PLN 2

Dear Mr. Warlick,

I found this article to be extremely fascinating and strange as well. The concept that a video game that requires no obvious language arts application has me confused. If the brain can increase it's knowledge of language arts through simple video games wouldn't more schools and even districts have these games as a part of the curriculum? and what science defends this theory because I have always heard, "video games kill brain cells!". So which is it, just curious?

PLN 1

Dear Mr. Warlick,
I agree with your article "Are we wasting Children?", because I believe that some educators and maybe even  administrators might encourage less fortunate students to drop out. Your article really opened my eyes to the seriousness of the number of dropouts in high school. If this many teenagers are dropping out how many college students will dropout too? What is the limit and when will we as a society stand up for a fair education without being put down by the teachers and staff? I hope that teachers and staff will realize that hurting the students hurts them because less students leads to the need for less teachers forcing the schools to lay off more highly qualified instructors.

RyanL2010 April 29, 2011

Today in Mrs. Smith's English we started off with the usual Tuesday grammar activity on the board. After Mrs. Smith went over an assignment that had to do with our book The Lord of the Flies. We picked groups, and together we made posters that were covered with all kinds of plots we had encountered from the book. On the poster we put pictures, and of course good old quotes that took us forever to find in the book. Our homework is to finish our Lord of the Flies soundtrack, and any make up work we have left.

PLN 5

Dear Mr. Fisch,

This video that you posted brought very strong emotions to me; it made me think of how I can change my lifestyle to help protect myself from melanoma, because from what I took from the video is how those people said that it is a young person disease and that it is one of the fastest spreading cancers. I think that every teenager should watch this so that they can stop it before it happens to them and possibly takes their life. After you posted this to your blog it made me change some of my lifestyles to protect my skin and to look for signs of melanoma on my skin. I fear that melanoma is going to take many lives if young people like me don’t take the small precautions to help protect ourselves. I think that after you posting this that someone will make this known to everyone and tell them the small precautions to help save themselves. Again I thank you for posting.

Btemple  

Scribe March 28 2011

Today in Mrs. Smith's class we didn't do much. In class we did the daily grammar activity, and then moved on to our Lord of the Flies chapter quiz on chapters six and seven. After the quiz we spent the rest of the hour reading chapter eight. The homework we were assigned, and have been working on is The Lord of the Flies soundtrack assignment which is worth quite a bit of our grade. Remember to make up any of your work that you have not already turned in.

Scribe:Date-5/2/11

Today we walked in with Mrs. Smith at the door saying hello. After the greeting, we got right into taking a quiz 3. Then we started reading Romeo and Juliet and finished the book. Homework tonight, is redo work such as quiz's, projects, or PLN redo's. 

SCRIBE

Today, April 15, 2011 was a good day. It was a friday and everyone was excited to get out and enjoy the weekend! But before we could start the weekend we had to deal with first hour english. when we started we grabbed our grammar quizes and started on those. That took about 20 minutes at the maximum. After the grammar quiz we pulled out our Romeo and Juliet study guides and our books. But today was the day we did our Act 2 Prolouge. so for the remainder of class we did the prolouges and we have no homework, except some make up work if you have any.

RyanL2014

Dear David Warlick,

I am a student and I have had some connections to your article. I think some school districts feel that they are wasting their resources on students, and that they would be better off without that student. What schools do not understand is that these students may not be smart or efficient, but they are at school to gain intelligence and efficiency. Most students who attend school start out all wanting to go to college and make a difference, but as the school year commences, some of these students are neglected and mistreated by parents, teachers, other students, and let's not forget the school system itself. These negative factors change the students minds, they no longer feel like they can make a difference, and they no longer feel the need to go to school anymore because they do not see the point. I feel that school districts do "waste" children, but they are not the only ones. Parents and other students also have an affect on the drop out rate f students.
                            
