Monthly Archives: January 2015

1/23/2015 – B

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I realized that even though I feel like we are behind, we are the *only* English IVB class in session right now, so we don’t have to keep up with any other class!

So, today, we reviewed To the Virgins to Make Much of Time – we ran out of time yesterday.

If you want, ask me why I find this poem so offensive.

We also talked about peaking in high school. If you peak in high school, then the rest of your life will be pretty depressing.

We went back to the To The Virgins Discussion board to answer three more questions. YOUR CHOICE. Make sure you that you have four completed so you can get full credit. If you do MORE than four questions, you are earn extra points!

We read The Top Five Regrets of the Dying and talked about any regrets that we may *already* have.

And lastly, I gave you time to work on you BucketList. 🙂 Just copy/paste the URL into the discussion board so that other people can see your BucketList. What’s the point of the internet is you can’t share/network?

1/23/2015 – A

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We reviewed MY Peanut Butter Jelly Time pictures! I told you that if I expect YOU to do the assignment, I’ve done it myself. Remember, the more that you hear the information and the more ways that you see it presented, the more likely that you’ll actually LEARN it!

Peanut Butter Jelly Time Riley

Then, we took a group quiz. You were supposed to work WITH your group to answer those questions. You can take this quiz as many times as you need to and it’s open *everything*. The only thing that I ask is that the first time you take the quiz, please abstain from looking up answers on the internet. Why? I want to see how well you can get the correct answers with the material that we did in class. Not only am I assessing you on how well you learned, I’m assessing the effectiveness of my teaching and the assignments. The last question is over your group work. I really do read these answers – they help me. You can totally scold me for not having taught the Old English/English/Latin bit before we tested. That was totally my fault. Bad Riley.

Lastely, we did a Quote Sort. I gave you a list of quotes about fate and free will.

fate.free willFirst, find a definition of free will and fatalism that makes sense to you. Put it in the chart. Then, read through the quotes and drag them to the column where you think it belongs. This isn’t a hard activity, but it makes your brain hurt from thinking. REMINDER: just because the quote uses the word FATE doesn’t mean it’s an examples of fatalism. Some of these don’t have a correct answer, so don’t freak out if you and a buddy from class think differently about a quote.

1/22/2015 – B

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We watched Mr. Keating creep his students out in a clip From Dead Poets Society and then we did the Carpe Diem Translation Tower.

You will read the four sentences, and then translate each sentence in your own thought. Add some clip art. Riley explained what it mean to strain the wine by showing a snippet from a video about pruno. She also serenaded the class to Doris Day’s song Que Sera Sera.

Make sure you have clip art! You may need to resize the font. Then cut thusly:

And then fold/glue.

In To The Virgins Discussion Board, we answered the required question: What Age is Best in Life” before we printed “To the Virgins” and “Coy Mistress” to OneNote.

We then read To The Virgins, To Make Much of Time. Make sure that you get the notes here:

If you want, ask me why I find this poem so offensive.

We also talked about peaking in high school. If you peak in high school, then the rest of your life will be pretty depressing.

Lastly, we went back to the To The Virgins Discussion board to answer three more questions. YOUR CHOICE. Make sure you that you have four completed so you can get full credit. If you do MORE than four questions, you are earn extra points!

1/22/2015 – A

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I love it when my students are motivated and I don’t have to babysit!

We started the day out by finishing our picture notes and trying on chain mail. Here are some of the best of the day!

Here is First Block!

Smug Garrett

Smug Garrett

Coy Kami

Coy Kami

Kami Attacks!

Kami Attacks!

Daniel is fascinated by the seagull!

Michael helps fend off the seagull.

Michael helps fend off the seagull.

Daniel is proud after he vanquished the seagull.

Daniel is proud after he vanquished the seagull.

Second Block

Louis started out very somber...

Louis started out very somber…

But he soon became a Viking!

But he soon became a Viking!

Jalen Ferocious

Jalen is fierce!

He tried to attack Esmerelda, but I think he just her a hug instead. Vistas Vikings are huggers.

He tried to attack Esmeralda, but I think he just her a hug instead. Vistas Vikings are huggers.

He did end up getting stuck, though...

He did end up getting stuck, though. I think he looked like a little sausage kolache!

He needed some help.

He needed some lots of help. Thank goodness for Sergio and Louis!

Then, we did a Gallery Walk. That means in YOUR group, ONE person stayed with the poster to teach the students from the other groups and the rest of the group wandered over to the OTHER groups to hear. There are a few reasons we did the Gallery Walk, even though a few people found it repetitive.

  1. It *is* repetitive – the more you hear it, the more likely you’ll remember it for the quiz.
  2. If you had a group member who didn’t do a very good job, this gives you opportunity to fill in the gaps from the other groups.

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We did a Word Storm of important vocabulary words that will be used for an activity tomorrow (and you can use on the final exam). If you weren’t here for this, get the words from a buddy or copy them down from here.

word stormSee you tomorrow!

1/21/2015 – B

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So we started out today talking about GRADES! Namely, that in order to get “A” on an assignment, I need to see some independent thought in your assignment or some kind of risk. I compare grades to coffee.

Then, the lesson today started out with a choice – which would you rather: knowing WHEN we would die or knowing HOW we’d die – without any ability to change future events.

Then, we answered the Deep Questions. I”ll be looking at your DEEP thoughts about this rather than complete sentences, so focus on that. This should take some time to complete, so if you get done in three minutes, you probably didn’t do it correctly.

Then, we watched the trailer for The Bucket List and I cried.

