I hope all of you had a wonder-filled holiday season and are ready to buckle down to work to finish up the first semester with great grades!  I will have schedules for the second semester ready by Friday, January 9th—maybe sooner!   I will need to have your second semester class choices by Wednesday, January 14th.  Remember, I will be looking to get required classes completed before allowing changes to schedules, and I will fill classes on a senior to freshman priority, and then on a first-come, first-enrolled order within class groupings.

Advanced Composition:  We will begin with two reading selections from chapter 14: “Mixing the Writing Strategies” in our textbook:

• “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty”
  
• “Gender Gap in Cyberspace”
  

Then we will move on to chapter 20: “Business Letters, Memos, and Resumes.”  You may have some time to work on finishing up your I-Search project [due on Monday, January 12th!], so be prepared to work on this!

Advanced Placement Calculus AB:  Please be sure that you are where you need to be in this online class!   You may want to use Khan Academy to reinforce any concepts you are having trouble with.  If you have tests scheduled, you MUST be ready to take these on time on the days when your class is scheduled with me, as I may not be able to accommodate any other time requests.

Advanced Placement English Language and Composition: Please be sure that you are where you need to be in this online class as there is LOTS of reading to do!

Advanced Placement Psychology: Please be sure that you are where you need to be in this online class! If you have tests scheduled, you MUST be ready to take these on time on days when your class is scheduled with me, as I may not be able to accommodate any other time requests.

Art History I:  First we will finish up the Chrysler Museum presentations, and then we will close our exploration of the 17th century with three chapters from our textbook:

• Dutch Genre and Portraiture 2: Delft and Deventer
  
• Dutch Still-Life Painting
  
• Late Baroque in Italy
  

At that point, we will begin the 18th century with an introductory documentary and then read several chapters in our textbook:

• Art of the Western World: Art History from Ancient Greece to Andy Warhol Episode Six: “An Age of Reason, an Age of Passion”
  
• Tiepolo: “The Residence at Wuzburg”
  
• Watteau: “The Embarkation for Cythera”
  

Please do not forget that you have a Glogster due on Thursday, January 15th for the artists you chose several weeks ago:

• Morgan--Giorgione: “The Tempest”
  
• Sam—Titian: “The Rape of Europa”
  
• Courtney—Durer: “The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse
  
• Rikki—Bruegel: “August, or the Corn Harvest”
  
• Tyler—Tintoretto: “The Scuola di San Rocco Crucifixion”
  
• Daniel—Caravaggio: “The Conversion of Saint Paul”
  
• Kimberly—Bernini: “The Cornaro Chapel”
  
• Caroline—Poussin: “The Holy Family on the Steps”
  
• Izzy—Velazquez: “Las Meninas”
  
• David—Hals: “A Banquet of the Saint George Civic Guard”
  
• Jamie—Ruisdael: “The Jewish Cemetery”
  
• Emily—Vermeer: “The Artist's Studio”
  

Please refer to the handout for the specific requirements for this assignment.

Creative Writing:    This week, you will be reading the following in Writing Down the Bones:

• “The Samurai”
  
• “Rereading and Rewriting”
  
• I Don't Want to Die”
  
• “Epilogue”
  

Don't forget that you should be bringing a book to read for any “down time” in class.  Your prompt for your final Portfolio is to respond to the following:   Write a scene that turns on a ransom note for something OTHER than a human being!   Reminder: The My ABC Book about Me assignment is due next week...  In addition, please pick your favorite piece from the first three portfolio reviews and polish it up for “publication” next week.

Film as Literature:  We will continue to put everything we have learned about film this semester together by reading Chapter 8: “Thinking About Movies, Theory, and Meaning” and watching Schindler's List.  You may also have some time to work on your final project, A Recipe for a Film, which is due on January 12th.   Please see the handout for this project for specific requirements and presentation guidelines.

Fundamentals of Composition:   We will be looking at chapter 22: “Documenting Sources” and discussing in-text citations which you should be using in your literature project! Reminder:   your literature project, which is in lieu of a final exam for this course, is due on Thursday, January 15th.  Please see the project handout for specific information for this assignment.  We should have time to work on the literature project during Writing Workshop time, so please come prepared to work on that.

Mystery Fiction:  We are finished reading, and now we will watch a couple of filmed versions of Agatha Christie mysteries involving Hercule Poirot while you finish up your final projects: A Recipe for Death, which is due on January 15th, in lieu of a final exam.  Remember, our class discussion takes place on our class blog; each of you must post one original comment in response to my prompt, and then each of you should respond to someone else's post if you are to earn full credit for this course requirement! Please be sure that you are posting to the correct blog entry for full credit! I am deducting points for spelling and grammar mistakes, and for obvious vague entries that you are posting when you have NOT read all of the required pages, so be mindful of this as you post!

This is an A week, and there are only two weeks left in this first semester, so STAY ON TRACK!

