Friday, September 28, 2007

Hey! Scribe of the day

Friday September 28, 2007
· Today we were without Smith (because she was at a pumpkin patch or something…), but we were taken good care of, by Mrs. Ritzdorf.

· At first, there was some confusion whether or not we were starting or finishing Beowulf. I guess the teacher was looking at the plan for next Friday, but all was ok because we in fact had not read any of the story, so we began reading Beowulf.
· We “circled our wagons,” but for some reason it was not the same as it is, without Mrs. Smith but we were able to move on.
· We read from pages 21-32 up to canto 8.
· While reading we kept in mind the questions:
o How does Beowulf fit the Journey of a Hero? (Innocence, chaos etc…)
o How Beowulf connects with the Anglo-Saxon history
· We compared an Epic Hero from a Tragic hero, learning that:
o An Epic hero fights a physical monster or life-form
o A Tragic hero fights internally with him/herself
· Major characters introduced were
o Grendel
o Hrothgar
o Unferth
o Beowulf
· Basically, the story needs to defeat a monster, and Beowulf comes and explains that he can do it, very boastful, saying he can do it without a weapon, is not afraid of danger and explains that he has defeated a monster in his past.

· Our Homework:

o College Scholarships due 10/15
o Our test over Beowulf Monday 10/8
o We have a quiz over cantos 1-11 next Wednesday
Thanks!
-Michael

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Scribe- September 26, 2007

Today I thought would be a easy day to scribe because of the shortened class period but I was proven wrong. I would like to thank Karm and Rebecca for the donuts- they were very good.

Homework:
• Final Essay conference due tomorrow or by early next week
• College scholarships due October 15th
• Begin reading Beowulf on Friday

We addressed questions regarding Beowulf that should be kept in mind while we read the story.
a. How does Beowulf connect with Anglo-Saxon history? What are some specific examples to prove he fits with this era?
b. How does Beowulf fit the journey of a hero? Innocence, initiation, chaos, resolution

We had an in class project in which we had to create posters of Anglo- Saxon history. We divided into groups and created posters of 3-4 helpful points to keep in mind while reading Beowulf. These will provide good information for notes as well.
The group topics included:
1. The Celtic Hero’s and Heroine’s:
• Celtic religion was based around animism (spirits everywhere controlled all aspects of life).
• Celtic Legends: Full of women and stories full of magic, animals, love affairs, and adventures.
• Celtic Mythology: influenced writers for centuries
• “Celtic myths take you to enchanted lands where magic and imagination rule”
2. Anglo- Saxon Life: The Warm Hall, the Cold World
• Not barbarians, but usually depicted that way
• More interested in warfare and not in learning the arts
• Responsibility is most important in leadership
• Followers received fame, success, and riches through loyalty to their leader
• Ex: Beowulf earned his fame by defeating the monsters trying to kill his leader, King Hrothger.
• Important that they lived in a closely built community
• Created security, close relationships between leader and followers, helped with community discussions and rule by consensus
3.The Bards:
• The Anglo- Saxon communal hall was a place for shelter and art.
• They sang about the gods and heroes
• The “non- Christians” used poetry to allow heroes to love on after death
4.Women in Anglo- Saxon Culture:
• Women were granted rights curtailed in 1066
• Inherited and held property even when married
• Joined and highly involved in religious gatherings- often obtained power in Abbies
• Implemented various forms of educational aides/learning centers
5. Anglo- Saxon Religion: gods for warriors
• Odin was god of death, poetry and magic--- polytheistic
• Days of the week still bear names of Anglo- Saxon gods.
• Ex: Thors day= Thursday and Wodens day= Wednesday
• The dragon was a significant figure in mythology
• ----Treasure guardian and bringer of death and destruction


