News
APELCers and freshmen, I wanted to post some final notes and thoughts for the fall semester, but because of problems I experienced posting to the site, obviously I was unable to do so. I asked APELCers to watch Digital Nation over the break, which you can watch at FRONTLINE, but since I’m only able to post so late, you needn’t view it for Monday. Watch over the next week if you would; it’s broken into smaller chapters, so you can take it in pieces.
Look forward to working with a new page at Schoology. Here’re the individual class links so you can bookmark your page:
I’ll try to score some time in the liberry next week so we can enroll in and get acquainted with the site, which will probably come to you more intuitively than it will me since I’m not a Facebooker and most of you are. This could be a boon to class or a huge mistake and management issue. We’ll see.
I’ll keep a blog at Posterous, a new Mr. Girard Online, that’ll mirror the blog at Schoology (maybe—it depends on how ambitious I’m feeling).
I hope you had a fine holiday, and I’ll look forward to seeing you on Monday when we’ll commence the spring semester. And you’ll get to meet Ms. Harris, our student-teacher.
APELC Summer Reading
Hello 2010-2011 APELCers. I hope you’re all enjoying the summer with your friends and family as much as I am with mine. I wanted to remind you of your summer reading assignments: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad.
You can find them easily at your local public liberry, or you might try Bookman’s. Both are in the public domain and are available online. You can also find audio versions at LibriVox.org in a variety of download packages. (I chose to subscribe to each through iTunes and sync them to my iPod.)
I recommend taking notes on everything from the small facts to the broad ideas as you read and/or listen carefully and thoroughly. (If you don’t already have this habit, now’s a good time to begin to develop it.) Don’t expect to be quizzed on them on the first day of class, but be ready to speak on them intelligently.
I look forward to meeting you in four weeks.
Still Sick
APELCers, won’t be in Friday. Still achy, throbbing, coughing, full of mucus and phlegm. Will review papers and conference prep Monday. Sorry for being out (enjoying laying in bed with daughter watching Suite Life on Deck, though). Will make up for absence with in-class movies and dessert party.*
*Not really.
Finals Details
Freshmen and juniors and seniors, please check your respective class pages for details about your finals. Review the documents and see me with questions.
Have a pleasant evening.
Moments
Another show with work from CDO’s finest artists. I can’t make it, but I hope you will. Dig?
APELC Class Picture
APELCers, as I spoke about in class, I’d like to get a photo of second and fifth period together in T-12. The best time would be before the exam next Wednesday morning. I’d really like all of you to be present, so the three seniors who’re finalling instead of AP-Examining, it’d be a really groovy thing if you could show just for five or ten minutes in the morning for the picture. I’d really dig that.
Extrey-credit for English 9!
Remember that opportunity I mentioned last class? Well, I want to verify for you that the extrra-credit quiz over the fifth act of Romeo and Juliet will be offered no other time than during tutoring Tuesday, March 5. Only students who’ll be absent for school club or athletic activities or who’re excused because of illness will be able to take it at after that.
Further, students who plan to take the quiz must be in my room no later than 2:32 at which time the T-12 door’ll be closed and locked. I just don’t like students tarrying and coming in any old time they happen to be walking this way.
Dig?
Dig.
Melee!
Another gallery showing? Dig! Check out Mr. Street’s advanced digital photography students’ rhetoric in room N-207 this Thursday, February 28, from 6:00-8:00 at CDO.
Happy Rodeo!
How best to end the short week of the Fiesta de los Vaqueros? Nothing better, I think, than a quick nod to our favorite cowmonkey (rather than cowboy), Whiplash.
You may be surprised at the cross-cultural appeal of the rodeo as an institution. It certainly isn’t contained to one stereotype of participant or spectator as evidenced by the variety of rodeo networks and organizations. Apart from rodeo’s obvious appeal to simians because of their primate hero, there are the professional associations such as the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the Cowboy’s Professional Rodeo Association, the Working Ranch Cowboys Association, and the International Professional Rodeo Association, but the rodeo isn’t limited by sex (Women’s Professional Rodeo Association), age (American Junior Rodeo Association, National High School Rodeo Association, National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, and National Senior Pro Rodeo Association), orientation (International Gay Rodeo Association), race (All Indian Rodeo Cowboys Association and Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo), or nation or continent(Canadian Professional Rodeo Association, Australian Professional Rodeo Association, New Zealand Rodeo Cowboys Association, and European Rodeo Cowboy Association). (Thanks Wikipedia for much of this list.)
Find out more about cowboys and their history at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Enjoy the rodeo and support the Pride of CDO as they march in Thursday’s parade.
And one more time:
Go Whiplash, go!
Thank You!
This is just a quick word of thanks to my second period APELCers for the gift of the books for our family. Mrs. Girard and I look forward to reading them to Debabu and Zufan (who’ll be making an appearance at school soon, once the mumps quaratine is off).
