Hello class of 2011,

Welcome to our blog. We will be using this blog to converse among ourselves and with others outside our classrooms about our readings, projects and other assignments.

Rules of the road

Here are some thoughts to guide our discussions:  

1) To post an article or a comment please include your first name and class
period.  DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR LAST NAME!   Only include your last
initial IF someone else in your period has the same first name.   

2) E-mail addresses are required for comments, but we are the only ones who will ever see it!   

3) Watch your language!  Ok, this is an obvious one, eh?  But in
all seriousness, be mindful of your word choice… which means that using
symbols is also off-limits (No AIM speak)!  This is a professional tool
for collaboration, treat it as such.   

4)Please make comments!  Feel free to disagree
with your peers!  However, make sure that your tone is respectful.

• BAD:  Jane made a really stupid point.  I think that blah, blah, blah…
• GOOD:  I disagree with Jane’s point about _________ because blah, blah, blah.

5)  Any questions, let us know!

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Technorati Tags: blogging, blogs, etiquette

After consulting with Mrs. O’Hara, we have decided to rename our site The Hawks Talk. Let us know what you think.

When students visit the site next school year, they will be greeted with a new name. Mr. Powell’s English Class is now known as St. Georges English Class. I made the change because other teachers will join me in posting to this blog. We may also have a new look. Stay tuned!

Mr. Powell

Answer in 100 words or more:

The ninth grade reading list needs improvement. Recommend a book for next year. Give reasons for your recommendation.

Answer in 100 words or more:

How have you grown as a student this year? Discuss one thing that really helped you academically.

Set a goal for next year.

Here are the directions for your final blogging assignment:

• Read the essay “Misspelling” by Charles Kuralt on page 469 of the textbook, and answer the following four questions in the comments section on our blog:

1.  According to the tone of this essay, how do you think Karult feels about misspellings?
2. Does he describe his attitude directly or let the reader infer it?
3. How do you feel about the need to spell English words correctly? 
4. If time remains, take the spelling tests at www.funbrain.com/spell/index.html.  Mindy McAdams has a more challenging test on her web site.  How did you do on the spelling tests?

Video originally hosted on YouTube. See my post on April 27, 2007.Uploading and using video hosted on TeacherTube allows me to share content with students that would otherwise be blocked. This video runs just under 4:00 minutes. The name of the story is “The Order.”

Download: Posted by aepowell at TeacherTube.com.

This has been a successful first year of blogging for our school.

First, I would like to thank the following people for comments and posts about our work:

• James Brush – You were the first outsider to comment on our blog. You also talked about us in your post. Both actions meant a lot to us.
• Vicki Davis – Your comments lifted my spirits about using blogging in the classroom.
• The teacher and students of Blogical Minds. – Your posts about us made us smile (scroll to entries on May 1st and 8th to learn of our involvement with this site).

Your comments and posts buoyed my enthusiasm for blogging and encouraged me to continue engaging my students by making this tool a part of our curriculum.

Hats off to all our students for writing thoughtful comments on this site and on other blogs.

We are showing the world that we can be responsible bloggers.

Finally, I would like to thank Samantha D. for leaving the first comment on this blog. My thanks also go to Kody S. for being the first student to leave a comment about my video posted on YouTube and embedded on our site.

1. Describe the tone of the poem “The Funeral” and explicate the poem using the chart we made. What similarities did you find between this poem and “The Courage That My Mother Had”?
2. Visit Poetry 180 and choose a poem to talk about on tomorrow.

What features do you think the cell phone of the future will have? What tasks would you want that cell phone to be able to perform? 

As part of the Horizon Project, several students have envisioned the future of the cell phone.

 Here is a video by Atif, a student at the ISD school in Bangladesh, who is one of the students involved in this project. I learned of this video from the coolcatteacher blog. What marvelous ideas Atif displays!