Awesome Guitar Work

A New Piece from Zack

Owed Two Computers

OWED TWO COMPUTERS

BUY LORAINE REXFORD

  

THEE spell check on my computer

Tells WON if a word is an AIR,

I'm SEW glad TWO have this convenience

We FILL BETTOR because it is THEIR.

WEE RING ARE hands when we're worried

ARE spelling may KNOT BEE WRITE,

Webster WOOD TERN INN his grave

TOO NO WEE OUR KNOT SEW bright.

SEAMS the old-fashioned dictionary

Showed AWL the words clear and clean.

SEW what WOOD WEE DUE without it

           TWO SEA if words say what WEE mean?


(For extra credit, use your brain to correct the items the computer can't. Send your brain-inspired corrections to me as an email attachment.)

Use melissa.baker@lposd.org (if you're one of my face-to-face students).
Use melissa.baker@idla.k12.id.us (if you're one of my online students). 

Have fun! 

Live Office Link

Here's the link to get to my Live Office, every Thursday, 5 pm Mountain Time (which is 4 pm Pacific Time up north).  Link is below.  Sometimes doesn't show up until you put your cursor over it.

Baker's Live Office

Brian Jacques

Spooky story by Brian Jacques today in Live Office. 5PM Mountain Time, which is 4PM Pacific. 

Edgar Allen Poe at Lake City Playhouse

Anyone up for a road trip to Coeur d'Alene?  Great event this Saturday night, October 19, 7:30pm.  A dramatic evening with Edgar Allen Poe at Lake City Playhouse.

Lake City Playhouse

It costs $15.  Want to car pool?


Students, 20 points extra credit if you attend and write me a brief summary of the pieces presented and your impressions of the performances.  I know it's a long way to drive, but your parents will love it, too (if they drive you!).  I'm going!  Hope to see you there!

Writing Challenge: Write a long sentence!

 Write a long sentence! Make sure it makes sense.

Here are some techniques you can use to lengthen your sentences: add modifying phrases, connective phrases, adjectival phrases and clauses, adjectives and adverbs. 

For 10 points extra credit, write a really long sentence.  Type it up, and email it to me at melissa.baker@lposd.org

Here is an example by Robert Louis Stevenson, from his dedication at the beginning of Kidnapped, 1886.  He is discussing his novel.

“This is no furniture for the scholar’s library, but a book for the winter evening schoolroom when the tasks are over and the hour for bed draws near; and honest Alan, who was a grim old fire-eater in his day, has in this new avatar no more desperate purpose than to steal some young gentleman’s attention from his Ovid, carry him awhile into the Highlands and the last century, and pack him to bed with some engaging images to mingle with his dreams.”

I bet you thought “avatar” was a new word created with the digital generation; but no, Stevenson used in it in 1886!

Think Before You Post

Reputable employers run background checks on perspective employees which now include checking Facebook pages and blogs. 

What a person posts shows a great deal about his/her character. 

Recommendation: Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want a potential employer to see/know. 

Competition for jobs today is intense. Why give a potential employer an excuse to hire someone other than you?

Extra Credit - Book Talk

Here’s another extra credit opportunity. Do the following, and post here on my blog, or send me your comments as an email attention.  10 Point E.C.

Book Talk Outline:

1. Characters
   1. Who are the major characters in the story?
   2. What are their relationships to each other?
   3. List 3 character traits for each major character.  One can be a physical trait, but the other two must be personality traits.
2. Setting
   1. Time (future, modern day, a year in the past…?)
   2. Place (Describe the physical location in approximately 5 sentences.)
3. Mood and Tone
   1. What is the atmosphere or emotion in the story?  Does it change throughout the story, or is it usually the same?
   2. What is the writer’s attitude toward the subject?  (Familiar, ironic, playful, sarcastic, serious, sincere…?)
4. Point of View
   1. Is the story told in first-, second-, or third-person?  Is the narrator limited in knowledge or omniscient?
5. Conflict
   1. What is the major conflict in the story?  Is it internal or external?
6. Plot
   1. Plot is the events that happen in the story.  Since you don’t want to retell the whole story to us in this assignment, and you may not have finished reading yet…Write a 3-paragraph summary that could go on the back cover of the book.  DO NOT COPY THE ONE ALREADY ON THE BOOK YOU READ! 
   2. Your new summary should list the characters, setting, conflict, and then fill in some necessary details to tell me what the story is about.  Make me want to read it!  Leave me in suspense…

Some Reasons for Writing from Anne Lamott

Bird by bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott

Some key points from the introduction. 

“Every morning, no matter how late he (my father, the writer) had been up, my father rose at 5:30AM, went to his study, wrote for a couple of hours, made us all breakfast, read the paper with my mother, and then went back to work for the rest of the morning.”

“One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore.”

