You Guys...I could hardly sleep last night after seeing your final projects. You blew me away! I am beyond proud of each of you, and I bet your parents are too. You are so talented and creative! And you are also so kind and hardworking. Hannah E, I saw the way you encouraged Abby through her song. You are a wonderful friend. Hannah D., your confidence and kindness set the foundation for the whole event. Thank you for all you did for us. I loved hearing the Mash-up of our songs, Rowan! Honestly, that was the best I've ever heard you sing. And Abby, WAY TO GO! You conquered a fear beautifully yesterday! Hannah D. and Hannah B. you both created a memory that will bring you joy all the years of your life, and that's a blessing to all of us! John, thanks for cracking us up with your video- I knew you'd have something in store for us, and I wasn't disappointed. :) Mark, WOW. I hope your parents enjoyed seeing this creative side of you. I know the rest of us did. I look forwa...
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You have no readings assigned this week, but I do want you to review our blog and your notes for our final Jeopardy trivia game. Your final papers are due. You can either email them to me or you can bring them into class, if you haven't already done so. Also, we will invite parents to join us at 2:00, after the short play in the sanctuary, to check out our final projects. At 3:00pm, we are opening the room to the public for an open house. If you are wanting to sign up for classes next year, or this summer, we will have registration forms available. I give my returning students first dibs, so if you know you are taking a class with me next year, let me know and I'll reserve your slot. Great work this year, everybody. I've really enjoyed working with you these past several months. :)
Parents and Students, I have posted our public open house information for April 24, 3-5 PM, but I wanted to keep our own event private. We will be having our projects on display and our performances ready by 2PM for all of our family, friends, and current students. We invite you to come in and visit on our last day of class and to see some of the special projects our students have taken on in addition to their regular studies. There will be musical performances, spoken word poetry, samples of creative writing, photography, videography, and more. I will also be available to meet and discuss with you about your child's progress this year. I hope you will join us. Afterwards, we will open the doors to the public, at 3PM, to come in and visit our school, see the kinds of classes we have available, and to sign up for summer and fall classes. I will sign up any returning students first, giving you priority to reserve the slots you are interested in. If you have any question...
Last week, we looked at another short story "Marigolds" and the statistics on the Native American culture. I'm attaching the links in case you wanted to review them, and you left your copy on the table in class. I am also adding a link to the NPR interview we listened to.
We will be painting in class this next week, so dress appropriately!
We are in our final month of classes! I hope you have learned quite a bit of American history and have a deeper understanding of its connection with American literature. We are finishing the second third of our final book now. Please read up to page 167 for this next week's class. You will have your final essay due on April 17th over this novel. You can use any of the accompanying texts I gave you in class yesterday to help you write a more thoughtful or better-supported essay. You can also conduct your own research that matches the topic you'd like to discuss. As long as you can tie your discussion to the novel and provide a detailed analysis of a scene in the book to prove your point, you are on the right track. As far as history, we discussed the Cold War yesterday and its causes and its effects on American culture. One response included building up the military forces and increasing its budget. This had only previously happened during combat engagement. As Dwight Eisenhow...
We finished up our studies on WWII, looking at the Holocaust, the Atomic bombs, D-Day, Generals MacArthur and Eisenhower, Navajo Code Talkers, the Women in the War, the Economy, and the Tuskegee Airmen. You were all assigned research for this week's lesson as we start moving into the Cold War Era and McCarthyism. We are also moving into a fairly modern text, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This text, while not easy on the emotions, is an easier read than some of our previous books. Therefore, I've assigned the first 73 pages. You'll stop at the chapter titled "Tears of a Clown." Now before you become overwhelmed, this novel has illustrations and bigger font. :) And it's no more than 15 pages a day, which I think you can all manage just fine. You will be writing your final literary essay on this text, as it is the last one on our list. I am giving you the freedom to explore this novel however you feel inspired. Prepare fo...
