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.

That long promised Level Questions Example

We're going to skip the preamble tonight. Check it out next time as I have a bit to say about the new television show, Teach: Tony Danza.

Frosh
You worked on grammar when I was gone on Tuesday.

Wednesday, we finished going over the Elements of Fiction and you received the examples assignment. Remember that you'll be finding five examples of any of the elements we went over. You'll then fill out the following:

1. Element
2. Story
3. Quote from the text
4. 2 - 3 sentences explaining how the quote qualifies as that element

This will be due on Monday, October 18.

Today, we began going over the Elements of Theme, which is the final Element of Lit and the most important one.

Seniors
My jaw betrayed me on Tuesday, so I wasn't there, and you had a reading day.

Wednesday, we started going over level questions.

Mad Men

Today, you took the lit terms test that covered both sets of terms, and then we finished going over the level questions, an example of which is below.

Mad Men is an excellent show, and the episode that aired on August 29 provided the inspiration to complete a series of level questions.


Level 1 (explicitly from the text): Where did Don Draper first meet advertising executive Roger Sterling?

Answer: Don Draper met Roger Sterling at a fur store. The two later met for lunch where Roger offered Don a job, although the former was too inebriated to remember doing so. Many years later, Roger claims to have "discovered" Don.

Level 2 (implicitly from the text): Why is Don Draper interested in getting a job in advertising?

Answer: Dick Whitman took on the persona of his commanding officer, Don Draper, after the latter was killed in an accident during the Korean War. Whitman was unsatisfied with his life and felt like he did not belong with his family, so he took the opportunity to assume a new identity and craft a more preferable life. As Don Draper, he is able to mold himself into the man he wants to be. Advertising is a natural fit for this Don Draper; it is the one of the few arenas where someone is able to take a simple product and perfectly shape the image other people perceive, much like Draper/Whitman himself.

Level 3 (beyond the text): How does advertising reflect the people it targets?

Answer:  Advertising shows people the idealized version of the things they desire. In reality, the product never looks as good as the ad. Truly great advertising does not sell a product as much as it does a life style. People prefer to see themselves as the best possible version that they can imagine, regardless of if that is true or even possible. Advertising represents a lie that people sell themselves. It is meant to show human beings at their best but actually shows them at their worst.

Theme: A career provides a person with the opportunity for self-discovery.

Brocktober Begins

Get used to a lot of talk about Brock Lesnar as Brocktober 23 gets closer and closer.

In the meantime, the reason for my, as one student put it, "Negative Nancy" attitude recently is that my family had to put down Hershey, the dog I mentioned two weeks ago. And it's been rough.

Frosh
For Thursday, we began to cover the elements of setting and you turned in the inference chart. Friday, forward was the name of the game. Monday, we finished our setting notes and you received the following questions:

1. What kind of place is the story set? Season, climate, time of day?
2. Are the characters in conflict with their setting?
3. Does the setting help to understand the nature of the characters?
4. What kind of atmosphere does the setting create?  Would you avoid it or like to live in it?

You'll apply the questions to The Most Dangerous Game, Cask of Amontillado and Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory. The point of all of this is to connect the idea that setting has a tremendous influence over mood and tone, and, without it, a story can lose much of its luster. Today, we'll continue reading A Christmas Memory, and anything left will be part of your homework tonight.

Seniors
Last Thursday, you had one last work day in class to work on your Persuasion Portfolio, which I will collect today. Friday, I assigned your CD Creation assignment which also came with format guidelines. The CD Creation assignment will be due November 10. We began a discussion about the Radical Honesty movement, tying that in to our discussions about Truth (with a capital T) and what that actually means when we all take a minute to stop and think about it. The article can be found here.

We finished that discussion on Monday and then moved on to discussing what analysis looks like. Always remember that summarizing, while a valuable skill, is not analysis, which is our goal for this lit project. I desperately want you to come away from this project with the ability to analyze literature and, ideally, the world around you at large. One way to focus on analysis and avoid summary in your timed writings and your culminating paper is to write with the assumption that the person reading your papers has already read the text in question. We'll be discussing this at length once we start talking about theme in the next week or two.

Today, we'll go over the Persuasion Portfolio's point distribution and I'll be giving you a proofreading assignment in order to better help you identify some problems I found in the timed writing revisions.

One more thing to keep in mind is that there will be a test covering both sets of lit terms on Thursday, October 14. Don't let that knowledge fall out of your brains just yet.

The Other Dog

Hershey is a chocolate lab that my family welcomed into our home when I was a senior at Alta Loma High School. She came around in late February or early March of 1998, and, by process of elimination in  knowing how old she was at the time, everyone figured out that we shared the same birthday. Even if she wasn't born on exactly January 14, it was close enough that the family made it her official birthday. Because of that, and because she always seemed to like me just a little bit more than everyone else, Hershey and I have always shared as special a bond as a guy can have with the dog his parents bought as a way to compensate for said guy's impending departure for college. Even though I moved out a few months later (and came back and then moved out again and then came back and moved out for the last time after that), I always made sure to spend a little bit of time with her each time I went to visit my parents. She wags her tail every time I come around, although to be fair, she does that for everyone. But she did always rest her head in my lap and desperately wants to shake whenever she gets the opportunity.

Beamer & Hershey

When my mom added Beamer to the house, Hershey became the butt of more than a few jokes. Beamer is easier to train and always had more energy from the day he arrived. It got to the point that Hershey started to get the nickname of "the other dog" (i.e. the one that gets ignored). So I made it a point to ignore Beamer as much as possible (because I am spiteful towards animals for the sake of other animals), despite his attempts to wow me with his impressive six foot leaping ability, and focus on Hershey more. Again, she's a dog, but I could tell she always appreciated the effort.

