Also, it's a bad idea to eat chocolate before a cardio-kickboxing class.

I cannot kick this high.

In an effort to fight off Father Time, prove something to myself, and continue my quest to one day become the oldest man in the world, I've decided to go to my cardio-kickboxing class four days in a row this week, with a possibility of a fifth time on Saturday. Today was day three. There were so many kicks, and kicks are the thing I hate the most in the class because I'm not good at them and my hips are boney and inflexible. Plus, my shins still have nerve endings in them so they have not yet become accustomed to striking the heavy bag one hundred times in succession. That is to say, it hurts. But it's on my to do list, so it must be done...just like this blog post!


Frosh
We've been dedicating time to sonnets of the Shakespearian variety.

Tuesday, we went over the components of a sonnet in detail and took a close look at Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, where the speaker compares his friend to a summer's day. As long as people survive to read the poem, his buddy's beauty will always live on through the words the Bard uses. That makes it pretty neat that we're here reading it 400 years later, huh? You also received time to work on memorizing your lit terms.

Our focus today was Sonnet 73, where things took a more somber turn as the speaker in Shakespeare's poem remarks on aging and the inevitable onset of death. Notice that in the three quatrains, the speaker makes sure to note that the person he's talking to sees in him the youth that used to exist. Again, it ends with a nice note of friendship as the buddy still wants to know and appreciate him despite the fact that the youth that used to be there is all gone.

This is also the perfect opportunity to detail the Frosh bonus assignment: For 15 points, write a Shakespearian sonnet that contains all of the components of a sonnet that we've discussed (3 quatrains, 1 ending couplet, and it follows the correct rhyme scheme). If you want to go the extra mile (and really impress the everything out of me), write it in iambic pentameter for an additional 5 points. Heck, if you manage to successfully write a full sonnet in iambic pentameter (successfully being the key word here), then you'll have earned an additional 10 points. The breakdown is as follows:

• Shakespearian sonnet: 15 points
• Shakespearian sonnet attempted in iambic pentameter: 20 points
• Shakespearian sonnet successfully utilizing iambic pentameter: 25 points

Good look. All poems are due by Tuesday. I'll accept blog comments until Monday at 11:59pm.

Seniors
We've been spending our time discussing Macbeth.

On Tuesday, we started off the play proper. The first scene sets the spooky atmosphere and provides spectacle to calm the masses who would have otherwise been a rowdy audience. The second scene provides exposition so we know just how awesome Macbeth is. Our third scene introduces Macbeth and Banquo as well as the prophecies. Remember to keep track of the various dichotomies for your act paragraphs because they are everywhere throughout the play.

Today, we finished off the third scene and then you spent time working on the questions about the aside passage where Macbeth reveals that he's had some rather impure thoughts about how he might become king. It kind of makes you wonder if he's thought about this sort of thing prior to our introduction of him since his mind immediately goes to thoughts of regicide. Those questions, by the way, are due tomorrow.

"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.

Superficiality, Relevance and Reverence

Little does he know the
fate that awaits him later
today at my hand.

Today is Thanksgiving! My family started a tradition of running the Claremont Turkey Trot three years ago, and we're hoping to keep it going for as long as the Turkey Trot is around. Plus, I like saying Turkey Trot. Just being able to finish it at all this year was an accomplishment considering how sick I was last week; my cough has managed to linger a bit longer than I would have liked, too. I look forward to the day that my breathing doesn't remind me of Darth Vader.

Since it is Thanksgiving, I figured that I should reflect on some of the good things going on in my life as well as offer some bonus points for those of you that pay attention to the Internet presence of your English teacher. Here's the deal: describe to me a thing, an event and a person you have been thankful to have or occur in your life in 2010. Give me a minimum of five sentences describing why. You'll earn five points for each one, totaling 15 points. If you neglect to do all three, bupkis. That's Yiddish for "nothing" and is my favorite and only Yiddish word I know. Deadline for submissions is Sunday at midnight and remember to leave your name and period at the end. Mine are as follows:

Thing - My wife and I bought a house this year. It was a long, stressful and arduous process that had us crying our eyes out in desperation and grinding our teeth in frustration. In short, it was not fun. However, in the months since we've moved in and slowly but surely started to make our house a home, I'm grateful more and more that we toughed out the process. Redoing the floor, hanging pictures and organizing the garage add to the aspects that make the domicile more than just a place for our stuff. I'm thankful for the four walls here and hope that I can remember thinking that some of these things were fun in the coming years when I'm sure they'll feel a lot more tedious.

