Students wrote their PIE paragraphs in class today. Please be sure to study for your exam on Monday!

We continued working on our group essays today – please be sure that someone in your group can print that BEFORE class tomorrow to turn it in.

I also gave out the readings for the PIE paragraphs tomorrow (worth a major grade – the-odyssey-short-answer-response-assessment) and the study guide for the multiple choice exam tomorrow (also worth a major grade – the-odyssey-exam-study-guide).

Please remember to bring $10 if you would like to order a copy of The Joy Luck Club. And as a reminder, there’s no extra credit film tomorrow.

Happy Early Release Day! 🙂

Students continued to work on their group essays over themes in the Odyssey. There was no homework tonight, but I hope that you’ll continue working on your essays so that you have them ready to turn in on Friday.

A few things to remember:

1. If you would like to purchase a copy of The Joy Luck Club, you can bring $10 on Thursday, Friday, or Monday.
2. I will not be in my room for lunch tomorrow. If you need something, talk to me in class or come see me Friday.

You can bring it today, Thursday, Friday, or Monday. If you would like, you can also get a copy from a used bookstore. We have a limited number of copies that we might be able to check out to students, but I really recommend having your own copy if possible so that you can annotate inside it.

We began today with John Green’s summary and analysis of the Odyssey. Afterwards, we had a quick talk about what happened to the major characters in the story after the Odyssey ended. Then we went over the lesson and notes for conjunctions (available under the Grammar section of the website).

Finally, we introduced the group essay that you will be writing over the next two days (the-odyssey-group-essay-on-theme)

If you would like to learn about opportunities to get funding to travel internationally, please come to my room during lunch! You’ll get to hear from a Bellaire student who spent all of last year in Germany and we’ll go over the different programs available to you.

Students took a grammar and vocabulary quiz today. Here is the distribution of those scores:

The average across all classes was an 87 – good work! I think your studying is really paying off.

No homework for tonight, but please finish your Obama speech if you did not get to do so within the past three days in class. 🙂

We finally got to the epic battle scene in the Odyssey today! After this weekend’s reading and reading guide (13-books-23-and-24 and books-23-and-24-reading-guide), we will be done with our Odyssey reading and do some group work.

A few important reminders:

1. Make sure you are ready for your folder check on Monday! You need to have your grammar (blue) and vocabulary (red) folders, with all of the handouts and notes I have given, in the brads, in order. Please do not store any other materials in those folders. I will check them as you are taking your quiz.
2. Please study for your quiz (on Vocabulary List 3 and pronouns, along with a review of everything else we’ve done) on Monday.
3. I’m having an information session on study abroad scholarships during lunch on Tuesday. Please come if you would like to learn about some of these special opportunities! 🙂

Happy, happy weekend – I’m going to enjoy relaxing with my family, and I hope you will too! (Not with my family – with your own family. Please don’t come hang out with my family.)

We discussed the beginning of Odysseus’s campaign against the suitors today – just a few more days until his epic battle!

In class, we read a speech by Barack Obama on the importance of fatherhood, and connected it to Odysseus’ absence from his son’s life. (obama-fathers-day-speech-with-odyssey-reading-guide)

Homework for tonight is to read Books 21 and 22 (12-books-21-and-22) and to complete the reading guide (books-21-and-22-reading-guide).