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.