How Do We Know What We Know?

I am proud of the efforts you made with Macbeth! You stayed very focused and involved and, from the discussions I overheard while doing your projects, you really did get it. We are moving on now into research, which is a very important skill, no matter what field you go into. You will need knowledge and information no matter what you spend your life doing, and it is important to know how and where to get that information. This is a giant piece of senior English, and as I explained last week, it's a lot of grades, so it is important that you stay on track and finish strong!

Monday, 3/12
Define Unit 4
Finish Satire
SR MEM BK CHPT 7 DUE

Tuesday, 3/13
Begin research with Mrs. Swoope

Wednesday, 3/14
Back with me for outside reading
BRING YOUR COMPLETED BOOK ON THIS DAY

Thursday, 3/15
Unit 3 Test
(Over the Sonnets, Carpe Diem, Metaphysical Writing, Macbeth, and Satire)

Friday, 3/16
Vocab quiz
More research with Mrs. Swoope

Macbeth in our own Hands

No cute picture this week, for the six of you who look at the blog. I am so behind, it's not even funny. No time to search for pics. :) This is the end of our Macbeth unit... some creative projects, a memorization... good times, good times. Please remember if I have talked to you about your grade and you owe me something to GET IT TURNED IN THIS WEEK.

Monday, 3/5
Macbeth Catch up
SR MEM BOOK CHPT 6 DUE

Tuesday, 3/6
Macbeth Video/projects

Wednesday, 3/7
Macbeth Video/Projects

Thursday, 3/8
Macbeth memorization

Friday, 3/9
Satire, Swift
JOURNALS DUE

"Macbeth, Macbeth, Beware MacDuff!"

We will come to the end of the Scottish play this week! I hope you have enjoyed it or at least been interested in it. I just can't believe how fast the months are flying by and that graduation will be here before we all know it!

Monday, 2/27
Define Vocab Unit 3
Macbeth Act V
SR MEM BK 5 DUE

Tuesday, 2/28
Vocab presentations for 1st
Finish Act V

Wednesday, 2/29
Macbeth activity
(Sub)

Thursday, 3/1
Macbeth videos, work

Friday, 3/2
Vocab Quiz 3
Macbeth work

"Double, Double, Toil and Trouble"

I really do hope you are getting into Macbeth... I love it OHSOMUCH. :)

Tuesday, 2/21
Finish Act II, start Act III

Wednesday, 2/22
Finish Act III
Trace a word through Act III

Thursday, 2/23
Macbeth Act IV

Friday, 2/24
Macbeth, Act IV
Activity

Snuggle Up with a Good Book...

Today is cold. C.O.L.D. Cold outside, and cold in our school. So, after we did an abbreviated version of our intro to Macbeth, I decided to introduce the outside reading project a few days early. (After all, we may have a snow day tomorrow and they might need some reading material...) ;) I started with a giant stack of my favorite books, and did a little talk about each one. I know that when I talk about my favorite books, I often sound like a dork. I have accepted that. I love my books like I love my friends, and I LOVE to see kids get excited about them too. After I finished, I asked which ones wanted book I had discussed, and many of them did, which made me very happy. We then went down to the library for the others to find a book and for everyone to snuggle into the couches and read for the rest of the period. It was just a day for that... a day to snuggle up with a good book!

Three Day Week, Anyone?

Who's EXCITED!?!?!?!?! How about a FIVE.DAY.WEEKEND... yes, please! And perhaps most exciting, we will be starting MACBETH this week!!! I genuinely hope you love it ohsomuch.

Monday, 2/13
Macbeth Introduction and notes
DUE: Senior Memory Book 4

Tuesday, 2/14
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!
Macbeth Act I

Wednesday, 2/15
Activity
Act II

Seizing the Day!

