Well Hello Period 5!!!

Moment of silence please, yes, it is true, our last day has finally arrived. We promptly took care of our computer battery issue, and told Smith the hours and battery levels of our deeeelightful computish type laptops hooray!!!

Then there was the whole semester project work day situation. My group is done hahaha, but for all those slackers who did not finish yet, this day was prolly a truly smashing experience. The project is due by the final which is next week by the way hahaha. You either need to put it in the drop box or have it on a USB, by the time they are due.

Its really been quite uneventful today, but there will still some working incredibly hard to put the last few finishing touches on the project.

Homework
PRESENTATION DUE NEXT WEEK!!! WHOOPEE!!!!

Pip-pip cheerio and all those other Britishish type goodbye words!!!

I love you people, have a delicious summer experience!!!

**Kenna

Le Scribe de Period 5

Hi 5th hour! This is EmilyL scribing again.

We began class with Ms. Smith passing out some purple papers. They were American Lit. summer homework. (GROAN!) We have to read two books off the approved list and write 3 paragraphs about one of them. This is to prepare us for our American Literature Independent Study (ALIS) next year.

Smith then proceeded to tell us what she thought of each book on the ALIS list:

Book and Author	Smith’s Comments
Anthem by Ayn Rand	This book is an utopian novel, Smith personally didn’t like it, but some of us might.
East of Eden By John Steinbeck	Smith loves this book; it made her like John Steinbeck. It is a longer book about a family.
The Things They Carried By Tim O’Brien	This a Vietnam war story that Smith recommends to anyone interested in war or adventure.
Black Boy By Richard Wright	Smith says this is a classic about an African American book.
A Raisin the Sun By Lorraine Hansberry	Smith says this is a good book that was made into a play.
Yellow Raft on a Blue River By Michael Dorris	I missed this one and can’t remember any details, but the summary I looked on Google says it is growing up novel.
Bless Me Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya	This is a novel on spirits much like Isabel Allende books. All regular 10th graders read this.
House on Mango Street By Sandra Cisneros	I missed this one, but I found out that it is a growing up novel about a girl in a Chicago slum.
All is Quiet on the Western Front By Eric Marie Remarque	This is another war novel.
The Old Man and the Sea By Ernest Hemingway	The plot is summarized as follows The man fishes. He catches a fish. He dies. The end. Smith DOES NOT recommend this book. She hated it.
My Antonia By Willa Cather	Smith has never read this but it is on her to read list this summer.
The Awakening By Kate Chopin	This a feminism novel.
The Shining By Stephen King	I don’t remember what Smith said about this one either but it is Stephen King so be warned.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair	Smith recommends this one for anyone who has history interest. However, since it is about meatpacking you must have a strong stomach.

Then Ms. Smith passed out MAP scores and we had a discussion how if you decreased, it doesn't not mean you became "stupider," it just means that you were already brilliant and it was hard for you to increase.

Smith also made an announcement about documentary interviews. (See below post)

Then we moved to our main event: a video! The video was on Manazar and what camp life was like. After the video, we discussed it. Important points from the discussion:

• There are many parallels to the Holocaust.
• The Japanese people did not fight back because it is not in their culture.
• The way children were affected. i.e. They played mess hall instead of house.
• The way the video opened our eyes to the differences from what is commonly heard and what happened.

Homework:

• Semester project
• You may want to start thinking about the summer reading assignment for ALIS.
• Sign up for a documentary interview. We are better than period 2, we need more interviews than them!
• Finals start Friday.

Countdown:

2 More English classes. :(
6 more School Days including finals

Have a Great Tuesday!

Scribe Period 5/14 Miss Lindsey

SSSCRIBE.

So today was a pretty bomb day in block 5.
First we learned what we were going to write our second in class paragraph about Farewell to Manzanar on. It went something like this:
List three specific examples of how Jeanne's relationship with her father has changed through the book. Also talk about what lasting changes this caused.
We did this in the hallway while Mr. Fisch interviewed people about blogging in the classroom.
Most people went alone, but not Laura, Emily, and I. We were the three musketeers.
At first, we even planned on doing English accents, but then decided that wasn't a good idea because then we would be laughing the whole time (except for Emily who would ramble off in some kind of "I like whipped cream" accent).
Yeah, it was kind of the highlight of the day.
That's about all we did though, nothing too eventful.
Oh, our homework is to finish Farewell To Manzanar.
Just one chapter to go!
peace.

