Monthly Archives: October 2012

IV – 10/31/2012

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Well, it looks like we won’t be able to use the webpage that we started yesterday – we are going to use www.bucketlist.net. Create an account, but you don’t need an e-mail address to use this one.

We also finished the BucketList pre-writing from yesterday. The questions aren’t long, but they do make you think. Be prepared.

Make sure that once you create your account, find and join the tribe “Vistas” so that I can give you credit for your list. Make sure that your Bucketlist has at least ten meaningful items on it – these are BIG things to accomplish – not a to-do list for the week. This will be due on Friday.

After this, Riley had us listen to BOC’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” We discussed it and answered three simple questions in the discussion board.

Riley then gaves us the intructions for the Obituary, which is our first major grade. Instructions are in LMS – but make sure that you choose an OLD age – nothing young. That’s creepy. Also, don’t focus on your death or how you’ll die – that’s not the point of the activity. The point of the activity is to prove how you “care diem’ed” your life.

Riley’s sample obit is up there for you to read. For examples, check out the Blog of Death and examples from former students.

Tomorrow, we will read “The Dash”, look at the Blog of Death, write our obituaries, and create a word cloud of our lives to print in color.

 

III – 10/31/2012

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Today, Riley handed us ten different Post-It notes and we read The Live the Dream. For each person (6 in total), read their story and then come up with ONE WORD on the Post-It note that represents their American Dream.

Then, we read and listened to four songs:

Coming to America

There are No Cats in America

The American Dream

The River

Again, for each song, some up with one word that represents the American Dream in the song.

Pretty easy day!

IV – 10/30/2012

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Today, we used our Gaggle e-mail accounts to create an account with Bucketlist.org. Make sure that you are opening the link in its own window – if you try to open this inside the frame of LMS, you won’t be able to login.

We checked out the discussion board over Death and Devil Surprising Two Maidens – we had a great discussion over it! It’s amazing the things you guys identify and notice.

Riley showed us a clip over carpe diem from Dead Poet’s Society, and then we did the Carpe Diem tower translation. For each sentence, write a translation in the bottom square. Throw in an appropriate piece of clip art – you may have to resize the font. Print it for yourself – keep it in your folder, but drop off the PDF in teh Drop Box so Riley can grade it.

Some people started the Bucketlist pre-writing, but Riley said she’d give us time tomorrow to work on this.

III – 10/31/2012

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Ahoy, mateys!

Today, we started out the day talking about diction – that’s a fancy name for WORD CHOICE. We sorted through a list of synonyms and decided whether the words were positive, negative, or neutral.

We talked about the difference between CONNOTATION and DENOTATION.

  • Connotation is how the word is being used – the associated meaning.
  • Denotation is the dictionary definition – (remember DD)

All of these words have pretty much the same DENOTATION, but they have different CONNOTATION. For example, telling Captain Riley that she is slender means something different if you say Captain is scrawny.

Then, each student was given an index card with a mood on the back of it – students to write a description of a dog walking in the park, conveying the attitude on the card. You may not use the word written on the card in their description. You *may* use a dictionary or a thesaurus.

Riley then read each card out loud and students guessed the intended tone.

Lastly, we finished the day off with the American Dream Anticipation guide.

Easy peasy!

IV – 10/29/2012

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Welcome to Term 2!

Remember, you can exempt your finals this term! You have to have an 80 average in your class and meet the following requirements:

  • Have no more than three absences in Term 2
  • Have recieved no more than five tardies in Term 2 (three tardies = 1 absence)
  • Have not been suspended or been OSS during the school year
  • Have maintained and conduuct grade of an “E”, “S”, or “N” for the term.

Today, we created character sheets – make sure you complete your nature, demeanor, Attributes, and your five R’s.

Then, we did Creative Coloring – make sure that you answer the questions in the Discussion Board in complete sentences.

Don't steal my gold!

III – 10/29/2012

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Welcome to Term 2!

Remember, you can exempt your finals this term! You have to have an 80 average in your class and meet the following requirements:

  • Have no more than three absences in Term 2
  • Have recieved no more than five tardies in Term 2 (three tardies = 1 absence)
  • Have not been suspended or been OSS during the school year
  • Have maintained and conduuct grade of an “E”, “S”, or “N” for the term.

Today, we created character sheets – make sure you complete your nature, demeanor, Attributes, and your five R’s.

Lastly, we made the First Day collage. This is in the First Day folder – make sure you open the links in a NEW TAB. Also, make sure that your do either 4 rows and 3 columns, or 3 columns and 4 rows. Make sure you save this and send the saved file to LMS so I can print.

If you did these things, you just earned your first 20 points!