February 23

I have received some instructions from my boss to change a few things about my teaching. This will, of course, affect you as well. Here are the specifics:
1. I must add more oral discussions. We'll do more of that roundtable type thing we did in early February.
2. Tell you in advance about what we are going to be doing:
--in March 3rd, 5th and 6th periods will read The Odyssey in the blue book. This means everyone must take their blue book home and bring it to school each day. I will post a schedule in room 151 when we return from President's Week. 4th period will read another novel while the other classes do The Odyssey. I'm debating between two or three books.
--in late March or early April we will start Romeo and Juliet.
--in April we will have STAR testing which will take up more than half our school day.
3. Give you firm deadlines for assignments. That means I must establish a firm time when your Station to Station and Research Projects are due. I hereby declare that I will not accept either of these assignments after 4pm on Wednesday, March 2nd.

To give you some idea where you stand I'm gradually putting in partial grades for the Research Project based upon where you are in the process.

February 18

Silent reading for twenty minutes then to lab to work on Research or Station to Station. If I see a bunch of people off task I'll come up with some kind of assignment to bring order to the room.

However! I'm going to ask you to do some reading over the President's Week. (Bring your book to Tahoe or Anaheim or wherever).
3rd please read up to page 284.
4th please finish the book. (Be sure to read the Epilogue.)

I'll quiz both classes the day we come back on this reading.

February 17

We'll be in the lab all period. We'll begin with a quiz.

My main goal is for everyone to finish STATION to STATION and the RESEARCH REPORT. There is also the crossword to complete. I will circulate and try to help as many folks as possible one on one. Please ask for help.

Check you email and Google docs accounts for feedback from me.

HOMEWORK: 3rd read "The Mad God"; 4th read "The Rice Harvest".

February 16

I'm in an all-day meeting today.
Please begin with 25 minutes of SSR.

Now I have a challenge for you. I'd like you to go to the lab and make a crossword puzzle about the book you are reading (White Fang or Red Scarf). Here is a short puzzle I made:
http://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/Data/2011.02/1516/15160728.087.html
(You may not use any of my clues.)

To make your own puzzle look at the link on the right side of the page.
Remember these tips:
1. Answers should not have spaces (JACKLONDON not JACK LONDON)
2. Have a mixture of short answers (WOLF) and long answers (MACKENZIERIVER)
3. 35 clues required for this project now, but we will add more clues later.
4. Give your puzzle a title, author's name and description.
5. To see your puzzle go to the bottom of the page and hit "Make Puzzle"
6. Share your puzzle with the public at the bottom (otherwise you will lose all your work.)

HOMEWORK: 3rd read: "The Enemy of His King". Likely quiz tomorrow.
4th read: "The Class Education Exhibition".

February 15

We'll begin with a quiz, then proceed to type your letters of appreciation.

Before you type your Business Letters please see me about getting your yellow copies proofread.

(A note to you and myself: it is always confusing to me to come up with good items for the Final Exam--which is still months away. Two likely items would be; 1. an MLA Works Cited using www.easybib.com and, 2. a personal business letter like the one you are typing today.)

(Second note to myself): I see on the bulletin board that there is a "College Night" tonight. I know nothing about it--probably got an email that I ignored--so somebody remind me to find out more about this!!)

HOMEWORK: 3rd read: "The Famine"; 4th read "Half-City Jiangs"

February 14

The next state standard is the business letter. Actually this format is good for business or personal letters. We'll use it for both.

But first we'll do our 20 minutes of SSR.

Then I have a handout that takes you through the letter-writing process.

HOMEWORK: 3rd read: "The Covenant"; 4th read: "An Educable Child"

February 11

Silent reading for twenty minutes.
I have short film to show in both classes. We'll then discuss some issues connected to the novels you are reading.

Next I'll explain the rules for writing a business letter.





HOMEWORK: 3rd read "The Trail of the Gods"; 4th read "Locked Up".