Person - Speaking of my wife, she's a swell gal. I could not ask for a better friend or partner who makes me a better person. She's funny, thoughtful and knows just the right way to make a bad day good and a good day better. I sometimes wonder what cosmic thing I accomplished to manage to land such a beautiful and charming lady, but I find that it's best not to question such things because I would rather not have this situation unravel. In the immortal words of Rick Astley, I am never going to giver her up and (hopefully) never going to let her down.

Event - To make this saccharine mess all the sweeter, I'm really grateful for the fact that both Angela and I finished our Master's degrees this year. Her accomplishment was a much bigger deal than mine, as I took the long road of waiting a few years between classes, but it's nice to know we're finally done. I'm glad that I'll be able to look at those diplomas on the wall and know that they stand as symbols for the hard work we put in to accomplish a goal we set for ourselves. Sure, the student loan bills will be pretty extensive, but I think everyone is alive to learn more. Getting sheepskins to prove that it happened is a nice touchstone marker to prove it happened.

Frosh
Last Wednesday, you took the quiz on chapters 7-10 of The Greek Gods and we then proceeded to read through the stories of Hermes, Hephaestus and Aphrodite. Those last two are my favorite of the bunch because they are such complete opposites, and the way they end up together is a line straight out of a sitcom or SNL sketch.

Thursday, you had a work day to focus on your mythology research project or the ORU that was due the following day. The final ORU will be due December 10.

And Friday, we moved forward.

Seniors
For Wednesday, we reviewed in-text citations and works cited pages. Sixth period didn't get a chance to finish receive all of the information on the works cited page formatting, so I suggest going to Citation Machine if you get stuck on any of the minutiae of creating your specific entries for your page. The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University is also incredibly helpful and always up to date.

On Thursday and Friday, you received time to do research in the library. Hopefully, everyone got a chance to find some relevant and valuable sources.

A Night of Progress

First off, check this out: The Brave and the Bold: Mr. T

Alta Loma High School implemented Report Card Night three (or so) years ago in an attempt for parents to conference with teachers about a student's progress in the class up to that point. I can't say I'm all that big a fan of the process. While I enjoy meeting parents, the night feels a bit contentious, since the parents most interested in meeting are the folks who think their student is doing poorly. That's not to say that I didn't meet some fine people who just wanted to introduce themselves, but for the most part, meeting someone who is upset with their student or the student's grade makes for an awkward first meeting.

Having now experienced both, I much prefer the Back to School Night format. It allows me to explain my philosophies about grading and teaching so that parents have an idea going into the year while also capturing the initial excitement of the school year when students, teachers and parents haven't been bogged down with all that life has to throw at them. There's also more urgency for all parents to attend Back to School Night, since the prevailing attitude of parents wanting an explanation from the teacher about a poor grade doesn't exist, so all parents feel a need to attend. Plus, I have never felt that the first six weeks of school is in any way an accurate reflection of a student's performance in a class, especially if the administration is still balancing the schedule up to four weeks into the semester.

Still, despite the sweltering heat in the small gym compared to the relative coolness outside, I enjoyed meeting each and every one of the parents from Report Card Night. It's always nice to put parents to students and faces to names.

Frosh
Monday, we came to a consensus about the climax of The Most Dangerous Game, deciding, despite many different guesses by some, that Rainsford's dive into the water to avoid General Zaroff was the moment filled with the most tension and the ultimate turning point of the story. You then received your mapping assignment where you need to create a map of Ship-Trap Island, noting a minimum of four landmarks supported by quotes from the story and noting Rainsford's journey around the island. This is due Thursday, September 23. Remember that students who would like to earn an A will need to go above and beyond the minimum by including more than four landmarks with accompanying quotes. The map should include color and should follow the plot of the story.

Tuesday was a minimum day due to the aforementioned Report Card Night, and you continued working on the mapping assignment.

My goal is to go over Elements of Character today after you take a brief quiz on the story.

Seniors
We began discussing argumentation terms and common logical fallacies Monday and Tuesday. The goal here is that I want you to be able to argue better and not fall into the usual traps that many people assume are valid when trying to make a point. Even better, if you can identify the use of the fallacies in someone else's argument (even mine), then you'll have a way to shut down your opponent. Who doesn't like being able to do that?

Today, the plan is to finish going over the rest of the fallacies and then read some Op-Ed (opinion/editorial) pieces that commit every fallacy under the sun.

