Extra Credit Assignment

Ok, friends! Here are is an optional assignment for you!

First of all, brainstorm a couple of words that apply to everyday life for you. These could be words like "napping", "schoolwork", "being with friends", "holidays", "family time", "eating", "shopping", etc.

Once you have settled on a word or two, go to the following website:
US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Should be fixed now...

(This is, by the way, a great resource for all Holocaust study!)

Click on the upper bar (research), then collections and archives, then on the sidebar go to photo archives.

Under photo archives, click on Search Online catalog.

Then, put the word you selected in the Search bar.

Look through several pages of pictures until you find some that you really like. (Make sure the date at the bottom is prior to 1939.) Once you have found two different ones that you really like, print them out.

The last step is to look through your own family photos and find a picture from your own family archives that is similar to one of those that your printed from the website. Arrange both photos in an artful way that can be hung on the wall.

Last of all, write a reaction to this assignment. What did you notice as you looked through the photos? What conclusions can you draw about life prior to the Holocaust? What similarities and differences did you see between your own photos and the photo you selected? What feelings did you have as you completed this assignment?

This is due by Friday. 25 points extra credit if well done.

The Iliad

We took notes over the characteristics of an epic. What examples can you point out from The Iliad that fit the criterion?

Try Your Hand

Iliad Game Here is an Iliad Game on the Internet. It's pretty fun. Give it a try and post any comments you have about it.

Back and Better than Ever.

What is that light filtering through the clouds and trees? The blogs are BACK!

After a LOOOOOONG bloggy hiatus, my class blogs are back... and better than ever before. We are going to finish the semester with a bang, interacting virtually with each other and having some enrichment stuff on here, some extra credit, some commentary, some planning... It's going to be GREEEAAATTT!!!!! :)

I Do Apologize.

Well, friends, I have to tell you... you can look at this whole blog debacle this semester in one of two ways. You can either view it as an example of the fact that even adults sometimes just plain mess up, or you can view it as a life lesson that sometimes, you take on more than you can handle and when you do, you just have to choose to let some things go. Since I love learning, I choose to see it as the second. The blog died this semester. For that, I apologize. Maybe you can take another of my classes and we can blog in that class? :)

However, while we are apologizing, the thing that does not require an apology is this semester with this class! I have had, honestly, the BEST semester with you guys. I tend to have a little bit of an effusive personality and sometimes I like to use hyperbole (look it up!) :), but I am being completely plain in this. You all have been an absolute JOY. I have felt so incredibly blessed throughout this entire crazy, stressful semester. I have had all great classes, but you all were just such a refuge for me. It was so... comfortable, I guess... to come in to fourth period with you guys. You showed enthusiasm for learning, respect for me, kindness for each other, and passion for life. (That, by the way, is an example of grammatical parallelism. Just so you know.) I have soooo enjoyed getting to know each and every one of you. You have made teaching the true pleasure that I genuinely view it as being. Thank you so much, and nothing would make me happier than to see any one of your names on my rolls in the future, whether it be Holocaust Literature or English IV AP. I hope you all have an incredible summer, and I can't wait to hear your names in the next two years at Cleveland as you accomplish much and wow more teachers. Love you!!!

Mrs. Davis

Opening of "Troy"

Odysseus: [voiceover] Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone, and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?" These are powerful first lines. The opening lines, opening scenes, in movies really set the tone for the movie. What reactions do you have to these lines, knowing the epic characteristics and the text of The Iliad as you do?

The Iliad

We took notes over the characteristics of an epic. What examples can you point out from The Iliad that fit the criterion?