And now for even more fun...

Good morning,
   Today's excitement is that all of my students in third and fourth period who are still classified as English Learners are out taking a test. 

  Third period students who are still here, you are going to set up your English Journal (EJ) in your Google Docs account, share it with me, and answer some questions based on the homework you had Monday night.


Make a new Google Doc

1. Go to Docs.google.com
2. Sign in using your g-mail user name and password.
3. Click the "Create new" button and then pick "document"
4. This will give you a new blank Google Doc
5. Put your FULL Name and period at the top.

You will need to name this document.  

1. Click in the box that says "untitled document"
2. Important: Name your doc this way  3xxEnglish Journal  But instead of the xx's put your initials! (The 3 stands for period 3!)

Share your English Journal with us.

1. Click the "Share" button in the upper right corner.
2. In the box that says "Add people" type in my G-mail address. jrobertsplhs@gmail.com
3. Put a comma and add Ms. Smith also msmithplhs@gmail.com
4. Make sure it says "can edit" next to both of our names. This lets us add notes to you in your EJ and allows me to write in your grade.

Important:

1. Always put your new work ON TOP of the old work. Your most recent EJ entries will be at the top and work you did before will move lower.
2. Put the date on every entry.
3. Always keep your EJ neat. Use a consistent format for dates and titles. Use bold headings and color consistently.
4. Make sure you have all work completed in your English Journal.
5. Read the English Journal Scoring Guide to see how it will be graded.

First Questions for your EJ.  Copy and paste (ctrl-c = copy and ctrl-v = paste) these questions into your new EJ and answer them completely. 

1. Did the characters in the stories turn our to be what you expected based on their archetype? (explain)
2. How does knowing about archetypes help you as a reader? (explain)
3. Why do you think authors use archetypes in their writing? (yes, explain)

One Crazy Day

Good morning,
   Today is crazy because third period needs to go to a grade level assembly and fourth period has our regular class. That means fourth period gets a bit ahead, making me a little crazy. (Yes, more than usual.)

  Fourth period, you are going to set up your English Journal (EJ) in your Google Docs account, share it with me and answer some questions based on the homework you had last night.


Make a new Google Doc

1. Go to Docs.google.com
2. Sign in using your g-mail user name and password.
3. Click the "Create new" button and then pick "document"
4. This will give you a new blank Google Doc
5. Put your FULL Name and period at the top.

You will need to name this document.  

1. Click in the box that says "untitled document"
2. Important: Name your doc this way  4xxEnglish Journal  But instead of the xx's put your initials! (the 4 stands for period 4)

Share your English Journal with us.

1. Click the "Share" button in the upper right corner.
2. In the box that says "Add people" type in my G-mail address. jrobertsplhs@gmail.com
3. Put a comma and add Ms. Smith also msmithplhs@gmail.com
4. Make sure it says "can edit" next to both of our names. This lets us add notes to you in your EJ and allows me to write in your grade.

Important:

1. Always put your new work ON TOP of the old work. Your most recent EJ entries will be at the top and work you did before will move lower.
2. Put the date on every entry.
3. Always keep your EJ neat. Use a consistent format for dates and titles. Use bold headings and color consistently.
4. Make sure you have all work completed in your English Journal.
5. Read the English Journal Scoring Guide to see how it will be graded.

First Questions for your EJ.  Copy and paste (ctrl-c = copy and ctrl-v = paste) these questions into your new EJ and answer them completely. 

1. Did the characters in the stories turn our to be what you expected based on their archetype? (explain)
2. How does knowing about archetypes help you as a reader? (explain)
3. Why do you think authors use archetypes in their writing? (yes, explain)

Let's look at archetypes

Good morning,
    Today we are going to learn about archetypes. You actually already know a lot about this, but you don't know you know it, so I'm going to show you.
    We are going to read a Native American story called Fox and Coyote and Whale. This story comes from the Pacific Northwest and was written down by Mourning Dove. (If the story has footprints on the right that cover the text try making your browser window smaller.)
    You have a graphic organizer you will use before, during and after our reading. You will use the back side of it for your homework. You will need your textbook at home OR internet access to do your homework. Coyote and Buffalo

Visitors Welcome

I want to say thank you and welcome to the large number of American and international visitors who have come to this blog this weekend.  I hope you found something useful or interesting. This is a blog I keep for my class, but it also provides me and other teachers with an archive of things I've done with my students. I would encourage you to use a blog for a similar purpose in your own classroom. After three years I have a great searchable archive of lesson plans for inspiration. I also find it often saves me time. Thanks for visiting.
Jen

Facebook Dialog

Remember the article we read on Tuesday? It was about the student who got expelled for making a threat on Facebook. Get that out.


