A Summing Up - 3rd Quarter

            Before I begin blogging about fourth quarter, which has already begun, I want to send a quick update about third.  Though it was a disrupted quarter in many ways, students got a done of reading done, and I was really proud of their engagement.  My guess is that a little over 1,000 pages is about what an average student at Pentucket would read in English over the course of the year, but I asked these students to read at least that this quarter, and they really came through.  So, first an update on the pages that they recorded out to me:

Ben D.L. – 1071

Ben K. – 1159

Brayden – 1007

Chris – 1015

Colten – 2243

Eric – 1114

Jak – 986

Jess – 1037

John-Luc - 1022

Kelcy – 1410

Lauren – 1208

Max – 1280

Michaela – 1084

Mike – 1354

Nicolette – 1194

Riley – 1379

Yiannis – 1223

These are definitely our highest numbers of the year, and I hope that we can match them fourth quarter, despite that the seniors have fewer weeks to work with!

A couple other highlights of the quarter:

While Eric was posting about food, he was contacted by a health food web site and asked to be a contributor!  That was really exciting news because it’s what blogging is all about, bringing people from different circles together.  I was very excited for him. :)

Max wrote some really neat entries about music, which I know is one of his passions.  He also wrote an excellent synthesis entry about the styles/intended audiences for each of his books. Go on his blog and check it out if you have a chance!

Mike took on a sophisticated topic in reading about African culture.  This led him to read some tough books and work to interpret them on his own.  My favorite part of his final blog, though, was when he wrote about the learning curve he experienced and how the reading gave him a different perspective on his own life.  He said, “More than anything I have come to notice the importance of education in today’s world.  When people think of “strength” and “power” it is commonly conceived by physical traits such as man and gunpowder.  This quarter I have come to understand that it is education that runs our world.  This is something that made me start to think seriously about my own education, which I started to talk about a little bit in my earlier blog.  I am certainly not as far along in my own education as I would like to be, and it is almost been a bit of a wake-up call.”  Right on, Mike!  Education is certainly key, and reading is one way to become educated and to develop critical thinking skills.  I’m so glad you see this.

 

http://www.google.com/imgresimgurl=http://crescentok.com/staff/

This class has been very engaging, and teaching it even recently won me an award in my district!  I love reading the blogs every week and having hope that these kids will continue to read, to seek intellectual development and even the catharsis that comes with reading, on their own after high school.   I’m glad that we have another quarter, and then a final project!, left before it’s all over for the year. 

                                                                                                            CJF