The Holidays are Upon Us

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break, and now I'm looking at only three weeks until the next one. I love this time of year, and yet it causes me anxiety. In addition, we have a 1/2 day this week, so I've planned out from now through Christmas.

Both groups will have independent book projects coming up. They'll have a little time to work on packets in class, but the projects will need to be done at home independently along with the reading. The projects are all due the Friday before break (12/20), and if someone is leaving early, they need to turn it in before they go since I'm giving them the information this Monday (12/2).

In the meantime, we continue to focus on our main units: for English 9 that's a short story unit that includes Stranger Things: Episode 1 from Season 1, a Ray Bradbury short story, and then Edgar Allan Poe. For English 10 we will continue to work on our Human Rights unit, this week focusing on James Baldwin and the Civil Rights movement.

Here's the plan as I see it now:

English 9

• Monday, 12/2 - bell work; handouts - silent reading packet and Stranger Things; work on Google Slide with literary elements
• Tuesday, 12/3 - Academic Advisory - bell work; watch Stranger Things and do worksheet
• Wednesday, 12/4 - Half Day - finish Stranger Things worksheet
• Thursday, 12/5 - PSAT Advisory - bell work; do the Stranger Things slideshow - due Sunday by midnight
• Friday, 12/6 - bell work; silent reading and time to work on reading packet; project packets handed out - due 12/20; exit ticket

English 10

• Monday, 12/2 - bell work; ORP day - packets due; ORP packet #2 handed out; project packets handed out - due 12/20
• Tuesday, 12/3 - bell work; 3rd Hour - finish reading "Genetics" and vocab.; 4th Hour - James Baldwin's "Letter" and reading notes
• Wednesday, 12/4 - Half Day - 3rd Hour - finish "Genetics" and turn in paperwork; 4th Hour - vocab. quiz and finish Baldwin notes
• Thursday, 12/5 - bell work; 3rd Hour - James Baldwin's "Letter" and reading notes; 4th Hour - finish Baldwin and analyze "Glory"
• Friday, 12/6 - bell work; 3rd Hour - vocab. quiz and finish Baldwin notes; 4th Hour - reflective writing for  Baldwin; exit ticket

The Holidays are Upon Us by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.laurastubbs.blogspot.com.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I missed blogging last week, but I spent the entire weekend working and I still was not done by Sunday night so I just ran out of steam and time. It feels good to be back, and before a week I'm kind of excited about, too!

English 9 finally finished off Romeo and Juliet and the final essay, which we have spent an entire week working on, is due to be submitted by tomorrow night! In English 10 we're in the midst of a human rights unit and the discussions have been interesting; for the most part, students are engaged in the topic (wait until I bring it out to discrimination against teenagers!).

This week is a very short week, so I'm bringing in something related to it. I found a Ted Talk I showed my 9th graders a couple of weeks ago which focuses on Lollipop Moments. You'd have to see it to make the connection about lollipops, but it's this great message about not only giving people moments that are uplifting through a random act of kindness, but also acknowledging those who have given you that moment. It's the idea that we look back on our lives and we can see moments when we have been struggling, and someone did or said something that helped us get through that moment. We don't tend to acknowledge it, and they may never know that they helped us in our hour of need. So in this week of Thanksgiving, on our half day, we're going to write thank you notes.

Here's my agenda:

English 9

• Monday, 11/25 - make sure papers are turned in on turnitin.com; counselor presentations (they need their Chromebooks); parent/teacher conferences from 3-6:00 P.M.
• Tuesday, 11/26 - thank you notes for the lollipop moments

English 10

• Monday, 11/25 - 3rd Hour - check in the questions for paragraphs 1-15, watch Ted Talk and brainstorm thank you note; 4th Hour - read book about filling buckets and do Type 1's, watch Ted Talk and brainstorm thank you note; parent/teacher conferences from 3-6:00 P.M.
• Tuesday, 11/26 - thank you notes for the lollipop moments

That is my plan. I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! by Laura Stubs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.laurastubbs.blogspot.com.

Term Two Begins

Term One is done; on to Term Two. That was fast, wasn't it? As I look back, I see much that we accomplished: we finished our first units; we wrote (or are in the process of writing) our first big papers; we did quite a bit of SAT-type work with grammar. Yet, I see so much that we need to do: more writing; more reading; more reflecting. It's a constant process to try to improve my classroom.

Last week English 10 moved on to a new unit: The Genetics of Justice. It's really a unit about human rights and some interesting discussions have occurred. English 9 pretty much finished reading Romeo and Juliet so that we can do final assessments - both objective test and our first large analytical essay.

