Oh, What a Day!

Sorry 11th and 12th.  Rain did our period in.  The good news?  Tomorrow, we'll have regular class, just like period 4/5 did today!  Yay!

Period 4/5, on the side of your blog is a blank reading log, the literary terms packet, and a sample log.  Please take your song lyrics, mark the devices we found today, and put them into a blank log.  YOU DO NOT NEED TO FILL OUT THE COLUMN THAT SAYS 'TEXTUAL ANALYSIS.' We will do this all together next week.

Period 11 and 12, we will talk about all of this tomorrow and you will find the devices and fill out the log over the weekend.

All kids:  I won't be here on Monday.  I have a Professional Day going to a Shakespeare workshop.  Your assignment has to do with Great Expectations.  It's our last goodbye.  I will collect your books on Tuesday.

A word on grading.

I'm back.  Well, kinda.  I hardly feel like Emily Rock, but I think with my lack of sleep for the last four years, it's been about that long since I've really felt like myself.  But enough about me, let's talk speeches.

Tomorrow, I'll be going over odds and ends, setting up an order, and quelling any fears that may have developed since we saw each other on Wednesday! of last week.  We'll also make a vocab schedule and talk about what our next mountain/hill is to climb--and that, my friends, is the hill that begins with literary terms.

I'm leaving you a link to the rubric for our speeches.  It's a basic/stolen rubric from a well-respected rhetoric class.  The sections in red indicate where I'll be grading your written speech; the rest of the sections are the delivery itself.

Enjoy your Sunday.  Tomorrow we shall meet again.

Rubric

I hate being sick.

I do.  It's awful.

I woke up today coughing up blood, so Joe Rock commanded me to go to the doctor already.  I've been sick since the weekend before Halloween, so I listened.  Unfortunately, my infection and coughing have left me unable to come to work, and as I already said this week...I hate being absent.  You're becoming too accustomed to my being gone, I feel like we're falling behind and off track, and it stinks.  But I'll do what I can from my house.

I left the substitute your new vocabulary and instructions for you to continue to work on speeches.  I WILL be in school Monday, so let's sign up for our order then and you may ask any last minute questions.  I will post the rubric for grading speeches tomorrow and will give you some last minute pointers.

On Monday, we'll look at your editorials, sign up for who is going to speak when, and figure out the rest of our week, including when we're ever going to wrap up Great Expectations.(aka the book that won't go away).

I also pledge to you that after my three absences in December(all pre-planned and professional, I swear), I'll try to not get sick.  Ever.  Because I haven't felt this awful since high school and it stinks.

Journals will not be collected this week either.  We'll figure out a new schedule next week.

<3,

Me

Watch this stuff.

In a good news/bad news scenario, I always choose to hear the bad news first.  I just think this makes sense, because I expect bad news always, but also, it gives me something to look forward to.

Bad news?  I'll be back tomorrow.  I've served my duty: )

The good news?  I have a wonderful video for you to watch tonight.  It is our final homework installment in the "commencement address series" that has been our lives for the last week.  

Also, please, around 8pm tonight, check your Genesis account if you have one, see if there are any issues with your grade, and text me.  I've been given a slight extension due to being stuck in a technology-free courthouse, but not much.  If you don't have my number, text someone who does.

Enjoy the video!  Oh--watch it.  And be prepared to talk AND write about it tomorrow when I see your faces.

JURY DUTY!!!

I'm sad.  I'm mad.  I HATE missing school.

I'm sure you don't believe that.  I know you may not mind missing school, because somewhere, in the recesses of my memory, I remember that feeling.  That rush of joy at knowing it was true..."tomorrow, I don't have to go to that place!"

I, however, love that place.

And you.

So I'm sorry to miss you and your outlines.  They are STILL DUE!  I will be dropping by school after my "service" to collect them.  If I have to serve duty on Wednesday, I will leave them with the sub to be passed out, with comments.  I will expect you to follow my strict directions on the board.

Oh, and I expect you to miss me, too.

I'm leaving you another commencement speech, this time to read.  It's by a relatively unknown actor at a pretty large college in Wisconsin.  It's good, and I think you can learn a lot from it.  For homework, you're going to watch another speech on this page.  (I have it scheduled to post at 4PM).  Hopefully, I'll be there on Wednesday and we'll talk about them both AND talk about writing our own speeches.

Enjoy your day, nerds.

Interesting

Some thoughts about what's wrong with education.  Watch if you would like.

Steve Jobs obsession

began with THIS article.

I read it two years ago at Busch Gardens.  Yes, I brought my Kindle to Busch Gardens(I hate rides), and I read in "Germany" while people screamed and ate fried foods.  Luckily, I had an unread issue of the New Yorker waiting for me, and it was the moment that I discovered the genius of Steve Jobs.

Read if you'd like: )

Oh, Steve. You so crazy...

This Weekend...

I read you a speech today, inspired by the speech below.  Watch the video below and answer the questions on lined paper.

1.  Explain why  Jobs calls dropping out, "one of the best decisions I ever made"? (His first story)


2.  Explain why Jobs calls being fired from Apple "one of the best things that ever happened" to him.(His second story)


3.  How has Jobs used his inevitable death as his daily motivation?  Explain.

By the way, at the end, when he claims he's "fine now," he's lying.  I'm sure this fact influenced his ruminations on death.

ALSO:

Please read/review chapters 44, 49, 53 and 59 in Great Expectations.

See you Monday!