RETIREMENT TIME!

I am retiring as of June 1, 2014, so this blog will no longer be maintained. It's been a great 36 years of teaching and I hope someone can still make some use of what is on here. 

Many have asked me what I'm going to do now. To begin with, I want to sit on my porch with my cats Cleo and Julius and just read! Then I think I will be that crazy cat lady who yells at people who walk down the street and throw trash in the yards. My "teacher voice" will come in handy for that job. No matter what I end up doing, I will miss Pike Central! 

William Shakespeare Song

Thanks, Gabby, for sending me this link!

New Bloggers

Congratulations to my creative writing classes! Your blogs are now ready to go and linked to mine. I can't wait to see the imaginative work that will soon be posted on your sites. Remember to read and leave comments on your classmates' blogs. My dream is that you will all become life-long bloggers.

Artwork from Kim Cofino

We Need Our Teachers to Learn

I heard Will Richardson say the very same thing at the eRevolution conference yesterday in Evansville. This song strikes home. It's a hard thing to do, but I know that I constantly need to learn, along with my students. Thanks to the students who made this video.

P.S. I posted this video before leaving for the second day of the conference and then discovered that the keynote speaker for that day was the man who wrote and sung this song! I always knew I was psychic. (Or is that psychotic?) It just shows how important this message is.

Video from youtube

Ray Bradbury's Wish for Writers

Ray Bradbury’s Wish for Writers

If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling.

You must write every single day of your life.

You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next.

You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads.

I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime.

I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you.

May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise.

Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.

Ray Bradbury

1920 – 2012

Photo from the Ray Bradbury webpage

Wow!

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

How to use Google to research

Baby elephants take bath

From Houston Zoo

Is this not incredibly cute!?

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

Shakespeare: The History of English (Part 3)

The Power of Words

From Youtube.com

Evaluating Web Sites - Video

From Youtube.com

Speech Advice 2011

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

Picture from brizzly.com

Too cute not to share!

Photo from Fishki.net

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

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

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”

The Open Window

This short film was based on Saki's "The Open Window" which we read in English 12. 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

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”.

Sistine Chapel Virtual Tour

You need to check this out! It is amazing!

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

Sneezing Baby Elephant Scares Self

What suggestions or advice would you give my students?

Photo from Tim Young

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!

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

Visit Classroom 2.0

Podcasts in Plain English

Blogs in Plain English

Web Search Strategies in Plain English

Macbeth Sock Puppets

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

A Raisin in the Sun

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

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.