Tuesday Dec 18

And this is what we came up with together:

Monday Dec 17

Today we worked on the Character sketches

and then we worked on the News Report ideas, too

Here is the document

An added extra

See if you can watch this:

Friday Dec 14

Today we had a bit of a meeting in the gym with the principal ... as a grade level.

That was interesting; we were told to watch how we eat in the cafeteria, the new vaping laws and about the uniform.

It was all good - it did take up about twenty minutes, though.

We just finished the last scene in Twelfth Night ... and then class ended. We will get to the Character Sketches on Monday to make sure everything is ready to hand in on Wednesday.

On to Monday!



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Thursday Dec 13

Today we watched Act IV and got all the questions for the Act rom the Unit Outline to answer for homework.

We had some difficulty with some of the vocab and tomorrow we will do the Character Sketches together.

We will make it happen

Oh and we are going to hand in Part 2 of 12N on Dec 19th.

Wed Dec 12

The much anticipated duel between Cesario and Sir Andrew will look like this ...

We got through a good big chunk of Act III of 12N. It was .... well, the English teacher thought it was funny.

Lots of gags and English teacher funny jokes. And dad jokes, too.

Thursday and Friday Dec 6

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We did get through a bit of the play today and did some work ont he terms for the play, too:

Right ... we will see you on Monday!

Wed Dec 5

OLIVIA.
What is your parentage?
'Above my fortunes, yet my state is well:
I am a gentleman.'—I'll be sworn thou art;
Thy tongue, thy face, thy limbs, actions, and spirit,
Do give thee five-fold blazon. Not too fast:—soft, soft!
Unless the master were the man.—How now?
Even so quickly may one catch the plague?
Methinks I feel this youth's perfections
With an invisible and subtle stealth
To creep in at mine eyes.


This is the speech from I, v.

We did a bit of work with it today, and we'll be working with that quote again.

During the class, we did talk about the vocabulary and the questions already assigned.

You need to get into the habit of bringing your work to class, either on paper or on your device. We also need to remember that your devices are tools, not toys.

Here are the questions you should have done already:

I will also post the due dates tonight.

Ok, see you tomorrow!

Oh yeah ... one more thing:

Do I really have to say not to do this?

Tues Dec 4

Today we took a step back and looked at a few opening scenes in Shakespeare's plays:

First, it was Romeo and Juliet. This isn't the best clip, but you get the basic idea:




Next up was Macbeth ... and here are a few versions of the opening scene:





There are a lot of others, but that will do to help figure out question 1 for the homework.

After that, we watched tot he end of Act II, i and got questions 8, 9 and 10 from Act I and question 1 from Act II.

Ok ... just remember .... caaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllmmmmmm dooooooowwwwnnnnnnnn .....




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Monday Dec 3

Cesario ... I mean Viola ... I mean Cesario ...

Well, we got in to a good chunk of Act One today.

We took up homework on

Well, I think I'll have to do something cool for quesiton 1 tomorrow. If I live through this sore throat. I had to nominate a "teacher laugh" student today, as my laugh would have sunk my teaching for the rest of the day.

The deisgnated laugher in the class got better as we went along through I, iii and I, iv in my humble opinion.

We did also see the first meeting between Duke Orsino and Viola/Cesario in this film too:

Wed Thur and Friday

Wednesday was the end of the Unit onTKAM.

Thursday I was in a meeting with a good chunk of the English department here at the school. It will help with passing the OSSLT.

Friday we started Twelfth Night (12N) and got the first two questions for homework.

Whoooooo!

Tuesday Nov 27

As announced, we did our quiz on TKAM.

We are going to move on to the next unit and get that done before Christmas.

19 days left. Nine. Teen.

I handed out the Webquest on Twelfth Night today, too.

I also had this to try and help regulate today:






I'm hoping that we can tone it down a little bit in class, people.

Just breathe, man. Breathe.
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Monday Nov 26

Today was ... ok.

We are finishing off the TKAM Unit, we have a quiz tomorrow and I did a soft introduction to the Shakespeare Unit.

And that went over like a lead balloon. Man ... eesh.

Anyway, we are going to move forward tomorrow.



 
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Thursday and Friday Nov 23

Man ... Thursday was a football game that most of the school attended and Friday was the PD or PA Day ... I had to go to Corpus and learn about teaching stuff.

It was pretty cool.