After we finished making the posters we discussed the meaning of each and then moved to modern day heroes. We compiled lists of our heroes and the qualities hero’s posses.
Our hero list included:
• American soldiers
• Oprah
• Firefighters and policemen
• Our families, including our parents, siblings and legal guardians
• Surgeon’s and physicians, including my uncle
• Teachers- Mr. Trotter, Mr. Hatak, Mr. Wallace, and Ms. Durow
• Best friends and girlfriends and boyfriends
And our list of qualities of a hero included:
• Brave
• Driven
• Loyal
• Kindness
• Respectful
• Trustworthy
• Tolerant
• Disciplined
• Do what is right
• Empathy
• Supportive
• Intellectual
• Experienced
• Love what they do
• Devoted
• Humble
• Go out of their way

Sorry Beowulf isn't underlined or italicized for some reason my computer won't let me.
Anyways enjoy,

-Joe

Monday, September 24, 2007

Scribe September 24, 2007

In class today many things happened, this is just an overview:
- Look at samples of final project, how do we combine the two ideas?
- Check out the big books ( if you don’t already have one)
- Read pg. 2-19 (in the big book) and take notes
- Homework:
o Complete writing conference (THIS MUST BE DONE BY FRIDAY)
o Finish the reading from class and take notes, THERE COULD BE A QUIZ ON THE READING ON WEDNESDAY IF THERE IS NO DISCUSSION.
o Post a comment on www.learningandlaptops.blogspot.com under the category google groups. This is about posting our college essays online. If it doesn’t work here are some helpful hints: First sign in before trying to post, then write your comment and watch for it to post, if it does not appear on the screen push the F5 button to refresh it.

When discussing the final project the main question asked was how to combine the idea of a time magazine article and the OED entry and how to present that. Some decisions were made it must meet there standards…
- Discuss the historical periods attributes
- Relate literature to modern times
- Define hero through the journey
- Must be comprehensive
- Work in groups
- Multimedia with writing
- Creativity
- Modern examples
- Use all pieces of Literature
- OED definition
- Documentary: What is a hero? (this is a possible style of project)
- Possible the using the OED entry as an introduction to the rest of the project
- Multimedia: Condensed OED entry
Movie clips to expand definition
- Definition in magazine
She is offering a time to conference on your groups idea before the project is due to let you know if it is a good idea etc..

We will be waiting to make the rubric (as a class) until we have read more of the works.

Also in class today we were told what the test for Beowulf. It will be an in-class essay on the following questions:
1. Relate Beowulf to the 4 stages of a hero (from the power point on her web page)
2. How does Beowulf fit the Anglo-Saxon time period?
a. Ex. If there a dominate woman? Is faith present?
One note card total will be allowed.

Thank you!! Enjoy!

Friday, September 21, 2007

September 21, 2007

Hey Everyone!

Scribe today..

1.I will start off by saying that the students who have not made an appointment yet with Mrs. Smith about the writing conference need to do that ASAP because it is due by 9/27. Also the students who already made an appointment; Don't froget your meeting time and be on time.
Mrs.Smith off hours are- MWF;1,6/TH;1,4,6(at the study center) So make sure you sign up.

2.Class started off today by Mrs. Smith telling the class about copying off the Beo Wolf story on the book that all of us got today. It will be alot easier for us that way because then we don't have to keep carrying the big huge purple book around.

3.Joe, Brooks and Michael were kind enough to hand out the Element of literature book to everybody in class which was really nice. Thank you guys. :)

