Random Ramblings and a Blueberry Muffin

The week is almost over and I am exhausted. Grading has taken its toll on my brain and I am wondering if it will recover ;) or if I am doomed to live a hazy, half-aware life! Determined to make sense when I speak, I have been pumping myself with coffee and finally slept last night . . . a lot. I am sitting at Maude's now getting ready to grade today's work, enjoying a delicious homemade blueberry muffin (thanks coffee shop guy), and drinking yet another cup of coffee. I am beginning to wonder if this is an addiction. Maybe I will take a coffee break for awhile to see if I go through withdrawal. Maybe.

I have had a great week of studying Whitman and Dickinson with you all. I know that they are sometimes obtuse (look it up!), but they have a lot to say. Whitman always choses to say his with more words and more veiled meaning than Dickinson. She writes what she feels and says what she means using very few words but a lot of imagery. I realize that imagery is sometimes challenging, but you guys did great. Whitman vs Dickinson, the triumph or the common man of America in stark contrast against the deep thoughts of a single woman. Whitman taught us of America's greatness while Dickinson taught us how to be great (chose your friends wisely, be willing to go against others even if you're considered mad.) While Whitman's study of black vs. white laid all men on equal ground, Dickinson's study of light vs. dark led her almost always toward pondering death.

If Whitman were alive today, what America would he see and would he still find ways to be controversial? Would he still see it with optimism? Would he bow to the burdens of Realism or allow his Romantic sensibilities to sneak serpentine into the words he pens? What about Dickinson? What would she see out of her proverbial window today? What metaphors would she conjure to symbolize death? Would pieces of advice would she have to offer?

For extra credit this weekend, write either a Whitman-esque or Dickinson-esque poem.

• If you choose Whitman, your poem should focus on America in some way and must be at least a little optimistic. You may also chose to draw a parallel between a common experience (think "Noiseless Patient Spider") or simply show me your view of America. Like Whitman, you should write in free verse (no rhyme).
• If you choose Dickinson, your poem can either offer advice/life lessons (think "Success is counted sweetest", "The Soul selects her own society") or deal with death. If you choose to write a lesson, then you should make it personal to your life. If you choose to write about death, then you should use metaphor somewhere in your poem. You may rhyme if you like since she often did.

Your poem is due Monday. There is no line requirement. Just make it good. Any questions? If so, ask in the comment section below and I will respond within the same day.

New American Poetry

This week we embark on our journey to discover Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. These poets, often called the New American Poets, ushered in a new era in American poetry. They wrote poems that didn't fit anyone's ideals and lived lives that were even more challenging to the norm than their poetry. Dickinson lived her life an essential hermit and Whitman caused controversy nearly everywhere he went. Still, Dickinson's 1,700+ poems, published after her death, cement her in the American literary canon as one of our nation's most influential writers and Whitman's Leaves of Grass would forever alter the idea of what poetry had to be.

Strangely, these two don't fit securely into any literary movement. They were neither Romantics (hopeful about the idea of an American hero), Transcendentalists (optimists who found deep meaning and spirituality in nature), or Realists (disillusioned with the true grit of the world and the darkness of human nature). They fall somewhere in between all of those. Sure, Dickinson loved Botany (the study of plants, which was her favorite in school) and Whitman wrote about the heroic nature of soldiers on the front lines of the Civil War, but neither of them can truly be categorized. They were distinct individuals and distinctly different from one another. Dickinson was an essential hermit while Whitman enjoyed attention. Whitman garnered huge amounts of recognition for his work during his life (though much of the attention was negative), while Dickinson published less than a dozen poems during her life and asked her family to burn the rest upon her death.

Their poems are metaphorical and full of imagery. To understand them, you need to understand those literary devices they used, so here is extra credit #2: Create flashcards for each of the following literary devices. Put the word on one side of the index card and the definition on the other. You may either use 3x5 index cards or cut pieces of paper into "flashcards". You must do all of the terms for extra credit and they are due on Thursday. The terms are: allusion, irony,mood, tone, motif, oxymoron, personification, rhyme, slant rhyme, meter, theme, alliteration, assonance,onomatopoeia, and synecdoche

A long week of testing

Exam week has proven long. My 10th graders are overwhelmed by testing this week. They have to take 3 tests for the county this week, but they are doing a great job staying focused. My 11th graders are taking their semester exams, which are long but not too hard. It will all be over soon.

This week's blog focus is on Walt Whitman. Whitman is perhaps the most famous of the new American poets, but he was a scandalous man. The English text book paints him as someone to be admired, calling his Leaves of Grass the most influential book of poetry in American Literature. This is true, but Whitman was far from a saint! In fact, he caused a lot of trouble for the more conservative people within society during the time he wrote and many of them threw away their copies of his book. While we might not think of him as so scandalous today, he raised A LOT of eyebrows then. For extra credit to start the nine weeks, read up on Walt Whitman and see if you can find out about any of his scandal. Tell me what you found by replying to this post. There is more than one correct answer. When you comment, only give me one "scandalous" thing about Whitman so that other students have a chance for points. Once a scandal has been commented on, no one else may get points for that one. GO!

Greetings from Ft. Lauderdale

Hello everyone. Ft. Lauderdale was sunny and very warm earlier today, but it is cooling down. In the 70s tomorrow. My debate students are all competing and I am relaxing at the hotel grading papers (wait, that isn't relaxing!) Hope all the classes were good today so I can dole out some serious extra credit! See you all Monday.

Extra credit available

Woot. Woot. Joshua's first blog is up and we're off. Stop by his page joshuaroe.blogspot.com and read his update. More to come soon.

Juniors, make sure that you are getting your exam review done so that you can use those notes on the test. It needs to be organized exactly like the page I gave you. You cannot share reviews with another student. They will be taken up at the end of the test, so if you share it, then you will lose it.

On another note, I am excited for you to all earn the extra credit available tomorrow if your classes have perfect behavior. Add that to the 50 available if you finish your entire review packet, and you have some serious pointage available!

I will be grading all weekend (super fun), but will give a few bonus points to everyone who has registered for both blogs by the end of the weekend, so remind your friends. Remember to check your grades on Sunday and shoot me an email if you see any mistakes you want me to look into (especially if you emailed me something that I may not have gotten). Have a GREAT Friday and weekend. I will talk to you from Ft. Lauderdale. :)

Brief update

It's early in the morning and I am having coffee while writing this brief blog. I spoke to Joshua last night; in the rush to get packed and out of town, he didn't get a chance to blog yet. But soon. He is excited about the journey and ready to conquer those 3000 miles on bike. Today we will be wrapping up our Transcendentalism unit. Your exam will be next week on Tuesday and Wednesday. Get those review packets done!

A long time coming!

It has been a full year since I have written on this blog. So lesson #1 is that I am a terrible blogger. I am going to work on that though! We are finishing up our Transcendentalism unit at school this week by reading "Without Desperation", the mini-bio of my friend Joshua Roe. It has been fun to learn about his adventures and see all of the questions you guys have for him. We will be reading one more short bio, "The Last American Man" before we wrap it all up for exam time. Since my honors classes have already read both of these, they are watching Into the Wild and preparing for exams as well. I am sure that you will all do great on the exam and I am looking forward to the good grades.

I want you to all follow Joshua's new blog at joshuaroe.blogspot.com. He is going to be posting updates of his trip as he bikes across America and is really excited to share that with you. You can "travel" with him through his thoughts and adventures along the way. We all hope and pray that there are no accidents to report and look forward to his arrival in Florida.