June 8 update

Period One - we worked on finishing off the Drama unit and also working on our Culminating Activity assignments. The first one of those assignments were due today.

Period Three - we lost most of this one due to a non-academic program running in the afternoon. I've got everything marked that was handed in for this course. I'm also looking for part one of the CA, too.

June 6 update

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's all good.

Period One

We got to finish off material on Romeo and Juliet and the Culminating Activity. (Die dates posted here, soon. They are on the board in the room, by the way)

Period Three

We got to finish off material on Macbeth and most got a good chunk of the first section of the CA done, too. All is orderly.

June 1 update

Period One

We got to finish off some of the annoying bits of the Drama unit as well as be ... um ... annoying to the printer which refused to work. We adapted and overcame and eventually got copies of the CA. We chatted about due dates for the various sections of the CA and were overjoyed at the prospect of working quietly until the end of the semester.

Period three

We lost this period to non-academic programs. I have copies of the CA in the classroom ready to go for you, and you have all signed up for a subject to study. Go for it. Also, finish the questions as assigned on Macbeth.

See pics in other posts for details.

Students when they were asked to get off their phones

May 31 update

Period one

We finished the play today. Here are all the questions and the due date all in one pic

Period Three

We almost finished the play. We did get to see this:

Lanny McDonald. What an actor!

May 30 update

Period One

We got to Act 4 today - we need to get this one done soon.

Period Three

We got to question 37 today. We are aaaaaaaaaaaalmost done.

Alllllllllllllmost.

May 27 Update

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty excited by the fact that today's date is May 27th!

Period One questions

Woo

In any case, here is what went on in the classes:

Period One

We made it through to Act III, scene iv. Here is a pic of the questions you should have already done for the play:



Period Three

We had this very brief class today. We talked a little about the Culminating Activity for the course as well as the exam date for this course(s), too.

In any case here is a pic of the questions you should have done if you are in my Period Three class:

Period Three Questions

Update May 26

Similar look? You decide. 

Period One

We got to Act three in the text and got Act III, scene i questions 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9 for homework. Making good progress. Keep looking here and on the white board for due dates!

Period Three

We got to the middle aft Act IV in this class today. We also got assigned questions 30, 31, 33, 34 and 36 for work. We are also making progress towards the end of the play. 

Number sign Awesome!

Remember these predictions for Period Three!

Update May 24

Period one - We got to Act 2, scene 3 in the movies. We also had a chat about the number of days left in the course. See the white board for questions assigned today - they are written in blue on the board.

Period Three - We were assigned question 30 and 31 assigned today. We also had a discussion about the number of classes left. It's significantly lower than the other class, as we regularly miss two classes a week, thanks to non-academic programs. We had the calendar up on the big screen and we went through the days we have left.

Please keep yourself safe, please keep yourself healthy and keep moving forwards!

And .... a student asked me to include this in today's post:

Update May 19

It's the bike trip day. Happy Biking to all!

Update May 18

Notice: Stuff on part one of the Drama unit in both courses is now due.

Hand it in.

If you want to pass the class, hand in the work.

OK.

Period One:  We got to the part where Romeo and Juliet first meet and then find out each others' last names .... AWKWARD!

Period 3 - lost today due to a non-academic program.

Keep moving forward!

May 17 update

I'm going to start this post with the Honey Badger teaching some slang:

yo, I'm all blogging in front of the class, yo.

Period one we caught up and moved forward a little bit.

Period Three we got to start of the Dinner scene, and now have the following to do:

May 16 update

Yeah, this is late.

In any case, this is where we are in class

Period One, we got to Act 1, scene 4

In Period Three, we got to question 22

May 11 update

Period one ... we got it started in here, man. We got Romeo and Juliet started, that is. We also got questions 1,2 and 3 assigned for homework.

Period three ... well, we went to the dogs. Literally. All good, all good. We will continue to work on Macb  I mean "The Scottish Play" tomorrow.

update May 10

Content, content, content.

Period One

If you've been away, you need to get yourself caught up on what is due and when. I'll post the next unit's due dates up here, too.

We finished Renaissance Man and the questions we studied are now due.

We will begin Romeo and Juliet tomorrow.

Period Three

Lord of the Flies unit study is now past due. Get it in!

We went on to finish Act I of Macbeth. We now have the following questions assigned for work: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12.

And we saw a few versions of "The Dagger Scene", too.

update Monday May 9

You ask, I deeeeeeliver

So yeah. That Lady Macbeth is awesome. It's all good.

Period one, we keep trying to drag ourselves to the end of the Renaissance Man film. We are almost there. Asymptotic, as in from the study of Geometry. Almost there, almost.

