This is a district-approved website for students to read e-mail, chat, and use the message boards. This is teacher monitored; transcripts are available for chat boards.

I use this site a lot to post notices about the classes.

This is a site for students to practice their essay skills.

At this time, this site is only available for use by 7th graders.

Username: firstname + ID number

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The first student in Reading Improvement to earn 50 Reading Counts! points for the 2008-2009 school year.

6th grade

Various angles

I shot the swans from various angles.

I really tried to avoid photographing students' names but some still slipped by.

I rather like how this one turned out.

For whatever reason, these swans photographed more green than yellow.

Chris made an orange swan of his own design.

I made the dark blue swan in the back.

Another name slipped by!

Here you see the fluting of Chris' swan's tail.

My swan is the teal one to the left.

Now my swan is the teal one in the foreground.

Another name got passed me.

Black is a difficult color to photograph.

What a cool tool for your students!  I love that you can order pics from events in your class and see what is going on in class.  Tanks for sharing:)

Students in 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th period classes should have passed the quiz by the end of the period on Friday.

If 80% of the class passes the quiz, we will watch the movie as a class on Friday, October 10th.

Students choose from one of two prompts.

Students will not earn extra credit by addressing both prompts.

The final submission as of October 15, 2008 will be the evaluated copy.

Essay Topic: Literary Analysis of "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes

7th Grade: MyAccess

8th Grade: Word

Ready Writing

Editorial Writing

Music Memory

MAP testing checks students' progress in reading skills, including literary elements.

MAP testing checks students' progress in reading skills, including literary elements.

Buy one, get one free!

Support our library!

Support our school!

Support reading!

Learn more!

Be more!

$2 tickets

Money raised goes to send 8th graders to Washington DC.

I never said I wasn't difficult,

I mostly want my way.

Sometimes I talk back or pout and don't have much to say.

I've been know to yell, "so what," when I'm stepping out of bounds.

I want you there for me and yet,

I don't want you around.

I wish I had more privacy and never had to be alone.

I want to run away,

I'm scared to leave my home.

I'm too tired to be responsible.

I wish that I were boss.

I want to blaze new trails.

I'm terrified that I'll get lost.

I wish an answer came every time I asked you, "why."

I wish you weren't a know-it-all.

Why do you question when I'm bored?

I won't be cross examined.

I hate to be ignored.

I know I shuffle messages like cards, some to show and some to hide,

But,

if you think I'm hard to live with you should try me on inside.

Shutterfly is not a social network. It is, though, a way to stay connected through photos.

I selected shutterfly for my class photos because it is moderated. The photos must be family appropriate here. I rather figure that the perv ratio on this site is much lower than that on, say, MySpace or Facebook.

The photos you see on shutterfly can be purchased. When I want a hardcopy of a photo, I purchase it. Prices are low and I can easily pick them up on my way home from work at Target.

I may keep some of these photos to inspire students next year but the majority of them will be deleted over the summer in anticipation of new photos of next year's crop of students.

I learned about this holiday on twitter.com. Get the pun?

May the 4th be with you! <smirk>

Other holidays you may be interested in can be found at this link: http://www.gone-ta-pott.com/weird_holidays.html

My preAP class is using technology as we study Anne Frank. Some of them are twittering at twitter.com their responses to the novel. Some are watching United Streaming videos to extend their understanding of the Holocaust and the need for tolerance today. All of them will be participating in videoconferencing with other schools and classes on those topics.

It's exciting and wearing. It's a lot to keep up with.

The lyrics are taken almost verbatim from the King James version of the Bible, Ecclesiastes 3:1.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven;

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

When coming up with a playlist and songs to play to make connections to the novel, I look at the genre of the novel as well as themes, topics, and ideas expressed in the novel.

Some of the ideas I find in Z for Zachariah concern war, loneliness, and survival.

