Journals for 9/23/13-9/27/13

Relevant Writing

9/23 - "I paint flowers so that they will not die." Frida Kahlo

9/24 - "When it pops, you'll figure out what to do."

9/25 - 5 tricks to make yourself smarter

9/26 - Popular superhero gone bad

9/27 - None due

Academy English

9/23 - "I paint flowers so that they will not die." Frida Kahlo

9/24 - A day in the life of a rusty rollercoaster

9/25 - Resisting the norm

9/26 - Wanted: The Perfect Essay

9/27 - None due

Life Skills

9/23 - "I paint flowers so that they will not die." Frida Kahlo

9/24 - Texting fail

9/25 - Telepathic romance

9/26 - Being more interesting than your partner's gadgetry

9/27 - None due

Journals for 9/16/13-9/19/13

Relevant Writing

9/16 - Two categories of people, mix-and-match

9/17 - Ruining a good story- just one change.

9/18 - You can learn to love anyone if you know enough

9/19 - Can you ask only questions?

9/20 - Teacher In-service: NO SCHOOL

Academy English

9/16 - Blog about your (fictional) celebrity child

9/17 - Am I a monster?

9/18 - What are you doing for others?

9/19 - Missing the chance to be hurt.

9/20 - Teacher In-service: NO SCHOOL

Life Skills

9/16 - Those to whom evil is done do evil in return...

9/17 - Family linguistics

9/18 - The (Bill) Gates-way to handle the (Steve) Jobs of human destruction [alien abduction]

9/19 - When does life begin?

9/20 - Teacher In-service: NO SCHOOL

Journals for 9/9/13-9/13/13

Relevant Writing

9/9 - New holiday
9/10 - Wild and precious life
9/11 - How did 9/11 impact your life as you grew up?
9/12 - Relationship change press release
9/13 - Revision of last week's journal.

Academy English

9/9 - 5 Amazing (fake) reviews

9/10 - Truth stranger than fiction

9/11 - What freedoms are okay to sacrifice for security?

9/12 - "This is the way society functions.  Aren't you a part of society?"

9/13 - Revision of last week's journal.

Life Skills

9/9 - Faith in humanity

9/10 - Why don't birds fly away?

9/11 - How much power should the government have to prosecute a war on terror?

9/12 - "It's not a mask.  It's my face."

9/13 - Revision of last week's journal.

Journals for 9/2/13-9/6/13

Relevant Writing

9/2 - LABOR DAY (no Journal)

9/3 - Guide book for Lake Havasu City

9/4 - Gifts people need

9/5 - A day of grunts

9/6 - Revise a journal from the previous week.

Academy English

9/2 - LABOR DAY (no Journal)

9/3 - If I could store time...

9/4 - Darkvision or Gills

9/5 - My very own Batcave (but cooler)

9/6 - Revise a journal from the previous week.

Life Skills

9/2 - LABOR DAY (no Journal)

9/3 - Everyday evils

9/4 - Midyear resolutions

9/5 - The most creative person

9/6 - Revise a journal from the previous week.

Journals for 8/26/13-8/30/13

Relevant Writing

8/26 - What Worries You?

8/27 - Dream or Nightmare

8/28 - The President's To-Do List

8/29 - Who is far that you wish was close?

8/30 - Revise a journal from the previous week.

Academy English

8/26 - One Life, Many Faces

8/27 - Terrible advice for a tough situation

8/28 - When you can no longer trust authority

8/29 - Fault vs. Responsibility

8/30 - Revise a journal from the previous week.

Life Skills

8/26 - "Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't." - Bill Nye

8/27 - How old is too old?

8/28 - Every adult is a fraud

8/29 - Your very own Discworld/Flatlands

8/30 - Revise a journal from the previous week.

Journals for 8/19/13-8/23/13

Relevant Writing

8/19: How to make a stranger smile

8/20: Three most important traits to succeed

8/21: Worst thing is not the most true thing.

8/22: Basic Guide to Understanding People

8/23: Revised Journal from 8/13-8/15

Academy English

8/19: Relive from five

8/20: Criminal tabula rasa

8/21: Three skills for fighting crime

8/22: A fictional character's letter to the author

8/23: Revised Journal from 8/13-8/15

Life Skills

8/19: Nothing shocks me; I'm a scientist.

8/20: Terrifying combination

8/21: Explain it to a rubber duck

8/22: Brutal review

8/23: Revised Journal from 8/13-8/15

Journals for 8/12/13-8/16/13

Relevant Writing

8/12: None

8/13: "...but if anyone asks, tell them we're fine."

8/14: "All these kids are icebergs, we only see the tip."

8/15: "It hurts because it mattered."

8/16: No journal (journals handed in for review).

Senior English

8/12: None

8/13: Rewind button or Pause button

8/14: Same story, just add lightsabers

8/15: "Everybody has a secret world inside of them."

8/16: No journal (journals handed in for review).

Life Skills

8/12: "It was, after all, a pirate city."

8/13: "Transcend reality through imagination" and retell your day.

8/14: Supplementary information for a book

8/15: "What are you reading, listening to, or getting into lately."

8/16: No journal (journals handed in for review).

Journals for Week of 5/20/2013

Monday: Extreme Golf or Reviewing Humanity

Tuesday: Dig a Hole in the Ground or Future-Tech Mishaps

Wednesday: Asker/Guesser or The Super Trifecta

Thursday: 10-Step Guide or Hurt

Friday: New World or Nobility?