Here's my plan for the week:

English 9

• Monday, 11/11 - bell work; 1st Hour - watch movie and take quiz for Acts IV/V; 2nd and 6th Hours - finish the play; watch movie
• Tuesday, 11/12 - Academic Advisory - bell work; 1st Hour - Reduced Shakespeare video and begin essay; 2nd and 6th Hours - quiz for Acts IV/V and Reduced Shakespeare video
• Wednesday, 11/13 - bell work; essay
• Thursday, 11/14 - PSAT Advisory - bell work; turn in reading logs; essay
• Friday, 11/15 - bell work; essay; weekly exit ticket

English 10

• Monday, 11/11 - bell work; read The Narrative of Frederick Douglass
• Tuesday, 11/12 - Academic Advisory - bell work; 3rd Hour - finish Frederick Douglass; 4th Hour - quiz, quickwrite, slavery today Ted Talk, begin reflective writing
• Wednesday, 11/13 - bell work; 3rd Hour - quiz, quickwrite, slavery today Ted Talk, begin reflective writing; 4th Hour - finish reflective writing, ORP project begins - packet due 11/22, article on Jim Crow
• Thursday, 11/14 - PSAT Advisory - bell work; 3rd Hour - finish reflective writing, ORP project begins - packet due 11/22, article on Jim Crow; 4th Hour - finish article on Jim Crow, begin James Baldwin letter
• Friday, 11/15 - bell work; 3rd Hour - finish article on Jim Crow, begin James Baldwin letter; 4th Hour - finish James Baldwin; weekly exit ticket

That's the plan as I see it. I hope everyone has a great week! Ciao!

Term Two Begins by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.laurastubbs.blogspot.com.

The Unexpected

So. Last week. It totally went a direction I didn't anticipate, but I think everyone handled it quite well. On Wednesday, right about lunch time, my phone started blowing up with messages from my husband that the MRI my son (the college student) had just completed for a knee injury acquired a couple weeks earlier while playing baseball required emergency surgery. On Thursday. I don't know how you all respond to news like this for your own kids, but my reactions went something like this: shock, tears, panic, determination - all within about 5 minutes. By the end of the school day on Wednesday, my afternoon students were aware that I would be out on Thursday, but my morning classes were left in the dark. I left sub. plans, went to Lansing (where the surgery took place), got my kid through it, got my kid home, nursed my kid all night, then went to work on Friday where it appears that everything went fine and my students handled the unexpected with no problems. I love how resilient the young are: they bounce!

My husband - awesome dad that he is - has taken Monday off to try to get him back to campus and hopefully help him start back into his classes. Our biggest issue at the moment is how he's going to get around, but since I'm sure he's not the only student with issues like these, there have to be services...right?

So back to your kids. I did manage to do more grading, and I spent much of yesterday planning out the next unit for English 10. In the meantime my other child is performing in Pioneer High School's production of Matilda so I am tied up much of today (and next weekend), so I'll see what I can get done.

Here's my plan for the week:

English 9

• Monday, 11/4 - bell work; 1st Hour - finish Act IV; 2nd, 6th Hours - finish Act III and start Act IV
• Tuesday, 11/5 - Academic Advisory - bell work; 1st Hour - Act V; 2nd, 6th Hours - Act IV
• Wednesday, 11/6 - bell work; 1st Hour - finish the play; 2nd, 6th Hours - finish Act IV
• Thursday, 11/7 - PSAT Advisory - bell work; 1st Hour - quiz for Acts IV and V; 2nd, 6th Hours - Act V
• Friday, 11/8 - Activity Schedule for Veterans Assembly at end of Day - prepositions test; get new reading log; silent reading; 2nd, 6th Hours - quiz for Acts IV and V?

English 10

• Monday, 11/4 - bell work; finish movie; survey
• Tuesday, 11/5 - Academic Advisory - bell work; introduction to Genetics of Justice unit
• Wednesday, 11/6 - bell work; begin The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
• Thursday, 11/7 - PSAT Advisory - bell work; finish The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; prepare for Socratic Seminar
• Friday, 11/8 - Activity Schedule for Veterans Assembly at end of Day - bell work; Socratic Seminar; get ORP packet - due Friday 11/15.

That is the plan, and like all plans, subject to change. If anyone has any questions, feel free to get in touch. Have a great week! Ciao!

The Unexpected by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://www.laurastubbs.blogspot.com.