Friday, August 29, 2014

Scribe August 29th, 2014 Andrew Brooks

We opened class by discussing another college essay we must write.  The topic this time around is: “How do our beliefs and faith (either absence or presence) define us?”.  We then talked about good tactics for writing college essays.  A good one is to tell a story.  Try to make ⅓ of the essay a story and the other ⅔ about how the story shapes you.  More tactics are to be positive, don't offend by using controversial topics, avoid using cliches, and just be you.

Next, we broke into groups of four and shared our song assignment with each other, discussing some of the lines and how they apply to our lives.


We then split the board into three categories which were: questions, observations, and good lines. We split into groups of four and contributed to these subjects while Mrs. Smith checked annotations.
Question:
“Who spoke in chapter 6?
Observation:
We noticed that whenever Pi speaks of zoo’s, he ties religion into it as well.
Good line:
Behind the curtain of “The most dangerous animal” was a mirror.

To wrap class up, we watched a bit of the movie. We watched the scene where Pi explains his name.

Homework:
College Faith Essay (Wed)
Chapters 9-27 (Wed)

Scribe -Friday, August 29 2014. Ben Newell

Ben Newell
Scribe

We discussed the college essay due next Wednesday. The subject is “How do our beliefs and faith(either absence or presence) define us?” Important things to note for the essay are to make it about yourself. A good rule to follow is to have ⅓ story and ⅔ about yourself and how the story made you who you are. Other important points for the essay are to be positive in your writing, avoid be offensive or talking about very controversial subjects, avoid using cliches and to be yourself(but not in a cliche way).

We wrote on the board in three sections: quotes, questions and observations.
Quotes:
“Religion is darkness”
“Life will defend itself no matter how small it is”
“If you went to a home, kicked down the front door, chased rthe people who lived there out into the street and said, “Go! You are free! Free as a bird! Go! Go!” do you think the would shout and dance for joy? They wouldn’t.”
We talked about these quotes in various ways. We talked about how contrary to Mr. Kumar, Pi thought that religion is light. In the next two quotes we related the zoo to society and how people will always try to defend themselves as well as how people will treat many different things as their home.

Questions:
What is with the italicized chapters?
How does Pi manage religion?
Why are the chapters weird?
The chapters were explained by the movie clip. They represent an author’s outside perspective on Pi.

Observations:
The observations mainly talked about how Pi was very careful in defining his name, his passion for animals and the zoo, and his interesting perspective of religion.

Next everybody shared a quote that represented themselves from a song that they found. The list of songs shared is below.
List of songs mentioned:
Laura Palmer -Bastille
Wonder -Adventure Club
We’re Gonna Be Friends -White Stripes
Bartholomew -The Silent Comedy
The Chronicles of a Fallen Love -The Bloody Beetroots
Lithium -Nirvana
Imagine -John Lennon
Express Yourself -Charles Wright
Party In The U.S.A -Miley Cyrus
Cameras -Matt & Kim
People are Strange -The Doors
Titanium -David Guetta
Years -Alesso
Atmosphere -Kaskade
Vital Signs -Rush

The last thing we did was watch the name part from the movie Life of Pi. The scene was very close to the book in terms of representation.

For homework we need to write the essay about faith, as well as chapters 9-27. That sounds like a lot but many of the chapters are really short one page chapters.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Scribe, Wednesday, August 27th




We started the class out with a quick introduction, and then went into a class discussion about chapters 1-3 of ‘Life of Pi’.

Fish Bowl Summary
- First words of the book, “My suffering left me sad and gloomy”.
-What does that say about the character?
-What mood does that imply the rest of the book is going to have?
-Why talk about pools for 3 whole pages?
-What is Pi telling us?
-What is the author telling us?
-Foreshadowing?
-Pi’s family aversion to the water…
-Chapter 2
- Who is speaking?
- Are they speaking about Pi?
- Interesting perspective on how we look at ourselves vs. how other people look at us.
-Will these changes of perspective continue in the rest of the book?


Then Smith handed out a class expectations worksheet that we all signed, you will need to do that when you get to class tomorrow. (Picture attached)

Homework:

Print out the lyrics to your favorite song. Annotate the crap out of it. For real. Pour your soul into the annotations.

