Homework Assigned on 9/30

833- Read 15 pages of your IR book and write about the motivations of your character and the conflicts s/he has gotten into.

832- Read 20 pages of your IR book and write about the motivations of your character and the conflicts s/he has gotten into. Watch the news and determine whether the news is biased or not.

Homework Due for 831 and 834 tomorrow October 1st:

831- Read chapters 8 & 9 of Three Cups of Tea

834- Read 20 pages of your IR book and write part of your Alien Report

Alien Report (Some Tips on How to Get an A)

So, you want to write a good report? You'd like to write an amazing Alien Report and start off your first marking period as an 8th grader with a solid A in ELA (notice that B,C,D, and F are not in the intials ELA...coincidence??)

Well, here are a few tips on how to write an awesome report.

1. Write with a mixture of creativity and analysis: You are pretending to be an alien (or if you are already an alien, you are simply using what you know) to make meaningful observations of your human character. So have your alien REACT like an alien observing humans for the first time would act. What feelings do they have? What conclusions would they make? How can this way of seeing the world of the story make the story interesting??

2. Even though I'm encouraging you to write creatively, you NEED to base your reactions and conclusions on the text of your Independent Reading Book. So you MUST have lines from the text to share with your commander. Here is an example from the book I am reading (I am pretending to be an alien here):

• Then my human did something inconceivable. He quit his job and decided to turn away from the help he had received in America, "I leave, knowing I am leaving this job and I am leaving Atlanta...Today I have options" (533) Despite this abrupt decision, this human sees the world open up before him. His determination to quit and move beyond the help of charitable friends is a sign that he is ready to take control of his life, hopefully for the good.

3. You should try to organize your paper to focus on separate behaviors from paragraph to paragraph. For instance, the sample above would work well in a paragraph about confidence and/or self-reliance. So, my alien would have to conclude that humans are successful when they begin to take control of their lives. The other paragraphs of my essay would be focused on other behaviors (being a victim, endurance, prayer...to name a few that I would use from the book I am reading right now).

831- Your paper is due on Tuesday when you get back after the long weekend.

832- Your paper is due on Wednesday

833-34 - Your paper is due on Thursday

The due dates are different only because I handed out the assignment at different times to different classes depending on how far we had gone with our lessons. Enjoy the weekend and remember: Reading is out of this world...

Give a Chance to Others

The following is an edited version of a four page paper that I received from a student who was asked to write about what inspires and represents him. I was completely astounded by the size of his heart:

What motivated me was visiting my country Bangladesh. It changed me into a caring person that thinks that everyone should get an education and a good future that isn't based on how much money you have or what you own.

The day that I started was in February of 2008 during President's Week. My parents and I went to Bangladesh for my mother because my grandmother had passed away. It was my third time to Bangladesh. I was not that excited because I got tested alot when I went there and it was hot...I mean HOT and there are mosquitos, a whole lot of them. I went to Bangladesh to pay my respects to my grandmother.

When I got there it was something that you couldn't imagine in America. It was crowds of people, police officers with AK-47s and the heat was just crazy. But out of all of this drama, the thing that stands out was the poor people. It wasn't like it was one, it was hundreds of them begging for money or food. What shook me the most was that I was as I was getting into the taxi to my Auntie's house, there was a little boy. He was not begging for money or food. He said to me, "Can you take me with you when you go to America, so I can have a good education." I didn't say anything and I just walked away to my taxi.

On the way to my Auntie's house I thought about the kid that was begging. As we were going, I saw a lot more people that were in need. It made me have a feeling that I never had in my life. It was like I lost my heart and replaced it with a new clean heart without anything in it. Staying there a couple of days made me feel like something you can't describe, but it feels good. I spent most of my time playing with my cousin and the poor kids. We played cricket, swam and even caught chickens. As I was playing I learned about so many of these kids. Like most of them don't have parents, they didn't live in a home, they lived outside in the streets. Seeing them just made me feel really bad and I wanted to help them but I couldn't. They didn't have clothes on their backs, no shoes, but one thing that just shocked me was that every one of them wanted to learn. It just made me feel serious about my work. I said to myself, I am going to do this for them and become something. I hope I can go back and give everyone the education so they aren't just hanging around on the street begging without clothes on their backs.

The picture that comes to mind is of three kids that will do anything to learn for school. They don't have money so they hide in the bushes next to the classroom window and write on the ground. It showed me how far kids will go to learn.

I think if every child around the world was helped there will not be so many problems in the world like poverty, hunger, and wars. I believe that if everyone helps each other there won't be any problems in the world.

HW Assigned today!!!

833- Read 15 pages of your IR book and write a paragraph that discusses what you think the demographic of the novel is.

834- Read 20 pages of your IR book. Write a list of topics and angles that you might be interested in writing about for your major assignment for the magazine.

831- Read up to page 44 of Three Cups of Tea and write a page about what angles you might use to discuss Greg's journey thus far if you were asked to write a feature article on his life/work/interests.

Homework for Tomorrow 9/22

831: Read Chapter One of Three Cups of Tea. Look through the book and figure out what the demographic of the book is and evaluate whether it uses good captions. You may be quizzed on it.

832: Caption handout.

834: Figure out the demographic of your novel after reading 20 pages of your book.

Homework for the Weekend

831, 832 - Begin noting the behaviors of your main character to prepare for your alien report by reading at least 30 pages and collecting quotes for your use: this will NOT be collected but it will be checked.

