Home Stretch

We are in the home stretch, the final month of school. Make every day count, make every effort to complete what you have begun so beautifully. End the year with grace. We will be concentrating on choices, good choices and learning from bad choices. Be sure you make the correct choice that makes your future brighter and better.

Welcome to Cycle 5

Today is the beginning of Cycle 5. You are now aware of how this class operates and what you need to do to succeed. Daily attendance is crucial. Make every effort to be here everyday. Use Lunch to makeup or to continue work. Work from home or the public library. Your success is all about you and what you do or don't do. Make this cycle better than the last one.

End of the Cycle

You should be proud of the work you have done for Cycle 4. The development of your webpages has been a wonder to watch as you discover your skills and make your pages attractive. You have discovered the power of good "Form." In addition, the "Contents" on these pages is very very good. You should be proud of how hard and how well you have developed these webpages and the content on these pages.

Be sure go to your online Journal and attend to expressing what grade you believe you deserve for the work you have done this Cycle. I am proud of your work this Cycle and so should you be proud of yourselves.

Well done!

Peer Review

Now that you have posted work on your webpages, it is time to review your classmates' pages and to comment on them. It is called peer review. You will select the 2 classmates that follow your name on the list and any other classmate's page to peer review. You will do three peer reviews of the Irony essay. If there is no Irony essay, go to the next classmate.

We will use the following peer review protocol: I heard, I noticed, I wondered.

One way to avoid the pitfalls of peer review is to use the "I heard, I noticed, I wondered" method. With these prompts, you can provide useful feedback to a writer without being too biting in your criticism.

I heard...
As a reviewer, first try to summarize what you think the piece was about. This is the easy part. Tell the writer what you saw as the story or the main idea. As a writer, listen to this section, and try to hear whether or not you communicated what you were trying to communicate.

I noticed...
As a reviewer, tell the author about some of the things that attracted your attention. What worked well? What details seemed especially vivid or striking? What will you remember about this paper? As a writer, think about why the reviewer noticed these things, and how you can make all your writing as effective.

I wondered...
As a reviewer, did you have any questions when you finished reading? Did you not understand what something meant, or why it was included? Did something bother or disturb you? Did you suspect something might have worked better another way? This section is your chance to ask the writer all these questions. As a writer, try to answer the reviewer's questions. Look at your writing again, and see if there is any way to make those points clearer to a reader.

You will be writing your comments in WORD and then copy and paste them on this blog as per Ted's instructions.

Welcome to The Spring Semester

You will be making webpages in this class. Those webpages will represent all of the work you do in this class. Since you have passed the Regents, we will be working on more college oriented essays. Your attendance is crucial and being on time is very important for you to succeed in this class and then in college and beyond. You will be the center of the work we do and your success is in your hands. I look forward to working with you, assisting you, and watching you shine in this class.

Mid Cycle

The list of scholars on the left has increased. Some scholars are done, they finished last cycle. Some are new and began at the beginning of this cycle. And I can get a new scholar at any time. Today, I got a new scholar. Reviewing the assignments the scholars are to do on ToDaY's MeNu, will provide what was to be done as I review each scholar's webpage. I'm impressed with those scholars who have excellent attendance as that fact reflects on their webpage. I'm impressed with how they help each other. I am impressed with how the scholars have risen to the task of making these pages, understand how to do it, and have generally speaking enjoyed the projects as demonstrated in how they continue to proofread their work and edit it. We are at the halfway point in the semester and the second cycle and I am very pleased with the progress being made by the scholars and the seriousness with which they construct their pages. I am also pleased with how our individual conferences are going and how the scholars respond to them. Their in class folders also reflect on their progress. Great work so far, keep going.

End of the First Marking Period

The scholars have done very well with making their webpages using HTML. They have accomplished much in design and tackling a difficult assignment like the Hypertext Haiku. They have achieve much in this first marking period and generally speaking I see us as being on track and proceeding beautifully.

Scholars are doing well

I am impressed with how the scholars at West Side HS have come along and have developed their webpages. Attendance is good! Everyone is engaged. As scholars finish and accomplish a task, they move ont help another. The cooperation is good and healthy. They are using the Style Sheet well and beginning to make decisions about their page without conferring with me. They are beginning to not rely on me for every step. The use of the Smart Board is very important so that I can use their pages as models to lessons about HTML, writing,and design. I'm glad I decided to teach this class and to get back to CyberEnglish.

Welcome to a new year

This year, 2008-09, marks my return to using the Internet in my class. I plan on having my scholars obtain a Google account and then make a webpage using HTML on sites. I plan on having them use Blogs and docs as well. I'm hoping to have their final projects, webfolios, be multimedia. The class can be found here. I'm looking forward to this class.

Summer School is over!!

I had lots of fun this summer with my scholars. We built Blogs. I gave them assignments and they built their blogs around them. I was very impressed with how quickly they took to blog writing. Their pages are to the left under the Scholars Summer 08 heading. I was very happy with their final piece, self assessment. In it they speak about their experience with the blog. They speak well about their successes and failures. They provide context for the reader before reading the blog posts. I was most excited by their love of the Habits of Mind. I like blogs, but their has to be more as Earl said. There is and this fall I plan on playing around with them again and for the first time in some cases. I'm jazzed about this fall.

The first alpha list of scholars by first name are those who did the self assessment, the second alpha list are those who did lots, but not self assessment, the third are those who started but didn't make it past midterm.

My Favorite Quote

Imitation is Suicide.

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Copying someone else and giving up my identity to be like another is the death of me, suicide. It is important for me, to be me and not to imitate another because I think that person has a better life or is smarter. I can use the qualities of another to help me understand myself better, but I should move on and develop my own skills. Using another as a model so I can shape myself is fine, but I do not want to imitate that person, become a clone of that person, because then I lose myself and that would be like suicide. It is good to admire others to help me know myself better, but I do not want to become them, I want to become myself, with their help.