Assignment #17: The Slam!

Hello darlings,

As you can see, I am not here right now. My fall down the stairs has caused more than a little amount of pain and I'm going home to rest.

However, the lovely Ms. Froggett and wonderful Mr. Terrade ARE here with you.

Please spend this period wisely and work on this new assignment (#17) that will be due Friday and your Eric Walters inspired story (#16) that is due the Monday after the holidays.

I am SO PROUD of ALL of you and your hard work with writing and performing your amazing poems. You ALL blew me away with your creativity, your use of language, how much you pushed yourselves, your courage and your flow. I want you to take some time to reflect on today's slam.

1. For this assignment, I'd like you to start a new post on your own blog.

2. Link back to this assignment.

3. Answer the following questions in full sentences:

You will be doing a fair amount of writing (IN FULL SENTENCES), so remember to leave some spaces between your answers so it is easy for your reader to read (perhaps hit enter between each response), read over and edit your work, spell check and make sure you've followed all directions.

a) What did you learn from Greg and Beth Ann? (at least 2 things)

b.) When writing your own poem, what did you use as inspiration? (at least 3 things)

c.) What are you most proud of from your poem or your presentation of it? (at least one thing)

d.) How did you feel before you performed?

e.) How did you feel AFTER you performed?

f.) What would you change about your own poem or performance for next time? (at least 1 thing)
g.) What did you learn/like about someone else's poem?


4. Post your poem on your blog.

Think about whether you would like to take part in the Youth Slam in the new year. We will certainly share our poems again, perhaps at a coffee house or an assembly. We'll talk about that later.

It Gets Better

I am so proud of all of you today. We had a wonderful, thoughtful discussion at the end of the day before our long weekend. I am proud of you for listening to one another, supporting one another and showing maturity.

There was a lot of heavy stuff that we talked about and you are all probably processing the discussion in different ways. In fact, I heard one of you educating a student in another class about the importance of the words we use.

I wanted to make some videos available to you if you are interested in watching them. These are some of the things I was referring to in class today. I have embedded youtube clips, which you will not be able to watch at school, but you can at home.

For a bonus, write a post on your own blog (link back to this post and leave me a comment to let me know you've done it) reflecting on what we talked about today and/or relating the issues to your own experiences. Not everyone got to share their stories today, but now you have a chance to share them online. Start a post, write a poem, a story or your thoughts.

Remember:
When things get rough, you'll get through it. It gets better.
Words are extremely powerful. Be cautious about how you use them and how you respond to the ways others use them.
There are people out there who love you and care about you more than you'll ever know. When you need help, turn to them. (One of those people is me, by the way.)



On Glee, Kurt's dad, Burt, responds to Finn's hurtful words about his son.



My favourite actor, Neil Patrick Harris tells you it gets better.



The wonderful Ellen Degeneres talks about teenage bullying and the crisis that we have been hearing about this month.



Chris Colfer (Glee's Kurt) tells you it gets better.

For more information and support, you can check out The Trevor Project.

UPDATE: Please take some time to visit Hannah's blog and read her response to our talk. She has written beautifully and honestly.

Thank you for your tolerance, empathy and support of one another. I am a proud teacher.

Be safe and happy this Thanksgiving weekend!

Student of the Month Reflection due Friday, October 8th

Date: _________________ Name:____________________

Class:______

Empathy Student of the Month Presentation

Reflection

Please answer these questions with detail. You can submit your answers by email, on your blog or on paper. This is due tomorrow (Friday, October 8^th, 2010).

After watching the video of our Empathy presentation, reflect on what you saw and how it felt creating the performance, practising and performing.

Please answer in full sentences with lots of detail and juicy words.

3 Things that I think would have helped to improve our presentation

2 Things that I think went really well

1 Piece of advice I have for students who will be performing in the future

Student of the Month Empathy Presentation

Hello R8A,

You did a great job on your Empathy presentation today. M. d'Entremont, Mrs. Leafloor and Mrs. Seabrook all extended their compliments and the other classes are really excited to get to do their presentations.

Tomorrow during period 2, we'll be watching Connor's video of your skits and evaluating them.