Smith's 9th Honors Class Blog

2007-05-17T12:44:00.001-06:00

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

2007-05-15T16:03:00.000-06:00

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 10^th 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

2007-05-15T07:12:00.001-06:00

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!

2007-05-14T16:18:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-11T15:46:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-11T07:28:00.003-06:00

Farewell To Manzanar Fishbowl Period 2

2007-05-11T07:28:00.001-06:00

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

2007-05-09T22:26:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-05-08T19:37:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-08T13:21:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-08T07:38:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-06T15:46:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-06T14:28:00.000-06:00

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!!

2007-05-03T18:58:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-05-03T15:09:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-02T07:23:00.000-06:00

" 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

2007-05-01T12:45:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-05-01T09:10:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-01T06:21:00.000-06:00

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.

Period 2; a scribe for you.

2007-04-28T10:43:00.001-06:00

Class started with a bliss.
Ms. Smith was not a miss.
We got our grammar packets back.
My group gave back the quizzes.
If you think there is a mistake in you quiz, see me for corrections.
We split the show and got to work, upon our semester projects.
The homework is a follows:
For those who have not finished the survey, finish it with haste.
Ms. Smith marvelous way of teaching depends on your answers.
You must keep working on you semester project, for it will creep up fast.

Titanium Plant Pots: A Day With the Prince of Wales

2007-04-27T15:25:00.000-06:00

'Ello chaps! While I recognize that it is terribly hard to talk in a British accent online, I shall attempt it until I get bored or distracted. Just pretend you're listening to J.K. Rowling reading you a book. Or one of those people who narrates audio books because for some reason they're always British...

This unbloody day at camp smith started out as abnormal as usual, with us poor blokes waiting miserably for our beloved mistress to arrive with the (port)keys. (Ha get it! A portkey! Why are they all standing around that manky old boot... ya... nevermind) As always, us childerkins enjoyed our moments standing around, blocking traffic, talking, listening to iPods, some awkward things you don't want to know about, and all the other activities that occupy our time from about 12:09 P.M. until 12:14. Yes, it's true, I can count.

Suddenly, an excited buzz came over the crowd. We looked into the near distance and lo and behold, (gasp) Ms. Smith strolled over to the door with the (port)keys and unlocked the door. As I'm sure you all know, entering the door to room C11 is like entering a painting in which dazzling scenes of nature, harmony, and everything else associated with me can be seen. Oh, and Hannah was there too.

We then proceeded to fold up our laziness and put our minds in the upright position because God only knew we were in for some major turbulence! From the threshold of C11 we were all too excited to retrieve our laptops and thus hurried to the loading docks to wait our turns. After all was said and done, we sat down at the tables and waited patienly for the news from the Smithian front, hoping for a glorious victory. Alas, we were thus rewarded. From Smith's very own lips came the words that lit up everyone's sweet little hearts. Today would be a work day for the semester project! In fact, it would be the last one, I believe, until after Farewell to Manzanar. Everyone was all set to get started when to our great surprise...

Emily with an "L" dropped a bomb on us, so to speak. Actually disregard that last comment. What she really said is that there is a meeting for the directing group of the documentary next Wednesday in the library! Be there, be square! Also regarding the documentary, filming shall start very soon because the writing is almost done. That, my friends, is how you deliver news about a documentary. Incidentally, Smith informed us that she is quite ready to receive end-of-the-year gifts. If you don't know what to get, I think a Starbucks gift card would do just fine... I would also like you to know that I am accepting gifts too if you're feeling extra generous.

The day started. Everyone had finally gotten "Doubleplusgood" out of their heads. To everyone's dismay, though, Kenna and Ayla started belting it out, and it once again became imbedded in our tiny little brains. I guess it didn't help that I was playing it on my computer either... but I'm sure they're over it now anyway. More information on these zany songs can be found here.

As I stated before, today was nothing other than a work day! Hooray! The day was littered with shrieks of joy and fits of giggling from the ladies in the back. Those near the front, however, enjoyed a stunning entourage of Smith's own playlist! At one point, if I dare mention it, Riley just so happened to be dancing by his desk when "SMACK!" He hit his funny bone hard on the desk. While he was doubled over in shrieks of pain, I'm quite sure that everyone else was doubled over in shrieks of laughter! It was funny, if I do say so myself. (Get it! Funny bone. It was funny! Ha ha ha!) That was the highlight of the class, for the rest of the period was wasted on these silly things called semester projects!

The day proceeded like this, with raised and lowered voices here and there, full of emotion, and just begging to stay in C11 for the rest of our lives! Oh, how we all wish that... Overall, the day was thoroughly unproductive (did I say that?) with most groups getting nothing done more than writing something like this:

-LOF-beast
-1984-BB ROX MY SOX!
-R&J-my favorite love/sex story in the world!

And so our day ended. With many sad glances back toward the room where all of our lives center around, the children of period 5 departed and scattered to their various other classes around the school campus. With friendly hugs and pats on the back, we all left the comfort of C11 to begin our adventures in the outside world.

Incidentally, here is your homework:

-work on the semester project
-if thou hast not finished thine survey by now (which is indeed blatant slacking!) you should probably do that soon

Until next time,
"Plusgood,
doubleplusgood!
Plusgood,
doubleplusgood!"

This is Dan, the one you all know and love, signing off.

P.S. I changed the color scheme in honor of HPDH. And I updated the day counter thing at the bottom for all of you people who are just as excited as me!

21 Days 'til HPDH Book!!!

11 Days 'til OotP Movie!!!

School's Out!!!

April 26, 2007: An Amazing Day with Period 2

2007-04-26T17:53:00.000-06:00

Hey, guys! Here's what went on today in Smith's magnificent Period 2 Honors English class, which, of course, is insanely awesome and continues to be better than Period 5...

Today was a slightly more relaxed one, and the day began as usual with Mrs. Smith’s greeting of “Hello, everybody!” and our enthusiastic response of "Hello!" Following this, we turned in our grammar packets and our wonderful 1984 essays. For those of you that may have been absent, the prompt was:

1984 is a warning that Orwell wrote in the 1940’s. What was he warning us about (2 specifics with explanations)? How has it come true in our society (2 specifics with explanation)? The essay must be typed, double-spaced, and in formal essay format.

After turning in our assignments, we proceeded to take our grammar test over the use of punctuation marks, which we completed while discussing the nicknames each member of the class should have. There was some debate as to whether or not Brian's nickname should be "Tank", and Mrs. Smith named Chelsea "Sparkle" and Endsley "Diva". Alex also suggested that Declan's nickname be "Duckie" instead of "Danger" or "Dandelion". After this entertaining conversation ended and all the tests were turned in, Mrs. Smith turned on music written about 1984 and we spent the rest of the period relaxing while listening to and discussing the music. We listened to "I Did It Just the Same", "Sex Crime", "For the Love of Big Brother", "Julia", and "Doubleplusgood". The lyrics to these songs as well as others that we did not have time to listen to in class are posted on Mrs. Smith's website under Documents. After listening to each song, Mrs. Smith had us react to it and share our thoughts. One aspect of the songs that we noticed was that their lyrics and their tone seemed to contradict one another. For instance, the song "Sex Crime" seemed as though it would be a low-key, remorseful song, but it was actually very upbeat. The class contributed well to the discussion, and the hour was over before we knew it.

The homework is as follows:

Continue working on your semester projects
If you want your own copy of Farewell to Manzanar, please have it by Tuesday
Finish the class survey found on Mrs. Smith's webpage if you have not already done so

Thanks guys! Hope you have a nice night and a great Friday tomorrow!

Period 5 Scribe, Get Wit It or Get Lost

2007-04-26T16:06:00.000-06:00

Alright, alright, alright how's it goin' everybody?

So to start this 5th hour class on 4-26-07 I was broken up with via text message, I'm not going to go into detail, all that matters is I'm back on the market, I can't complain about that. Now that I have that out of the way here's what happened on the academic side of things. We worked our way into the classroom and settled into our seats so we could figure out what we were doing in class. We started off with turning in our essays and grammar packets. Then we had a grammar test, even though we don't need no grammar. The test was pretty short and sweet, so that was good. After the test, Smith had us listen to some songs from the 1984 soundtrack put together by The Eurythmics. We discussed the songs in detail. My favorite song was Sexcrime, the lyrics really spoke to me even though the title is contradictory. So we played the music until the bell rang and that was pretty much our day.

The homework was just to work on our semester project.

Period 2, This One's for You!

2007-04-25T18:25:00.000-06:00

Hey everybody!

We started the day off with an extremely enthusiastic hello from Smith (which, by the way, only took period 2 ONE try to respond to correctly). Since today was a short day (due to ACTs for juniors) we got right down to business. We first went over our question for the 1984 take home essay test due tomorrow. The question is:

1984 is a warning that Orwell wrote in the 1940s. What was he warning us about? (2 specifics with explanations)
How has it come true in our society today? (2 specifics with explanations)
This must be typed, double spaced, and in formal essay format.
You must answer both questions!

Smith also said it doesn't matter how many paragraphs your essay is. You can pick your own format for your essay. However, she did say she was looking for that you actually answered the questions, and that you typed it in proper format.

After we wrote down the question, we took a survey set up by Smith. To access this survey, go to Smith's webpage from the school website. There will be a link that says survey. Once you click on the link you must enter in a class code (period 2's is 220). If you were not able to finish in class, you were to submit what you had already completed and do the rest at home. Smith asked us to please do our best and answer in complete sentences because this is feedback to her that she would like to take seriously.