Teacher Barb :)

It's hard to believe, but at the end of this week, we will off for a two-week holiday break! Hanukkah begins at sundown Tuesday, so some of us will be celebrating while others are still gearing up for Christmas.  

"Kindle the taper like the steadfast star
Ablaze on evening's forehead o'er the earth,
And add each night a lustre till afar
An eightfold splendor shine above thy hearth."
~Emma Lazarus, The Feast of Lights. 

If you are participating in our annual Secret Santa / Hanukkah Harry / Kwanzaa Kevin / Bodhi Ben / Ramadan Ralphie / Yule Yorick / Divali Dennis.  Please do NOT forget to have a small gift treat/gift for your recipient on Tuesday and then the final gift on Friday when we do our big reveal.  If you forgot to give your person a gift last week on Tuesday or Friday, please make up for that this week.  Don't forget that you are supposed to be keeping your person's name a SECRET!

Advanced Composition:  On Monday I will meet with those of you I didn't speak with on Friday.  So far everyone seems to be in good shape for this project, and I hope that is true of all of you!  While I do individual conferences, you will be reading Chapter 14: “Mixing the Writing Strategies" to yourselves.  Then, as a group we will read an example of this in our textbook:

• “Blur: Cheetahs, Ranchers, and Hope.”
  

You will also have time to work on your argument essay which is due on Wednesday, December 17th and/or your I-Search project, so please come prepared to work on either one!

Advanced Placement Calculus AB:   Please be sure that you are where you need to be in this online class!  You may want to use Khan Academy to reinforce any concepts you are having trouble with!  If you have tests scheduled, you MUST be ready to take these on time on the days when your class is scheduled with me!

Advanced Placement English Language and Composition: Please be sure that you are where you need to be in this online class as there is LOTS of reading to do!

Advanced Placement Psychology:  Please be sure that you are where you need to be in this online class!  If you have tests scheduled, you MUST be ready to take these on time on days when your class is scheduled with me!

Art History I:  We will be watching a film about Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and then you will be presenting your Chrysler Museum of Art assignments on Thursday the 18th.  If we finish early, we will read three chapters in our textbook:

• Dutch Genre and Portraiture 2: Delft and Deventer
  
• Dutch Still-Life Painting
  
• Late Baroque in Italy
  

At that point, we would be caught up!

Creative Writing:  This week, you will be reading the following in Writing Down the Bones:

• “Claim Your Writing”
  
• “Trust Yourself”
  

Your weekly prompt, due on Wednesday the 18th, is to consider a special gift for someone—what would you choose to give and to whom would you give this gift if there were no reasons [money, time, distance, etc] not to?  Don't forget that you should be bringing a book to read for any “down time” in class.  Your prompt for your final Portfolio is to respond to the following:  What was the best gift you have ever received? Describe it in detail!  Who gave this gift to you? What was the occasion?  Why was this the best gift you were ever given?

Film as Literature:   We have watched Some Like it Hot, the film chosen by the American Film Institute as the number one film on their 100 Years, 100 Laughs list [2000], so now we will put everything we have learned about film this semester together by reading Chapter 8: “Thinking About Movies, Theory, and Meaning” and watching AFI's number one movie from 100 Years... 100 Movies [ 1998, 2007]: Citizen Kane.  Don't forget that you should be working on your final project, A Recipe for a Film...

Fundamentals of Composition:  We will finish our discussion of Chapter 19: “Writing About Literature” in preparation for the Literature Project [see the handout for this for specifics] which will be due in lieu of a final exam on January 15th.  Hopefully you have already selected a novel for this assignment!  Remember, your Comparison essay is due on Thursday, December 18th, and we should have some time to work on this during class too.

Mystery Fiction:    We are reading our final novel, A Morbid Taste for Bones.  Hopefully you will find this one easier to read! You need to be finished with this one by December 17th as the postcards are due on December 18th! So, you definitely need to be reading during the time I give you for this in class! On the 18th, we will watch a filmed version of the novel—how are the book and the film similar? How are they different? It will be interesting to discover which version you like better! Remember, our class discussion takes place on our class blog; each of you must post one original comment in response to my prompt , and then each of you should respond to someone else's post if you are to earn full credit for this course requirement! Please be sure that you are posting to the correct blog entry for full credit! I am deducting points for spelling and grammar mistakes, and for obvious vague entries that you are posting when you have NOT read all of the required pages, so be mindful of this as you post!

This is technically a B week, but Friday we will do the "big reveal" for Secret Santa/Hanukkah Harry and attending the Holiday Concert before a noon dismissal, so be prepared for a busy morning without classes.  Please remember that Friday IS a school day, and you are expected to be here until you are dismissed at noon for the break!   Please be sure to take home any and all food on or before Friday as the school will be closed for two weeks.  We do not return until Monday, January 5th.

Stay on track—the first semester ends two weeks after we return from the break! Have a great week!

Teacher Barb :)