Wednesday, July 22, 2009

The Big Picture: Descriptive Paragraphs/Persuasive Passages


Browse through the hundreds of photographs available on The Boston Globe's "The Big Picture" site. Choose your favorite image and create a word bank consisting of 5 nouns, 5 verbs and 8 adjectives. Develop, edit and proofread a descriptive paragraph which provides the reader with an image which rivals that of the viewer.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

School to Career Summer Session: The Teenage Brain


If you have headphones: Click here to view the Frontline special "Inside the Teenage Brain". You will view the first 3 chapters today and the last 3 tomorrow. After viewing the full program, respond to the following short (3-5 paragraph) essay prompt. Integrate at least 3 quotes from the film.


How might teachers adapt their techniques to further relate to, or accommodate, the unique nature of the teenage brain?


Post your response here.



If you do not have headphones: Read Bill Gates' 11 Rules below, which I found on Mr. Dewar's blog. Write a paragraph response for each rule. Consider: is the rule reasonable? helpful? do you agree? disagree? explain.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will
expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school.
You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your
Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine
about your mistakes, learn from them..
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they
are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your
clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were.
So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's
generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but
life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and
they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer.
This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off
and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do
that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually
have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.