“I understood immediately the thrill of seeing oneself in print.  It provides some sort of primal verification: you are in print; therefore, you exist.”

“I suspect that he (my father) was a child who thought differently than his peers, who may have had serious conversations with grownups, who as a young person, like me, accepted being alone quite a lot.  I think that this sort of person often becomes either a writer or a career criminal.”

“Do it every day for a while,” my father kept saying.  “Do it as you would do scales on the piano.  Do it by prearrangement with yourself.  Do it as a debt of honor.  And make a commitment to finishing things.”

“The months before a book comes out of the chute are, for most writers, right up there with the worst life has to offer… totally decompensating.”

 “December is traditionally a bad month for writing.  It is a month of Mondays.  I simply recommend to people that they never start a large writing project on any Monday in December.”

“When my (writer) friends are working (on their writing), they feel better and more alive than they do at any other time.”

“But I still encourage anyone who feels at all compelled to write to do so.  I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all that it is cracked up to be.  But writing is.  Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises.  That thing you had to force yourself to do – the actual act of writing – turns out to be the best part…  The act of writing turns out to be its own reward.”

Tips for Online Success

Tips for Online Success

---

As the facilitator of an online course, it is important that you clearly communicate your expectations to your students. In your online course, you may want to include reference links to resources and tips for your students to use to help them be more successful online learners. Here are some tips for success that you should share with your students:

1. Take full advantage of online conferencing.
   Whatever you can do to avoid feeling isolated is extremely important, and participating in online conferences will give you access to other students who are taking the same course as you at the same time.
   
   
2. Participate!
   Whether you are working alone, or in a group, contribute your ideas, perspective and comments on the subject you are studying, and read about those of your classmates. Your instructor is not the only source of information in your course—you can gain great insight from your peers and they can learn from you as well.
   
   
3. Take the program and yourself seriously. 
   Elicit the support of your colleagues, family and friends before you start out on your online adventure. This built-in support system will help you tremendously since there will be times when you will have to sit at your computer for hours at a stretch in the evenings and on weekends. When most people are through with work and want to relax is most likely when you will be bearing down on your course work. It helps to surround yourself with people who understand and respect what you are trying to do.
   
   
4. Make sure you have a private space where you can study.
   This will help lend importance to what you are doing as well. Your own space where you can shut the door, leave papers everywhere, and work in peace is necessary. If you try to share study space with the dining room or bedroom, food or sleep will take priority over studying.
   
   
5. Become a true advocate of distance learning.
   Discuss the merits of the process with whoever will listen. In order to be successful in this new educational environment, you must truly believe in its potential to provide quality education which is equal to, if not better than the traditional face-to-face environment. In discussing the value of online learning, you will reinforce its merits for yourself.
   
   
6. Log on to your course every single day.
   ….or a minimum of 5-6 days a week. Once you get into the online conferencing system, you will be eager to see who has commented on your postings and read the feedback of your instructor and peers. You will also be curious to see who has posted something new that you can comment on. If you let too many days go by without logging on to your course discussion group, you will get behind and find it very difficult to catch up.
   
   
7. Take advantage of your anonymity.
   One of the biggest advantages of the online format is that you can pursue your studies without the judgments typical in a traditional classroom. Unless you are using video conferencing, no one can see you – there are no stereotypes, and you don’t have to be affected by raised eyebrows, rolled eyeballs, other students stealing your thunder, or people making other non-verbal reactions to your contributions. You don’t have to feel intimidated or upstaged by students who can speak faster than you because you can take all of the time you need to think your ideas through and compose a response before posting your comments to your class.
   
   
8. Be polite and respectful.
   Just because you are anonymous, doesn’t mean you should let yourself go. Remember, you are dealing with real people on the other end of your modem. Being polite and respectful is not only common sense, it is absolutely obligatory for a productive and supportive online environment. In a positive online environment, you will feel valued by your instructor, valued by your classmates and your own work will have greater value as well.
   
   
9. Speak up if you are having problems.
   Remember that your professor cannot see you, so you must be absolutely explicit with your comments and requests. If you are having technical difficulties, or problems understanding something about the course, you MUST speak up otherwise there is no way that anyone will know that something is wrong. Also, if you don’t understand something, chances are several people have the same question. If another student is able to help you, he/she probably will, and if you are able to explain something to your classmates in need, you will not only help them out, you will reinforce your own knowledge about the subject.
   
   
10. Apply what you learn. Apply everything you learn as you learn it and you will remember it more readily. If it is possible, take the things you learn in your online course today and use them in your workplace tomorrow. Also, try to make connections between what you are learning and what you do or will do in your job. Contributing advice or ideas about the real-world as it applies to the subject matter you are studying helps you to internalize what you are learning, and gives valuable insight to your classmates who will benefit from your experience.
11. From Illinois Online Network

The Hunger Games -- Extra Credit

Have you read the novel The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins?

