Thursday, November 14th, 2013

Teachers: Return quizzes, pass out papers, students run things, think about seating

Students: 
1) Challenge, if you can handle it: sit next to someone new.
2) Download this document about the fall of Rome. Put it in a safe place.
3) Also, download this document about the Stranger and put it in a safe place.
4) AND download this document about thesis formulas.
5) Click the link "Assignments with Problems" on the right and fix your mistake, read the message, etc.
6) Take the poll
7) For the honors "In Our Time" Symbolism paragraphs, I only have paragraphs for Yenco, Files, Trammell, Cote, Brown and Hall.  The must be in by 2pm tomorrow and will not be accepted after that.
7) Check the "Careers Scoreboard" link for your class on the right: if you received less that full credit for any assignment, there will be a note in the cell. Submit work I don't have for some credit.
    ***If you came in for conferences, send me a Pages document explaining where you want the points.  Title: lastName firstName conferencePoints bb[yourPeriods].
    ***NOTE: I've given everyone 40 points for the Careers Essay, if I have it.  You will not fewer than 40, but you may get more.)

Stranger Quiz

Vocab Quiz 
philosophy
government
existentialism
human nature
Christianity
democracy

Two Homework Assignments
ONE
Using the "Thesis Formula" (downloaded above), spend exactly one hour writing a paper on Ernie's Ark. Stop writing after the hour is up. After your introduction, every paragraph should have a claim, quoted evidence from the text, and a warrant.  You may focus on any part of the book. When you submit the essay, write at the top exactly when and where you spent your hour.  The title of the assignment is "ErniesArkEssay." It is due by the beginning of class next Wednesday, 11/20. Because of the reasonable nature of this assignment, it will not be accepted any time after this point.

TWO (Honors and anyone wishing for supplemental credit)
Using the "Thesis Formula" (downloaded above), spend exactly two hours writing a paper on your choice reading book for October. Stop writing after the hour is up.  When you submit the essay, write at the top exactly when and where you spent these two hours.  The title of the assignment is "choiceReadingEssay." It is due by the beginning of class Tuesday, 11/26. It will not be accepted any time after this point.

Twin Circles
What did you notice in the Stranger?

Stranger Activity
Using the document downloaded (above), as well as comments from the twin circles, you'll have 6 minutes to write down significant quotes from the text that support existential themes. You will then spend another 6 minutes sharing your quotes with 3 other people, and another 5 sharing your group's most significant quote.

Keynote & Survey on Fall of Rome (with optional Essay Assignment)
Challenge: Mr. Springer, a former history teacher, believes that teaching the fall of Rome is a waste of time.  Your challenge is to prove him incorrect, unless the evidence proves otherwise.
Challenge Narrative: Why did Rome fall, and does it's demise help us understand anything about our school, our community or our nation? To answer this question you will be assigned to be in a group of 4. You will divide up the 12 reasons for Rome's fall (see the downloaded document called "The Division and Fall of the Roman Empire") equally among the group members.  Each of you will spend time to understand your assigned reasons and convert the reason into a simple, understandable statement. Share these statements with your group through AirDrop. In your group, decide on the 4 most important reasons for Rome's fall.   Two group members create a gridded chart to use to record the responses from staff members who you will ask whether they see four reasons for Rome's fall in the school, community or nation (your chart will have 4 columns  and four rows). The other two members of the group will make a Keynote presentation which will include all the listed reasons with a page and suitable visual for each statement (divide the statements equally among the remaining two group members). Before you begin ANYTHING, copy and paste this test into a Pages document and turn it into a to-do list.

In the Future:
Maslow Self-Assessment
Philosophy Challenge--Why study philosophy?  "You can't step in the same river twice."
Making spreadsheets and charts -- survey downtown Norway.  Challenge: find ways to quantify the strengths and weaknesses and display the data in a chart.
Ernie's Ark closing activity
Lesson on Organization
Challenge: Create a one minute presentation that explains how you use your computer to organize your work. If you do not currently have a method, you will learn one from a classmate.