833 - Read 30 pages of your IR book and write a personal response that notes your personal reactions to specific moments from the book. Be sure to take lines from the text and use them in your response. Write a one page paper that replies to Ghandi's statement: Be the Change you Want to See in the World.

834- Read 30 pages of your IR book and collect lines from the text that you find interesting or important and then write a personal reaction to that quote. Write a one page paper that replies to Ghandi's statement: Be the Change you Want to See in the World.

Homework Assigned to 833 & 832 on Wednesday 9/16

I have noticed a continuing trend with ALL of my classes--none of you like to use lines taken directly from the text to explain your summaries or personal reactions. The following homework is a direct result of this:

833- Read 15 pages of your IR book and write down any quotes that you find interesting or intriguing. Be sure to put the page number that you found the quote on. Then write a couple of sentences that gives a reaction to the quote. You should have at least 3 quotes or reactions.

832 (for Friday) - Read 20 pages of your IR book and write down any quotes that you find interesting or intriguing. Be sure to put the page number that you found the quote on. Then write a couple of sentences that gives a reaction to the quote. You should have at least 4 quotes and reactions.

832 Should also write a description of how you will/would "Be the change you wish to see in this world". Try to be specific about what issue(s) you care about and want to make a stand on. How will you make a change and how can you personally set an example about how to bring that change about. The assignment is one-page minimum but you will receive extra credit if you offer more details and write more pages.

Homework Assigned to 833, 834 and 831 on Tuesday.

833 (For Tomorrow): Read 15 pages of your IR book and write a personal response that uses lines from your book and provides a reaction to them.

834 (For Thursday): Read 25 pages of your IR book and write a personal response that uses lines from your book and provides a reaction to them.

See personal response in yesterday's blog posting




831 (For Thursday): Write a description of how you will/would "Be the change you want to see in this world". Try to be specific about what issues you stand for and how you would like to make a change and how you can personal set an example about how to bring about that change. The assignment is one-page minimum, but you will receive extra credit for more thorough details and extra pages.

Homework for Tomorrow 9/15

831, 832 834- You MUST read X pages of your Independent Reading book and write a thorough personal response that reflects how you are feeling as a reader and which portions of the text you found interesting or important. BE SURE TO USE TEXT EVIDENCE to support what you are talking about. A sample personal response is posted below.

831: X = 20 Due tomorrow
832: X = 30 Due Wednesday
834: x = 15 Due tomorrow


Personal Response for Romeo & Juliet: I really liked the play. At first I thought I wouldn’t because the language was really hard to understand, but then we started to act bits out and we watched the movie and followed in the book. After we studied a few scenes in detail and learnt about the ‘thees’ and ‘thous’ it got much easier. My favorite scenes are the balcony scene and the scene where Mercutio gets killed. When Romeo climbs up to see Juliet after the party and says “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks, it is the east and Juliet is the sun” I think it’s really amazing. I understand why it’s so famous. I wish someone would compare me to the sun! The whole of that scene is so romantic because he compares her to lots of beautiful things. The scene where Mercutio dies is powerful in a different way: when he shouts “A plague on both your houses” it really makes me want to cry. Mercutio didn’t deserve to die – it was so pointless. The final scenes where Romeo and Juliet kill themselves and their families realize the damage they have done are really emotional too. By the end of the play, when the Prince is warning them never to fight again, it makes you feel like screaming ‘this was your fault’ to both sets of parents. The play ends just as the prologue tells you it will – and leaves you full of anger, sadness and frustration. It teaches a powerful lesson in putting aside differences and not teaching others to hate. I’m really glad I read this play and now don’t feel so scared about reading Shakespeare.

Homework Assignments for the Weekend

As I mentioned to all of you in class, you will have homework due every day that our class meets. Check this blog to find out what your homework is, if you haven't already written it down in your agenda books.

Here is the assigned homework for each class:

831, 834 (for Monday) 833 (for Tuesday): Bring your signed contracts, one notebook and one pack of loose-leaf paper to class. Find a picture that holds meaning for you and/or represents who you are, then write a one-page explanation about why it represents you and what it means. Bring the picture and the page explanation to class. Read at least 40 pages of your Independent Reading book (I would love it if you read more) and write a thorough summary of what you have read. 833 is assigned 50 pages to read because of the extra day for reading.

832: (for Monday): Some of you still owe contracts and picture profiles that were due on Friday, please bring these in. If you were absent on Wednesday and have no idea what I'm talking about see the assignment listed above. Also, read at least 40 pages of your Independent Reading book (I would love it if you read more) and write a thorough summary of the human behaviors you have noticed from the characters in the book. Use the chart that we created in class on Friday to assist you in your reading for character traits (see below).

Focus	Inference	Proof
Traits
Tone

Welcome to the TeacherDude blog

This blog is designed to help students who may have extra questions beyond the classroom and to serve as a reminder to those who have forgotten what their homework is. Thus, many of the posts on this blog will either contain a listing of the night's homework for each class, or more detailed instructions and/or handouts connected to our lessons from the day.

As you can see, to the left side of this blog is a list of links that I have provided for you. Many of these links can be useful to you as you try to figure out which books might interest you, which careers and colleges you might be interested in, or how begin to research for a project (in any class). Please feel free to recommend any other websites you think will interest and help the rest of the class.

I highly recommend checking up on this blog on a daily basis so you won't miss any important information.