12/10/2012

Hello West House Members,
my name is Nicole and I'll be your scribe for the week. Yay!

Okay, let's get started. So today, Monday, December 10, 2012, we first started off with SSR for 20 minutes.
Shortly after SSR, Ortega went around to each table and checked us off to see if we had both our essay and our peer review, which should be placed in our notebook. If you didn't have it today, make sure that it's printed and in your notebook by next rotation.
Mrs. Ortega then proceeded by making an appointments for each group to meet her at the library on Wednesday, December 12th, in order to go over our pro speeches. Each person within your Model Assembly group will bring their speech to recite to Ortega during their appointment. Each group will have 15 minutes, so if you're the first group at 8:00, make sure you're there on time!
On Wednesday, everybody meets at the Library at 8:00 A.M.; If you're late, make sure you go to room 2907, on the second floor.
Our last thing for the day was having a quick mini lesson on Counter Arguments.
All of the groups were given a topic, and within your groups we would have about fifteen minutes to come up with a counter argument to whatever the concept was classified as. We then talked about it as a class, and Ortega picked people to share the answers aloud.

Recap:
-SSR
-Peer review/essay check
-Library Appointments
-Counter Argument Lesson.

That was all the time we had for today.
Oh, and don't forget that National Guard will be coming to iPoly, Tuesday at lunch.
Okay, that is all. Goodnight West House! (:
-Nicole.

12/10/12

12/05/2012

Hi there, so today we finally had our notebooks checked out. For homework we need to post our rough draft tonight before midnight and just be ready for tomorrow. We are meeting at 8 by Ursa Minor, sleep well.

• Rough Draft turned in by 12 tonight.

12/04/2012

We had a short four core today. No real time for anything, so we had a speaker come in from the Connect Four program to talk about Mt. SAC admissions and transfers. The notebooks were not checked today.
So today was basically this:

• A#47 Connect Four

12/03/12

Hello,

We started off with SSR. We then took notes on Ethos, Pathos, and Logos (and you need to have an idea of what you are going to use for your speech). Then we were given time to work on our speeches. HEADS UP, we are finally getting our notebooks checked tomorrow. 

So let's go over it again:

• SSR
• A#46 Mini: Ethos, Pathos, Logos
• Time to work on speech
• Notebooks due tomorrow 

11/29/12

Ortega was back today! :)

• She started us off with SSR.
• Then we read articles about Nicolas Dirks and made a pros and cons list in our notebook about the article. It is Assignment #45. I couldn't find the exact article but here's some information about it. Click here to read.
• We had a Mini Structured/General Debate. In the debate one side was pro and the other was con, and the two sides of the room debated on the article.
• Work on your speeches.

11/28/12

Ortega was out today so we had a sub.

• We started the day off with SSR.
• We read this article 
• Ortega had questions up on the board for us to answer about it.
• Our Model Assembly speeches were passed back for revisions in class. Work on those speeches at home too.

11/26/12

HAPPY MONDAY GUYS! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend.

Today in Ortega's we did..
-SSR
-We had a mini lesson intro where we talked about different catch phrases we use when starting essays. Some examples are:

• Use a quote
• Shocking statement, face, or statistic
• Using something simple that we call all relate to
• Asking a Question that addresses the audience and makes them want to be involved

- We were introduced to our Speech Component. Ortega handed out the contract for it today.

HW: Write a introduction sentence to your Bill's paper. Use some of the catch phrase examples Ortega shared in class

Remember to make your notebook neat and organized because Ortega promised to check it soon. Also, turn in your literature circle books.

11/19/12

Sorry for the Late post guys.

Basically, all we did was

• A short SSR time.
• Wrote an Essay on our bills persuading people on it.
• Anticipated the next "Anticipated" photo, but unfortunately it didn't happen.

Well, that's about it, Have a great Thanksgiving guys! - and a happy weekend!

11/15/2012

Hello again everyone, so today we had....