So, our homework:

1984 take home test due tomorrow (MUST BE PRINTED OUT PRIOR TO CLASS!)
Complete all exercises, worksheets, and reviews in the grammar packet
Prepare for the grammar test tomorrow as needed
Finish the survey if you have not already done so

Alright guys. That's my scribe for tonight. Have an amazing Wednesday night and I will see you all, bright and early, tomorrow morning! And remember, period 2 will always be better!

-Sara

Good Scribations

2007-04-25T17:25:00.000-06:00

HI PERIOD 5! As I am sure you all noticed, we only had a 23 minute class today, but boy was it fun! Today, Wednesday April 25, started out the same way as every class. First we were chastised by Smith because we didn't greet her with enough enthusiasm (although I would like to say that I strive to say "Hello Ms. Smith!" with enough "umph" the first time). However, we took her scolding to heart and did a better job the second time (way to go period 5). Next, we talked about our homework. Homework this evening includes the following: take home essay, finishing the survey, and grammar packets (for those of you who are wondering, you do have to finish the conversation between Laura and Gabe). So, let us consider this wonderful take home essay, which is a TEST (not to freak anyone out, but let's try our best shall we?) The question: 1984 is a warning that Orwell wrote in the 1940's. What was he warning us about? (2 specifics with explanations). How has it come true in our society today? (2 specifics with explanations. Now, we are going to review proper paper turn in etiquette. #1 Type your paper. #2 Double Space you paper. #3 Prior to numbers 1 & 2 make sure you write your essay in a formal essay format. #4 Print before you come to class. Smith said that your paper can be 3, 5, 7, 12, or 22 paragraphs if you like but remember it is formal writing so you decide. After we covered the paper, Smith talked for awhile about PB and J taking over the world and that preservatives are bad so everyone remember to eat natural Peanut Butter and throw out your Jiff and Peter Pan. Moving on to the survey, if you were not present in class today, go to Smith's web page (your favorite teacher) under teacher web pages and click on survey. Our class code is 2:51. This survey is from Smith's 21st Century Learner's group, so complete sentences are important. If you didn't finish your survey in class, you were suppose to submit what you had and finish later. Now, keep in mind, Smith worked to make this survey understandable to us so be nice and do you best. That way, we can all be a happy family and enjoy our days at Camp Smith. So, that is pretty much it, except that if you were not at school, your fruit basket is in the mail. Oh, and you missed out on a story about Smith when she needed glasses and had to squint to see. And her eyes felt buggy. So...I guess this is goodbye period 5. Have a splendid Wednesday evening and a fantastic Thursday morning. Oh bye the way, I couldn't get the enter key to work so when there is suppose to be a new paragraph I pushed the space bar until it was on a new line. Clearly I am very technologically gifted and I know how to work the enter key on a machine I am supposedly smarter than. And if you are wondering, the title of this scribe was inspired by The Beach Boys. Happy writing! -Hannah-banana

Period 2 Scribe...

2007-04-25T10:42:00.000-06:00

April 24, 2007

Ok so yesterday was a fishbowl day and a quiz day.

Alex D, Jessica B, and Elyse H were the leaders for the fishbowl and they made the highly entertaining quiz.

There were about twenty questions on the quiz and the first ten were for points and then three of the next ten were for extray credit.

If you were not there you better take that..

The quiz took pretty much the whole hour because one sentence was no sufficient enough for an answer. We had to have long and meaningful answers.

I learned not to yell out answers during quizzes...

The fishbowl took place after the quiz and the points were pretty much...

-If Winston would ever "challenge the system again"
-How Winston and Julia betrayed each other
-How depressing the end of the book was
-How it related to Farenheit 451 (which was written in 1953...)

The fishbowl did not last very long so that is about all we got to.

School starts at 11:30 today!!
-GOOD LUCK JUNIORS ON THE ACTS

Homework: Grammar due on Thursday

Scribocity

2007-04-24T20:09:00.000-06:00

Hey yo!

If you are reading this because you were gone today, (especially if you were a band kid stuck on a bus) we missed you. Krause did too, probably. Well, like I said Smithy was not here today and so Krause was our sub and we had a party, a fishbowl party. Our presenters were Ty and Zach who gave us a multiple choice, open book test (A+ for that guys). This was our last fishbowl for 1984 and we talked a lot about what Winston didn't know, Why?. -I think that, oh yeah I'm Maddy( If you listened to the fishbowl, you should understand this. If you don't get it, don't try).

If you missed today, make sure that:

you get a make up quiz from Zach and Ty
post 5 quality comments on the live blog
post a comment on the continuing the discussion blog

ps: everyone should know that this scribe was up before Period 2

pss: Lindsey, I was kidding. I Heart You!

psss: we don't have school until 11:30 tomorrow

Peace Out,

Maddy!

Period 5 Blog at Home

2007-04-24T19:51:00.000-06:00

Hey guys, sorry this is a little late...

Here are a few more questions to think and blog about:

Could there ever be a rebellion against The Party or a similar government system?

Why did Winston betray Julia when he was facing the rats?

By releasing Winston, was O'Brien being generous for sparing his life, or is he causing him more pain by keeping him alive?

Thanks and see you tomorrow!

Ty
Zach
Riley

Period 2; blog for you

2007-04-24T11:58:00.000-06:00

We have some questons for you.
•At the end of the book, how did it make you feel? How did your feeling for Winston and Julia change as you read the book?
•Out of all the characters in 274-297, who influenced the breaking of Winston the most? How?
•What was the significance of using fear in ‘Room 101’? What would be in your ‘Room 101’? and why?

Have fun,

Jessica B., Alexander D., and Elyse H.

PS. Period 2 beat period 5 with 109 comments in 24 minutes to 87 comments in 36 minutes.

Fishbowl per.5 1984 275-297

2007-04-24T07:10:00.001-06:00

Fishbowl per.2 1984 275-297

2007-04-24T07:09:00.001-06:00

Period 2's Scribe...What more can I say?

2007-04-23T15:53:00.000-06:00

Today, April 23rd, is the day we made our 1984 T-Shirts. The following list entails what is needed for this assignment.

A blank, white t-shirt with your initials on the tag
a creative political message that is simple and gets the point across clearly(it has to be on the computer)
once said image is obtained, drop file into Smith's Drop Box
Await further instructions from Ms. Smith (she hasn't told us what's happening past that)

The homework for this day is...

Grammar Packet, whatever pages you haven't finished
Read pgs. 274-297, Newspeak section not required

Also, on this day in history...

Shakespeare was born
Steve Clark, guitarist of Def Leppard, is born
Shakespeare dies
Boris Yeltsin dies

And a public opinion poll based on alexm's blog post " and since when was Declan "danger"?

it should be Declan "Dandelion..." "

Should Declan's unofficial middle name be Danger or Dandelion? Please post your opinion.

A Day Without Period 5 Scribe is Like a Day Without Sunshine…

2007-04-23T15:10:00.000-06:00

Camp Smith April 23rd

Today was a splendid day! At the beginning of class, we turned in our take home quizzes from Friday fishbowl feeling very confident we all did excellente! Then Smith explained our T-shirt project...

A design on the computer using Word or another program on the computer which I cannot think of right now...
Sending a political message or a warning to society in 1984
Use a strong visual (or in other words a "prettty prettty picture")
Make a simplistic, short saying
Make it very CREATIVE and COLORFUL!
Turn it into her drop box when finished...

Then Smith showed examples from Period 2 (which Period 5 could totally beat!). After, Smith let us get to work. We then worked on our T-shirt Projects all day... until the dreaded bell rang...oh how emotional it makes us all, I know, I know.

Homework:

read pages 274-297 in 1984 (it is optional to read the newspeak section)
make up the quiz from Friday (only if you were a slacker and did not come to school)
make sure the T-shirt designs from today are completed...or else...
be sure you are done with all of your grammar exercises

Scribalicious for per 5-alicious

2007-04-22T15:19:00.000-06:00

Hello marvelous period 5!!!!!!

Today is April 20, 2007 and it’s Friday!!! Unfortunately it is also the anniversary of Columbine, a memorable day for the nation. Rumors are flying around about threats at schools all over the state, but what is true? Here is a link to an article from Denver Post

To begin our exciting wonderful class, Smith explained our homework and reminded us of the t-shirt projet on Mon. Homework is in purple at the bottom.

We started off by recieving a take home quiz from Ben and Hannah. Ben said it is totally open book because there is no way for him to stop us :)

Fishbowl from Ben, and Hannah:

In this section of the book, Winston got tortured and was forced to see O’Brien’s reality. So what is reality? Your reality depends on who you are, how you behave, who you are around and the truths you believe in.

So how do we define truth? What if you are tortured to believe in something else. Smith said it could be how you are raised, how your parents teach you, and what you learn early on. She related it to Blood Diamond, how the little boy almost murdered his father because he had been separated. But should children be obligated to turn in their parents? Parents are obligated to turn their children in, so why shouldn’t it go both ways? The society in 1984 operates on an absence of love, but it might be harder to betray parents in our society.

What is the difference between truth and reality? Truth is something you can back up with facts, but what does that make reality? How do we know O’Brien was holding up four fingers? All we have is Winston’s word, how do we know that is true? We decided that this book drives us crazy because it’s about Winston being stripped from his humanity.

But our views on this book are based on how we live. What if O’Brien was our protagonist, then would Winston and Julia seem bad? And children turning in parents? Isn’t that the right thing to do? So what else does this society lack besides love?

The Party is trying to change Winston’s mind, but they can’t change his heart. But isn’t the heart partly mental? Like if you told yourself over and over again that you hated history, you will probably eventually start to hate history. The thing about Appearance Vs. Reality is that eventually one has to become the other.

