A New Semester

Welcome to a new semester...finally!  To my new students, welcome; to my returning students, welcome back!  This is a page I use to talk about what we have done over the past week, and to talk about what is coming up.  I hope you all use it, like it, and feel free to comment on it.

To my English 11 classes:  while last semester focused on all those old texts, this semester we will move into 20th century readings.  We will begin with the psychologically disturbing Lord of the Flies, which plays with the idea of what would happen if you dropped a group of boys on a deserted island with no adults in sight.  It is a much referenced text in pop culture, including music, The Simpsons, and reality TV.  We will also read Frankenstein and Night this semester.  In addition to the readings, we'll be preparing for the ACT/MME with focus on reading, writing and grammar; then we will turn our attentions to preparing you for your senior year!

To my English 9 classes:  we will spend some time focusing on non-fiction texts, and you will be picking out your own non-fiction reading book for a project!  There are some really great stories out there that belong to real people and situations, so there is much to choose from.  We will be visiting the library soon to make some selections.  We will also be reading Flowers for Algernon, parts of The Odyssey, and some light poetry.  I'm hoping that we can mix some mythology in with The Odyssey.  We will also be doing quite a bit of writing this semester, and working our way through a couple of grammar units with a main focus on verbs and nouns.

I'm looking forward to a fun semester, and I hope everyone else is, too!  Cheers!


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Semester 2 - We're Already Half-Way Through!

Isn't it amazing how time flies?  We're at the end of January and half-way through the school year!  I guess all the snow days help to move time along for me, but every year time seems to move faster and faster!

This past week was crazy, ending with the snow day today.  We held our Elizabethan Celebration Wednesday night (re-scheduled from January 8th) to great success.  I saw some fabulous projects, tried many delicious dishes (including wild game, for the authentic touch: thank you Andrew and Preston), watched some great performances, and witnessed the learning curve of the tech guys as they worked with new equipment (well, new to them).  I also was able to see the changes that need to be made to do this project again another time, but the conclusion all the English 11 teachers came to was that it was definitely worth doing and we had a wonderful time seeing your kids step out of their usual roles in our classroom and play to their strengths, many which we would never get to witness because they're not in the "traditional" English classroom.  I only wish I had had time to get pictures.  Mrs. Karavas took some, so I'll try to get her to share them with me.

For those of you who are leaving me (because your kids are leaving me), please know how much I've enjoyed working with your students.  I'm sad to lose so many due to scheduling.  I'm also very excited to meet so many new faces, and work again with some I've had in my classroom before!  If only I could teach them all!  (Just kidding, my paper load would be completely unmanageable.)

We're switching semesters, so my English 9 will change focus to verbs and non-fiction reading and writing, and my English 11 will turn to Lord of the Flies and ACT/MME preparation.

It's been a great  first half of the year, and now I'm looking forward to the second half!  Cheers!

Final Week of Semester One

I can't believe we're already at the end of the semester, and I also can't believe that we're already heading to the end of January!  Where does the time go?  I've really enjoyed working with my students this semester, so while I'm excited to meet so many new faces in another week, I'm very sad to see so many of my current students switch to a new teacher.  At least I'll still get to see them in the hallways and in their extracurricular activities.

Coming up this week for both of my classes:  exams!  English 11 will be on Wednesday, and will mostly be a test on Animal Farm, which we have been reading since we got back.  There are a couple of questions over Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, and Macbeth, as well as commas, but not many, and (broad hint here) it would behoove them to find all of their paperwork for everything.  I'll take a couple of minutes to go over this in class.  The English 9 exam will be on Thursday and I have a guide over what will be on it; they, also, will want to locate all of their paperwork.

In addition to this, due to the snow WEEK (instead of snow day), we had to reschedule our Elizabethan Celebration to this Wednesday, and we've been working on getting this pulled together.  All are invited:  parents, students, community, whoever!  The more, the merrier!  Here is a flyer put together by a student to advertise the event:

We hope to see everyone there!  Have a great week!

Onward and Upward

I'm very sure that we're finally going to be back in school tomorrow, so I'm going ahead with this blog.  I don't ever remember having a 3-week Christmas vacation, and it seems surreal to be returning on January 13th!  That being said, here's the new agenda:

• We've rescheduled the 11th grade Elizabethan Celebration for Wednesday, January 22nd:  same time, same place.  We'll work on the papers a bit this week.  I'll have the rough copy due on Wednesday, with a final copy due on Friday so that I can work on them over the weekend.  Presentations, of course, will occur the night of the event.  In addition, I'm going to try to work with the Royal Court, the video group, and the recorded music group on Tuesdays after school for the next two weeks.  Advertising for the event should be out soon!
• English 11, in the meantime, will be reading Animal Farm - a quick novel that will take us roughly one week.  We'll have a semester exam the following week, which will mostly encompass Animal Farm with a few questions from the other things we've done this semester.
• English 9 will focus on short story and novel elements, and we'll work on a small project to finalize this information.  The next week we will have a semester exam.  I will give them quite a bit of preparation to get them ready.

Exciting things are happening, and I'm so happy to be back to work!  I've loved spending relaxing time with my own children, but now that they're back at school, too, it seems kind of pointless for me to be sitting alone in my house.  I've missed all of your children, also, and am looking forward to seeing all of them again.

I hope everyone has had some quality family time, as well.  I think I speak for most of us, however, when I say...it's good to be back!

Bizarre Holiday Equals Postponement of Academic Fun

In some ways, I'm thrilled with the relaxation time and the fun of hanging with my boys at home with this extended vacation, but I'm also sad to have to postpone our Elizabethan Celebration!  Never fear, however, I will contact the people in charge and get a date to reschedule the event, and we'll party Elizabethan style a couple of weeks later.  English 11 students will still need to submit the written portion of their project for 2nd term credit, but the performance aspect will be used for 3rd term grades.  So, mixed blessings here...

Hopefully I'll see everyone soon, when we can all get out of our houses and enjoy some of this snow, but without the cold!

MSU Football Rose Bowl Post Game Locker Room Celebration

I just had to share.  It's been a fun ride that took me from being an unbeliever, to a believer, to a glorious happy Sparty!  It's been a long time!