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Archive for the ‘Due dates’ Category

Current Conflict Research Project

April 27th, 2008

By now most of you have set up your Netcipia place and here is where the fun really begins!!! All resources and information you find out there can be placed in it. Be careful to really think about how it is going to be set out and make sure you are adding pages. Once the conflict outline has been written, the research begins. Use the following Note taking page format and create a page using the topic Notes as your title. This will allow you the opportunity build a page full of information that has been synthesized by you……DO NOT COPY AND PASTE TO THIS PAGE. ALL WORK ON THIS PAGE SHOULD BE IN YOUR OWN WORDS. To avoid a mix up create another page where all your links, videos, word documents etc. can be stored and call this Research documents.

So let’s outline what needs to be completed.

1. Your current conflict plan. Here is a plan and here is an example.

2. Next start taking notes using this proforma.doc

3. By next class you should have completed your conflict plan and begun note taking and gathering documents, etc.

4. Be sure your blog has a link to your Netcipia place

Goodluck…..Let’s go for it!!!

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Sick as a dog

April 13th, 2008

I am really annoyed at not being at school today….the main reason being I have your practice ERB to hand back and work on with you, but it will have to wait. While I am away today please complete Vocab lesson 20 first. Many of you haven’t posted your 6 quotes for The Outsiders….that needs to be done asap. Finally the big part of today, please post to your blog an entry discussing your opinion of the movie. A review, but you need to go further describing the movie and the book. Were there characters that seemed out of place? How did the movie compare to the book.

We were lucky to have the extended version which adds a lot of scenes people complained were missing in the original version….the boys in bed, a longer opening, Johnny’s mother in the hospital. Read this article about the director, Francis Ford Coppola’s decision to release this longer version. Discuss it when reviewing the film. Good luck and stay focused!!!! Any information on Francis Ford’s directing techniques would also be great.

Posted in Due dates, Humanities | Comments (9)

BookBird is the new black! Plus The Outsiders quote analysis

April 12th, 2008

It’s official….Dianna has now explained why bookworm is a ridiculous name for people who love books I am a BOOKBIRD. I refrain from using the phrase ‘bookworm’, because worms are like… yeah. They crawl on their bellies for all eternity, and eat dirt. Not exactly what I want to be when I grow up.

What to call guys though? Bookbird is fine for Ladies, but Gentlemen…..what should we call you? Leave a comment.

Reading your Outsiders quote analysis had me thinking…….Let’s be really careful and thoughtful as to your title of posts. Don’t call it “Um Yeah Homework he’s making me do” because I can pretty much guarantee not many people will google that!!! But if we think about it, I wonder how many people are right now studying The Outsiders and have at some point gone looking for quotes or writing that could help them generate ideas?? By naming your post properly traffic to your sight will increase significantly. For those that haven’t posted your quotes…hop to it. Be creative and think Google!

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The Outsiders quotes

April 8th, 2008

I wrote on the board this morning…..Boy we are busy!!!! But busy in a good way and not overwhelming so long as you keep up to date and complete the tasks as they are set. Well done to everyone who completed the work from last class….those that haven’t??? Hop to it.

A list of 10 quotes up to chapter where projected last week on to the wall with you guys choosing 2 of your favorites to interpret. Here’s the list of Important-quotes.doc

I have 30 quotes with students having to choose 4 more……2 from numbers 11 - 20 and 2 from 21 - 30. That means a total of 6 quotes…. a paragraph for each.

We spoke in class about how and what to write down but to refresh your memory……What context is the quote used in? What is the person actually saying or what does the person want us to get from the quote? How is it important to the book? For example Cherry says…. “I could fall in love with Dallas Winston. I hope I never see him again, or I will.” Cherry is really saying that she likes Dally but nothing good could possibly come from the two of them ending up together. To be a Soc and falling in love with a Greaser would be a disaster for her as she sees it as she would end up alienating herself from all her friends family etc. Cherry also implies through this quote that Dally is trouble and it can only end bad for him, either jail, drugs or death and to know that someone you love is on that path of self destruction and could bring you down with them is not a view of the future Cherry wants. Cherry is optimistic about her future compared to Dally who views it as rather black. See how easy that was????? Go for it 7th grade you have 2 options….write it in your book or post it to your blog for the world to see….. a hint though…..posting it will be looked at more favorably by me!!!!

Posted in Blogroll, Due dates, Humanities, Information | Comments (3)

Monday and Tuesday’s class

April 5th, 2008

I am on the Puxi campus today working with the Middle school alignment committee. While I am gone today it is important that you watch the 1960’s video and complete the exercise.

1. Study and investigate the images presented in the youtube clip. Name all of the clips (you should be able to name most) either naming or describing what the picture represents in your book. Then………

2. Choose 2 images and once you have investigated them further, and on your blog describe why these images were important and noteworthy in the 1960’s. For example the picture attached is of Muhammad Ali. What did he do during his life? Especially the 60’s. Sure he wass a boxer but he said and did things that at the time could be seen as quite controversial. Please complete 1 paragraph for each image.

It should start to become apparent that the time’s they were a changing! back then and S.E. Hinton was part of these times. Place these images on your blog with your description. You may have some trouble finding these images within China…I know when putting the film clip together I had some trouble when I typed in the word Protest, or War etc. Let’s leave the great firewall topic for next lesson!!!!!!

Once you complete this you can either finish reading the book, finish the questions or find resources to add to your blog….like Veronica did. Good work Veronica….but please excuse Veronica’s shorthand on some of her other entries!!!!!! It might be worth all of us trying to tighten our sentence structure and grammar!!!!! Good luck.

