Death of an Icon

I apologize for the off topic post but as a teacher and a student I feel I can't let this pass without comment.

NY Times:  JD Salinger dies at 91

With its cynical, slangy vernacular voice (Holden’s two favorite expressions are “phony” and “g-d--m”), its sympathetic understanding of adolescence and its fierce if alienated sense of morality and distrust of the adult world, the novel struck a nerve in cold war America and quickly attained cult status, especially among the young. Reading “Catcher” used to be an essential rite of passage, almost as important as getting your learner’s permit.

I pulled that portion of the article to post here because I have come to think of Cather in the Rye as a rite of passage myself, a common experience that we as adults (and teachers) share with our students coming through the grades.  As students come into my classroom with that book in hand I know that they will love it, hate it, not care about it, but we have a common place to talk as I read it too when I was in school. 

For my part I enjoyed the novel mostly because I blessed with an amazing teacher to cover it with me.  Mr. Horschak (no, not from Welcome Back Cotter) was a brilliant instructor and lecturer with a style of discussion that I can only still hope to aspire to someday.  His class "Utopia and the Search for Human Identity" was my favorite of all English classes in school, and a contender for top class of all.  Holden Caufield was someone we all knew like a brother by the end of our time on the novel, and I think many of us felt we knew him better than we knew ourselves. 

Catcher in the Rye remains one of my favorite books.  Salinger's death is a loss for all of literature.

{E2020} Notebooks are notably not optional

We're in!

As a pleasant and gentle reminder, notebooks physical "I wrote my notes in this" notebooks are ~not~ optional and are required for all students to have.  Before they take an exam they need to show me that they have been taking notes in them.  For now students may print out what they have.

{Geo B} Extra Credit?!?

Since I said I would do this sometime, why not do it now?


If your student brings to class on Friday 1/29 (2nd hour) or Tuesday 2/2 (7th hour) a heirarchy of something interesting to them, they can recieve extra credit in the homework category. This extracredit cannot, however, take them above 100% in that category.

Examples:
Top level: Movies

Next level: Action, Romantic Comedy, Horror

Under Action: Kung Fu, Guns and More, Cars and Planes

Under RomCom: Chick-Flick, Guys Only, Couples Comedy, Anything with Vince Vauhn

Under Horror: Psychological Horror, Gore, Just Plain Scary


To get Extra Credit, students must have:

* 3 levels minimum

* illustrated the hierarchy in a Tree Diagram (like we did for most of class on Wed) or in a Venn Diagram (which we also reviewed).

Have fun!

Back in the game... finally... sorta

My humblest apologies to everyone for the late start to my blog and the school year.  I will save you all the gory details and simply state that Sunday night, at roughly 1:34 am, I was struck down with the flu.  I was well enough to return to my post Wednesday.

As such things are off to a bit of a rocky start.

E2020 -

This is my rockiest start as the class is still sorting out technical issues and accessability.  We hope to have everything sorted out by Friday this week.  Monday I will start recording grades for this group and talk to the students about reasonable pacing, expectations, homework checks and journaling.


Essentials of Geometry -

We have two fun projects coming up in addition to our core class practice.

In "Show Me the Figure" students are making a mini poster featuring the properties and picture of a given shape.  Each group has a different figure so the class will have all 4 parallelograms covered.

Then the groups change for the second project "Geometry House Rock (chapter 6)" where the students are to write lyrics set to a popular song of their choice that describe the relationship between the various quadrilaterals.   For more details on both projects check the attached PDF's in Skyward.

Also due:

Friday:  October Sky Reaction Paper.   Students were tasked to compare contrast their High School experience with that of the characters in the movie.  This is intended to be one part self reflection and one part "get to know you" activity.  I am hoping to use these reactions to help me get to know the students a little more and try to tailor what we do in class to what they percieve as their needs and plans.

Monday:  Our weekly Quiz!!!

And finally Geometery:

First I'd like to remind everyone enrolled in 7th Hour that they have made a commitment to a class that runs from 2:30 until 4:15 three days a week.  Early dismissal for practice, concerts, performances and the like ~must~ be parent intitiated through the attendance office. 

In this class we are continuing our explorations of quadrilaterals and parallelograms.  If you want to engage your student ask them brain teasers like "Are all squares rhombuses?  Are all rhombuses squares?"

We are also starting in on Coordinate Geometry which uses the distance formula, the slope formula and the midpoint formula.  We're also tying back to things like Parallel and Perpendicular from previous chapters.  It's a lot of back review that the students need to stay fresh on.

Our next Quiz will be on Monday (2/1), and the BA is scheudled for the following Monday (2/8).  In 7th Hour they will be on Tues (2/2) and Tues (2/9), respectively.

Overall I'm excited to be back and reminded again what great kids I have this year and what an honor it is to work with them.

Reminders of what you will find here

Welcome to news feed for Mr. Osterman's Geometry classes.  I have Geometry 2nd hour and 7th hour, Essentials of Geometry 3rd and 4th, and E2020 mentoring during 6th hour.  This first post is a review of what you can and cannot expect to find here.

If you are looking for assignments, worksheets or grades please go to Skyward Home Access.  Assignments there with a checkmark indicate attachments to that assignment.  It is my intention for every worksheet or packet I use, to scan a copy to post there.  These can be printed at home and completed if homework is left at school or a student is absent.

My hope is to establish a routine of updating Skyward with the assignment the moment it is given.  This will include a due date and a number of possible earned points.  I will also note if an assignment will be collected and graded on "Correctness".  Otherwise, recall, that all assignments are otherwise graded on attempt.

This blog will be used, primarily, to flag the big ticket items such as quizzes, tests, and to share general information and relevant news.  There will be no political discourse, despite my own views, and I ask that the comments remain free of politics as well.

Here's to the second semester!