Well, though it is February in Tennessee, it doesn't exactly feel like it. We got to sit outside and do our Carpe Diem poetry, which was quite nice. After that, there were some very clever poems written after Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and Sir Walter Raleigh's "The Nymph's Reply". Here are a few:

Nymph's Reply
by Varya
Oh my shepherd, oh my love
You are mine that's sent from up above
I see that you're calling me
And without a doubt I will come with thee
I would love to sit with you upon the rocks
And see all the shepherds feed their flocks
I will lie with you on that bed of roses
and smell these lovely thousand posies.
I will wear that gown that's made of wool
which from your pretty lambs you pull.
And we will live and stay together
for every month, through every weather.

Shepherd's Reply
by JC
But why do you say this, I don't understand
I told you I'd make you a dress and more.
Why would you rather stay where you are so poor?
We would be living the life together.
If you don't like roses, we can lay on feathers.
Tell me what you want and I'll give it to you.
No matter what it is, I'll even make the grass blue.
There is no reason for you not to come here,
To be with me for eternity, don't listen to your peer.
I ask you one last time, come be with me.
For when you come I take out the good glasses to have a cup of tea.
So please, o please, come live on my land.

Shepherd's Reply
by Heath
I was wrong to think you're my love
No longer will I offer you anything
No valleys, groves, hills, fields,
Woods, nor steepy mountain yields.
Never will we sit upon the rocks
And watch the shepherd tend his flock
Nor sleep on beds of roses
and certainly no buckles of pure gold.
I wish you luck in finding your love
One that will give all that I would.
I will delight in each day of not seeing you
Do not come live with me, you are not my love.

My Own Shakespeares....

Here are a few really creative sonnets...

Remembrance of Love
By Kayla
I think about you day by day
Even though you're gone, I know you're still here.
As my knees fall to the ground, I pray
Please God, keep her with me for I know she's near.

I have a piece of you still left with me.
You always cone back in my dreams.
I know you're in a better place now,
Someday I know we'll meet up somehow.

I wept and cried when you died
Because there was no reason why
Your son is still here with me
I will watch over him for you, and you only.

Till this day I cry and pray
But I know somehow we'll meet up someday.

Sonnet by Holden
A sonnet, in classical form a charm
Soft as sundown, it wakens spirit love
Calling you, wanting you, it takes your arm
And whisks you away on wings of a dove.

There it holds you with it's perfect meter
Lullabying with its iambic tone.
Nothing does compare or could be sweeter
Than the dance of love as poets have shown.

So take my hand and let us dance today
With these magic words penned so long ago.
We shall taste them, taste then without delay,
So succulent it makes our soul to glow.

A sonnet, lovingly given... Hold tight
As dawn's first light makes your spirit take flight.

Music
By Alexis
Sitting in here with headphones in my ears,
I go from dead silent to alive and fantastic
Feeling the vibrations of the beat with no fears
In a zone of music, I feel captured by magic.

This magic is real, and that is no lie
When I listen to the music with that clean open sound
It paints me a picture of cloud free sky
And brings back many memories, to the past I am bound

But the magic doesn't always work the same way
I see blue skies, but you'll see something else
So these magical emotions, all I can say
Is they are not in the music, they are in myself

So as my mind is an endless page of white
I am painting a picture in the silent night.

Carpe... Carpe Diem!

Can I first say how excited I am that grades are what they are at this point in the semester?!?!?! Talk about some people getting some stuff DONE... you guys are on fire!!! This week is going to cover a few of the smaller parts in Unit 3, The Influences of Love and Power. Then next week-- MACBETH!!!

Monday, 2/6
Wrap up Intro to Unit with Petrarch
Sonnet notes
Sonnet analysis in groups
H/W- Write a sonnet
SR MEMORY BK CHPT 3 DUE

Tuesday, 2/7
Present sonnet group work
Carpe Diem poetry
SONNET DUE

Wednesday, 2/8
Watch "Dead Poet's Society"

Thursday, 2/9
Finish "DPS"
Writing activity

Friday, 2/10
John Donne/Metaphysical Poetry
JOURNALS DUE

GRENDEL!!!

I am a little late posting this, but we have all enjoyed having the board display each student's interpretation of Grendel. I love how we all read the same work, but all of us had a different idea of what he looked like. The other really interesting thing is to see how other monster ideas from our own culture played into our views...