..Covid work

Thursday, April 16 and Friday, 17: The last bonus work of the 3rd quarter. (a writing bonus!) On Monday, the 4th quarter begins.

Stay tuned!

Assignment: watch the 10 minute video and respond to the following in approximately 250 words: What’s an experience you’ve had where you needed to balance courage and fear? 

the beautiful balance between courage and fear

Wednesday, April 15 bonus work.
(grades close this Friday!)

 Below you will find a link to 5 historical sites: the pyramids of Giza, Petra, Angkor, Taj Mahal, and Venice.
Assignment: I would like you to visit each of these sites and send me a list of three facts from each (copy the place, followed by the three of the facts) that are shared. You'll have lots to choose from. These are all important places that you should put on your to visit list. Have fun. We are stuck at home, but we can voyage in our minds. 
virtual tours of historic sites

FRIDAY, Grades CLOSE...are you prepared?

Tuesday, April 14  ZOOM reflection bonus

SNL ZOOM sketch

This past Saturday, the satirical Saturday Night Live show had a sketch on a Zoom meeting. Most of you should be now have had an opportunity to participate in one. 

Assignment: watch the sketch. Remember that this is what is known as Horatian satire. That means the speaker holds up to gentle ridicule the absurdities and follies of human beings.

After you have watched, write a reflection on your own personal experience with a zoom meeting. Think about the participants (no names), thoughts going through your head, how did you feel about participating, what you did while in class. Really, let your mind wander back through the experience.

Enjoy!

 ser aconsejado: grades close Friday!

Monday bonus (don't forget to check out the Friday through Monday that is worth a writing grade.)

What Did Hubble See on Your Birthday?

Follow the link and send me a picture. 

What did the space craft hubble see on your birthday?

Addtional optional bonus opportunity for the weekend worth a class participation grade: Send me a picture of yourself outside engaging in the world.  

   Marking quarter ends April 17!

Friday, April 10 through Monday, April 12. 
Big Bonus work!

                            Sometimes it snows in April

Sometimes I feel so bad, so bad

             Sometimes I wish life was never ending

               And all good things, they say, never last 

                         Prince

We have one week until the end of the marking quarter, and I want to give you an opportuntity for some excellent bonus points. Are you missing a writing grade? 

As this is an important time Christians and Jews, I'd thought we'd take the time to at What's it's like to be a Muslim in America. Please watch the 16 minute video and respond in approximated 250 words to the following: 

Political leaders have often used dehumanizing rhetoric against a group of people, like comparing Jews to rats during World War II in Germany, or comparing African Americans to apes during the Jim Crow era. What do you think is the goal of using this kind of language? What have we seen dehumanizing language set the stage for? What can we do to address dehumanization of groups of people?



Thursday, April 9...Are you checking out the daily bonus?  The third quarter ends a week Friday, April 17.
Today's bonus!
Below you will find 5 contemporary satirical cartoons. Explain the what is happening in each.
                                   1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

Wednesday, April 8: The theme of identity
Bonus work; this can be substituted for one of the in class assignments you might have a zero for not completing or pure bonus work.
Assignment: look at this oil painting from the Art Institute in Chicago and respond to the six questions that follow.



Flag Day 1966 by Benny Andrews
(1930-2006)

Date:

Look at the photo. 

1. What do see? 

2. What is the position of the American flag? 

3. What does the figure appear to be doing?

4. What do those stripes remind you of?

5. Hmm..but the figure also seems enveloped in the flag?

6. What could this image possibly be a metaphor for? (consider when the work was painted.) Explain in a couple of complete sentences.

Tuesday, April 7 supplement:  Remember you can send along any of the previous bonus work. Thank you so far for the interesting responses for NPR's "Pretty Bitches".

Monday and Tuesday April 6 and 7...and so it continues. Please check your grades. Have you any questions, please let me know. All the work since school has ended is BONUS. Check through the many opportunites! And you can make up any of your missing work!  The grades are updated daily.  
 Something different: interview and response to the author Ailsa Chang on her book Pretty Bitches.

As you listen to the 7 minute interview,( Pretty Bitches Feisty. Ambitious. Lucky. Female Writers On The Words That Undermine Women )consider the following and discuss in a solid paragraph. Are the points valid? Have you experienced, observed or used these words? 

1) Are words like "shrill" or "mature" code words for actions that people are going to take?
2) Note what a "professional" voice is? What if the voice is ethnic?
3) Where does the voice of authority come from?
4) What about "lucky"? How does this relate to women? What do you think about substituting "nice to see all your hard work paying off."
5)How does the editior of this collection of essays say the material relates to men and by extension of race?

Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5: the weekend. There is nothing official on the blog, but if by Sunday night you send me a 100 words of how you passed the last two days, that will go into the your bonus work.  Take care of yourselves. The temperature is warming a bit.

Friday, April 3  

Today's bonus work: Send me a picture that you have taken outside that indicates a positive sign of spring. 

Thursday, April 2..  Once again, 3rd quarter grades are based upon the work you completed before we the physical school closed. You may make up your old work (see dated blog posts) so as to get rid of any zeros. You may also do "bonus" work. Lots of assignments follow. 
Today: Webcam Fun below are some webcams, which are video cameras that feed or stream an image.  Browse through these. Your bonus work is to find four other webcams. These should be from four different places anywhere in the world.  They could be from any place: zoos, aquariums, different cities, cultural areas, parks, etc. Share the four links, so that I can check them out and you can receive the credit.

Ouwehand Park Polar Bear Cubs
Penguin Habitat Above Water
Sea Jellies
Eagles Nest

Wednesday, April 1...updated information. Yesterday, I sent an e-mail to everyone, as a reminder that all the covid listed work on the blog is an opportunity to bring your grade up from what you had prior to the last day of classes. You also may make up any missing work.  Per the Governor Cuomo there is no academic break this year. That means you have additional time to bring up your grades.
Please look over the assignments below. 
If I have not heard from you, I'll be calling home to check in with a parent or guardian. Send me an e-mail, at least, even if you do not want to do an assignment.  Thanks!

Tuesday, March 31...IMPORTANT: changes are coming in student accountability for school work. The end of the third quarter is not for two more weeks! Yeah! Yesterday's assignment is a bonus / writing grade.  

Something more to help you out: 

“Because women earn less, on average, than men, they must work longer for the same amount of pay. The wage gap is even greater for most women of color.”

Bonus writing assignment: Reflect upon the two images above. In approximately, 250 words, respond to the following: why has there historically been this inequity and why does this situtation continue?  

Monday, March 30...We've hit the three week mark. It's time for a little humor, followed by a bit of philosophy.  Take a look. 1)Enjoy the first bit of silliness. If you can figure it out, send along the "correct" sentence for bonus points.
AND / OR...some folks really need some bonus points. Check those grades. Are you happy? What if for some reason there was no fourth quarter and what you have is your year- end grade?
2) Watch the short video on Koans. Then, write a paragraph with your explanation of one of the koans I am giving you. Big bonus points, enough to "fix" that writing assignment you forgot to turn in.

1) The Price of Gas in France

 

After careful planning, he got past security, stole the paintings, and made it safely to his van.

However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas

When asked how he could mastermind such a crime and then make such an obvious error, he replied,

'Monsieur, that is the reason I stole the paintings.'

I had no Monet

To buy Degas

To make the

Van Gogh.'

See if you have

De Gaulle to send this on to someone else....

G

I sent it to you because I figured

I had nothing Toulouse.

                       
***************************************
Part 2: Watch the following on Koans, 
which are a paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment. These can be a difficult concept. Take your time to reflect on what is being said. The video does an excellent job of explaining, but more importantly, I hope you can made a connection to life right now. When you have finished, apply what you have learned to one of the following two koans. 

Koans 4:57
What is your face before your mother and father were born?
or When you can do nothing, what can you do?

______________________________________________________________________________

Friday, March 27...Thank you all again, for the work you are sending along. Get the word out to your classmates. Is everyone comfortable with the grade they had two-weeks ago?  Now is the time to adjust this. The quarter ends in two weeks.
 Something new: enjoy! Any personal thoughts? Do share.

Thundercat On Anime

Twenty seconds of hand washing. 60 to 90 percent alcohol. Six feet of distance. People worldwide have absorbed these guidelines as the coronavirus pandemic has closed its fist around the world. But humans also need to keep the spirit moving, as did Charles Dickens — who lived through a few epidemics — by taking a daily "breather" in the fresh air. Here we offer recommendations for psychic health from people who go deep into their own hearts and minds: artists and writers. Creative people have been uniquely affected by the onset of the current pandemic. Still they continue to dream, and to create. They can help us understand how. —Ann Powers

Today's Breather comes from the songwriter and producer Stephen Bruner, aka Thundercat. His new album "It Is What It Is" is out April 3 on Brainfeeder Records.

"I've got a record player and DVDs and everyone's like, 'Oh, the internet is getting slow.' In this one moment, it pays to be an anime nerd because I buy all my DVDs – so if the internet goes down, I still have all my DVDs.

