One Word Essay Due 3/29 by 3 PM

TENACITY

Hi Gang,   YOU WILL NEED TO CREATE A NEW POST TO DO THIS BLOG.. YOU CAN'T JUST COMMENT LIKE ALWAYS... JUST HIT "NEW POST" AND FOR THE TITLE, PUT YOUR NAME.. SEE ME WITH QUESTIONS
 
What you see above is a "One Word Essay".  If you had never heard the word, "tenacity", you should be able to derive its meaning from the context of the picture.  For that climber to get where he is took tenacity.  It took determination, nerve, moxie, resolve, etc.  What you will be doing for this blog (due by 3 PM on Friday, the 29th) is to choose any ten of our vocabulary words from the list below and create a series of One Word Essays of your own.

This does mean your posts will be longer than usual, but other than your ten words, the only other writing will be at the end when you sign your name.  Your photos must be school appropriate and MUST NOT include any writing.  There were tons of photos that had the word, "tenacity" in them or that had other writing; if you include any images with words in them, they will not be counted in your grade.  Obviously the grading of this assignment is pretty subjective; if I comment on your blog with a question about a particular image and you don't respond back to justify your choice of image, you won't receive credit for that image.  It will be worthwhile to check back on your post to see if there are any comments noted.  Here are the words you have to choose from, all from your vocabulary book this year:

abominate          winsome          buttress          fractious          megalomania          interloper

abstemious        sedentary        slovenly           sangfroid        vitriolic                    heinous

bedlam             paragon            querulous        straitlaced      vapid                      unwieldy

desecrate         corpulent          fetter               imperious         herculean              stalwart

disconsolate    equitable          petulant           soporific            tenuous                 sanctimonious

gauche            nonplussed      ostentatious      scurrilous          precocious             grandiose

recondite       provincial          obdurate          resilient             occult                    pernicious

Good Luck!

  Ms. Mott

Biopoem Blog

Hi Gang,
  You've had a couple of pretty easy weeks here, so it's time, as we approach our short poetry unit, to kick it up a notch.  For this blog, you'll be creating a Biopoem.  Like Haiku, Biopoems have a very specific format, though with these, it's more about content and less about syllables.  Biopoems will not require advanced science degrees or consultation with Mrs. Zaczek, they refer to the other "Bio" we sometimes talk about in school, the Biography.  This poem is about YOU.  Please follow the format below exactly and you will have created a Biopoem worthy of "wordle-ing"...... but more on that in a minute...
                 

(First name)- (Four adjectives that describe you) Son or Daughter of (your parents names) Lover of (three different things that you love) Who feels (three different feelings and when or where they are felt) Who gives (three different things you give) Who fears (three different fears you have) Who would like to see (three different things you would like to see) Who lives (a brief description of where you live) -(last name)

As with all blogs, you must be careful with grammar, punctuation, spelling, and capitalization, and you must sign it.  You will receive a poor grade for typos and errors in any of the above and a zero if you do not sign your post.

This blog offer bonus opportunities; if your English grade is low and you'd like to improve it, take your responses from the poem (the things in parentheses) and make them into a "Wordle".  Go to wordle.net, copy and paste your words into the box, do the editing; play with colors and fonts, and  then hit "create wordle".  Print it out and get it to me by Tuesday the 19th by 4:15 PM, and I will give you an extra 15 points on your blog.  This process takes no more than about 10 minutes, but it is a good way to play with words, with online publishing, etc.  I'd like to have a bunch of these to hang in the room for the rest of  the year. (Please see mine on the hallway wall.).  Remember, blogs count twice, so the bonus points will too.. pretty nice!

If you're having trouble with any part of this blog, I'm here after school Tuesday and Thursday until 4:15 and can be found in my room most other days B, D, G, H, and I blocks.  I will not accept Wordles after 4:15 on Tuesday the 19th or blogs posted after 3 PM on Friday the 15th.

I hope to see some creative writing here.. good luck!

Ms. Mott

Erudite Insults!

