Period 4, 5, 6, 7 Podcasts-Presentation of Thesis

Period 6 podcast

 Period 4 Podcast

 Period 7 Podcast

5th period Coping Poems

Coping

The beautiful fall days
Remind me of the
pain
Where my heart is
alone
an awful sick feeling
in my stomach questions
my reason for existence
extinguishing
the joy of life
Routine and sleep
help me to cope
friends say they’re
here to help the
torturous
memories will never pass.

~Kristina H.

Coping

2 more months of tapping fingers
36 days of biting nails
123 classes of twirling pencils
147 hours of fidgeting
8790 minutes of daydreaming
527,400 seconds of doodling
then…
Summer

~Ryan S.

Coping

I listen to the Ticking
Ticking of the rhythm of songs that distract me from the Ticking
Ticking of the repetition of the day
Ticking of the time away
Ticking the minutes off
Ticking the hours off
Ticking days off
Ticking me of

~Brandon J.

Poem-AnnaMarie M.

Words
are just
letters.
Letters thrown together.
Yes, they supposedly
have meaning when they're combined.
Words like need, want, love
thrown around.
Some know
the real meaning
Others say I need you,
say I want you,
say I love you
without knowing the real meaning.
They're just words
for some,
3 words
mean the world
only for one...
3 words, 8 letters,
I love you.

~Senior English Student: AnnaMarie M.

Thinking

Well, I have been considering the value of thinking lately. My consideration is connected with our new poetry unit of which many students claim to hate---loathe---detest the idea of reading poetry. If I step outside of my cozy little English cocoon and consider the world at large, could I find ways of thinking or imagining that I detest? Let's see...if one were to ask me to make sense of a physics problem would I hate it? Or describe the significance of a Picasso painting? What about if I had to recite the conjugations of Latin verbs? I am not sure I can say I would hate any of those subjects, but I know I would find all three examples a challenge to my brain. I still am pretty fascinated by those who know how to study and appreciate physics, art, and Latin.

So, what makes poetry different? It is like putting a dog in front of a cat--ooh scary raising of the hair on the back. Or maybe it is more like telling a four-year-old he needs a nap---"No, I don't Mommy!" Or being told sit ups are good for you. C'mon, who needs this pain?

I'd like to connect poetry to thinking; sometimes poetry is hard and it asked for our imagine to be stirred; our analytical skills to be honed; or our ability to make connections to be ignited. It works the brain. We've been using words for how long-oh yeah, our entire lives, so looking at a few words on a page must be easy. Here comes the hair on back, no I won't take a nap and I'd rather have a flabby belly reaction because making meaning of the words on the page is not always easy. Poetry is NOT just words on a page; rather, it is speaker, voice, meter, images, language, structure, and words all working together to share an idea with the reader.

It is all a clever way to get someone to THINK! Just like all those crazy physics laws get us to think, so do the laws of poetry. My next few blogs will be posting of student's poetry---stay tuned for some thinking! I hear Colin Sabie wrote a great poem about...hating poetry! Sigh.

Then versus Than

Are Cats Better Then Dogs? - Free videos are just a click away

Is it better to think about it than write about it then?

Just a quick blog about the difference between then and than.  I am convinced this homonym lesson was stricken from the text books after 1985, so it is no fault of students that they do not know the word THAN exists.  For a few years now I have been noticing the complete and absolute lack of the use of THAN.  So here goes:

Then is a time

Than is a comparison

Finish your paper and then celebrate!  (When should I celebrate?  THEN!)  Then= Time

Is 11th grade English harder than 12th grade English?  (I don't know how to answer the question.  You tell me.)

Than=Comparing 11th to 12th

Need a good laugh?  Check out the video I attached.  Notice they incorrectly compare the dog to the cat.  It should read:  Is the cat better THAN the dog?  By the way: the DOG is way better THAN a cat!!

Be Amazed

What do you find amazing?  Send in your posting to share.  What needs to be solved?

One of my favorite shows as a little girl was the Flinstone's.  I loved Pebbles!  I wanted to babysit her.  I was convinced that if I could just crawl through the TV screen that I could play with her.  It never worked; it is a good thing I didn't smash the screen to get her out. (I thought about it.) 

I remember watching a few James Bond movies, 007.  The only part I remember from any of the movies is that he could talk on a phone in his car.  It was beyond belief that someone could talk on a phone outside of a kitchen!   I have a picture of me (a really bad photo-perm and all) sitting on the floor of our kitchen talking to my boyfriend.  Why was I on the floor of my kitchen?  Because the phone was connected to a cord and the cord could only reach to the middle of the kitchen.  There was no way to imagine that a phone could be so small; so ubiquitous; so universal.  But it has happened...and more.

Remember the chapel we had with David Batsone, Emily's uncle?  He encouraged us to be CURIOUS!  What are you curious about?  Imagine something amazing could come true in your lifetime and you could make it happen.