November 19, 2009

Gameplan:

• SSR
• Work on Gawain Project
• A Word About The Library

Homework:

• Blog Assignment #10
• ——> P.R. #2 DUE FRIDAY @ 8:00 PM!!! <——

Okay. Today was another fairly simple, laid back day. We did our usual SSR for 20 minutes. Then Mrs. Edwards gave us a talk about her classroom library. Point was to enjoy Edwards books but do not mess them up! Take good care of them! If you lose a book, just own up to it! She gave us 3 simple rules: 1) Take care of books!, 2) Check books out if you’re interested, don’t just take them!, 3) DO NOT PUT THE BOOKS UNDER THE DESKS! These should be easy to follow, so yeah. Mrs. Edwards is also looking for a “Librarian” to help keep her books nice and organized. This librarian will be getting community service, so if interested go visit Edwards. The rest of the class was spent working on our Gawain Project.

 

November 18, 2009

Gameplan:

• SSR
• A Word About W.W.
• More Samples
• Work On Gawain Project

Homework:

• Blog Assignment #10
• ——–> P.R. #2 DUE FRIDAY @ 8:00 PM!!!!!!!!!!!!! <——–

Okay so today was a fairly easy and simple day. We started off with out normal SSR. Then Mrs. Edwards gave a word about W.W. She is tired of getting lame excuses for why things are not being turned in on time. Stop! Just do the work. She gives us enough time. So stop the lame excuses! She also was very clear about the next W.W. rotation being very different! PEER REVIEW #2 IS DUE THIS FRIDAY AT 8:00 PM!! DO NOT FORGET! After being warned about W.W. , Mrs. Edwards went on to show us another example from last years Gawain Project. For the rest of the class she gave us time to work on our projects.

 

November 16, 2009 IfS

Gameplan:

• SSR + Welcome scribe (Me )
• Essay Contest? / Blog Assignment
• Intro Gawain Project

Homework:

• Blog Assignment #10
• W.W. Draft #2 due TODAY by 8pm

Alright, so pretty much what went down today was that we had our normal 20 minutes of SSR. After Mrs. Edwards explained Essay Contest** to us. Once she finished explaining that she explained the Blog Assignment – which is fairly easy and seems like fun. All we have to do is make a random album cover for your “band”s first album. Follow the instructions on the blog and you should be good! DONT CHEAT! And finally Mrs. Edwards introduced the Gawain Project. We had to pick a partner to work with. She said that for the next couple classes we were going to work on this project so make sure you do work! We will be presenting the projects the 2nd rotation after we come back from Thanksgiving break. You have to complete all 3 projects to receive a grade. It’s all or nothing! So the rest of the class was spent on the project, planning and deciding stuff with your partner.

 

**The Essay Contest (if you are interested):

• Sponsored by Samsung
• 100 word essay that deals with technology
• Winner recieves a $1000 technology grant that goes to that students school
• Mrs. Edwards “prizes: Make it to Round 1: Skip a W.W rotation….. Make it to Round 2: Get an AE for another W.W. rotation.
• The deadline is: December 1st!!!

 

BLOG ASSIGNMENT #10

What is your album cover?  Just follow the steps below to find out and post your results here.  (Yeah, yeah, it’s not academic, but it sure is fun and it’ll test the ‘Effective User of Technology’ ESLR for Team 11 just in time for report cards.  )

1 – Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 – Click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 – Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 – Use Photoshop or something similar to put it all together.
Maybe even use the lolcat builder if you have to:
http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/

5 – Upload your completed masterpiece to a free image hosting site like imageshack then post the link for it here.

 

November 13th (Friday the 13th!)

Game Plan:

QUIZ!

Today, is my last scribe day. We didn’t read today either, only because we had 35min. each class. So, we took a quiz that lasted from 8:37-9:12. The quiz was open note. The quiz was about: Sir Gawain, the Green Knight, Excaliber. Book orders were due today, but nobody in West House got any books. Apparently, the books weren’t that intresting. The homework is B.A.#9. DUE AT 8PM TODAY!!! Also, Draft #2 is due MONDAY 11-16-09.  I think, not sure, that the P.R. is due 11-19-09 or 11-20-09, just turn it in before that date so you don’t have to sumbit your draft #1 to the Pomlan thing. The P.R. is due at 8pm 11-19 or 11-20-09.  OH! (not related to english) the price anaylses is due 11-16-09!! DON’T FORGET!

Well, it was fun being a scribe. Hope to do this again later in the year. Until then, bye West House, and good luck next scriber.

 

November 12th 2009

Game Plan:

SSR+ stamp hw

Harkness!

