Cora is here!

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to share that little Cora arrived in the world on Monday, July 26th at 4:50am. She was 7lb 9oz and 21 inches long. She is sooo cute. Here are a few pics:

First hours after her birth:

Cora had jaundice so she had to stay on these lights for a few daysa after her birth:

Two weeks old:

Three weeks old:

In My Heaven

Filtered light meandered aimlessly through the high-back wicker chairs on the plaza Jeanne d'Arc.

"Votre chocolate fondant mademoiselle," uttered the garcon. I sighed. French men sounded romantic even they were working.

"Brilliant! They brought two spoons!" Rose snapped up a utensil faster than I could and dug into the pile of chocolate decadence before us. I scooped up my own bite, closed my eyes, and entered heaven.

In my heaven, there is chocolate everywhere.

My tongue was falling down a chocolate waterfall of pleasure. The cake held its substance for only a moment and then disintegrated into a pool of crystallized cocoa sugar. I slowly opened my eyes as the first bite dissolved and glowered at Rose. Both of our spoons arced up like knights challenging each other to a duel. The little piece of heaven sat quivering between us. Who would get the most of it? ME, ALL ME!!!!

School Garden Blog Post

Write a blog post that shares the questions you asked your senior today at the school garden and share their answers.

After that, respond to 3-4 of the reflective questions the class wrote on the board about the garden experience (or write and respond to your own questions.)

Include a relevant photo from today or one you find on the internet. Remember to spell check!

Talking these ideas out

So far we've looked at potentially eye opening concepts in reading My Ishmael and watching Food Inc. Have you talked about what you are studying with your friends? With your family?

Have a discussion a member or members of your family about some of the things we've been learning in class.

- What has struck you?

- Do you agree or disagree with the concepts? Why?

- How can you apply them to the real world?

- What do your parents or family members think?

Share your conversation in a blog post. Include a photo and spell check! I know families can be busy so this post will not be due until Friday morning.

School Daze - Dialectic Journals

This photo was taken at an elementary school in San Diego. When I saw it the first thing I thought about was the School Daze chapters in My Ishmael. What do you think?

For your homework tonight write one dialectic journal about the two chapters in My Ishmael called School Daze and School Daze II (so your journal can be from either chapter). I have the hand out on dialectic journals linked on today's class calendar for easy reference.

Include a relevant photo and spell check. This assignment is just like a regular dialectic journal, but on a blog, so list the quote first and then your response.

Semester Goals for Spring 2010

It's the start of a new semester and a new year. It's time to list your academic goals for Humanities class. After watching Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk on Are Schools Killing Creativity? I hope you remember to focus on creativity and the Habits of Mind in your goals.

As a reminder the habits of mind are: Innovation, Perspective, Evidence, Mindfulness, Ownership, and Wonder.

Write your own blog post in which you list at least three (3) specific, academic goals for Humanities this semester. Your goals should be very detailed. We will revisit them during SLCs in February and during your TPOLs in June.

Include a relevant photo and spell check!

Hero Project Reflection

Over the past several weeks we have looked at the importance of heroes. The essential question for this project was how does a hero become a hero? Today we did a final class reflection on the answer to that essential question. Now it is time for you to reflect on your own Hero project.

Write a blog post where you do the following:

Use complete sentences and answer all questions

1. Answer the essential question how does a hero become a hero?

2. Project Description: What was the Hero in My Eyes project? Use your own words to describe it.

3. Process: What steps did you take to get to the final product? (Be honest about meeting or not meeting deadlines and how that affected the process.)

4. Reflection: What did you learn? What challenges did you encounter? What would you do the same or different? How will this help you later?

5. Habits of Mind: Pick one of the six HOMs (Habits of Mind) and describe how you used it in this project. The six HOMs are: Innovation, Wonder, Ownership, Mindfulness, Perspective, and Evidence.

6. Artifact: Link to the blog post where you posted your final hero character sketch. Make sure it is a working link.

7. Picture: Include a relevant photo (because photos are fun!)

8. Don't forget to spell/grammar check.