Come One Come All! Let Your Voice be heard!

---

Who: Arapahoe Students You do not have be in Ms. Smith's class to come!

What: A videotaped interview, about your student learning. Your video will be used in the Arapahoe Documentary on Constructivism.

When: Wednesday May 16, 2007 Sign up for time slot in C11

Where: C11

Why:Several Arapahoe students are making a documentary on constructivism. We need student input on how their learning is different because of constructivist methods.

How: Listen for announcements if you are in Smith's class. We have a sign up sheet on the chalkboard. Go to http://ahsstudint.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Other Important Information: This WILL be videotaped! By being interviewed you understand that.

Questions that be asked:

• How has your education changed?
• What are your thoughts on student based learning?
• How has technology influenced your learning?

Any Questions See Ms. Smith

Image from http://www.campbell.army.mil/1502/images/UncleSam.gif

The One and Only Camp Smith: Period 5- May 11th, 2007

Hello, Camp Smith campers!

The first thing that the wonderful and fabulous counselor, Ms. Smith, told us to do was to take out our handy dandy assignment notebooks from our trusty old almost-retired freshmen backpacks and write down the homework. (Even though Period 5 is better than 2nd and should never get homework, because, let's face it, we don't need it. We are just too smart.)

Ahem. The homework for May 11th, 2007 is:

~ Read Farewell to Manzanar: Chapters 20-21, and have your outstanding 3 sticky note questions ready for Monday's camp session.

~Just remember, you still have the semester project to do, so you might want to work on it.

As for the camp session for the day, it was our last day of Fishbowl this year (sniff. run to the Kleenex box for a tissue. Find with despair that the classroom doesn't have one, and walk back to your seat, sniffing with all the other campers in the room.) Mr. Fisch and Mr. Porter came to video tape our Fishbowl to use for the documentary and for Dan Maas to use for his CASE group.

The Fishbowl Discussion went as follows:

~What was the point of Chapter 18?
~What does Chapter 18 show about Papa?
~What does Papa view honor as?
~Why does Papa seem to want to prolong their way back from the camp?
~How is that like Winston giving up in 1984?
~The meaning and power in the "mother and father fighting" statement.
~How in the war, the Japanese Americans were either Japanese or American, nowhere in between.
~Are we any different now, in our society?

• Stereotypes in the book vs. today
• cultural differences in America

~Distopian Fiction: the role that the media plays in society, being biased and/or lying to the people

Mr. Fisch then jumped in to make the comment: "Where is the evidence that the media is so biased?"

Which followed by Mr. Porter stepping in and contributing with, "Are novels media?"

(What do you say guys, should we add them in our future discussions for their outstanding, discussion changing ideas?) :)

Then Ben, with his standard amazing Star Wars analogy, said that the media is a lot like the Jedi principle that says that anger feeds on actions. Brilliant, by jove! Round of applause for Ben giving us our daily Star Wars trivia!

~ Finally, Counselor Smith ended the discussion with the thought of how often do you thank people around you for what they do for you? How much is our society focused on negativity?

So, Camp Smith, that is your scribe for today, May 11th, 2007.

Toodles!

~Laura

P.S. 4 more days until school is out!

Farewell To Manzanar Fishbowl Period 5

Farewell To Manzanar Fishbowl Period 2

Do we know what it means to miss Mrs. Smith?

Hey 5th period!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (The cool one!)
Here’s the scribe. Sorry it’s up late. Band, ya know!
Smith was gone, but she wasn’t. I mean, she’ll always be with us in spirit, as Dumbledore rightly puts it. But literally, she was gone, yet, she wasn’t. Mrs. Smith, our teacher, was at teaching (imagine that!) Emma’s school, so we had Mrs. Smith, the substitute. We started the Farewell to Manzanar character maps. We are in groups of 4-5, and we started the inside of our character’s body. You need to put pictures and quotes in the parts of the body that they represent, for example, for Jeanne, put some funny quote coming out of her mouth to represent everything she says. Or, for her mom, put her family where her heart is. We used magazine pictures to represent everything, and made a mess having fun!

Homework (ya know, the stuff we do at home):

Read chapters 14-16—3 sticky note questions

Bring in magazines, if you have them. We will be using more pictures tomorrow.