• "Big Yellow Taxi" by Amy Grant
• "One Tin Soldier" by The Original Caste
• "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" by Boyz II Men
• "Where is the Love?" by the Black-Eyed Peas (featuring Justin Timberlake)
• "One" by Three Dog Night
• "Big Yellow Taxi" by Counting Crows with Vanessa Carlton
• "Praying for Time" by George Michael
• "Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)" by Marvin Gaye
• "War" by Edwin Starr
• "I Believe" by Blessid Union of Souls
• "Imagine (2000 Remaster)" by John Lennon
• "Major Tom (Coming Home)" by I Hate Kate
• "Ain't  No Reason" by Brett Dennen
• "Major Tom (Voellig Losgeloest)" by Peter Schilling
• "War" by Bruce Springsteen
• "In the Year 2525" by Zager & Evans

I've just joined the Twitter revolution. My ID is LAGEEK.

I have no idea of how to use it but I'm sure there must be a way to use it at school.

On CAPSpace (a teacher website for distance-learning collaboration), I was asked for my Twitter ID so I created one.

I feel like I've joined the 21st century!

We're deep in TAKS season now. 7th graders have taken their writing TAKS. 8th graders have taken both their reading and math TAKS. By the end of the month, all TAKS tests will be completed, except for those students who have to re-take.

8th graders have already received the results of the reading TAKS. Only five students in all of Blalack failed. Special kudoes go out to Juan R. who received commended!

Meanwhile, the rest of us persevere.

As I get more comfortable with new technologies, I change stuff around.

For school, I maintain my website, a Shutterfly site, and a Gaggle account. That's a lot of stuff to maintain so I'm dividing my work up.

The school website will be strictly class/school related. I plan to change the look of the site before the end of the week but who knows how that will turn out. Right now, though, it's not working for me.

The Shutterfly site will be more artistic, I think. It'll hold poetry and playlists, in addition to the class calendar, polling, and photos it already holds.

The Gaggle account is more related to more strictly to school. The blog will refer to events in the classroom. Of course, I'll be using the e-mail option often.

Entries will be deleted and you may have a more difficult time finding certain materials but I know in the end it will be easier on all of us.

"Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter Group

"Do You Believe in Magic" by Shaun Cassidy

"Witch Doctor" by David Saville

"Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt Robbers

"The Time Warp" from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" Soundtrack

"A Nightmare on My Street" by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince

"(Ghost)Riders in the Sky" by Johnny Cash

"The Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley

"Thriller" by Michael Jackson

"Another Saturday Night" by Sam Cooke

"Somebody's Watching Me" by Rockwell

"Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr.

"King Tut" by Steve Martin and the Toot Uncommon

Instrumentals:

"Main Title and First Victim" from the "Jaws" Soundtrack

"Jurassic Park," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Ghost," and "2001: A Space Odyssey" from Hollywood's Greatest Hits volume 2

Sweet Tooth, Halloween 2, and Halloween vol. 2 by Mannheim Steamroller

"Descent into the Underworld" by Mannheim Steamroller

"Wolves" by Mannheim Steamroller

In Reading Improvement, students earn points through reading books and then passing quizzes over those books. Certificates are awarded by individuals whenever they complete a level.

However, the class also earns points. As the class earns points, it also earns awards. Instead of certificates, it may win a pizza party, new headsets for the computers, or ice cream parties.

My 4th-5th period class earned 1000 points earlier this week. Today they celebrated their success with pepperoni, sausage, and cheese pizzas.

The 6th-7th period class is on their way to success. Only 400+ points to go before their pizza party. Best of luck to them!

Construction has finally reached my classes--early. We weren't supposed to move until Spring Break but the contractors are ahead of schedule. Because of the computer demands of Reading Improvement, my classes cannot be moved into the portables. Instead we have moved to the old CM room where we will stay through the end of the year.

I'm going to get spoiled in this room. It's larger than the combined area of my previous two rooms (A9 and A15). It has two light systems. It has a sink! It has lots of room for computers. It has room for 30 desks and five tables and more! It has its own temperature controls. I like this room!

In honor of my birthday, Blalack held a potluck luncheon. In addition, my (observed) birthday will be a holiday.

Just kidding! The soup lunch was the brainchild of Ms. Beck and was intended to spice up the week for the Blalack staff. For those of you who noticed, I wore light-up dealy-boppers and a light-up pin announcing my birthday.

For those of you who are confused, January 15th is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. MLK Day is a floating holiday set for the 3rd Monday of January. Since I share my birthday with Mr. King, I celebrate both my actual birthday and my (observed) birthday.

Yay, me!