Today, we will be writing our OWN bucket lists, and I mentioned the most common item on my students’ lists is skydiving. So then I impressed everyone with this video – make sure you check out the super cool helmet (?) that I’m wearing and how goofy I look when I am actually jumping out of the plane.

We opened an account for BucketList and started adding events today. We are finishing tomorrow.

1/21/2015 – A

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So we started out today talking about GRADES! Namely, that in order to get “A” on an assignment, I need to see some independent thought in your assignment or some kind of risk. I compare grades to coffee.

If you missed today, if you go to Beowulf < Peanut Butter Jelly Time, you will see the map of where we are. You can print this out and fill it in. Here is a completed map:

Map of British Isles

If you fill this map out, you can use it on the final exam. There are about 3-5 final exam questions just over this map! So keep this in your folder. Remember: anything we do in class can be used on the final exam!

Now that we know where Britain is, I set you up into groups based on your Nature and Demeanors from yesterday. Each group member picked a role: Peanut, Butter, or Jelly.

We printed the Anglo-Saxon History (Peanut, Butter, Jelly) into OneNote. Except Garrett. He was absent. Sad face. We are not going to read this all individually ourselves, we are going to split up the work within our group. The sections you are responsible for are listed on the back of your card.

Read your sections, highlighting what you think are the important notes. If you need help or just want to double check to make sure that you got the best information, call me over so I can double check it.

Once you have read all of your sections, then you can DRAW your notes. You will draw each section on an index card for a total of three index cards.

Here is the one that I have already done for all groups:

PBJ SingleJust like I taught the class what each one of these pictures meant, tomorrow, you will teach your groups members the information, make a poster, and take a group test over the information (using your notes and text).

1/20/2015 – B

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welcome-back-to-vf1zk7Welcome to the first day of term 3! We have a nice mix of returning students, new students, and even Saydi is back! Yay!

This is a really easy way to catch up on what we did in class yesterday (or any day, for that matter). Just make sure that you are looking at the blog post for the B class since I’m also teaching the A part of the class at the same time.

We started today off with a brief welcome! A few things about myself – yes, I am pregnant and expecting boy/girl twins in May. I do things a little differently than a typical English teacher – I’m not afraid of looking like a dork if it’s going to help you remember material. We work in this class everyday, but it’s generally not hard work. I usually don’t freak out over cell phones unless you are spending more time on your cell phone than your actual class work OR if you are on your cell phone while I am directly teaching.

We signed up for Dyknow as well. I use it more for an educational tool than a babysitting tool, but I still use it. 🙂

levels

I did explain a few key differences of my class: namely, that I am on a point system. There most points you can earn for the term is 1500 points. That means that if you have 1500 points at the end of the term, you will have earned 100%. If you earn 1300/1500 points, you’ll have earned a 90, 1200 points earns an 80, 1100 points is a 73, and 1050 points is a 70.Levels

The first thing we did on Day One was create to characters for The Pride of Riley. The things that I’ll be focusing on when I grade them are your Nature, Demeanor, Attributes, and your (4) R’s. If you weren’t here, you can find this material in BB under Welcome to the Ship: First Day Stuff: Gamification.

The big things that I will be grading are your Nature and Demeanor, your Attributes (7/5/3), and your R’s. Remember the nuggets are your learning objectives!

We then did the First Day Survey. You can find that in BB, but the link can also be found here.

Lastly, you guys drew me a picture for my belated birthday present! We ran out of time to get the reflection questions done, but we’ll start class with that tomorrow. Bryan, that means the only thing you’ll need to do on your own are the character sheet and the First Day Survey.

1/20/2015 – A

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Welcome to the first day of term 3! At this point, I only have returning students, so make sure to say hi to some of the n00bs! We were all there at one point!

This is a really easy way to catch up on what we did in class yesterday (or any day, for that matter). Just make sure that you are looking at the blog post for the A class since I’m also teaching the B part of the class at the same time.

We started today off with a brief welcome! A few things about myself – yes, I am pregnant and expecting boy/girl twins in May. I do things a little differently than a typical English teacher – I’m not afraid of looking like a dork if it’s going to help you remember material. We work in this class everyday, but it’s generally not hard work. I usually don’t freak out over cell phones unless you are spending more time on your cell phone than your actual class work OR if you are on your cell phone while I am directly teaching.

We signed up for Dyknow as well. I use it more for an educational tool than a babysitting tool, but I still use it. 🙂

levels

I did explain a few key differences of my class: namely, that I am on a point system. There most points you can earn for the term is 1500 points. That means that if you have 1500 points at the end of the term, you will have earned 100%. If you earn 1300/1500 points, you’ll have earned a 90, 1200 points earns an 80, 1100 points is a 73, and 1050 points is a 70.Levels

The first thing we did on Day One was create to characters for The Pride of Riley. The things that I’ll be focusing on when I grade them are your Nature, Demeanor, Attributes, and your (4) R’s. If you weren’t here, you can find this material in BB under Welcome to the Ship: First Day Stuff: Gamification.

The big things that I will be grading are your Nature and Demeanor, your Attributes (7/5/3), and your R’s. Remember the nuggets are your learning objectives!

We then did the First Day Survey. You can find that in BB, but the link can also be found here.

We also did a neat little test circling numbers. It was more of an experience than an assignment, so if you missed it, you missed some fun. Basically, it was to explain how I view my role as a teacher.

Lastly, we watched a graduation speech turned into a spoken word song.

You can see the video on YouTube HERE and you can find the lyrics HERE.

sunscreen questions

If you did not get the questions done (2B ran out of time!), just turn them in the “Old School Dropbox” when you get them done.