1. Students continued to work on their projects in the pc room. They are well on their way in their investigations of the information supporting and refuting these odd topics we have chosen.
2. They will work in the computer room next class, as well, on Monday. Several of them have already begun putting their three paragraphs together. Monday will be more of a writing class with an outline given with more specific instructions.

Here is another of the topics being studied:  The coincidence of odd face-like images seen in the smoke of 9-11.

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mutlimedia-poetry-project-assignment.doc

 multimedia-project-rubric-poetry.doc

1. We welcome Jonathan Sonntag back to school. We’ll see how things change with an extra body in the group.
2. Students received handouts regarding the new assignment they will be working on. They are required to do a multi-media presentation and a poetry analysis. We will be doing them together in one project. We read through the description and expectations of the assignment, as well as the rubric for how they will be evaluated once presented.
3. They will also be doing an oral analysis of their poem at the time of their media presentation. There are six areas they will have to discuss in their analysis but they are common areas of consideration with poetry so they should be more than capable.
4. Students had to choose a poem to work with. There were several given and, to conserve the amount of time that could be bled away through endless internet searching, they were asked to choose one of the poems given or found in the books of poetry made available. I think everyone has picked their writing at this point.
5. They worked in the computer room for the majority of the class, beginning their search for the right images to go with their project. They will have three more pc time classes but not in a row so they will have to be careful to be prepared to use that class time effectively.

There is a program available to use in the pc lab where you can animate your drawings. This was quite effectively done in a poetry video we watched yesterday. This is another example of what you could attempt with the assignment.

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This is Gord Downie's representation of an Al Purdy poem. (Purdy actually narrates his poem while Downie acts it out.) It's very well done and, because of the beer references and the unusual speaking voice of Purdy, he's their new favorite Canadian poet. lol

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1. Students have a list of topics to choose from and find the information believers use to argue “for” the unexplained phenomena and the information disbelievers use “against” it. They had this period to begin their search. (I was pleased, also, to hear that several of them had already begun during some free time they had in another class. That’s a nice sign, to begin before the class. lol)
2. Before we moved to the pc room, I talked to the students about the expectations for their work behavior in that room. They laughed when I mentioned that I had had the opportunity to see how well (or the opposite of well) one other day when they had a sub. I explained that their work ethic is so respectful and focused in this classroom and that, regardless of being in another classroom, the expectation was that they would work as hard and with as much respect for one another. They did a fine job, though, of staying on task through their searching.

Here is an example of one of the topics being studied: Ghost sightings

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1. Students were concerned today because they weren’t sure whether their paragraph assignment was due today. It was and for those who were talking about it last night on MSN, they should have checked the homework blog while they were online. Remember the point of the blog? No excuses! 😀
2. We watched a portion of a video titled Bye Bye Love with Paul Reiser. The short clip was of a divorced father who was planning to cook a special supper to enjoy with his daughter, who he had custody of for the night. The daughter, though, obviously was unimpressed to be there and made every effort to make the evening “difficult” for her father. The tension was overwhelming. We talked, after viewing it, to see what “tricks” or ploys the girl used to frustrate her father.

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3. Kids, then, reflected on their own experiences, whether they had their own talents in dealing with parents. We read an essay with an intruiging title called “How to do Battle with Parents”. It was quite humorous and detailed a scene between parent and child that most of us could relate to. We read aloud together, looking for the satirical comments and phrases, and pointed out the “war-like stratagizing” the author included. It was a good read.
4. We then watched a few other videos about parents and teens. Some had positive interactions, while another showed several students venting some very personal feelings, the type they feel quite strongly about but feel unable to share with their parents. 

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5. Students will be writing a poem soon but will be away for their big tournament so we will continue on Monday. Good luck with your games!!

1. We began with a discussion of the short story, “The Loons”. Students had a mixed response to it and added some interesting comments, like when Curtis mentioned that it seemed to be a very slow story. This is true and we discussed some possible theories on why that might be.
2. We then moved over to the laptop and watched a few videos to “get us in the mood” for what’s to come. It is unfortunate that this movie is so far beyond their time, but none of the students had heard of the movie titled Dead Poet’s Society. It is a classic film with popular actor Robin Williams in it. This scene is of the first class with the new professor at a boy’s prep school in America. Williams, the new teacher, takes a very different approach to reading poetry and it takes a few moments for his students to catch on. See what you think. (Sorry if it slows down your viewing of this page.

