Friday October 29

We have a test today on the background/mythology. After the test, students worked on a subject-verb agreement exercise.




The homework is to complete the subject-verb assignment if the students did not do so in class.

Thursday October 28

Today’s class was a presentation day of mythology visuals. Each student should have created a visual for one of the myths and a card that had what the student would share about the myth and its importance.




The homework is to study for the background/mythology test.

Wednesday, October 27

I collected the 10 questions on the Operation Odyssey background.  Students had the class period to write a well thought out paragraph on how Homer’s use of language helps us to understand the conflict that Odysseus faces with the temptations of Calypso and his obligation to home, family, and kingdom.

Tuesday, October 26

I collected last night’s homework on the myths. Tonight’s homework is to write 10 questions from the Operation Odyssey background.


We went over Book V, creating a t-chart that shows quotes and significance that explain the conflict between Odysseus’ choice to stay with Calypso and to return home.
We will write about this conflict tomorrow in class.

We wrapped up class with a daily subject-verb agreement exercise.

Monday, October 25

Students turned in their Mythology Projects; we will share and present this on Thursday.

Students also turned in their Operation Odyssey handouts.  I will return these tomorrow so that students can study them in preparation for our background/mythology test on Friday.

Finally, we read and took notes on Book I of The Odyssey; students will regularly make notes over the features of each Book we read in class.

HW: Write 10 questions that students should be able to answer about the 21 myth cards.  I modeled three questions for students.

Friday, October 22

We went over a grammar exercise that most students had difficulty with.

We also finished our Operation Odyssey handout; student not finished should finish this for Monday.  I will collect these handouts on Monday.

We also viewed about 20 minutes of the film, The Odyssey, so that students can see what to expect when we begin reading on Monday.

HW: Mythology Project is due.

Thursday, October 21

Today we wrapped up our Operation Odyssey handout and preparation for actually beginning to read The Odyssey.  I will check to make sure that all students completed this handout in preparation for our test on Friday, the 28th. 

We worked on our subject-verb grammar skills, but it seems that a lot of students still cannot adequately identify the subject of a sentence (especially in first period).  As such, we will go back and review this basic skill.

The homework is to work on the mythology visual; the visual is due on Monday.  Students have a rubric for how the visual and their presentation of it will be assessed.

Wednesday, October 20

We began class today with a homework check.

After checking homework, we completed our daily grammar focus activity, page 159 in the grammar books. 

Students received their grading rubric for their mythology projects, which are due on Monday, 25 October.

We will wrap up our Odyssey basic training and begin reading the epic on Monday.

HW: Mythology Graphic

Tuesday, October 19

Today we wrote individual epiteths to describe ourselves.  We also went over last night's homework, books 8 and 1 of The Odyssey. 

We began working on a mini-unit of grammar reviewing subject-verb agreement.  This will be our grammar focus until the end of next week.

The homework tonight is to complete page 6 of The Odyssey handout.

I will be having a mythology card make-up session on Thursday and Friday of this week for students who did complete all of the myths.  Anyone wishing to finish the assignment must come after school on these two days in order to recoup points in the 4 categories indicated in the grade book.

Monday, October 18

Today was the day our final mythology cards were due.  Everyone should have turned in 21 cards to date.  These cards will count for our first test grades of the second nine weeks.

We continued our background of The Odyssey, filling in page four of our handout.  Today's homework is to finish page 5, which includes books 8 and 1.

Friday, October 15

Today was the third turn in of mythology cards.  We have have 3 thus far.  The final check will take place on Monday.  At this time, all students will have 21 cards summarizing and citing the myths from the class handout.  This final check is a test grade; the first one for the second nine weeks of the grading period.  We have begun the background to The Odyssey and will officially begin the reading on Friday.  Students should begin working on their visual for one of their favorite myths.  These visuals are due on the 25th and will be another test grade.  We have a background and myth test tentatively scheduled for the 29th of October, so everyone should begin reviewing prior to that date.  To assist in this endeavor, students will turn in potential questions they think are fair to be asked of them for the test.  Students will turn in test questions on the 25, 26, and 27 October.  Some of these questions will appear on the test in addition to teacher generated questions.  The questions should ask something meaningful.

Thursday, October 14

Today we began our background to The Odyssey.  Students began reading some of the background and working on becoming familiar with the features of an epic.  We will continue to work on this until we get the background section completed.

HW: Myth cards (due tomorrow)

Wednesday, October 13

Today we went over the unit 1-3 vocabulary test and The Miracle Worker test and how to adequately answer short answer questions.

After going over these tests, we read about how The Trojan War lead to Odysseus trip away from home.  We will begin our background to The Odyssey tomorrow.

Tuesday, October 12

Today was the last day for the students to work on their myth cards in class. I collected set 2 (5 cards). Cards 11-15 are due on Friday.


Student's homework is to continue working on the myth cards. If you are doing 2 a day, you will get the cards finished by Monday the 18th.

Thursday, October 7 & Friday October 8

Today was the first day of 3 that students were provided class time to work on their myths.  Students will also have Friday and Tuesday to work on this assignment.  After that time the assignment becomes homework, but students will not have additional homework until the cards and project are completed on the 25th of October.

Wednesday, October 6

Today we spent most of our class period working on our Miracle Worker test.  Students could choose 5 questions from the list of 10 that had been provided prior to our viewing and discussing the video.  I also provided a website that provided a very complete review of the play and additional insightful themes of the play.  Students knew that to get all 20 points for each questions they needed to make 4 major points in answering the questions.

As students finished their tests, we began using the Edith Hamilton mythology books to work on their myths.

Tuesday, October 5

Today we finished any of The Miracle Worker video; primarily in first period.  I reminded students how to answer their short answer questions for the test tomorrow and we discussed our Odyssey project.

Students have a handout and a mythology list to assist them as we begin preparing for our reading of The Odyssey.

For the next 13 days, students will reserach a predetermined list of myths to help them understand the places, people, and events that are a part of The Odyssey.  We will begin our background reading on Oct 13, so everyone has to bring his book to class,

I will collect and check notecards on Friday, Oct 8, Tuesday, Oct 12, Friday, Oct 15, and all myth cards will be finished on Oct 18 for a final test grade.  Each of these checks will count as a prep grade; however all 22 completed cards will count as a test grade.

After we finish the cards, students will have a week to work on a visual that illustrates one of their favorite myths from our list.

Monday, October 4

I was out today, but the students had their vocabulary units 1-3 test. 
The only homework is to get our note cards.

We will finish the video on The Miracle Worker tomorrow (first period).  Fourth period finished the video.  We will discuss The Odyssey project, review how to adequately answer The Miracle Worker questions, and discuss our writing folders.  We are almost at the end of the first nine weeks and should be ready to settle in and be good students.

Friday, October 1

Today I did a final check of units 1-3 study cards.  I will be posting these grades soon.  We have the vocabulary test Monday. 

We watched more of The Miracle Worker and will finish the video on Tuesday. 

Be sure to study for the vocabulary test and remember to get your 4X6 note cards for our Odyssey project on Thursday.