Monthly Archives: April 2013

4/30/2013

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Welp, we worked on the Stray Thoughts Set Up (pre-writing) and the Stray Thoughts activity. I sure hope you didn’t miss it!

Some notes:

  • Think of “private” life as “personal” life
  • When doing the thought bubbles, try and turn them in to funny thoughts rather than just regurgitated facts that you found
  • You can do the set up in any format you want – Word, PP, etc
  • If you are going to create your Stray Thoughts on the computer, I heartily suggest PowerPoint. You can edit pictures more easily than in Word, and insert (and edit) thought bubbles.
  • If you use other webpages for information, make sure that you save them for the Works Cited page

Each day when we work on a rough draft document (like today), I will take the items as a completion grade. I will leave notes in LMS that I expect you to read. If you need to edit or revise it any way, I’ll make those suggestions in LMS. When I grade the COMPLETE project on 5/10, that’s when I will grade the project for content. Just because you 10/10 on the rough draft items, do not assume that you will get full credit for the final project.

If you turn the items in late, I will give you 5/10 points.

Good luck! If you need help, let me know!

4/29/2013

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Hooray! Glad to have you all back after the weekend. The next two weeks will be pretty easy – as long as you keep up. We are starting the New Best Friend assignment, which is an author research project.

Today, we chose a British author who would become our new best friend.

We are going to find at least five webpages that we could possible use for our research the rest of the project. Go through and look at the tasks that we will be doing:

  • Stray Thoughts
  • Action Figure
  • Crazy Advice
  • If They Took the Test
  • ____ Ways

The Works Cited will be all the sources that you use for your research. The webpages should be bookmarked so we can create the Works Cited next week.

In class, we generated a list of terms from the instructions that may help us find significant information about the author.

  • spiritual life
  • biography
  • financial
  • interesting information
  • public life
  • private life
  • major events
  • health problems
  • expert in
  • relationships
  • conflict
  • marital status
  • personal life
  • education

Today, make sure you have at least five sources that you can use tomorrow. Even if you use a source that doesn’t directly address your subject but still helps give you information, cite it.

4/26/2013

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Today is the last day for the Minos Project! I will be a super nice Captain and allow this to be due on Monday, 4/29 before I start taking late points off.

Remember that the slides need to be color coded in some way

– you can use images or colors or even fonts. If you want to look at the student examples in LMS, go check them out! Just don’t steal their ideas!

4/24/2013

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Argh. I’m done with testing. Really. Someone get me outta here.

Oh well, at least tomorrow is a short one – SS doesn’t take that long usually.

Supposedly, I’m going to see Block 1 and 2 today, and we are going to… you guessed it – work on the Minos Project! Remember – if you aren’t in my class today, I still expect you to be working on this. Seniors had an entire day to work on it yesterday!

4/22/2013

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Today, we read about Level 8, Level 9, and Satan. We went over The Minos Project one last time.

Remember:

  • to use the template in LMS!
  • that even though I may or may not see you, I still expect you to get work done on this project each day.
  • if you are testing, I’ll work with you.
  • don’t plagiarize!
  • make sure you use complete sentences and spell things correctly.
  • if you are using characters, use the characters’ names and NOT the actors’ names!
  • if you are stuck, I’ll give an example for -2 points (out of 150 points)

If you need to see an example, look at the link in LMS.

4/19/2013

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Oh! I totally forgot to post this picture of Lupe’s fingernails yesterday!

It reminded me of Minos’ tail – you know how it curls when he judges people. I keep trying to get her to tell me where she got her nails done so I can get a nail done like this for class!

Sorry the picture is so blurry. 🙁

Today, we worked on levels 4, 5, 6, and 7.

When we got the Violence against God, we talked about this artist and his picture, Piss Christ, and how many considered this to be blasphemous.

But honestly, the highlight of my day was when we talked about usury in 2nd Block. After watching the Western Sky commercial, and looking the bank’s interest rates, Ben decided to call Western Sky and talk to a representative. This is his face when he heard that he may qualify for a loan with 130% interest rate:

Best. Day. Ever.

It kinda made up for the fact that my 3rd Block throws MARKERS at each other all period long, and they don’t even PICK UP THE MARKERS! Even Tanner, who claims that he always picks up his markers, left this present for me today:

Boo.

🙁

Sad Riley.

4/18/2013

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Welcome to Hell! Well, not really, But we are working with Dante’s Inferno this week and next week.

Today, we we introduced to the topic and we talked about Dante the author and Dante the character. While we read, we answered study guide questions. The reason we are doing these questions is so when we work on our project, we won’t be tempted to plagiarize (accidentally or intentionally).

Today, we got through The Dark Wood, Limbo, Lustful, and the Gluttonous.

 

 

Probablly the coolest thing that happened today was when I was explaining the Harrowing of Hell, Ms. Dunlap came to get Tanner for an early release. Perfect timing! Ms. Dunlap had no idea why we were taking a picture of her, but she was really happy to oblige.

We also talked about the project today. Make sure that you use the template that I provided for you in LMS. It’s there for a reason.

Make sure you don’t plagiarize. You won’t be able to pass if you copy from the webpage. Look at the student examples for assistance.

Remember – if you need help finding a person for a certain level, don’t be afraid to ask me for a person. If I give you a person, and you USE that person, it will only deduct (two) points off of your final grade of 150 points. Even if I were to give you every single person to use, you could still pass the assignment!

Try to think of creative examples that no one else is using!

4/17/2013

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Today, we honed our persuasive skills by writing a letter to Mrs. Ekster asking her to allow someone to teach the Bible as Literature class at Vistas.

There is a pre-writing activity in LMS that you will print out and complete before writing your letter. Rather than persuade with ethos or pathos, we will focus on logos, which is logic. That means you need to have logical reasons why this class should be offered here. You may need to use the internet to help you organize your ideas, In fact, I heartily recommend it!

One thing that I want to remind you of is that a Bible as Literature class is NOT the same thing as a religion class. We cannot teach religion classes in a public school, so if you try to use religion as a reason why we need to allow a Bible class as an elective, that wouldn’t be appropriate.

The pre-writing is due today; – the paper is due on Friday.