In any case, we'll get back at it on Monday.

Wed Nov 21

I'll make sure this gets up as a download:

But here is the Quote journal assignment and rubric for To Kill a Mockingbird

Part Four: Quote Journals

1. Complete “Quote Journals”

2. Two are due by the date Part One is handed in. Two are due by the date Part Two is handed in.

3. These should be completed online, but LEGIBLE paper submissions are allowed.

During the play, Mr. Chesser will pick out / point out / freak out about several important “meaty” quotations from the novel. Students will be using informal writing but must conform to where we are and what we are doing together as a class. What I’m interested in reading about is how you respond to the quote. That is, what you think about it, what you might be thinking if you said it, how you might respond of you heard it first-hand. If you like, you can write about personal stories that you remember while reading the quotes. What is important here is “resonance” - how the novel affects you.

"First of all," he said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."

Using the quote above, let’s talk about a couple of things:

Who says it?

When might this character say it?

What theme of the play might this quote be a part of / hook into / illustrate / develop?

or 

What does this say about the character that says it?

Tues Nov 20

We read to the end of Chapter 30 today. We also finished the film, too.

It was pretty epic.

We read the attack .. and who the Mockingbird is in the title of the novel.

We also learned about a lot more than we expected to, too

via ew ew ew ew ewwwwwww

Monday Nov 19

A student in another class said I bear a resemblance to this teacher.

This week is a wild one ... I hope you strap yourself in!

Monday and Tuesday are going to be the "normal" days.

Wednesday is the International Food Day fundraiser schedule.

Thursday is the Football buy out day.

Today, though, we read Chapter 27. I complimented my students for their patience and dedication to working through the novel together. It is almost done.

We read the chapter and then got a chance to watch the film for about a half hour.

Friday Nov 16

There was no snow day.

All we did was watch the film - most of the class was not there, as they either had a retreat or were stuck at home.

All good.

Have an awesome weekend - next week is a three day week!

Thursday Nov 15

So we read to the end of Chapter 26. We are machines, people. Machines.

Reading machines.

I also added a gadget on this blog to put "What Chesser is read" ... it si on the right hand side of the blog, under the Gif.

Any case, we got another set of questions for the last two segments of the novel. Today we got 1 and 3 from Ch 25-028 Questions.

We are awesome.

I will ask for your prayers for tomorrow.

Wed Nov 14

So ... it was Take Your Kids To Work Day.

I taught two classes of Grade Eights about Poetry and various things at ND.

Tuesday Nov 13

It was a weird day, today.

We got a good chunk of reading done. We got to the end of Chapter 24 read ... and we got to the end of the questions for 22-24 done, too.

Relax everyone, there will be more questions for tomorrow.... ;)

Anyway, I also collected the last few outstanding Short Story Unit Journals today. #justsayin #itisafunnystory

I also chatted briefly about our CA in this course and what we will be doing for the end of TKAM and the start of Twelfth Knight

Woooo!

Monday Nov 12

So ... today we got to the end of Chapter 23 and got questions #6 from 19-21 and 1 and 2 from Chapter 22-24.

It was a fairly good day of reading together and working through some of the difficulties in the text.

I got some time to work with students and fixing one or two marks for the mid-term reporting.

On to tomorrow!

Fri Nov 9

We didn't get much done today, as it was in the middle of the rather odd day we had today.

In any case, we did watch the film version of Atticus' speech to the jury at the end of the trial.

Wed and Thursday Nov 8

These two days were ... interesting.

We read to the end of Chapter 20 today ... we got to the end of the court proceedings. We need to see the film version of the speech by Atticus. Man ... what. A. Speech.

Right, I also got a chance to show (almost) everyone their updated mark, too.

On to Friday!

Tuesday Nov 6

Uuuuuuuggggh

We did House Meetings today ... so there was no class for us Period 2 today.

Everything gets pushed back another day.

ah, man.

Monday Nov 5

Here is the video to watch after finishing the stuff on Monday:

 

Friday Nov 2

We went to a presentation by the Halton Regional Police Service.

It was ... wow.

Thursday Nov 1

We got to the end of Chapter 19 in the text, mid way through the trial.

I also finished off the Character Sketches for the class. ;)

We got all the questions for 17-18 for homework, too.

See you tonight!

Wed Oct 31

Today we did a number of really important things.

