ah, the insanity of english...

Just a few thoughts to occupy your mind while awaiting the foreclosure notice from our Chinese overlords...

Grammar Lunacy (three 100% rules!)

1. personal pronouns never have apostrophes!!!
2. periods and commas always come before quotation marks!!!
3. semi-colons always come after quotation marks!!!
   

Conferences

Several folks are falling behind in the conference schedule. Check the latest update; if your conference is not italicized...why not???

Homework

CW: Bring an objet d'art tomorrow!
E2H: We are back in Thoreau-ville; have you been online yet?
E3H: We will be in Ch. 5 tomorrow. Be ready to discuss any and all poems in that chapter. Also read the first several pages of Ch 6 (through "The Sick Rose") and add these to your list.

and now, for your entertainment...



and, as a public service...



j: The List: #7 + #11 left
music: Diamond on Your Hand--Antje Duvekot

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holding my breath

Look! My text turned blue!

Well, we're back at it. Another week, another exciting day at LFHS. Not much to write about on a RW day, so I guess I'll get right down to business...

Tomorrow is WW in E2/3H; bring a new color-coded, color-keyed draft for conferencing.

CW: See Friday's blog for your HW assignment. It has not changed. I wonder why...

Did you miss the debate? Here it is in one minute:



j: weird world records
music: the man who sold the world--nirvana

kt

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it's my weekend and i'll blog if i want to

A few thoughts while awaiting the debate (or not) and the Collapse of Civilization As We Know It (copyright pending):

Good work today, classes. In CW, the discussions were generally strong for the first time we tried this approach to things. I hope you guys are able to find some interesting elements of these pieces over the weekend. In E3H, you were all over that Hound poem. And in E2H, the reading is solid and enthusiastic (though I do wish some of you were taking notes...but maybe I'll see online that you don't really have to?).

Here is today's HW:

CW:

Online, post responses and feedback to the metapoem pieces. Revise the childhood memory pieces (new stuff color-coded) and repost. And begin discussing some of the pieces from the YI editions you took home with you. (This latter will be ongoing; a couple of pieces for now should be fine.

E3H:

Online, post responses and feedback to the metapoem pieces. You'll see a lot of pieces; you don't need to respond to all of them, but try to offer meaningful feedback (w/direct quotation) to at least 10-12. In selecting the ones to review, please pay attention to those who have had the fewest replies. Also, read Chapter 5 of Sound and Sense.

E2H:

Online, in the new thread under E/T, discuss the play as it relates to your understanding of Thoreau, Emerson, and transcendentalism. What lines did you recognize from the quote packet? What do you expect to happen?

OK, here's something to...um...enjoy. (?)



:-)

j: pajama party
music: it's my party--leslie gore
silly 70's: playground in my mind--clint holmes

--kt

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kermit says...

Ya'll have a sense of humor, right? Even the 'publicans? Cause look what I just found:

:-)

HW:

E3H; Compose a metapoem and post it online by 9PM Friday. Bring Sound and Sense tomorrow.

E2H: We're doing The Night Thoreau Went to Jail; tonight is RW/WW work.

CW: see yesterday :-)

j: standing beneath a rainbow
music: the rainbow connection--kermit the frog

--kt

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alone again (naturally) at 5:30

Sitting here after the forensicators have gone, I finally have a moment to type up today's blog. What is there to say about today? It was a day like any other (hump) day, I suppose. No better, no worse. We had decent enough workshops, decent enough conferences. I hope I imparted some decent enough lessons about dialogue and/or poetry depending on where you were sitting.

All in all, a decent enough day, I guess.

[sigh]

I need a pick-me-up.



Yep, that did it!

On to the homework!

You out there, in E2/3H: write something flippin' brilliant! Be creative in a sort of genius-like way, leaving stardust in your wake as you sail across the universe.

As to you CW-ers: well, your assignment is a bit more focused...

1. be sure you have posted your childhood memory pieces.
2. begin providing each other feedback on those pieces in the online forum
3. compose a metapoem of your very own; if you need a refresher course click here or visit the E3H page
4. bring said poem to class tomorrow for P2P's

j: duet for one
music: alone again (naturally)--gilbert o'sullivan

kt

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happy tuesday

Three birthdays today! Wow! I can't even remember the last time I had three in one day...and, as Eric L reminded me, Springsteen, too...

:-)

It's WW day tomorrow! Everyone be sure to have a significant new draft (color coded if it's a revision) for a P2P conference.

and to my birthday people...



j: The List (20 topics for future writing)
music: Cathedral Rock: Monsoon Afternoon--Alexander

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first day of fall

Ah, the start of a new season...