Period Three we got a little further into Macbeth with a full class. A rare feat for that period. At least I got to announce that the Novel Study stuff was all due and to point out things on this blog.

Also, all good.

May 4th Update

So ... in the Period One class, we made our way through the Angles and Shots powerpoint and then got back to Renaissance Man. We're almost done that assignment.

Period Three we lost today as we had a number of non-academic programs during the period. Nevertheless, we are finished watching Act1,i of the play. We also have the assignments for the novel unit due Thursday.

Update April 28

Shakespearience In School Experience from Shakespearience on Vimeo.

So yeah, we watched that video in Period One ... and we'll also watch it in Period Three next week.

We put the finishing touches on the novel study and began the Shakespeare Unit.

S'all good.

April 27 update

Period one - we are done with the novel and started the introduction to the Drama unit.

I saw a funny video ... this one ... and thought it worthy to plonk it in this post.

Period three .. well, we lost out to a bunch of non-academic programs.

Meh, all good. All good.

Tuesday April 26 updates

Period One we focussed on getting the terms and the character sketches complete and up on the walls of the classrooms. I even got to do some of the powerpoint introduction to the next unit, too


Period Three we focussed on getting the terms and theme study done for the novel - we got those done and assigned everyone characters to do a write up of them, too.

We mentioned this while discussing the themes, too:

Thursday and Monday April 25th updates

So ... yeah.

Period One
Thursday We finished the Theme Study of And then there were none. We also were assigned three characters to do for the Character sketches part of the assignment, too.

Monday we got going on the character sketches and got the class interrupted. Meh, it's all good.

I look forward to starting the next unit on Romeo and Juliet this week, too!

Period Three

Thursday we finished reading the novel Lord of the Flies

Monday we worked on the Theme Study for the novel. Later this week, we'll get to some of the character sketches and move onto Macbeth! ... I mean "The Scottish Play".

On to tomorrow!

Update for today

Well, it was pretty calm in Period One - we worked together on getting the Theme Study done. Some pretty big questions answered and some pretty big ideas discussed in class today.

We'll be finished that Theme Study sheet off tomorrow and then get one with the Character Sketches, too.

I also updated the links on the right-hand side for our next unit for both the Period One class and the Period Three class.

In Period Three, we had a wash out due to a visitor to the building. All good. Things are on time and on task.

April 19 update

Period one - we started the theme study on the ...um ... theme study handout for the novel. It's going to be a part of the Part II stuff we are handing in later on this month. Probably April 28th.

We'll talk about that on Wednesday. Show up. Show up to class tomorrow.

Period Three- we took some time together to get caught up in the chapter questions. Then we read from Chapter 11.

April 15 update

Period one

We. Finished. The. Book. We didn't get too much time to finish the film, but we finished the book.

We also got the rest of the questions from the Study to get done. We also set April 21 as the due date.

Period Three

This was a shortened period, so we read until the end of Chapter 9. And got those questions, too.

April 14 update

So ... yeah. We did a fair amount of reading today.

In period one, we read from page 243 to page 270. We are almost finished the book, man .... wooo!

We also got a chance to see a bit of the film before the end of the period. Very exciting stuff.

I want to rant about "Why you shouldn't rely on a simple google search for answers to murder mysteries" ... but since the confusion and accusations are rampant around the room about who the murderer is at the moment are to my benefit, I'm good about leaving it all up in the air.

Just know that doing a quick google search doesn't always give you the correct answer. You will always  have to engage some basic reading and thinking skills, too.

Also, we heard this song being sung today in class:

In Period three, we had a much less smooth time, as we read to the end of Chapter 9, got the questions and then watch a wee bit of the colour version of Lord the Flies. I'm pretty sure that the link on the right of this blog will have the link to the film, so you can judge for yourself.

Here's the IMDB.com link for the 1990 version of the film. The actors there were actors before and after the film was made.

April 13 update

Period One: well, there was an attendance issue today, so we watched the film.

Period Three: we finished Chapter 8 in the readings together, then we finished the black and white version of the film. Hashtag weareaweseome

Periods Two and Four were fairly quiet, too.

April 12 update

So Period One, we read to page 242 in the text. It's starting to get frantic, let me tell you. How frantic? I mentioned Salvatori Dali in class today, and said I'd post one of his pics on the blog. See above for details.

Period Three we read to about half way through the really long chapter 7 "Gift for the Darkness:. We watched a bit of the film, too. We also set April 14th as the due date for Chapters 1-4 and the vocabulary to be handed in.

Other than that ... it was a Tuesday.

