Students. First of all, remember you need to take your Accelerated Reader tests. Here's the link.

To submit your stories for publication after I return them to you:

1. Edit your story based upon the suggestions Mr. Zimmer or I made...if you lost it, you must find another teacher to edit your story and bring that to me. Be sure to save it.

2. Edit the business letter you wrote to include the information of the magazine you're sending your story to. (Remember, the sample business letter is below.) Be sure to save it.

3. Copy your business letter into the body of your e-mail. Be sure the magazine's e-mail address is correct in the "To" bar. Be sure to send it to me, too: brugiond@yahoo.com.

4. Send your story (unless the magazine wants otherwise) as an attachment. If you're not sure how to do this, ask a pal first, then either Mr. Zimmer or me.

5. Send it.

3900 Calhoun Street
Gary, IN 46408

December 12, 2012

The Timber Creek Review
P.O. Box 16542
Greensboro, NC 27416

Dear Mr. Freiermuth:

Here’s a story for you: “Tana (Dreaming of You” (3,060 words). Set in Antananarivo, Madagascar (with which I am intimately familiar), this narrative tells the story of a moderately successful American musician who travels to Madagascar to make music with the locals and, in doing so, finds a bridge into the Malagasy culture. My friend called this a story of “little conflict but big heart,” and, with its optimistic tone and sense of leave-taking, I feel (hope) that it is a good fit for TCR.

I am a 35-year-old high school teacher living in Hyde Park, Chicago. I’ve written over one hundred stories and am currently working on my third novel. I’ve had stories published in The Timber Creek Review (2003), Spitball (2005, 2007), Zahir Tales (2004, 2008), The Sulfur River Literary Review (2006), Words of Wisdom (2004, 2006), Struggle (2004), The Deadline (2011) and The Skylark (2003, 2004, 2005). Recently, I took first prize in the 2009 Stark-Tinkham Writing Contest (Graduate Student Short Story Category) at Purdue University Calumet for the story “By the River’s Dark” and was concurrently published in their anthology of student writers.

Thank you (again) sincerely for reading and drop me a line – I’ll welcome any advice you can give me.

Best,
Daniel Brugioni

Accelerated Reader: Click here to take your tests...Remember, you need to have read three books and passed the accompanying tests by the end of the semester.

Log in as a student...your username is your first and last name put together without a period between them; your password is your student ID #.

See me for the quiz password.

Walkers with the Dawn
Being walkers with the dawn and morning,
Walkers with the sun and morning,
We are not afraid of night,
Nor days of gloom,
Nor darkness--
Being walkers with the sun and morning.

Quiet Girl
I would liken you
To a night without stars
Were it not for your eyes.
I would liken you
To a sleep without dreams
Were it not for your songs.

The Negro Dreams of Rivers
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.


A Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Click here to take your Moodle vocabulary quiz.

Then:

Click here to read "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell.

Using Impress (and Moviemaker) to create a winning biographical presentation: Frequently Asked Questions...

1. Why can't I type when I first open Impress?
I don't know. But by clicking on "Outline" and beginning to type and then clicking back on "Normal," you should be able to type freely.

2. What do I need on my title page?
You need your title, your name, the date, and the name of the class.

3. What is a thesis statement?
Your thesis is your main idea - your topic sentence. Tell who (or, in some cases what)your project will be about.

4. What is a hyperlink and how do I insert one?
A hyperlink is a link to a webpage about your author that you wish to include in your presentation. To add one, first find the website you want to include and copy its URL (web address). In Impress, click "Insert," then click "Hyperlink" and paste the URL (the web address) into the box marked "Target." If you want the link to appear as something other than the URL in your presentation, type what you want it to appear as in the "Text" box. Or you can simply type the URL directly onto your slide.

5. How do I add a picture?
Basically, you do the same thing you do to add a hyperlink. Find the picture you want on the web, copy the URL (web address) and click "Insert" and then "Picture" and then "From File." Copy the URL of the picture into the box labeled "Location."

6. How do I add a video or animation?
Find a video on either www.youtube.com or google videos - or downloaded to your documents. Copy the URL (web address) of the video and then add it as a hyperlink. See question number four above.

7. How do I copy and paste?
To highlight what you want, either drag the mouse over it or hold down Control and "A." To copy, hold down Control and "C." To paste, hold down Control and "V."

Go to Moodle.
Click to continue the site.
Click on English 9/ Careers.
Click on the Freshman Quarterly Assessment 1 test.
Do your best.

Go to Echo.
Click on "Google Apps" at the top of the page.
Click "Create New" in the upper right hand corner.
Click document.
Get typing.

Students: Click here and take the survey...please. :)

Questions for Group Discussion: The Night Country by Loren Eiseley

1. In the selection, Loren Eiseley, the narrator, describes a scene in which a group of young people kill a turtle. How did the description of this event make you feel? How would you have reacted had you been in the narrator's place? Have you ever been in a similar situation? If so, how did you react?

2. Have you ever had an experience like the one the narrator had with the gold wheel, in which you found yourself (probably at a young age) somewhere unexpected, neat, or fantastical? Describe this to your group. Did you have a special place you went to as a young child? If so, describe this. If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?

3. Discuss your "I likes" and "I wonders" with the group about this reading selection.

Click here for Moodle...

Once there, click "Continue to this website..."

Log in the same way you did to the computer.

Click "English 9/ Careers."

Answer "Yes" to enroll in the class.

Click "quiz one, pre-assessment."

Get rolling.

Click here for the Capstone FAQ!

American Literature Poetry Assignment:

You are to write a poem, somehow related to Spring, in any form you want - sonnet form, free verse, etc... It must be at least ten lines long (or four haiku). We will share our poems, in a poetry slam, on Monday, May 1, 2010.

Some information on poetry:
Rhyme scheme
Meter
Free verse

Dramatic Literature Estudiantes: Click here for the persuasive essay reference page.

Novels Class: Click here for the Things Fall Apart Web Search.

Dramatic Lit Pukes: Click here to complete the Macbeth Web Activity.

Novels: Click here for your assignment.

Click here and take the brief student survey...you know you want to.

Novels students - click here for the descriptive essay assignment.