The colors of the leaves, the fragrance of pumpkin pie, the fact that we are another day closer to next summer....

Yep, that's about the whole of the list of positives...

Meanwhile, back at the old blog, we finished Friday's work in E2/3H and talked about childhood memories in CW.

HW:

CW: Compose a piece about a childhood memory and post it here.

E2/3H: RW tomorrow; WW Wednesday!

J: falling into fall
music: Falling Silent in the Dark--Catie Curtis

-kt

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seasons in a goldfish bowl

So, folks, don't forget:



:-)

Weekend HW:

CW:

1. Enhanced sensory experience--take a walk somewhere you know well for half an hour. Keep your mind firmly in the present moment, focusing on sensory information. Bring yourself back when you drift away. Then write about it immediately when you return home.
2. Bring in something from your own childhood on Monday.

E3H:

Go to the bulletin boards (bbs). Instructions for how to have literature discussions online can be found at the beginning of the Poetry board. You should go there early and return several times.

E2H:

Compose an essay in which you take any specific principle of Emerson or Thoreau and explore its relevance and connections to the 21st Century. A specific example, from today's class, is Thoreau's notion of Civil Disobedience, that a person who is "more right that his neighbors" is already a "majority of one," and that if the law violates that morality then "I say, break the law." We noted that Rosa Parks did just that and it led to the entire Civil Rights movement, which essentially changed the world. You may, in your essay, combine issues and quotes from our Transcendentalists, but I want you to cite very specific incidents in the modern world that have derived their influence from them. Your goal is to illustrate that the principles of Transcendentalism are alive today and integral to our lives in many ways. This essay should be somewhere between a page and two pages and may be emailed (word file .doc + embedded in email itself) or brought in on Monday.

Note that E3H and E2H will both be discussing literature on Monday. Workshops will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.

J: life in a goldfish bowl
music: little plastic castle--ani difranco
silly 70's song: seasons in the sun--terry jacks

kt

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left-handed atheist polar bears

Good conferences today!!! Nice work, everyone. Things seemed to go very well. I hope that this is what we can always expect when we have WW conferences.

As to HW...

E3H: Go to the E3H page and link to the "metapoems" page. Read the nine new poems on this page. What are they saying about poetry? (Yes, all of them are about poetry.) I want you especially to concentrate on the following poems:

If you sit in the white board row, focus especially on the two "Not Marble" poems.
If you sit in the row by the blank wall, focus especially on "Ars Poetica" and "Poetry."
If you sit in the bookcase row, focus especially on "The Juggler" and "Of Modern Poetry."
If you sit in the row by the stage, focus especially on "Examination" and "Oatmeal."

E2H: Go to the boards and review this week's Emerson/Thoreau discussions for tomorrow.

CW: we're in workshop again, mostly, tomorrow...I think...

J: born again atheists
music: Teen For God--Dar Williams

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nervous tics about leech brains

Leeches have 32 brains? Really? And exactly what Deep Thoughts do leeches think?

Water's fine today. Wet. As always. Yesterday was wet too. Pretty sure about that. Warm though. That much is good at least. I like warm. I'd like it better inside...I'm thirsty. Nothing to drink in how long? Did something come by yesterday? It was wet, I think. And warm. But I was thirsty. This sucks. No wait. I suck. Or I'm supposed to suck, anyway, and if I did I would not be so thirsty. Still wet. What's that? Cloudy. Something moving the water. Cool: a leg. Dinner time.

Anyway...

I hope that today's class was valuable. From the clarification of the WS to the all-class sample conferences, things felt pretty solid from my perspective (but I sometimes have a pretty skewed perspective).

The important things to keep in mind about conferences are:

• A conference requires dialogue
• You (the writer) control the conference
• The goal of the conference is to provide the creator of the piece concrete ideas for the next draft
• The writer is not the piece; the writer is the creator of the piece. The writer is the god of the piece, able to do with it as he or she will. Give the writer new ideas!
• Always be specific!
• Don't worry about grammar until later drafts (except for randomly changing tenses: note these every time)
• Authors: don't let the conference end before you get everything you need from it!

As a general rule, you should always have two copies of a current piece with you, in case we have time for in-class conferences.

Tomorrow: P2P confs and optional RW in 2/3H; P2P confs in CW.

J: nervous tics
music: A Nervous Tic of the Head to the Left--Andrew Bird

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blogging banjos

(What? You wanted a title that makes sense?)

