British Lit: Who is Akira Kurosawa?

Originally posted 11/27/11.

In case you're interested in 1) how Mr. Webb spent his break, and 2) what's happening next in British Lit class, take a peek at this awesome-sauce movie trailer.



Any thoughts?

In honor of a new TAPA family member...

EXTRA CREDIT! Post a comment of:

• Your specific birthday (Month/Date/Year + Time).
• Your dimensions (Weight + length).
• How long your mom was in labor with you.

First 3 who respond on my blog get EC.

Go.

Yes, I'll write you a recommendation... but first...

Originally posted 10/25/11.

One of my typical students and me.

Reasons I love the fall:

• American football
• Cooler weather in Taiwan
• Studying Shakespeare in British Lit
• Beginning literary interpretation in English II
• Just generally torturing students in Communication
• Writing College Recommendation Letters for students

The last one is true: I actually enjoy writing recommendation letters.  Many of  You all work very hard throughout the school year, and I like being able to brag to colleges and universities how amazing you are. Of course, if you are a member of the minority of students who don't work hard throughout the school year, I can't lie and tell them that you are amazing students, so I hope that you're taking advantage of each school day to build up a reputation that I can pass on to your future teachers and administrators.

Around this time of the year, I do get pretty big piles of requests for recommendations, and while I do enjoy writing them, I've come to realize that writing them is a huge job for me, but a non-existent job for you. Further, a lot of the times, I'll have students to give me requests to complete a recommendation for them "BY TOMORROW, TEACH-AH?", and I always have to responde with a polite, resounding "NO WAY." If I'm going to be helping you out, I think it's only fair that you help me out, know what I mean?

So, here is my new policy for recommendation letters:

I will write you a 3-5¶ recommendation of your scholastic merit to be in the college or university of your choosing, provided you:

• Have already had me as a teacher for one semester before you request the letter.
• Allow me at least two (2) four (4) full weeks to write your letter.
• Write me a minimum 5¶ essay expressing at least 3 talents, skills, and characteristics you would like me to pass on to your school.*

Got it? No exceptions to this, please! So if you know you need a letter by, say, the middle of November, now is the time to start bragging on yourself in your essay so I'll have time to get your letter done. Good luck!

*I should receive this before my four-week writing period begins.

Are you paying attention?: English II edition

Now it's time for Mr. Webb's favorite game, Are you paying attention?, where Mr. Webb checks to find out if you actually read what he's writing on here.

Today's challenge: Tell me how many days were between Anne Frank's first and last diary entries in The Diary of a Young Girl. The first 5 English II students (who have not already won points) with a correct answer get extra credit. Don't forget to show your work!

Go.

Are you paying attention?: Leap Day Edition

***Update*** Congratulations to Esther, Betty L., Angela C., Betty V., and Kelly for paying attention to this blog! It earned them a couple free points in extra credit!

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Now it's time for Mr. Webb's favorite game, Are you paying attention?, where Mr. Webb checks to find out if you actually read what he's writing on here.

Today's challenge: Tell me how many minutes were between today's date and the last time that it was today's date. The first 5 students with a correct answer (who also show how they got that answer) get extra credit.

Go.

What was what in that Owl Creek video?

As per my Spring-ly custom, English II students _{(and some American Literature students)} fell victim were treated to a reading and a viewing of Ambrose Bierce's famous short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, a story about the musings of a man about to be hanged. One of the most famous things about this story is the way that Ambrose Bierce subtly switches between literary points of view in his treatment, tricking the readers into thinking fantasy is reality.

The assignment, if you remember, was to watch the video (embedded below, in case you need it again) and determine where (if anywhere) the following POVs were show:

• First person
• Third person (Limited)
• Third person (Omniscient)
• Objective (or Dramatic, as Mr. Kabel calls it)

This was supposed to be 3¶s, one for each that I saw in the film. (You might find a fourth one, but I didn't, so if you did and you can justify it, I might throw you some extra points.)

Guess the Doodle: November 30

Among other things, Google is famous for its Google Doodles, the themed picture you see when you go to the Google website. Usually, the page looks like this:

Today, though, it looks like this:

Get the reference? American Lit students (especially those who took it with me this last summer) should find the image of two young boys painting a white fence pretty familiar. Catch it? [Click the picture for the answer.]

The Sonnet Bar = Raised.

Jackie Chan looks like he read your sonnets.

Last week, I told some of the British Lit classes that last year, we had a few pretty good examples of original Shakespearean sonnets, but also, some not-so-good examples, and I hoped that this year, students could do a bit better.