I've been listening to the theme and outro from [anime series Neon Genesis] Evangelion repetitively for the last week. And with Evangelion, there are moments you can attach some nostalgia to if you've been watching it as long as a guy like me. But more than just the nostalgia, there's the overall amazing animation and quality of the story, and the story arc and the message ... There's nothing that makes up for that. It stands on its own. So the significance of it is a bit bigger than just the part where it's like a cartoon for me; I feel like it has a very big purpose behind it.

Watching the show is like watching the creators' minds spin while creating the cartoon. There's a very famous story behind about the depression the creator was experiencing while creating the cartoon, how that started to bleed over into the actual story. When you go into all of the different character's minds, you're kind of going into the animator's and the illustrator's minds. It's a really, really wild cartoon."

Also: "A lot of crying has helped. Like real silent crying: Crying by yourself in the dark in the bathroom. Crying helps." — as told to Emma Bowers

Have a listen

Dragonball Durag

Thursday, March 26.. shout out for the birds that have returned. Have you heard them? Today is supposed to be warm, so open a window and listen. And thank you to those who are sending along some work. I'm updating the grades daily. However, those of you with an A+, I can't do any more numerically, but this reinforces how super you are. Please, if you have not, take advantage of this offer. (Sorry I sound like a salesperson.) 

Send along the bubble gum from Wednesday and for anyone who wishes: What are you watching, listening to or following these days that gives you a bit of joy?   A few words will suffice.  Take care.



Wednesday, March 25..Thanks for all the communications. Again, check those grades.
Something to entertain you today:bubble gum!
Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. -Rainer Maria Rilke

Tuesday, March 24..."They"have not shared how 3rd quarter grades will be assessed. It is believed that what you ended with after six weeks will be the grade. We are technically in the 8th week. I cannot hold you accountable for any new work. I can, however, give you bonus work. Check your grades. Do some bonus work. 
Now something light for the day: https://howmuchtoiletpaper.com/

Monday, March 23...the vernal equinox:
  

"Equal dark, equal light
Flow in Circle, deep insight
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!
So it flows, out it goes
Three-fold back it shall be
Blessed Be, Blessed Be
The transformation of energy!"
-   Night An'Fey, Transformation of Energy

Keep writing; I wish to hear from all of you!

Sunday, March 22...Sunday, March 22... It's cold, but such a beautiful day. Get out and enjoy the light.

Saturday, March 21...“If you’re not angry, you’re either a stone, or you’re too sick to be angry. You should be angry. You must not be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger, yes. You write it. You paint it. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it.”
― Maya Angelou

Friday, March 20...“This too shall pass.” 
Love the material you are sending along.  Take care and savor the day

Thursday, March 19... Remember that doing the right thing is always the right thing.
     Thank you to those who are sending along their daily reflections. This unique time is one of opportunity and challenge. Your thoughts? Your feelings? Your unbiased observations? Embrace this opportunity.  Keep the material coming.
      Other and all? I'd love to know how you are personally doing. e-mail: dorothy.parker@rcsdk12.org
Wednesday, March 18... Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet
Tuesday, March 17...St. Patrick's Day: For each petal on the                                           shamrock, this brings a wish your way: 
                                     Good health, good luck and happiness                                           for today and every day.

Monday: March 16...
Taking care of yourselves and weathering this covid-19 situation is, of course, our priority. However, keeping focused on the long view is important and that includes your education and your mind.

Ms. Camp was originally to take over for three weeks. Her program at the Uof R has been interupted. Rather than pulling out a journalism unit as such, we are using this time as reporters to observe the situation as it unfolds. We have been following this in class since December, so this only seems logical.

Specifically, what I am asking you to do is to spend at least 30 minutes each day writing down your observations on how this virus is impacting your world. How are you spending your days? How are others? Note specific days and hours? How is nature evolving, as our situation does. Have you been listening to the local, national and global reports? How do you or others feel about this? Think about the situation? It so important that your writing is formal; don't worry so much about language conventions, as simply getting your words down.  Share as you write.  I will share the material here with no names.  Although you will in no way be penalized for not completing this "assignment", you will receive academic recompense when we return to class...and we shall! This is also a way for us to continue our classroom community.

You are entering the realm of such writers as Daniel Defoe A Journal of the Plague Year, Albert Camus's The Peste (Plague Year) and Mary Shelly of Frankenstein fame The Last Man. 

Look keenly and write....and of course take care. Any thoughts or questions- or even a desire to just communicate, please send me an e-mail. Dorothy.Parker@rcsdk12.org