So today began one on one teacher conferences in earnest, and I saw several of you for your first fifteen minutes of fame. Some very nice work, I must say! More to come...

In class, we barely got through the logistics; tomorrow we will tackle the hard part: how to have a meaningful conference. be ready to make comments that count!

HW tonight: Create a Workshop Summary of your very own. :-) To do so, follow this link and select "all"; then copy and paste to a Word file. Replace my text with your own, delete extra stuff, and save. That's all there is to it! A few pointers: Format is critical, so be sure that columns are straight (hanging indents rather than tabs), italics for titles, bold/color/HL for new information. Type new info in already formatted as you want it; when you print the WS, select All, click your chosen format (B/color/HL) to deselect it, and then save. Then (again) type new stuff in already formatted. Make 2-3 columns for journals. (You'll need a continuous section break ahead of the column change.)

E2H: Continue online discussion.

All classes: Wikicab/Wikigram.

J: banjos with attitude
music: No Place to Hide--Allison Kruas and Union Station

--kt

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rain? what rain?

As I write this, Ted Lilly is pitching in Milwaukee and has just finished the sixth inning. The Astros have yet to get a hit off of Cubs pitching in two games. Not too shabby.

Anyone doubting that something special is going on?

Today was a Reading Workshop day in E2H and E3H, but we did not do much reading because we spent a large portion of the day going over the Conference Schedule. Starting today, everyone has a weekly (CW) or bi-weekly (everyone else) conference with me. But remember: this is not enough. You won't even reach minimums with these. They are a start and a guarantee, nothing more. You'll need to arrange additional conferences as your pieces develop.

Tomorrow is Writing Workshop in all classes. Bring two copies of a new significant draft. And don't forget your conferences!

J: Big Z and the no-no
music: Oh No--Grey Eye Glances

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first weekend!

Well, it seems that we have made it through our first week. :-) The new school looks great and works better, and it's nice to be here (though it's even nicer to be 1/40 of the way back to summer break!).

Here is something I have forgotten to tell you all about journals:

At the top of each journal entry, you should include three pieces of information: the date on which it was written, the location of the writing, and a title for the entry (which may or may not be the same as the prompt for the entry). You might also choose to include a fourth piece of information: the type of entry it is. (Is it a poem? a story starter? a rant? a character sketch? a word picture? random silliness? a list? something else that you define for yourself?) You will need a record of all of this information, in summary form, as evidence of how you use your journal; it's easiest if the information is attached to each entry.

Go back to this week's entries and label them accordingly.

HW for everyone: Sign up for the bulletin board; play on the bulletin board (bbs) with the wikigram and other open boards...

Monday is RW for E3H and E2H!

Note: I've been told that the calendar is still not working. Therefore I dropped it in favor of the Google version below, which you do not need to sign up for.

E3H: Today we collected the first essay. Nothing like that due over the weekend. Bring a RW book on Monday. For Tuesday, bring two copies of your first WW piece: a frozen moment from a significant event of your summer. Be wary of using superlatives to describe it. Focus on nouns and verbs.

E2H: On the bulletin board (bbs) go to the Emerson/Thoreau boards and post in at least three of the boards there. In each of your posts, you should make reference to specific statements from the essays in question and/or the posts you are replying to. Posting is analysis, but it is informal; you do not need to worry about things like organization or development as you would with a paper. Rather, this is writing to learn. As to the length of a post...well, I'd be lying if I said it did not count at all, but it is far less important than the quality of what the post says. A solid paragraph (as we defined it earlier this week) makes a good post.

In each board you enter, get involved in the discussion. Read others' posts. Revisit the board later and respond to what people have been saying. Posting takes some getting used to, but it is an ongoing activity that can really enhance our in-class discussions and our understanding of the literature.

CW: Free draft over the weekend: anything your heart desires! I'm concerned about those of you who are falling behind...bad idea!

J: how to practice for a weekend
music: Edgar the Party Man--John Gorka

kt

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calendar

I've dumped the majig calendar entirely in favor of a google calendar. It's less convenient for me but I don't care. :-)

kt

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blue skies

A nice day in Chicago, but a hurricane heading for Texas. Oy.

OK: This posting is later than usual because I had to fins and prepare some information for E2H, so I'm just going to get right down to things. :-)

CW: nice conference work today; don't forget that your assignment for tomorrow is to rework one of your two pieces from this week.

E3H: excellent discussion today in both classes! I think I heard from about 37/39 of you! Tonight's HW: compose an essay of 1-1.5 pps using at least two (but probably more) of our metapoems to explore how these authors think we should look at poetry.

