Last Day!!!

It's been a very fast year . . . for me at least.  I have to commend all of our students on how well they adjusted to the numerous changes this year.  Last summer, I was unsure of how the year would go, but I was very pleasantly surprised.  Nice work, students!

I hope every one of you enjoyed my classes and learned a lot of things.  Also, I hope that every one of you has an excellent summer.  I'll see most of you back here in the fall, but if I see you over the summer, don't be afraid to say "Hi!"

As far as this blog goes, I'll probably give it a rest for the summer, with an occasional post here or there . . . maybe.  I'll be running with it again in the fall, though.

See you around!

Summer Plans

Grades are finished, and most of my end-of-the-year duties are completed.  Looking forward to the summer, I have several items on my agenda, just in case anyone is interested.

First, every weekday morning is scheduled for garden work, exercise, and driving practice with a certain teen driver.  Afternoons will be divided between reading and preparing for the next school year.  I plan to make detailed lesson plans for each lesson in each course I teach and align them with the new Common Core Standards.  That will be a huge task, but I need to do it.

I'll be teaching a night class at Lake Land's Kluthe Center campus in Effingham this summer.  If you haven't taken SPE 111 Intro to Speech, you should sign up!  In August, I'll be back to my long-standing assignment as Junior High Summer School teacher. 

Somewhere in there, I'll work in time for watching some Cardinals baseball and maybe some fishing.  Thanks to my brother-in-law, we have behind home plate tickets to see the Cards play the Royals in Kansas City in late June.  I hope they're not in a slump!

So, as you can see, I have a lot of plans.  Will I accomplish them all?  I guess only time will tell.

The Good Life

I figured out the "video upload glitch," so here we go!  I proudly present to you the 1950's style sitcom which my students in Fall semester Media Studies created.  We did this project as a prelude to our studies of the TV industry, and the kids got first hand experience in every aspect of TV production.  I gave them a very basic framework and turned them loose!  Of course, I was acting as Executive Producer, watching over and guiding every aspect, but the work was all theirs.  Kyle designed the virtual set consisting of several rooms in the characters' houses while the writing team cranked out the script.  The actors and actresses worked really hard to learn their lines, acquire various props and costumes, and rise to the occasion in front of the camera.  The editing team then went to great pains to replace the green screen with Kyle's virtual sets and then arrange the various clips into a finished product.

Due to standard classroom lighting, which is not anywhere near proper studio lighting, the chroma key (green screen) software displays some digital artifacts or visual noise.  The uneven lighting in the room caused bright and dark spots on the green screen which were too much for the software to handle appropriately.  So, even though their are some imperfections, they arose from situations beyond our control.

I am very pleased with the finished video and am even more pleased with the work ethic and enthusiasm displayed by every single student involved in the project.  Nice work!

Officer Elections Class of 2015

Last week, Mrs. Johnson and I held officer elections for next year's sophomores.  The results, you ask?

Morgan Partlow---President
Maddie Gibson---Vice President
Casi Blazich---Secretary
Kelsey Beard---Treasurer
Jordan Probst---Student Council Rep
Olivia Ott---Student Council Rep

Congratulations! 

Exam Day 1

Halfway through the day . . . I enjoyed the donuts, but I'm not enjoying all of the grading!  After a short break to eat a hasty, not tasty, lunch of some peanut butter crackers, I'll get back to it. 

Exams and a video in the works . . .

Today is the final day of exam review.  Each class is having self-guided review in study halls in Room 14 today.  Odd numbered classes, 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th hours, will have exams tomorrow, and even numbered classes, 2nd, 4th, and 6th hours, will have exams on Wednesday. 

Well, three hours have elapsed since I typed the preceding paragraph.  I've been trying to upload the video of the 1950's style sitcom created by students in Fall semester Media Studies, but I have not been successful.  I'll keep working on it, though, and will post it as soon as I figure out the glitch.

Exam Review and Unexpected Visitor

Today is the second day of Exam review in Room 14.  Yesterday, we reviewed third quarter material, and today we are reviewing fourth quarter material.  On Monday we will have a very quiet study hall, and students will be self-directing their studies.

Kellie K. made an unexpected visit to my room this morning, and we negotiated a deal.  She said that she'd read my blog if I included her in it.  So, that's what I'm doing.  Hi Kellie!  :)

I also learned how to insert pictures in my posts.  Chuck Norris appears solely for the amusement of Reed H. who presented me with his own award for "Most Chuck Norris references Made This Year."

The Dunk Tank

Three cheers for the PBIS team and the year-end celebration they planned for yesterday.  Several students finally put their "Chuck The Ball" skills to use when I was in the dunk tank.  Of course, Mrs. Eddinger had to help them out since they weren't throwing hard enough, so they've got some work to do on their throwing skills before next year.

Mr. Poggendorf and I supervised the lawn games . . . washers, bean bag toss, etc.  I got a bit of a sunburn, but we really had a good time, especially since we dominated all competition at washers. 

What a fun afternoon and a great way to wrap up the school year!  Of course, we have to buckle down to get through reviews and final exams, but the celebration was a refreshing break from routine . . . especially since that water was so cold!