Ultimately, we decided it came down to this: Change isn’t necessarily wrong, it’s just extremely difficult for us as humans beings to get used to.

Smith, being as wonderful as she is, and because of how much she loves the golden number 5, gave us little homework for the weekend ahead:

--Finish 1984!!! (pgs 274-297)
--Bring in a plain white T-shirt, one per group, for designing!
--Blog on the lovely discussion from today
--Grammar is due next Thursday, so please keep up with that!!!

Also, coming next week:
Monday—T-SHIRTS!!!!!
Tuesday—Grammar day, fishbowl of pgs 274-297
Wednesday—Approve thesis in class, take home essay
Thursday—Collect grammar packets, grammar test, semester project, watch video?
Friday—Semester project
The next Monday—Semester project

Whoo hoo period 5, thanks for the fantabulous Friday and have an awesome weekend! Remember to relax, take a deep breath and try not to get too stressed out.

Cheers!
~Maria

P.S. ONLY 23 DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT!!!!!

Freedom is Slavery, War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength and Scribing is Scribing Period 2

2007-04-20T23:55:00.000-06:00

Today started as any usual day would begin. Ms. Smith entered the classroom promptly at 8:20 (or about that time) and walked through the door with a smile on her face that screamed, "Hello world, let's get ready to learn!" She then said her ever expected "Hello everybody", to which we all responded in unison "Hello". Ms. Smith then played out what our plan was for the day on the overhead. The overhead read:

Fishbowl 224-274

Quiz

Hw: Read 274-297, scribe (which only pertains to me), and to bring in a plain WHITE t-shirt to class on Monday.

The white t-shirt can be any size just make sure you have one. I believe we are doing the t-shirt project in groups, and I don't know if it is one t-shirt per group or everyone brings one so just bring one.

What actually happened in class:

Smith began class by signing everyone's registration cards. Remember these are due next week so you need to get them signed whether you continue in honors or not. Make sure to complete that. Then we moved right into the quiz. There were some technical difficulties starting the quiz on the computer but thanks to alexd's knowledge of computers we were able to continue on with the dreaded quiz. We then set up fishbowl and began to discuss pages 224-274. To see the discussion on the outer circle, refer to the blog post. However, some of the topics on the inner circle included:

What is the symbol of Goldstien? Is he real?

Movies, books, media that relate to the government in the book

What is defined as humanity?

Why is period 2 better than period 5?

The presenters today were Josh, Alex, and Connor (who was absent). The discussers were KJ, Sara, and Christa. The conversation went well despite the limited time. We fishbowled until the end of class.

Don't forget your homework, and to keep working on your semester long project...I have a feeling those are going to be great.

Fun Facts about today:

Half the class was missing...BAND!

Shortened class time due to Spring Assembly

Joshb had a florescent yellow shirt on

Danger had a baby blue shirt on

Sarac had a beautiful red flower in her hair and did an excellent job preforming at the assembly

Shelton and GOD OF WAR...absent

That's all I got guys so remember to do your homework. Grammar test next week by the way...

Discussion Continues

2007-04-20T18:51:00.000-06:00

Well my internet was down at five, so I ate dinner, and now here I am posting the discussion continuer. (spell check)

It seems as if Winston is still able to think for himself on the subconscious level, even if what he thinks is what O'Brien is telling him. What could this mean, and could it have any significance?

Thanks guys, and sorry Ms. Smith for the late post.

Boring Scribe for a boring day-April 18th

2007-04-20T15:03:00.000-06:00

[This is Riley's scribe, and I am posting it for him because his invite was sent to the wrong account. He apologizes for the lateness. -BenH]

April 18th was a fun-filled day, full of reading and clicking for
MAPS testing.
Glad to know that everyone in the class had high scores, and good
luck next year.

Homework- read 164-224 in The Last Man of England (1984)

Sad week for Virginia.... Good luck guys

Fishbowl per.5 1984 225-274

2007-04-20T08:04:00.001-06:00

Fishbowl per.2 1984 225-274

2007-04-20T08:03:00.000-06:00

The Period 5 Discussion Continues Over Pages 167-224

2007-04-19T20:38:00.000-06:00

Let the discussion continue!! Here are some questions to ponder:

Would you rather be a party member or a prole? (Living Conditions vs. Freedom)
Would society as it stands in the book be able to function without war?
Is it possible for the Brotherhood to exist? How would they get around the prying eyes of the party?
Who do you think Winston can trust? Who shouldn't he trust?
Could Winston and Julia really make a difference in bringing down the party?

These questions tie back to the Fishbowl:

How long do you think the telescreen was present in the room? If it had been there long, why didn't the Party arrest Julia and Winston earlier, rather than waiting for multiple months?

Do you think the Mr. Charrington that Winston saw when he was being arrested was the 'real' Mr. Charrington?

Period 5's 225-274 Adventure: The Conclusion

2007-04-19T19:50:00.000-06:00

Hello again, since I know you haven't had enough of Tom posting blog entries, here we go again.

Your preliminary question, pre-discussion:

O'Brien states when he is informing Winston of the world's "truths" that, "Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship." What does this quote mean in the context of 1984? Fahrenheit 451? Better yet, how can we apply this to America, or even the world, today? Be creative.

Have fun! (There shall be more to come as discussion warrants!)

Thomas, Benjamin and Hannah-banana

Greetings, 5th Hour Comrades!

2007-04-19T17:46:00.000-06:00

As a special salute to 1984, today's scribe shall be in Newspeak:

Thu 04-19-07 12:14-13:11
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Today Com. Ritzdorf sub. Com. Smith gone- doubleplusunhappy.

Inclass:

Good quiz from SB/LB/KB. Curevents EC doubleplussmart.
FBed doubleplusgoodemothink on Charrington, chrhyme, Brohood real?
Outcirc goodiscuss on Charrington's long wait, Brohood, WS's overtrust, chrhyme.

HW:

225-74 FB Fri
Blog
Oldspeakgram 04-26-07
Semepro

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
And here it is again, for all of you Oldspeak-types:

Thursday, April 19, 2007 12:14P.M.-1:11P.M.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Today Ms. Ritzdorf subbed for us because Ms. Smith was gone- We were extremely sad and anxiously await her return.

During class today:

We took a great quiz from Shelby, Laura and Kari. The current event extra credit questions were very creative and the quiz was very thorough!
Next we Fishbowled. The Inner Circle's discussion was very thought-provoking and deep. Some of the topics discussed were Charrington and his membership in the Thought Police, the significance of the rhymes, and whether the Brotherhood exists or whether it is simply a ploy to create a common enemy among Ingsoc's subjects.
The Outer Circle also had a good discussion about Charrington's choice to wait before reporting Winston and Julia, the role of the Brotherhood, Winston's overly-trusting tendencies, and the rhymes.

Today's Homework:

Pages 225-274 of 1984; The Fishbowl for these pages is tomorrow.
Tonight's blog question
Grammar is due next week.
Work on the Semester Project.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

REMEMBER: BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!!!

Period Two's Awesome Scribe-y-ness

2007-04-19T09:17:00.000-06:00

Sadly, Smith was once again gone today. What we did today with Ms. Ritzdorf goes as follows:

At the beginning of class, we picked a comment from a blog this week and played a sort of ‘game.’

1st person says the comment
Next three people say why it is intriguing
Person who picked the comment gets the last word

1st comment: Kathrynt
It may be interesting because it mentions the “place where there is no darkness” or because it may not be true—maybe Winston doesn’t look up to O’Brien as a leader. Julia and O'Brien also are opposites.

2nd comment: Endsleye – antique shop is a trap

3rd comment: Kimc- Monday’s comment – Humanity isn’t possible without love.
It includes definitions of love, and what humanity is . It also defines humanity in so many different ways, including that it seperates us from animals.
~ It is interesting because of our semester long project -- How literature portrays
people.

*Events this week have caused us to question ourselves, our rights, and how we can make a positive difference in the society* ~Ms. Ritzdorf

The second item on our agenda was Grammer lesson 14 (Editing and Proofreading worksheet 1) as a class, sentence by sentence.

Finally, it was Reading Time.

HOMEWORK:
-Grammer if you don't have it done
-READ!! We have fishbowl tomorrow over pages 224-274! Discussers and Presenters be ready! Band people and anyone else who will be gone-- you must make this up by going online and reading the blog comments and adding a decent number of thoughtful comments of your own!

Scribe For the Cool Kids. and Connor.

2007-04-18T19:37:00.000-06:00

It was a dark and stormy night, and our ace pilot BLAAM!!! (sadly, he is no longer with us)

Well, we started the day as normally as any Wednesday. If it can be called normal.

We took a wonderfully easy and well done quiz from Declan, Adam, and Phillip: God Of War. After spending about 15 hours on the first slide like we usually do, we were able to move on to the next one. Nobody was harmed, rest assured.

We set up the tables into the square, slightly larger square position and began fishbowling. Hooray! Well...hmm....I guess not hooray; a kiiilll uuuussss is more like it. (note the correct semicolon use!)(!??)

We discussed mostly about 1984, as you can probably guess, with some fun thrown in there. Ha ha, just kidding Smith! It wasn't fun at all!

At any rate, the discussion was based mostly on the image of the breaking glass....thingy. We discussed Julia's character, and whether or not Big Brother and that Goldstein dude are even real.

COLOR! today was also the Day Of Silence (clever huh?) for the victims of the Virginia State Massacre, and in support of gays and lesbians and their rights. I tried not talking for an hour and got bored. Imagine that. But seriously, if you did make the day without talking, congrats.