We read for the usual 30min, then Mrs Edwards stamped pg 210-216 questions(dont forget to do pg 216-221 blue questions). Then we had visitors! 10th grade english teacher Mr. Hogan, VP Mrs. Martinez, and a college student Ms. Sarah (or Siearrah, dont remember). The reason they came in on West house, is because Mrs Edwards said  that West House is probably the best house to watch a harkness. As if we didn’t already know that already. After all, West House IS The Best House!! The Harkness was about Sir Gawain, Exaliber, and what we have read. The 1st Inner Circle started of with, of course, Nate. And it ended with Cassy. Some things that they brought up was “Chivalry” and about comparing the Middle Ages, to Modern times. The 2nd Inner circle started with Krystyn, and ended with Krystyn( or Natali?) The 2nd Inner circle had to use a pig, cause everyone was talking at once. The pig is for people to talk, so if, lets say, the hot seat, wanted to talk, someone has to pass them the pig. The hot seat is for someone on the outer circle, or Mrs Edwards, to ‘jump’ in and talk. only if they have something to say about the disscussion.  The 2nd Inner circle talked about comparing the Modern Ages from Middle Ages.  Well todays homework! Pg 216-221 blue questions due tomorrow QUIZ TOMORROW 11/13/09 (friday the 13th!) B.A#9 due 8pm friday 11-13-09, 2nd draft due MONDAY!! well, thats all for today. Dont forget to study for quiz, even if open note.

 

November 9th 2009!

Game Plan:

SSR+Welcome Scribe

Literary Response ‘mini’-lesson(according to Steven, if a lesson is more than 15 minutes, then it’s not a ‘mini-lesson’

Today, as usual, we started off with SSR for the 3omin. Then talked about how Wednseday messes up this week. What ever classes we have on Wednseday, we have Thursday. (Not sure about the FL/PE thing though) DONT FORGET P.R. IS DUE 8PM!! And read Sir Gawain +BLUE margin questions[5] pgs 209-216, and stop and the summary. Also Harkness of Thursday, so prepare. Its an academic Harkness about the Sword and the Stone and Arthur. The lesson was about elements for a prompt.  Thinking Skills(TS), Depth(D), Complexity(C), Resources(R), and Prompt(P) An example of TS-Judge, Evaluate, Analyze, Explain. Depth example:Patterns, Details, Ethic issues. Complexity example: over time, male/female perspective, major/minor perspective. Resouce examples:Video/audio, news/media, books, experiments, internet. An example of a Prompt: Explain the ethics of Harry Potter from a Female Perspective.

Mrs. Edwards made an equation :TS+D+C+R=P. She was proud of herself, since she isn’t a math person, like some of us. We also made a ‘circle of learning’ where white=TS, Blue=D, Green=C, Gold=R. We made those little circle things where you can spin one, then another..  well, it makes a sentence, in a way. (sorry, can’t find a picture). Thats all I got. DONT FORGET P.R. @8PM and B.A.#9 due friday @8pm

 

BLOG ASSIGNMENT #9

Create at least 3 prompts for a possible literary response piece using the wheel of learning.

 

November 5, 2009

Gameplan:

• Excalibur

Homework:

• Blog Assignment #8
• Work on W.W. #2 Draft 1 (DUE THIS FRIDAY!!!)

Today, we jumped right into the movie so that we could finish it. She paused it somewhere towards the end to fix everybody’s misunderstandings. After the movie had finished, Mrs. Edwards asked us to see beyond the cheese, and to contemplate the deeper meaning and symbolism of the movie. That’s all for the week!

 

November 4, 2009

Gameplan:

• Excalibur

Homework:

• Blog Assignment #8
• Work on W.W. #2 Draft 1 (DUE THIS FRIDAY)

 Mrs. Edwards returned the Midieval Times Study Guide to the people who had turned theirs in before, and the people who didn’t turned them in today. Everybody’s Writing Workshop papers are graded on turnitin.com. To access it, log into your account, and next to the document you submitted there should be an apple; click on it, and there’s your grade. If you want to discuss your grade and you think it’s negotiable, based on the rubric she handed us, make an appointment with her. You can meet with her either during fourth block or if you want to talk afterschool, you’ll have to give her an advance notice. Think about you paper and the rubric before you make an appointment.

 For the entire class, we watched Excalibur; a movie made in the 1980s. We skipped SSR so that we could have enough time to finish it. Mrs. Edwards warned us it would be a bit cheesy. North house had decided our fate that we would continue watching the movie next block. There are two reasons we are watching this movie. First, Mr. Navaroli suggested it becasue he thought it was a “great flic”, and second,  Mrs. Edwards wanted us to watch it as a precursor to this Midieval Times section. We will continue the second half of the movie next block!!