Come with a happy attitude, get lots of sleep, eat a good breakfast, all that good stuff!

This is Sarah, Signin' off!

G'night!

Guten Tag, Bonjour, Hola, Aloha, Salut, etc. for Period 5's May 8th, 2007 SCRIBAROONIE!

Hello again, kidlets, I know that since you all liked my superlative scribing sensations last time, I'm back for more.

Firstly, we did our usual meeting-and-greeting, with Smitty chastising us for not being ready by the bell and warning us not to plug in computer 19, because it caught on fire earlier today. I for one was disappointed to not witness the pyrotechnics. She then went around in her usual fashion, clipboard in hand, to check off those angelic students who did their sticky note questions for the previous night's reading.

Today we spent a good twenty-five minutes of our learning time writing a one-paragraph response to a prompt from everyone's favourite novel, Farewell to Manzanar, paraphrased below:

How is Papa like the rock in the national anthem? (If you don't know it from memory, it's at the end of chapter 11. What, you expect me to type it out? Find it yourself, lazies.) How is his personal credo, as well as the family's personal credo like the poem?

We then jubilantly went off to work on our semester projects or to read Manzanar for the remainder of the period, at which point we bid a tearful farewell to our class.

Our homework (OH HEAVENS NO!) is, as follows after the upcoming colon, which, for the uninformed, is a period with its identical twin suspended high above its wee little head:

-Read 12 & 13 in Manzanar and do yo' sticky note thang.
-Work on your semester projects
-Meet with "the teach" sometime this week for conferences about your projects, however, she will be reading stories about repulsive insects tomorrow to Emma's class, so, keep that in mind.

Adieu!
Thomas

Scribe Period Dos 5/8

SCRIBE FOR PERIOD 2!

We started off the class with a "hey peeps!" from Ms. Smith and the usual agenda up on the overhead.

Before our quiz, we had a mini dance party to the lyrics of "Word document! Name on it!" and heard Ms. Smith speak some spanish.

Today in class we had an in class essay prompt over Part 1 in Farewell To Manzanar. If you were absent today, see Ms. Smith to take this quiz.

Afterwards, we discussed a little bit about the prompt.


[Homework:]
*Read Chapters 12-13 and have three sticky notes questions prepared
*Be ready to have an in class conference with Ms. Smith about your semester project with your group

That's about it Period 2!

Muchas gracias!
Merci beaucoup!
....

Scribe 5/7

Hello class,

[Hello ms. Smith]

Today is Monday, May 07, 2007.
I know what you are thinking… ugh… The Dreaded ‘Monday’.
Well, I think Ms. Smith must have given everyone some of her Vente Carmel Macchiato [triple shot] Starbuck’s today, because everyone seemed to be more perky and awake than the average Monday.



We began class with discussing our plans for this week:

May 8th [tomorrow]
- Quiz on Book 1 (Ch 1-11)
- Conferences on Semester Projects

May 9th [day after tomorrow]
- Conferences on Semester Projects
- Bring in Magazines

May 10th [day after the day after tomorrow]
- Conferences on Semester Projects
- Character Maps

May 11th [day after the day after the day after tomorrow]
- Conferences on Semester Projects
- Character Maps

It’s a lot, but DO NOT STRESS OUT!!

We are honors kids… we can handle it.
And the fact that we are block 2 and Ms. Smith’s favorite class… just makes us better in general. ;]

While we opened our screens to a website filled with pictures of Japanese internment camps… Anna walked around and checked our sticky notes from Chapters 6-7.

Next,

We scrolled through the pictures and reacted to what we saw on our laptops.

Common Trends that we noticed…
The victims were completing tasks and activities that an average American would under go.
They consider themselves citizens of Americaà not Chinese
You rarely saw a whole family together in the photographs
Relates to the book and how the families quickly grew apart
The people in the camps were smiling in practically every picture
Relates to the honor the Chinese people had
Photographer didn’t want to portray the camps in a negative way

The rest of the class period was spent on our semester projects and conferences.