Homework: aka: the only part you should care about.

grammar. this is a biggie for next Thursday. Or maybe not. Just do it.

read. what? 1984. why ask such a dumb question? pages uhhh... 224-uhhh. 274.

and a quiz on the cardiovascular system. BE READY.

have a good rest of the evening, even if you did have to read this. and for those of you who listen to announcements every morning:

Thanks Arapahoe and have a "Wacky" Wednesday! HAHAHAHauhhhh.

not kidding on the cardiovascular quiz.

buhh bye now. buh bye.

Period 2: The Discussion Continues/The Discussion: Part Deux

2007-04-18T16:42:00.000-06:00

Ok all you 21st Century learners, all you system challengers, all you intellectuals....and brian. Here is your blog question:

Throughout the book, O'Brien has become more and more of an instigator of Winston's actions. Do you think he will play a larger role as the novel comes to a close? Why or why not? If he does play a larger role, what will it be?

So there you have it. What's the mystery behind the (for lack of a better word) mysterious O'Brien. Brainstorm.

Declan "Danger" Hughes, Phillip "God of War" Strom, and Adam "Shelton" Barsch

My amazing scribe for whom else, but period 2!

2007-04-17T19:21:00.000-06:00

Well hello there, I hope you all had a good day at school today!!!

Today we started out the class by talking about Newspeak and handing back the quizzes we took over pages 69-117 and 117-147. The class wasn’t participating at all during our discussion about Newspeak so Ms. Smith got upset with us, come on guys we can’t bore her we have to be better that 5th period. I really think the class is getting better at those quizzes though because all of our grades seemed to be a lot higher!! Good job guys keep it up.

So today in class was pretty much amazing, it was just a work day. Last night everybody was supposed to get a political speech for today, so what do you know we used them. We all go into groups of either three or four and went over the speeches. Out of everybody’s speeches in our groups, (man were they long speeches) we just chose one. After we chose the one speech we liked the most, we rewrote it so that is was in the form of Newspeak, from 1984 where Winston works.

Newspeak has many characteristics,
-Very few words, right to the point
-Very little vocabulary, so we eliminated all big words and descriptive words
-Simple

(Really you just wanted to make it so a 5th grader could read it with no problem, and understand every single word of it, it’s pretty close to what Newspeak do.)

When we finished, we printed it out, that is if you typed it, and then turned it in. If you didn’t have time to print it out today be sure to print it out tonight, BEFORE YOU COME TO CLASS!! You all know what happens when you don’t print your work out before you come to class, so don’t make the class suffer.

If you finished re-writing the speech in class then you could work on some of your other english work such as the grammar packet.

Homework:

-Print out your speech if you haven’t already done so
-Grammar packet all the way up to 16
-Semester project
-Read pages 167-224 for tomorrow (Presenters and discussers, be prepared for fishbowl tomorrow)

I really hope that this helped anyone who was absent or just didn’t write down the homework or pay attention in class today.

This week:

You guys should really come out and support the school and our teams so going on this week there is,

4/18 Girls varsity lacrosse game at LPSS at 7:00
4/18 Girls JV lacrosse game at Newton Middle school at 5:30
4/18 Boys varsity Baseball at AHS at 4:00
4/18 Boys Freshman lacrosse game at Powell Middle School at 4:00
4/19 Girls varsity soccer at AHS at 4:00
4/19 Girls JV soccer at AHS at 4:00
4/19 Boys swimming and diving at AHS at 4:00(it’s against Heritage)
4/20 Boys JV baseball game at AHS at 4:00
4/21 Boys freshman baseball game at AHS at 11:00
4/21 Boys freshman baseball game at AHS at 1:00

These are only the home games from now until Saturday.

Also there is the school play, Music Man.

That’s all I have,

Tana L.

¡Period 5's Funkadelic Scribe April 17th!

2007-04-17T18:29:00.000-06:00

Hello, kiddos, I am pleased to announce that today none other than I, the absolutely superawesometastic master of all the universe Tom, shall be scribing for you!

Don't get too excited. Nah, I'm kidding. GET VERY EXCITED!!!!

Today Smith wore a fabulous black ensemble, very fashionable and oh-so chic, with a white belt of some sort, presumably representing her skill as a karate master in the forests of Brazil. It was in this outfit that we were informed that tomorrow (Wednesday in layman's terms) all children shall report to the Library Computer Lab for MAP testing, hooray! We must try our very hardest, or else the consequences shall be most dire. We were also kindly reminded that to get full points on fishbowls, we must have five comments of QUALITY, not quantity. Let's get this party started. Final in the stunning series of reminders was that we must read a lot this week for fishbowls on Thursday and Friday, so if you haven't started, then stop reading this blog this instant and go pick up a book, you lazy bum.

This was in preparation for an activity so absolutely wonderful our feeble brains could not comprehend it: translation of the speeches you found last night into Newspeak! Many cheers of unbridled enthusiasm were heard all round at this announcement. At this point we scattered into groups of three or four and proceeded to be little busy bees up until the bell, when unfortunately we had to depart to continue other scholarly pursuits. We bid a fond farewell to Smith's classroom. I'd be willing to bet a few tears were shed as well.

Our homework for the future:

Do Grammar Sections, through 16.
Read pg. 167-225 for Thursday and through 274 for Friday!
Work on that semester project doohickey (yes, THAT one)

Remember, period 2, it's okay if you can't keep up to our high standards. We understand.

UNTIL TOMORROW!

Your palster,
Tom

Fishbowl per.5 1984 167-224

2007-04-17T11:14:00.001-06:00

Fishbowl per.2 1984 167-224

2007-04-17T11:13:00.000-06:00

Scribalicious Period 5 style

2007-04-16T12:18:00.000-06:00

Period 5 Scribe-time!

The day began with some fabulous stressing out about the amount of reading that must be done this week. Anna then proceeded to pick up the take-home quiz from Friday. Preparations ensued for the coming quiz and fishbowl involving many a "switcharoo" due to the insane schedules of the band kids and theater types. We then took the quiz and lamented the number of emails Smith received over the weekend. We also had the amazingly interesting experience of touching Ms. Smith's fluidified leg from her rather bad fall moving over the weekend. Next came the fabulous...FISHBOWL.

Da Fishbowl...

Discussion Topics

Are the rocket bombs a real part of the war, or is it the government and the party that is responsible for it?
Why do the bombs only hit the proles and never the "real people."
Why does Winston trust O'Brien? Is it all naivete or is there something more? Will this trust of anyone who "looks at him the right way" bring him down in the future? Does his hopelessness in life lead to this trust of people?
Can the party get into the minds of its people? What will this mean for their "crusade?"
Why does the party discourage sex?
How does Winston's family influence what he does now? How is Julia a catalyst to his new life of rebellion?
What part does destiny play in the story? Is Winston trying to predict what's going on
How has his past affected his present, and how will it affect if future?
How does the party gain members? How was Winston molded into a party member as youth?

Blogging

A look into the loyalties of both Julia and O'Brian.
The meaning of Winston's childhood and family as well as the dream that led to this discussion.
The title of the book and what the original title was and what it would have meant had it been used.

Alas, another awesome discussion disrupted by an annoying beeping noise. As for the wonderful homework...READ READ READ. There is a lot so it must be done early lest our fishbowls suffer and fall behind those of Period 2. Also, grammar is a rather annoying but completely necessary facet of an English class and must also be completed. Smith today announced that the entire packet will be most likely due on Monday of next week. As a last note, everyone should finish filling out their schedules and be sure to get all necessary signatures for honors classes. (doesn't a little bit of color make school more fun!)

Scribe for Period Two, April 16

2007-04-16T10:23:00.000-06:00

Smith is back today!

Homework- Grammar Packet through 16
Bring in a political speech from the red-scare era—we will be converting it to ‘Newspeak’ tomorrow
Read pg. 167-224

We took the test from annaw, Kathrynt and saraC. It was hard but had very high level thinking questions. Good job guys, it was without a doubt better that Period 5’s quiz.

FISHBOWL!!!!!
· We talked about how Julia is a rebel from the waist down—What does this mean?
Julia= Rebel without a cause Winston=Rebel with a cause
Is this true?
· Julia, although she wants the government to change, she doesn’t believe she has the power to change it. In order to change things you have to have the ambition, and she doesn’t have it on the large scale that she need it.
· Winston sees that he has to confront big brother head on against all the sayings.

· Why is Winston the only one who can remember the past, stuff like how the party didn’t actually invent airplanes?

· What is the significance of the memories that Winston has?

· Why would the Proles rebel against the government? They don’t really have that much of a reason to, because they are free and the government has only a small amount of control over them. What reason to they have to rebel?

· Why do we have proles and why do we have a party? You always have to have the good and the I don’t want to be that person. You are happy but you don’t want to be the other side.

· Human Nature- Do you have to have love to be a human? What separates animals from humans?

Don’t forget—
1. Read Ahead, there is a BIG section coming up!
2. Know when you are scribing and be sure to post on your day! (Not that we have any problems with that… I just thought period five would like to know.)
3. Get your schedule card ready and signed by all your teachers if you are planning to continue in that subject for; -Foreign Language, -Math -Any and all Honors classes
4. Period 2 will always be better than period 5. Always.

Period 2 At-Home Fishbowl!

2007-04-16T09:23:00.000-06:00

Why do you think thatt they keep changing who they are at war with? Why doesn't anybody notice when it changes? Is there any signifigance that Winston seems to be the only one that does notice?

Thanks,

Anna W, Sarah C, Kathryn T.

Fishbowl per.5 1984 147-167

2007-04-16T07:44:00.001-06:00

Fishbowl per.2 1984 147-167

2007-04-16T07:43:00.000-06:00

Dearest Period 5 here is your blog post for pages 147-167...

