Catching Up

It has been too long since I last posted - the last few weeks seem to have passed very quickly, and we are now almost near the end of the session, which is hard to believe. The final exams will be in just a couple of weeks, and we have a lot to do before then! I know that many of you are feeling tired and overworked, but you are making progress and this can be seen in your work in class, in your homework, and in the work that you do on class - well done!

Here are a few reminders:

420W- for week 10 (November 24th - 28th)

• please comment on at least one other person's blog
• Journal number 4 was due last week - some of you have not posted yet - 5 of you, in fact. Please remember that you are receiving a mark for your journals.
• Draft 2 of the compare/contrast essay is due on Wednesday
• This week we will be doing a cause/effect essay

520R- for week 10 (November 24th - 28th)

• please comment on at least one other person's blog
• Journal number 4 was due last week - some of you have not posted yet!
• We will be working on Unit 5 this week
• Reading Project - keep working on this - the next part (draft) is due the week after next

That's it for now. Your blogs are looking really good> I am enjoying reading them, and I hope that you are too! Keep up the good work!

Listen to the Radio!

CBC radio hosts a program called the Studio One Book Club, in which authors are invited to chat about their books and to take questions from a studio audience. this coming weekend there is a show with an author you might be intersted in - here's some more information:

Jeffrey Alford-Part One Oct. 25 & Part Two Nov. 1
Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's stunning new book Beyond the Great Wall is a rich mosaic of recipes, photos and stories celebrating the most ethnically diverse, geographically varied and intriguing regions of China. Travellers and cooks alike will devour their stories and recipes from Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan and more. Tune into CBC Radio's North by Northwest between 8 and 9 a.m. on Saturdays, October 25 and November 1 to hear Jeffrey Alford's Book Club (690 on the AM dial in Metro Vancouver). This Book Club will also be archived on this site following the broadcasts.

http://www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub/

Reminder- Journal#2 Due Week Five

A friendly reminder that your second journal is due at the start of next week - Monday October 20th. Also, you may want to do your comment for the following week early, since everyone's post should be up by the start of next week...
Please remember to edit and proofread carefully before posting. Quality is more important than quantity, and your journal is good practice to use what we have been looking at in class, especially the writing class. Think about the basic parts of a paragraph - topic sentence, controlling idea, suporting sentences, concluding sentence, and transition, and also the five elements elements of good writing- purpose, audience, clarity, unity and cohesion.
Have a good weekend, and see you soon,
Eilidh

Monday mornings explained

If I ever seem a bit grumpy at the very beginning of class, it may be because this is what often happens at 3:33 every morning:




If you would like a topic for a process paragraph, you could try writing about this!

Vocabulary

One of my favourite sites for news is the BBC. Today, in the magazine section, there is an amusing list of some readers' favourite words. Many of these are obscure and not commonly used, but I thought you might like to explore some of them:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7659954.stm

520R-The Creative Brain

As I was preparing for this chapter, I thought of some books and other things that I have found to be creative, so I thought that I would share just a few of them with you.
Here are some books:
Roger von Oech: A Whack on the Side of the Head/ A Kick in the Seat of the Pants

Julia Cameron: The Artist's Way

Ian Falconer: Olivia/ Olivia Saves the Circus/ Olivia Forms a Band (These are children's books, but you shouldn't dismiss them because of that. They are beautifully illustrated, and show a really creative way to write a whole book using just one colour. The heroine, Olivia, is a determined, imaginative and independent little pig who lives with her family in New York. Aren't you intrigued?)

Nick Bantock: The Griffin and Sabine series (These are just gorgeous books written by a local writer/artist utilising collage while telling a story. You can check out Nick Bantock's website here: http://www.nickbantock.com/)

Art Linkletter & Charles M. Schulz: Kids Say the Darndest Things (A really cute book full of the unintentionally funny things that kids say!)

Edward de Bono: How to be More Interesting (We can all learn something from this practical book of exercises to help you learn how to think!)

Finally, here is a video clip of a famous lecture given by a professor at Carnegie-Mellon university named Randy Pausch. It is 76 minutes long, but it is worth viewing as it contains some great ideas on how to attain your childhood dreams.

A link for 520R

You might find this interesting - it is related to the first unit in your textbook on the creative force of laughter: http://www.laughteryoga.org/