Homework :[

Semester Projects
Chapters 8-11 & sticky notes


kbye,Jess B

Per. 5 Scribe for Friday May 4th

Heloooooooooooooooooooooo (again)
Ok, well friday was pretty basic...
In class:
Well today was the very last day for reflection on our year in Camp Smith. (yes per. 2, Smith made our class CAMP Smith, instead of just CLASS Smith) Jelous? The relfection constisted of what we have learned, what our semester goals are, and then a how's it going section. And last but not least what should change.
Well Instead of discussing Farewell to MAnzanar we had semester project work time! YEAH (especialy because some of us UHMM ME didn't read:)
We then voted on how our porject points should be split: We chose option B split right down the middle. (I think) Things are a bit fuzzy from friday. Long weekend.
Homework:
Semester project
Read through seven in Farewell to Manzanar and sticky note it.

Period 2...Scribefulllll

Period 2's scribe for Friday, May 4, 2007
In class on Friday:
On Friday we wrote our last reflection ever (tear)
We were supposed to reflect over the semester and the entire year and write about it. Then we were supposed to write our goals for the rest of this semester. Then we wrote about just 'Wut's up?'. Last but certainly not least we wrote anything else we wanted to say for the very last reflection ever.
Next Ms. Smith asked us if we wanted to discuss the book...............and we said no.
Ms. Smith almost bit her thumb at Alex M. but he told her not to. Then she offered that we could teach period 3 Romeo and Juliet (but not really).
After that we voted on what section the points for the semester project would be applied
OPTIONS WERE:
A. 100 in Reading comp. 75 in Literature Projects and 100 in Critical Thinking
B. 275 in Reading comp.
and C. 275 in Critical Thinking
The class voted and choice B. Won 275 points in Reading comprehension
For the last twenty-five mintues of class we worked on either our semester project with our groups OR we read in Farewell to Manzanar through chapter seven.

HOMEWORK:
Work on semester project of course, we only have a couple weeks left and time will fly.
Read through chapter 7 in Farewell to Manzanar-plus three sticky note questions for chapters 6 and 7.

Extra:
18 days left including weekends and graduation
13 days left not including weekends, but including finals
9 days left not including weekends or finals

REMEMBER TO FINNISH OUT THE YEAR STRONG!

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY Period 5 will never be as outstanding as PERIOD 2!!!!!

Period 5 and their M-AZING Blog!!

Many objectives were accomplished in Smith's Period 5 class, we...

talked about the blog the last night: (hitting these key points)

• "This is an issue of honor" Smith said.
• "Life has left her footprints on my forehead" this reminded Smith of O’Brien talking about a boot stamping on a human face
• Jeanne, from the book, is so American that she does not really realize she is Japanese

reviewed chapters 1-3: (hitting these key points)

• How long will they last with their honor?
• How long can you keep a positive attitude when you are being forced?
• Jeanne is the baby and it very different for her than her older siblings
• Pg.6 the dad was burning his things shows he really cares about America, but it hurts him on the inside to get rid of his Japanese cultural
• The whites did not try to find out what they wanted or needed, there was no thought
• That is a lot like today we do not know our enemies cultural that well
• They gave up liberty for security, they were getting beaten, robbed, and arrested for no reason at all, so they gave up liberty to be more secure

Also, we voted on where our semester projects should go:

Option A- 275 in Reading Comp.

Option B- 200 in Reading Comp. and 75 in Critical thinking OR

Option C- 100 in Reading Comp., 100 in Critical Thinking and 75 in Lit. Projects

Option B was the final decision.

HOMEWORK:

• Read Chapters 4 and 5
• Work on your semester project with your group

Period 5 will always be better than Period 2.

It's Scibeacalifragilisticexpialidocious!...for who else but Period 2!

Well today started out with a rather pathetic greeting to Ms. Smith, which she made us recite again, but hopefully we’ll do that better tomorrow. Thankfully, Emma was feeling better today so Smith was happy about that.

We then went to our blog and looked over the blog that we were supposed to respond to last night…good job to the 24 of you who actually did do the assignment. The rest of us responded in class.

Shauna opened up our discussion by saying that both passages got the same message across, only in different ways.
Paige also had a great comment about how the first passage seemed to be more realistic, while the second was more poetic.
Chelsea asked a good question about why Jeanne was afraid to sit to the Caucasian girl with the slanted eyes. Smith said that the girl’s father had threatened to sell her to the China Man when she would not behave. This is basically the Boogie Man that all of us grew up being afraid of. (Or maybe you're like Declan Danger who was most likely never afraid of anything when he was little...or maybe not.)