Hi Gang,

  I’m not sure why this topic makes me laugh, but it does.  I love the idea of “smart” insults.  When someone really irritates me or when my brothers and I get together, we enjoy verbal sparring.  I’m not a fan of vulgarities, I don’t like swearing, and I enjoy leaving people scratching their heads wondering if they’ve just been insulted.  I’ve collected several erudite insults from famous people to give you a few examples.  Check these out:

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."· "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."·

 "He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr·

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." -Winston Churchill· "

I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." Clarence Darrow·

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).·

 "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas·

 "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain·

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.." - Oscar Wilde·

 "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill·"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second ... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.·

 "I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." -Stephen Bishop·

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright·

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." -Irvin S. Cobb·

"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." -Samuel Johnson·

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating·

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." -Charles, Count Talleyrand·

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker·

 "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain·

 "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West·

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." -Oscar Wilde·

 "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)·

 "He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder·

 "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." – Groucho

For this week’s blog, you need to share at least three “smart” insults.  They can be your own creations, or something you have found from another source.  If they are from another source, be sure you credit the source, as done above. 

The rules:

1. You must have three separate insults
2. You must credit the source – if, like many above, you can share who the insult was intended for too, please do
3. You must use language appropriate for MY 90-year old grandmother (no vulgarities!)
4. You must spell check and grammar check your post
5. You must sign your post

 Have fun with this!

  Ms. Mott

Your Personal Bucket List

Hi Everyone!

  A "bucket list" is a term used to catalogue all the things you want to do before you die.  It first came in prominence in the 2007 movie of the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.  I have seen "bucket list" apps, questionnaires on Facebook, emails, and greeting cards.  Like most people, I have somet things I most definitely plan to do before I die and some I think about, but can't be sure I'll ever accomplish.  Katrina Lester suggested that we do our own bucket lists for a blog and it seems like a good time to do it so, here are the requirements:

• Your list must be formatted like a list (note how these requirements are in list format?)
• Your list must contain at least fifteen things that anyone can accomplish in their lifetime
• Your list must contain at least ten things that would be difficult, but not impossible to accomplish
• Your list must be believable
• Your final item may be something that is entirely improbable, impossible, but you would still like to try
• Your list must be spell checked and grammar checked.  *I am no longer going easy on you if you can't be bothered to do this.  If you have misspellings or are still not capitalizing your name, the pronoun "I", and other items like that, you will not receive a passing grade for this blog.
• You must sign your blog.  If you don't, you will receive a grade of zero.

Have fun with this one!  It is due by 3PM on Friday, February 15.  I know we don't have school then, but it is still the deadline.

For your response to a peer, due by 3PM on Friday, February 22, please comment specifically on at least five items on a peer's bucket list.  Again, spelling, grammar, and signing your name can make or break you on this one.

Ms. Mott

Goal Setting... Again

Welcome back Everyone!

  We've had a little time off for writing and I know you're all busy with you projects for My Jim, so this is an easy blog this week that will hopefully get you on track to sail through the end of the school year.  By Friday, I want each of you to make a "To-Do List" that is a bit more meaningful than the one pictured above.  Please set three realistic, achievable goals for yourself for the second semester.  Along with each goal, I'd like you to provide at least two concrete steps you will take to achieve that goal.  I don't have a specific word count, what I'm looking for here is for your goals to be meaningful, well-written, and achievable.  For your final paragraph, please write how you will evaluate your success at the end of the school year.  I will do this assignment so you have a basic template to follow.

For next week's response to a peer, provide feedback to a peer about their plan.  A response like, "Great goals, Ms. Mott, I hope you can do it!" just won't cut it.  You have to either comment on the methods your peer has chosen to achieve their goal, the goal itself, maybe provide some other steps they can take to achieve it.  Make it meaningful.  Many of you are not happy with your first semester grades in English; a lot of that has to do with skipping, or submitting poorly written blogs.  I know you can all do a better job.

