Happy Thanksgiving!

This week at school, as Thanksgiving approaches, we've all tried to focus on being grateful for the blessings in our lives, as well as helping others in need. My blogging students created posts that included lists or descsriptions of what they appreciate in their lives. In addition to participating in a canned food drive, our mentor groups in the Freshman Academy designed a giving tree of thankful leaves, shown above. To top it all off, I thought I'd share just a few of the many, many blessings I am grateful to have in my own life.

1. Life

2. Family

3. Friends

4. Wonderful students and coworkers!

5. Laptops :)

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

November Post of the Month

It's that time again—time to announce our blog Post of the Month for November! This month, I even enlisted the help of several of my classes when choosing the best post. Of course, my students were thinking along the same lines as I was; there was really no contest. This month's honor goes to a girl who is not afraid to delve into controversial topics, raw emotions, or personal journeys.

Congrats to Jasmine for her moving post entitled Is Suicide on your mind? I'd think again. I know many readers were truly touched by her thoughtful exploration of this issue. Please check it out in my Period 5 Blogs.

A Day No Pigs Would Die

What is a Shaker?

This guiding question will lead my freshman classes to read the novel, A Day No Pigs Would Die, by Robert Newton Peck. As we prepare for this novel, we are exploring the world of the Shakers, a religious group that originally migrated to America for religious freedom in the 1700s. Because the narrator in this novel is Robert Peck, a Shaker boy partially based on the author's life, it is vitally important to understand the historical and religious background of his heritage.

In small groups, students are researching a specific Shaker topic, creating an informative PowerPoint presentation, and then "teaching" the class about what they have learned. Some of these topics include: Shaker History, Religious Beliefs, Daily Life, Homes, Farms, Inventions, and Famous Shakers.

I can't wait to see how my students will answer the question, "What is a Shaker?"

Need Some Inspiration?

Some of my students are currently writing fictional short stories. As they struggle to unlock their characters, flesh out a plot, and perfect their writing styles, I am doing my best to inspire them to create their best work. Of course, who better to inspire writing than those who have successfully battled the dragons of writer's block, self-doubt, and frustration?

Therefore, anytime I hear a student say I'm stuck! or I don't know what to do! or I can't do this! again, I'm recommending this video. Hopefully it will inspire better than even I could.

Happy Writing!

Literal vs. Figurative

This week, some of my classes are exploring the difference between literal and figurative, our newest terms of the week.

Literal: factual words that do not deviate from their defined meaning

Figurative: represented by allegorical figures

As we read "The Interlopers" by Saki, we are discussing the theme of fences. Students have found many interesting interpretations of fences, both literal (a privacy fence, a prison fence, a dog fence, etc.) and figurative (a personal space fence, an emotional fence, a fence against failure, etc.). We have even developed the adage "Good fences make good neighbors" to highlight our ideas and connect to the story. In Moodle, we will be writing an in-depth reflection on a chosen form of fencing.

A Writer on Writing

After viewing this video, please click on Comments to leave your opinion on what Joyce Carol Oates shared about writing characters.

Announcement: Since my Comments section is not currently working, students shared their opinions during class. Here are some of them:

I think it (Oates' dialogue assignment) makes a lot of sense. Learning more about a character really does help when making a story. I do this for a lot of the stories that I work on now.

Writing out the dialogue didn't really help me much. My characters are my characters. They have life the minute I create them, and making the dialogue just confused me.

It's pretty hard sometimes (no matter how real the characters seem) to create personality and depth to them. It's good to actually become the character to get into their mind. Makes it a lot easier to write about their actions if you know how they think.

I felt that this video was a great resource for character development. The woman was boring, but the video was cool.

Personally, I disagree with her. If anything, the dialogue complicated things.

I like the assignment because it makes us use our imaginations.

Happy Halloween!