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Nothing gold can stay

April 1st, 2008

Even though we haven’t seen the movie yet (we will watch it I promise!) Ponyboy’s rhythm when reciting Nothing gold can stay helps me better understand the meaning and slow down the lines.

Embed this clip in your blog (you do this by clicking Menu on the clip below and copy the URL…then paste it into your blog by clicking the little “yellow A button” when writing your post) or just paste the words and write your interpretation in a detailed paragraph. I say detailed, as students have written 1000 word essays on this poem….even more!! So think back over our discussion of the poem….think of a sunrise you have seen. What does gold really represent? Why is the leaf a flower? Is this poem uplifting? Is it meant to show us how bleak life is? What does it mean?

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/9_d8FKgrZ1E" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Nothing gold can stay

Nature’s first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost.

Not only do you have to write your interpretation you also have to comment on another students blog about their entry.

Here is an anonymous interpretation I found really quickly….it raises some good points…..At first I thought it to be about the cycles in life, the changes. Maybe because I was an optimist, I wanted so badly to believe the gold could come back. Now though I think of life as going around once. The gold doesn’t reoccur with the seasons as I had once hoped. Because once you’ve lost the gold, lost the innocence the view you have on everything changes. Things become darker, because reality in its entirety has moments of bleakness. Once you’ve faded, once the gold is chipped there’s no going back. Blinders can’t take away what’s already been seen. In some respects I feel as if with the loss of my grandmother so young the gold has been peeled off of me. So I’ve tried to stay pure in the ways I can control. Who wouldn’t want to cling to gold? It’s hard in a world like this.

Good luck.

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Bring your ipod to humanities!!!!

March 31st, 2008

But don’t listen to it!!!! Yes you heard right. Let’s take our ipods to the next level and start using them as informational tools as well. As we read through the Outsiders there will be several documents you can look at on your ipod. Hopefully as you sit on the bus and listen to your favorite music you can also scroll through a fact sheet or character profiles in your ipods notes section…….it is endless what you can do!!!!

Download the following documents by clicking the link and saving it to your desktop as a text file:

Characters-The-Outsiders.txt

Glossary-The-Outsiders.txt

Motifs-The-Outsiders.txt

Key-facts-The-Outsiders.txt

Symbols.txt

Themes.txt

Now uploading to your ipod is really simple, and you only have to do this step once.

To do this, first you need to mount your iPod on the Desktop. Plug in your iPod and load up iTunes. Go to the iPod section and make sure “Enable Disk Use” is checked.Enable Disk Use

Matt's iPod

Now you can copy files to and from your iPod.

Then whenever you want to add more things it is as easy as dragging and dropping straight onto your ipod on the desktop. Try it with the files I have for you and next class I will show you how to change anything you have in word to a text file that the ipod can read……..Best of all……..if you don’t have an ipod….this just might convince your parents!!!!!!

But let’s get one thing straight……. don’t go home and say Mr Power says we need to buy an ipod!!!!!!

Downloading the text files then copy and paste into word and print it out if you want a hard copy can be just as good.

Thanks to MacOSXhints for the screenshots and easy explanation.

Posted in Due dates, Humanities | Comments (9)

Welcome back!!

March 30th, 2008

Well I hope you all had a fantastic Spring Break and ready to hit the end of the year with guns blazing!! Thanks to Ms Flott who has done an amazing job and left the classes in great shape. And thanks to everyone for the well wishes. Mimi has really settled in and it feels as those she has been with us forever…..I really missed all of you though, and am happy to be back.

1158659307072.jpgBut the best thing of all is, I get to come back and jump right in to my favorite 7th grade book….The Outsiders.

Ms Flott has introduced it and you should have read up to Chapter 5. Check back here tomorrow for your homework and related Outsiders documents…and let’s have a great 4th quarter!!!!

Posted in Due dates, Humanities, Information | Comments (2)

Dear Students and Parents

February 14th, 2008

Please find attached a letter to you regarding my paternity leave. You will be happy to read that the mistakes that existed in the hard copy sent home have now been removed!!!! In my haste to send it out I was lacking several commas! Ms Flott will be replacing me and I can assure you of the high standard of learning that will take place in my absence.

The DragonKeeper assignment will be due February 22 and will constitute most of the homework next week.

However, there is a homework task that needs to be completed asap. A paragraph sent to your blog from page 158 of our textbook. This paragraph is essentially the three detailed questions we answered in class.

I will check this homework off tomorrow. Good luck in my absence and make sure to check back regularly for news and information!

Posted in Due dates, Fun stuff, Humanities | Comments (12)

Michelangelo homework

January 30th, 2008

The Renaissance and Reformation

One of the greatest Renaissance artists was Michelangelo. Read about his life and works on the Encarta Web site.

On Encarta his works are explained in some detail. Choose one and google image one of Michelangelo’s works of art and tell us why you would like to see it the most. Due Saturday February 2.

I was lucky enough many years ago to backpack my way around Italy. The one piece of art that caught my attention the most was A Pieta. This beautiful sculpture is in Saint Peter’s Basilica. It now lives behind a bullet proof glass structure after…..an Australian who thought he was Jesus, in 1972 took to it with a hammer splintering and damaging A Pieta!! Restorers painstakingly fixed the statue and to look at it now you can’t find a blemish anywhere on it.

It was one of the first sculptures I had seen that looked so life like. The clothes looked real and her lamenting face made for a serene moment as I stared at it intently. The brilliant white color of the marble and the way it was restored all lead to this being my favorite Michelangelo work of art. Mr Power

Posted in Due dates, Fun stuff | Comments (4)

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