Not really, it was Halloween. I kinda find it distracting to teach anything important when I have a room of costumed teens. In any case, we got the Character sketches done ... well, almost. I have to do Tom Robinson's sketch and get it ready for the class.

;)

In any case, we read some of the trial today and we did a powerpoint about "How to improve our mark in Chesser's class". The slides are here.

Tues Oct 30

Watch the video. Feel my pain. ;)

In any case, we got to mid-way through Chapter 17 today. We had a lot less garbage in the seats today, too.

We read to the middle of Chapter 17 and got the rest of the questions for 15-16.

We will be doing Character Sketches tomorrow as a group.

On to tomorrow!

Monday Oct 29

So I mentioned this in class today - note the way the film maker filmed the soldiers in the scene. Kinda like the way Harper Lee portrayed the men that came to visit Atticus at the jail.

Amazing that this was filmed in the 1920's.

We got question 1 from 15 and 16, too. We read to the middle of Chapter 16.

We also mentioned this "Googley Eyes" protest in class today, too. You really should google this.

I also pointed out the due dates for Part 2 of TKAM. We will be working on getting things ready to hand in all week.

Friday Oct 26

We continued our reading of To Kill A Mockingbird today. We got to the end of Chapter 14.

It's going by swimmingly ... at least I'm thinking it is.

We did get quesiton 3, 5 and 6 from the Chapter 12-14 questions for homework.

I did have a rather interesting discussion about "Not being a reader" from one of the members of the class today. I'll write the advice I gave that student here on this blog:

"You need to read books that interest you."

That's it, that's my advice. Read anything that interests you. I shared the idea that there is a book for literally anything you might be interested in reading about. You need to go, search for it and read it.

I also shared what I am reading these days. I'm reading this autobiography.

Keep reading ..... and enjoy the weekend!



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Thursday Oct 25

Today we got through Chapter 12 and into Chapter 13

We also had "The Big Crunch" at the end of the reading. We ate our apples as best we could. Mine was a yummy Mac apple ... of course. ;)

We got #5 from Chapters 9-11 and #1 and 2 from Chapters 12-14 as questions from the Unit Outline.

When looking for that image, I found this blog about the history of TKAM

Wed Oct 24

We got almost to the start of Chapter 12 today.

Nice, nice.

We did not get any homework today- I'll make sure we get a lot tomorrow. It's Pink Day, and so the class was "off", but we'll get it back tomorrow.

Be safe!

Tuesday Oct 23

We read today, got to the middle of Chapter 10, where Atticus shot Tim Johnson.

That was not a typo. Y'all gunna have to google that one. ;)

Anyway, I assigned #2, 3 and 4 from Chapter 9-11 Questions.

Hope today was awesome for you, too!

Monday oct 22

I had a fair number of students away - this post SHOULD get a good number of clicks on it for that reason alone.

We read to the middle of Chapter 9 today in class. This is the chapter where the position Atticus has as a lawyer gets him to the position of defending unpopular clients. We heard the name Tom Robinson for the first time today.

We were assigned these questions for homework:

Chapter 6-8 #3 and 4
Chapter 9-11 #1

I was dismayed when I walked around the class close to the end of the period and a few weren't getting their homework done before they left the room. I'm going to keep checking - you know I have to do that as a teacher.

You should really get it done before you leave class - it's easier, trust me

Ok, see you tomorrow!



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Thursday and Friday Oct 19

Thursday I was away from my Grade Nine homeroom retreat day.

I got some feedback that most of my students used their time wisely and some did not.

Friday was a Quiz Day, as well as a Hand in Stuff Day.

After we got that taken care of, we read to half way through Chapter 8, too.

Just as an edit - sign ups for Parent - Teacher night will start on Monday Oct 22

Wed Oct 17

Today we read to the end of chapter 7 and got question 1 and 2 from chapter 5-8 for homework

We also had to mention this video during class, as Jem tried to walk in the same way...





We also did the rest of the theme study, too

Tuesday Oct 16

Well, this was the day for the Yellow Bench presentation before this class.

We also read a bit - we got more than a few pages in to Chapter 6.

We worked on the Terms/Theme study for Friday and I went through what was going to be handed in at that point.

Then I took a few moments to work on making sure all our uniforms were on right.

Here is the gum that Scout and Jem found the other day in the tree:

Monday Oct 15

Everything went as well as it could today ... it was Monday, so I think we will just go with that.