2007-04-15T20:34:00.000-06:00

So far, what has 1984 said about us as human beings? What part of us does Winston represent? Julia? How about The Party?

1984 was written from a futuristic point of view in 1949. What was Orwell correct in predicting? Where was he completely off the mark? What do you think his overall message is to us readers?

Tie 1984 back to Lord of the Flies. How is The Party like Jack? Do you think Winston is like Ralph? How? How are Golding's message from LOF and Orwell's message in 1984 alike? What do both these books say about the survival instincts of humans?

For those of you who don't know the story, what do you think will happen to Winston and Julia? Do you think O'Brien and Julia are good guys or bad guys? What do you think will be the result of Winston and Julia's secret relationship?

I'm interested to hear what you guys think. As always, please remember to reference back to others' comments.

Thanks guys!

Period 2's Breathtaking Discussion Presses On!

2007-04-14T22:30:00.000-06:00

To continue the discussion we had in fishbowl on Friday, here is your blogging topic Period Two...

In the chapters we discussed in fishbowl on Friday we discovered much more about whom Julia's character is. How does she compare to Winston? How is she similar? How is she different? How do their outlooks on the rebellion against the Party compare and contrast? Do their differing generations affect their opinions of the Party? Why did Orwell bring these two characters together?

You don't need to address every question, we only posted them to drive some discussion.

Sorry this was posted rather late as well.

briang, chelseah, endsleye, paigen

2nd period's Scribalicious post

2007-04-14T18:12:00.000-06:00

Sorry the post is a little late due to techinical difficultlies...

The class started out on a rather sad note when we discovered that Ms. Smith was no where to be seen. However, we somehow were able to recover and to continue on to do a reflection on how we are doing in class. Our strengths and weaknesses were well recorded in the documents we submitted. Next we nearly pulled our hair out during the stunning quiz that was written up by our wonderful presenters: Paige, Brian, Endsleye, and Chelsea. Nice job on those quizes! After the difficult but refreshing quizes we set up for the awesome fishbowl. I was dazzled by our wonderful questions and connections which just might have been better than... 5th hour's. Anyway there was many difficult questions about the wonderfully introcite book 1984.

Great job on the fishbowl everybody!

Now I want to mention the homework situation!

Make sure to keep doing your grammar exercises! You should be done all the way to Exercise 14
Read 1984!!!!!! Right now we're reading from p.147-167 (you might want to read ahead! We have a big section coming up)
Don't forget that you might be scribing soon! make sure your prepared and you know what day is yours
Presenters and Discussers: know when your up! Make great questions so we can knock Ms. Smith's off!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!!

~~KIM~~

Period 5 Scribe

2007-04-13T12:32:00.000-06:00

PERIOD 5 SCRIBE - heck yes

Just to recap today's events...

Sadly Smith wasn't here - so we had a Starbucks party with Mrs. Ritzdorf
It was awesome- be jealous

OK so we started off with our lovely reflections

Then we moved on to taking our "truly" true quiz
(for those of you who did not finish, this includes myself, the quiz is due Monday. So do not forget to do that.)

After our quiz, we moved on to fishbowl.
It was very intense and we talked about all kinds of inappropriate things. It really was a good fishbowl, there were many good things that we talked about. Thanks to Dan, Lane and Anna for the great fishbowl and running the class today.

Homework for the weekend:

Read pages 147-167 in 1984 - the next fishbowl is MONDAY
Blog question
You should probably work on figuring out your arena scheduling worksheet- it is due April 24
Quiz is also due Monday

Have a good weekend, See you all on Monday!

Mission: Period 5 scribe

2007-04-12T19:59:00.000-06:00

*Mission Impossible theme plays in the background*

“Your mission, should you choose to accept…”

We accepted.

(A sound recording follows)

Hey there Period 5!

I’ve posted our scribe!

(We’ll pretend that really did rhyme and that everyone thought it was terribly clever…even though it wasn’t…)

We started in disorder, as usual…getting our computers, talking to our friends as though we hadn’t seen them in years, even if is was only yesterday, first period, or even lunch since had last seen each other. We calmed down slightly after the bell rang.

Then Ms. Smith went over our homework with us, which happens to be:

Read 1984 pages 117-147 and be prepared to take a quiz and fishbowl tomorrow.

Do the grammar lesson 14: Exercises 12-14. (We’re almost done!!)

We also have to behave ourselves as we have a substitute, Mrs. Ritzdorf is HIGHLY suspected of having that privilege tomorrow.

Now to the important stuff, the actual occurrences of the hour…*drum roll*…REGISTRATION! We received some papers. No, I revise that, a LOT of papers. A general list of what we should have received is:

A yellow card stock paper with mostly charts. On the front is where one fills in their class requests for first semester. DO NOT LOOSE THIS! Do not write below the line above which states in print “DO NOT WRITE BELOW THIS LINE.” Just for good measure, I repeat: do not write in the area with the stamped “First Semester.” Get it? Got it? Good!

Attached to that, one should have gotten a piece of paper that has our Graduation Status. To explain some of the terms used, even though most are self-explainable, I have inserted this chart:

Graduation	Requirements	Completed	Courses	Enrolled	In Term	2
What it Looks Like	Course Title	Credits	Course Title	Credits	Course Title	Credits
What it Means	The general name of the subject	The number of credits required to graduate	The official name of the class we have taken	The number of credits earned in S1 for this class above the number possible	The official name of the class we are in	The number of credits possible for S2 in this class
An Example	Language Arts	35.00	English 9: Honors	5.00	English 9: Honors	5.00
TOTAL CREDITS	188.00 total credits are needed to graduate	Total Credits:	The number of credits earned in S1		Total Credits:	The total number of possible credits for S2

Hopefully that helped, somewhat at least. Now back to those numerous pieces of paper that we received…

Also, one should have gotten a single gold paper, which is from the Business Department. It gives a list of ways to prepare for a college degree in business on one side, and on the other side is the list of the required courses (Intro. To Computer Applications or Computer Applications 1.) It then goes on to list all the offered electives, some which are new, like Web Design1 and 2 (which was in fact, merely moved from a different department,) Sports & Entertainment Marketing, and Entrepreneurship.

We also acquired a locker partner request form. It is a portion of a yellow paper. PLEASE remember to PRINT on this.

Furthermore, a “master” schedule course list was handed out. This was apparently done very early in the morning, and some changes may be made. The papers going straight up and down are the courses offered for first semester. When they appear to have acquired an amazing gymnastic ability to flip upside-down, you will know that those are the courses offered second semester.

Probably one of the most important documents we obtained today was the Arapahoe High School: Class of 2010 Worksheet: Sophomore. This is a yellow sheet of paper, which is to help us to figure out what classes we want, an in what hour. Pencil and erasers come in extreme handiness as we, most likely, will not have our schedule figured out perfectly the first time. AND the order will most likely change when we get to the final registration stage.

As we all know some courses are fully required, unfortunately.

English: It is required to take English in both freshmen and sophomore year. As we are all already in Honors English, we would continue in the Honors program, and probably take American Literature Honors. Both regular 10^th grade English and America Lit. are offered, but as far as I can tell, we would generally take the American. Lit. Honors.

History: Next year we are required to take both Cultural Geography (which is 3 credits) and World Civ. (which is also 3 credits.) We cannot take them both in the same semester, so we must plan accordingly.

Math: Four semesters of a math class are required to graduate. However, one must take into consideration that is not necessarily the same for college enrollment requirements.

Science: Again, four semesters are required. For those of you already in Biology and planning to go into Chemistry next year, remember that chem. labs take up two hours, rather than one hour.

Practical Arts: One (about) practical arts class is required to graduate. Both Intro to Computer Applications and Computer Applications (one or the other is required) count as practical arts classes.

Fine Arts: Of the Fine Arts, none are absolutely required.

Physical Education: Both swimming and personal survival courses are required.

Electives: We need 75 total credits to graduate. Of course, this is the minimum, and we can, and probably will, go over this requirement. These classes are any class we take that does not fall within the required classes.

Other important information to know and realize:

The card stock yellow paper, also known as the Semester Course Requests sheet, is due to the Guidance Center BY 2:30p.m. ON TUESDAY, APRIL 24, 2007.

One MUST use a #2 pencil (these things are so famous) on the Semester Course Requests sheet.

The e-mail information on that paper is OPTIONAL!!

We must attend the final registration stage on Friday, May 25, 2007, within the appropriate time according to our last names. The specific information is given on the yellow worksheet.

The Semester Course Requests sheet’s tables are set up differently than the worksheet’s tables. Watch out for that!

Most important: if you have any other questions, comments, or concerns, PLEASE see a teacher, or a counselor.

Well there we go. We spent the rest of 10 minutes talking and looking at the courses.

This message will self distrust in 5…4…3…2…

*Mission Impossible music plays*

-Mphair

Michelle Phair

April 12 Scribe...........woot

2007-04-12T15:37:00.000-06:00

Today as we all readied our young moldable minds for another day of challenging the system, we had a great surprise. Imagine our excitement when none other than Mr. Bast walked in to tell us everything we ever wanted to know about scheduling. He made some witty jokes involving middle names and passed out some very important papers which I promptly lost. Then he explained the scheduling system for this year. There were too many mistakes with the computer, so everyone will be sorted by name and assigned a time to crowd into a designated area and mill around until herded to another room in a process commonly known as arena scheduling. He went in to great detail about schedules. I will summarize the high points for you:
Fill out those forms you got.
If you do not have forms, obtain them from a responsible adult and then go back to step one.
That's about all I have to say on the topic of scheduling.