W

O

W

The assignment is not due until tomorrow morning, but I've already got 3 amazing examples of sonnets from Vivien, Yalisa, and Beverly. I literally could not believe how incredible these sonnets were. PLEASE, if you have 5 minutes, check these things out this evening. I'm completely amazed by what these 3 ladies did, and I now have faith in the rest of you doing even better than what I'd expected before!

This should be what your blog posts look like!

[NOTE: Ok... so no one, in either English II class, did this. I'll give one more chance on this assignment. It's now due by this Sunday, November 20th, at Noon. Also, it will be worth twice as many points. Please take a few minutes to read the following and do it so you don't lose free points. ~Mr. Webb]

So I've been grading your blogposts (that I'm totally behind on grading) for the last few days, and I stumbled upon, perhaps, the greatest student blog post I've ever seen. This is a MUST-READ, especially for English II students.

Context: In reading Life of Pi, we came across a moment a few weeks ago where an orangutan (named Orange Juice) on a lifeboat saved the life of the protagonist from a lion.* After this happens, the titular character (Pi) says:

Her arms were spread wide open and her short legs were folded together and slightly turned to one side. She looked like a simian Christ on the Cross. Except for her head. She was beheaded.

Using the transitive property of literary symbolism, we saw that there was a connection between Orange Juice and Jesus.

Orange Juice = †-shape

Jesus = †-shape

Therefore, does Orange Juice = Jesus? 

The assignment, then, was to write an analysis on this idea and how this is the case. In all the responses, Betty Liao's writeup was that of a level-100 ROCKSTAR. Unbelievable job with the writing, the ideas, the grammar, and the pictures.

The assignment (due for all English II students by 12:00 noon on Sunday [NOVEMBER 20TH]) is to go to her post and leave a comment. The comment must follow the rules of commenting from earlier in the semester:

1. compliment the writer in a SPECIFIC way.
2. ask a question related to the post.
3. add new information, opinions, or perspectives.

As you're commenting, pay attention to what she did to earn my admiration and try to duplicate that in your own future blog posts as well.

*If you haven't read this book, don't ask—just go and read it yourself.

HINT: Students ought to check out a couple of cool iPad screencasting apps!

So, I've been looking for some cool new iPad apps lately, and I stumbled across two (free!) that I think are pretty interesting: Show Me Whiteboard and Screen Chomp. Both of these apps are designed for screencasting, which is essentially make a video of something actually happening on your iPad and putting it online to share. With each app, you can click record, draw on the screen, add pictures, and even talk out loud (to explain what you're doing), and then upload that to the internet and post it on your blog or web site or whatever. This would be a pretty cool technology to have if you were going to show your teacher how to do something, like making diagrams, explaining maps, or, I don't know, how about explaining poetry (?).

Both of these apps work about the same way, but I think that Screen Chomp is, frankly, a little more aimed for elementary school students. Show Me has a bit more options and comes across as a little bit more "grown up," so I'm going to show you really quick how to use it.

To the right is what the main app screen for Show Me looks like. To use it, you click the little record button, which is the 2nd to the bottom. (It would be where the F is, but it will look like instead of .) Then... you just start drawing. And talking. And it gets it all down. When you're finished, you click the  F button again (which should be in a shape), and it will stop.

A rundown of the buttons:

A: The pen. For drawing (obviously). You can click on any color and then the pen, and it will draw in that color.
B: The eraser. Clicking on that and "drawing" will erase individual sections of the drawing.
C: Full eraser. Clicking on that will erase the entire screen.
D: Undo.
E: Change the background from all-white (default) to any picture in your photo library.
F: The aforementioned Record/Play/Stop recording button.
G: Export. Once you create an account, you can get the embed code and put your video into your blog!

To prove how easy it is, check this out:



From my experimentation, Screen Chomp works essentially the same way. Another reason I don't like it as much, though, is it only gives you, like, 3 colors for drawing. And again, just seems waaay more childish. My opinion, though.

So, try it out Show Me a few times—who knows, you might need it soon! (HINT HINT)

Art imitates Life.

Apparently, if I ever need a substitute teacher for my classes, the guy who draws XKCD might be the best option:

(h/t to Mr. Burkett)

Do you pay attention to my blog?

I was just wondering that a few minutes ago, so I decided to do an experiment:

The first 5 students to leave the definition of the word "ping" (as related to computers) as a comment on this post will get extra credit.

Go.