Progress Reports Third Quarter

Progress Reports should go out Friday during fourth period. That means that we teacher-types have to submit your interim averages by 7:00 a.m. Friday morning. That also means that you student-types need to make sure that you have all of your make-up work completed in a timely manner so the grade can be reflected on your progress report.

To date, I still have one student needing to take the Frankenstein test and two students needing to take the Julius Caesar. And there are other holes in the gradebook, too. Please check ProgressBook and see if your average seems low; I'll be glad to give you a printout of what might be missing. And I plan to stay after pretty much every day this week for make-up work opportunities.

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.

Announcements: Mid-October Version

I hope that everyone enjoyed their three-day weekend break, and that Homecoming was fabulous! And I truly hope that no one saw my face. . .if you saw the Puppet Show on Friday, you know what that means.

The end of the first quarter is rapidly approaching, and while most of you have been keeping up admirably with your make-up work, I still have a handful of sophys who owe me make-up assignments from extended absences (swine flu is very real, people) and APeeps who need to make up the Mactest or a Macquiz or two. I am frantically grading submitted work this weekend, and anticipate printing out a ProgressBook roster for everyone to check by the end of business on Monday. As I've posted here before--frequently--I am having immense trouble wrapping my brain around this program, and not a little bit of it is the disconnect between the ProgressBook platform and my Macbook. (Apple, not Macbeth.)

If you detect a discrepancy between a paper you have in your possession and the score online, please see me ASAP. That said, I should have your averages updated with two weeks to spare for those of you interested in submitting make-up work or resubmits for the ORex papers. Again, e-mail me at jennifer.hilley@ocps.net if you have questions, but please give me the rest of this weekend to sort through everything. I have never had so many students--and y'all turn in all of your work! Well, most of you.

Community Service: I have service letters for about ten of you who have already done comm serv this quarter, but if anyone needs hours for NHS or for Bright Futures, I could still use help in the following arenas:

1. Project X-Mas. We are starting to collect for this project at the end of this week, and Katie C. needs help with her crafts committee. Beacoup hours available here.

2. English Department Office. Mrs. Nicoll and I need some help straightening this out for the Writing Center--cleaning the appliances, finding new homes for the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, and hanging of student art. Hours available after school AND during a research period, if you are available.

3. Sophomore Locker Creation in the Sarcasm Closet. Many of my sophys never got lockers, for various reasons, and I had some students relocate two bookshelves into the Sarcasm Closet. These need to be organized so that the sophys can store materials here.

4. General filing and non-confidential paperwork management. There are a myriad of things I cannot have you do, for legal reasons, but some tasks can be done by students--filing, listing paperbacks, sorting through extraneous materials.

I'm also interested in getting Information Society back off the ground this year, and re-instituting the Contemporary Literature Reading Circle. Both of these cultural (!) opportunities can yield service hours. And, of course, consulting in the Writing Center is the primary means by which I award comm serv. I will be distributing hours sheets at the end of the quarter, so be sure that you sign in each day that you serve during A or B lunch.

So. . .need hours? See me. I want to help you reach your goals, and I am lazy enough to have plenty of opportunities for you to do so. :-)

Friday, September 25, 2009

Dear Students,

I don't have this officially, but apparently we won't be distributing progress reports tomorrow in the traditional format. Your parental units will be encouraged to log in to ProgressBook and view your averages there. We are still working on the nuances of this new system, but I'm sure I'll have info to send home regarding this shift.

ALSO--I have letters to distribute to the sophomores about the PSAT, which is coming up in mid-October. Each of you is already signed up to take this test, at no cost to you. This test is the single-best indicator we have for preparedness for multiple AP courses next year, and will help you prep for the National Merit Scholars competition.

Gifted English II: Author of the Day is Margery Kempe, after which we have an awesome vocabulary quiz for words 81-100. Then: More Antigone, Scene 4!

APees: After a brief but scintillating quizlet on Macbeth, Acts I and II--har har--we are going to launch full-on into Act II, scene iii--the Porter sequence.

HW this weekend: Gifted English II--finish reading Antigone; APees--read the essay by Thomas de Quincey called "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth" that I am distributing tomorrow.

Regarding NHS: Please consider your timing when asking me to sign your form or give you service hours. I'm always glad to help, but some of you are having trouble sensing the tone. If I am surrounded by students seeking help with college essays, or am assiduously working on something in the Writing Center, flinging yourself to the head of the line and demanding something Right Now is not the way to fly. Sense the tone, people. And learn to recognize when an eye-roll is aimed at you.

That said, I am glad to help. I know these forms are due next Friday. If you need help, come see me--but be nice about it!!!

Much love to all. Really!