I'm 0 for 2

So we start a new semester--fresh start, full of promise!--and I'm so busy reviewing grades and entering exams that I haven't posted until today. My apologies ... and welcome to the new semester.

ELA 11
Students have been in the computer lab since Monday; our last day is Thursday. In that time they have (hopefully!) typed a Works Cited draft, which I then looked over for areas to improve. I'm available all hour for questions and help with this picky aspect of the research paper. By class time Friday, students should have their entire essay draft typed so that they can begin to mark for revision. The actual due date for the essay isn't until Thursday Feb. 3--and, of course, these will be shared on Google docs.

Students in my 1st and 2nd hour have worked diligently; my 6th hour has not been a behavior problem, but more than just a few students are playing computer games in class. Because this is really practice for most of the writing kids will do in college, even the higher level students should be working diligently to improve their expository writing for college.

AP LANGUAGE
Monday we began one of Shakespeare's great plays, Henry V--an inspiring play about patriotism, the power of personal change, and the burdens of leadership. Students will be keeping notes and personal responses in a Learning Log for this unit.

YEARBOOK
Several staffers "retired" from yearbook and we gained a few new students--because of this, teams were reassembled to even things out. For the next three weeks, our deadline will be getting the panel pages created. This short deadline will allow us to have over half the yearbook completed!