4.Everybody got a chance to do their presentation today. The first group to present was Becka, Shanon, Sue and Shawn. They did Scene II, Ode III. They chose the View for their skit and the table was their significant prop.
The second group to present was Sam, Steven, Matthew, Ian and Dan. Sam played Jocasta which was pretty interesting, Steven played Oedipus, Matthew played Creon, Ian played the chorus leader and Dan played the Messenger. They did a stereotype of highschool. And I belive the Altar of the Monkey was their significant prop. They did the Scene II, Ode II.
The third group to present was Joe, Brooks, Michael, Kyle and Jacob. Brooks played as the driver/sphinx, Kyle played as King Laius, Joe played Oedipus the king, Michael played as the drunk, and Jacob played Jocasta. And this all took place in London by the way. :) The crown was their significant prop. And correct me if Im wrong but I think the scene they did was Prequil Part II..?!!
The fourth group to present was Emily D., Aly, Charlie and Emily H. Emily D. played as the news man, Aly and Emily H. played as the girls walking in the street,Charlie played Oedipus the homeless. They performed in class and the sign that Charlie (Oedipus) was holding was their significant prop.
The fifth group to present in class was Jackie, Ryan, Leigh, and Jack. Jackie played as the prophet and Merope, Ryan played as Polybus, Leigh played as the Messenger and Jocasta, Jack played as King Laius. They modernized their play. The baby and the trashcan was their significant prop. And the scene they did was Prequil Part II.

Everybody's presentation was awesome! Good job working together as groups and also Good job for the effort that everybody put in the presentations.

5.Mrs.Smith was talking about her interesting idea about our final for the end of the first semester. The idea was to pick our own groups and create a definition of a hero. And she also wants us to get ideas from the books we've read and are going to read to help us with this final. Mrs.Smith also wants us to use OED (Oxford English Dictionary) because it has some great definition of a hero. Mrs.Smith also wants us to start checking out that website to just get a feel of what we might do and to just gather information to get started.! So if you have any more questions ask Mrs.Smith or feel free to blog and ask me.! :)

PS. Our Hw. for Monday is- Writing Conference, Read 2-19, 47 and take notes, scribe and check out big books.

That's all for today..
Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

WEDNESDAY THE 19TH OF SEPTEMBER
It's a great day to be a Warrior

Hello class! As you read in the scribe from Monday, Ms. Smith was not here (and it was sad), and we looked for scholarships for our project that is due MONDAY OCTOBER 15 (which also happens to be the other day I'm scribing)

HOMEWORK: FINISH OEDIPUS PROJECTS. MAKE THEM A+ PRESENTATIONS. EVERYONE IS PRESENTING THIS FRIDAY. Sign up for a conference to grade your college essay with Ms. Smith by Sept. 27. Work on your scholarship search and applications.

I'll try out the bulleted list for what we did today...
  1. We ate delicious donuts that Jacob and Steven brought. Thank you, gentlemen.
  2. We turned in our Oedipus is a Hero essay tests
  3. We got out laptops to follow along with Mrs. Lewallen as we searched for scholarships
  4. Mrs. Lewallen left and we had the rest of the hour to look around on our own

Here is what we learned about scholarships:

  • Fastweb has tons of scholarships, but everyone who has a Fastweb account is also competing for them, which means you have to fight about one thousand other people for the money, which can be difficult, so instead we went to...
  • Naviance (AHS page - For Students - link on the left side of page) has a list of scholarships that are local (which means that they will be a teeny bit easier to get)
  • If you don't have a Naviance account, you need to go set one up in the Post-Grad Center
  • Go to Scholarship List under About College, and you will find a list of scholarships that are marked for if they are need or merit based, if they require an essay, and if community service is needed to apply. It is a rather fantastic thing that saves a lot of time.
  • Most of the scholarships have online applications, but if you need one, you can get one for any of the scholarships listed from the Post-Grad Center. Additionally, when you click on a scholarship, the description page usually has a link to the actual web page and/or a contact address. USE THE CONTACT ADDRESS! They are useful.
  • The Peak Achievement scholarship we looked at was for Univ. of Wyoming, but Mrs. Lewallen didn't really like that one... A scholarship she did like, though, was the Student Integrity scholarship. It's local, and the website has a very extensive list of contact information.
  • "Be aggressive when you apply for scholarships". Just do it.

Other resources you can use to find scholarships can be found if you go to AHS page, Guidance Center, Post-Grad Center, and then World Wide Web Resources. It has a long list of sites you can use.