April 11 update

Period One

We set the due date for the second part of the novel study today - stuff will be due April 21. For more details, see the poster in the classroom, or on the right-hand side of this blog.

We read to page 225 in the novel today and got to watch a bit more of the film. Pretty cool, man.

Period Three

Because I was needed in the office, we worked quietly this period. At least that is what the person in charge said.

Update April 5

In Period One, we got to read to page 176 and I later assigned question 15 for homework. We then watched the film for about 25 minutes and then had a debrief.

S'all good

In Period Three, we read Lord of the Flies to the end of Chapter 7 and then got the questions for it. I asked if anyone needed help with either the questions or the vocabulary and no one had any problems

We did not get to watch the film as the wireless in the school was doing weird and wonderful things. I will find an e-copy of the film or my faithful DVD collection for tomorrow.

Monday April 4 update

So ... I'll make this a quick update.

Period one with And then there were None: we read until page 160. Then we watched a bit of the film. All good, man.

Period Three with Lord of the Flies, we read until the end of Chapter 6. If you got the Chapter five questions, the Chapter 6 questions are on the same sheet. Then we watched a bit of the film. Scary stuff kids:

Roger. His name is Roger.

Friday April 1

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates.

In Lord of the Flies, we have finished Chapter Five

In And then there were none, we got to page 150. We also watched the first section of the mini series, too.

ok. Man, it's late. Got to go.

Thursday March 24

Update for Mar 22 and 23

The last two days have been ... light on attendance to say the least. I'm just wondering what's what.

In Period One we had to keep reading, and we got to page 116.

In Period Three we lost the period either Mindfullness or to Obie. Or both. Cute fuzzy doggie.

Update for March 21

Well, we made it back from Break. I think I can say "Woo." for all of us at this point in time....;)

In any case, we read today. In period one, we got into page 98 before time ran out on us. We'll keep watching the film version in order to get everyone back to the same page.

Period Three, we got into Chapter 5, and I'm hoping that everyone is enjoying the novel. We talked about a site I learned about over the Break called docastaway.com. Honestly, if you wanted to do some research and have a crack at putting together an essay/research project on this I would be more than happy! Something about relating the text to self or text to world is most assuredly there, my friends.

In any case, we also saw the video from which I took this screen shot:

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday March 10 updates

It might be one of these people.

Period one - we got reading ... and we read. We are now on page 75 of the novel. People are starting to fall victims to the murderer, whoever that is. I have no idea who the bad guy is in this novel. It's a mystery.

I also just found out that this novel was redone as a miniseries in 2015 by the BBC. I jsut saw it for sale on Amazon. Very cool.

Period three we read a lot of Chapter 4. We did stop to discuss what was happening in the book, too. At one point in time, the narrator of the book mentions that the rest of society had been destroyed in a nuclear exchange. Of course, the teacher mentioned a film called The Day After that came out in 1984 and was a huge draw for viewers. Quite simply, back in 1984, I thought for sure that we were going to see a nuclear exchange before 2010. I was never happier to be wrong.

Masks let us behave differently.

In any case, we also talked about the ideas of what goes on when people put on masks or make up in order to alter their appearance. Maked people begin to alter their behaviour and quite literally become someone else.

Finally we had a rather humourous discussion about voting for someone using the "Choir Boy's chant" from Lord of the Flies.

Monday March 7 update

So, yeah. I'm doing this late. Sorry. This was a weird and wild day.

Gramophone

For Period One, we started with taking up questions 1 and 2 as a "class". We then read until the scary voice was played on the gramophone and accused every person present of being a murderer. The name of the LP that was played was "Swan Song", and I had a brief discussion of that with the class. The voice's accusations were getting some people interested, let me tell you. We were then assigned questions 4 and 6 for homework.

Period Three we read until the middle of Chapter Four. I have to admit, this class is going rather nicely. I will take up the questions for Chapter two tomorrow. Should be a fun time.

Thursday March 3 update

Period one .... what to say about that period one class. Hey, we made ourselves to class and I'm pretty happy about that. We read to page 39. And got questions 1,2 and 3 assigned for tomorrow. Or Monday. Let's make it Monday, man. See the wall or the right-hand side of this blog for details on the due dates for this unit.

In any case, keep coming to class and we will get through "The Boring Introduction Parts" together.

Period Three ... we got through to the start of Chapter three and got the next set of questions. It's all good. We did some crawling through the bottom of YouTube and saw this while we did some work together as a group. Awesome.

Due dates for this unit were also posted today - see the white board for details ... or the right-hand side of the blog, too.

Tuesday March 1 update

right, Period one ... we had one person in, again. We worked on the vocabulary list and thought about cool stuff. I'm planning on moving forward with the reading of the book. You need to come to class if at all possible. It's a good book, really.

