Banned Websites?

Each year, I "celebrate" Banned Books Week by pointing out all the banned books which sit on my classroom bookshelves, discussing the ones which you have already read, and the classics you will be assigned to read.  Therefore, when I came across this article in The New York Times:  A Call for Opening Up Web Access at Schools, I was intrigued.  Is the practice of blocking certain websites in schools synonymous with banning books?  


The rules for commenting on this post:
Read the article first. Find some interesting sentence or section of the article and format your comment around that part.  Quote it!  Read comments posted by previous students.  Then, either comment on something original or refer to another student's comment and add your own spin.  Please do not repeat the same mantra over and over again.

Goals

Okay, so now that the school year is underway, I’m sure that a few of you have thought about what you want to accomplish this year. Looking at my life, I’ve started to set goals for myself as I believe all of you should do. What I want to know is this:

• Do you have any goals?
• Why are they important to you?
• Are these goals that you want to complete in one month? One year? Five years? Are your goals something that you want to continue to work on forever? (Eating healthy, helping others, etc.)

Your goals don’t have to be something like “get good grades.” (That should be a priority for all of you.) They could deal with family, school, social stuff, competitions, health, ANYTHING. For example, my two goals are to make the math team for my grade and place individually in the top 25 in state, and to read through the entire list of books on teenreads.com (around 400 books) by the end of my sophomore year.

The key to finding out what your goals should be is to think about what you want out of your life. Once you do that, ideas should come pouring out. Afterwards, it’s all a matter of figuring out how you’ll achieve what you want and getting to work!

Caterina Golner

Period 2 (Class of 2011) :)

My Top Ten List (Again)

Last year, I posted this list of Top Ten:


My Top Ten Ways to Procrastinate Grading Papers
1. Playing Scrabble
2. Reading
3. Watching mindless TV
4. Playing with my kids
5. Cooking
6. Finding interesting articles to blog
7. On-line shopping
8. Texting
9. Facebook
10.  Running (I hate running....)


At the request of a previous student (thanks, Cat), I'm posting a new Top Ten list.   Apparently, you are all boring and falling into the crazy pattern of posting comments that fall into the category of "This is what I think Mrs. Powers wants me to write." Yuck.  (And, btw, I do not want you to DO that - ever. Be who you are!)


Here is my new list......


My Top Ten TV Shows 
Bet you all thought I would list Best Books  or  Grammar Mistakes! Oh, I have a life outside of English; I swear I do. I'll save those two top ten lists for another day.  For now, I will let you in on my dirty little secret addiction: TV.  Here is a list of the shows I never miss!!


1. Dexter
2. Criminal Minds
3. Flipping Out
4. Any Housewives of... (but especially New Jersey)
5. Curb Your Enthusiasm
6. Modern Family
7. How I Met Your Mother
8. Gray's Anatomy
9. In the Middle (edit) GLEE (HOW did I forget Glee?)
10. True Blood and Vampire Diaries (both vampire shows so I'm allowed to give them a tie)


Now, before you comment, here is the biggest rule:  You can comment on my list of Top Ten or another student's list, but you can NOT repeat the same topic.  In other words, no more Top Ten TV Shows lists. Come up with your ideas!!!


For example, you can say, "Hey, Mrs. Powers, I love watching Vampire Diaries, too! My list is the Top Ten _____"  <---  then you fill in the blank!  :-)


Let's have fun and show those personalities!

A Reason to Visit the Principal

I just read this article Go to the Office!

It's really an interesting thought.

How often have you gone to the office to meet with principal?

Who wants to?

Read the article.

Do something fantastic.  I will send you to Dr. Kaplan and Mr. Segarra.

Wow. Well, THAT's annoying....

Where to begin?  I suppose with the most annoying question which can ever be uttered in my classroom.  One I was asked too many times today, "Is this for a grade?"

No, kids, no it's not for a grade... not today anyway. Sometimes I ask you to complete an assignment simply for knowledge. Yes, as insane as that may sound, sometimes, I just want you to learn something without having to assign a numerical value to it.  Honestly, there is information I want you to know which just does not justify a number.  That information is going to help you later. That information is valuable.  And eventually, that information, is going to help you earn a "grade." Your eventual grade will be exactly what you gained from the assignment that was "not for a grade." Today.

Seriously. I hope that question is never uttered in my classroom again this year. Seriously.

Another unquestionably annoying occurrence encountered too many times today was the misuse of collaborative learning time.  I defined it last week.  I asked you to define today.  Yet, time and time again, the rules were not followed.  It's exhausting really.  The entire purpose for collaborative learning is to .... collaborate! Work together to gain knowledge and insight into a situation.  Work. Together.

I'm done ranting for now. What do you guys have to add? What is your perspective into these situations?

Welcome New Writers!

Blogs are an amazing way to practice writing to share.  Participating in our class blog is a great way to exchange ideas and practice communicating digitally.

One of the greatest obstacles facing young writers is learning how to write without plagiarizing the work of other writers. In this post, I would love to share a great article from The New York Times about plagiarism, Are You Part of ‘Generation Plagiarism’? Read the article and share your thoughts.

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!