Noble Street Gallery Art Show
What’re you doing this Friday evening? Why not check out Mr. Street’s advanced digital photography students’ rhetoric at the Noble Street Gallery Art Show this Friday, September 28, from 6:00-8:00 at CDO? I’m goin’. Be there, or be square.
APELC Links (Re-)Fixed
The links to the revision documents were still broken but I’ve re-fixed them. The reading is in the Bedford text, as I noted it on the board today. Please be ready for next class.
Hours of Operation
A quick announcement, English 9 and APELC, from now on I’ll be arriving at school closer to 7:30 most mornings. If you need to set up a special time to see me any morning before that time, please let me know as needed.
Dig? Dig.
The President’s September 20 Address
Hey APELC, we’re going to begin looking at President Bush’s September 20, 2001, Congressional address on Tuesday. I know it’s a late post, but if you’re able, I recommend you take a look at the text of the speech and watch the video. (It requires RealPlayer.) Pay attention to phrase, clause, and sound patterns, word choice, et cetera, throughout. This’ll be official homework due Tuesday and Wednesday, repsectivley.
MLA Template
A quick update before I post class notes. The MLA template has been added to the “Materials” section of the APELC page in two formats: Rich Text Format (as usual) and Word. Any computer should be able to read either of these formats.
Sorry for the delay. Many students needed assistance during tutoring and I wanted to make sure I could post the documents properly from home as my school PC often wreaks havoc with formatting I’ve done in its ancient verison of Word. Class notes coming up shortly.
Open House
Excellent! That’s the best way to describe CDO’s open house last night. The campus was alive with parents and students and faculty, and room T-12 was packed almost every period. I enjoyed seeing many of you (students) and meeting you (parents).
I’m here to make myself as available to students as I can, and my classroom door is always open for parents, faculty, and administrators to come by and observe and participate. I’m looking forward to working with you all this year, my first at CDO.
Maintaining the Classroom
As I monitored paired discussion during fifth period last Thursday, I noticed, to my consternation, that third period students had left the hall passes and accountability binder disarrayed. (Actually, one of the passes was left in the closed binder. I took the photo after I opened it.)
Then, after fifth period, I noticed, again to my consternation, pieces of Orbit gum on the floor of the north side of the room, and two crumpled candy wrappers on the floor of the south side of the room.
I take great care to make sure T-12 is a clean, comfortable, orderly, and safe place for students to learn and study in, and I expect that students will respect the space enough to remember their part in helping maintain it for themselves and for their peers who come after them. Additionally, it’s not considerate of my efforts nor our building’s custodian’s efforts to treat the room in an unbecoming manner.
Remember, T-12 needs to be in at least the same condition at the end of each period as it was at the beginning; things are to be put away and trash discarded. We can prevent T-12 from becoming just another classroom if we all pitch in and take some pride in the space.
All for now.
Commenting
Awesome! I dig students taking the time to comment here at Mr. Girard Online. Areanna commented on the Green Lantern, Eliza chimed in on Just Say “No” to Drawers, and Marie left us all the information we could ever, ever want on a possible betta fish for class.
Lemme leave you with a request about posting your thoughts. Please don’t use your last names: your first name and initials of your last names are sufficient.
See you in class, all.
ADDENDUM: Please do not use the comment system to ask about class work, et cetera. Rather, use the Contact page.
Quick English 9 Clarification
There’ve been a couple of questions about the 2 Chunk, 8 Sentence, Analytical/Persuasive Paragraph I’ve asked you to bring to class. Don’t fill it out yet. We’ll do that in class. This is only an empty template we’ll be using a lot in the coming months to begin to organize our writing.
Dig? Right on.
Assignment Updates for Both Classes
Students, both class pages have been updated with assignment information. Please be sure to the assignment information carefully to be ready for Monday.
Also, I’ll be converting all of the documents on the site to from Rich Text Format (.rtf) to Portable Document Format (.pdf ) this weekend because I know not all of you are able to render the documents as I’d hoped. So make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Reader installed on your computer.
Are we getting fish, or what?
AP Class Materials (Amended)
One of your peers wrote me with some questions about class materials which I didn’t address as clearly with period 5 as I did with period 2. The question, in essence, was: “Do we really need exactly what you listed on the course outline, Mr. Girard?” Here’s what I wrote in response:
The 8 ½ × 11, college ruled, loose-leaf paper helps me keep all of your papers organized and together easily and cleanly. I don’t have to contend with ratty edges and smaller papers getting lost in the mix. The 7 ½ × 9 ¾, college ruled composition book similarly helps me organize your journals better if I ever collect them, and it’s compact and portable for your ease of use. I ask for college ruled in both cases because it allows you to write more on a page than otherwise would be possible. You’ll probably never use more than five or so sheets of 8 ½ × 11 [paper] a week (if even that), so you don’t need to buy fives reams. The composition journal you’ll use every day, so you might buy a few more than one.
I’ve also asked you to acquire yellow, blue, and green highlighters for a particular reason related to examining text and your daily notes, which, incidentally involves levels of questioning, which, incidentally, involve Bloom’s taxonomy and the nine-point rubric we’ll be using to score your major writings.
For those of seven or so of you who are dreading the return of the levels of questions, I wrote:
There’s more to the level questions than you might think [. . . .] The level questions are only the opening (but crucial) steps to a method of inquiry that help us more critically and accurately analyze text.
I failed to elaborate on the dictionary I’d like students to have for class, but it’ll be a necessary component of our vocabulary. Please make sure that you have a portable dictionary with you for class.
AMENDMENT: I know college ruled composition books might be more challenging to find than wide ruled composition books, therefore, in response to some concerns over the matter, I’ll allow the latter if you can’t find the former. The intital preference was born out of a desire for students to have more room to write on the page because we’ll be taking a lot of notes, but this just means you’ll need to buy a couple more (and they’re not more than eighty or ninety cents). All else however—the loose leaf paper and highlighters of the three specified colors—are non-negotiable.
Dig? Dig!
Class Needs
A quick reminder for those willing to donate materials to the classroom. We need:
- Books, paper- or hardback, for our empty shelves;
- Disposable plastic plates, cups, utensils, and napkins for celebratory occasions;
- Magnets and stickers for whatever, because it’s fun to decorate;
- Plants, because we need greenery and help converting our CO2 to breathable O2;
- Tissues, so we don’t have to rely on the splinter-laden stuff the district provides.
Of course this isn’t required, but if you can invest in the room you may feel more invested in the class and feel some responsiblity and ownership for what happens in the space.
Mr. Girard Online
Welcome to Mr. Girard Online, part of the Rob Girard Network. I’m Rob Girard, English teacher in Tucson, Arizona, and this website is designed to supplement and enhance my English language, literature, and composition instruction. Students will use Mr. Girard Online to stay abreast of class goings-on, find assignment and lesson information, check grades, and more. Parents can use the site to make sure their kids are on track.
I’ll be working hard to make Mr. Girard Online ready for the beginning of the school year; I’ll continue to customize and embellish the site and add more content as August approaches. Come back for updates often, or click the Posts feed link at the left of the page to be updated automatically.
And if you’re looking for the travel information that was previousy part of this site, check out the Team AZ Travel Journal. I’ll be posting information for a (tentative) tour soon.