Well, Spring Break is over, but at least spring weather is here! Still, time to soldier on and finish up this course. Can you believe we only have six weeks left? How fast this year has gone by! So, we've delved into WWII. We discussed fascism, dictators, isolationism, and intervention. We also looked at how quickly Germany's progression and takeover happened. It is really astounding! The Lightning warfare tactic allowed the Germans to move in so quickly and with so many devastating weapons operating at once, it's easy to see how difficult it might have been to stop them. We left off with the attack on Pearl Harbor and Roosevelt's call for action and war. This week, you are each to write a 1-2 page (at least 300 words) paper on one of the following topics: The Tuskegee Airmen Native Americans in the Military Women in the War Economic Controls Propaganda (both foreign and domestic) Japanese Internment Camps Dwight D. Eisenhower D-Day The Holocaust ...
I'm sorry this is getting out later than normal, but hopefully, you all wrote down your assignment before you left class. This last week, we reviewed the Reactionary Twenties. This is the time period where immigration is the largest of anywhere in the world, but most folks aren't too happy about it. In response, the KKK grows to 4 million members, including senators, policemen, teachers, doctors, and farmers. 500,000 are women. It wasn't until a scandal involving the "Grand Dragon" in 1925, that caused many members to leave. By 1930, numbers dropped to 100,000 and laws were implemented to ban some of the terror tactics used by the KKK. Fundamentalism continued to grow in response to Darwinism and one of the most infamous court cases arrives: The Scopes Trial. John T. Scopes was a substitute science teacher who taught the theory of evolution in a Dayton, Tennessee classroom, leading to his arrest. The trial ensued, causing a great uproar over states rights and wh...
Again, Social Darwinism, Manifest Destiny, and Racism headlined our events in history (and the literature of the era) this week. I did not give out a pop quiz this last week and I'm not sure if I will give one out this next week, but if I did, I'd really want to make sure you are fully comprehending the definitions of social Darwinism, imperialism, and isolationism. These three ideologies find their way woven throughout much of our modern history. We touched on the annexation of the Philippines, how McKinley thought we should keep the Philippines for our national glory, commerce, racial superiority, and evangelism. That didn't go as well as planned and we found ourselves entangled in another war. We also see a rise in the Anti-Imperialist League, with forerunners like William Jennings Bryan, Carnegie, and former Presidents Cleveland and Harrison calling for the U.S. to withdraw from the Philippines. Overall, the Philippine-American war killed 126,000 U.S. troops, 200,000 ...
We are still in the Gilded Age, but politics and culture are already responding to major shifts in ideology. If you are still confused with the differences between Social Darwinism and Reform Darwinism, go back and review last week's lesson. We aren't done with this. Also, Nativism isn't limited to history. Here's an article from The New Yorker in 2007 referencing nativism in McCain's campaign, although I'd argue nativism never left. We'll get to the Japanese Internment shortly. Here's a more recent article, appearing in Slate in 2017, discussing President Trump and the "Muslim Ban." I realize both of those articles are coming from a liberal-leaning source, but nativism isn't only a liberal term. Here's another, for balance, from Fox News . This article discusses two terms we talked about yesterday, nativism and isolationism. Many issues we face today carry similar themes as the ones we are reading about in history. Let...
Hi Class, I will be traveling to Albuquerque for an academic conference this week and may not be able to respond quickly. It will be best to reach me through email through Sunday. Your assignment this week is to finish reading The Great Gatsby and write the Great Gatsby paper. You can use the prompts I handed out in class or you can come up with your own. What I do not want is a summary. Make it an argument. Tell me about the symbolism or the theme or how you think Daisy and Gatsby are portrayed. Tell me how this novel reinforces or rejects Marxism. Connect this novel to another idea. The Gilded Age: •The period from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the twentieth century was an era noted for the widening social and economic gap between the powerful and the powerless, the “haves and the have-nots.” •Name given by Mark Twain for its greed and vulgarity, marked by conspicuous consumption by the newly rich as they flaunted their enormous personal wealth…the same ...