In particular, I’m looking forward to reading Strega Nona, which seemed to win high praise from many of the juniors and seniors. As I said, your description of the story reminded me of the Olive Garden’s Never-Ending Pasta Bowl. (Oh yeah!)
We really do appreciate your gift, kids. Really. Thanks again!
Explanation, Quotation, Citation
Freshmen, a quick reminder of what we talked over in class about what constitutes an appropriate response to a question over the drama (on a study guide, during discussion, or any other time). Each answer you provide must have:
- An explanation (or even an interpretation);
- The quotation upon which you based the former;
- A citation including the quotation’s act, scene, and line number.
Of course, this also applies to any analysis of any text we happen to be examing in class whether it be a novel, poem, or short story. (Except, novel and short story citations incude only page numbers, and poem citations include only line numbers.)
One more reminder: You must bring the release form I handed out in class, approved and signed by a parent or guardian, to view the drama on Monday.
Dig?
Dig!
Ethiopia
By now, kids, Mrs. Girard and I are on our way to meet and bring home our new son, Debabu, and our daughter, Zufan. We’re very excited, and, as I’d indicated in class last week, I wanted to leave you some resources on Ethiopia.
We’ll be in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, for most of our stay, but we’ll travel to meet our chidlren’s birth family in Aleta Wendo, south of the capital in the nation’s Sidamo province near Lake Abaya. (After you click the preceding map links, select the “Satellite” option in the upper-right corner for a better view of the cities.)
Follow the links below for more information on our children’s homeland:
- Embassy of Ethiopia in Washington
- Country profile from BBC News
- CIA World Factbook entry
- Photos at TrekEarth
Again, I trust you’ll follow the plans I’ve left for you and that you’ll be cooperative, positive, courteous, and productive with your substitute. I look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks.
Hello Children!
Well, I said I’d post at the end of the last week of the fall semester, but, after furiously grading all of your papers and your final exams and concluding all of my business at school before the break, I was pretty well spent and I wanted to do no more than come on home and sleep for a while.
So, I hope that you’ve had a restful break after a long, tough semester of thinking and reading and writing. Just as many of you―freshmen, juniors, and seniors―thought you wouldn’t make it the end of the first quarter last October, almost as many of you didn’t think you’d make it through the second. But lots of you did, and, though I know some of you will be leaving us in T-12 for different challenges in different classrooms with different teachers (some even in different cities), those of you that passed the fall semester with grades you didn’t think you could achieve, should be extremely proud of your efforts.
If you’re a student who didn’t earn the grade you (or your parents) wanted, then I hope you’ll make the most of the opportunities this spring semester will afford you. Remember, you are in charge of your grade―if you desire success you need to secure it by doing the best you can in your studies. And, as always, I’m here to help you in that endeavor as best as I can.
Here’s to a new semester and new challenges. See you on Monday.
PS―I’ve got a bunch of links jamming up my Favorites list, so maybe I’ll post a couple of linkjams in the next few days. Peace!
News from Girard
Freshmen, juniors, and seniors, thanks for being patient with me in my absence. Here’re a few notes.
English 9: All of your text analyses should be completed and in the basket now. We’ll finish our study of Of Mice and Men when I return; the paragraph we were to have completed in class this week we’ll do the next. I’ll modify the execution of the final in your favor since we’ve missed some practice time. I’ll have updated grade reports for you when I return.
APELC: Students with whom I missed timed-writing revision conferences Monday and Tuesday afternoon, I’ll meet Monday and Tuesday next week at the same times we were scheduled this week. Those with whom I’ve already conferenced, you may email me your completed revisions and cover sheets beginning this Friday, or, if you still have questions, I’ll make myself available to help you find answers to them when I return. Of course, I always encourage you to confer with your peers as I have the utmost faith in your abilities. I’ll accept timed-writing 3 revisions and cover sheets until Thursday, December 13. That gives everyone a chance to get their conferences completed and their papers done.
Further, your second personal narratives will be due Monday, December 17. Most of you are probably already finished with them, as we were scheduled to complete second revisions this week. One APELCer asked if I could extend the word count to 350 even 400 words because the length is limiting, however, this isn’t only an exercise in writing narrative but writing within a constrained space. This is to encourage you to exercise precise control over your material. Many college and scholarship application essays place limits on length, so this is good practice. Please stay within five to ten words of the limit, no more.
I’ll also discuss the details of the final when I return. Be ready to continue our discussion of Malcolm X, in which we’ll also touch upon the Baldwin piece and the video.
To all my excellent students, I sincerely apologize for my absence. We will see the semester completed successfully. See you soon.
Sing, Sing, Sing!
The Choral District Festival, which brings together talent from Donaldson, Mesa Verde, Harelson, Cross, and, of course, Canyon del Oro, will be held in the Fine Arts Auditorium Thursday, November 8, at 6:30 in the evening.