• Our usual 20 min of SSR 
• Had our homework checked off our homework(Make sure you do that click link for help)
• Discussed the same article we got yesterday in both our groups and as a class (Link here)
• we answered 4 discussion questions about the article
1. What does brooks (The author) believe is Obama's problem?
2. Does Brooks think we should go off the Fiscal Cliff or not?
3. What are his reasons for his opinion?
4. What are some of the solutions proposed by Brooks? (at least 3)

• Also check your Turnitin.com acounts to find out your grade about your essays and get feed back from Ortega about it. 
• You can redo it but talk to Ortega and do it within the month.

Okay that's it from me for this week have a good Friday and week end remember only two days f school next week, due to Thanksgiving Break. TTFN Ta Ta For Now!!!!

11/142012

Hello everyone Cat here, so today we had....

• Our usual 20 min of SSR
•  Did a current events quick write. We wrote to....
•  What is going on in the U.S. or state Politics now that the elections are over? How engaged or disengaged do you feel from these events and why do you think that you are similar or different in this respect from your peers? How does that general feeling on Politics affect us all?
• After writing we had a discussion within our groups and then a class discussion.
• We then read an article titled "Obama the DealMaker" by a David Brooks. and wrote a Pro and Con on the paper on the author's view on wether the government should go "Off Fiscal Cliff" 
• "Off Fiscal Cliff" is a popular term used to describe the terms of the Budget Control Act discussed in 2011, scheduled to go into effect toward the end of 2012.
• (Click here to read article.)
• Recived our progress reports.
• And tonight's homework is to bring out a printed out editoral about anything political that interests you.
• You can go to this site (www.dailyoped.com) if you need a place to look.

11/8/12

Game Plan

• LC Presentations

Everyone did a great job at presenting today! Way to go West House :)

11/7/12

Game Plan

• SSR
• LC Presentation Prep

9:36 - 9:57

• SSR 

9:58 - 11:02

• Presentation Prep

:) Have a nice day!

11/5/12

HELLO EVERYONE! :)

Game Plan

• SSR

• LC Presentation Prep

11:12 - 11:32

• SSR

11:33 - 11:41

• Announcements
•  Book orders were due today
• Cal Poly Police # (909)869-3070
• Make an appointment with Mrs. Ortega if you want to talk with her

11:42 - 12:38

•  LC Presentation Prep
• Every group prepared their presentation for Thursday.

12:38

• Lunchtime!

10/24/12

 So today in Ortega's wonderful classroom, we focused mainly on several different aspects of literary work.

- SSR

- Listened to a podcast of Grammar Girl and then had an intense talk about the significance of it all.
  We then took notes on the podcast as it was streaming and got these four pillars of grammatical
   wisdom:  

1.When proofreading, read your work backwards. (Sentence by Sentence.)

2. Read your work out loud.

3. Proofread a printed version.

4. Give time for the work to sink in. and then approach it with a fresh perspective.

**Remember that tomorrow is the Literature Discussion. We will also be reviewing Zhailah Graza's paper tomorrow! ** 

10/22/12

I apologize for the lateness in this post! Anyways, Hi everyone! Ivy here, sorry about the rocky start to this week of blogging but I promise it will smooth sailing from here on out! Back to the point: in class on Monday, we had several things to do.

1 - We opened with SSR as usual.

2 - We talked about the specifications of a Talk Show as an option for the LC presentations as an option. Our examples were: Jay Leno, Wendy Williams, and Jerry Springer. 

3 - Our Membership Grid question for the day was: "What was the worst present you've ever received?"

4 - Then we had our Discussion on our Literature Circle Books once again. Only two more LC discussions left!

****REMEMBER: Tomorrow is the last day for reviewing personal narratives so bring your revised draft to class tomorrow!!**** 

10/19/12

• SSR
• LC Discussions 
• Share Out 

Before LC Discussions we did a Membership Grid topic which had three parts :

1. Are you a picky eater or an adventurous eater?
2. What is the most daring food you've eaten?
3. Why are you a picky and/or adventurous eater?

10/15/12

Hiiiii West House ;p 'tis Zhailah Graza here & I am your designated blogger for this wonderful week. I hope you all had an awesome weekend and just a reminder! Movie night is on Wednesday in the MPR ! The chosen film is Sixth Sense; starts at 4 ends at 6. Hope to see you all there! ^_^ 

Game Plan: 

• SSR
• Song Parody 
• LC Discussion 
• Share Out 

    So I think of all of us can agree that we have now got "I Want It That Way" as well as "eBay" stuck in our heads. In class we learned how to make a song parody; rhythm patterns etc.

    We filled out the LC membership grid. Today's topic was, "If you could go back in time and change your name, what would you change it to and why?" 

10/11/12

Game Plan:

• SSR
• LC Discussion
• Class Share Out

Today in class, after we completed SSR, we turned to our groups and discussed who our favorite teacher was in elementary school. After, we swiftly changed our conversation to our literature circle books where we discussed the events that had occurred since our last discussion. Since it was four core rotation today, we did not get to do the class share out.

10/10/12

Game Plan:

• SSR
• Writing Workshop
• Share Out

Today in class we spent twenty blissfully quiet minutes reading our SSR book. Next, we were given the opportunity to work on our writing workshop pieces for about a majority of the class. We were also informed that we would have to submit our rough draft to turnitin.com by Saturday night, and review one of our peer's paper by Sunday night. Next we heard Angel Diaz's writing workshop piece, which was a heart warming piece about overcoming struggles, and how they shaped who he is today. Many people gave feedback that was hopefully helpful to the expansion and improvement of his piece.

10/8/12

Hello West House! It's Angel Campos and I will be your scribe for the week (:

To start off:

The Game Plan

• SSR
• Mini: Textual Evidence
• LC Discussions
• Class Share Out

We started off the day just like any other with approximately twenty minutes of silent reading of the book of our choosing. Mrs. Ortega then proceeded to teach us about the importance of using textual evidence to solidify the claims we make about characters in our readings. We learned this through a reading of the Three Little Pigs, and all the people chosen as speakers made hilarious voices to accommodate their characters, especially Indra's Asian wolf. (x After, we wrote down some conclusions we came to about the characters in the story, and pointed out particular pieces or actions that backed up our claims, thus using textual evidence. Next, we turned to our literature circle groups and avidly discussed the past events in our books, and answered our group members questions. This, however took up a lot of time and we were not able to get to the Class Share Out.

That's all for today & I hope everyone has a goodnight (:

10/04/12

West House brethren-
Day Two under the Unit of Oppression. It is now verboten to use "quiz-like" questions in Literature Circle discussions. All questions must aid one's understanding of the book under penalty of NC. Paraphrasing has also been forbidden-all must mark and read aloud passages they find desirable. The regime finds it necessary for the workers to make connections from the book to their lives and to analyze the writer's craft. All discussions must include at least 4 to 8 of the described tactics. Moral is surprisingly high.

I hope you all had fun in your Literature Circles. Friendly reminder from the mouthpiece of the Unit of Oppression-if you haven't already, you need to condense two of you planned discussions into one.

Thank you for listening to my snark this week.

Give us us free!
Hannah

10/03/12

Greetings, class,
Today was Writing Workshop day. As usual we were treated to one of our classmates' pieces to read and review. Today it was mine-thank you all for your helpful comments! I very much appreciate it.
In any event, I am at a loss on what to snark about today. So here are some links to help you with writing your piece.

http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/professors-guide/2010/09/15/10-tips-for-writing-the-college-application-essay
http://www.iss.k12.nc.us/writing/personal.htm
http://collegeapps.about.com/od/essays/College_Admissions_Essays_Samples_Critiques_and_Writing_Tips.htm
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/10/25/7-perfect-college-essays.html

Good night and good luck,
Hannah (escaped Ahmadinejad!)

10/01/12

Monday, Oct. 1
I write this on a cell phone, so be gentle with  me. Monday was the dawn of the age of oppression-more specifically, the unit of oppression, although that is far less intimidating. On a somber note first, recall the allegorical tale pf the Holocaust we were told. Just because something seems like it doesn't affect you now doesn't mean it won't in the future.
On a lighter note, we discussed our weekends, which are usually a good indicator of whether or not you live in an oppressive country (hint-we do not. If we did, that conversation would have sounded more like this; "Well, I stood in the latke ration line for 7 hours. Then I had to go praise at the Arc of the Supreme Ubermensch. When I got home to my meager Guinea pig farm my family was dead from lack of latkes and they had taken my last viable Guinea pig.")
Then we discussed our books. If you were in my group you were treated to a fascinating discussion on the history of Iran from Shah to Ayatollah/Ahmadinejad, or "Ahmadinetollah" for short if you're into that.
Remember you need to combine some discussions.
Open the pod bay doors!
Hannah (currently running from Ahmadinejad)

9/27/12

Hey guys! Good evening, so today was a really chill day. We started with the regular Silent Sustained Reading followed by Writing Workshop and then quickly went over Indra's writing piece before we were let out of class. 

Some few announcements that Mrs. Ortega had for us today, and they are: 

- Ortega would like to create a small competition among the houses. This competition is a book competition. It is to see which house can read the most books. If you would like to have a book talk with her there will be sign-ups on the board on Monday to talk to her about books. 

- Writing Workshop 
       ~ Will happen once a week. 
       ~ This month we will do ww on narratives. Ortega would just like to get to know you a bit better and they type of voice you really have in your writing. 
       ~ She expects us to work on our ww at home at least once a week 
       ~ Once senior project stuff comes our way we will only work on that. For now we are supposed to work on narratives because she doesn't want us to do our college essays in the last minute. 
       ~ WW is due on the last week of October. 
       ~ We will use 1/2 hr of class time to work on our WW. 

That's all for tonight folks. Hope you all had a good day and I will see you all tomorrow. Good night! :D 

9/24/12

Hey guys, sorry about posting really really really late. I haven’t been feeling up to par this week. But I must fulfill my scribing duties nonetheless.

Anyways, we started with the usual silent sustained reading and then we moved on to working in our composition books. Before we got into full writing in our comp books mode she went over a few announcements and they are as follows:

-          Poetry out loud scores were handed out at the end of the class

-          Poetry finalists were going to be announced at the end of class which the finalist came out to be Hannah S. and Joseph G. so a big congratulation to you both!!

-          Literature circles, we are going to continue this concept in this class. All of you can remember that we began this way back in junior year with Mrs. Edwards... It’s been a while, I know. Ortega comes from a different approach than Edwards did. She chooses the lit circle groups by picking our sticks, there are no more than 5 people in a group and no less than 4 people in a group.

-          Remember that this week is kind of messed up because Friday is the ribbon cutting so look at the class blog for additional information, but we will see Ortega on Friday for a while. That same Friday we must have accomplished our very first reading assignment.

-          Wednesday and Thursday are writing workshop days. How it works for her writing workshop is an entry point for nonfiction, college applications/scholarships, helps her get to know who we are and the type of voice that we use and finally the most important thing of all important things…. Don’t go to Edwards for help when it comes to your personal statement because she has her own kids to worry about, just go to Ortega, you have nothing to worry about. Ortega is the coolest, most wonderful, person you can ever imagine. Trust me. She also said that if you do work on your statement to periodically go and talk to her about it so she can help you. Don’t procrastinate and carry on until the last minute… (See what I did there?!?!) Because Ortega will not… WILL NOT take your paper and read it during breaks and or holidays. Unless, she met with you regularly and she only has to take a look at minor things. She doesn’t want to read the entire thing when she could spend time with her family folks so be considerate and get it done ASAP!

-          We will look over at some point in time the current scribe and or last weeks’ scribe Indra writing.

-          The boards in the back need a makeover!! The boards in the back are going to become into marvelous works of art because the building looks depressing/mental ward if you are visually talented or good at following directions then by all means come on down to help her out with fixing up her room.  After school or during lunch. You can receive extra credit or community service hours based on services. She has really cool ideas and is open to any other ideas that you may have.

