my woefully inadequate Photoshop skills where I did a poor job of using the clone tool. Now, however, thanks to Samir, we have a banner worthy of a high school English class blog. Seriously, Samir took time out of his schedule to create this awesome banner, and for that, everyone should give him a hearty pat on the back.

My wife and I finally moved into a home that we "own." The bank actually owns most of it for the next 15 years or so, at which point, she and I become the majority owners. We won't own it outright until 2040, but all the problems that come with owning property are now mine, so it gives me the appearance of ownership. After all of the hassles of getting to last Saturday (of which there were many), I'm going to give into the illusion and say that I am a homeowner. Amazingly enough, I will be 60 years old when 2040 rolls around, and it's hard to believe that between now and that year is the same amount of time between the year of my birth and today. Our concept of time is astounding sometimes.

Frosh
You received the personal narrative essay guidelines and prompts on Thursday. Through writing the essay, you'll showcase the skill of demonstrating the difference between concrete detail (CD) and commentary (CM) by writing a four paragraph essay with a total of four chunks. Remember that a chunk consists of three sentences, a concrete detail followed by two commentary sentences.

Friday was our first Forward Friday where you took a pre-test to provide a baseline for where you currently stand in your test-taking abilities. The idea here will be to provide you with tips, tricks and knowledge to do well on the CSTs in the spring and the CAHSEE next year. The effort you put into this will directly correlate into how well you ultimately do, so make sure to be here and take it seriously.

Tuesday, you finished the pre-test and we briefly covered MLA format. Formatting your essay in the MLA stye will not be a major priority for this essay, but the sooner you get the hang of doing so, the easier the rest of your high school English classes will be. The final draft of the personal narrative essay will be due on Thursday, September 9.

Seniors
On Thursday, we really got the chance to discuss Plato's Allegory of the Cave in depth. Much like DFW's This is Water, Plato's Allegory provides a way of looking at life from a different point of view than many aren't used to taking. Part of why I really enjoy discussing this text is its relevance. Nearly 2400 years later, we can find connections between the prisoners in the cave, the puppeteers and the enlightened to any number of institutions. In a media-fueled world on a 24/7 news cycle, it's probably more relevant today than it has ever been.

Corporations that own the few media outlets available to a majority of the populace decide what those people are able to see; they determine what qualifies as news. Oftentimes if a piece of news doesn't fit the narrative that they wish to be the driving force of a story, it doesn't make air. Those in charge -- the puppeteers -- will attempt to make it more difficult to achieve enlightenment. There are avenues that you are able to explore, though. And that leads us to our bonus time down at the bottom of the entry.

Friday, you took the first lit terms test. A second test will be coming up on Friday, September 17.

Meanwhile, just about everyone had a lit project book on Tuesday. We discussed some of the best methods to be successful when annotating said books. Here are the things we decided:

• examples of lit terms in action (especially the proceeding three)
• motif
• theme
• symbol
• unfamiliar words (define them)
• commentary on what happens (explain your thoughts & opinions)
• important/notable passages (briefly explain why you think said passages are notable or important)
• character development (note new characters, character descriptions, or major changes to characters)
• ask questions (provide answers later, when possible)
• chapter summaries (describe three important things that happened)

Keep in mind that I'm a big fan of making sure you have equal parts highlighting and writing in your annotations. The first annotation check will be on Thursday, September 23.

Bonus Time (10 points) - In a modern world, what is the best practical way to achieve enlightenment? Notice the word practical is emphasized here. Keeping an open mind and allowing yourself to accept new ideas are ways to achieve enlightenment, but what is a specific action that an individual can take? What is something that an individual can do in today's world to achieve enlightenment? Respond in the comments in a minimum of five sentences with your name and period. This is geared toward seniors, but it's an opportunity that is open to everyone. Freshpeeps that wish to take a stab at answering will seem extra cool and probably earn a few more points if the answers are impressive.  Answers must be submitted by 11:59pm on Friday.

P.S. I won't have Internet access at home until at least Friday, but I do receive email during that time, which means that I will have the ability to read your comments. Blog updates (for the five people that actually follow) will probably be light until then.