Check it out―it’s free!
Absent Monday, October 29 (Updated)
Hello children. Unfortunately, I’ll be out Monday, October 30. I sincerely apologize to those APELC students with whom I’d scheduled revision conferences. I’ll do my best to reschedule with you and extend due dates for your revisions accordingly.
All students―freshmen, juniors, and seniors―are expected to cooperate with the sub. Treat the room as you would if I were present, that is, target desks, pick up your refuse, et cetera. I’ll look forward to a good report from my stand-in upon my return.
Be mature and productive.
UPDATE: I am an idiot. A couple of you have pointed out my mistake, and I will be absent Monday, October 29. To answer all of the worried students who’ve already left comments, know that you will have an extension to Friday to complete your papers, and I will see students Wednesday during sixth because of my absence. Dig?
APELC Revisions and More
AP juniors and seniors, the sign-up sheet for revisions conferences was posted today during first lunch, and many have already signed up. My apologies to Keith M., Casey M., Andre M., Areanna S., and Blaise C. I failed to account for a doctor’s appointment I scheduled for this Friday afternoon when I printed the sign-up sheet. You’ll have to resechdule.
Revisions, with a completed cover sheet, are due next Thursday, November 1, by the end of the tutoring period. No later. (The students I had to cancel Friday appointments with can take an extra day, though.)
I already successfully conferenced with one of your colleagues today who took the time after she received her draft this morning to prepare great detailed notes as to what she’ll do to improve her paper. I’d follow her example―remember, your preparation drives our conference which means the better prepared you are, the better I’ll be able to offer assistance and the more you’ll get out of our collaboration.
Now for the “More”. Fifth period’s Alli E. has proposed the formation of an APELC study group to meet, perhaps, Wednesday afternoons either in my room or outside under those great trees. What would the study group do? Well, here’re some thoughts.
The first thing you might do is review class readings and discuss rhetorical concepts and strategies in each. You might use the basic questions for rhetorical analysis and post-text questions to guide your discussion. You might try processing a text or at least framing a text or analyzing its appeals.
Second, you might discuss rhetorical concepts and strategies from a text you provide. It may be an article you find, a piece of music, a program, a movie, whatever―something you find rhetorically interesting that you’d like to practice your analytical skills on. Exercises such as these are useful in helping you extend your skills beyond the classroom and into authentic, outside texts, and of course this practice would bolster your in class performance.
Third, you might review each other’s writing, like a group edit. This might help you develop comfort sharing your writing with your peers and practice giving and receiving criticism.
Fourth, you might discuss any language or rhetoric related issue: grammar and usage, language register, political speech, personal narrative, et cetera. It’d be an outlet for real discussion about real issues in communication.
I think it’s a great idea, and if you’re interested, I’ll leave board space for students to leave their names.
Get writing.
Tucson Meet Yourself (Updated)
The time is here for representatives of the Old Pueblo’s various ethnic communities to share their crafts, their arts, and (most importantly) their food with their neighbors. Tucson Meet Yourself begins tomorrow, October 12, and lasts through Sunday, October 14.
If you’ve never been, I recommend you come on down to mix and mingle and enjoys the sights, sounds, and smells of what Tucson and her citizens have to offer. As I explained, I’ll be attending sometime between the opening of the fun on Friday and the closing on Sunday. If you see me accost me and I’ll buy you something to eat. Really.
What time will I be there? Well, I can’t give that away. The point isn’t to go to get free food from me, but to go and meet your neighbors in the Tucson community. Meeting me would be a bonus.
See you there. Maybe.
UPDATE: I changed the logo at the top of the post because that hideous orange was making me ill. But more importantly, here’s a sampling of treats that four Star reviewers tried at today’s events: “Eat ’til you’re stuffed at downtown’s Tucson Meet Yourself”.
Cultural Literacy
Clay P. asked for some resources on Biblical literacy. Click these links under the “Resources” category: Dictionary of Cultural Literacy and Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Clay also asked about the possbility of us processing a musical text. I do have it on tap for this current unit as we investigate identity, worldview, and cultural influences. We’ll look at the stuff that hides in your favorite songs.
Canyon Singers Take the Stage
The valley walls will reverberate with the melodies of the Canyon Singers the evening of Thursday, October 4, at 7:00. CDO’s songsters are extending an invitation to hear ”the music of master composers Schubert, Haydn and Mozart and contemporary composers Z. Randall Stroope, Celtic minimalist composer Rhona Clark [and] Spanish composer Javier Busto [who's] written a shimmering ‘Agnus Dei’, splitting into eleven different vocal parts in the final phrase.” The crooners ”conclude the program with ‘The Gershwin Songbook’”.
I can’t attend, but I hope you’ll be there to hear their musical argument.