Advice From Peeps Who Have Gone Before

Well, Peeps, our time together is coming to a close!  It’s been a wild ride, but I hope you feel like you’ve come out it a stronger student and ready for your Pre-AP classes in high school.  Next fall, I’ll be facing a class room of poor little baby 8th graders, and will begin to whip them into shape like I did you all many months ago!

I loved watching your advice videos!  I think they’ll sufficiently scare/prepare my new Peeps-in-Training next year.  So many of them were hilarious and yet full of useful words of wisdom.  I’ll be adding them here over the next couple of days, so be sure to come back and see them all!

 
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REALITY CHECK - YOUR HIGH SCHOOL ACTION PLAN, DAY 2

Welcome back, Lions! 

Today you have two tasks to complete:

1. Finish the assignment from yesterday.

2. Fill out 4 charts on 4 colleges of your choice, using the links & information you’ll find HERE.

REALITY BITES - Your High School Action Plan

Greetings, Regulators!

Moving forward in our Career Research…

Today we’ll look specifically at the transition from high school to college.  Click the link below:

Click here to view your assignment and the links that go with it!

Have you started memorizing yet?

Click here!

REALITY BITES - Career Research, Phase 2

Over the course of the next few days, you will be busy working on two different aspects of your career research:

1. Pages 14 - 32 of your Career Research Packet

2. The online activities detailed on the Reality Bites handout you received in class today.

Please click on the link below to continue:

REALITY BITES - Career Research - Phase 2 - LINKS

Using Shakespeare’s Language Assignment - Pre-AP

Hear Ye, All Pre-APeeps! I haveth a small online assignment for thou.  Go-eth to the link below and discovereth your Shakespearean name.  Then leaveth me a Shakespearean comment using some of the Elizabethan terms on page 56 of your study guide.  Don’t forget-eth to includeth your real name along with your Shakespeare name!  Make this fun!  Show-eth your scintillating creativity!

Shakespeare Name Generator

Ok, so now that you’ve got your fabulous Shakespearean name, leave a Shakespearean comment below using the Shakespeare words from your packet.  Sign your comment with your Shakespearean name AND your real name! 

Ta-ta!

Cleopatra Andronicus (aka Mrs. Sanders)

P.S. Click here for some great examples  (not all of them are fabulous, mind you, but many of them are awesome) from last year’s Peeps!  (You’ll need to scroll down past my post to read their responses).

So…the rumor is ACTUALLY true this time.

It’s true!  Jack over at Brainyflix.com is actually passing the torch to me this week, and I’ll be judging the weekly Brainypics contest.  I’m so excited, because as you all know, vocab is kind of my “thing”.    It’s totally fun, because not only will entering the contest give you a chance to expand your vocabulary (already bursting, I’m sure, from our weekly vocabulary rituals) and stretch your creative muscles as well - don’t pass up this chance to be all ZANY and smart at the same time!

It’s easy - just pick a “P” word from their list (those are SAT words, y’all), find (or take) a great picture that teaches/explains/represents your “P” word, and then create your Brainypic directly from their website

Only FIVE (count ‘em - FIVE) lucky winners will be selected to win a free iTunes, so get going!  Be funny!  Teach vocab!   I can’t wait to see what you (and all the other vocabulary beasts lurking out there in cyberspace) come up with!

And in celebration of this event, I just had to…you know…bring vocab back:

I’m Bringing Vocab Back

 Mrs. S

Advisory - College Adventure

Click HERE!

Greetings, my lovelies!

Is it just me, or is SPRING BREAK in the air?  Ah - don’t quit on me now.  Things are just starting to pick up pace.  The test-that-shall-not-be-named is behind us, and wonderful challenges lay before us! 

Tangerine by Edward Bloor is by far one of my favorite novels to teach, primarily because students LOVE it and can’t put it down.  THAT is cool - true excitement about reading a book!

My wonderful Pre-AP students have just finished a Vocabulary Video Project.  Look for the links to their videos at Brainyflix.com.  Soon you can vote for your favorite video and help them win $200! 

An entirely NEW challenge also streches before them - POETRY ANALYSIS.  This is typically met with moans and groans, and that’s understandable, because they will actually have to - GASP! - think and write and analyze.  I hope that you’ll reach the end of the unit feeling like you’ve stretched your analytical muscles!  Be strong!  At the end of the six weeks, we’ll be completing a really cool multimedia project.  I can’t wait!

If you need another copy of this six week’s calendar, click the appropriate links below:

5th Six Weeks Calendar - Pre-AP

5th Six Weeks Calendar - Regulators

 

Murder on the Orient Express

Welcome to a new semester!    Everything feels all crisp and fresh - new vocabulary, new grammar skills, new literature!  Breathe it all in!

My Pre-AP classes will start things off with an author study of Agatha Christie.  We’ll read “The Mousetrap”, which is a lot of fun!  Who’s got what it takes to figure out who the killer is???? Time will tell…

Then we’ll move into something a little meatier - Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express”!  Written in classic murder mystery style, we’ve got THIRTEEN SUSPECTS stuck on a luxurious train headed for London.  I think you’ll all love it.  And I promise - the murderer is NOT who you think it is!

Pre-AP will also start getting into meatier analysis skills - prose, personal narrative, poetry, and rhetoric.  I’m stepping things up around here - before you know it, you’ll be knee-deep in Freshman Pre-AP English and I will give you the skills to ensure your success.  It’s tough, but I am confident that you can handle it!

My wonderful Regular Language Arts class will be enjoying Murder on the Orient Express (we call in MOTOE for short!) as well as “The Mousetrap”.  I hope to ignite some interest in Agatha Christie’s work and look forward to seeing what other titles you may choose to read!

Believe it or not, the test-that-shall-not-be-named is on our horizon.  We’ll be spending some time honing on on the skills that we need to do our very best on that important assessment!

As usual, be looking for lots of technology - I hope that we’ll be linking up with our friends in Alabama some time soon, and we’ll soon return to Classmarker.com for our grammar quizzes.  Watch for new forums on the discussion forum as well.  Mrs. Boydstun and I are busy brainstorming a REALLY awesome culminating project for our murder mystery genre.  I can’t wait!

TTFN,

 Mrs. S