Read and Annotate Ch. 4-8 of ‘Life of Pi’

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Spencer Hanson
Scribe

PLC day
Donut day
Smith will check annotations some days, but other times just talk about it. Today we are just talking about annotations in the book.
The song assignment is due on friday, printed and annotated.
We are going to discuss the annotations we did on chapters 1-3
*We move tables together and discuss*
You get points for contributing

Mrs. Smith: What I find interesting is this first line on page one, "Sad and gloomy..." Why?
Paul: Maybe he is sad and broken
Courtney: Maybe it has to do with the doctors when he was in the hospital
*Adam brings in donuts*
Smith: the shattered self makes me think of paul's song, want to feel normal. The fact that he picked the sloth, what does that say? is he damaged?
Adam: the sloth represents how he is in a world of hurt
*PA speaker goes off saying there is a lock-in due to a bank robbery*
*Class freaks*
Smith: Back to the sloth
Ben: I found it interesting, I was wondering if he saw himself as the sloth, but I think that he didn't see himself as the sloth and that he only was only interested in it
Brandon: I feel like the author is using the sloth to describe himself, he takes things slow, checking his surroundings and stuff, using it as an insight to describe himself.
Kendra: Sloth is going to foreshadow how he has to survive on a ship with a tiger
*Class gets interested in a possible dolphin on the book cover*
Smith: okay so why does the author use the sloth to provide foreshadowing?
Person_I_dont_know: He just doesn't want others to see him as being sorry for himself
Jake: Sloths are a humble beings, and his connection was trying to be humble about his situation and story
Person_I_dont_know: Maybe he is saying that he wishes that he wasn't smart enough to understand what happened to him as in much detail as he is
Smith: Okay, What do you think about the line on page 5, where it compares almost evolution and creationism, do you think he has a conflict within himself? And why does he compare god to a three-toed sloth? Like what does that even mean?
Person_I_don't_know: He has conflicting religion viewpoints, because he talks about his different beliefs
Ben: Maybe he compares god to a sloth because the sloth only views things and doesn't have to interested in what is ogoin on.
*slience*
*crickets*
Brandon: I wanted to ask what everyone wanted to think about the "noose" the necktie is being wierd
Paul: I think he was saying that he didn't want to be like everyone else, in his life with a meaningless job
Smith: So like ties if you turn them like this way, then nooses are like this way. Anybody else?
Jake: I think that-
*PA SYSTEM*
PA SYSTEM: OUR BUILDING IS "SAFE", A PERSON WITH A WEAPON ON THE WEST OF BROADWAY, PLEASE REMAIN INSIDE THE BUILDING
Jake: ...
Brandon: So we can't like leave to go to lunch?
*Class rages*
*Off topic ramblings*
Brandon: So like what about the ppl in the portables, are they like f'd?
Smith: no they'll ... not important. What I think is interesting is that he thinks of death very oddly. Why does he relate the beauties of life to death in this way?
Brandon: So wait is he being racist?
Smith: Yea, I think he is calling white people pink flamingo people. He is being mean spirited, but no necesarrly racist
Kendra: Maybe this is another connection to the sloth, how they are vegitarians
Adam: Also he could be worrying about how death will come one day, but death would be envious of life
Person_I_don't_know: They author doesn't seem to be indian
Smith: Britian
Person_I_dont_know: But I was thinking that what he sa-
*PA SYSTEM*
PA SYSTEM: ATTENTION EVERYONE.......(repeats message again)
Smith: So we're hopefully not going to run out of food..
*random conversation*
Smith: Okay so why does he have all these confliting beliefs? Like as humans we are all conflicted souls, our parents are telling us to do this, but we want to do this, our friends tell us to do this, etc
Person_I_don't_know: He's not very judging, because when he mentions the agnostics, ... I don't know where I'm going with this.
Jake: I think he takes different good parts and beliefs out of each of the 3 religions, and he thinks that everyone else should
Juilliete: I don't see how his religion could change things
Angelo: I think it about how god brought him back to life, and maybe sometime in his life he lost his faith, but later he got it back
Smith: So that is probably a natural process of-
*PA SYSTEM*
PA SYSTEM: WE HAVE RECEIVED INFORMATION THAT THE PERSON WITH THE WEAPON IS SURROUNDED IN A BUILDING WITH POLICE. AGAIN, OUR SCHOOL WILL REMAIN ON LOCK-IN.. (repeats stuff)
Marco: Off of what angelo was saying, He says that whatever he went through, his pain was unbearable and whatever happened to him doesnt define him
Smith: I think it's interesting that he mentions scars, about how there are physical scars, but maybe he still have the emotional scars. What do you guys think about the indian food place where he uses his hands to eat
Angelo: This is like how people are really affected, and it's not just somthing you can brush off
Ibraham: I think that since he now lives in canada, he wants to re-live the culture

*Bell rings*

Monday, August 25, 2014

8/25
Juliette Tubbs
Class expectation blog post take aways
Teacher
be fun/have humor
be encouraging
lenient-ish
patient
understanding
simple
keep focus
excite students about class

Students
don’t sleep in class
be respectful
take turns
try hard
be open to criticism
share ideas
ask questions
encourage others
precipitation
don’t be bums

Class
movies
remember donuts
listen
be open to trying new things
magnificent
be legit
stay 100

