TheMrDShow

TheMrDShow: Episode Seven

The One Before Fall Break ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

TheMrDShow: Episode Six

Autumnal Splendor ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

TheMrDShow: Episode Five

TheMrDShow - Episode Five: Quiz Numero Uno Hello!  Welcome back to the Mr. D show - I am your host, Mr. D.  Last week, my students took the first summative quiz of the year - right on day seventeen of school.  After seeing their scores, some of my students may decide to go ahead and cash in their one retake of this first grading period.  Just a reminder - our school’s retake policy allows students ONE retake of a summative grade per grading period per class.  Because of the short nature of our first grading period, students will only take THREE quizzes this opening grading window.  Therefore, students can still elect to do a retake after they see what they score on quiz two - currently scheduled for Friday, September 27th. Now, let’s talk about a couple of things before we dive into this week’s preview - first, the positive: this group, after just seventeen days of school, seems like a fun-loving group.  I feel closer to them in four and a half weeks than I did my previous two groups of students by a longshot.  This past Thursday’s pep rally was a microcosm of that - students were into it, they were having a good time, and I am proud to be their teacher.  I don’t want anybody else other than the students I currently have. With that said, this group has been a little slow going out of the gate.  To be fair, I have pushed them the first four weeks of school to see how they would respond.  It’s been a bit of a slough thus far in that department.  Part of it is that I need to slow things up a little - the other end of that is the students need to pick up the pace a bit.  So, in other words - if I start walking their way and they start walking mine, we’ll gain a lot of ground if we both give a little - and meet in the middle. Also - if a student misses school OR they fall a bit behind, they need to make up that work outside of class.  I RARELY ever assign homework and when I do, it’s only because the students cannot accomplish what I am asking them to do inside of the boundaries of the physical school building.  Yet, if they are behind, that’s exactly what our normal classwork becomes - homework.    Speaking of homework, students will be bringing home their first homework of the year: picturing heroes.  I am asking students to bring in a PICTURE of the person they consider to be their hero.  Please know - this picture will be a part of a large collage in my classroom and either a STAPLE or a THUMBTACK will go through the pic.  Therefore, antique, heirloom photos are not appropriate for this assignment.  Also, nothing larger than 4X6”, please - we are anticipating over 100 photos, so the smaller, the better.  This will be due on Friday, September 20th.   Now, a look ahead to this week: on Monday and Tuesday, we continue with Homer’s “The Odyssey - Book Nine” with a comic strip action AND an analysis of a filmed version of a text.  On Wednesday, we will introduce Unit One Vocab - PART TWO and our final lesson on symbolism using “Fast Car” by Tracy Chapman (sorry, Luke Combs) and the short story, “Red Roses” from our myPerspectives textbook. We end with a lesson on TONE / DICTION / DENOTATION and CONNOTATION on Thursday and Friday.  I spent some of my Sunday cutting out words for a group word sort in the afternoon while watching the Bengals fall to 0-2.  So what I am telling you is that the TONE of my scissor cutting was not exactly positive during that late-game defensive pass interference on the Bengal secondary that put Butker into field goal range.   ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

TheMrDShow: Episode Four

Episode Four: Labor Days and Library Ways Hello!  Welcome back to the Mr. D show - I am your host, Mr. D.  Last week, we did in fact wrap up our initial introduction to the Hero’s Journey using the Lion King for inspiration.  We also read our first in-depth texts of the year: the poem “Ithaka” by CP Cavafy and a short story - “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury.  We weren’t quite ready for the outdoor class of stations on Friday but we caught ourselves up by finishing out the week strong and preparing for this week. On Monday, we will hold class outside, with rotating group stations doing certain tasks, including the filming of a imagery-based video inspired by “Ithaka!”  I cannot wait to share that with everyone after post-production is complete! We will also take a more focused look at “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” as it relates to characterization - how authors show us what a character is like through their words, actions, thoughts, looks, and relationships with others.  Students will be asked to create a prototype of an action figure based on the character of Joby the Drummer Boy.   On Tuesday, we will introduce our second set of vocabulary words for Unit One and give out our second big reading of the year - Book Nine of Homer’s “The Odyssey.”  This will serve as the basis for a ton of activity next week, including student-created digital comics based on the text.  I will also release the study guide for quiz one on Tuesday as well. On Wednesday, we will check out a special bellringer that matches with our current unit theme - We Can be Heroes - and that also honors 09/11.  The bellringer will focus on a short documentary by ESPN entitled “The Man in the Red Bandanna” about the heroic actions of Welles Crowther on 09/11. Thursday will be our first visit to the RCMS library!  We make routine visits to the library every two weeks, beginning with our trip there on Thursday.  Mrs. Sarah Stapp is a phenomenal librarian and a former English teacher.  She always incorporates spot-on lessons to supplement what we are doing in the classroom.   On Friday, we will have our first SUMMATIVE quiz grade of the year with Quiz one, as well as their first round of Reader’s Response based on what they checked out from the library the day before.   That will do it for this episode - thanks for listening and being involved in what your child is doing in class.  We are a partnership and I am here to work with and for you on behalf of our community.  Here’s to a phenomenal school year - peace be the journey. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

TheMrDShow: Episode Three

Episode Three: Eight Days a Week Hello!  Welcome back to the Mr. D show - I am your host, Mr. D.  After our first full week of school last week, I hope everyone had a restful weekend because if you are anything like me, you needed it!  It’s not as if working in a school is akin to working in the logging industry, but trust me when I say, there’s a special kind of tired reserved for these opening days of school. I have started the process of sifting through the opening days paperwork, checking out the initial scores of my students, reading through their vision boards and opening writing pieces, and getting data from our first round of MAP testing - but most importantly, through of that, I have been getting to know the students.   I feel like, after just eight days of school, I know this group out of the gate better than any group of students I have had before.  Just before recording this podcast, I was creating the new seating charts for each class and as I typed each student’s name, I felt like I knew at least something about them.  A big part of that is a testament to you - the parents and guardians of my students, many of whom have sent back your parent essays and shared invaluable information about your kiddos.  Once again, thank you so much for providing me with the most important reading I will do all year long.   This past week, we introduced our first unit of the year - We Can Be Heroes.  With that, we also started to outline the Hero’s Journey, a story pattern of archetypal heroes discovered by Joseph Campbell.  We will finish that outline on Tuesday.  We tracked that outline with the help of Simba in “The Lion King,” but according to Campbell, regardless of the heroic story, any story would do.  I challenge you to ask your student about some of the stages and steps of the Hero’s Journey and how stories they may be familiar with fit within that framework.   On Wednesday, we will dive into our first poem of the year, “Ithaka” by CP Cavafy.  If you are of a certain age, you may remember that this poem was read during the memorial service for Mrs. Jackie Kennedy Onassis back in the mid-90s.  It is inspired by Homer’s The Odyssey in which Odysseus faces quite the journey back home to Ithaka after the Trojan War, outlined in “The Iliad.”  This allows us to enter into our first figurative language practice of the year, while also connecting to the Hero’s Journey.   On Thursday, students will be reading “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” and creating a character-based action figure based on the main character, Joby.  On Friday, weather-pending, class will be held outdoors as we do some stations, including the creation of a group video based on the imagery provided in Ithaka and I cannot wait to share that with you all via social media. That will do it for this episode - thanks for listening and being involved in what your child is doing in class.  We are a partnership and I am here to work with and for you on behalf of our community.  Here’s to a phenomenal school year - peace be the journey. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.