Back At It with Two Months to Go!

The bad part of having an early spring break?  It's a looong stretch to the end.  However, that being said, it gives us plenty of time to accomplish a lot.  I'm going to get right down to business today, because it also means that we're now heading straight into State Testing Season.  So first, let me give you the schedule as I know it:

• Tuesday, 4/5 - 9th graders will be bubbling in the forms for the PSAT during their 2nd Hour
• Tuesday, 4/12 - no school for the high school: only 11th graders will be in the building doing the SAT
• Wednesday, 4/13 - 9th graders will take the PSAT in the morning; regular school schedules resume 4th Hour and continue through the end of the day

As changes occur, I will let everyone know.

So here's what's happening this week:

• Monday - All Type 3 Essays for Act I of The Crucible are due; we'll finish the Act I packet and turn it in.
• Tuesday - they'll get new seats; we'll do some verbs; they'll get an Act II packet and read pp. 47-52 in the play.
• Wednesday - we'll do some verbs; they'll read pp. 53-67 in the play and do the study guide questions.
• Thursday - we'll do some verbs; they'll read pp. 67-76 in the play and finish the study guide questions.
• Friday - Quiz over Act II; we'll finish the vocabulary in the Act II packet and turn it in

*Note: 2nd Hour will be a day behind starting Tuesday because of the bubbling of forms that day.

That's the plan as it stands today!  Hopefully everything will go smoothly.  If anyone has any questions, let me know.

Ciao!

Back At It with Two Months to Go! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com.

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.

Marching in like a Lion, or a Lamb?

Oh, what will the weather do next?  It's so hard to tell.  It's a beautiful day today, but I guess by Tuesday (March 1st) it could be kind of nasty.  And let's not forget tomorrow:  it's a leap year!  Any suggestions of fun things to do with a class for a leap year?  I'll have to look it up.

Anyway, this is going to be rather short and sweet.  Last week was a little chaotic because of, well...everything.  But the end of the week was especially so for me.  The snow day took out one of the days for us to work on the Emily Dickinson poem, and then I had a family funeral to go to in Hillsdale County - the "Home" county for me, since it's where two sections of my family come from - so it was sad, but a little like going home.  As a result, I feel very disconnected from Airport right now.

I did manage to take a couple of pictures of students doing something other than working on a research paper.  On Wednesday, a very sleepy first hour tackled Emily Dickinson's poem "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain," a poem we'll pick back up with on Monday.  Here are the photos:

Most of the week, however, still centered around their papers.  So here's what's coming up next:

• Monday - we'll take some time to print the final copy of the paper and turn it in; then we'll go back to Dickinson's poem.
• Tuesday - we'll finish the Dickinson poem.
• Wednesday - we'll go back to verbs; then we'll start working on background information for The Crucible, our next unit for the year.  Today we'll do a KWL to access prior knowledge and practice asking questions for research, then we'll do a 10% Summary over the Salem Witch Trials article I've printed for them.
• Thursday - after tackling some more verbs, we'll take some notes on Arthur Miller, and then work on an article that gives them information on McCarthyism.
• Friday - hopefully we'll be able to start The Crucible.

So that's our week.  We're coming towards the end of the term - about three weeks left.  Tenth grade schedules are due to be turned in to the counseling office by Tuesday.  Spring is in the air (at least at the moment).  I anticipate a good week!  Ciao!


Marching in like a Lion, or a Lamb? by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com.

Coming Home Week, Scheduling, Research Papers...Busy, Busy, Busy!

Wow those weekends move fast!  Here we are, Sunday morning, and I'm planning for the upcoming week. There's so much going on!  First - Coming Home Week, which means assemblies both Monday and Friday (read: shortened hours); Second - scheduling continues for 10th grade (read: students coming and going from my room continuously on Monday) though the schedules are not due to the counseling office until March 1st; Third - advisory schedules stay in place for Wednesday and Thursday, both academic for those who need extra help (read: shortened hours); Finally - research paper rough drafts are due by midnight Monday night, and the final copies - edited and revised - are due one week after that (read: I'm doing my best to get them what they need, despite the shortened hours and coming and going).

So - life is nothing if not exciting!
Here's what's happening academically this week:

• Monday - scheduling - students go to work with counselors; drafting the research paper - due shared with me by midnight on Google Drive.
• Tuesday - Khan Academy for PSAT/SAT pre-tests and practice.
• Wednesday - we'll go back to addressing verbs, focusing on irregular forms; we're going to head toward the next unit which deals with social responsibility and guilt, reading "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain," by Emily Dickinson (they will have a packet with all of the paperwork so that if they're absent they have all the materials).
• Thursday - we'll continue with verbs and Emily Dickinson
• Friday - we'll continue with verbs; they'll have time to edit and revise their own papers as well as critique each others' papers.

Well, that's the week.  Hopefully you were able to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.  Even though it's not as warm right now, the birds are singing and the sun is shining, so Enjoy!  Ciao!


Coming Home Week, Scheduling, Research Papers...Busy, Busy, Busy! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com.

On to Scheduling for 10th Grade!

Mid-winter break is over...sad!  Unfortunately for my motivational factor, my kids have the whole week off, so I'm fighting the wish/need to stay home with them!  But onward we go...

This week we're trying to continue on with the research paper, while at the same time, the process for scheduling is beginning.  During 2nd Hour on Tuesday (today), we're going to the cafeteria to get the information.  Then during my classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, students go to the counseling office to work one-on-one with the counselors on the schedules, and the plans they have for the rest of high school.  They need to have planned out their schedules in pencil and gotten as many signatures as possible before meeting with their counselors. While all this is happening, I continue to try to teach.  So here's the plan:

• Tuesday, 2/16 - students create and check in their thesis statements; then they work on organizing their notes into an outline.
• Wednesday, 2/17 - students check in their outlines, and then we continue on to the drafting element, working in parenthetical citations, all on the Google Drive platform.  While doing this, they exit the room three at a time to go work with their counselors.
• Thursday, 2/18 - students draft their rough draft on Google Drive while continuing to meet with their counselors.
• Friday, 2/19 - students finish their rough draft on Google Drive while continuing to meet with their counselors.

If the scheduling is too disruptive, I'll move the rough draft due date to Monday, 2/22.  I'll change it on the electronic calendar if that is the case.

So that's the plan.  I hope everyone has a great week!  Ciao!


On to Scheduling for 10th Grade! by Laura Stubbs is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at laurastubbs.blogspot.com.