Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Poetry

We are about to embark on a poetic journey that involves exploration, evaluation, and creation. Before we begin, I would like to see what kind of poetry you personally like. Please find a poem that speaks to you and post it to your blog. Please also include a brief commentary on why you like your poem.

Also read one of my favorite poems by Robert Frost found below and make a comment on my blog about your response or reaction to the poem.

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I love this poem because of the solitary image of a man and horse stopping to watch the snowfall. Robert Frost is so effective in creating a mood, or atmosphere, of the setting by the simple words and obvious rhyme. I can't help but long to be there, as a bird or a snowflake, and witness this man's poetic moment of simply enjoying nature. I am curious about Frost's decision to repeat the last line twice. Why would he do this? Maybe to emphasis how long his trip is going to actually take. I wonder where is headed. Why is it the darkest evening of the year? What does that reference contribute to the poem's meaning?


Friday, November 2, 2007

Quizlet: Interactive Vocabulary Practice

Quizlet is a great site that allows students to create vocabulary sets, complete with words and definitions. It then has a couple of different ways to practice and master these vocabulary words, including flashcards and a click, drag, and make the word disappear exercise. Way cool!

Please check it out. It is free and the registration is quick. You could be practicing your vocabulary for next week's quiz in just a few minutes.

NetTrekker: A Better Search Engine

NetTrekker is a great search engine that limits the content and findings for student and educator web searches. Instead of googling a topic and having to sift through the hundreds of hits for quality and appropriate information, NetTrekker does the sifting for us. NetTrekker is a more refined and efficient way of searching for information, as it links students and educators to sites that have been evaluated and used by other like-minded searchers.

You should check it out and decide for yourself. The school has a free trial account for the month of November. Just go to nettrekker.com

Username: hotspringslibrary
Password: hotspringslibrary

Be sure to let Ms. Hollingsworth or Ms. Turcotte that you checked it out and let us know what you think. If enough of us like this web tool, we may be able to get it in our school. Think of all the work and learning we could accomplish if we did not have to waste time connecting to useless sites, which are often times just trying to sell us something.

French I: Blogging and Avatars

Today you have the opportunity to create your own blog and avatar. A blog is a web based journal where you can publish written, audio, and visual, and multi-media work that you have created. An avatar is a computer persona that you can incorporate into your blog. Avatars can be fun ways to personalize your blog and add audio content to your blog, without compromise your safety by publishing photos of yourself.

To set up a blog, you need to go to blogger.com and create a new blog. You need to have an email account in order to do this. If you don't have an email account go to google's gmail page and register for a new account.

Please follow the following guidelines for setting up a blog account, and provide me with your email address and password in case information is forgotten or misplaced.

Your user name is your email address.

Your password is of your choice.

Your display name is your first name only.

The title of your blog is "French I: Your First Name (French or English)."

Your blog web address (URL) is "firstnamefrench1.blogspot.com"

Next you need to set up a Voki account at voki.com

In order to do this you need to have a valid e-mail address. Most of you already do. If you have forgotten yours, see me. You will need to validate your voki account by checking you email and clicking on the necessary link in a message you will receive from Voki. Go ahead and check your email to do this. After you validate, you can return to voki.com and begin building your avatar.

Avatars need to be dressed appropriately as if they were going to school; there are some inappropriate outfits and these must be avoided.

Once you are ready to give your avatar text to speak, I would like you to type in French sentences. These sentences should include a greeting and introduction of yourself. You must also include at least two sentences: one, about what you like to do; two, what you do not like to do. You can then say goodbye, talk more about yourself (or your avatar), or pose questions to your audience. All your text must be written in French. There is an option on the voice creation in Voki that allows you to play with French accents.

Note: Your written text must be complete with correct accent marks in order for the pronunciation to be correct. Codes for accent marks courtesy of Penn State University http://tlt.its.psu.edu


Capital Vowels
À ALT+0192
 ALT+0194
Ä ALT+0196
È ALT+0200
É ALT+0201
Ê ALT+0202
Ë ALT+0203
Î ALT+0206
Ï ALT+0207
Ô ALT+0212
Œ ALT+0140
Ù ALT+0217
Û ALT+0219
Ü ALT+0220
Ÿ ALT+0159


Lowercase Vowels
à ALT+0224
â ALT+0226
ä ALT+0228
è ALT+0232
é ALT+0233
ê ALT+0234
ë ALT+0235
î ALT+0238
ï ALT+0239
ô ALT+0244
œ ALT+0156
ù ALT+0249
û ALT+0251
ü ALT+0252
ÿ ALT+0255

Consonants/Punctuation
Ç ALT+0199 (caps)
ç ALT+0231 (lower)
« ALT+0171 (Left Angle Quote)
» ALT+0187 (Right Angle Quote)
ALT+0128

Sophomores: Avatars and Vocabulary

Today you have the opportunity to create your own avatar, which is a computer persona that you can incorporate into your blog. Avatars can be fun ways to personalize your blog and add audio content to your portfolio.

What you need to do is set up a Voki account at voki.com

In order to do this you need to have a valid e-mail address. Most of you already do. If you have forgotten yours, see me. You will need to validate your voki account by checking you email and clicking on the necessary link in a message you will receive from Voki. Go ahead and check your email to do this. After you validate, you can return to voki.com and begin building your avatar.

Avatars need to be dressed appropriately as if they were going to school; there are some inappropriate outfits and these must be avoided.

Once you are ready to give your avatar text to speak, I would like you to type in the vocabulary words and definitions for this week's vocabulary set. You can include as much information, i.e. synonyms, antonyms, original sentences, etc. as you want, but your content/text must be in complete sentences.

Once your avatar is complete with the vocabulary words and definitions you can copy and paste the code of your avatar into your blog. All you need to do is sign into your blogger account at blogger.com and paste the copied code of your avatar into a new post. Please title this post, Things Fall Apart Vocabulary Chapter 1.

Have fun!