Summer Reading

It seems like the only time I get to truly enjoy reading books is over the summer when I have much more free time on my hands.  (If you guys only knew how much time you take from my life! It's not just 8:30-4:00, I promise!)  Anyway, I'm downloading some books onto my Kindle, and I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for me. I like to keep up on what you are reading, too.

Just so you know:  yes, I'm a Harry Potter lover; I read the Twilight series, too, but that was my honestly weird obsession with vampires... the writing... well, it was pretty lackluster. (I'm being polite.)

Right now, I'm feeling completely nostalgic, and I'm reading the Sweet Valley Confidential by Francine Pascal which is the "adult" follow-up to the Sweet Valley High series which I started reading way back when. It's a light, easy read, and I'm not expecting much out of it.  I love, love, love Jodi Picoult (Sing You Home already on Kindle). I also enjoy historical fiction: The Red Tent and The Other Boleyn Girl being my favorites.  I'm kinda eclectic in my taste for novels. I like all the genres as long as the author can hook me.

I just downloaded:  This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper and Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.  I'm now searching the NY Times Bestsellers list and also the top Kindle list.

I am truly interested in what you guys have read and enjoyed.  Let me know!

EOY - Look to the Future

What are you looking forward to next year?  What do you imagine high school will be like?

EOY - Feedback Part Two

For this, comment on what you liked this year. This is harder.... Do you have a favorite lesson?  I know, it's all about the Caught'yas and punctuation formulas, right? 

EOY - Feedback

Here is an opportunity to give me feedback (constructive criticism). What would you change about this year? How can I improve?

No More Teachers, No More Books........

I know that at this point all anyone can think about is SUMMER, but I'm going to attempt to start a conversation about the exact opposite: school. While looking for summer voulenteering opportunities, I stumbled across the Sunset Sudbury School. As I explored the website (http://sunsetsudbury.org/) I discovered that this was no ordinary program. At Sunset Sudbury there is no curriculum. I know it's unbelievable, but it's true. This school lets its students do whatever they like, and I do mean ANYTHING. If the students want to play video games all day, that's what they do. If they want to run around all day, that's what they do. Of course this means if they want to study rocket science or find the cure for cancer, they could do this too. The school's theory is that "students become inspired and passionate about learning. Because they have chosen their activities, they are genuinely interested and motivated to pursue an interest to its completion (as determined by them alone)." They say skills in reading, writing, math, etc. will "develop organically, not necessarily through a planned process." In addition, students are not separated into grade levels, they can come and go as they want as long as they're in school for five hours every day, there are no grades, standardized testing is not mandatory, and all rules "for day-to-day life" are voted on by the entire school, students included. According to the website, students can and do go to college. What do you think about this kind of education compared with how we are being taught? How do you think you would fair in this type of environment?

Lauren Goboff
Period 3

Judge a Book's Cover

During the course of my life, I have heard many times, "Don't judge a book by it's cover". Thinking back on this common piece of advice, I wonder if this is really a wise saying. the more I think about it, the more I am convinced it is not. Your thoughts?

Francisco Rivera

(If anyone does not know my period number, I'm sure you can find it someplace else on the blog, but I shall reiterate, pd. 5)

New Scrabble Words? Say it ain't so! Or maybe this is a good thang...

By now most of you are well aware of my Scrabble obsession.  I'm not sure how I feel about the expansion to acceptable Scrabble words:  Scrabble adds 'thang,' 'grrl' and 'Facebook' as official words (click the link to read the entire article).  On the one hand, language is constantly evolving (thou certainly concurs), so shouldn't the game reflect these changes? However, are we becoming too lax in the rules if we allow every new slang term and seemingly random two-letter words enter the Scrabble lexicon?