                                                                   From, Ryan Lamb

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 Nick Farmen

Thanks to the ACT, we had a late start at school today and were given a few more hours to sleep at home.  Students noisily entered the beautiful Mrs. Smith's class at 11:30, and Mrs. Smith told us the homework for tonight right away.  Tonight's homework is: PLN4, and any missing work that you have not turned in yet.  After discussing tonight's homework, Mrs. Smith showed the class the rest of the Act 3, Scene 5 Romeo and Juliet video.  Act 3, Scene 5, is the scene where Juliet finds out that Romeo has killed Tybalt and is banished from Verona.  Juliet and Romeo meet each other in Juliet's room during the night, but Romeo must leave for Mantua by daylight in order for people to not see him.  After leaving, Juliet gets into a fight with her parents because Juliet's parents are trying to force her to marry Paris.  Once Juliet is threatened by her father and told to go die by her mother, she converses with the Nurse who tells her that she should marry Paris.  Juliet acts like she agrees, then goes to see the Friar.  This is where the video ended, and where we then began to start into the 4th Act.  While with the Friar, Juliet and he came up with a plan to fake her death, so that she can escape from marrying Paris and runaway with Romeo when he returns.  We ended the reading near the end of Act 4, Scene 1, as a result of reduced class time.  Tomorrow we will most likely finish this scene and another one or so, so not only should you be prepared to read, but also be ready for a quiz. 

Friday April 22 2011 Connor Banks

Hello today is April 22, 2011 and it is Good Friday, which is a religious holiday if you didn’t know. We started off in Mrs. Smith’s class by her saying hello and us not responding as usual because it is too early. The homework for this weekend is to do all make-up work that you haven’t done or have to redo. This includes PLN’s 1, 2, 3 and maybe even 4 if you feel like getting ahead in your work. We then worked in our groups and recited our tableaux viviant performances over act 3 scene 1 in Romeo and Juliet. After that everyone did them in front of the class. Last, we ended the class by watching the scene we all recited which is the fight scene between Mercutio, Tybalt and Romeo. We then left class and went on with our day.

Monday, April 18th, 2011 - Nick Farmen

Today started differently, compared to most days in English class.  This morning we were not greeted by the beautiful Mrs. Smith, but rather the substitute Mr. Rosenberg.  Mr. Rosenberg greeted students at the door, and then started straight into the homework.  You only had homework on Monday night if you needed to redo any missing work, or had forgotten to complete PLN's one and two.  After talking about homework, students Monday all shared the lines from Friday that students were supposed to memorize and add some creative aspects to, in order to present Monday.  Mr. Rosenberg seemed very pleased with the groups, and most of the class scored very well on their presentations.  Once the presentations were completed, Mr. Rosenberg started into the reading of Romeo and Juliet.  However, in the midst of reading, the bell rang loudly over the sound of the class reading Shakespeare.  We ended the reading from Monday on page 74 in my book, but that may vary for the different styles of the book.  Mr. Rosenberg told the class that we would attempt to read through Act 2, Scene 3 Tuesday, so if you are going to be absent tomorrow you need to read all of that carefully.

SCRIBE April-11-2011

Today was the day we have been dreading all weekend… MONDAY! We came into class and everyone sat down and practically fell asleep on the spot. Then all of a sudden Mrs. Smith broke the silence and got us started on our day. We started off with the usual grammar and naming the subjects of the two sentences of the board. After we finished that awful, but necissary, assignment we started reading our Romeo and Juliet scenes, act 1, Scene 2. That whole shindig lasted us the rest of the hour. Since we read the whole hour we did not have any homework in Mrs. Smith’s (personally my favorite class) wonderful 1^st hour class.

Scribe 4-7-11

Today we started off talking about our homework, which is we have to study for our grammar quiz and make up any thing that you have not done yet this week, you can find it on Smiths webpage. After that we diagramed our sentences, which are “those are the other childrens toys but yours are in your room” and “karl likes reading whenever a topic is technological”. We have a grammar quiz tomorrow, Smith also told us to make sure we study gerund’s which are in our grammar packet. After we diagramed our sentence Smith passed out Romeo and Juliet books, if you were not here you will need to see Smith to get one. After Smith handed out books Smith asked us questions relating to Romeo and Juliet.  Then we watched a video about Romeo and Juliet for the rest of the class.

