Sjodin's Blog

For some insight on process, check out Michael Dumanis' blog entry "How a Poem Happens".  Try writing your own poem about visiting somewhere new. 

http://www.adoptaword.com/index.php

All students:  Please check out the various posts under the label "Message & Meaning". Your assignment is to write an analytical response to one of the entries.  Enjoy!

Amy Tan tells us that a key to creativity lies in the act of questioning. View this TED talk and post your comments. Amy Tan on creativity | Video on TED.com

http://www.skepdic.com/essays/haskins.pdf

Please take the time to become familiar with this blog site. While I will occasionally post assignments this site is primarily intended to provide you with links and study support materials. Remember that in order to successfully post comments you must have a google mail account. All comments are moderated by me and must be accompanied with your first name only.

All Grades! Follow this link and write a multi-paragraph response to the question "How does being a part of a gang relate to the need for identity?" Explore the website, submit your composition (if you choose) and bring me a copy for credit! Make reference to anything we have read, viewed or discussed in class. Share your thoughts!

Well, it's not my normal approach to viewing this world, but inspired by another writer and in light of the Utopian/Dystopian project, I thought I'd share: In no particular order. . . 1) Litter - I'd say "garbage", but truth is, I've seen garbage put to some unique and creative works! It's not garbage itself that I can't stand, it's carelessness for the environment and spaces we live. Beauty and aesthetic affects mood. I wish we would all just simply clean up after ourselves, both in small and large scale ways. 2)Impatience - I get most impatient with impatience. Yes, that's ironic. Especially when people are impatient with each other. What's the rush?! Why not pause, breathe and go with the flow just a little more? 3)Poverty - can't we share? 4)Telemarketers who don't stop talking to me when I say I am not interested. I feel the persistent attempt to persuade me to buy something I already know I don't want insults my intelli...

We had 32 "Books"visited by over 300 Moscropian "Readers" at our first Living Library event. Many of the guests offered appreciation to our students for the myriad of respectful and intelligent questions. So far, feedback from many has been resoundingly positive. Overall, there is a general plea for more; more days, more "books", more time. Many staff and students have come forward with offers to organize our next one! I am in the process of reviewing the debriefing forms filled out by both volunteers and readers, and am eager to share this feedback with you. For now I will say that it was intriguing to see how quickly word spread throughout the school about the transformation of the library. Students who were not scheduled to visit the event were lining up at the door and working to find their way in. I was pretty sure too, to have seen faces reappearing throughout the day, hopeful at a chance to "read another book." I am pondering over wh...

This Friday students from several classes are invited to visit the Moscrop Library that will be transformed into a Living Library for the first time. What does this mean? Courageous and interested volunteers from the surrounding community will be here "on the shelves" as "Living Books", each person with a title that reflects some aspect of his or her identity or life experience, an aspect where there exists some element of stereotyping or prejudice of within our culture and society. Admittedly, it is difficult to grow up without internalizing at least some of the misinformation or generalizing we see and hear about people who belong to one group or another. Media often distorts, confusions go unchallenged. On this day students and staff are invited to check out a "living book", to "take out a prejudice ", "face a stereotype", or simply learn about another by exchanging curiosity and discussion. Each one of these courageous Books l...

Hi All, Need help understanding Shakespeare? Check out this link: www.shakespearehigh.com/classroom/guide/page1.shtml Click on the Students section and read over "Shakespeare's Life". Be sure to do the quiz at the end. Many of the questions on this site will appear on your in class quiz! Have Fun!

It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death. -- Anne Frank. Hi All, Those of you reading Night might like to link to Elie Wiesel's page. Find out more about why it is he won a Nobel Peace Prize. To support your understanding of the events during World War II and what we have come to know as the Holocaust, you may also want to check out this Holocaust Memorial site. Folks reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas may be interested to know that Mark Herman has just released a film version of this heartbreaking novel. It is sad how we, as humans, are capable of such destruction. Yet, so often, and perhaps paradoxically, the human spirit is also capable of rising beautiful and awe inspiring out of the ashes of desp...

Have you ever wondered about your rights at school? Been kept for a detention? Had your bag searched before entering a dance? The BC Civil Liberties Society has created a brief and understandable website on your rights as a student. Check it out!

A change has already come, we can never go back from here, a black man, a democrat, has been elected for the US presidency. Everything is different from here on. Sure, government may disappoint us, may let us down; but the people, the people will never be the same, for now new things are imprinted as possible.