Finish your grammar packets up to Ex. 14.
Get ready for Friday fishbowl.
Keep working on the semester projects.
SMITH IS WATCHING YOU

Fishbowl per.5 1984 117-147

2007-04-12T06:54:00.002-06:00

Fishbowl per.2 1984 117-147

2007-04-12T06:54:00.001-06:00

Period 2 Scribe

2007-04-11T21:48:00.000-06:00

As always, Period 2 started off on a good note when Ms. Smith passed out the long awaited cd projects. Nobody seemed to be incredibly upset so I assume the results were good. After that, the mood changed when the class had to take a quiz=0. It consisted of 5 questions and nobody seemed to have the "I just bombed something attitude", so the day goes on. The previous quizzes were passed back. Then there was the fishbowl. As always, everyone contributed to make it a fantastic discussion. Personally, I liked the discussion about the intentions and the truthfulness of O'Brien and how he and others may be setting a trap for Winston.

Homework:Read pages 117-147. Think over the main topics of the reading and be prepared for Fishbowl on friday.

Goodbye For Now,
Josh

Period 5 Scribe!

2007-04-11T20:49:00.000-06:00

When we walked in to our favorite 5th period class of the day today, Ms. Smith passed back our amazing CD projects. Most people seemed fairly happy with the results, so the day started off on a good note. Then, to everyone’s great disappointment, Emily, Michelle and Sarah passed out the quizzes. The quiz involved a series of questions that were in the format of multiple choice and short answer. Also there was a 4 point question!(gasp!) The extra credit was a two part question that asked who was coming to our class this Thursday, and for what reason they had decided to join our hard-working class(cough cough.) After the quiz was passed in, we were told the answer to the extra credit. Unfortunately, I still do not know the answer to the extra credit that was previously mentioned.

Today was also fishbowl day!The greater part of the fishbowl was spent discussing the proles and why they have not started a rebellion. Ms. Smith brought up a good point: If all of the people in the United States that cannot speak English decided to rebel against our government, there would be no stopping them. Good point Ms. Smith!

Homework
Read 117-147 for a fishbowl on Friday
Make sure to be caught up on Grammar.

There you have it, my amazing scribe.

Ty

Period 2 Question

2007-04-11T16:18:00.000-06:00

To continue the fish bowl discussion, here's your question!

Is Julia foreshadowing an event that could happen later on? If so, what kind of an event? How is Julia simialr to Clarisse in Fahrenheit 451? Is there a connection between them? Similarities? Differences?

Tana L
Sara M
Shauna M

5th hour The Discussion Continues…

2007-04-11T15:43:00.000-06:00

Michelle's blogger was not working so I am posting it for her.

What is the significance of the unconscious in 1984? (Such as Winston writing "Down with Big Brother," walking back to the Junk shop, and thought crimes). How also does this lead to and show Winston Smith's changing political beliefs?

Period 5 Discussion 69-117

EmilyL, MichelleP, SarahC

Period 5 Scribe! [end singing angels]

2007-04-10T20:21:00.001-06:00

Following text is a quote. It comes from the period 2 scribe.

Welcome to the wonderful scribe (better than Period 5, whom I must add, has not scribed in TWO DAYS)!!!

Two days? I appreciate the vote of confidence, Kjerstin. But yes, it is late. And I apologize for that. But you know the saying: all the best things take for ever because they are good. Or something like that. If it does not exist, it should. And that is a fact.

But yes, I have an excuse for being late. I just got home. I have been working on the newspaper, stabbing people, and getting my hair cut.

However, I do admit I had the audacity to take off my shoes and wash my hands when I got home. I apologize.

But now, what I am actually here for.

HOMEWORK
Grammar packet up to 11

Lesson eleven has some sort of weird thing that involves writing sentences about stuff (that is probably about some fascinating subject, like Native American folklore or dead female pilots). What you are supposed to do is write unpunctuated sentences, and then have a friend punctuate them. Then, if they are done well, you tell them that their sentences have been wonderfully punctuated. If they are not very good, the course of action was not indicated.
Example: "Anna, do you approve of my sentences?" "Why yes, Ms. Smith, those are the most finely punctuated sentences in all the land!" (quotations approximated from memory)

Read 1984 up until page 117

I know some people from period two had this issue, but if it is not working for you, reorient the book. It is position sensitive. The title should be at the top of the cover, and the binding on the left side.

Create a propaganda poster for 1984

It must be

colorful
creative
captivating
cool
Can you think of other C words?

So the day started by us waiting outside for Ms. Smith to arrive. I briefly contemplated using the ram I had been shown in my homeland security course to break down the door, but I had no idea where it was at the time.

Next, we went inside and got our laptops out. Ms. Smith then demanded that we get out our assignment planners, and informed us of our homework, which I have already mentioned. Then she told us that someone named Bryn Woodley will be coming to observe our class. She was observing us because she wanted to be a teacher for some reason. However, she was not actually there because she was finishing some silly think called a "lunch." Ms. Smith told us to be nice to her, or she would hurt us. When she arrived, we clapped. No one (that I saw, anyway) was hurt.

Then we listened to music while walking "gallery style" around the classroom. When the music stopped, we sat down and made comments about the propaganda that someone had found. I enjoyed watching Hannah's video, which complained about the inability of Marilyn Musgrave to appreciate E-words. Can you think of any e-words?

Fun Fact! A substantial portion of the class was scared to death because we thought we had to print out or propaganda! We did not, thankfully.

Then class ended, and we left. IF YOU DID NOT PLUG IN YOUR LAPTOP, WE WILL FIND YOU!

You have been warned.

Fishbowl per.5 1984 69-117

2007-04-10T09:02:00.001-06:00

Fishbowl per.2 1984 69-117

2007-04-10T09:01:00.000-06:00

The AMAZING scribe for 4/10 from PERIOD 2!

2007-04-10T08:06:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the wonderful scribe (better than Period 5, whom I must add, has not scribed in TWO DAYS)!!!

Oh sorry guys, period 5 hasn't scribed yet and it's kind of close to time (another hour), so I thought I'd go ahead.

What we did in class today:
-We met Ms. Woodley who came to observe our class because she's a student wanting to be a teacher and they need TONS of hours of observation.
-Political propaganda: We placed the propaganda we brought up on our computers (either printed or on our USB) along with a blank word document. We did a gallery walk (kind of like musical chairs) where we walked around the classroom until the music stopped. The we sit at chair, review the propaganda, and write down what we thought about each piece, which piece we thought was the present and which was from the past. This was just basic reactions to the pieces. We each had a couple of minutes to react to the pieces at each computer and we did this three times. For every computer, we used a different font with our initials to show the different reactions from one person to another. Smith said to save the comments that the people left on your computer for later reference for our homework tonight (look at homework for more details).
-We finally worked on out grammer or propaganda a little bit until the bell dismissed us.

Homework:
- Group tomorrow be prepared for the quiz and discussion!
- Have the pages 69-117 read by tomrorow.
- Create poitial propaganda for 1984. What are some messages that the government is trying to portray? Include these in representations when creating the propaganda. Make it very colorful and printed if on the computer or you can colorfully draw it too. Be Creative! Due tomorrow!

So long and good luck!

The Bestest Most Amazing Blog Ever... Period Two Here It Is!

2007-04-09T16:35:00.000-06:00

Okay People,
Well to start... today is Monday, April 9, 2007!

Get ready for my amazing blog...

This fine morning, as I was walking to class, I noticed that my fellow classmates were heading to the library computer lab, and that's when I remembered... today is MAPS testing! Yay! So I joined my classmates as we headed down the hall into the computer lab to take our seats and wait for the test to begin.

Everything was ready to begin the test, but before we began, Ms. Smith told us our homework for tonight:

1. Read pages 69-117 in 1984 tonight, and be ready for the fishbowl on Wednesday.
[That means presenters and discussers be ready to present and discuss.]

2. Find examples of political propaganda. You need to find at least one from post WWII (or during) and at least one from present day. Bring them in to class tomorrow, either printed out or on your USB.
[Smitty would rather you print them out, please.]

After Ms. Smith told us our homework, and cleared up some confusion, we began the MAPS testing. I noticed immediately that my computer was a little messed up, as it was quite zoomed in, and I couldn't read everything on the screen. But no worries, everything was solved when I moved to a new computer. Voila! Problem solved. I proceeded on with the test, and finished in time to finish my reading in 1984.

Overall, it was a pretty easy day, especially because I got this day to scribe! Lucky me! ;)

I hope this helped anyone that was gone today!

Scribe for class on 4/06 Period 2

2007-04-08T20:29:00.000-06:00

On this particular Friday, Mrs. Smith was gone, in her stead we received Mrs. Ritzdorf.

Mrs. Ritzdorf started class by commenting on how old she was then quickly changed the topic.
The general schedule went like this:
~Quiz
~Fishbowl
~Bell ringing

The Homework For Monday, 4/09 is to blog and read P. 37-96
Also, a reminder that Career day is on Tuesday 4/10 and we received the schedules on Friday.

During the fishbowl many intriguing and thought provoking ideas were brought up for discussion.

Here is a link to the live blog discussion

Main topics from the discussion include:
~World War II – Oceania as Axis powers?

~Is the war real? Is it only told to the people for increasing nationalism?

~How did all the people of Oceania come to be under the control of the party?

Here is a link to a map of the 1984 world

~Everyone older than Winston is the only thing holding the party back from total control over the country.

~What about the Proles? Why can’t the party control them?

~Brian thought 1984 is exactly the same as Fahrenheit 451.

~In 451 everyone is well off. In 1984, the people are poor.