Scribe 4/6/11

Today we walking in to the room on the late start day and right away we did grammar which went by fast due to the fact all we had to do today was clauses on our two sentences which are “those are the other childrens toys but yours are in your room” and “karl likes reading whenever the topic is technological”. We do not have any homework tonight unless you have not presented your LOF soundtrack or the first pln. If you need older homework you can look on Smiths webpage.

PLN 1

Dear Mr. Richardson, my name is Riley D. I am a freshman at Arapahoe High school. I am extremely impressed with your speech, and I completely agree with it. I believe that the learners and the students of this era are not using their skills of learning and performing to their full potential. This is due to the fact of how teachers and schools are cheating education in such a way for a beneficial salary. If we can teach these students correctly, and let them explore their imagination, these kids will sprout wings and fly. We will definitely see a more successful, fulfilled future ahead of us. I agree with the aspect of focusing on a different education with all of this new technology and budget cuts, instead of focusing on what is better. The best does not always fall on top.

Thank you for your inspiration,

Riley D.

SCRIBE 4-4-11

Today was a beautiful Monday in our favorite teacher, Mrs. Smith’s class. :) We started off with the usually grammar in the morning, and then it all went wrong… She asked us for our soundtrack assignment for the book LOF, but only two people had theirs done, Justin and Riley. Mrs. Smith did not find this very funny at all (like Jack and K.J did) and she lectured us about our laziness and work ethic for a good five minutes. So for the rest of class we listened to Justin’s and Riley’s, might I add, amazing project for the rest of the class which was nearly half an hour. Once class ended our only homework was to TURN IN THE SOUNDTRACK ASSIGNMENT!  Even though Mrs. Smith was severely mad and disappointed, we still love her.J

Scribe 4/5/2011

Today when the bell rang we started with grammar, the sentences for this week are, those are the other children’s toys but yours are in your room and karl likes reading whenever a topic is technological. After that we spent the rest of the period doing our LOF soundtrack presentations. Also the homework for today is to post our first PLN of this semester, we will have one a week and they will also be worth a lot more points than they were last semester. For any homework you have missing or absent you can go to Smiths web page.

Scribe 3-18-11

Today we walked into the classroom and the music was playing. The class then proceed to greet Mrs. Smith. The class then turned in the grammar worksheet and proceed to take the grammar quiz alone. Then we discussed chapters 1-5 in Lord of the Flies. We continued discussing until the bell rung. Our homework over spring break was the sound track assignment and our make-up work. Today was rather slow.

Scribe 3-17-11

Today the class walked into the room with music playing and Mrs. Smith usual greeting. Then we went over our homework which was, the sound track assignment, reading, make-up work,our grammar quiz and worksheet and our 2 critical and interpretative think questions.  We started our work with grammar, like always. We put punctuation in and made diagrams for both sentences. We also took a quiz over chapters 3-4 of LOF. You can make up any of the LOF Quizzes.We viewed images of war that were not to gory. Mrs. Smith asked if we had any questions on the Sound Track Assignment and nobody responded. We then proceed to read chapter 5 out of LOF and didn't get very far until the bell rung.

Scribe 3/15/11

            Today was a dreary day in Mrs. Smith’s class; we started out with grammar as usual, labeling the different phrases. We then worked with a partner to find facts about William Golding, the author of the book we are currently reading, Lord of the Flies. We found facts that basically explain his take on humanity. Golding was in the Royal Navy during World War II, and believes that all men are evil and savage, and society is the only thing that keeps man from killing each other. Golding also says when society is gone, man shows who they really are, and this should be kept in mind while reading the book. Where there is a group of kids away from any society, our class came to the conclusion that the war was the inspiration for Golding’s   Nobel Prize winning novel. To have more insight on how war could do this to a person, Mrs. Smith shared a story about her dad while he was fighting Vietnam. What had happen to her dad changed his life forever, and Golding’s life was definitely changed too as a result of war. Afterwards we watched a clip from the show Band of Brothers and that would be followed by questions, after we had nothing to say, and started off into space with our tired eyes, Mrs. Smith made us take a group quiz on chapter one of Lord of the Flies. We have a quiz on chapter two tomorrow. We also discussed our LOF soundtrack assignment, which can be a group project, and is to have at least six songs that capture the emotion and story of the book. Our songs should cover four different areas, critical events, character traits, themes/motifs, and symbols for information see the rubric that was handed out during class yesterday. Our homework is to read up to at least chapter three in Lord of the Flies, redo our “Change the World” paper, to thinking of songs for our soundtrack project for the book, and complete any late work.