E2H: go to the Edline page (yep, the Edline page) and download the file I've placed there in the "Readings" folder. You do not need to print it out unless you wish to, but I do want you to read it and make notes about (or highlight) ideas you believe to be important. We are trying to figure these guys out. What is it they feel? What is it they believe? You'll be discussing them online over the weekend, and signing up for the boards tomorrow (or later tonight if I get around to deleting last year's postings...check back for updates).

J: on a bright blue Tuesday morning
Music: The Blessings--Dar Williams

--kt

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WHAT kind of pandas?

So it's a hump day, our first for this school year, and we're more than half way through the week. Some good discussions in class today, through I needed to tease them out of a few you more than I hope will always be the case. We have to whack those words, people!

:-)

OK, OK, on to the important stuff...

E3H: good work today. Tonight I'd like to apply those word whacking skills to some metapoems that can be found through links from the E3H page. First, go here. Then go here. Then here. And here. And here. And finally here. We'll save the major metapoems for tomorrow night, but these ones will give us some room for discussions. No writing assignment tonight, but I make no promises about tomorrow. :-)

E2H: nice discussion today. Tonight, look at the other Thoreau and Emerson quotes. We talked about some precepts of Transcendentalism today (individuality, respect for nature, the notion of the oversoul); can you find any others within these quotations?

CW: Write about your own name with an attitude.

J: panda paratroopers
Music: Super Trooper--cast of Mamma Mia

kt

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Let the Year Begin

Hi, all!

So, two days in and it feels as if we've never left.

OK, that's a lie: in this new building, it feels as if we're on an alien planet. But still: the classes feel good and you all seem like people I'm going to enjoy getting to know, so let's get started!

Today we discussed, in E3H and E2H, the ways in which we are going to handle our reading and writing workshops. I think you will find them refreshing. If at any time, though, things are not working for you, please let me know: I can always individualize for your needs.

New stuff:

In E3H: Read Billy Collins' "An Introduction to Poetry" and DC Berry's "On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High," both found in Sound and Sense. Be prepared to discuss them tomorrow.

In E2H: There are dozens of quotations from Emerson and Thoreau available on the E2H page. Go there and scroll through them until you find one that particularly speaks to something in your own life. Then write a paragraph of perhaps 6-8 sentences in which you explore why you made this selection. If possible, email me the paragraph. (Please put E2H in the subject line.) If not, print it out and bring it to class.

In CW: Go to the class Edline page to find the 9/9 letter posted there. Compose a thoughtful response letter and either email me (please put CW in the subject line) or bring it to class and put it in my mailbox.

J: Let the Day Begin

Music: Let the Day Begin--The Call; Start of Something New--High School Musical

kt

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first day of school!

Welcome to Topham's Attic!

This is a place you will need to visit often, as it is your link to this class when you are not in Room 305. You will find much information here, from pages directly focusing on your class to requirements for portfolios and recs and other important things. (Please note: all info, unless the page references a current date at the top, is last year's information and therefore subject to change.)

Explore it, and feel free to email me and ask questions. Here you can also access the bulletin boards and the conference schedule, as well as a calendar that will allow you a quick reference for HW due dates and even journal topics from the day's class if you missed it. For now, I have opened a few forums of last year's bulletin board so you can browse them to get an idea of how those classes used it. Check them out!

By being here, you have accomplished your first homework assignment of the year. Your second, of course, is to buy a journal. As I explained in class, your journal should be hard covered and permanently bound, not a spiral class notebook. (Hard spirals on permament journals are perfectly fine, though.) Comp books are discouraged. Make the journal reflect you; it is an extension of your thoughts.

The first entry in your journal (or any new journal) should be to introduce yourself (or "say hi") to your journal. After that, it's a playground where you record your efforts to find the writer's voice that lies within you. I won't look at it. It's yours, and it cannot be wrong. Actually, that is the major secret to understanding how to succeed in this class: to realize that it's pretty darned difficult to be wrong. You can get off target and you can end up on a limb that goes nowhere, but that is not wrong; it's merely an idea that didn't pan out. Never be afraid of those limbs: they are what make discussions (and writing) fun.

CW: You also have an assignment to write a description of a single moment in time in a location that is meaningful to you. You may fudge time for sound or smell, but generally it should not pass at all. This is an exercise; it may end up standing alone or it may be incorporated into something larger, but right now keep it as a single frozen moment.

It was great meeting all of you today. See you tomorrow!

kt

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