If you weren't here today, you are lucky, because the laptops were being... unhelpful to at least 6 people today. I went through five before I found one that had enough battery, agreed to let me log on, and didn't have a screen that had been flipped upside down. Other people had some issues with the internet connection (even though signal strength was supposedly high) and battery levels...

Don't forget, this Friday we are presenting our Oedipus projects instead of doing the test because, of course, we have all already done it. Please make them good. We have no excuse for a bad one, because we got four extra days to work on it, and plus, we owe it to Ms. Smith for even giving us those days.

Blog me if you have any questions! emilyl :>

Monday, September 17, 2007

Scribe For Monday September 17th

To begin class Ms. Smith gave us two options to vote on which were about our modernized plays. The option which the majority of the class voted on was to work on our plays during class and then perform them on Friday, and get our essay question which we would take home and write and bring on Wensday.

Essay question: How does Oedipus fit the definition of a hero? Using the stages of the journey to explain. You can find the power point on Smith's web page titled hero. You should inclued a paragraph for eath stage, and your paper should be no more than three pages long. Once again the essay is due Wensday.

College Essays: Ms. Smith was having difficulties grading our essay's and as a class we decided that we would sign up for a conference by September 27th so that you could discuss your grade and learn what you did well and what you good improve on.

Wensday: Ms. Smith will not be at school. We will be looking up scholarships online, we must research and apply to 5 scholarships by October 15th. Also, you must print off application and what you sent in to turn in.

We were then given time to meet with our groups and polish our performances and at the end of class we watched one perfomance

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Scribe For Friday, September 14th

Scribe For Friday, September 14th
Hello everyone! Today was a shortened class because of the homecoming pep assembly. However, in class we finished reading Oedipus. He finally discovered the horrible truth and reacted by stabbing out his eyes and talking to the people of Thebes. There was a class discussion in which many comments were made about why he did this. He was a very loyal leader to Thebes and it is thought that he still needed to be honest with his people. We also had a discussion about homecoming. Hopefully everyone has a fun and SAFE time. The skits for Oedipus are due on Monday and will be preformed in class, so make sure to bring all props and be prepared; which might mean you have to get together after your long night of getting down on the dance floor. Ha Ha. Have fun everyone!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Superb Scribe! Wednesday 9/12/2007

Hello all! So this is the scribe for today, September 12, 2007! Enjoy.

  • The class period started out today with a brief absence of Smith, in which we pondered as to her whereabouts. Our worst fears were cleared however, when she returned to tell us just how frustrated she was at homecoming week, because events such as Prom and Homecoming, are in fact called extra-curricular activities for a reason. She pointed out that we attend school for a reason, sometimes referred to as "learning", and therefor should not focus our energy on these other activities. (We'll be hearing the so dubbed "Homecoming Speech" in it's entirety on Friday).
  • We then discussed the whereabouts of our 3 missing students, Ali, Leigh, and Steven, and came to the conclusion that Leigh was just MIA, Steven's at Virginia Tech, and Ali is either getting her appendix removed or she's just clumsy.
  • Miss Emily then asked about the online college essays because her essay has no comments on it. Smith had the brilliant idea of listing on the scribe the titles of the essays that need comments on them. So, here are the lists of essays that need some constructive comments:
  • Smith 21 - "My Crossroads in Life - College Essay"
  • Smith 13 - "Goals for Life"
  • Smith 11 - "Search for Identity"
  • Smith 2 - "Who I am"
  • Smith 7
  • Smith 23 - "Christ Follower"
  • "Second Chance"
  • Smith 26? - "Who am I?"
    • The class then voted on what we would be accomplishing in class for the day and then on Friday. The following options were voted on:

    A: To finish reading Oedipus in class and work in our groups on Friday

    B: To split the days into part reading, and part group work

    C: (Brooks' choice) To finish reading Oedipus outside of class, and work in groups for the entirety of both class periods

    D: (Sam's brilliant idea) To work in groups today and to read on Friday

    • We decided democratically by majority vote on option "D", and therefor will be reading Oedipus in class on Friday.