Why did William Golding Write The "Lord of the Flies"

William Golding wrote the book "Lord of the Flies" in the early years of the Cold War and the Atomic age. He wrote this book because he thinks that humans are natrually evil.  He also wrote this book because he thinks that everyone is an evil savage and because the main theme is the conflicting impulses that individuals have towards civilization. He also wrote this book because he was in WW2 and it gives him ideas and themes of what to write about from the past.

March 14, 2011

Today we walked into Smith’s classroom on a regular bell schedule after CSAP week. We sat down and wrote down our homework in our assignment notebooks which was read “Lord of the Flies”, chapters one and two and there will be a test on it tomorrow. We then did our grammar for Monday identifying parts of speech. The class then watched the last of the pop up poetry groups present which by the way were awesome. Then we finished off class by going over the “Lord of the Flies”, soundtrack project using six songs to describe critical events, character traits, themes and motifs, and symbols. You will also need quotes from the book so pay attention to them.

Who knows more about Golding?

Today, we are going to learn about what made William Golding write Lord of the Flies. I want you and a partner to find as many relevant facts as you can about Golding's life and post both the facts and the source in the comment section. Make sure to find out about where he grew up, important experiences, and reasons behind his belief about the basic nature of man. Can you find out what he believes regarding humans?

March 8 Scribe

Today we came into Smith’s class after another day of CSAP. It was a long test but it is half way over. Once the bell rang and everyone was seated Smith told us to get out our day planners. In the planners everyone should have wrote read "Lord of the Flies" chapters 1 and 2 by Monday. We also should have written down finish the pop up poetry presentation for Friday. Include all the information on the rubric and remember to have your song on and Ipod. Bring the presentation on a flashdrive otherwise you will not be able to present. For the rest of class we just worked on the pop up poetry project.

CSAP Week March 7, 2011

When we walked into Smith’s classroom today we had already taken three hours of CSAP and we were all quite bored and tired from it. But the day carried on and we continued into our regular core classes. In Smith’s class we worked on our pop up poetry project. Be sure to include poetic devices, trivial tidbits, vocabulary terms, and poet information. When making the slide allow the poetic devices to pop up on the side and say what they pertain to. For homework in Smith’s get a copy of Lord of the Flies and work on your pop up poetry powerpoint. Rest and be prepared for another day of exciting CSAP tomorrow.

Victor P. Scribe March 1, 2011

Today we started out by the sub Mrs. Glodowske taking attendance then she collected are school  ballad poems ( in which needs to have a rhyme scheme and personification and to tell a story) then  the sub explained the parent teacher conference letters ( we are accessing are learning, reflecting on how we did in class participation in class, growth in writing , where we want to be at the end of the semester, how we are going to get there, how can smith help, it’s a message to our parents. Print 1 copy for smith and 1 for your teachers.  Then we went over grammar for Wednesday. (The type of sentence and clause.)  Then she had us turn to the imagery poem “Combing” after we read it we went over poetry terms. Then we went over how to do are homework assignment which is the Photo graph poem which is 8-9 lines and 1-2 stanzas long. For the poem  we are suppose to look at this from the

Scribe Friday Febuary 25, 2011

Today when we walked in we had the CTW paper rubric on our desk. Smith told us we had to attach to the front of our paper and to turn it in to the tanish colored stool and to turn in our CSAP packet to the blue chair at her desk. Smith then told us our homework: to finish your paper if we didn’t turn it in today, do the “I AM” poem in your poetry packet given to us in class on Thursday February 24, 2011, also do the collage that goes along with the “I AM” poem, lastly we need to buy Lord of the Flies by William Golding. We then read “Harlem” by Langston Hughes and then identified all the literary devices. We then read “fog” by Carl Sandburg with the partner at our table and then again identified the literary devices. Smith then gave us the remaining time to work on our “I Am “poem.