Seniors' Last Day and Art Club

It's been a long road for the graduating seniors, but they're near the end; today is their last class day.  Good luck with all of your future plans, and I'll see you at graduation!

Yesterday afternoon, Art Club had its year-end activities.  First, we assembled in Mrs. Schafer's room and had cupcake wars.  Billie, Gabe, and Kierstan won first place with their "cemetary" cupcakes; Alex, Hailey, and Jared came in second with their multi-colored cupcakes, and Reed, David, and Jordan finished third with their giant "space monster" cupcake.  Ms. Curia and I were the official judges.  After the cupcakes, we adjourned to the Art room where Ms. Curia led the students in tie-dying shirts and socks.

Winding Down

The students in English II are taking their last test today, not counting the final exam, while the students in English IA are reading their last short story of the year.  The seniors in Intro to Speech are doing their final speeches, and I'm as busy as a bee trying to keep up with all of the grading. 

Tomorrow should be an interesting day with the shortened class schedule and PBIS year-end celebration in the afternoon.  We'll see if the kids have honed their "chuck the ball" skills . . .

Time Travel

Last week, the students in English 1A read the Ray Bradbury short story "A Sound of Thunder."  This is one of my favorite stories, and it always reminds me of our family misadventure on the dinosaur ride at Disney several years ago.  I don't know why they have such a scary ride at the world's happiest place!

Anyway, the students went to the computer lab today to research time travel, a major plot element in Bradbury's story.  They found a lot of interesting information from Einstein, Steven Hawking, etc.  Wouldn't it be incredible if the scientific theories came true someday?

Awards Night

The annual Academic Awards Banquet was held last night, and it's always been one of my favorite events here at NHS.  In addition to the desert buffet, I really enjoy seeing the students recognized for their hard work and success.  Congratulations to you all!

English IA

In addition to being one of the sponsors for the Class of 2015, with Mrs. Johnson, I also teach all of them in this course.  We started the year by studying a pamphlet entitled "How To Make The Most Out Of High School."  After that, we began studying various aspects of grammar.  Former students would recognize this section of the course as the same content I used to teach in "Usage" class.  We focus on learning the parts of the sentence, writing complete sentences, improving those complete sentences, and ultimately writing better paragraphs by using all of that knowledge.  Along the way, students write several paragraphs and receive one-on-one guidance through the process.

For this course, students present a Personal Experience speech. I decided to increase their public speaking experience by adding a second speech this year, "My Favorite Holiday."  These speeches took place right before Thanksgiving.

Second semester began with William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.  As always, many students complain and grumble at the beginning, but just a few short weeks later, and most them sing a different tune!  There are still some who don't like the play, and that's fine; at least they've read it and formed a legitimate opinion.  After finishing the play and the test, we enjoyed watching the classic movie version and then contrasted the movie and the written play.

For fourth quarter, we've been reading short stories.  We do a different story each week and take a test after every third story.  A big project for this section of the course is the students' opportunity to attempt writing their own short stories.  It's taking me a long time to read and grade 58 stories, but I'm plugging away at it and enjoying their work.  I like this project so much, that I even did it with them this year, writing and sharing my own short story.  Be sure to ask to see your student's story after I've returned it.

English II

The sophomores started the year by reading one of my all-time favorite novels, Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird.  After finishing the novel and taking the test, the students then watched the movie, one of the best productions to ever come out of Hollywood.  To conclude this lengthy unit, I instructed them on writing formal essays, focusing on a contrast between the novel and the movie.

It was around this time that an EIU practicum student, Ms. Kelly Knox, began working with me and the students in 1st hour.  Her first unit was another essay which asked the students to identify issues and offers suggestions for school improvement.

Next, we moved into the How To Speech unit followed by Ms. Knox's Poetry unit. She did such an excellent job, I implemented the unit into 6th hour class and have permanently added it into my course plan.  To wrap up this unit, and first semester, students were tested and then given the opportunity to display their poetry knowledge by creating posters analyzing song lyrics of their choice.

Second semester began with William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.  After completing the reading and the test, students experimented with writing in different genres, something I learned in my EIU night class this semester.  The task was to announce Caesar's assassination in at least three different genres.  They were allowed to choose from text, facebook status update, email, tweet, newspaper article, tv news report, personal letter, telephone call, diary/journal entry, encyclopedia/Wikipedia entry.  They did such an incredible job that I had to take samples to show my professor, Dr. Binns!  She was as impressed as I was, so we shared the students' work with my fellow students.

Finally, we've been spending 4th quarter by reading various short stories.  After every three stories, we have a test, and the last one is coming up next week.

Intro to Speech

I've taught two sections of a dual-credit course this year.  Students enrolled in SPE 111 Introduction to Speech and received NHS English credit as well as three semester hours of credit at Lake Land College.  The content is exactly the same as when I teach the course as an adjunct faculty member at LLC's Kluthe Center in Effingham.

Students delivered three speeches, "Significant Other," about a person of their choosing, along with informative and persuasive speeches on topics of their choosing.  Since the NHS semester is longer than that of LLC, I add extra content.  Fall semester students completed research papers and created multimedia presentations about Internet Safety, while Spring semester students begin work on a Selling speech today.