A Bump on a Blog

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Wow!

Thanks to "New Technology for Teachers" for this poster. Wow!

A Peek at the 2011-12 Yearbook

I am so excited about the yearbook and want to share a peek of what is taking place in A-119 after school on Wednesdays! (Drum roll, please.) We are creating a landscape book, which means that instead of opening like a normal book, readers will access it like a calendar. Our rep Angela (<3) told us that since she has been with Herff-Jones that no other school has attempted this. That makes us even more pumped and determined to have the best yearbook yet!

With the changes in binding and appearance, we decided that our theme should be "Bound to be Different". Even though we came up with that last spring, it goes perfectly with the school-wide "Bring It Back". Be prepared for colors that pop out, great photographs, more features, and fun! I hope you ordered a book, because if you didn't you will regret it!

Here is a peek at what the front cover will look like. Maybe I'll share more "peeks" with you in the future!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

How to use Google to research

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Baby elephants take bath

From Houston Zoo

Is this not incredibly cute!?

Thursday, July 14, 2011

The Age of the Dictionary - The History of English Part 7

Shakespeare: The History of English (Part 3)

Friday, July 8, 2011

The Power of Words

From Youtube.com

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Evaluating Web Sites - Video

From Youtube.com

Monday, May 16, 2011

Speech Advice 2011

Now's your chance to leave advice for future speech students.

Picture from brizzly.com

Sunday, May 15, 2011

A message from my friends

Friday, October 29, 2010

For you math lovers

You math lovers, or those who need some extra help, will appreciate this site:
http://www.mathopenref.com/index.html

The site offers assistance in the following areas:
Plane Geometry
Introduction to Plane Geometry Points, lines and planes Angles Parallel lines Triangles Quadrilaterals Polygons Congruence Similar polygons, triangles Circles and Arcs Ellipses Constructions Transformations Famous Geometers
Coordinate Geometry
Introduction to Coordinate Geometry Points, lines and planes Polygons Print blank graph paper
Solid Geometry
Cubes Cylinders
Tools
General Function Explorer (GFE) Linear Function Explorer
* Standard form (mx+b)
* Alternate form (ax+b)

Quadratic Function Explorer
* Standard form
* Vertex form

Cubic Function Explorer Math / Scientific Calculator

Thanks to Richard Byrne and his blog “Free Technology for Teachers”.

Picture from PicsDigger

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Too cute not to share!

Photo from Fishki.net

Thursday, October 7, 2010

A "thumbs up" idea

One of the blogs I follow is called Free Technology for Teachers, by Richard Byrne, and he just wrote about a site I think many of you would enjoy. Here’s what he wrote and the link:

Thumb Scribes is a new platform for collaboratively creating poems and short stories. Thumb Scribes can be used in two ways. First, you can contribute to a story or poem that someone else has started and placed in the public gallery. Second, you can start your own story or poem and either place it in the public gallery or invite others to collaborate with you. If you put your poem or story in the public gallery anyone can add to it. If you don't want the whole world adding to your poem or story you can mark it as "private" and invite individuals to add to it.

https://thumbscribes.com/login.php

Photo from Average Jane Crafter

Friday, May 14, 2010

Now it's your turn

At the beginning of the semester, you read the advice that my first semester students gave you. Now it's your turn. What advice do you give my students for next year? What can they do to succeed in my classes?

Artwork from careernetwork.msu

Saturday, May 1, 2010

The Art of Persuasive Writing: A Few Pointers

We use persuasion every day:

• Convincing myself to use the treadmill every morning.

• Begging your parents to let you stay out later.

• Assuring your teachers that you will study for a test.

Persuasion is a life-long skill, but do you realize how much you actually use it? This video will help you understand some of the main characteristics of persuasion, plus some real-life examples.

Video from “Education With Vision”

Saturday, April 24, 2010

The Open Window

This short film was based on Saki's "The Open Window" which we read in Brit Lit. Do you recognize any of the actors?

Video from YouTube

What if everyone you loved, everything you knew, was a lie?

The next play we'll be reading in dramatic lit is a story of love, war, friends, and two families who had everything. . . until they lost each other.

It explores themes of love, betrayal, guilt, denial, blame, and people making money while others are fighting for higher causes, which happens in every war.

Artwork from Pioneer Place Five

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The Importance of Being Earnest - DramLit

This is one of the plays we'll be reading. It is full of secret identities, romance, puns, and twists and turns with the characters lying in order to be “earnest”.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Sistine Chapel Virtual Tour

You need to check this out! It is amazing!

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Sneezing Baby Elephant Scares Self

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

What suggestions or advice would you give my students?

Photo from Tim Young

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Will in Jeans

Normally I would not put an ad on my blog, but this just shows how Shakespeare can relate to anything and any time period. Enjoy!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Do You Believe In Me?

Dalton Sherman, the 5th grade keynote speaker for the Dallas Independent School District's 2008 Back to School Pep Rally, gave this speech in front of 20,000 teachers.

After watching this video, you will be writing a response on Moodle.

Video from youtube.com

Friday, August 7, 2009

Visit Classroom 2.0

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Podcasts in Plain English

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Blogs in Plain English

Web Search Strategies in Plain English

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Macbeth Sock Puppets

from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQkpz9fdBSU

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

A Raisin in the Sun

We will be reading this in dramatic lit. It's an incredible play about dissatisfaction, dreams, and decisions.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Assignment 3: I Hate Public Speaking

Respond to this video. What point is it making? Your answer should let me know that you watched the entire video. Write 100-125 words on Moodle, not as a comment to this post.

