Pun Intended: Class Log & Discussions

Almost summer! (for me)

NLR Japan Excursion: Only one more day!  :(    Today we finished our face masks, rehearsed our plays, and sponge painted our kimono robe costumes., (then scrubbed the acrylics off the floor!)  Bring your parents tomorrow! 

UB Spanish: "Baile Bingo" review game and our first quizzish-test.  The results, save maybe two, were not pretty.  STUDY.

UB Literature: We continued to read Tweflth Night, only not as fun because I left all our costumes in my car :(  But we did have an amusing song-ish performance by our Feste, anyways, as well as a great example of what a caterwaul is.  Um, thanks, guys...  and answer your reading response for Monday!

Scrubs + Kabuki = awesome!

NLR Japan Excursion: Today we planned out our kabuki/noh performances for Friday's Parent Day, and began making our face masks.

UB Spanish: Reviewed how to conjugate "tener," looked at how to conjugate regular "AR" verbs.  Quiz tomorrow!

UB Literature: Today we assigned parts sans gender discrimination and continued to read through Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Homework: First, choose one character we have met in the play.  Then, describe how the character is presented to us, (example: Feste is obviously a clown/fool/jester).  You may want to do some brief research to look into each character's full job/station description, (example: Malvolio is a steward, what the heck is a steward??), as well as looking into what is expected of a person in that position and how you would expect them to act. 

Then, I want you to tell me what we know about this person after meeting them and their unique personalities.  What are they like in regards to their titles or jobs?  Is their presentation (what they are described as), congruent with the reality of who they are?  The obvious example for this is Viola: we meet her as a girl who then DISGUISES herself as a boy.  I want you to think about the words "disguise" and "deception."  What kinds of disguises and deceptions are being paraded in the play due to inconsistencies between our expectations of a character's personality and what their personalities are really like?  Why might Shakesepeare use this as a theme?   

Potato Paints

NLR Japan Excursion: Haiku writing!  A look at "Real Samurai Write Poems" Basho, two word poems, and reading poems for both metaphor and imagery.  We made "authentic" haiku scrolls with our own haiku poems and potato "wood block" stamps.

UB Spanish: A full day!  We reviewed pronouns, looked at how to tell time in Spanish, learned to count to 100 (cein), and looked at our first Spanish verb conjugation: "tener" (to have).  Don't forget that "tener" is a stem changing verb, and soon we are going to look at "ar," "er," and "ir" verbs, known as regular verbs.  Quiz Thursday!!

UB Literature: We did an exercise in ordering and understanding Shakespeare's lines, then read through the second scene of Twelfth Night.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged tonight at 7:30!

Rain, rain...

NLR Japan Excursion: Today was origami and Japanese floral arrangement day!  We made water balloons, hopping frogs, and paper cranes; didn't quite make it to origami lillies, tulips and roses, but maybe tomorrow.

UB Spanish: Reviewed a list of vocabulary that was both old and new, reviewed adjectives and learned some new ones, began working with the construction of "Me gusta a..."  Played one round o f "Celebrity Who Am I?" and the award goes to Michael V. for correctly identifying Flavor-flav before I even got to mention the giant pocket watch!  Assigned a practice worksheet for homework.

UB Literature: Reminder of what grades I have for you: blog creation (all), "Cathedral" writing prompt (those who were absent from discussion), and "Sonny's Blues" writing prompt (all).  Introduced Shakesepeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will, and began reading Act I.1 

Last Thursday

NLR Japan Excursion: Sushi making (veggie & crab rolls), tea cup painting, and Spirited Away!

UB Spanish: Definite and indefinite articles review, pronoun review, adjective review, and "fly swatter vocabulary" game

UB Literature: Listened to some Louie Armstrong and John Coltrane, broke into groups to find & discuss different motifs and images in "Sonny's Blues."

Homework: Read the introduction found inside your copies of Twelfth Night for Monday

All UB students: trip to Reynolds Auditorium to see the Arkansas Shakespeare Theater's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  I loved it, and I hope you all did, too!

Friday ~ was a work day, no  class!

2nd Day - still alive!

NLR Japan Excursion: Two teachers from ATA Karate of North Little Rock for our tae-kwon-do lessons - thank you!! - and a study of Hollywood ninjas versus real ninjas of history.

UB Spanish: reviewed all terms introduced yesterday; declared a winner in our "label-the-class" race

UB Literature: Discussed the poem "In the Orchard" by Muriel Stuart, as well as Raymond Carver's short story "Cathedral." 

Homework: get your copy of James Baldwin's story "Sonny's Blues" from your RA, (I had a showdown with the copy machine to get those printed before class... I lost).  You have until Thursday to read it.  Don't procrastinate - it's long, but worth it!

First Day class logs & assignments

NLR Japan Excursion:  student introductions & ice breaker games, Japanese trivia/fact or fiction duck duck goose, Japan time line relay, introduction to Japanese numbers and the alphabet.

Tomorrow: ATA Karate for kids!

UB Spanish: greetings, history of English/Spanish (read your sheets!), class instructions, Simon says game. 

Homework: Review vocab from book!  Check "handouts" section for details of covered topics

UB Literature: Discussed character perspective and read "Hills Like White Elephants." 

Homework: Read "Cathedrals" by Raymond Carver.  Email me your blog URL's, (check the handouts page for a full syllabus and instructions), and then answer the following questions in a post:

• Describe how each of the characters, (the husband/narrator, wife, Robert), are each portrayed as "blind" in different ways.  How so and why?
• How does Carver equate "blindness" with "prejudice?"  Do you think the husband overcomes his prejudice?  Why or why not?
• Do you agree that a person's prejudices can be described as blindness?  Why or why not?