Tues Oct 31

I took a piece of pedagogical advice and watched the 1931 version of Frankenstein in class today.

It was Halloween and half the class was missing anyway.

We'll keep going on Hamlet tomorrow.

Monday Oct 29

So here is the video lesson for Monday, Oct 29. We are taking a look at Hamlet's speech in I, ii. It's the speech after everyone leaves the great room and it starts with the line "Oh that this too too solid flesh would melt and resolve itself into a dew."









All three actors - Kenneth Branagh, Mel Gibson and Laurence Olivier make really different choices about who their idea of Hamlet is during this speech.

Incidentally, it is the last version that Holden in Catcher in the Rye mentions during that novel. He said Olivier made Hamlet look like a general and not some sad screwed up type guy.

That, ultimately is what Hamlet is, isn't he? A sad young man in search of answers to questions that we ask ourselves today - things like "Why am I here? and/ or Why am I here to witness this?"

It's just after this speech that Horatio and Bernardo come in to meet Hamlet and tell him what they saw last night while standing guard.

In any case, in a formal paragraph length piece of writing or about 250 words, which might be a short video submission instead, each student is to react to each of the three clips of Act 1 scene ii. What did the students think of the choices of the actor or the director in the way this scene was shot.

Students are to upload their writing to the Dropbox set up for this, called "Hamlet 1, ii paragraph."

Categories and
Criteria	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Thinking/Inquiry Ideas and Theme	·    presents some simple ideas and some details to support a central theme	·    presents ideas and details to support a central theme	·    presents ideas and details of some complexity to enhance a central theme	·    presents a variety of complex ideas and details to highlight a central theme
Application Language Conventions	·    uses English language conventions with limited accuracy and effectiveness	·    uses English language conventions with some accuracy and effectiveness	·    uses English language conventions with considerable accuracy and effectiveness	·    uses English language conventions with accuracy and effectiveness

Friday Oct 27

The assigned homework

Today we went on from Act I,i of Hamlet to take a look at Act I, ii of the play.

Lots of discussion and me speaking about what the characters were saying.

A highlight of the class was the discussion of this speech

Thursday Oct 26

We are watching the 1996 version of Hamlet with Kenneth Brannagh

So ... sorry for this rather late post, but the wireless system in the school was a bit ... well, we have a complicated relationship. I'll put it that way.

In any case, we got through the first scene of the play - Act 1, i. Wow. Pretty awesome.

We'll chat about the homework tomorrow - it was the first two questions from the Unit outline we got today. I'll post a .pdf file of it under the "Helpful links", too.

All right, there we go!

Wed Oct 25

Today we had a bit of an introduction to Hamlet; we sat through a rather pedantic Powerpoint put together by Chesser ... that compared Hamlet to The Lion King.

We then did a brief plot walkthrough of what was going to happen in each Act of the Play.

I did also remind students that they had to get the BLU completed on the D2L system and that they should also be close to or already have their selected novels for the final project of the course.

Tuesday Oct 24

via Chesser

It was a test day ... on Frankenstein.

Right - get yourself caught up with the D2L and start reading your novels for the CA!

We start Hamlet by the end of the week...

Monday Oct 23

I'm not there today. But I can still read the last ten pages of the novel to you ....Click here and we can get started.


That link should open a screencast I made for my students just so they can't say I didn't read the entire book to them.

Which reminds me, after the reading is done, you can add 106 and 107 to the questions to hand in tomorrow.

Everything else is due tomorrow, too. See the right-hand side of the blog for more details.

And don't forget that the BLU Unit shuts down on Friday. If you haven't done all four things in that unit, you need to get them done, too.

Friday Oct 20

Almost there, almost there.

We got to the last ten or so pages from the novel today - all the way back to Walton writing his sister in letters.

Here is an updated list of Part 2 questions, too:

Right, then after that, I talked about what I wanted to help you with - I posted the Character Sketches into the D2L and hoped that everyone would learn and develop a community of learning online by contributing to the character sketches as a group.

Learning together - making the class rise together. At least that is the hope.

Ok, see you Monday!

Thursday Oct 19

Hello parents!

Today we read together to the end of Chapter 22 in the novel Frankenstein. We've been reading together for about a month and have a second assignment due Tuesday, October 24th. The details are on the right-hand side of this blog.

We have also been using the Ministry approved Desire to Learn (D2L) platform to augment the in-class learning. Your child should be able to show you what we are doing in this secure online learning environment at home.

If you have any questions between now and the end of the semester, please call the school or drop a comment on this blog.



via GIPHY

Wed Oct 18

We read just the one chapter today - most of the class had one on ones with the teacher to see the marks that I had for them.

We got three more questions for homework for the Part Two due next week, too

And then we had a Fire Drill. Man, that was loud.

Anyway, here is a visual to help my students understand the unlikely nature of Victor's travels in the boat in this chapter:

I need to reconsider my calling and think about Art School... ;)

Tuesday Oct 17

About halfway to Iceland, half way to London

We took another step forward today, getting to the end of Chapter 20 in the textbook. Well, Victor is finally in Scotland. Way at the tippy top. This is where he's decided to create the second monster.

We also got these questions to do for tomorrow:

And we figured out the due date for Part two ... it's Oct 24th. I'll post more details tomorrow.

And ... we finally got almost everyone signed up for their CA novels.

Monday Oct 16

So ... today.

Today we read to the end of Chapter 17, and got the following for Part 2 for Frankenstein:

61 is the one that is kinda cut off there.

We also made everyone aware of the PT night

Then, finally, we talked and signed up for the CA's for this course.

Friday Oct 13

Yeat, we read to the end of Chapter 15 today. We got the following questions for homework:

49, 50, 53, 56 and 59.

And then we did "....and one more thing." ... I handed out the Culminating Activity for this course.

Look under the BR Book Club thingy link on the right to get a .pdf version of that. ;)

And then we discovered it was Friday and I told everyone, that since they were such awesome people this week that they can take the next two days off.

Wed and Thursday

What was on the screen today - Edelweiss from TSoM

Wednesday was intended to be a "get this piece of writing done in the D2L system in" kind of a day.

I did get a number of them in, but it seems I need to get some login help for some. All good.

Thursday we were back at reading the novel and got to the end of Chapter 14. We got the following questions to kind of catch up to where we are in the novel as far as reading goes:

We also watched a bit of this one, as it was kind of mentioned in the reading today:

Tues Oct 10

So ... today we read until about midway through Chapter 11 of the novel. We also spoke about how the point of view changed ... again. yeah, weird. I'll try and post something on the right-hand side of the page to keep us updated on that. It's a weird one, man ...

we didn't get any homework, as I wanted people to get the questions done in the D2L system that is already there.

Punishment of an incredibly monotonous and slow re-reading Chapter 9 will commence if everyone does not get the first question of the Frankenstein Discussion completed shortly!

The image of Mont Blanc is from this site... just in case you want to go there and re-read the Chapter as you walk the actual steps of Victor Frankenstein.

Thurs Oct 5

Today we worked on getting the D2L to work for everyone.

It did not work for everyone. I will see what steps I can take to help those who cannot  will not  login and take care of the business of learning.

We took a look at the Introduction Unit (BLU Unit) and the one question on the Frankenstein Unit, too.

We're awesome. Please be safe and we'll see you on Monday.