You will work with one or two partners to write a dialog based on that article. Imagine a scene between that student and his parents, or that student and one of his friends. You create the situation.
Everyone in your group needs an exact copy of the whole dialog. It should be 10-20 sentences.


At the end of the period we are going to the library for textbook checkout.
This is the poem, Privacy, that you need for your homework.

Second Day

Good morning,
  If you are reading this then you must have done your homework. Good. Did you get it all done? Do you have a G-mail account? Did you complete the Student Data form? Have you read the course syllabus? If you have any of that to still take care of please do that first. (If you don't have a g-mail yet you might not be able to do that from school.)

  Now we have a problem. While some people are busy catching up on what they should have done for homework, you have some extra time with this laptop. (Implicit lesson made explicit: always do your homework. It is often your ticket to your laptop.)

But really, if you have really done EVERYTHING you needed to do then you get to play with some of the fun sites I'm going to show you.
Free Rice is a site where you answer questions and each correct answer earns a rice donation to the world food program. You can answer questions about vocabulary, math, languages etc.
Quizlet is a site where you can make (or find) flashcards for anything you need to learn. I'm sending you to a quizlet about poetry terms, but you can play around on the site for any subject you like.
Shmoop is a site that gives you background information about anything you might be studying. It's like a giant stack of cliff notes. Take a look at what it says about a certain book you read last year. (Notice the tabs for different parts.)
What Should I Read Next is a site that will help you pick your next book. Type in the title of the last book you read that you liked and the site will recommend a bunch of books you might also like.
 
We are going to the library to checkout textbooks on Thursday. Please make sure you have your ID and your schedule. Having your schedule with you really helps the librarians to make sure you have the correct books.

Welcome Back

Greetings new students,
    Welcome to the first day of school. I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you. We have a lot to do this week to get us started. Below is a list of some of what we need to accomplish.

1. You need to write me a letter about yourself, read the syllabus and complete the student data form on the right.
2. You need to meet a lot of your classmates and get to know them.
3. You need to get a serious G-mail account based on your name. (Twitter is also helpful. Goodreads will be coming soon.)
4. I get to teach you about Google Docs. (You'll love it.)
5. We need to go to the library for textbook checkout. (Once you get your book for this class you can take it home. You'll need it there for some homework readings, but we will use the laptops in class.)
6. You will get your laptop assigned, learn to treat it with care, and use it for a quick project.

 Last Word Protocol

If we have time we will be Passing Notes

Click the word "comments" below to ask me questions. (Your question will be e-mailed to me before it appears on the blog.)

Blog Workshop (For teachers who already have a blog.)

One of the things people really like to add to their blogs is a traffic feed so you can see who has been visiting your blog and where they come from.  Mine is way down on the right sidebar (keep scrolling). If you look at it you'll see that my blog gets visitors from all over the world.

To add a traffic feed you'll need to add an HTML gadget to your blog. I'm going to walk you through it.
Live Traffic Feed

Getting ready for school...

If July was the month of travel then August is the month of training.  I spent four days last week in a training called QTEL, Quality Teaching of English Learners.  But, when I turned QTEL into a hashtag on twitter I learned that in the Arab world QTEL stands for something very different. (No I'm not telling. Google it.)
This week many of the PLHS English teachers have been gathering at my house to write benchmark assessments  for next year. Next week I go to several technology trainings and the week after that I am back at school for meetings. Before you know it I'll be meeting my new  students on the first day of school.

I also get to travel...

I've covered a lot of miles this summer. "The Big Trip" began in early July when my youngest son and I drove up to LA. We were in LA for about 20 minutes. The time it took to move our things from my car to my parents' RV. That was the beginning of a trip to Portland. We camped two nights on the way up, spent four nights at my Aunt's house in Portland and camped three nights on the way back down. The return trip included the Oregon coast, absolutely stunning, and we were there on the sunny day. When we got back to LA we spent one night there and then headed to my parents' place in Three Rivers. My husband, Kris, and my older son joined us there. The next day Kris and I left for the coast. (It was 105* in Three Rivers, can you blame us?) We spent one night in San Luis Obisbo, where we saw Inception, and then drove highway 1 up to San Francisco. We spent one night in San Francisco and then drove up to Bodega Bay. We spent two nights at a great hotel about 20 miles north of Bodega Bay right on the ocean. We even took a day trip as far north as Mendocino.
   Today we drove south past San Francisco to Carmel. Tomorrow we drive highway 1 again through Big Sur and then back to Three Rivers. There we will spend a record five nights in one place before we head south again. But we have one more stop to make before returning to San Diego. Yes, Anaheim, our Disneyland tickets will expire soon. Can we do it? Yes, we can!