I read to the middle of page 48, Chapter 5 today. We got to the end of the questions (#3,4 and 5) for Chapter 3-5.

We'll finish reading that Chapter tomorrow and get on with the Novel study at that point.

Right, I also handed back a lot of the Poetry and the Task Three from the Story Unit, too.

I will have a list Editing Marks for tomorrow, too.

We also mentioned the sport of "Zorbing" in class today. Here is an example of what my students in 2018 might do to imitate what Scout Finch did in Chapter 4 from TKAM:

Friday Oct 12

We read Chapter 3 from the text and got question one and two for homework.

We also took up the homework on questions 1-5 from Chapter One and Two.

We did collect the Webquests and the 100 word paragraph piece of writing on why this book is banned.

Thursday Oct 11

Today being Thursday, we read the novel to the end of Chapter 2.

We were assigned to the end of chapter one and two questions as well.

We also got the due dates for the first part of this unit. As always the due dates are both posted on this website and inside the classroom.

We also read Jem's description of Boo Radley in class today. I don't think it's accurate:

Yellow eyes and slobbering? No, I don't think so

Wed Oct 10

Today we started the novel To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM). We read to page 13 and got the first two questions for homework.

Just. The first two. Questions.

I will also post the Unit plan ...sometime today ... when I get on decent wireless today.

Tuesday Oct 9

Someone asked me to post something "extra" for the next unit.

Well, I don't do "Extra". What I do post and work on are simple assignments to introduce the next unit. I call them Webquests.

The one for TKAM is here.

We had a brief introduction to the novel today after we had a welcome back to school conversation. I let my students know that this is the toughest part of the year to get through, as it is fourteen or so weeks of five day a week grind until Christmas.

To get through, I let my students in on some insights from my near twenty years as a teacher: 1) wash your hands a lot 2) Get lots of sleep, drink lots of water and keep a healthy body 3) grab some hand santizer have use it to protect yourself from germs.

After that we worked through the WebQuest posted above.

While students worked through that assignment, I was able to walk through the class and collect the last sections of the Poetry Unit. I also had a few people miss reading poems or doing their Poet presentation. I let everyone know that I will be in the Library after school every day this week in order to help my 1D students make these presentations up.

Thursday Oct 4

We are finishing off Poetry today

I'd also like to assign something so that you are always moving forward.

What the question for the day is ... is this

To Kill A Mockingbird gets banned all the time. Why does it get banned/challenged/withdrawn from study in classrooms?

at least five things you know about why this book gets banned in informal writing.

Tuesday and Wed Oct 3

Yesterday and today we did a poem.

Today's poem was the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet.

Yesterday we did Corinthians 12:17

Both are rich texts in that there is a lot to pull out of them.

We also came up with a list of poems due tomorrow, but I forgot to take a pic to post. If anyone has a pic of the list, let me know.

We also did some of the Poet Presentations, too.

Monday Oct 1

Today we got through a bunch of poems and readings.

 It was great and I'm grateful for the chance to listen to my students recite poems to me.

Here is the Task One poem for today :

Siren Song

BY MARGARET ATWOOD

This is the one song everyone 

would like to learn: the song 

that is irresistible: 

the song that forces men 

to leap overboard in squadrons 

even though they see the beached skulls 

the song nobody knows 

because anyone who has heard it 

is dead, and the others can't remember. 

Shall I tell you the secret 

and if I do, will you get me 

out of this bird suit? 

I don't enjoy it here 

squatting on this island 

looking picturesque and mythical 

with these two feathery maniacs, 

I don't enjoy singing 

this trio, fatal and valuable. 

I will tell the secret to you, 

to you, only to you. 

Come closer. This song 

is a cry for help: Help me! 

Only you, only you can, 

you are unique 

at last. Alas 

it is a boring song 

but it works every time.

Fri Sept 28

We got through a fair number of poems today. Was very happy about that. We learned about what a Blazon poem was about and read from the Song of Songs 4:1-7

I mentioned one of the original poems in Western Literature today, too. It was "The Iliad" by Homer, and the film version of a part of it stars Brad Pitt and Eric Bana, and we HAD to watch a bit of the epic fight between Achilles and Hector






We then got to the work for homework we had to do and we got this assigned:

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

BY ROBERT FROST

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

Wed Sept 26

Mother to Son

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

We also watched and read this as a poem: