Week Five Is In The Books

I kind of had a moment when I realized today during 5th period that we are entering Week 6 as a class.  How can that be?  It seems like we just met yet possess the familiarity of family.  Fascinating.

Thank you for the great presentations today.  I learned more about interesting topics and got an even deeper glimpse into personalities and personas. 

In an effort to prepare for next week, REVIEW YOUR RHETORICAL DEVICES.  You know better than me how you learn so make flashcards or quizlets or lists.  Whatever it takes because on Monday you need to know the 23 terms you used on your projects.  Trust me.

Have a great weekend and I'll see you in October.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: Earth, Wind and Fire "September"

Haiku History

Today's lesson centered around allusions and puns - the concept of memory. Knowing Stuff About Stuff. Thanks so much for being willing to learn and look up references. The more you know...

Don't roll around in ignorance. Like a pig in mud...

AP readers love "minds at work". So work hard.

Tomorrow is SAS and ONE haiku will be shared per class. (Haiku on the year 2016)

DON'T FORGET YOUR TEST PREP BOOKS.

See y'all then.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: Mumford and Sons "The Cave"

Thus It Begins

A dear senior sent me an email with these exact words after hearing that we were presenting Rhetorical Devices. 

Thus it begins.

I think what he meant by that is the notion that the foundation has been introduced.  You know about water and circles and how you see...now, the real work begins in whether or not you are opening your hands and doing the heavy lifting in this deceptively simple class that neither has grades or traditional homework.

Thus it begins.

A dear junior said to me after one particular class that I "subtweeted" them.  Perhaps.  But there isn't a chance on this beautiful earth that any of you will get away with mediocrity.  The opposite of love is indifference, and I care deeply about your success.  Why?  Because, selfishly, I care deeply about my birth children, the two girls who are about a decade younger than you who will be impacted by your choices.

What I witnessed today was eye opening - a full spectrum of "stuff" and I am amazed that the end goal is the same despite people starting at such different points of origin. 

Thus it begins.

In keeping with Achor's philosophy, though (and Dickinson's), I dwell in possibility.  Here are some gratitudes:

1)  Thank you for filling my room with projects and for trying. 
2)  Thank you for volunteering (in the classes that did). 
3)  Thank you for presenting even though it might not be your favorite thing to do.

Dear Scarlett says that tomorrow is another day.  And she's right.  So I will see you all tomorrow ready and willing to build a sandcastle despite the omnipresence of rising tides.

Thus it begins...again.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Songs:
1- Chubby Checker "Twist"
2- Pitbull "Celebrate"
3- Queen "Don't Stop Me Now"
4-  Queen "Bohemian Rhapsody"
5- Jackson 5 "I Want You Back"

My Boyfriend is Back...

Ladies and Gentlemen, Shawn Achor.

There are no words to convey the mastery with which this rhetor owns the stage.

Rewatch tonight and do some quality notes.  Consider how your brain processes the world.

I'll see y'all tomorrow.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: "Kansas City" The New Basement Tapes

Milk and Honey

Page 109

Class Discussion Today

Either you are showing up prepared or you are not.

This is my statement of truth for the day.

Also, no is a complete sentence.

Standards will not be lowered...you must rise to meet them.

As David Foster Wallace would say, "So decide."

So decide who you want to be and go be it.

So decide if you are willing to do the work.

So decide if an AP English class best suits your needs.

So decide.

So decide.

So decide.

Tomorrow is yet another opportunity to build a sandcastle and "rage" against the dying of the light.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song:  "Roar" Katy Perry

Important Dates: 
Wed. 9/27 - Rhetorical Devices Project Due and Presentations
Fri. 9/29 - SAS Round #3
Independent Book Reading

Second Post of the Day

Thanks to Thor (period 4), here is an awesome Quizlet that you can use to help with some of the rhetorical devices.  There won't be a "for a grade" quiz but we are discussing Keegan's Stability in Motion on Monday and one of the expectations of preparedness is that you know what the rhetor was doing with her conscious choosing of words.  The piece was previously posted on the blog so ask someone nicer than me where you can access it.

Monday's "discussion" will include some pointed questions such as:
1) What rhetorical devices did you identify in the text and why do you think Keegan used them?
2)  What did you notice about the arrangement of the piece?
3)  Obviously the piece is good writing (I say this because none of you have a New York Times bestseller) so what makes it effective in light of its purpose? (What is the text's purpose?)
4) What aspects of the rhetorical triangle are you able to discuss?
5) What do you know about Keegan and her other pieces of fiction and nonfiction?
6) AP Language is all about connections, so what text-to-text, text-to-world, and text-to-self connections did you make?

(Just to give you a taste of how Monday should not be "I really liked it..." "Yeah, me too.")

In addition to those starter questions, have handy your annotated text.

Our goal is a 20 minute chat but if it's going well...

Have a great weekend,
Beltran

P.S. - Thank you to all who had their prep books (or ordered them).  I will be checking for AP test prep books on FRIDAY 9/29.

SAS #2

Happy Friday Everyone.

Thank you for another quality round of SAS.

I'll be back at some point this weekend with a few reminders for Monday as well as Thor's generously made quizlet.

Enjoy the beautiful Friday...

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin's "Respect"

M/C Diagnostic Day

Practice Test prep days always leave me a bit discombobulated so I wonder how you feel...

Make sure to record your "score" in your notes (create a chart that looks like the example below) and keep track of your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to the beast of an AP Language exam.  It's just another hoop, y'all, but we might as well be able to jump through it and laugh on the other side.

Also, make sure you have an AP Test prep book for AP LANGUAGE in class tomorrow.  If you are ordering one, you can show me the receipt as proof.

Tomorrow is SAS Round #2 but you all should be ready in case I ask you to present.

And today's song is a repeat but our official theme song for test days: The Eagles "Take It Easy"

Love and Light (and yay that it's almost Friday and is beginning to feel like fall),
Beltran

Date	Test	Score	Areas of Improvement
TH 9/21/17	M/C 2014 "I am a writer...”	# correct/14

Stability in Motion

Marina Keegan's beautiful piece can be accessed here.

Your job as a student who learns for learning's sake is to print the piece, re-read it, annotate as Adler would and be prepared to discuss the text in a Socratic (Beltran style) on Monday 9/25.

It will either turn into a quality discussion where we speak because we have something to say OR it will devolve into a "discussion" where we hear a few voices or worse, voices that feel they have to say something.

Consider the rhetorical devices she used.

I can't wait to see what happens...

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: Bonnie Raitt's "Something to Talk About"

TED Talk Tuesday

TED Talk #2 = Oh My Word

Make sure to rewatch the video, print out and annotate the transcript and add Adichie to your TED Talk Chart.  I certainly hope you have a TED Talk Chart....as Brene Brown would say, "I'm just sayin'..."

Tomorrow in class, be prepared for some class discussion and more quality rhetoric!!!!

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: Diana Ross and The Supremes "Stop in the Name of Love"

Project Explained

*Periods 1 and 5 got a different experience today so your TED Talk Tuesday will have info re: rhetorical devices project *

The structure of the AP Language exam was explained today in class along with the in's and out's of the project due next Wednesday 9/27.  (Please see Sunday's post for the document that details the project.)

Start thinking about the emotion you want to highlight and the creative representation of it.  Email with questions if you have any.

Tomorrow we will enter into TED Talk #2.

And, as always, you should be reading your Independent Reading Book!!

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: Journey's "Don't Stop Believing"

Monday Preview

Happy Sunday, y'all.  Please spread the word (as you teenagers best know how) to all the APES (AP English Students) out there who daily cross the threshold of Room 853.  In an effort to help you out, I am posting below the project that we will be discussing in class tomorrow.  Look it over, come with questions and start thinking about what you would like to create.

Rhetorical Devices Project (created by Mr. C and modified by me)

Enjoy the rest of your day,
Beltran

387

387 post views that is, but I'm pretty sure some of my Class of 2018 lovelies are still checking the blog.  Am I right?

At any rate, much much better, my juniors.  I apologize if any of your emails got bounced back for some unknown reason.  I'm not sure what happened there...I appreciate the effort, and remember, you don't have to email daily.  I'd say two a week is bare minimum.

As far as SAS today, homerun.  I think everyone who presented did so with courage and grace (which is exactly the way to go about it).  Not only did you all teach us about really interesting topics/things, you did something (publicly speak) that is considered a fear in grown ups.

Mad respect.

Over the weekend, you MUST watch the Steve Jobs Stanford commencement address (2005) that Ariel left as a comment on WEDNESDAY night.  It's just good.  So, watch it.  (explicit enough?)  And also, read.  Some people have already finished books and are on their second ones, so be the best student you can be and do your work.

No grades doesn't equal No work.

Wishing you all a happy and safe weekend.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: Stevie Wonder "Higher Ground"

SAS Tomorrow and Emails

Our first SAS is tomorrow.  I cannot wait!!!  And thank you for listening today - coachable?  Or not?  I'll be reading what you wrote and (hopefully) checking emails tonight.

I'm not a brute or a bully.

I'm just a teacher who wants the best for each of you.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song:  The Temptations "Get Ready"

So Much To Say

Tomorrow will be a "recalibration day" based upon what I observed, listened to, and learned today.

Despite the fact that I have so much to say, I will save the praise and the lessons for tomorrow.  What I think is funny, though, is the fact that Brene Brown's TED Talk rang true for me as a human - lessons show up every moment if we allow them.  I saw lots of clenched fists in Room 853...without the ability to be vulnerable, absolutely nothing else will flourish.

We must enter into the arena with humility.

We absolutely cannot forget that each of us human beings are physical forms (meatsuits!) whose biases inform every nanosecond of our existence.

I will never know what it's like to be a 6 foot tall African American woman who can speak multiple languages, who was raped as a child, who wrote several books and spoke at President Clinton's inauguration.

Neither will you.

Unless you are a 6 foot tall African American woman who can speak multiple languages, who was raped as a child, who wrote several books and spoke at President Clinton's inauguration.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song:  Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On"

"Complaining is not only graceless, it's dangerous. It can alert a brute that there's a victim in the neighborhood."

(I wonder who said that??)

TED Talk Tuesday!!!

So TED Talks started today.  I hope you take into consideration Brene Brown's argument and her research.  Think about her claim that the birthplace of joy, creativity, belonging and love is vulnerability.

Your job as a student invested in your education (or invested in your miseducation??) is to do the following:

1) Create and add Brown to your TED Talk Chart. (See someone's notes if you were absent.)
2) Print out the transcript to the talk and annotate it as Adler (or Harvard) would have you annotate. Did you even read the article from the other night that is from Harvard?????
3)  Rewatch the TED Talk and take quality notes in your spiral.  Make sure you also include a Rhetorical Triangle in your notes.  Look up the rhetor!!!

I'll see y'all tomorrow.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: "Eye of the Tiger" Survivor

A Random Post from Me to You

Sherenia Sykes told me during my first year of teaching that my kindness should never be mistaken for weakness.  She had a gold tooth and hair extensions that alternated between pink and purple and blue every day that ended in "y". 

Sherenia and Smokie would walk me to my car each afternoon in the Houston heat just to make sure some of the "unsavory" characters would leave me alone.  So unlike my colleagues who suffered concussions and slashed tires, I made it through the year untouched. (Unless you count my heart, which shattered on a daily basis at the inequality of the educational system depending on your zip code.)

That first class I taught back in 1998 taught me how to be a teacher.  How the deepest, most sincere form of love is high expectations.  I never let those kids in Room 109 slip up on homework or not read or not be prepared for class.  No matter what, those lovelies knew I believed in them and would push them.  I would be different from their "normal" teachers who just wanted to get through the day.

Please hear me when I say that any of you who are feeling unnerved by the demands of the class, sit in that discomfort.  And recognize that I should not be the first teacher to show you how to mark a book or the importance of reading or how to be an active participant in your education.  If I am, I'm so sorry.  On behalf of all apple eating, cardigan wearing, tote bag toting teachers, I am sorry.

You will rise to the expectations of this class because I know you can.

The opposite of love is indifference, and you are loved. 

Adler Is My Boy UPDATED

Seems the PowerPoint needs permission. Try signing in with your sandi student account. If that doesn't work...go read.


After today's lesson with good ol' Mortimer J. Adler, it's the hope that you now understand the WHY behind the WHAT in terms of how we actually read and OWN books.

You might have a glorious library but "having a fine library doesn't prove that its owner has a mind enriched by books; it proves nothing more than that he, his father or his wife was rich enough to buy them".

MIC DROP.

Tonight, reflect on what kind of books you've read.  Do you own any of them?  And just to add some credibility to the mix, there's a little school back East that fully supports what was introduced today.  Check it out.

Ms. Meier taught you all about what is expected in terms of college level reading.  Her powerpoint will be linked later.  Let me know if this hyperlink works.  Powerpoint.


Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song:  Sam Cooke "Wonderful World"

Stuff About Stuff

Happy Friday!!!

 Thank you for being open to the idea of SAS.  We introduced it via The Five Canons (IMSAD) and then followed up with the speaking requirements.  (Please see THIS for the notes.)

Make sure you come to class Monday prepared with Adler's How to Mark a Book.  It was posted yesterday.  What does it mean to be prepared for class???

Have a great weekend and much Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: Whitney Houston "How Will I Know"

We Read Part II

Today in class we discussed some finer points of why we read.  You are going to change the culture of your reading habits and adapt to the expectations in our class.  I know you can do this.  I offer you the chance to become "the best version of yourself".

Be sure to choose 6 of the 11 books from the list (remember we are reading Outliers as a class).  Have your chosen book on Monday.  (The books are available in the library!)

And out of respect for your lives and time and schedules, please find an article HERE that you will need PRINTED for class on Monday.  You should come to class prepared if you know what I mean.

Tomorrow I will go over what SAS is and why we use our Fridays as we do.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song:  "Best of My Love" The Emotions

WE READ.  WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. 
WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. WE READ. 

WE READ

Today in class we discussed the expectations for Independent Reading and the reasons why we read.  In addition, you completed a quick write of your reading profile (see me if you were absent).

You can find the article Ms. Meier referenced here as well as access the Semester One Reading list aqui.

We will continue our reading discussion tomorrow so PLEASE think about the book list and show up to class with whatever book you are currently reading.  Books can change you.  Books can change the world.

Y'all have a great Wednesday and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: Justin Timberlake "Can't Stop the Feeling".   

TED Talk Tuesday *UPDATED*

Hi, Lovelies -

There are some technical difficulties with the school wifi so I will be back later to post the Rhetorical Triangle document you need.

And here it is.  Please print and place in your spirals/notebooks or hand copy it into your notes.

Today we reviewed protocol for what happens on Tuesday in class. (Make sure you do whatever work you're supposed to do...easy class blah blah).

Tomorrow = books.

Come ready.

Love and Light,
Beltran

Today's Song: "I'm Still Standing" Elton John

My Homework

I see through the grief that consumed me for the past 15 months, through the shattering of my heart as I watched my mother take her final breath on earth.  I see through forty one year old eyes that used to seek the bad before they found the good.  I see through foil covered windows that block out Texas heat and through peeks behind the curtain at night making sure we are safe.

I see through the facade of perfect ACT scores, all A's and full scholarships to what learning really is.  I see through the fake laughs of class clowns and through the silence of wickedly smart minds.  I see through each of the cracks in my heart and present myself with open hands to each of you.

As we say in Texas, I see with "clear eyes" and a "full heart".

I can't lose.

Presentation Day

Thank you is all I can possibly say to the classes today.

Thank you for trying, getting up, sharing, for DARING GREATLY (look up that Teddy Roosevelt quote).

I appreciate the chance to see some of you.

Have a wonderful, safe long weekend, and look forward to another week of learning in class.

Love and Light,
Beltran

P.S. - Great movie on Netflix "Inside Out"

Today's Song (or attempt): The Eagles "Take It Easy"