To our dismay the bell rang right in the middle of a heated debate over 1984.
This concludes the scribe for period two on 4/06.

Period Two Fishbowl Discussion Continues...

2007-04-07T09:52:00.000-06:00

Sorry it took so long to post this! I was having a little trouble with Blogger.
Here are some topics that we did not really discuss in depth, but wanted to talk about in the fishbowl:

One thing that seems to be central in 1984 is the lack of relationships. Winston and his wife Katharine, though they were married, almost hated each other, and Katharine viewed having children only as a “duty to the Party”. How does this relate to the lack of relationships in Fahrenheit 451? Also, at the end of Chapter 6, Winston describes his encounter with an old prostitute. Why does he take such desperate measures, and why do you think the Party puts such restrictions on sexual matters?

Period 5 Blog Question

2007-04-06T12:24:00.000-06:00

April 6, 2007

So far in the book, how can we draw parallels between 1984 and Fahrenheit 451? How do the characters compare? The setting? The plot? And how do they contrast? Based on what happened in Fahrenheit 451, what kind of inferences can we make about what may happen in 1984?

--Maddy, Erin, and Madison

Period Two’s Fabulous (better than period 5) Scribe

2007-04-05T15:49:00.000-06:00

English today started out the way it usually does, we all got our computers out and Ms. Smith said a few humorous remarks. Then, surprisingly, three girls walked into our classroom and informed us on joining journalism or the year book staff. This is the jest of their speech:

Encouraged us to do yearbook or journalism next year
Flyers were handed out
Meeting tonight at 7 in E-9
You get credits in LA and practical arts
Before the game, don’t worry!

Then after that very entertaining speech, Ms. Smith gave us a few reminders about up coming dates:

If you didn’t sign up for this book to scribe you can sign up for the Farewell to Manzanar unit
At the end of each unit you get 2-3 days to work on semester project
Read ahead in 1984 because April is extremely busy:
-Sophomore registration
-A week with three fishbowls
-MAP testing
-ACT testing
-Career Day
There is a fishbowl tomorrow
Schmity is gone tomorrow too

The very last thing we did as a group was that we discussed the Blog question from last night. The key points brought up in the discussion were:

What let’s the government control the people?
Fear – they make everyone fear them and then they will do what they want
Necessary evil – the whole population needs to have a common evil (Goldstein) so they unite and think that Big Brother is their savior for protecting them
Total control – they control the past, present, and future
Don’t actually WATCH people all the time through the telescreen, but they have scared people into believing they are.
No rules – kill you if you do something that they don’t like; no rules are more dangerous (don’t know what is wrong or right)
Limit the knowledge of the people (ignorance is strength) – they change history and they don’t let people learn about the outside world
War – all they think about is war; focus of society; distraction (mentally and economically)
Propaganda (all of the posters) – “Victory” everything
Mob mentality
All adults are scared of the children
Everyone is a “comrade” – no real relationships – no connections
Intimidation – children turn in their parents, Big Brother, thought police
Live by yourselves – need support to challenge the system and if there are no relationships you have no one to help you

The rest of the period was spent either reading 1984 or working on your grammar packet. Ms. Smith also told us that we needed to blog tonight on a new post on the blog. It was a fairly successful day!

Homework:
Grammar Exercises 8-9
Be prepared for the fishbowl tomorrow
Read in 1984 pages 37-69 (read ahead if you would like)
Blog on the new post on Ms. Smith’s web page
Challenge the System and Change the World (I know it seems like a lot but just try!)

I hope my scribe helped everyone out (it definitely helped better than Period 5’s if that isn’t too conceited) and I will see you all tomorrow!

PS- The font to this blog was really cool in the word document I typed it up in but when I copy pasted it into the post it wouldn't let me change the font...stupid technology (just kidding!).

Paige

Scribilicious...4/5/07

2007-04-05T12:40:00.000-06:00

So today...Smith was gone...it was a shame.
However, Krouse Quatro was here as a substitutioner.
WE, period 5, got donuts...in our minds. It was hard core visualization.

No but seriously, we started out discussing the blog.
Then Kenna walked in...late. We booed her, don't you worry.

But our conversation was quite interesting...
We talked about the irony of the Ministries in 1984.
One of the points brought up was how the Ministry of Truth was exactly the opposite of the name because they controlled the media and changed the truth so society only heard what the government wanted them to know. They also had the capability to change and sensor the past.
The discussion shifted to compare the events in 1984 society today. We compared how the government controls what we take on airplanes and society allows and follows their direction solely because of our fear of terroism.

Work for Home...
read 37-69
fishbowl tomorrow
grammar 8-9
blog on marxism, communism, socialism question

Per. 5 Fishbowl 1984 37-69

2007-04-05T08:33:00.002-06:00

Per. 2 Fishbowl 1984 37-69

2007-04-05T08:33:00.001-06:00

Communism v. Socialism v. Marxism

2007-04-05T08:29:00.000-06:00

What do you understand of Communism? Marxism? Socialism? How do they all compare? What aspects can you see in 1984 of these?

Period Five- Discussion

2007-04-04T19:27:00.000-06:00

Sorry for how late it is. Blogger wouldn't come up.

How are the "Ministries" ironic? How do these ideas add to the overall theme of the book?

Period Two- The Discussion Continues

2007-04-04T18:23:00.000-06:00

Sorry it took so long for this to get up guys, my computer has a major personality disorder and likes to shut the Internet down for long periods of time...

Anyway, here is your question;

What are some of the methods that the Party uses to control the general population? Why do they do this? Is it effective?

Wednesday April 4, 2007 - Period 2

2007-04-04T15:37:00.000-06:00

In Class:
To start the class period Ms. Smith went over our agenda for the day and passed our grammar packets back for us to complete Lesson 14:5-7. Then we got prepared for the Fishbowl by making the usual inner/outer circle arrangments (same rules applying: inner circle discussion and outer circle blog). Once we were all set, we were given our first quiz of 1984. There were a total of eight questions (and might I add that they were very good, higher level thinking questions. Good job 1st group1). After that, the discussion began!

Fishbowl:
Outer circle blog topics:
-Big Brother: real person or fictional character?
-Young children being trained to betray their parents (for throught crime)
-Family
-Foreshadowing in the book: will it come true?
-What is "the place where there is no darkness?"
*Refer to the period 2, 1-37 blog for more*
Inner circle discussion topics:
-Meaning of Big Brother in society and government
-Book's relations to Hitler and Fahrenheit 451
-Communism
*Since I was not actually in the inner circle, that's all I have. If you need more talk to someone from the inner circle discussion.*

Our Homework:
-Grammar packet Lesson 14:5-7
-Blog on pages 1-37
-Read 1984 to page 69
-Semester Project
-Work on presentations/quizzes for the sections you chose in the book

A few minor points:
-Ms. Smith recommends that you read ahead, as there is one section that is 50 pages long (167-224: done by the 18th)!
-Congratulations on a job well done 1st presentation group! You organized the quiz and discussion very well.

That's all I have to report. Have a fabulous evening everybody!

schurchill

A Scribe for Period Five

2007-04-04T15:13:00.000-06:00

April 4, 2007

Homework
1. Read to page 69 in 1984 by Friday
2. Work on Grammar Lesson 14:5-7
3. Continue to work on presentations for future 1984 fishbowl discussions
4. Continue to work on quizzes for upcoming presentations

Today in Class:
Staring today off, we went over our assignments and class schedule for tomorrow. Smith will not be with us in class tomorrow. Next, we took our first test over 1984. After completing the quizzes, we started up our first fishbowl over 1984( Hooray for the return of fishbowl discussions! ).

Some of the main points discussed in today's fishbowl:
1. What effect does the slogan "War is Peace, Slavery is Freedom, Ignorance is Strength" have on the society in 1984.
2. What effect does the slogan play against the ideas of the society?
3. What significance can Winston's dreams have?
4. How is the name "Big Brother" representative? Why would the people call their leader "Big Brother"?
5. Do the people in the society feel equal to Big Brother? Are they on the same level? What kind of figure does Big Brother serve?
6. What could be the purposes of the Two Minutes hate?
7. What are the strategies used by Big Brother?
8. What kind of propaganda has been used throughout the book, so far?
9. Why isn't the book 1984 written in Newspeak ?
10. Why wouldn't the people be able/allowed to think their own thoughts?

Reflecting on today's fishbowl:
Many excellent points were brought up in today's discussion. The conversation revolved mostly around the society in 1984 and the impact the government and Big Brother has had on the people of the society. Many thoughts about Big Brother serving as an actual brother figure in the story arose, as well as many ideas that the government may be scaring the people into submission by using the Thought Police as a fearful figure. Continue coming up with discussion questions, especially if your presentation is coming up soon!

Closing Notes:
1. I hope that this thoroughly satisfied everyone!
2. Have a super fantabulous evening--go outside and enjoy this amazing weather!
3. See everyone tomorrow!

--madison

Fishbowl 1984 Per. 5 Book 1:1-3

2007-04-03T20:06:00.001-06:00

Fishbowl 1984 Per. 2 Book 1:1-3

2007-04-03T20:05:00.000-06:00

Scribe for April 3 Smith's Period 2 (clever title here)

2007-04-03T16:21:00.000-06:00

Today's exciting day began with the class reviewing Endsley's magnificent scribe from yesterday that totally blew Period 5's out of the water. Afterwards, we copied down our homework and turned in the grammar packets. Then we watched both 1984 videos again as a class.

