Sunday, December 13, 2009

Dec 13

Oral Presentations and Practice Commentaries begin TOMORROW. Be prepared and at school. Late is not an option. Luck of the draw and all that. Good luck!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Dec 1

Testing took half the day (or close to) today.

Seniors - Working on research papers - right now just looking to research. We'll work on works cited pages on Thursday. Tentative Works Cited pages due on the 11th. Also looking at vocab again, quiz on Friday.

IB Seniors - Continuing with Plath. We'll be working on Hughes by Thursday. Plath and Hughes will take us through the 11th. Practice commentaries start on the 14th.

IB Juniors - Working on ACT practice. Invisible Man/The Stranger test is Friday. Presentations begin on the 14th. Make sure you've discussed your topic with me by next week.

Be sure to comment on your partner's writing. This should have already be done. Also post some new work (I suggest your essays you've been writing) by Friday.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Nov 19

Students should be putting new writing pieces up in the next week. Just in time for the many vacations coming up.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Nov 10

Seniors - Canterbury Tales Prologue Test tomorrow. Research paper topics due on Friday. Let's get to it

Senior IB - Lear is dead! Plath/Hughes unit begins tomorrow. Time for fun with poetry

Junior IB - Almost done with the Waste Land. ACT work for the next few weeks. We're about to take a fast ride to get through work so we can have our presentations the week before Winter Break.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

November 3, 2009

Seniors - Canterbury Tales work (we're up to the Miller in 2nd and the Reeve in 5th). We were in the lab today working on personal/literary pieces. Work is due on Friday (typed and with cover pages)

IB Seniors - Finishing our discussion of King Lear. Today we looked at the storm and Lear's mindset. Tomorrow nature/animal imagery and character mapping.

IB Juniors - We fully "translated" the first section of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Oct 21

All students should have their blogs set up with at least one piece of writing posted by Friday Oct 23. This is for your grade so make sure you do it by the due date. You should also be actively reading and commenting on your partner's blog as well.

On a side note - I have relinked twice to all students and half the time the link is fine while the other half of the time it links to the feeds. I do apologize for the issue but my suggestion is to follow or link directly to your partner. That way you can avoid unnecessary steps. (But I'm pretty sure I fixed it!)

Good luck and keep up the good work.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Oct 9

We're working on getting all the students posted to this blog. Our school system has not helped us out very much. Hopefully, by next week, we'll have everyone up and running. Thanks for your patience. We can't wait to read all the writing we'll have access to. :)

Monday, October 5, 2009

Oct 5

Senior IB - Finish Act I of King Lear. Trace (in writing) all the references to Nature...who speaks of it, what they say and how it creates tone in the play.

Junior IB - Read "A Modest Proposal" decipher and discuss how the English were treating the Irish to get such a reaction from Swift.

English IV - Read to The Battle with Grendel in Beowulf

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Oct 1

Advocacy - another wasted effort...actually it was kind of nice to see grades and discuss them with their owners...kind of

Seniors - Still reading Beowulf. Haven't made too much headway but we will

Senior IB - King Lear. Translate into "modern" English page 7

Junior IB - Counting down to PSAT

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Sept 29

Beowulf work with the Seniors, notes and all. Pgs 34 and 38 in the text.

Hamlet presentations in Senior IB. Also, comp book entry on the Hamlet passage.

Romeo and Juliet presentation for the rest of the day.

Monday, September 21, 2009

September 21

State testing today. Seniors seemed to be okay, some could work harder but I was pretty content with the majority of my class. Junior IB students took a BIG 1984 test and the Senior IB students discussed World Literature assignments.

More On-Demand tomorrow. Due dates are soon to be posted

Friday, September 4, 2009

News

Hopefully starting Tuesday, students will be able to access this at school and it'll be more used. Hopefully. Enjoy the three-day weekend.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Aug 24

Another long day for us. On-Demand writing tests begin in four weeks! Then on to portfolios lovelies.

English IV - Subject-Verb Agreement (seriously) and on-demand discussion...KNOW your formats!

IB Seniors - Book essay. AP style but with more time and more expected

IB Juniors - Book essay. To see what you know.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Aug 21

Rough week but we're through eight days of school. :)

English IV - Vocab Quiz and descriptive writing about a place.

IB Junior - Vocab Quiz and memory writing

IB Senior - Vocab Quiz and Native Son discussion

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Aug 20

I don't really know why I do this since no one reads it but here I go again...

English IV - group discussion about adding detail to papers

Senior IB - Class discussion followed by close reading of pages 184-186 accompanied by a 250 word essay on the significance of the passage

Junior IB - Class discussion of "Two Sisters of Persephone" along with a composition book entry

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Aug 19

No great pearls of wisdom here. I'm still waiting on the weather to break. Remember that absences seem to count more this year so you need to be in school every day that you are well.

English IV - On-Demand writing

Senior IB - On-Demand writing and tone worksheet. Motif discussion

Junior IB - Color marking passages and analyzing the colors

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Aug 18

For the students who think we're going to slow: I will be picking up the pace soon.
For the students who think we're going to fast: I am availabe before and after school for help

English IV - Subjects and verbs in sentences. Prewriting two on-demand topics. We will be writing the on-demands in class tomorrow.

IB Seniors - Composition book passage. Last paragraph of Native Son on page 33. Class discussion of the passage. We will be working on an On-Demand writing in class tomorrow

IB Juniors - PSAT work. Composition book reading passage. Five-paragraph essay writing

Monday, August 17, 2009

Aug 17

Senior English - Vocabulary. On-Demand Format Quiz and we went to get textbooks so half our time was wasted.

IB Seniors - Native Son discussion

IB Juniors - Literary Elements Quiz, Essay/Literary Analysis Writing Notes, PSAT review

Friday, August 14, 2009

Aug 14

English IV - Verb sheet and Four Formats Notes

IB Junior - Tone sheet and class discussion
She Being Brand

IB Senior - Native Son Discussion

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Aug 13

English IV - Noun/Pronoun work and a 5-paragraph essay

IB Junior - Class discussion about the two summer work stories

IB Senior - Viewing the movie Rope

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

English IV - Students completed an On-Demand writing. Generally students should take 45 -60 minutes to write, most students today took 10-20. We will be working on this in the future. It's not about how quickly we can finish the work. Students also completed a sentence structure worksheet to benefit their writing.

IB Junior - Students took a summer reading test. Tomorrow in class we will discuss the two short stories. Students need to pay attention to the names in the stories.

IB Senior - Students took a summer reading test and were given the On-Demand writing to complete for class tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

School tomorrow. Summer work, summer tests and opening day information. Oh, and the seniors will love the first day of school writing test.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

With school starting in two days, I figured it was time to set up the blog. In the upcoming (2009-2010) school year I am hoping to keep this blog going as a way to communicate the ongoings of my classroom to parents, students and other teachers. At this moment I am working on all the first day of school materials and summer work tests. Do not forget that summer work is due the first day of school and there will be no exceptions made. I am looking forward to working with my new students this year and hope that this can be a place for questions, discussions and suggestions.