After the discussion, Anna came around and checked to make sure we had done our three sticky note questions. By the looks of it, mostly everyone did so good job guys!

We started to discuss some of the questions that we had come across while reading. We discussed how the head of the house was taken like Jeanne’s father was taken. Somehow we once again found ways to connect our discussion to movies.
We also discussed the honor and loyalty that the Japanese people still showed while in the concentration camps.

Then came the issue of where we wanted to put the Semester Project in our grades. We were given three choices:
• Option A – Split the points up between two categories.
• Option B – 275 in reading comprehension
• Option C – 275 in critical thinking
• Option D – 275 in literature projects
In the end Option B was chosen.

After voting, we turned in our 1984 books. Then Smith let us work on our Semester Projects for the rest of the hour. Make sure you guys are working on those!

After Smith sent us to work on our projects, Alex noticed that "A perfect class" had been written on the board (most likely by Kakos), drew an arrow, and wrote "Period 2." It was pretty funny, I must say.

So all in all, it was a pretty good day...and Period 2 continues to be more amazing than Period 5.

Don't forget the...
Homework-
• Chapters 4-5 with 3 sticky note questions
• Semester project (the end is near!)

-Hannah J.

Opening passages

" It is sobering to recall that though the Japenese relocation program, carried through at such incalculable coast in misery and tragedy, was justified on the ground that the Japenese were potentially disloyal, the record does not disclose a single case of Japenese disloyalty or sabotage during the whole war...
- Henry Steele Commager

Life has left her footprints on my forehead
But I have become a child again this morning
The smile, seen through leaves and flowers,
is back, to smooth
Away the wrinkles
As the rains wipe away footprints
on the beach. Again a
Cycle of borth and death begins.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

React to the following two passages that open the novel. Why did Houston choose these two? Why print them together?

Happy May Day 5th Hour

Helooooooooooo…..
Happy May Day!
Hola 5th hour!!! Let’s see, well today poor Emma was still sick and Smith had to stay home with her so we had a sub. Her name was Mrs. Leensvaart, but because no one could seemingly pronounce her name without a hitch we were instructed just to call her “Mrs. L.” Anyway to get to the class side of things… today we started our last book of the semester, YEAH!! I mean how depressing.
During class, make sure that read the blog on “security vs. liberty” and respond appropriately.
The rest of our class day was spent reading Farewell to Manzanar.

Homework…
-Read Ch. 1-3 in Farewell to Manzanar and remember that you need at least three sticky notes for this section
-Keep working on you semester project

P.S. 17 more days until summer vacation!

What a Day in May to Scribe!

Happy May Day!

Class started out with a celebration of Endsley making Varsity cheers! Congratulations, Endsley!
When we all walked in, we realized that Ms. Smith was not here! Instead, we had Mrs. Leensvaart ("Mrs. L"). She taught for a long time, and now subs (obviously).

We are beginning Farewell to Manzanar tonight, so make sure you either check one out from Ms. Smith or get a copy of your own. Farewell to Manzanar by Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston is about the Japanese American internment camps during the 1940's.

During class, make sure you respond to the,"Liberty v. Security" blog. We also signed up for scribes during the rest of Farewell to Manzanar today. People who have already scribed do not need to do so again.



Homework:

Read chapters 1-3 of Farewell to Manzanar with (at least) three sticky-note questions.
Semester project!



Those Who Are Interested:

- Color Guard Tryouts are in the Auxiliary Gym: May 9, 3-6 p.m., May 10, 3-4:30 p.m., and May 11, 6-9 p.m.
~Registration is at 3 p.m. on May 9th. There is a $30 fee for the camp and audition.
~Audition photo will be taken at 5:30 on May 11th

-Student Council is having a Formal Dress Drive for disabled teens. Drop your dresses off near the women’s PE office or in the front office throughout the day May 9th, 10th and 11th. Clean out your closet for a good cause.

-Anna W. ^.^

Liberty v. Security

What is liberty to you? What is security to you? At what price are we willing to sacrifice liberties for ourselves and others in order to promote security? What instances in the history of the UNited States or in the world have we sacrificed liberty for the assurance of security?

Make sure to react to one another's comments. I miss you guys and need you to rise to the challenge of me not being able to be there. Hopefully, I will be back tomorrow if Emma gets better.