Monday, March 15, 2010

Beware the Ides of March; the Ides of March, beware! Mwahahahahahahahaha. . .

Some general housekeeping: A river of graded work needs to go back today, and for those of you who have been racking up absences, please see me ASAP to get make-up quizzes, etc. back on track. I am uploading grades for this quarter beginning next Wednesday, March 24, so the sooner the better. Go, ProgressBook, go.

ALSO: Several of you have asked for reprints of rec letters for scholarships. See me as soon as possible to facilitate this due to my increasing suspicion that my classroom computer is dying. It has made mastadon-like noises in the hard drive region of late, and it's eight years old, which in computer world is practically primeval. And it takes forever to boot up. And it no longer likes my Lord of the Rings screensaver. And it cusses at me when it thinks I'm not paying attention. We have long had an adversarial relationship, this computer and I, and now as it goes gently into that good night it is raging against the dying of the light. So letter-needers: See me ASAP. Really.

Today's Curriculum! 'Cause we got some!

Gifted English II: Finally, finally finishing the O. The Great Smother is upon us, and it does beg the question: At what point does someone who was smothered, then uncovered, then gives a speech, which denotes a use of oxygen, seem to unrealistically die? Desdemona embraces her quietus with fortitude and stumbles through a speech before succumbing to the great beyond, but medical scholars and disbelieving audience members alike say What What? Of course, we have to see what happens (if anything) to the dastardly Iago. Life's not fair, kids. Not at all.

APees: We put the F (as in Fun) in FRQ today, oh yes we do, and we apply said FRQness to Jane Eyre. And we will talk more about Jane, and possibly do a close reading of a selected passage. Bronte is so awesome. Like totally.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The FCAT Writes! test will be administered next Tuesday, resulting in an elongated second period session. If you have late arrival, please check with an administrator or check the adjusted bell schedule for your arrival time on that day. I will be administering the test to a small group of learners in my classroom, which means that 313 is strictly off-limits to non-testers. We cannot interfere with the integrity of the test. See me if you have any questions throughout the week.

Sophys: The focus paper for Julius Caesar won't be due until after the FCAT Writes, even though we are already beginning Othello. Also, I can extend the memorization assignment into early next week due to overlapping deadlines with the Lupercalian project, the standardized testing, and scheduling for next year. I will clarify in class tomorrow.

Students in second/third period: The School Board will be paying us a visit tomorrow. Be nice.

Gifted English II: After I distribute the Othello content vocabulary, we will be writing a quick, informal response to a quote from the tragedy for pre-reading purposes. Also, we will be going over the Lupercal festival concept with more detail.

APees: I will give each of you a packet of student-generated essays on the prompt you outlined/addressed yesterday in class. As a group, we are going to read over the student samples and determine the criteria the College Board is seeking for poetic analysis on Hardy's text.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

If you are going on the Paris trip (which only applies to seven or eight of you who read this blog) then the pre-trip travel meeting is tonight in room 313 at seven p.m. While this is certainly not a mandatory meeting, it will be very helpful to get flight numbers, Euro exchange rates, and general weather advisories, plus the pre-trip letter (that you will probably get in the mail anyway) with new TSA packing advisories and packing tips for our purposes. We will be gone for the entire Thanksgiving week!

Gifted English II: Continuation of the Literature of Horror Unit; we need to finish discussing page three of the outline and preparing for Poe. Also, our next literary unit is Candide by Voltaire, and there are 59 copies of the novel available in the media center for checkout all week. WARNING: This novel is controversial; it was banned in 1799 when it was published and has raised hackles ever since. If you are particularly sensitive or have religious objections to such satirical writing, please see me before or after class for an alternate assignment. I will be more than happy to provide such an alternative if you desire, but I would hope that you might give this novel a chance--it is so, so funny and is meant entirely in jest. However, some sensitive readers who may not approve of violence, even in an over-the-top formation that is clearly not meant to be taken literally, are certainly within their rights to ask for a different novel. See me if you have concerns.

APeeps: Hamlet again; either the quiz that was forestalled from yesterday, or a discussion of Act II's complicated soliloquy. All the emo you can handle! NOTE: If you wish to resubmit the MacEssay (please don't, but if you have to. . .) I need them by Friday. Report cards are supposed to go out Friday, but due to the vagaries of the ProgressBookery going on who knows. Pardon me if that sounds cynical. I just work here.

Thursday, October 30--retroactively posted

I'm so sorry that I haven't been keeping up with this! Family medical issues have taken over my time and energy, but life does go on, and light bulbs need to be changed, and lesson plans need to be updated. A thousand apologies for shirking my duties to you.

For the record, then. . .

Gifted English II: Reminder of vocabulary quiz on Friday; syntax analysis of Poe (kinds of sentences used, and examination of sentence structure); introduction to the Sature Unit; reminder to please acquire a copy of Candide by Voltaire (I still have two copies available--first come, first served); discussion of "Pit" to conclude things.

AP English Literature and Composition: Act II quiz and transition to Act III, scene i.

K12 Woe

NOTE: This post does not reflect the official position of OCPS or any of its subsidiaries. It's all my opinion, and therefore, fault.

NOTE NOTE: It should be working! Please let me know. Mr. Fitz came in and worked on it for a significant period of time today (Tuesday.)

I hate K12 Planet. The idea is terrific, but the execution is less than desirable. At this time last year, 22% of our school's classes were up and running on the program. This year, I suspect it's even worse. We are segueing into ProgressBook in January, I believe, and that program is much more user-friendly and easier to navigate. This is how much I hate K12 Planet: last year, all but one of my classes exported automatically to the K12 portal, with no problems. That one class was just left out in the cold. It caused endless amounts of grief and worry about the inequity of one little class, ostracized by bits and bytes.

This year, our tech people dutifully worked on it and worked on it, and none of the faculty realized that we had to go in manually to the eClass grades program and set up K12 since we'd never, ever done it before.

Flash forward to today during third period. Now, I am the first to admit that I am imperfect. In fact, I'm so stunningly imperfect that if I get through a day without hitting a squirrel with my car or without going completely bonkers it's a personal victory. But I am quite computer-literate, and I dutifully followed the entire prescribed protocol, line by line, for uploading this wretched program to my eClass gradebook. And it failed, repeatedly.

An administrator is coming to my room (for the fifth intervention visit, btw) to "fix" the bugs tomorrow. My prognosis? Not good. So. . .peeps, as always, if you want to see how you're doing gradewise, ask and I will A) print out a grade slip, B) e-mail your parental unit with a version of the gradebook in Courier 10 typeface, C) tell you, or D) write it on one of our classy yellow progress report forms from Student Services. Really.

I have tremendous faith in technology, but K12 Planet is only good if it works. Please be patient with me. I am trying by hook or by crook to be a Team Player, a Tech Wizard, a Grade Guru. I'm all about cooperation, but I need tools that actually work.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Note: If you have Ms. S. for American Government, please wish her a happy birthday today. Yes, she's 29--as are we all!

APees: Continuing with Macstuff (reviewing Act I and definitely taking that quiz we all avoided yesterday) and moving into Higher Levels of Meaning. You will have outside reading tonight, so be prepared for HW.

Gifted English II: AUTHOR OF THE DAY QUIZ AT THE BEGINNING OF THE PERIOD. Do NOT forget your English notebook today, or you will be seriously out of gas. You are allowed to use your Author Log--consider this quiz a reward for taking daily notes. I expect all of you to make 100%, but as in years past, not all of you will. Truly tragic. After the quiz, more Greek fun!

I will be available before and after school and during lunch for make-up quizzes, college application essay help, or general existential crisis management (within reason.)