Hershey isn't doing too well right now. She's having a hard time getting up and some x-rays this weekend revealed that a lot of the cartilage in her joints, specifically her hips and back, has worn away. I don't know how much longer she'll be around, but Angela and I made a special point to spend a little time with her on Sunday. She wagged her tail and put her head in my lap and pawed at me to shake and never wanted me to stop petting her belly.

She's a good dog.

Frosh
We continued reading The Most Dangerous Game on Wednesday and Thursday. Spoiler alert: the game is not Hungry, Hungry Hippos. Unfortunately, due to some discipline issues on Thursday, fourth period didn't get the chance to read as a class, instead choosing to get all of the talking amongst themselves as opposed to doing so as a class. I hope everyone enjoyed the ending because it really is a story that's entertaining and exciting. Who doesn't love a good chase sequence deep in the jungle that ends with a gigantic bearded man getting a knife to the chest? Now that I've typed that out, the story seems less school appropriate.

We moved forward on Friday (See what I did there?) with the little time that we had thanks to the rally schedule. Hopefully, many of you will see fit to check out the game on September 24. Also, I'm hoping that I get to meet many of your parents at the forthcoming Progress Report Card Night this Monday evening.

Seniors
There was quite the spirited discussion about what constitutes a "good" television show on Tuesday. One point I neglected to make, which I think is quite important in the realm of subjective quality discussions, is that there is a difference between something being objectively "good" and liking it. There are plenty of horrible television shows that I watch, some of which I even like. Jersey Shore is one; another is Entourage.  There are plenty of excellent shows out there that I either don't watch or downright dislike. While nothing of the latter comes to mind, I know that there are plenty of the former. The point is that taste is subjective and no one is wrong for liking something that might not be of the highest quality . . . except for people who watch Two and a Half Men. This relates to our time spent on Wednesday with Blues Traveler's song, "The Hook." We discussed it's subversive meaning and the fact that it's actually quite the bitter and angry ditty, despite it's upbeat tone.

For Thursday, we went over ethos, pathos and logos. For many of you, it was a review of a concept from last year, which is totally fine. Keep in mind that no one ever hurt themselves by learning too much about a single topic.

You took the second lit terms test on Friday. I'm going to do my best to make sure that those tests get into the grade book prior to Progress Report Card Night, which is Monday evening. Make sure to tell your parents to attend because I don't want to be too lonely.

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.

Exhaustion

Today was a long day. Tomorrow doesn't look to be any shorter.

Frosh
You took the essay terms quiz and then we worked on improving the commentary corrections you completed last week. Tomorrow, you will receive the narrative essay prompt possibilities where you'll finally get the opportunity to demonstrate how well you know the difference between concrete details and commentary. We'll also go over the purpose of Follow Friday.

Seniors
I'm enjoying the conversations coming out of our reading of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. You'll get more of my impressions about this in the next blog post because we've only just finished reading it as opposed to having discussed or analyzed it together as a class. And don't forget to study for the first lit terms test.

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.

That did not go as planned.

Randy Couture taps out James
Toney minutes into the first round.

Frankie Edgar proved he has BJ Penn's number and Kenny Florian proved susceptible to the same style that bested him against Sean Sherk in his first grab at the lightweight title, but the rest of my picks weren't too far off. Unfortunately, UFC 118 had more boring fights than exciting ones, but the exciting bouts were really satisfying. Joe Lauzon and Nate Diaz put on great performances, but that paled in comparison to Randy Couture doing exactly what everyone thought he'd do and embarrassed James Toney. Forcing Toney to tap to an arm triangle choke was the perfect capper to a game of trash talk that the boxing champ started and ultimately couldn't finish. The biggest laugh of the night came in Toney's post-fight interview when Joe Rogan asked him if there were aspects of his game, most notably his grappling, that he may want to address if he attempts MMA again. Toney's response was as delusional as his hype when he replied, "My ground game is fine" before walking out of the cage door.

The next three upcoming UFC events aren't setting my world on fire. I'll definitely check out the Fight Night on September 15 that will serve as an introduction to the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter, but there aren't any marquee match-ups taking place. Even though Frank Mir can talk up a fight tremendously and he's a spectacular man, I'm not all that hyped for him facing Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 119 (Mir is my pick, by the way, probably by way of submission late in the first). Then there's UFC 120 in England with Michael Bisping taking on Yoshihiro Akiyama, but it's a show in England that'll also be free on SpikeTV. There's really no need for me to get excited about it if I don't have to pay for it. However, after that my favorite fighter and the baddest man on the planet, Brock Lesnar, will be fighting Cain Velasquez for the heavyweight championship in a fight that I will be attending live. Expect me to talk about that at length in the weeks leading up to it.

Get used to seeing this logo
in many an English class.

Frosh
On Wednesday, you brought books for outside reading and we went over the guidelines for the Outside Reading Updates. ORU 1 is due Friday, 9/10. We also went over body paragraphs and broke down how a chunk should be formed when writing in the Jane Schaffer format.

I was gone on Thursday and Ms. Keepers was there in my place. You did some commentary practice, which we will continue to do next week after library orientation Monday and Tuesday and your essay terms quiz on Wednesday.

During my meeting on Wednesday, the other frosh teachers hammered out our plans for Forward Fridays. This is the English department's collective push to increase test scores, and we'll be starting on September 3. I'll explain more about this starting Thursday, but just know that come time for the CSTs in the spring, everyone will be prepared.

Seniors
We went over lit terms on Wednesday, and on Thursday you read a poem called "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, OH." Pay attention to the lit terms, not just because there will be a test next Friday on them, but also because they will be some of the key things to annotate in your lit books.