    A little something about Smith: She's a passionate fan of the Television series "Seinfeld"

    I hope you all enjoyed my scribing, and if anyone has any questions, just post and I'll try to answer any question to the best of my abilities. Thanks!



    Hello from scribe!!

    Hello from the scribe
    Hello to all who were abscent on Monday, Sep.10,2007. Or hello to those who just wanted to read my blog.So today was a pretty easy day. Today, we started the period of with Ms. Smith having to eat her pop tart. I guess it was yummy, since she HAD to eat it. Then we talked about our homework.- Homework
    comment on other people's essay not in Ms. Smith's class. You need to have 5 comments by Wed.. If you make the comments too long, it will cut you off , so make it short but constructive and make suggestions.
    Your final college essay is due this Friday. Make sure it is clean cut and spankalicious. If you want to get a really good grade, Mrs. Smith loves anything with chocolate and peanut butter combined, keep that in mind.Important Dates:
    9/15: Final college essay is due.
    9/17: The performances for modernizing scenes in Oedipus due.
    9/19: Learn about college scholarships; if you want to get ahead, look at the scholarships your college offers.
    9/22: The Oedipus test: in class essay, we will get the question we will be anwswering on Wed.
    Now back to what we did. after we talked about the homework then the important dates, we then got a hand out about modernizing scenes in Oedipus. We then got into groups for about 5 mins., picked the scene we were doing and seeing when we could meet. Mrs. Smith wants these scenes proffesional, funny, and performed with excellence. You can either act it out in class or video tape it and show that to the class. if you are using any form of technology, it is your responsibillity to make sure it works before Monday. There are no excuses of why you can't go on Moday so BE PREPARED. If you weren't here today, you will need to pick up the packet and see what group you are in and any other things you will need to know. We will have time in class both Wed. and Fri. to work on it, so use yoru time wisely becuase you know that homecoming is this weekend.
    Lastly, we began reading Oedipus. We started on page 48 and ended on page 62. We really didn't discuss that much about the book. Mrs. Smith did bring up the question, "Does Oedipus truelly see?" She said this because he really does not see what is right in front of him. That is a wrap on this blog, thank you and good night.
    Mrs. Smith's joke:
    Knock Knock?
    Who's there?
    An interupting cow.
    An interupting cow who?
    MOOOOOO!
    At least I think that is the joke you told Mrs. Smith.
    Posted by karmk at 8:47 PM

    Friday, September 7, 2007

    Today: Friday, September 07, 2007

    Homework for the weekend: scribe (which is me), work on final essay (due next Friday, must conference before next Friday), make sure you’re signed up for a conference, post essay online.

    Today wasn’t too eventful; it went a little like this:

    We came to conclude that next week is going to be bomb (more like jacked, according to Smith). We’re going to have our Homecoming assembly Monday, PLC late start on Wednesday, and the Pep Assembly Friday. Wahoo!

    Mrs. Smith continued to pass around the conference sign up, if you haven’t signed up by now, I’m thinking that you should probably get on that.

    We then took out the laptops so we could post our essays online and did musical chairs (peer editing style) and peer edited other essays on each computer.

    Also, Mrs. Smith posted next week’s schedule for all of you type A students out there.

    So, that’s really all we did today, I would double check and look at what Mrs. Smith posted as to what we did today on her powerpoints on her teacher webpage, just incase I missed anything. Everyone…have a good weekend.

    Wednesday, September 5, 2007

    September 5, 2007

    I. English World Literature
    A. Introduction
    1. Hope you like the concise format
    2. Any questions, post them and I will answer to the best of my ability
    3. Today was a great day to learn and Momma Smith was ready for it too.

