1. The Grade tens wrote their unit exam today. They were given recipee cards to write a cheat sheet on for the exam. Some of them were able to cram a lot of information onto them. (Taron was here for the exam but realized he wasn’t here to get the card and didn’t know about it, so we compromised and he was allowed to check his binder for a total of three minutes – the rest of the group agreed it was a fair balance.)
2. Tomorrow we’ll continue on with our Challenges Unit and finish the story of the “Man Who Had no Eyes”. It’s ending will surprise them.

I’m looking forward to seeing how they manage with their questions. If they’re stumped, though, they can do like others in the past have done – be creative!

1. The temperature today is below 40 with the windchill, so there were no busses running. There were three students, though, who happily came to school to catch up on some assignments. The boys worked in the computer lab on their Blog paragraphs (there are 8 of them). These paragraphs were assigned to be completed, since we had used four classes to work on them in the lab. Other students not here today will be responsible for completing them on their own time.
2. The exam students were scheduled to write will be postponed until tomorrow – when more are in attendance.

1. Friday, students used some class time to review for their Forensic’s exam. In exchange of that time (since they’ve become so adept at bargaining for reviews) they were given a story excerpt to read over the weekend and questions to answer. We reviewed the story together and I told them a bit more information about the author. There was a movie made from this autobiography of Christy Brown with Daniel Day Lewis playing the lead. Understanding the setting of this story, in Ireland shortly after the 1930’s when there was extreme poverty and very little medical awareness of the condition of Cerebral Palsey, makes a big difference in understanding the accomplishments of the author. He became a painter and writer, even though he was only ever able to control the movement of his “left foot”.
2. Through our discussion of the reading, students were able to point out the significance of the fact that both of Christie’s parents were extremely faithful and positive that their son would be able to accomplish things. There were times when their faith waivered, but for the most part their determination to help their son develop was quite a challenge considering the fact that doctors at the time would have labelled him as mentally “retarded” – the term used at the time.
3. We also had a fairly detailed conversation about Cerebral Palsey itself. I explained what the condition was and how someone is born with it. We talked a bit, as well, about the Robert Latimer case from Saskatchewan in 1993. Robert’s daughter, Tracey, was born with cerebral palsey after a disruption in her oxygen during birth. She was under constant pain and could not take medication to reduce it because it would conflict with her anti-seizure medication. Her father described her future medical procedures, including multiple surgeries, as being “mutilation and torture”, so he euthanized her using exhaust from his truck. The debate began, soon after, about the difference between “Quality of Life” and “Quantity of Life”, which we discussed and shared thoughts on for a short while.
4. Overcoming physical obstacles is a great challenge, but not one restricted only to the individual but includes their family members as well.

1. Students took the first part of class to complete the questions for the story we’ve just read, “The Man in the Water”. Once done, they asked if they could have review time if they took the assigned reading home for the weekend. They were given copies of the next story (excerpt) titled “My Left Foot”. They should have it read over the weekend and do the questions.

1. We are behind our ideal placement in the semester – ideally we should have spent only ten weeks on each unit to divide the semester equally. With our study of the novel in the first unit, it sort of knocks that ideal timeline out of wack. We are starting this second unit today, then, and will focus on the literature to support the sub-units and some specific assignments.
2. We read through the introductory handout today that gave an overview of the four sub-units for this Challenges unit. The students spent some time discussing and reflecting on the questions in the handout. They had to define heroism and list some personal challenges. Then our discussion turned to overcoming fears. We talked about Phobias that seem like ridiculous fears, but they are more specific than most people assume. A phobia is not just being afraid of a particular thing – it is having an irrational and diagnosed fear of that particular thing. One of the most odd examples is an actual diagnosed phobia of a “fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth”. Weird, huh? What, then, is the best way to look at types of phobias? How about play charades?!

  The characters in this skit have a difficult time overcoming their own phobias.