Alright guys, well that is it for today. Like I said again I am very sorry about not posting this sooner, but its better late than never. Have a goodnight and I will see you all again tomorrow on nerd and jock day at school tomorrow! :D 

9/19/2012

Game Plan

Hey guys its Indra again!

All we did today was present our poetry out loud, good job for those of you who were able to complete the poem and recite it well. Nice try and a pat on the back for those who weren't able to complete it. After the poems we just had a wee bit of time and were able to read SSR for about 10 mins. 

• Present poetry out loud
• SSR (about 10 mins)

9/17/13

Game plan:

Hello Y'ALL this is Indra and I'm the scribe for this week!

So it was a fairly simple Monday, today we welcomed Mrs. Ortega back from her absence last week because of the passing of her grandmother (Prayers and best wishes for her!). Ms. La Russa left a positive message saying we did very well with her. (OF COURSE). Okay so basically what we did was :

• SSR (For roughly about 30min)
• We then updated our Composition books with A#10 writing workshop (of 3 choices A.continue your story of why you love and chose your Sr. topic. B. continue your auto biography of your interests of reading. C. any other topic of your choice) also A#11 "writing feed back " basically a peer review for the writing workshop. 
• POL we then practiced reciting our poem with our partners for bout 10 to 15mins
• And last but not least we started to write our writing workshop. 

Until next time! Oh and the homework is just to practice your poem due on 9/19/13 which is a weds! Remember be clear and concise! AND FIRE AND ICE IS NOW ACCEPTABLE. (not really just kidding don't do it).

9/13/2012

Game Plan:

• SSR
• Poetry Outloud a#8 Scoring Guide
• Practice scoring a video
• Practice with partner
• a#9 Timed Writing (20 minutes), practice ABC's and D's from a#5

So, today was pretty simple. We watched some Poetry Outloud videos from previous years and discussed what the speakers did right and what they did wrong. I thought it was really helpful because I definitely got some tips for when I have to recite my poem. Before watching the videos and practicing the scores, I thought it was great to use hand gestures, but you're actually not supposed to. Whoops..

Aside from Poetry Outloud, we also worked on the timed writing that we briefly went over a couple days ago. The topic for today's timed writing was to explain what led you to chose your senior topic and give a specific example or event. 

REMEMBER:

• Research Check #2  tomorrow
• Bring work out clothes for house competition 

9/12/2012

Today in class we watched an interview of Emma Watson and took notes on interviewing strategies that we should apply to our own interviews and ones that we shouldn't apply.
Apply:

• ask open ended questions
• shake hands and make eye contact
• do  research on the interviewee (background info)
• large variety of topics
• dress appropriately

Don't Apply:

• don't interrupt the interviewee
• don't over power the other person, make sure they also have the opportunity to talk
• don't insult the person (duhhh..)
• don't make the person feel uncomfortable

We also went over a proper introduction for introducing yourself to your interviewee/mentor. Your introduction should include where you're from (maybe some background info on i-Poly), what the senior project is and what your goals for it are, and ask if they can help you find other contacts in the field for more help and advice. 

REMEMBER: 

• poem memorized by the 17-18th
• senior portraits tomorrow (check senior blog for your time) 

Have a great night everyone! (:

9/10/2012

Hey guys! Sorry for the super late post. D: So, here we go, finally... 

Game Plan:

• SSR
• Notebook setup
• Timed Writing ABC's & D's
• Reading Autobiography

For the notebook setup, the assignment number goes on the far left hand margin, then the title in the middle, and the page number on the far right hand side. Skip three to four pages for the table of contents. These are the assignments in the table of contents so far (in order): Class Intro, Mathemagician Notes, This American Life: Black Jack Alternative Notes, Poetry Out Loud: (your poem title here), and Timed Writing ABC's & D's. Put in the handouts into the comp. book by simply folding it in half and then put a piece of tape on the cease line to stick into the book. 

REMEMBER!!

• Blog # 3
• Research Check 2 on Friday
• Senior Portraits on Thursday
• Poetry Out Loud needs to be memorized by September 18th