Same rules as last time. Also, please use your own name or a nickname everyone in class knows is you. I would also suggest for at home bloggers that you try to coordinate when you will be on line. You are spending A LOT of time asking if anyone is there.
p.s. Extra credit for anyone who knows what part of speech “anyone” is and if it’s singular or plural.
p.p.s Extra extra credit for anyone who knows how to start a business letter, including punctuation.
Led Zeppelin - No Quarter
Close the door, put out the light.
You know they won’t be home tonight.
The snow falls hard and don’t you know?
The winds of Thor are blowing cold.
They’re wearing steel that’s bright and true
They carry news that must get through.
They choose the path where no-one goes.
They hold no quarter.
Walking side by side with death, The devil mocks their every step
The snow drives back the foot that’s slow, The dogs of doom are howling more
They carry news that must get through, To build a dream for me and you
They choose the path where no-one goes.
They hold no quarter. They ask no quarter.
The pain, the pain without quarter.
They ask no quarter.
The dogs of doom are howling more!
There’s a hero If you look inside your heart You don’t have to be afraid Of what you are There’s an answer If you reach into your soul And the sorrow that you know Will melt away
And then a hero comes along With the strength to carry on And you cast your fears aside And you know you can survive So when you feel like hope is gone Look inside you and be strong And you’ll finally see the truth That a hero lies in you
It’s a long road When you face the world alone No one reaches out a hand For you to hold You can find love If you search within yourself And the emptiness you felt Will disappear
And then a hero comes along With the strength to carry on And you cast your fears aside And you know you can survive So when you feel like hope is gone Look inside you and be strong And you’ll finally see the truth That a hero lies in you
Lord knows Dreams are hard to follow But don’t let anyone Tear them away Hold on There will be tomorrow In time You’ll find the way
And then a hero comes along With the strength to carry on And you cast your fears aside And you know you can survive So when you feel like hope is gone Look inside you and be strong And you’ll finally see the truth That a hero lies in you
By Mariah Carey
Hero
Period 1/2 and Period 5/6
1. Collect the 3 grammar worksheets they did in class and for homework yesterday. Give copies of the sheets to those who were absent.
2. Two packets of released CST questions are on the teacher’s desk. There are 56 questions total. They should use #2 pencils and a scantron. This will take quite awhile. Anyone finishing can read a library book or make up missing work. They must be quiet until everyone has finished.
3. Go over yesterday’s history classwork, chapter 24 reading notes. Answers are in purple teacher’s guide on desk.
4. If there is time, they should do the worksheet “Written and Oral English Language Conventions Standard 1.3” DON’T WRITE ON THE WORKSHEET” Do it on notebook paper.
Period 3 Computer Elective
1. Work on poetry project with Mr. Bernstein and his class (They will come to room 36)
2. Continue work on newspaper articles.
3. Anyone who has nothing to do can practice typing with the Alpha Smarts, or use Study Island.
I expect to hear you were wonderfully behaved! Let me know in your comments how the day went and if you got everything done. (Note: no comma in the last sentence because “if you got everything done” is not an independent clause. Extra credit if you tell me why it isn’t.)
Homeroom: Send me the absences and tardies as a comment. Only once, please!
Start the Social Studies lesson immediately after the announcements.
Pd. 1 Social Studies
1. Read chapter 24 and answer the Reading Notes questions in the Interactive Notebook (pp. 158-159) You may work with a partner if you work quietly.
2. Create the Silk Road Game, pp 160-161 in the Interactive Notebook. You can make a spinner by placing one end of a paper clip in the center of the spinner, place the point of a pencil inside that end of the paper clip to hold it in place, and then spin the paper clip. Paper clips are in the top right drawer of the teacher’s desk. Ask the teacher for one for whoever is playing your game. Return the clip when you are done playing
Pd 2 English
1. In the orange “California Content Standards: Practice and Mastery” booklets have the students do pp 7-8, question 17-21. If they ask you if they are supposed to fill out the application, just say, “Read the directions.” I want to make sure they won’t get tricked by this on the CST! They should answer on notebook paper; number it 17-21 and just write the letter of the correct answer.
2. When they finish, they should take out 2 laptops per table, go to my blog, and finish copying the standards and vocabulary for reading 1.5 and lang. conv. 1.3
3. When everyone is done, review the answers for questions 17-21 in the orange booklet. They should grade themselves (tell them it doesn’t count)
4. Pass out the 3 worksheets on Language Convention Standard 1.3. These are entitled:
Unit 12 Commas: Independent Clause Exercise
Commas to Separate Independent Clauses
Build Grammar Skills: Commas and Semicolons
You may need to go over the concepts with them – I only briefly introduced them. Whatever they don’t finish in class is homework due tomorrow.
Do the following so that you can see the instructions for the Silk Road trading activity we are going to do. Click on the link to the pdf file.
Finished my mystery book. I was write about our detective and his old girlfriend; the book ends with his deciding he’s going to go visit her ’cause their dog is sick. The author did this on purpose to tease us - now we all will want to read the next book in the series to find out what happens, even though this one wasn’t very good.
I started a thriller/mystery by James Patterson called “Lifeguard”. It has really short chapters and lots of action, which keeps you reading. But, it seems like a silly piece of fluff and I’m not sure I want to waste my time on it right now. It’s what is commonly called a “Beach Book,” or something mindless you read during the summer.