Period Three we read until about a third of the way into Chapter 2 of the novel. We got to the point in the book where the boys put together a big pile of wood and leaves for a fire and then discovered that they had no way of lighting the wood on fire.

And so we started to discuss a few things. I mentioned this app again. We also had some discussion of Les Stroud (who is a Facebook friend of mine, by the way) and this scene in the film Castaway:

Anyway, keep yourself in the loop. Red this blog. Pray for a snow day.

Monday Feb 29 update

First off, let me just say that I'm sorry that this is so late. Man, I was just out of my brain busy.

For my period One class ... we had no one in class that was up to date on everything, so I had the people in class play catch up on the work they missed or get reading the novel to where we left off in class.

For my period Three Class, I found this online:

We finished reading Chapter One of Lord of the Flies and we got the questions assigned too.

Wednesday and Thursday Feb 25th

I put thie fish back - keep feeding them!

oh my ... I got so involved in stuff yesterday I forgot to update this blog. Man, I will try and get better at this.

Wednesday was the last day for us working together on the PowerPoint Presentation assignment and the Task Three Piece of Writing assignment, too.

Right then, on Thursday during Period One, we started our new unit on the novel "And then there were none", by Agatha Christie. I haven't taught this novel in years and I'm really looking forward to reading it again. Should be excellent.

We read to page 11 in the book and got the unit outline, too. I'll have some helpful links for this novel up on the right side of the blog soon.

On Thursday for Period Three, we started the unit on William Golding's Lord of the Flies. I've read this novel a number of times over the last decade. This novel is like an onion to me, to be frank. I can see something in the novel and peel it away and another layer of meaning is there underneath.

We got to about halfway through the first chapter before we ran out of time in the class. I also ran into technology issues yesterday and could not print off the questions for the class for homework. Ah well, it's just something for us to work on together on Friday.

Not that this is curriculum related, but I also saw this tweeted out today too:

Monday and Tuesday this week

Monday and Tuesday we worked on getting the presentations together.

Tuesday I also collected Task One, the Journal. Number sign Awesome

I don't think anyone is finished everything yet, so keep reading, writing, thinking and creating!

Woo!

Update until Thursday Feb 18

Wednesday we read a story in the period three class and did a quick review in the Period One class.

Thursday we did a focus on "how to do powerpoint well for Chesser" day.

This is a good review of the day ... one which I have to admit, even though it is about PowerPoint, is actually pretty darn funny. The guy that I showed in Period Three, which no one really liked, is here.

I had fun. I hope you did, too.

This Task Two thing is due on March 2.

Review of Tues Feb 16th

First of all, some good news. Well, it's good news for me, anyways.

Secondly, it was a snowy day and I missed a few students, or they came after period one. It's ok, that's just how days like today work.

We did nothing "new", as in no new stories. We did take a good long look at the Presentation/ Task Two that are due March 2.

That's right, I have to post the due dates for stuff here. Ok, I will do that tonight.

Yes, you have to put together a power point presentation for me. Yes, it's due March 2. The topics from which you have to pick are on the right side of the webpage here.

If you are reading this on a mobile device, you have to use the "Web Version" of this page, not the "Mobile Verison" to see the links. You get that by scrolling all the way to the bottom and clicking on "See Web Version". Not as pretty, but it's what you need to do.

I'd pick two or three links as choices, as there are no "repeats" allowed - you can't pick the same link as someone else. Yes, you have to tell me/email me what your choices are. I'll let you know which ones are still available.

Ok, be safe, get to class.

Feb 9-12 review

This was a series of bouncy days. A visual for these days would be

I'm hoping that we can continue bouncing like that  ... it's awesome, isn't it?

So, today we got caught up on work for our Journal Task for the Short Story unit. We also chatted about the links on the right-hand side of the webpage - those are the topics for the presentations we have to put together.

Poke around, click on them and read, watch and experience them. I think I got a wide perspective, so if there is something you'd like me to include, let me know.

I will have the due dates for Unit One posted here, too.

Feb 8 review

That was a nice start to a new semester.

I'm hoping that you are doing well, too.

We talked a little bit about planning the semester - we decided on two things,  The first thing was the novel, which we said we'd do Lord of the Flies. The second thing was the drama unit ... we are going to do Macbeth.... I mean the Scottish play...

I'll make sure that there are plenty of resources for those units and the current Short Pieces unit, too.

Welcome!

This will be a part of the online experience for the Period three course at Thomas Merton.

Should be a real trip.

Lots of extras and help will be posted here during the semester.

Keep in touch!