Spring Break's Almost Here!

Bonjourno!  It's sunny and pretty out this morning (though not overly warm), and I'm exhausted!  Last week my older son tried out for his high school baseball team and it was stressful and difficult on the schedule, so I feel like I was only home to sleep.  Then Friday, I worked a fish fry after school (over 500 people served!), and didn't get home until around 9:00 P.M.  Saturday morning began at 9:00 A.M. at Chelsea High School for State Solo & Ensemble for my older son, where he earned a "I" rating, but even more exciting, I ran into some students from Airport who were performing right after him and they let me come sit in and listen.  It was exciting and fun for me to get to hear them!  By the time we finished there, all of the grandparents had come to town and we went back to my house where my husband had made a brisket and we chowed down on tacos right after we dyed Easter eggs (for my younger son).  Then we went and bought a new catcher's mitt, went to my younger son's soccer game, and finished the evening with a great band concert for my older son called "Bands In Review."  Finally, I went to an event where I stayed awake all night long (it was not medical, but personal), and part of how I accomplished this was by grading a ton of papers.  So!  I came home this morning at 6:30 A.M., slept for 2 1/2 hours, and now here I am...exhausted, but fulfilled and happy!

Add to it that the fact that it's Spring Break as of Friday, and I'm a thrilled human being!

So here are a couple of things about this upcoming week.  It's Character Week, and so students are asked to wear specific colors to represent different aspects of character.  Monday = Yellow (positivity); Tuesday = Red/Pink (Compassion); Wednesday = Blue (Trust and Communication); Thursday = Green (Peace and Harmony).  They get spirit points and rewards for participating.  There will also be a couple of activities going on during lunches on Tuesday and Thursday.  This is all sponsored by the National Honors Society.

Here's what's happening academically in my classroom this week:

• Monday - we'll finish reading "Act One" of The Crucible and do a Type Two on the effectiveness of Miller's Expositions; we'll also continue working on some verbs, heading into verb tense
• Tuesday - we'll continue with verbs, finish the Act One packet, and start pre-writing for the Act One Assessment which will be essay
• Wednesday - we'll continue with verbs, finish the pre-writing for the assessment, and begin drafting
• Thursday - we'll finish drafting the Act One Assessment Essay and turn it in

My goal is that they not have homework over break.  Hopefully, the only way they have any is if they need to finish something up.

Have a great week, a great Spring Break, and for all who observe - Happy Easter.  Ciao!


Spring Break's Almost Here! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com.

Final Week of Term Three

The school year is flying!  We're already concentrating on next year; both my students and my own personal children have scheduled for the 2016-2017 school year, which just seems crazy!  I love this time of year, though, because the weather starts to have more sunny days than snowy, and the birds come back, so there's always hope for renewal.

This past week my English 9 classes jumped into The Crucible, though not very far.  By now they can usually tell that I'm a history nut, so we do a lot of background knowledge before getting into a text.  They did a 10% Summary over an article about the Salem Witch Trials; I gave them notes on Arthur Miller; then they did a KWL (What do you know? What do you want to know?  What have you learned?) for McCarthyism.  Then we signed out parts for Act I of The Crucible and started the play.  Over the weekend I have them doing a Type 2 about the setting and work on some vocabulary.

So here's the schedule for this week:

• Monday - they'll turn in their Type 2's and do an SAT-style vocab. quiz, which means that they can use their vocab. worksheets and it's multiple choice, then they'll turn those in; after that, we'll do a Type 2 reflection on Miller's use of exposition writing within the play; finally, we'll continue forward with them reading their parts.
• Tuesday - we'll do some verbs; we'll continue reading Act I and doing the study guide, notes, and literary terms
• Wednesday - more verbs; more Act I with study guide, notes and literary terms
• Thursday - more verbs; I'm hoping to finish Act I by this day and finish the study guide, notes and literary terms, turning in the packet
• Friday - my plan is to finish discussion over Act I and pre-write for the Act I assessment which will be an essay.

As always, if we get behind, I'll change the calendar.  I tend to over-plan for my classes, rather than under-plan.  Also, I'm not sending home the play for them to read...yet.  I want us to get through Act I before starting to send them home on their own.

Finally, a note on the research papers:  they have turned them in, but I'm not going to be able to put them into the grade book until Term 4, for two reasons: it takes me 20 minutes to grade each paper on average, and I have around 140 of them; the second reason is that if someone has truly messed up, this gives us time to rectify the situation.  I will be going through the pile this week to identify those who have not turned one in.  If this is the case for your student, I will contact you to let you know.  If I have any that do not meet the requirements for the paper and need them to re-do it, I'll let you know. 

I hope everyone has a good week.  Enjoy your rainy Sunday.  Oh, and my Irish heritage in me wants me to make sure to say, "Sona la st. Padraig," which means "Happy St. Patrick's Day" in Irish.  May your week be joyful, full of blessings, and GREEN! (Those of you who know me, know that this has more than one meaning.)  Slan!

Final Week of Term Three by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com.

Two Weeks to Go in Term Three!

Here we are, coming to the end of Term 3, and this past week, a ton of papers were turned in to me to be graded.  I hope everyone is patient as I work to get those graded and entered on HAC.  In the meantime, I went into Friday night with hopes of getting lots of papers graded over the weekend, and then reality hit.  We had a soccer game on Friday night for one child, and a gymnastics meet at Crisler Arena for the other one; Saturday looked free and clear until my eldest came inside bleeding from a wound he received from playing football in the snow.  Something sharp under the snow got him when he went down on the ground.  Here's a terrible picture of the war wound with seven stitches:

Saturday night we had another soccer game.  Sunday morning brought another soccer game, and I thought I was done, until I looked at the calendar and realized that we have another soccer game at 1:00 P.M today!  I'm about soccered out.  Two kids on two teams is too much, so I don't know how people with more than two kids do it!  Those of you in that boat must be miracle workers.

Anyway, so back to English 9.  This past week we managed to turn in the printed copies of the research papers.  It will take quite a while to grade them since I have almost 150.  Then we finished reading and discussing the Emily Dickinson poem "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain."  Finally, we're now turning our attention to the next big unit, The Crucible by Arthur Miller.  On Friday we read an article on the Salem Witch Trials and filled out a worksheet for it.  They have a 10% Summary of the article due on Monday.

So here's what's coming up this week:

• Monday - they're taking the MiPHY (health survey) through my class.  It's an online survey, and we'll go to the library and Mrs. Karavas will guide them through.  Permission slips to not take the survey went home last week.  If you didn't get one and do not want your student to participate, please shoot me or Mr. Lukosavich an email.  After the survey, we'll go back to the room and read-aloud and then turn in the 10% Summaries.  Finally, they will take some notes on Arthur Miller.
• Tuesday - we'll continue with Verb Packet #4; then we'll do another day of practicing for the PSAT on Khan Academy.
• Wednesday - we'll finish Verb Packet #4 and turn it in; from there they'll do a KWL on McCarthyism, and then they'll get their books and packets for Act One of The Crucible. 
• Thursday - We'll read pp. 3-7 of The Crucible, do a Type Two writing for setting, and then work on a vocabulary worksheet.
• Friday - we'll talk about the vocab., then they'll have a SAT-style vocab. quiz; after that, we'll continue on with Act One.

That's the plan.  As plans change, I'll update the online calendar.  If anyone has any questions, you know how to find me.  Have a great week.  Ciao!


Two Weeks to Go in Term Three! by Laura stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com.