Wednesday - January 19, 2011

1st - Creative Writing - Only one student was in class today, so it became a reading day towards your book reviews due in Feb.

2nd - Honors - We took notes on the Greek Morphemes first 10 words.  No homework.  Just good to know stuff for future language tests. 

3rd - 8th grade - We had some spelling duels at the board to practice this weeks spelling.  Then we went over the rules and the packet for the district spelling contest that will be held in Lovell on Feb 09, 2011.  The top three spellers from 8th grade will go with me.  The last 7 minutes was spent brainstorming pros and cons to consider for your persuasive papers with your partners.  It's critically important for any successful argument to address the opposition's viewpoints.

4th - 7th grade - We went over the spelling bee rules and packets.   The district contest will be in Lovell on Feb 09, 2011.  The top three spellers from the 7th grade will accompany me on the trip.  The classroom competition will be next Wednesday.  After that, we went over an example of an article I had summarized for the class.  I showed the process required to take a newspaper article and condense it down to 1/4 to 1/2 of a page of the critically important information.  In addition, you will begin doing a weekly current event for my class for the next 2 months starting next Friday.  These will look as follows:

-Name:  (your name)
-Title: (What is the title of the article)
-Author: (Who wrote it)
-Location (Where was it located?  What is the name of the newspaper AND what page # was it on?  Or, if it's from the internet, what is the name of the website and what is that specific page's URL?)
-Date: (This is the date the article was published, NOT the date you read it.)

-Summary:  Here, you will show that you have learned how to read and find the critically important information from a newspaper or magazine article.  This should be NO LESS than 1/4 of a page, and NO MORE than 1/2 of a page.

Opinion:  Who cares?  Why is this article important?  You need to provide 3 - 5 sentences about your opinions on this subject.

5th - 12th grade - We finished reading from pages 285 and 286 about the poems "To His Coy Mistress" and "The Virgins, to Make Much of Time."
Assignment:  Write a 6 - 8 stanza poem with 4 - 6 lines in each stanza about the concept of "Carpe Diem" or, Sieze the day!  30 points.  Due Tuesday the 25th.  If you are really brave, you could write a love poem (just in time for Valentines!)  ;-)

6th - 10th grade - We had a spell off at the start of class to practice this week's vocab and spelling words.  We then finished reading from Shakespeare's short poem entitled "The 7 Ages of Life" and discussed it. 
Assignment:  Write a reflective and forward looking paper about the 7 ages in YOUR life.  What were you like as a baby, a young child, and a young adult?  What will you be like, or what would you like to be like as you hit the next 4 stages.  30 pts.  Due Monday.