Well class, I have some good news for you: the deadline for grades to be submitted has been moved up, so the imagery DJ is actually your last DJ! We teachers learned that the last day for new assignments is Monday, May 18. The last day for you to turn in late work to me is Wednesday, May 20: basically a week from today. (Remember, if you pass my class this year you will never have to take the English 2 STAAR.) At the end of the day, the universe has decided that you don't need to submit a dialectical journal analyzing the theme of your free choice novels. I think they call this a "reprieve." But no one's stopping me from talking about theme... As D4Darious points out, theme is a complete idea, not just a word. For example, the idea "isolation" is not a theme of these coronavirus times. It's just a word, a subject. Putting the subject into a sentence makes it into a theme. One theme that is true for my corona days is this: "Isolation is an opportunity to reflect." What are some of the themes of your novel? Do you agree with them? What are some of themes of your novel experiences in reaction to a novel coronavirus? Think more about my theme: "Isolation is an opportunity to reflect." What do you want out of life? What do you value the most? What do you enjoy the most? What parts of yourself do you want to develop? How do you want to grow? Whatever your answers are to those questions, goal setting can help you figure out ways to accomplish your dreams. Goal setting is a strategy to help you. Because if you don't know where you're going, how will you know if you get there? If you don't have a destination, you can't really ever hope to arrive at the end. Take a few minutes this week to write about what you want out of life. You can use the time you would have dedicated to writing your last dialectical journal. Some of you have already mentioned your big goals in your structured journals: some students plan to hone their guitar skills, some plan to work to become better sports players, some students are learning about photography, cooking, sewing, gardening. After you have your big goal or goals, use the strategies in the video to cut your big goal into smaller goals. Make them Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Make your goals SMART. Then put those goals on a calendar. Like it says in the goal setting video, sharing your goals with others makes it more likely they will get accomplished. So I'm going to share my summer goals with you:
1. Read Harry Potter in French and listen to the audio book. 2. Plot my next writing project, a young adult fantasy novel. 3. Practice yoga four times a week. 4. Complete my last grad school residency and GRADUATE. 5. Swim in the ocean. 6. Teach five hours of yoga classes. If you'd like to share your goals, I invite you to do so either in your last structured journal of the year, or in a TEAMS meeting. Comments are closed.
|
AuthorI'm a Houston high school teacher in the Spring of 2020. Welcome to my adapted, socially-distanced, quarantined English II classroom. Archives
May 2020
Categories |