Also, seniors need to be aware that Thursday is a bighugegiganticimportantsuperexcitingcrazy day. Your first Article Selection is due and you need to have the first 20% of your book read and annotated. That day will also have the first timed writing which you'll revise, type and return the following Tuesday.

SENIOR Bonus Time (15 points): We went over identifying logical fallacies in writing today in class. So my challenge to you is to find logical fallacies on the Internet, specifically in news stories. Yahoo, CNN, Huffington Post, Fox News and many local news sources allow readers to leave comments on specific stories. Find a comment that utilizes a fallacy and fill out the following in a comment with your name and period:

1. Headline of the story:
2. Brief (1 to 2 sentences) synopsis of the article: 
3. Comment (copy and paste the whole thing):
4. Logical fallacy employed:
5. Explanation of how the comment qualifies as a logical fallacy (2 sentences minimum, more would be preferable):

Numbers 2, 4, and 5 need to be in complete sentences or else you will earn 0 points. The deadline for submission is Sunday, September 26, at 11:59 PM and the limit is one per student.

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.

School Pride

Our school starts an hour late on Fridays so that teachers can meet up, usually in departments sometimes as a whole, and discuss different matters that can eventually lead to improvement in the school. Often we will use this as time to collaborate with each other at the grade level or explore test results in order to reflect on why they may have gone up or down. Lately, the content of our meetings has been directed by administration to focus on the latest acronym that can help us get that job done.

The discussion this last Friday saw the conversation turn from test scores to school pride. Many teachers in our meeting see a correlation between the two. There are a lot of great things that people can and do say about Alta Loma. Our campus is a pretty accepting environment, we have teachers that genuinely care about students, and there are more good folks than bad people at the school. One thing that's not in abundance, though, is school pride. It's easier to be cynical and tear things down than to think something the school does is cool.

I'm not a saint in this regard. I eat lunch alone in my room and attend few school events. It's hard to even explain why except that, again, it's easier not to do so. The one event I did attend during the last school year was the dodgeball tournament where I served as referee. And you know what? That was so much fun. It was a great event and I had the opportunity to interact with students in a relaxed setting. I realize now that it'd be great to be involved like that more.

Bonus Time (10 points) - So I put the question to you, the reader, and more specifically, my students: what does school pride look like to you? How would you describe school pride? Where do you see school pride lacking? What do you think the school can do to encourage school pride and what can you personally do? In order to get full credit, answers need to be between eight to ten sentences. Both freshpeeps and seniors are eligible. Post responses as comments on this blog and make sure to leave your name and class period. Answers must be submitted by 11:59 PM on Wednesday, 8/18.

Frosh
Friday, you received the opportunity to provide a sample of your writing. On Monday, we covered the department policies and practices as well as the class overview.

Seniors
Friday, we discussed the quotes you found. For Monday, check out the frosh description because that pretty much covers what the seniors did as well.

My dog passes wind while he sleeps.

Oftentimes, my dog will sleep on our couch. Sometimes he'll rest in the middle, but, especially if the wife is away at work or school, he'll sleep as far away as he possibly can from me while still also sharing the same sofa. Tonight is the exception. And I have to believe, because my dog is a jerk that is being raised (or owned or trained) by a jerk, he's doing it solely because he has gas and wants to guarantee I get a nice whiff. Thanks, Spider-Man.

Frosh
Everyone picked a time period/setting for their scene. A few folks chose some very interesting ones, but nobody picked "caveman" which I've always wanted to see but never have in any of the years that I've done this project. Oh, well...maybe next year.

Bonus Time (10 points): If you were handling this project solo, what's the time period/era/setting that you would pick? Why make that choice? Explain yourself in a minimum of five sentences.


Seniors
The existentialism unit always provides the best discussion of the entire year. It's always neck and neck with the philosophy unit, but one of the big differences is that the latter arrives so soon into the year that people aren't all that comfortable spouting off their opinions just yet. By the time we get to this point, people feel more comfortable and more willing to stand up for what they think. One of the bigger problems for me in having these discussions is that I want and need to hit very key points but each class can have a different way of getting around to these points. For instance, today I really, really enjoyed how fifth period organically made some connections during our discussion in comparing the pre-test to the experience of being in life. So many of the points were so great that I attempted to steer sixth period to some of those same ideas but it felt clunkier, like I was making the points more than the students. I hate when that happens.