Instead, I think I’m going to read “Life of Pi”, which won all kinds of awards and is supposed to be amazing. Pi is not a number, it’s the main character’s name. It’s about a 16 year old Indian boy who is shipwrecked on a raft with a tiger. Sounds bizarre. It might be appropriate for you guys; I’ll keep you posted.
3/18
A strange feeling on a Saturday night - while I’m at home enjoying my weekend, this online community is running without me, as 3 students are conversing from their homes. So, I started something that isn’t entirely mine any more.
I’m relieved to know the “I’m bored” statements weren’t directed at my lessons. But, I do think they point out something about your generation: the need for constant, quick paced electronic stimulation and entertainment.
Thoughts on the SAS chat: Is it getting out of hand? Do I need to impose rules, or will the community? Sometimes I feel like just deleting the pointless posts - all the lalalala nonsense. Do I need to impose consequences for chatting when you’re supposed to be working?
To answer Dat, it’s not scrolling if you post something long, only if what you post is repetitive nonsense.
I see many students in a different light on the blog; have more of an insight into parts of their lives and their concerns. People show different parts of themselves in their writing than they do face to face. Why do you think that is?
Why? Because it doesn’t want to get pinched 
3/16
It was suggested to me that I write about my experiences using this blog with my class, and I thought it was a good idea. So, this post will be an ongoing record of our reaction to using the blog in our class. This first post is going to be REALLY long, cause I need to recap my first almost 2 weeks with this experiment. I guess that means I’m the hands down winner or the “Longest Post” contest that Veronica and Dat seem to be having.
I began the blog after attending a workshop at the CAG (California Association for the Gifted) conference. I’d been looking for a way to have my students interact with each other on an online forum, and this seemed to be perfect. We’d used the Flashlight Readers Forum at Scholastic.com to write about a novel I assigned. The kids told me they liked the experience, but we all were frustrated because the site didn’t work correctly and for a lot of the time we couldn’t read anyone’s responses beyond the first few. We also contributed to an online forum posted on the L.A. Times site and actually got three responses to our comments about high school dropouts. That was exciting for me. I knew I was on the right track, but was missing the right tool to make it happen.
When I found out about the Edublog site, I knew I’d found what I was looking for.
I look upon this as an experiment. I don’t know where it will lead. Will I be able to have kids submit most of their assignments online? Will they actually start critiquing each other’s work? That’s one of my big goals. Will this encourage us to become a community of readers and writers?
I know that this is the wave of the future. We teachers are still lugging home spiral journals to grade, while our students all have MySpace blogs where they REALLY are journaling.
The first day I posted an assignment and everyone answered in groups. Great; now I don’t have to take home the notebooks to grade them. Some people said that they agreed with other comments, so we did get some interacting.
I posted the week’s standards as pages. Now, I don’t need to write it by hand. And, it’s available all week.
Period 3 posted some of the poems they’re working on. Then today, a week later, an interesting development. . . during free time 2 people who aren’t even in the period 3 elective asked permission to post their own poetry. Wow! An actual forum to share our work, not because we HAVE to, but because we WANT to, and our words and thoughts are worth sharing with others.
I wrote about my experiences as a reader in my “March Reading Log”. I wanted to model how to reflect on reading and to show that I’m a recreational reader - that reading is something I do for fun, not because I have to (I’m on the “D” level according to the system we use in class). When I begged for responses, I got a few, and I hope the discussion will expand. We’re not where I’d like to be yet.
I opened up a SAS chat spot a few days ago. 141 comments in a few days. I wanted a spot for the community to just talk, not necessarily about class assignments. I thought it might get people more interested in the blog. It started out as a lot of nonsense - lots of “WAZ up ppl?” I think that got a little boring after awhile. Then a few actual questions and conversations started. Dat wrote from home in the evening. (Yes, assigning himself homework). Then today our first problems. An online fight (most of it got deleted by me, your friendly moderator). I’ve decided not to add any comments to the chat - I want it to be a student spot. So, I guess I’m what you’d call a lurker. Then, scrolling. That got outlawed too, and I updated the instructions.
This afternoon with a little too much free time on our hands, and all of us burnt out from too many assessments, the chatting went full speed. Not too many people looked for information on terra cotta soldiers; chatting was more fun. Will this get out of hand??? Will I need to set rules and more guidelines?
It was interesting to see what the subjects of discussion were. Lots of concerns about the mile run. Some boy/girl stuff. Some serious concerns voiced in public (Did they really want the whole class to read it, or were they not thinking?) Sitting with one’s computer we tend to forget that we have an audience.
I was pleased to see people concerned about grades and pledging to do better. Good for them, and I’m glad they shared.
Many people keep saying they’re bored. Dat especially. This worries me. Is it just chatter, or is the class not meeting their needs? But, at the same time I’m thinking - this is not something they would say to my face (they would know it was rude). So, why is it O.K. on a forum that I’ve announced I’m reading?
Is it acceptable to give each other honest criticism on this site? Or, should that be done privately? Or, only in person, face to face, not through typed words? Is there a time when writing is NOT the way to communicate, and only talking will do? Is your generation changing human interaction by spending too much time IMing each other and not enough time face to face?
Let me know what you think on the subject.
