The end is nigh..

Here it is…your last blog of the year…of HIGH SCHOOL! 

So, no restrictions (other than the obvious of being polite, modest, appropriate Lancers in your speech) on this one.  No length requirement, no style requirement.  Write a paragraph, write a letter, write a poem…but say your final blog words on how you feel about graduating, moving on, leaving people or things behind, and starting a new life.  Remember, everything you’ve done so far has just been preparation for the next stage in your life.

I will miss you, Class of 2015 and my life will never be the same for having taught you. You are kind and filled with love and creative and funny and you sometimes drove me crazy and ALL OF THIS has made me a better teacher. Thank you.

Due Thursday June 4 (the day before graduation!)

Lord of the Files? Of Mice and Ben? Rodeo and Juliet?

Whilst grading many an essay on the classic British novel, Lord of the Flies, I ran across plenty of typos entitling the book Lord of the Files.  My friends and I had fun coming up with various scenarios in which such a title would work.  The result?  We decided it should be a punk rock musical about working in an office.  That got me thinking…What new twists could be employed by taking the title of a classic novel and, thanks to a typo, creating a whole new work?  Your new book could be a musical, a movie, another novel of a different genre (Catcher in the Eye becomes an upbeat sports memoir, rather than an angsty teen novel), or a music album.

So go ahead — make a few typos of classic novels and see what works best for you.  Give us the old and new title, and your best pitch to sell this new twist to the studios (or publishers or…you get it).  Be sure to give a summary of your new work, the genre, the medium, and of course — the new title!
Due Sunday 5/17/15

Poetry, poetry everywhere!

The haiku!  This form of poetry is fun to write, but also requires the poet to consider language choice closely. “A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Often focusing on images from nature, haiku emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression” (http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/poetic-form-haiku).

Choose one of the following photos (or more than one) and create a haiku about it.  My example is based on the last photo:

Bubbles ev’rywhere;

Ephemeral summer joy…

How I will miss you!

 

Due Sunday April 26, 2015

Building Block Poem

Write a poem that starts with a one word title, two words in the first line, three in the next, and continues by adding one word per line.  Write at least ten (10) lines!  Example below.

Due Sunday March 29, 2015

Spring (1)

Wet grass (2)

Green trees sway (3)

Birds sing and play (4)

The afternoon grows longer still (5)

As chill fades with the winter (6)

My heart lifts at close of day (7)

Another morning will bloom with promise and hope (8)

The changing seasons mark Father Time’s passage and mine, (9)

Summer is just a moment away — waiting with bated breath (10)

Tell it like it was…

Using this photo and the following details, write her story:

Time: 1945

Place: Texas

Age: 17

DUE SUNDAY MARCH 15, 2015

Analyze this!

One of my very favorite lines from one of my very favorite shows (and movie, but the show is better) is from Les Miserables.  The line is: “to love another person is to see the face of God.”

What does this line mean to you?  For inspiration, feel free to watch the video. If you can’t handle 7 minutes of awesomeness, then fast forward to about 4:00

Due Sunday March 1, 2015

Changing the world through words

.Watch the following video of spoken word poets.  Then respond by sharing your thoughts — of the poem, of the message, of the artists.  In just two short months we start our poetry unit, where you will have a chance to perform in a similar way.

Blog due Monday February 16, 2015 (yeah, you get some extra time!)

A new beginning

Soon, some of you may be leaving home and heading off to college, jobs, the military…

If you had to leave the city you live in:

1. What would you find hardest to leave behind?
2. If you were to move to a new city, what would you do to connect with the community, or feel established in a new place?
3. What city would you move to?

Don’t forget to answer ALL the questions!  Due Friday January 30, 2015

An attitude of gratitude

There are times when I find myself so stressed by the sheer number of duties on my to-do list that I must stop and make a conscious note of all the blessings in my life. Sometimes it’s hard and I am grumpy, so all I can come up with right then is something like “I am thankful my family is healthy.” While that is no small thing (a healthy family), in the heat of frustration or stress, it is a simple enough task to show gratitude for the life I have. One deep breath, one silent prayer of thanks, and on I go – perhaps my load has not been lightened, but my attitude has improved.  I am grateful for my healthy family.  I am grateful that I have running water, heat, a home in which to live.  I am grateful for the friends and family who make my life full and rich.  I am grateful for the ability to have a job I love.  I am grateful for this beautiful world in which we live and that I have been able to travel to so very much of it.  I am grateful for books.  I am grateful for pumpkins and chocolate and peppermint and other tasty treats.  I am grateful for health insurance.  I am grateful that I live in a place as beautiful as the Pacific Northwest.  I am grateful that I come from a place with a rich and wonderful cultural heritage and that I can visit home and see family and friends.  I am so grateful to have students who enrich my life.

What are you grateful for? As we head into the Season of Giving, stop for a minute to take note of that for which you are thankful. For this blog, I’d like you to make a list of 10 things, people, acts, etc. that you are thankful. But I encourage you to keep a Gratitude Journal – something in which you write down daily at least 5 things you’re grateful for. It’s amazing how much more beautiful and healthy our lives become when we truly stop to be grateful.

Due Friday 11/28

and the Wall came tumbling down

Check out the above video, which was the Google Doodle for 11/9/14 — the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The Wall separated Berlin in two from 1961 until 1989.  The West was controlled by Germany, England, and the United States, while the East was controlled by the USSR.  The Wall existed as a physical symbol of the “Iron Curtain” between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc of Communist USSR.  The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 was the beginning of the collapse of the USSR, and nearly a year later Germany reunified after 28 years as West Germany and East Germany.

Regular Blog Post:  Write from the perspective of a person in Berlin (could be a person in West Berlin or East Berlin; a soldier or a civilian; a child or an adult; or a visitor from elsewhere coming to West Berlin) immediately before the fall of the Wall.  You can write a description, a scene, a dialogue, or a poem.

Due Friday November 14, 2014

PS: I was 18 when the Wall fell.  My entire life up to that point was lived in a world where it was possible to build a wall to divide a city because political forces opposed each other (simplified reason).  The fall of the wall signaled an amazing new era.  It was a pretty awesome time to be 18!

NaNoWriMo Dare:  Include this person in a scene from your novel!