This picture if of the train station in Wales next to the town with the huge name: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. And you didn't believe me. At least this town isn't as lengthy a name as the village in Thailand named
Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphop
nopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharn
amornphimarnavatarnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit. Don't even ask me what that means.
Today is Orange and White Day! Dress in our school colors today--I'm going to, complete with orange satin ballroom skirt--and you get to go to lunch ONE MINUTE EARLY! 60 whole seconds! Wheee! Our game tonight is away but I hope the weather plays nicely and ya'll get to go.
Reminder: Wear sneakers on Monday, if you care about the state of your feet. There might be a reason for all of us to dutifully troop out to the practice field during the first portion of first period. Just saying.
College Application Help Sessions before and after school today in my classroom.
Remember that the Writing Center is open next week in room 315 during A and B lunch on Tuesday and Thursday! Consultants can eat lunch in 313 on the off-days.
Sophys: Author of the Day is Louise Erdrich; vocabulary quiz #4 is today, too. First period can move on to Genre Studies (notes will be posted this weekend, btw) and second period still needs to finish the O'Brien tale. We get our textbooks next Tuesday. . .finally!
APees: Focus papers are due today by 4:30 p.m. in person AND on www.turnitin.com by midnight tonight. I'm gratified to see that many of you have already posted by now. Good for you! Today: Sophocles and his attitude towards women; modern implications of the tragedy; review of principal characters and quotations from the play. ORex test is Tuesday.
K12 Planet: I have been dutifully updating my electronic gradebook each day, which is supposed to automatically upload to K12 Planet. Several of you have been telling me that your classes are appearing on the site, but none of the grades are. Last fall, we had some technical problems with this company and 22% of our classes were off-line for weeks; I don't quite know what the deal is now, but we've just hired a new tech guy and I anticipate this is a priority.
So what can we do to ameliorate the woe?
First--if your parents are concerned about your progress, you can always get one of those progress reports and have each teacher fill it out. If you're seeking more instant gratification, I just learned how to e-mail your parents or you through the electr0nic gradebook (score!) so you can see how you're doing. And I am ALWAYS willing to print out a grade slip for you at any time.
Why not just post grades each week on the bulletin board?
I'm sketchy on posting grades with student numbers, as some of my colleagues do--I really think it compromises student privacy. Really--if your last name is Aardvark, everyone is going to know that you are the first student on the list; if your last name is ZZZZZ, everyone will know you're the last. Also, what if you go look at a massive list of grades and see a ton of As and Bs, and you are the sole F? Not that I can envision that happening to YOU, of course. See what I mean?
So please see me if you have questions--I give work back as quickly as possible, so youc an track your progress, and I will happily communicate progress with you between standard report cards and progress reports as you need it. I hope that K12 will get going soon, but we do have options. I will do all I can to help you succeed and learn.
Have a safe and productive weekend!