Journals for the Week of 5/13/2013

Monday: Undercover Students or Inked Memory

Tuesday: Personal Business or Old, Weird America

Wednesday: To: 1,000,000 People or Horse, Cow, or Chickens

Thursday: Spartan, Viking, Knight, or Roman or Unlimited Plane Ticket

Friday: In 25 years, what will you want to remember from the 2012-2013 school year; what will you wish you could have forgotten? or Write as many sentences as you can that you are sure no one on Earth has ever written before

Journals for week of 5/6/2013

Monday: A Pine Tree Christmas or 4 Plot Ideas

Tuesday: Kiln People or Alphabetical Advice

Wednesday: Kids These Days or Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi

Thursday: Living the Painting or Things You'll Never Do (Again)

Friday: Write something nice to/about your mother OR Wish I Was Six

Journals for Week of 4/29/2013

Monday: Perfect Playground (You may replace up to half of the written text of this journal with a drawing of the playground you would design) or Office Supply Creativity Challenge.

Tuesday: Blind Date or Forbidden Facebook.

Wednesday:  Why do humans invent stories?  Why do we read/watch/listen to stories that we know are fictional?  or How would your life be different if government's only function and power was to punish violent crimes?

Thursday: Fictional Evil Species or Conjoined Twins.

Friday: Free Write

Journals for Week of 4/22/2013

Monday: Political Sponsors or Pirate Curses.

Tuesday: Free Write or Things Worth Knowing.

Wednesday: Where Did They Go? or Something To Say.

Thursday: Style or Formulaic Reviews.

Friday: Magical Smartphone or iPhonus.

Journals for the week of 4/15/2013

Monday: One of the purposes of school is to teach students to think critically about social issues.  What issues should public school deal with and what treatment should they recieve?  Should teachers- paid by the government- be permitted to express their own views to students who may be very impressionable?  (alt: What prepares you best to face the challenges of adulthood and how does it do it?)

Tuesday: Losing someone to a slow, incurable disease. (alt: The skills everybody should have in order to survive and why.)

Wednesday: Hitler is to evil as X is to good or Too late for Earth, too early for the stars.

Thursday: The argument goes that the reason we have full days of school on AIMS testing days is so that we don't have to spend extra time in classes at the end of the school year to make up missed days.  It has also been stated that going to school just for the test (and then going home immediately thereafter) is a waste of a day.  On the other hand, some people feel that having a full day of classes on testing days increases discipline issues.  They also believe that having short testing days would allow students to relax more between tests and thus help them to perform better.  Which side do you support and why?  (alt: Imagine you are making first contact with an intelligent alien life form on their own planet.  What sort of first impression do you want to leave them with?  What do you want them to think about humanity in general from their experiences meeting and communicating with you?)

Friday: Anterograde amnesia refers to an inability to form new memories after a traumatic event.  Essentially, the victim can remember everything up to the event, but nothing that happened after the event (typically, short-term memory remains intact, but events that happened as little as an hour previously are forgotten).  Retrograde amnesia refers to an inability to recall events that happened before a traumatic event (this is the traditional amnesia, where the victim can't remember details of who they are or what they were doing).  If you had to choose whether you had anterograde or retrograde amnesia, which would you choose?  Why?  (alt: If you had a choice between always telling the truth (without being able to evade or not answer) or always lying convincingly (without ever being able to choose to tell the truth), which would you choose and why?)

Journals for the week of 4/8/2013

Monday:  Don't know much about...  but I do know...

Tuesday: Are You Worth Your Weight in Gold? or The Story You Tell Yourself.

Wednesday: Explain what you think every person needs to know in order to understand American Football. (Alt 1: Explain what you think every person needs to know in order to understand the Klondike Gold Rush; Alt 2: What benefit in the modern world do students attain from studying poetry?)

Thursday: Work or Rumspringa.

Friday: In the 40s and 50s, by and large, people trusted the government; what changed?  (Alt: Have the terrorists won?  Why or why not?)

Journals for the week of 4/1/2013

Monday:  Write a short story about your first day (at school, learning to dance, as a baby, etc.) in spoonerisms. (alternative: Tell someone's life story in reverse, from death to birth.)

Tuesday: Write a first-person narrative without ever using the words he, she, it, or they.  (alternative: Write a third-person narrative without ever using the words I or we.)

Wednesday: Write insults (alternative: write clever compliments)

Thursday: Tall-tale excuses (no alternatives)

Friday: Project Specific (alternative: Free Write)

Journals for the week of 3/25/2013

Monday: Minions (alternative: Nemeses)
Tuesday: Optimistic vision of the future (alternative: Pessimistic vision of the future)
Wednesday:Novel/Movie specific (1st and second periods); Write about the secret life of a very private person
Thursday: http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/image/33265767529 or http://writingprompts.tumblr.com/image/32871853014
Friday: How did your conference go?  How did you prepare your parents?  What could you do (and what would you do) to make them better in the future?

relaunch

Alright- this will be the official relaunch of my school help-keep-students-up-to-date blog. I am not an avid blogger, so this will not be filled with all the wild meanderings of my rambling thought processes. What you will find on here will be weekly journal topics (subject to change without notice as the demands of the lesson dictate) and benchmark deadlines for major projects. Individual lessons and daily lesson plans will not be featured, and students who want them should make sure they are in class to get them. I make no promises, as I am unused to keeping a blog, but I will try to keep this blog reasonably current.