If so, answer these questions for 15 points extra credit!

The Hunger Games – Discussion Questions

1. How does Katniss feel about the country of Panem? Why does she need to make her face “an indifferent mask” and be careful what she says in public?

2. Describe Katniss’s relationships with Gale, with Prim, and with her mother. How do those relationships define her personality? Why does she say about Peeta, “I feel like I owe him something, and I hate owing people”? How does her early encounter with Peeta affect their relationship after they are chosen as tributes?

3. How does the fact that the tributes are always on camera affect their behavior from the time they are chosen? Does it make it easier or harder for them to accept their fate? How are the “career tributes” different from the others? 

4. Why are the “tributes” given stylists and dressed so elaborately for the opening ceremony? Does this ceremony remind you of events in our world, either past or present? Compare those ceremonies in real life to the one in the story. 

5. When Peeta declares his love for Katniss in the interview, does he really mean it or did Haymitch create the “star-crossed lovers” story? What does Haymitch mean when he says, “It’s all a big show?  It’s all how you’re perceived”? Why do they need to impress sponsors and what are those sponsors looking for when they are watching the Games?

6. Before the Games start, Peeta tells Katniss, “ … I want to die as myself … I don’t want them to change me in there.  Turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not. ” What does this tell you about Peeta?  What does he fear more than death?  Is he able to stay true to himself during the Games?

7. Why does Katniss ignore Haymitch’s advice to head directly away from the Cornucopia? Did she do the right thing to fight for equipment? What are the most important skills she has for staying alive? Her knowledge of nature? Her skill with a bow and arrow? Her trapping ability? What qualities of her personality keep her going? Her capacity for love? Her intelligence? Her self-control?

8. Why does Peeta join with the Career Tributes in the beginning of the Games? What does he hope to gain? Why do they accept him when they start hunting as a group? Why do groups form in the beginning when they know only one of them will be able to survive?

9. What makes Katniss and Rue trust each other to become partners? What does Katniss gain from this friendship besides companionship? Is Katniss and Rue’s partnership formed for different reasons than the other groups’?

10. Discuss the ways in which the Gamemakers control the environment and “entertainment” value of the Games. How does it affect the tributes to know they are being manipulated to make the Games more exciting for the gamblers and viewers? Does knowing that she is on live TV make Katniss behave differently than she would otherwise?

11. When does Katniss first realize that Peeta does care for her and is trying to keep her alive? When does she realize her own feelings for him? Did Haymitch think all along that he could keep them both alive by stressing the love story? Are they actually in love?

12.What do you think is the cruelest part of the Hunger Games? What kind of people would devise this spectacle for the entertainment of their populace? Can you see parallels between these Games and the society that condones them and other related events and cultures in the history of the world?

13. In 1848, Karl Marx wrote in The Communist Manifesto, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Discuss this statement as it applies to the society and government of Panem. Do you believe there is any chance to eradicate class struggles in the future?

14. Reality TV has been a part of the entertainment world since the early days of television (with shows such as Candid Camera and the Miss America Pageant), but in the 21st century there has been a tremendous growth of competitive shows and survival shows. Discuss this phenomenon with respect to The Hunger Games. What other aspects of our popular culture do you see reflected in this story?

Extra Credit: Discuss a Quote

Hi Awesome Students!

Please use this website to earn up to 15 points extra credit.

Brainy Quote

1. Click on an author’s name.
2. Choose a quote that seems interesting to you and meaty enough to write about.

3. Write three paragraphs about what the author meant with this quote, and why you find it interesting, and how you can apply this quote to your own life to benefit from this writer’s knowledge.

Baker's Life List

Greater White-fronted Goose (in the background)

Here's our "Life List" as of today, 10/8/13.  I'd love to push it over 300.  Maybe this fall during migration.

 We went up to British Columbia for a short trip this weekend, and went to the Creston Wildlife Management Area. The best bird we saw there was the Greater White Fronted Goose.  Actually, we saw hundreds of them!  Creston WMA has the greatest concentration of migrating Greater White Fronted Goose in all of Brittish Columbia.

Hairy Woodpecker

Even though it's only 100 miles away from here, the Greater White Fronted Goose does not stop here in North Idaho on it's migration south for the winter (or on it's migration north in the spring).  We didn't get close enough to get a good photo, but we did get close enough to see their orange feet and legs!
Another thing we noticed was the craxy way the flocks come in for a landing.  They glide in and then flip sideways and drop lower, then flip sideways again.  It was very cool!

Anyway, here's the list as of today.

Red-winged Blackbird

Students who want extra credit, choose one of these species to research and write an informative report about (min. five paragraphs), for 20 points extra credit.  Click on the link below to see the list.

Baker's Life List

Beaver Chews

Hairy Woodpecker