Flash Fiction

The Flash Fiction story is due tomorrow.  500 to 1000 words please.
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Daily Log ala Mr. Perez...have a Double Rainbow Year!!!

The beginning of every year invariably brings with a good of anxiety, anxiety that we often wish we could alleviate and remove altogether.  For teachers, its no different.  I usually break out somewhere on my face, something that hasn't happened since high school.  Aside from the unsightly acne, there is always a good level of nervous energy.  We all want our classes to go well, to be as excited as we are about the coming year.  I told one of my classes that they need to take an active role in what goes on in class, that they were not just "empty containers to pour knowledge into".  The longer that I do this, the more I believe it.  Education is not for the weak willed, if you want to "know things" it is going to cost you something in return, be it your time, energy, and at the very least your ignorance.  I guess that at the very least I would hope to have things make more sense for you by the end of the school year than this guy..."what doessss it meeeeaaannn???"
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Welcome (back) to Oakdale High School!!!

Just a quick Hiya to those new and returning students.  You will find all of the information that we covered in class on the slide show presentation below, just point and click to make it larger or use the navigation buttons to flip through the presentation as is.  The 13 Things You Should Know About Me slide is in there as well!  See Ya...
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FRESHMEN



JUNIORS



CREATIVE WRITING

Pulled Tooth, the awesome update!

Weeelll, it's been 10 full days since the tooth was pulled and my mind is a bit more clear on all of the events that took place afterwards.  All I can say is, WOW coupled with YIKES and that sums it up.  Apparently, I was trying to convince my wife, who so graciously transported my carcass home after the surgery that I was, in fact the "King of doing a Cartwheel"!  Yes, it's really that emphatic, unfortunately.  I have a vague recollection of these events and of saying rather colorful things, all of the first words that you learn in the school yard playground...the ones that get your mouth smacked or worse, washed out with soap.  So, with healthy doses of Hydrocodone and Antibiotics (apparently the human mouth is a pretty gross place! Ugh!) I have been nursed back to good and proper health enough to reflect on how silly I was.  With this in mind, some very good friends of ours share a video with me that pretty much hit the target.  This same fellow brought a tiara for his wife and drove her around town when she had her wisdom teeth earlier this year.  He in turn had HIS MOTHER pick him up from the doctor and take him home when his teeth were pulled out some time later, fearing the inevitable reprisal...I'm sure she will get even...oh well! enjoy the video.
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Summer Suuuuhhh-Mmmmahhh!

Well, it's finally here and not a moment too soon!  Some how we all made it through Finals week and with one week under our belt I find myself being a bit worn down.  I did get some rest and  a bit of relief from having my wisdom tooth pulled (today!).  All that I will say is that I HATE going to the dentist and I left there with everybody as my best friend...minus a tooth...and remained that way for at least 2 more hours.  So, as I sit here in bed, watching Spider-Man with my two youngest daughters I have decided that this summer will be a (cue trumpets) SUMMER OF THE ARTS!  Yes boys and girls, Mr. P will be doing all of the following this summer:  Writing 2 books (one book and one kids book), Illustrating one of those books, playing in a mandolin and guitar in a band, and maybe even auditioning for a play!  Now, normally I would have been tormenting kids in summer school but alas, it is not to be.  So I will opt for the next best thing, tomenting my poor wife and children.  It's really not that bad, but I figure this stuff will keep me out of trouble and will help me work towards my goal of completing one of the two books that I wanted to write this year.  Oh, and check the book club blog site if you want to know what I have been reading this summer.  Time for me to sign off, I have to go drink my dinner!
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Ender will save us all...

Here we are kids, the last hurrah!  We are exiting this school year with an amazing novel, Ender's Game, the only novel to date that has won both the Hugo and Nebula Award for a Science Fiction Novel.  Here is the reading schedule in case you didn't have the chance to copy it off.  More good Sci-Fi stuff to follow.  Cheers!

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“Third”, “Peter”, and “Graff”: p. 1-26	Read on April 30
“Launch” and “Games”: p. 27-53	Read on May 3	Literature Circle Role #1 due May 5
“The Giant’s Drink”p. 54-65 “Salamander”: p. 66-96	Read on May 5
“Rat”: p. 97-119	Read on May 7	Literature Circle Role #2 due May 10
“Locke and Demosthenes”: p. 120-152	Read on May 10
“Dragon”: p. 153-172	Read on May 12	Literature Circle Role #3 due May 14
“Veni Vidi Vici”: p. 173-199 “Bonzo”: p. 200-226	Read on May 14
“Valentine”: p. 227-254	Read on May 17	Literature Circle Role #4 due May 19
“Ender’s Teacher” part 1: p. 255-277	Read on May 19
“Ender’s Teacher” part 2: p. 277-304 “Speaker for the Dead”: p. 305-324	Read on May 21	Literature Circle Role #5 due May 24

The Play's the thing...building the 10 min scripts.

Writing an original script can be something of an undertaking.  Scriptfrenzy, sponsored by our good friends in the S.F. Bay Area is a monumental task of 100 pgs of script in 30 days.  As attractive as that sounds for the writer in me, I know that if I throw that out there I will be hung by my heels from the flag pole.  Last time we attempted a feat of that magnitude so late in the year their was much grumbling and dissent. Not that I mind that part so much as that script writing takes on its own unique skill set that deals with format as much as story.  SO, with that in mind, we will be narrowing our scope from 100 pgs into the best 10 pgs that you could ever possibly read or see in the history of humanity...ok, that may not happen, but we will give it our best shot!  Cheers!
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