Monthly Archives: March 2012

3/29/2012

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We read To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time today and took notes. Get the notes from someone!

Riley talked about how it’s an insult if someone “peaked” in high school and then said that this poem made her mad because it reminded her when her parents were getting a divorce, her father told her mother that he was divorcing her now that she could find a second husband “before [she] got fat and ugly.” Harsh.

We then listened to the Kenny Chesney song, “Don’t Blink” and then did a Venn diagram of the two. The foldable template is in LMS – make sure you change the margins of the frame – otherwise your words will get cut off when you print. Four similarities and four differences are needed!

 

We then finished the day working on the Carpe Diem Analysis. Choose four poems/songs to read and write about. Instructions, rubric, and an example are all in LMS.

3/28/2012

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Today, we started out doing the Carpe Diem foldables. For each sentence, translate it into a short sentence that makes sense. The first sentence the class translated as “We shouldn’t know our future, so don’t bother to ask.” You do the next three and add an image.

Then, we listened to Riley’s story about Making Time Count and the sister-in-law’s lingerie.

Next, we listened to Marvin Gay’s “Let’s Get it On” and discussed how it was a carpe diem poem – specifically, how it was contradictory and how it related to TIME (“stop beating ’round the bush”, and “this minute”). She asked if we thought that she’d get in trouble if Mrs. Ekster came in and we were playing this song.

We then read “To His Coy Mistress” and took notes over OneNote. The poem is a syllogism – a form of deductive reasoning. This was kind of a creepy poem. Make sure you get the notes.

We did a foldable (in LMS) that turned the poem’s syllogism into a pyramid.

For each triangle, write the following:

  • If… (1st stanza – lines 1-20) + image
  • But… (2nd stanza – lines 21-32) + image
  • So… (3rd stanza – lines 33-46) + image

Make sure you follow the instructions in the PowerPoint – rotate text and put your name on it. Drop it off in the drop box and Riley will print it in color so you can make a pretty foldable.

3/27/2012

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Arghh, mateys!

We started out today by coloring. Yeah. And people say that Riley is HARD. Hah.

Each person chose a marker and couldn’t trade it in. The crew then had to draw one cohesive picture on posterboard and use each color at least once. You can’t switch out markers to the person who was the artist.

 

Here are the final posters:

 

Then we went to LMS and went to the Carpe Diem folder – the one with the sun on it. We worked on the 13 Questions – that is the pre-writing that is in the drop box.

After that, we worked on making our own Bucket List. There will be a rough draft grade and a final draft grade. The rough draft will be a completion grade and the final copy will be a poster. Riley suggested Glogster, but you can use any program as long as it is a pretty poster. The poster will be due on Friday in the drop box.

3/26/2012

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It’s the first class day, and I am so happy to meet all these new landlubbers!

Yesterday was pretty simple – we filled out out character sheets (that’s the yellow sheet of paper). There is a PowerPoint in Riley’s First Day Folder on LMS.

We also did a survey on LMS and a message board on LMS – make sure you answer a question and also make a meaningful response to someone else’s post. If all you do is put a smiley face, it won’t count. This is all located in the First Day Folder.

Make sure that you turn the Character Sheet in the “Old School Dro Box” so that it gets graded.

Riley does a point system – the most points we will have in class will be 1500, so you can always figure out what you need to earn credit for the class.

3/23/2012

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Good luck to all graduates today! We are so proud of you! May you always have pleasant wind for your sails.

For the rest of you landlubbers, your turn will come soon enough – as long as you keep earning credits and playing the game.

If this is GAME OVER for you, I probally enjoyed having you in class. I’m sure I will sheer loudly for you when you clap out. 🙂

If you are playing the sequel to Riley’s Revenge with me next term, hold on to your hats! We have a quest of epic proportions ready for you!

3/21/2012

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Today was just a GET ALL OF YOUR WORK DONE! Due dates as follows:

  • College Entrance Essay – TODAY
  • ABC Book – Thursday
  • French Scavenger Hunt – The Day of the Final

Keep working! The drop boxes will be deactivated tonight, so don’t expect to turn stuff in tomorrow or Friday.

MAKE SURE YOU PLAY THE GAMES FOR THE FINAL EXAM!

3/20/2012

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It’s the last assignment of the term! Woot!

It’s pretty simmple – Riley is letting the crew use all foldables on the final exam – AS LONG AS THEY ARE IN THE DROP BOX AND PRINTED. You can’t just borrow/copy other people’s foldables.

If you show up to class with a foldable and have a zero in the gradebook, you won’t be able to use it.

The ABC Book is an easy foldable that is reviewing everthing that we have done in class so far.

We are using PowerPoint and for each letter of the alpabet, we are going to create a slide. For each letter, I need a word (title), an image, and three facts about that word. You can use words, sentences, or phrases. Try to find significant and/or important facts that you will be able to use on the final exam.

So, as you can see here, The title is “B is for Beowulf”, the clip art is of a dragon, and there are three facts. Ignore the “Black Plague” bullet – that was just an example of another B title that could have been used.

When you get this done, drop it off in the drop box and Riley will print it in color. It will look like this:

You will then cut and tape the slides together. Fold them so that you havea n accordion book that looks liek this, only longer:

All late work has to be turned in on Wednesday! The drop boxes will be closed on Wednesday at 4:00.

3/19/2012

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Finals are in just a few days!

Because of TAKS last week,  we have to do our last two major grades this week, which means we don’t have time for late work.

The last day for late work will be on Wednesday, March 21st.

Today, we started our lady major grade: the college entrance essay. This can be found in the College Essay folder on LMS. Riley found a large amount of real college entrance essays for you to practice with. It needs to be between 500 – 700 words, double spaced, MLA formatted.

If you need help with an intro, go back to the Pimp My Paper folder and check out the tips there!

First block final exam is Thursday and second and third finals are on Friday.

How Can I Steer Clear of Distractions and Focus While I Work?

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I noticed that rather than buckling down and committing to doing classwork today, many students insisted on talking, browsing thee internet, and multi-tasking instead of working on our last essay.

Then, I found this relevant article today which I think might be user for some of you who are truly getting distracted and not just avoiding the inevitable. Read it. It may change your life!

Dealing with distractions at work