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3. I explained to students that they are required by curriculum to give a multi-media presentation and to analyze a poem. We will combine both of these into their next assignment. To give them an idea of what they may attempt with the assignment, we watched several examples of poetry projects online. There are a variety of options available to them. It will be up to them what effort and creativity they would like to put into it.
4. We talked about a popular Canadian poet named Al Purdy. Purdy has taped himself reading his poetry aloud and the lead singer of The Tragically Hip, Gordon Downie, took it upon himself to make a video highlighting Purdy’s poem. It’s quite a good combination of talents. We listened to another of Purdy’s poems, “Making Homemade Beer” that the students seemed to enjoy quite well. His speaking style and attitude towards the fight with his wife seemed to win over a few admirers.
5. Students will have some pc time tomorrow to begin on their project or their search for an appropriate poem, other than the ones provided.

1. Students continued watching the video that counted down the top ten unexplained things. We immediately looked at a few photographs online that outline strange things, such as the way you can fold an American twenty dollar bill so it shows the smoke coming from The House of Congress and Twin Towers after 9-11. Also, we looked at the photos online of “faces” seen in smoke from that same day. Some students were scoffers, others thought it could have been that way. Brian made the excellent point of suggesting that you see what you want to see; if you are a believer in things unexplained, then you’ll be open to looking for examples of it. It leads to an interesting discussion, regardless.
2. Students will use pc search time in the next class to look up information for and against one of the topics of discussion given to students regarding unexplained things. There were twenty items listed on the board for them to choose from. They will have to write a paragraph to explain the rationalization “for” believing this certain topic, and another paragraph “against” it. The third paragraph will be their personal thoughts and logic for having that opinion. They’ll need to give evidence for their choice in philosophy.
3. We began watching an interesting documentary on dvd where Dan Akroyd is interviewed for information he has gained / researched on aliens and unidentified flying objects. It was quite interesting because it showed several clips of government footage of spottings. Who knows?! Maybe there’s more to our universe than we imagine!

1. We had a shorter class as the grade eleven class used some of their class time to finish speeches. When students returned to class, we discussed their thoughts after reading the ghost stories and crop circle articles they’d been given last Friday.
2. After that discussion, we began watching a video that highlights many of the top unexplained phenomenons that exist in our world. In the video, the side for believers and disbelievers is highlighted, giving us a good background to the controversy that exists around each phenomena. We will be studying different unexplained things soon in our next assignment.

1. Students came in prepared today to present their speeches and hand in their essay. Numbers were put up on the board and students called out, first come first serve, the order they felt comfortable presenting their speech. Things ran very smoothly from there.
2. I was most impressed by how prepared and focused they were on presenting their speeches properly. Some were more than moving and they all reflected some personal topics. I appreciate their confidence in sharing that with each other in the context of this class.
3. Our class carried over into their gym class for a short bit but we pushed on through, finishing up everyone’s speech today. Mr. Weinkauf was very understanding and helpful. Students were given their marks before leaving class, although they weren’t given the rubric with the written observations yet, as I have to mark them in the book.

Wonderful job, Grade elevens. I was really, honestly impressed by your effort, your confidence, and pleased at how enjoyable a process it seemed to some of you. Well done!

1. Students were given back some of their assignments. Micheal did a great job of reminding us of the story we’d been reading Friday when the bell interupted us. We finished off and had a good discussion about the surprising and touching ending to the story.
2. We read through the questions for the story together and answered them orally as students wrote in their responses.
3. There is no class tomorrow but we will return on Thursday. Students are asked to have “The Loons” read for then with their questions completed.
4. There was twenty of so minutes of class left over after all our discussions and getting settled. They did great at reading silently for the rest of class. I appreciate the focus they show and their consideration of their classmates who want to use that time for work.

ela-10-the-unexplained-sub.doc 

1. Students missing yesterday were given their handouts.
2. The kids had a quiz today on figurative language. They were told of this in advance so if they had wanted to prepare or review, they were able to.
3. Once finished, they had a handout from yesterday with five different stories / articles regarding things unexplained. They were to read an article, write their personal response or thoughts about it after reading, and then move on to the next one. At the end, there was a paragraph personal reflection to be done considering the whole topic of things unexplained. I would like the students to consider for themselves what their own beliefs are regarding some of these topics, like ghosts and aliens. Some of us have no opinion, but I’d like to pressure them a bit to form one.