Winter Break is at an end.

I hope that everyone had a joyful and peaceful Winter Break.

Thank You!

A huge Thank You goes out to the family of Ryan Stickley for the generous contribution of an awesome All School Meeting Raffle Prize. Wait and see . . . it's a coveted one!

THANK YOU!

A big "Thank You" goes out to the Olvera family for the donation of four books needed for the new Young Adult Literature class to be offered during fourth quarter.

Course Lineup Revised for Quarter Three

This is a revision of Denise's Class lineup for the year.
(Revised 11/29/08)

Quarter One -- schedule is set
First Hour -- CLASS (Community, Leadership, Action, & Solutions in School)
Second Hour -- Introduction to Film Analysis
Third Hour -- Prep / Free Hour
Fourth Hour -- The Reader's Workshop (Katy)
Fifth Hour -- Introduction to Film Analysis
Sixth Hour -- The Creative Female (Katy)

Q2
First Hour -- CLASS
Second Hour -- Images: Media and Gender (Katy)
Third Hour -- Advanced Film Analysis
Fourth Hour -- PREP
Fifth Hour -- Reader's Workshop
Sixth Hour -- Short Fiction (Katy)

Q3
First Hour -- CLASS
Second Hour -- Prep / Planning Hour
Third Hour -- Vampire Image (upper level reading -- college prep)
Fourth Hour -- Cinema by the Decade (new survey class -- non-college prep)
Fifth Hour -- Reader's Workshop (reading levels vary by student choices)
Sixth Hour -- The Reflective Imagination (moderate level / writing intensive)

The following quarter plan is tentative!

Q4
First Hour -- CLASS
Second Hour -- Finding Self: Space and Place in YA Literature
Third Hour -- ?
Fourth Hour -- Prep
Fifth Hour -- Reader's Workshop
Sixth Hour -- ?

Books scheduled for the year :
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Q4)
Accidents of Nature (Q4)
American Born Chinese ?? (Q4)
The Arrival (Q4)
Caucasia (Q4)
Dracula (Q3)
Growing Up Female (selections) (Q1)
The Hobbit (Q3)
Keesha's House (Q4)
Lord of the Flies (Q4)
Luna (Q2, Q4)
Parrotfish (Q2, Q4)
Pride and Prejudice (Q1)
A Sand County Almanac (Q4)
Speak (Q2)
Story of a Girl (Q2,Q4)
Voices of a People's History (Zinn) ?
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain (Q4)
(also -- choices on "Finding Self" YA Literature list-- Q4)


Stay tuned for updates in this entry.

Thank You!

A big thank you to the Vitale family for contributing a set of bookshelf speakers to my classroom. My film classes can now view and analyze movies with proper sound.

Wooo Hooo!

Struggling with Technology

This is why we need to be ensure the presence of trained, certified, and professional information specialists (librarians) in our schools. Those professionals cannot be replaced by Google. Students need a deeper understanding of logic and rhetoric.

"As important as it is for students to expand their sense of community and learn to collaborate — it is more crucial that they learn how to sift thoughtfully through increasing amounts of information. The Internet presents a unique challenge to scholarship — many of the questions that once required extensive research can now be answered with 10-minute visits to Google. The issue now is distinguishing between rich resources and the online collection of surface facts, misinformation, and inexcusable lies that masquerade as the truth. It will be hard for our students to be thoughtful citizens without this ability to discern the useful from the irrelevant. This is especially clear during this election season. If they are never asked to practice dealing with this new onslaught of information, they will have to practice when the stakes are much higher."
from Matthew Kay's "Putting Technology in Its Place" -- OpEd piece, New York Times Opinion, October 12, 2008

Parent Conferences

Snaps to all parents and students who attended conferences on October 2nd. Katy and I enjoyed talking with everyone. We wish that we had more opportunities to have those very important discussions (on contracted time).