Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Welcome back after a three-day weekend. Yesterday the nation celebrated a holiday honoring the civil rights activism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King preached non-violence as a means for social change, and without his efforts civil right in our nation, while still needing work, would probably not be as advanced as they are. I hope you took a moment of reflection over these issues this weekend. Furthermore, I hope that as this weekend progressed, each of you had an opportunity to come to terms with some of the more horrific elements of the last week--the death of a BHS student, the shooting death of a middle-school student at a nearby school, and the regular parade of woe that is our area's police blotter. May this week be a positive and meaningful one for all of us.

Advanced Placement Literature: After watching the "it's alive!" sequence from the satirical film Young Frankenstein, we are going to look at another Romantic poem in your lit anthology: "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth. Reminder: your focus papers are due Thursday, and I would strongly suggest that you avail yourselves of The Writing Center.

Gifted English IV: After finishing Hamlet today, we are going to review for the Hamlet unit test.

Gifted English II: I have a few linguistic issues to discuss with you, from the dishonesty in A Million Little Pieces to the significance of writing, before we look at Chapter One of The Elements of Style and then transition back into Act II of Julius Caesar. Vocab quiz this week!