Shared our name pieces with a partner

Dillon Scala Scribe Notes from Friday 8/22 Our homework for tonight is to type a one page, double spaced essay about our names. It can be anything about our names: the story behind it, where it comes from, etc. Mrs. Smith explained her own name: Anne Katharine Johnson Smith Krause Her dad named her Anne. It means graceful, which ironic because of her clumsiness. Johnson was her maiden name, Smith was from her first marriage, and Krause is her last name now Mrs Smith’s husband’s name is JC Krause IV and his kid’s name is JC Krause V Talked about names that are passed down from generation to generation, brought up the possibility of a family holding that tradition but never a boy There’s so much that you can right about with your name. Essay has to be printed out and ready to go by Monday Additional Homework (optional): Read Chapters 1-3 of Life of Pi. You have to show your thinking in the book so that we don’t have to take quizzes. You can show your thinking by writing in your opinions, thoughts, questions, and highlighting and commenting on quotes that stick out to you. Pi will talk a lot about his name, this should spark some ideas as to what to write about with your name. We will watch part of the Life Of Pi movie later on. We then broke up into groups to create our posters for our religions. There were three groups each assigned to one religion (Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism) We are presenting on religions on Monday Here is an example of what your posters should look like. Dillon Scala Scribe Notes from Friday 8/22 Our homework for tonight is to type a one page, double spaced essay about our names. It can be anything about our names: the story behind it, where it comes from, etc. Mrs. Smith explained her own name: Anne Katharine Johnson Smith Krause Her dad named her Anne. It means graceful, which ironic because of her clumsiness. Johnson was her maiden name, Smith was from her first marriage, and Krause is her last name now Mrs Smith’s husband’s name is JC Krause IV and his kid’s name is JC Krause V Talked about names that are passed down from generation to generation, brought up the possibility of a family holding that tradition but never a boy There’s so much that you can right about with your name. Essay has to be printed out and ready to go by Monday Additional Homework (optional): Read Chapters 1-3 of Life of Pi. You have to show your thinking in the book so that we don’t have to take quizzes. You can show your thinking by writing in your opinions, thoughts, questions, and highlighting and commenting on quotes that stick out to you. Pi will talk a lot about his name, this should spark some ideas as to what to write about with your name. We will watch part of the Life Of Pi movie later on. We then broke up into groups to create our posters for our religions. There were three groups each assigned to one religion (Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism) We are presenting on religions on Monday Here is an example of what your posters should look like. Dillon Scala Scribe Notes from Friday 8/22 Our homework for tonight is to type a one page, double spaced essay about our names. It can be anything about our names: the story behind it, where it comes from, etc. Mrs. Smith explained her own name: Anne Katharine Johnson Smith Krause Her dad named her Anne. It means graceful, which ironic because of her clumsiness. Johnson was her maiden name, Smith was from her first marriage, and Krause is her last name now Mrs Smith’s husband’s name is JC Krause IV and his kid’s name is JC Krause V Talked about names that are passed down from generation to generation, brought up the possibility of a family holding that tradition but never a boy There’s so much that you can right about with your name. Essay has to be printed out and ready to go by Monday Additional Homework (optional): Read Chapters 1-3 of Life of Pi. You have to show your thinking in the book so that we don’t have to take quizzes. You can show your thinking by writing in your opinions, thoughts, questions, and highlighting and commenting on quotes that stick out to you. Pi will talk a lot about his name, this should spark some ideas as to what to write about with your name. We will watch part of the Life Of Pi movie later on. We then broke up into groups to create our posters for our religions. There were three groups each assigned to one religion (Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism) We are presenting on religions on Monday Here is an example of what your posters should look like. Dillon Scala Scribe Notes from Friday 8/22 Our homework for tonight is to type a one page, double spaced essay about our names. It can be anything about our names: the story behind it, where it comes from, etc. Mrs. Smith explained her own name: Anne Katharine Johnson Smith Krause Her dad named her Anne. It means graceful, which ironic because of her clumsiness. Johnson was her maiden name, Smith was from her first marriage, and Krause is her last name now Mrs Smith’s husband’s name is JC Krause IV and his kid’s name is JC Krause V Talked about names that are passed down from generation to generation, brought up the possibility of a family holding that tradition but never a boy There’s so much that you can right about with your name. Essay has to be printed out and ready to go by Monday Additional Homework (optional): Read Chapters 1-3 of Life of Pi. You have to show your thinking in the book so that we don’t have to take quizzes. You can show your thinking by writing in your opinions, thoughts, questions, and highlighting and commenting on quotes that stick out to you. Pi will talk a lot about his name, this should spark some ideas as to what to write about with your name. We will watch part of the Life Of Pi movie later on. We then broke up into groups to create our posters for our religions. There were three groups each assigned to one religion (Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism) We are presenting on religions on Monday Here is an example of what your posters should look like.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Class Expectations

What qualities do good teachers, students and classes embody?  What expectations do you have of yourself, of Smith, and of this class?  Make sure to proofread your response, as well as comment and connect to one another's.