Scribe Tuesday, Febuary 22, 2011

Scribe Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Today we had a substitute teacher named Ms. Levi because Smith was quote “not here”. Ms. Levi took attendance, after that she began to go over the outline of the whole paper. After that Ms. Levi told us to either pier edit our paper with someone close to us or to finish up to the 3^rd body paragraph and then pier edit.

Homework: get into 3 writing conferences if you have not already done so already. The other assignment is to finalize CTW paper.

Scribe 2-14-11

Reminder: CSAP packet due friday (many people forgot to turn this in last week, easy points!). Also go to writing lab for your confrences for your paper. You need 3 confrences by next friday. The final paper is due next friday!! It would be better to turn it in by then so you can make corrections if nesessary.
    We started off the day with grammer. after we did our parts of speech, we got to work on our papers for the rest of class.

scribe february, 11 2011

Today is February 11, 2011. Today we came into class and took a grammar, sentence diagramming test. After that we wrote down our homework. Homework for the weekend is body two paragraphs. In class today we worked on our papers. Today was the end of the six weeks so everything was due today.

scribe Febuary 4, 2011

Today is February 4, 2011. Today we are talking about our body paragraph for our essay. Here is the plan for the paragraph:

T.S

Set up

Lead-in

Quote

Explanation

1.       What does quote say

2.       Connect to paragraph

3.       Connect to thesis

Transition

Set up

Lead-in

Quote

Explanation

1. What does quote say?

2. Connect to paragraph

3. Connect to thesis

The homework for today is to finish intro paragraph and work on your first body paragraph

Scribe January 12, 2011

Today in class make sure you talk to Ms. Smith about your C.S.A.P. scores and what you can improve on this year. Today’s homework is to find examples of Ethos(ethical), Logos(factual), Pathos(emotional). You can find your own or make examples. Make sure you tell why the ad deals with it. Also make sure you turn in your C.S.A.P. packets.

Scribe Febuary 8

Today February 8, 2011 class began as usual we began by taking out are intro and body paragraph which is due this Wednesday tomorrow. Then we started working on grammar after more students arrived, then smith took volunteers took work on the sentences written on the board. Also we started working on figuring out the right sentence parts and phrases (Prepositional phrase, Direct objects). Then she gave us work time to work on are essays

Scribe 2/7/11

Today’s homework for Smith’s class is to write the 1^st body paragraph of the essay by Wednesday and rewrite your intro, also the final day for all makeup work is this Friday.  The grammar phrase of the week is “Carla looked at herself in the mirror and recited the poem fire and ice” and the other was “we saw a midsummer nights dream at the buell theater after we saw the play at ahs”. Then we got the rest of the class to work.

Scribe 1-25-11

Today was started just as usual with smith greeting us saying good morning. We went over the homework 1O sources, writing are question about are topic. Then we went over grammar for the day sentence parts and phrases . Later we discussed how to compile a good question (Should or to what extent). Then smith gave us work time  to work on all of our homework.

January 20, 2010

We started off class by reviewing our homework which is to finish the CSAP packet. Also, there will be a grammar test tomorrow and the grammar sheet we’ve been working on all week is due. After reviewing the night’s homework we worked with some sentences to prepare for our grammar test tomorrow. Next, we went online to our Diigo accounts and looked for sources for our essay. We learned how to tag, highlight and bookmark sources; we will be expected to have ten sources when we start our paper.

Scribe 1/18/11

Today in Smith’s class we worked on more grammar and this week’s sentence is “jeb likes cars but he can’t drive yet” label parts of speech and sentence parts of speech. But is labeled coor conj, can’t is a helping verb, drive is a verb, and yet is an adverb.  Today we also worked on narrowing our research paper down to three ideas. Ideas must be current things that are going on today.  Make a bulleted list of your ideas. Think images, hidden messages, connotations, ideas, values, concepts, and myths the media makes.  Also think about who the author is, what is the ethos of that author, what is the ad trying to accomplish, and who is the targeted audience.

