1. We began class with a quick little explanation from me about the idea that generally people have two sides to them – the side they are and are known as and the side they could be or have the potential to be. Every person has the ability to be more careful with different aspects of their characteristics – more polite, more hardworking, or more ambitious – but we usually fall short of that potential. This explains the struggle some people have with themselves in life – there are two of each of us, sort of.
2. We read through two poems together. When reading poetry, you take several steps. The first is to do a read through entirely, even if you don’t understand parts. This way, you get a general idea of the poem, its meaning, and tone. On the second read through, that is when you look for new words to look up or any odd phrasings to decipher. We summarized the poem into our own words and, for the second poem, created a chart differentiating between the two individuals of the poem, the speaker and his inner self.
3. Like the ELA B10 class, this group is creating learning blogs as well. They watched the video I created with the screen recording program. I forwarded through bits not so relevant but think everyone was able to get a firm idea of how to go about beginning this blog.  Students will have computer time during classes next week to put this into practice. It is difficult, with a class of 35 students, to find computers available for everyone at the same time. You will be given that time, though, to work on other class work if pcs are unavailable so that the hometime you’ll be forced to use will be made up to you.
4. I will be posting a step-by-step list of “Things to do” when beginning your blog. Watch for it!

Here is a link to online videos that explain and show (which is important) how to proceed in creating portions of your blog. This should be quite helpful.

1. We began the class with a quick viewing of the video we attempted to watch before the bell went yesterday. The clip was from a movie titled Mississippi Burning that is based on true events during the tense times when civil rights for African American people were slowly becoming more recognized. Many southern people were very reluctant to accept these new rights for the Black people in their society and they continued with their extreme acts of aggression towards them. It is somewhat shocking to imagine that a person could ever have been raised with family morals to beleive they had the right to kill someone because of the color of their skin.
2. We talked about how social changes that happen in one country will most likely have a ripple affect in other countries. Where rights are given to a particular group in society, other groups of similar power in different countries will take action to fight for the same rights.
3. The civil movement in the south of the USA gave power and protection to the Black people of the country. The First Nations people of Canada were, at that time, being treated in a similar way by the people of Canada and the government. Recognizing that change can happen and advances made for their community of people, efforts were made in Canada soon after the American civil rights movement in the 1960s. Through the 1970s, several changes were happening. By 1982, though, it was finalized by the introduction of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the benchmark and core of what today make up Canadian values. Things are still changing today, such as legalization of Gay Marriage and the possibly inevitable legalization of marijuanna. The Canada you live in today may look quite different twenty years from now. Can you imagine what types of changes in what is considered acceptable in our society through that many years?
4. We read the poem about the Rosa Parks incident where one moment changed history for all races of people in the United States. We read it several times, picked out some of the figurative language that created certain effects for the reader, and answered a few questions.
5. The students have been asked to create their own learning blogs to use for their reading  reflections, instead of having a journal booklet that is so one-dimensional. Today, students watched a video I was able to make last night (that, admittedly could have used more editing) that showed the screen image of me creating a blog. Reading through instructions to create their blog would be one thing but watching and listening to me make one myself should be more effective. Students will have time next week to make their blogs but I was excited and pleased to see that some were interested in starting even this afternoon with their own. I do hope this is a personally relevant project for them. There should be something more to be received from this English class rather than checking off the readings as we do them and understanding the format of genres of literature. We’ll see!!