The importance of the third comma

Hey British Lit—here you go :-)

(via Mr. Burkett)

The worst speeches of the year: Running for SA president while using rhetorical fallacies

Previously, Communication class spent some time studying rhetorical fallacies, or unfair arguments commonly made when someone is trying to persuade someone else. After learning to identify them, the students wrote speeches announcing their candidacy for SA president. The twist: they had to use as many logical fallacies as they could (and identify them) in making those arguments. Here's a peek at what went down in class.


If I may plug a class, honestly, not only for Freshmen or Sophomores—Communication is the most valuable class that I teach, and I truly wish that it was a requirement for every student in the school. Consider it for a class option next semester!

And the winner(s) of Best Sonnet in Brit Lit is...

I had some really hard decisions to make regarding which of your Shakespearean sonnets were my favorites. With the exception of a few, everyone did a really really great job on these, and I wanted to congratulate you on getting something down that many people struggle with! It seems like, between making the Show Me videos writing these, you have Shakespearean poetry pretty down!

I've already spilled that three of my favorite sonnets were written by Vivien, Yalisa, and Beverly, so I'm going to give them extra points for melting my brains with their work. I also want to add the sonnets of Enoch, Jason, Andrew, Tim, and WinWin to the mix. These five sonnets also really stood out as being great examples of iambic pentameter and English sonnet rhyme scheme. Please, if you haven't, go check their work and see some epic poetry! 10 point extra credit for each of them!

And for those of you who aren't happy about your sonnet grades, you can absolutely keep working on them and resubmit, and I'll gladly regrade them and give you a better score! So get working!

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.

How do you explain sonnets to a 5-year-old? ANYANG!

I know I keep talking to my British Lit students about writing their sonnets and all kinds of different things regarding poetry, but it's 1) awesome to study, and 2) hard enough I want to KEEP talking to you about it and giving you pointers. Recently, you guys had an assignment to make those Show Me or Screen Chomp videos explaining how sonnets work. [I HATE SCREEN CHOMP NOW. JUST THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW.] Everyone did pretty good jobs on them, but the most outstanding one, in my opinion, came from little Anyang Esther. She explained masculine/feminine rhyme, rhyme schemes, and iambic pentameter so well that I thought you should all take a peek at her awesomeness. Look:



Thanks for rocking out, Esther! 5 points EC to you!

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)

Salutations, Mr. Jobs.

I haven't always been an Apple fanboy. For a long time, I refused to give in to the idea that their products could be so much better than everything else anyone could make. I refused to give them a chance, time and time again choosing to select products without that little logo on them.

It would have been my first iPod, an iPod Photo (with the click wheel) that changed my life and my mind. Not to overstate it, but that little guy went along with me as my most important "luxury item" on my year as a Student Missionary in Kenya. With music I carefully loaded before leaving the States, I trekked through savannas, investigated slums, explored Africa, and really, explored myself. I learned more in that one year than in any other year of my life, and the soundtrack I associate with it played off that little device. It sounds silly, but when I think of that stupid little toy, I think of... change. Improvement. Better-ing.

Steve Jobs led that revolution. Don't think about iPhones or iPods or MacBooks or any of that other stuff. Just think about this: Jobs was the kind of guy who had a vision, had a dream, and fought to make that dream a reality. Whether you're a "Mac guy" or not—doesn't matter. Be an "idea guy," and you can appreciate this man's legacy.

I can hear my students right now: "TEACH-AH! APPLE IS GOING TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS NOW! WHERE WILL I BE ABLE TO BUY MY IPHONE 7.3S?" You're missing the point, guys. Apple will be fine. You'll be fine. The Jobs family will be fine. The point is that, today, the world has one less dreamer, one less difference-maker, one less inspiration. How are you going to fill those shoes?