All Quiet on the Western Front is finished

Hey guys and gals--

Thanks for all your hard work on our WW I unit--this week is our last week to finish our alternate endings before we go onto the next unit (Shakespeare's 12th Night).

Enjoy your break and see you in March!
bbb

All Quiet on the Western Front

Hey guys!

It has been a while--too long--but as we are now into our second novel, I thought I would officially put up a post about the novel (All Quiet on the Western Front) and include a link to the study guide:

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/litlibrary/westernfront.html

Okay, that is all for now, keep up with the reading, the poetry analysis in class, and have a great winter holiday!

bbb

The Lighter Side of the News

Every once in a while I enjoy reading a news piece that is just plain silly. Here is a funny one about a real news paper running a fake news story. Lets this also serve as a warning to you that everything that glitters is not gold on the internet!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8237558.stm

Also check out the "fake" news site the story was pulled from, The Onion. There are always some funny headlines on there to brighten your day.

www.theonion.com

bbb

Girl With a Pearl Earring

Hello everyone!

I hope you are doing well and settling in nicely into the school year. As we are well underway into our first novel, Girl With a Pearl Earring, I feel it is time to talk about our upcoming trip to Delft. We will be planning to take a day trip to the city and have a lot of activities planned that have to do with Vermeer, the novel and the sights and sounds of the city that we can now experience in person. This upcoming week we will be planning and getting ready to announce the day we will leave, but I want to remind everyone to keep up with their reading ( to page 92) and their assignments as well. Speaking of assignments, in addition to our group presentation work, there will be a written assignment which will be done in class after our short quiz over the first 92 pages of the novel. I hope everyone is keeping up with the reading, and is working hard on our presentations in class. Email me if you have any questions!

b.brown@atscholen.nl

Welcome to the new school year!

Hello everyone,

This is the first of what I hope to be many posts for our class blog this year. It will be a chance to learn new or interesting things, share your own work and ideas, and communicate with other students and people of interest around the world. I hope we can use this to the best of our advantage and enjoy ourselves as we become better writers and thinkers!

The first thing I would like us to look at is at one of three news stories from today and write about it in your own blog, which we will set up in class. Reading and keeping up with the news is one of the ways we will use the outside world to inspire our writing in class. As well as being important to know, the news can help us grow and learn about things. So, take a look at one (or all three if you're feeling up to it) of the stories below and write 250-300 words about the story. This means the who, what, when, where and why of course--but also what you thought of the story, how it might have a greater impact on other things or on you yourself.

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/8219937.stm

A debate over the gender of a female runner in the 2009 World Athletics Competition going on now.

2. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/business/24julia.html?em

Julia Child, a famous cook has a book on the best seller list--and it was written 48 years ago...

3. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=670270&sec=england&root=england&cc=5739
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club's early season form analyzed.

4. Cool and mysterious cloud formations

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/morninggloryclouds/