FCAT is Behind Us!/Thursday, March 11, 2010

Thank you so much to the students who made this such a cooperative, peaceful FCAT administration. The students I worked with were exemplary and sweet and I so appreciate the seniors taking a couple of days for reflection and college exploration. And the few who showed up and hung out with Mr. Undieme learned a lot!

Welcome back to Normality, such as it is in 313. . .

Word of the Day: presage

Holiday Today: Johnny Appleseed Day, World Kidney Day, and Nametag Day.

NOTE: This weekend is the end of Daylight Savings Time. Don't forget: Spring Forward; Fall Back! So yes, you lose an hour, but think of the residual psychological happiness when evening lingers longer and you have daylight to spare as the afternoon wanes. Before you go to bed Saturday night, move your clocks an hour forward, and while you're at it, have your parents (or you!) check the batteries in your smoke detector. Safety first! And I'm not even a fire marshal!

Gifted English II: Discussion questions for Act III of Othello (really more of a transition into the depths of Act IV) followed by the distribution of an awesome focus paper topic. I'll go ahead and give you the prompt: DEFEND IAGO. This should be interesting! And then, if you're good, and we have time, we will watch Othello have a meltdown in the Kenneth Branagh-directed film version.

APees: Collect and go over the Jane Eyre questions from the past two days, preparatory to the awesome and insightful quiz we get to take tomorrow. And if we have time, I'd like us to look more closely at a specific passage from the novel in AP exam format. We have FRQs to go over; I know how much y'all love those three little letters.

NOTE: The AP Practice Exam will be administered on two consecutive Wednesday sessions after Spring Break in the Media Center, and you need to select one of the two to attend. I think the dates are April 14 and April 21. Mrs. Covert and I are taking turns supervising these sessions, and ALL AP Lit kids need to do this. It is a massive part of your Q4 grade. If you know in advance that you have a Wednesday conflict we can schedule an alternative for you, but be judicious about this--you really need two consecutive hours to write your little brains out. Plan ahead, please; I'd hate to go to war with the 21-year-old manager of Hollister or whatever who, like, totally needs you to work. Pardon the sarcasm; I'm bitter today. Love to all!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Today's weird holiday is fourfold: National Sports Wives Day (tell Tiger's wife), National Visit a Shut-in Day (tell Tiger), National Be Satisfied Staying Single Day (again with his wife) and National White Shirt Day (no idea who benefits from that one.)

Today's word is avarice, which means greed.

Gifted English II: Review the requirements for the JC focus paper, which I would like submitted by Friday but which I will take by Tuesday. See how nice I can be? And in class--Othello, Othello, Othello, and go over the content vocabulary preparatory to tomorrow's exciting little quizlet.

APees: Finish the TP-CASTT analysis of "West Wind" and take a stickynote quiz on said poem; then begin transition into Keats. I love Keats. Almost as much as Coleridge. And that is saying something.