Bonus Time (15 points total): Explain your personal definition of existentialism and try to provide your own metaphor as a way to represent it. (For instance, the metaphor I provided today was the pre-test.) Now come up with your own after your definition. Definitions should be three sentences (5 points). Metaphors will take however long you feel is necessary to get your point across (10 points).

All answers need to be in by the end of Wednesday.

The Blame Game

Frosh
The differences between the Franco Zeffirelli version of Romeo & Juliet and Baz Luhrman's version are numerous. It's your job to have noticed them in your notes and then write a paragraph discussing those differences. When looking at the characters, notice the way they act, the way they look, and the way they talk compared to how we read it together in class using the text. Notice what the actors do, their apparent feelings and emotions as well as what is left out when tracking the action. Finally, keep track of where the characters are located, the time period and the time of day when looking at the setting.

Bonus for Frosh (10 points): In a thoughtful (5 sentences minimum sounds thoughtful to me), explain who you think is most at fault for the brawl that occurs in I.i and why you think so. Use evidence from the scene to support your answer. The deadline to answer is Thursday. Any answers submitted beyond that will be lost to the sands of time.

Seniors
Act II is incredibly dense with thematic dichotomies. In particular, you'll find plenty of evidence for the natural vs. supernatural dichotomy towards the end of the act, both figuratively in what characters say and literally in the actions they describe happening in the wake of Duncan's death. Macbeth is the picture of insanity vs. sanity, too. Act II also provides the actual murder of the king, which up to now, had been something Macbeth seemed to want to avoid...or did he? That leads us to the bonus question.

Bonus for Seniors (10 points): In a thoughtful response (6-8 sentences minimum seems pretty thoughtful) explain who you feel to be most responsible for Duncan's death and why. Is it Macbeth, Lady Macbeth or the witches? Or is it someone else entirely? The deadline to answer is Thursday. Any answers submitted beyond that will be lost to the sands of time.

And my eyes hurt.

Frosh
You learned the components of a sonnet. Then you got the opportunity to continue memorizing the lit terms for which there is a test next Tuesday.

Seniors
It's Macbeth time! And, seriously, I dig this play a heck of a lot, which might be apparent as I have a tendency to ramble on and on about it. My hope is that in my rambling, you get useful and interesting information because that's one of the cooler parts of education. Yeah, I want you to build skills and what not, but it's also awesome to find out something that you didn't know before. Right? How do you view education? I know there's more to it than that, but I'll save my answer for a later date. In the meantime, 10 point to the dudes and dudettes that give me a thoughtful answer.

Deadline to answer is tomorrow.

Objectifying Learning

Like most people at their jobs, teachers often discuss the latest fads happening in the profession. Lately, many of the discussions that I've had revolve around the idea of learning objectives - explicit statements of what students should be able to do if they have learned what the instructor wants them to learn - and whether or not having them written on our white board actually helps students learn more or retain the knowledge better. As a matter of fact, a recent article put "teaching without learning objectives" as the second worst teaching mistake an instructor can make, right after getting stuck in a rut and right behind disrespecting students. Over the last few weeks, I've attempted to write learning objectives above the weekly agenda. I still haven't quite gotten the hang of it, but I really plan to give it my all starting second semester.

Believe it or not, I'm constantly trying to be a better teacher and sincerely hope that each year I teach accomplishes that goal in some small way, that I improve as an educator at least a little bit more than I did the year before. So my question to you is the following: do learning objectives written on the board help you become a better learner? Why or why not? Answer the question in a minimum of five sentences in the comments, and you will earn 10 bonus points. Make sure to identify yourself in the comments so I can give everyone the proper credit. The window for answering the question will close on Monday and the opportunity is open to both seniors and freshpeople.

Frosh
You turned in the mythology unit family tree and witnessed (through the power of reading) Odysseus take on the suitors.

Seniors
You continued to look for symbolic imagery in Pleasantville. Tomorrow is the day to turn in your Beowulf Revisited assignments.

Edit for clarification: Just to clarify for everyone, a learning objective is different from the daily agenda I write on the board. A learning objective is meant to inform the student of the intended outcome of the lesson. For example, I could write the following on the board for a poetry unit: After completing the lesson, the student will be able to describe the traditional rules and conventions of a haiku. This is different from the daily agenda, which I write to inform you what the intended order of events would be for a class period. The question, then, remains what is your opinion on the idea of me utilizing said learning objectives, which I have done very sparingly and to which I have not called much attention, in addition to writing the daily and weekly agenda on the board.