Scribe January 13, 2011

We started off the day by practicing grammar. There will be a grammar test tomorrow! Also CSAP paragraph is do tomorrow and we will be presenting our ethos, Pathos and logos advertisements. We had the rest of class to work on the ads to prepare for tomorrow.

Scribe 1/11/11

Today is January 11, 2011.  The day started with our grammar sentence.  The sentence for this week is     “ my friend alex plays tennis.”  You need to label it as a dependent or independent clause and a simple or complex sentence for the 12^th.  After grammar the class grouped up and discussed their examples of ethos, pathos, and logos.  Smith then let us choose our groups for an advertisement.  We are supposed to use ethos, pathos and logos.  The guide lines can be found on Smiths web page under second semester.

Scribe 01/10/11

Today is January 10, 2011. We started class with our Grammar sentence.  The sentence for this weak is “my friend alex plays tennis”.  Homework for tonight was:  looking for examples of ethos, pathos, and logos in magazines, newspapers, and Google images.  We need to bring in quality examples of each of them.  We also need to explain what appeal is being used.  Smith suggests considering color, amount of text, text style, amount of image, type of images, people featured, people’s expressions, what you are encouraged to think or do, and how it uses specific appeal of ethos, pathos, and logos.  Smith stated that we would be doing CSAP training to improve our scores from last year.  Smith then made us write about a time where we were compelled to buy something and what convinced us to buy it.  We discussed some of the convincing factors involved in some of our purchases.               Notes about The Rhetorical Triangle came next.  The triangle consists of ways a speaker can persuade and appeal to the audience in three different areas: ethos (ethical appeals), pathos (emotional appeals), and logos (logical appeals).

Scribe

At the beginning of class we did our quiz on labeling the parts of speech of the sentence Mrs. Smith had given us early in the week. We had to identify the noun, verb, subject, predicate, simple sentence, prepositional phrase, preposition, object of the preposition, adjectives, and adverbs. Because it was our first test, she allowed us to use the purple packets we recieved on Teusday. After we had completed our quizes, we had to finish our other quiz. We had to answer all the questions in the packet, a short answer, and a rough and final draft of a paper. The paper had to be writen as a letter to Mr. Booth why we think or don't think uniforms should be enforces at Arapahoe. This was to be writen in extended response form which we did plenty of times last semester. We worked on this most of the week and nobody had an issue finishing. That was all that happened on January 7, 2011.

Scribe 1/5/11

Today I came to class and we started learning about independent and dependent clauses. We went over the sentence we had yesterday and started on Wednesday in our “Appendix a packet”. The independent clause (also called the main clause) is in every complete sentence, can usually stands alone, and doesn’t start with a relative pronoun or a subordinating conjunction. The dependent clause (also called the subordinate clause),can never stand alone, starts with a subordinating conjunction, and there are 3 types.1. Adverb 2. Additive 3. Noun . After we learned about these and applied it to our sentence she told us we should study it for 5 minutes. Then we started our next assessment, “The Waxed Generation” by Michael Koenigs. We will have time to work on this in class for the next few days.

Jan 4 Connor B

Hello, it is Tuesday, January 4, 2011, the first day back from Christmas break. I hope everyone had a fun break and had a good Christmas and New Years, I know I did. Today started with Mrs. Smith telling us good morning and us getting the homework. Our homework for today is to finish the reflection if you don’t in class and to give your parents email to Mrs. Smith if you haven’t yet. On our desks were a note card and a grammar packet that we are going to need throughout the semester so DON’T LOSE IT. We then went over our class expectations for the second semester on Mrs. Smith’s class home page. This semester we will be reading; Curious Incident of Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, Lord of The Flies by William Golding, and Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, so you can buy these books and read ahead if you aren’t the best reader. After, we worked on grammar and fixed the grammar in a sentence. Then we worked on our reflection and the guidelines are:
 How did first semester go? What were some of the highlights? What were some of the challenges?
 What are your goals for second semester(personal, class, school)?
 How are you going to achieve these goals? Be specific.
 What are you going to do (create a plan) when you are struggling to achieve your goals?
 What can I do to help you achieve your goals?
 Print out and turn in
After that we were done with our first English class of the second semester.