Shakespeare By Numbers

(Thanks to "Shakespeare in American Communities")

* Shakespeare's estimated vocabulary: between 15,000 and 29,000 words (at least double or triple the vocabulary of other great English writers!)
* Total speeches in Shakespeare's works: 31,959
* Total lines in Shakespeare's works: 118,406
* Total words in Shakespeare's works: 884,647
* Plays with most rhyming lines: Love's Labour's Lost (62.2%) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (43.4%)
* Characters with most lines: Hamlet (1,569), Richard III (1,161) and Iago from Othello (1,117)
* Longest play: Hamlet (4,042 lines)
* Shortest play: The Comedy of Errors (1,787 lines)

Blogging Rules

1. You will be required to furnish me with your Email address and password to your blog. This will only be used to remove materials that are not school appropriate. If you are uncomfortable with this, set up a separate Email account and password for just this purpose. I will test this address and password to make sure it works. If it doesn't, or it is ever changed, your blog will be blocked.

2. Please, no last names, school names or addresses. No personal information (last names, contact information, pictures, etc...) should be included anywhere in your blog. This parallels what the school district's policy is regarding these matters. Even Email addresses should not be made public on the blog.

3. Do not link to your personal blog/journal from your school blog; you might reveal information on there that you don't want to reveal on your school blog. Use your online content as an extension of the classroom, and in doing so, leave anything that unsaid in the classroom unsaid online. Make sure that anything you write in a blog or link to your blog is something that you understand and want to be associated with.

4. If you want to write your opinion on a topic, make sure you're not going to be offensive to anyone as you write it. Use constructive/productive/purposeful criticism, supporting any idea, comment, or critique you have with evidence.

5. Always make sure you check over your post for spelling errors, grammar errors, and your use of words. Remember that this IS a class project, so it should be grammatically correct. That doesn’t mean you can’t use slang, for example, but at least spell it correctly!

6. Never disrespect anyone in your blog, whether it's a person, an organization, or just a general idea. You don't want someone making a stab at what you are passionate about; don't do it to someone else. All students - and teachers - should be careful and conscious about what they write because their blogs exist on the Internet, which is a public place. Believe it or not, people from other states and countries read our blogs, so only post what you want the world to know. This means that all writing should be school-appropriate, respectful, and free from harmful, hateful, or offensive language.

7. Don't write about other people without permission; when you DO get their permission, use first names only. Never share someone else’s last name.

8. Watch your language! We're not at home. We are at school. This has to be school appropriate.

9. Make sure things you write about are factual. Don't be posting about things that aren't true.

10. Keep it education-oriented. Don’t discuss your out-of-school plans for the week. Information and ideas on the blog should only be on school-related topics. More specifically, your blogs should deal with ideas related to what we are doing in class. These blogs are not places to socialize or meet other people. One shouldn't try to make friends as if it were Myspace. The key to safe blogging is to use your own good judgment in what you say or do.

11. Students and teachers have the right to delete any comments posted by someone else on their blogs that they do not feel comfortable with. Some good rules would be to consistently check your blog, and if any comments come up from people you don't know, report it to your teacher right away. Do not reply to those comments.

12. Be sure that anything you write you are proud of. It can and will come back to haunt you if you don't. In the future, when you are looking for a job, it will be possible for an employer to discover some immature things posted when you were younger. I'm sure that nobody would want this to happen, but it will if unnecessary things are written.

13. Do not plagiarize; Give credit where it is due.

14. Do not be afraid to express your ideas, but don’t overgeneralize or make derogatory/inflammatory remarks. Do not post anything that is not school appropriate. I will remove it.

15. Take all online content creation seriously, posting only things that are meaningful and taking your time when you write.

16. DO NOT CONDUCT A CHAT SESSION. Do not use your public writing (blog posts, comments, discussion topics, wiki edits) as a chat room. Instead, save IM language for private conversations.

17. Never access another student's account in order to pose as them or look at their personal content; instead, advise them when they haven't logged out of their blog.

18. Only post photos that are school appropriate and either in the creative commons or correctly cited. If necessary, you will have to wait until you get Sims’ permission. When posting a photo or video, be sure to cite where it came from. Say something like, “Photo by Harry Blackman” or “Video from Teachertube.com”.

19. Do not spam (including, but not limited to, meaningless messages, mass messages, and repetitive messages)

20. Remember blogging is much more than writing posts; taking the time to leave comments on posts to provide feedback or ask questions is an important part of both the readers and blogger’s learning process.

21. Since the use of discussion boards, podcasts, learning networks, and blogs is a way of differentiating instruction, there is always an alternative assignment for students who wish not to participate in the online activity.

Infractions of these rules will lead to the following consequences in order of severity and number of offense:
1. Warning by teacher, and editing or deletion of offending post/comment/picture/video, failure of assignment. Personal apology to those offended by the infraction (individual students, one class, or whole blogging community).
2. Temporary loss of blogging privileges, editing or deletion of offending post/comment/picture/video, failure of assignment. Personal apology to those offended by the infraction (individual students, one class, or whole blogging community).
3. Permanent loss of blogging privileges (duration of semester), editing or deletion of offending post/comment, failure of assignment. Personal apology to those offended by the infraction (individual students, one class, or whole blogging community).