    B. Donuts
    1. Lamar's Donuts distributed by Bobkowski, our hockey stud, and they were enormous donuts.
    2. Ate in front of classroom away from laptops.
    3. Wiped down with cleansing wipes to take glaze off our typing fingers, which later on would type upon the laptop keyboard.

    C. College Essay
    1. Go To Smith's Web Page, click on College Essay Link, sign in with Blogger account
    -Blogger is owned by Google, Smith has hypothesized that Google will rule our world someday.
    2. When signing in, you will be asked for a nickname. DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME! Youwill put "Smith#" (Your number corresponds with assigned numbers, if you need it talk to Momma Smith).
    3. Once signed in, select College Essay Tab on Right Hand side. Underneath tab, an option will appear (add new page). Select this link to insert your own college essay onto the website.
    4. From here you can copy and paste your finely polished and edited college essay. ADD YOUR SMITH NICKNAME TO THE END OF YOUR TITLE, THIS IS GOING TO BE ANONYMOUS!!!
    5. Once completed, publish it and you will see it appear on the entire board of essays.
    6. If you have any questions, please post!!!

    D. Oedipus
    1. We read through page 46 (I believe), we have heard Jocasta talk of why she doesn't believe in prophecies and summarize the prophecy of her doomed child. At this point, Oedipus' knees began to tremble in fear and his heart had dropped into the pocket of his stomach where his stomach had contracted into a twist which would crush his soul. At this point, his head span and the realization that this story was true of him hit him like a golf ball crack to the back of his head (As of last week I know how he feels). He now sends for a surviving witness to return to the kingdom so he can for once and for all decipher whether he truly has cursed himself to exile and death.
    2. It was way legit and was an intense scene, even if you are too lazy to read for the grade, read for the edge-o-your-seat intensity thats about to rock the blood around in your head and your heart.

    E. Homework
    1. Refine college essay, post online by Friday.
    2. Comment on five other essays (from Davis/Gaffney's classes ONLY!!!) by next Wednesday.
    3. See Ms. Smith to take the oath of constructive criticism on blogging. There are serious parameters you must take and Ms. Smith would love to hear that you solemnly swear you can withhold society's Blogger criticism values. By the way, if she is lookin' down, gloomy, or even eccentric and happy, a caramel macchiado would satisfy her crave and cheer her up.

    Remember, questions or comments, please do let me know.

    Brooks

    Saturday, September 1, 2007

    Friday, August 31, 2007

    Hello, today in Ms. Smith’s class we….

    1) Turned in college essay: Who am I?

    2) Went over the homework for the weekend.

    a) Select one college essay to post online for peers to comment and edit

    b) DONUTS Wednesday

    c) Writing conference on final essay

    3) Circled up for Oedipus reading and discussion

    4) Passed around Smith’s calendar to sign up for conferences

    a) Must have an edited and improved copy of final college essay for the conference

    b) These conferences will be the week of 9/4

    5) Decided to add the insult “unholy defilement” to our vocabulary.

    Oedipus Notes

    v Tiresias (the blind prophet) didn’t want to tell Oedipus the truth about who the murderer is because he wouldn’t gain anything

    Ø There was some serious dramatic irony action going on, which is always exciting

    v Oedipus blames Tiresias for it, Tir. tells the truth, it becomes the “blame game”

    v Oed. isn’t willing to listen to the gods because of pride; wants to control his own fate

    v Tir. hints relationship between Oed. and Jocasta (ew)

    v MOTIF OF EYES

    Ø Oedipus has his sight, doesn’t see the truth

    Ø Tiresias is blind, sees the truth and knows all

    v Severe paranoia kicks in Oed. and he makes numerous accusations

    v Townspeople are in “limbo” about what they think

    v Brookes proclaimed that in real life, it is easier to accuse rather than admit

    v Sam gave an example of how the truth is never easy to take

    v Smart boys

    The end.