Following the second exciting viewing of these two videos, we compared and contrasted the two. As a class, as a team, as a unit, we brainstormed some spectacular points about these videos. Alex started us off by saying that Hilary's voice seemed more beefed up. This sparked some rapid fire connection-making, and we discovered that both seemed to be a form of brainwashing. Incidentally, we uncovered a typo in the Apple commercial: in the commercial the book title was written as "1984", but it should have been underlined. That was a good catch by whoever saw that.

After we finished going over the 1984 videos, we moved on to the political cartoon assignment. The task, should we choose to accept it, was to find two political cartoons: one from the present (2007) and one from 1949. Upon finding these, we were to compare the two. When that intricate task was completed, we were asked to form our own political cartoon from the future. We spent the rest of the class with this mission.

The homework for tonight is to read pages 1-37. Whoever the presenters are for the fishbowl tomorrow had better have their discussion topics at the ready, as well as a rigorous quiz for the entire class to enjoy.

That about does it. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Scribe 4/3 Period 5

2007-04-03T12:18:00.000-06:00

We started class by reviewing the marvelous plan Ms. Smith has planned for 1984 and turned in our grammar packets for up through lesson 4.

We watched the two Apple videos referencing 1984, and compared and contrasted them.

Apple Commercial
Strange tone w/ voice
Promotion
Hard to Hear
Positive Meaning- new age of technology

Obama/ Clinton Commercial
Attack
Speech contradictory to view
Negative Meaning- new age of darkness and control

Both: Address brainwashed public, the men are the drones, and women are the saviors

Maddy made an announcement about Wish Week, which everyone should participate in. (Hint: Smith will be playing in the basketball game) Donate, Donate, Donate!

Hannah also made an announcement about an upcoming meeting of the writers working on the documentary at Hannah's house around 10 or 11 o'clock. Everyone who wants to be a part of it is invited. They are planning on finishing the storyboard.

Our main assignment for the day dealt with political cartoons. In groups, we found cartoons from both the past (circa 1949) and the present and compared the ideas in a paragraph. We then completed our own political cartoon of the future with our groups. You need to print your cartoons but shame on you if you print them on Smith’s prized printer.

Tomorrow we have our first 1984 fishbowl and will be taking our first quiz over pages 1 through 37.

38 school days (not including today) left until summer vacation!!!

Just For You, Period Two. Scribe Monday April 2, 2007.

2007-04-02T18:12:00.000-06:00

Monday April 2, 2007

Today we began everyday like the next, greeting Ms. Smith with great enthusiasm! We were all quite excited to see each other after a really short spring break. None of us wanted to work today but did get a lot accomplished during the period.

Scribing:First Ms. Smith explained how the scribing works. How each day someone posts a blog recapping what we did during class. This is so when you miss, you know exactly what happened during class. One at a time we went up and gave Ms. Smith our e-mail addresses and she sent out an e-mail. Inside the e-mail is a link that invited us to her blog so we are able to make these posts possible. Once you open your e-mail click on the link and you need to sign in with your Google account. [If you do not have a Google account there is a link you can click on, on the sign on page so you can make one.] When signed our names on a calendar stating which day we will be scribing. See Ms. Smith to sign up. On your day, you scribing must be posted by 9 o'clock the same day as you are scribing. If you have further questions you can contact Ms. Smith or me during class and we will be happy to help.

Fishbowl:While we weren't figuring out how to scribe, we were learning about the 1984 fish bowls. Ms. Smith passed out a pink sheet [if you were gone see here to get one] that explained how we are doing fishbowl for 1984. This time each group [again if you were absent you were put in groups. Ask Ms. Smith to see what group your in] will be responsible to make an outline of what was to be discussed and make a quiz for the others to take. For more detail, please see the pink sheet. We signed up on sheets what days we wanted to present. The days of our fishbowls are on the calender available on Ms. Smith's web page. The days we were presenting on, we highlighted our names on the sheet in blue highlighter. On the days we wanted to discuss, we highlighted our names in green highlighter.

Blogger: After all of this was accomplished. We went on to the English 9 Honor's blog. There were two posts that we did. One was about parent expectations for blogger. We were supposed to respond with what we felt our parent's expectations should be. Our parents are also encouraged to post on this blog. The next one had two videos we watched and then responded on how we felt. It is important that you watch the videos in order they appear [youtube video is last].

Homework:

Read 1984 pages 1-37 for Wednesday [if you are presenting on Wednesday you need to be prepared]

Respond on both blogs if you have not already done so

Semester Project

Invite your parents to join blogger

Thanks for reading my scribe and if you were absent, I hope this has helped you out.

bye, adiós, au revoir, Tschüs, ciao, Tot ziens, tchau, пока, 再见。, 付け足し〔不戦勝者〕!!!!

See you all tomorrow!

Yours Truly,

Endsley Eggert

and remember....

Scribe for Monday April 2, 2007 5th hour

2007-04-02T17:09:00.000-06:00

Monday April 2, 2007

We got our grammar tests back. Please see Ms. Smith if you were absent to get your test back.

Today we began 1984 by George Orwell.

Ms. Smith passed out pink sheets that explained her fishbowl expectations for 1984. It is summarized as follows.

Unlike previous fishbowls, this time we are leading the discussion in groups of three on a given day. If you were not here, you were assigned to a group. Each group of three will meet before the fishbowl to discuss the pages that are going to be fishbowled on. During the meeting, Ms. Smith suggested that we look at least one critical analysis of our chapters. The places she suggested to find a critical analysis are Galenet and Ebsco. You can find links to these subscription sites on Arapahoe's website. If you are looking at these from home, you need the passwords. They are available in the library. Ms. Smith has prohibited looking at sparknotes for commentary. She also suggested comparing 1984 to other books you have read, especially Fahrenheit 451.

While they are meeting, each group also needs to come up with an agenda for the fishbowl. The agenda should outline what questions the group intends to ask and where the group intends to lead the discussion. This agenda will be submitted to Ms. Smith before the fishbowl begins. Make sure these questions are higher level questions that provoke discussion. In addition, while they are meeting, each group needs to come up with a quiz for this section. The quiz can be basic plot questions, BUT it must have at least one or two higher level questions covering overlying themes.

After the fishbowl, the group will pass out their quiz. After the class takes the quiz, the group is responsible for taking them home and grading them. They need to be returned to Ms. Smith by the next fishbowl. Additionally, your group needs to create a blog post for discussion after the fishbowl.

We also signed for a day to be a designated discussor for the fishbowl. For those who weren't there, you were assigned a day.

Ms. Smith collected our emails so we could get posting privileges on the blog. The point of getting posting privileges on the blog was so that each day someone could post on the blog about the daily activities. If you are absent, you can check the blog for a report on what we did that day. If you were not here, you were NOT assigned a day to scribe so please talk with Ms. Smith when you get back about getting a day. To see examples of what a daily report looks like go to http://smithewl.blogspot.com.

We also checked out 1984 books. If you still need one, see Ms. Smith.

Important note for anyone who bought his or her own copy of 1984.

If you look on the calendar for 1984, you will notice that we are dividing the book up by pages. Ms. Smith said that the first three chapters is equivalent to the pages 1-37 for anyone whose copy is different.

Lastly, we went to the blog and commented on two posts, blogging expectations and big brother is watching you. On the second post, watch the two videos in order then comment. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO WATCH THEM IN ORDER!

Homework:

Read 1-37 of 1984 for the Fishbowl on Wednesday

1^st fishbowl presenters need to get ready

Semester Project

Bring Grammar Packets tomorrow with 13.1-4 DONE! Be warned two of the exercises require written response.

Blog on the two questions if you have not already done so.

Invite your parents to blog if you have not already done so. Remind them to blog tonight if they want to.

Sorry the post is so long. Happy Monday!

Emily Lutz, Block 5 Scribe

Blogging Expectations

2007-04-02T08:06:00.000-06:00

What expectations do we want of your parents during 1984? Here our links to our previous expectations:

Period 2

Period 5

Practicing Blogging- Intro to 1984

2007-04-02T07:55:00.000-06:00

Today we are going to watch two videos as well as look at setting up the culture for 1984 in our classroom. Take a second to watch the two videos( in order) and then react to them on the blog. Also, make sure to reference the poster. What does this all make you think of? What connections can you make? Please, as always reference, one another's comments.

http://www.apple-history.com/movies/1984.mov

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cWvHbOoG3tI

Romeo and Juliet Act 4.1-5

2007-03-08T07:21:00.000-07:00

Romeo and Juliet 3.1-6

2007-03-07T08:57:00.001-07:00

Romeo and Juliet act 2.3-6

2007-03-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

Romeo and Juliet Act 2.1-3

2007-03-01T07:07:00.001-07:00

Act 1.5- Act 2 Prologue

2007-02-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

Act 1.4-5

2007-02-27T07:24:00.001-07:00

Romeo and Juliet act 1.2-3

2007-02-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

R and J Prologue and act 1.1

2007-02-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

What do you understand of the prologue and act 1.1? Ask questions, make notes, etc.

Cut-up poem- destruction of a sonnet

2007-02-14T07:39:00.000-07:00

Taking a poem and cutting it up to rearrange it into a new and different poem is often difficult because not all the words or phrases make sense. But, that is exactly what I am going to have you do. YEAH!

Exchange your cut-up poem with someone else. When you have received a new cut-up poem, rearrange the words in phrases to make a new poem (it definitely does not have to become another sonnet). You might have to add a few words to make it flow and make sense, but try to limit yourself to two to three words additional words. Also, you must use all the words/ phrases as they are given to you.

After you have completed your new poem create a creative collage of the ideas/themes/images expressed in your new poem and paste the "new" poem on top of this collage. Your collage should fill-up your entire piece of paper.

Good luck.