Good Luck!  Ms. Mott

New Blog for a New Year Due 1/11/13 by 3 PM

As the new year begins, it seems like a good time to consider the wisdom of one of the first teachers many of us, including me, had.  Dr. Seuss was a man who wrote his first book, And to Think That I Saw it On Mulberry Street, at a time when children's books were seen as, "...antiseptic and boring" with the children in them, "...unnaturally clean".  Seuss had established a reputation for his writing and illustrations in advertising and in short articles in some magazines, but Mulberry Street set him up as a children's writer for the remainder of his career.  His first "big book deal" came from Houghton Mifflen and Random House publishers who gave him a contract to write a children's book that would introduce 220 vocabulary words that young children should know.  That led to, The Cat in the Hat, the very first Dr. Seuss book that I remember reading by myself and the first that my children read alone as well.

Okay.. history lesson over.  What I've included here for this blog is a list of eight "life lessons" learned from Dr. Seuss.  What you'll need to do for this week's blog is take one of the life lessons, read the interpretation of it provided, and then relate it in some way to your own life, your goals for the future (maybe relate it to a New Year's resolution, if you made one) and describe why this particular life lesson is meaningful to you.  I need at least 300 words for this one and you have to be careful with spelling, grammar, punctuation, and paragraphing.  As always, please be sure to sign your blog.  This is due Friday, January 11, 2013 no later than 3PM.  I won't even be looking at these until after the break, but anyone who wants to write it early should feel free to do so.

8 Must Read Success Lessons from Dr. Seuss:

1. Be Who You Are

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”

If you can’t be yourself with your friends, then they’re not your friends, or at least they’re not very good ones.  The sign that someone is a good friend is how comfortable you are with them.  If you can be who you are, and say how you feel, then hang with those folks, they’ll surely keep it “real.”

2. Trouble Your Troubles

“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

When troubles show up, you have to show up bigger.  Don’t let troubles trouble you; you trouble your troubles by showing up with a “big bat!”  But not literally….  You show up with a “big bat” by showing up with big courage, big faith, and big determination, if you do, you will trouble your troubles….

3. You Decide

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own.  And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”

How simple, yet how profound!  You decide where you go, only you.  You are only limited by your ability to believe in the impossible.

4. It’s Up To You

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

No one is going to rescue you, they’re not.  You have to dig yourself out of the ditch.  You have to care enough; you have to be motivated enough, to change things.  It’s up to you.

Things only change, when someone cares an awful lot.

5. Think

“You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.”

My greatest discoveries have come from sitting alone in a quiet room.  Dr. Suess said, “Think left, and think right, and think low, and think high. Oh, the things you can think up, if only you try!”  What can you think up?  Just try.

6. The More You Know

“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn the more places you’ll go.”

Reading expands your mind to the possibilities; once your mind has been expanded it can never go back to its original shape.  Commit to expand your mind, commit to know more.  The more you know, the more places you will go!

7. Your Mountain Is Waiting

“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting.

So… get on your way.”

Everyday you’re presented with a mountain.  You can climb the mountain, or you can play in the valley.  If you climb more than you play, you will truly be on your way.

8. You Are You

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

No one can be you, youer than you!  That’s good news all by itself….

Good Luck!

  Ms. Mott

Your assignment for this week is an odd one; you are to read the following diatribe on the English language and come up with at least three other examples that could be added to it.  That means no repetition of anything that is posted before you get around to doing it.  If you read this and five classmates have responded, you can't use the same examples either from my post or from any of your classmates.  The good news is, your examples will be very short and sweet this week.  Making me laugh is always a good thing!

This one is due the 14th by 3PM and will be your last blog of the year.  No response to a peer is necessary for this one.  Good luck!

Ms. Mott

No wonder we all struggle so much with the English language. 

This took a lot of work to put together! 
 1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
 2) The farm was used to produce produce.

 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

 4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

 6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
 7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

 10) I did not object to the object.
 11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
 12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

 13) They were too close to the door to close it.

 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
 17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear..

 19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

 20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?    Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

 And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

 If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

 How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

 English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

 PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?

 You lovers of the English language might enjoy this ..

 There's  a two-letter word that has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'
 It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?  At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it  UP to the secretary to write UP a report?
 We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP  a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock  UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning.People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UPexcuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

 We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of  UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takesUP almost 1/4th of the page and can add  UP to about thirty definitions. If you areUP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will takeUP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP  with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearingUP.When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP .When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

 One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP,so........it is time to shut UP!