Agenda: Week of Feb. 8 - 12

Quote of the Week:  "It's hard to lead a calvary charge if you think you look funny on a horse."  - Adlai Stephenson

Weekly Agenda:
Monday - Goal of the Week, Road Trip Nation Interviews
Tuesday - Tutoring
Wed/Thu - Tutoring & Discuss Course selections for next year.
Friday - Team Building -- Juniors:  "Boom, Boom, Pow, Pow, Pop, Pop!"  We will do a hand slap game as a team building exercise with our Roadtrip Nation groups.  We will also discuss Kaplan Mock SAT
Sophomores:   "Boom, Boom, Pow, Pow, Pop, Pop!"  We will do a hand slap game as a team building exercise with our Roadtrip Nation groups.  We will also discuss Kaplan Mock SAT AND do a socratic seminar on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a Dream Speech."

Agenda: Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Quote of the Day:  Quote of the Day: "Time the devourer of everything." - Ovid, Roman Poet (pictured to the right source)

Agenda -

1)  Tutoring.  First 45 min.
2)  Sophomores (wed) - We'll look at Lesson 3:  "There is no Roadmap" of Road Trip Nation.  The assignment is to interview 3 of your teachers.  Ask these questions: 

What was your favorite class in high school?
What was your major in college?  Why did you choose that major?
Since graduating from college, what jobs have you held?
Why did you ultimately decide to become a ____________ teacher?
Take notes on what the teacher says.  

The first students to return this to me will have the chance to be our spokesperson with AT&T which will be asking for our feedback on the Road Trip Nation program.

Our field trip to Deer Park ISD to visit the RTN RV is on Monday, November 2, 2009.  Please get your permission slip to me as soon as possible.

If time permits we will watch the RTN.com interview by Pat Croce. 

2)  Juniors on Thursday -- We will be looking at lesson 1 "The MLK Friendly Letter."  You wrote those last Friday for the sub and they were "subpar."  So we'll be working on improving them in class.  You will re-write them according to the actual prompt.  When this is understood and completed we'll move on to looking at redoing the last activity on MLK's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."  We'll get in the same groups and look for actual sources of information and why you chose the characteristics that you did from Campbell.

Agenda: Monday, October 26, 2009

Quote of the Day:  "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire

Agenda:

1.  Goal of the Week - 2 sentences (1st - what is your goal, 2nd - how will you attain your goal).  Also a paragraph about last week's goal.

2.  For Juniors 4th Period -- We will read "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" in class in groups.  Each group will determine which of Campbell's 6 Characteristics of a Leader that section displays the most.

Read MLK's Letter from a Birmingham Jail here.

Read Campbell's 6 Characteristics from "Great Leaders Grow Deep Roots." here.
We divided into 7 groups.  One group for each page of MLK's Letter.  The students in each group read the page together, highlighted important passages, and then discussed which of the 6 characteristics were most important.  The six characteristics are:

1.  Integrity
2.  Vision
3.  Concern
4.  Creativity
5.  Results-Orientation
6.  Courage 

We are preparing to write the Essay for Assignment #2 (An in class Timed Essay):

Which personal characteristics mentioned by Campbell are central for understanding the leader you are studying (MLK)?  Why were these characteristics important when the leader lived?  How did they aid him/her to be a catalyst for change?

3.  For Sophomores Period 7- We will debrief on the Texas A&M trip and discuss the campus, our meeting with Lauren Clifford and Jarrod Johnson.  We will also take a look at this Sports Illustrated article about Jarrod:  "Texas A&M QB Jerrod Johnson's story is the best you've never heard." 

Jerrod and A&M beat Tech this weekend 52-30!  

Then we will watch Lesson 3 of Road Trip Nation.  

Lesson 3 : There Is No Roadmap 

It’s human nature to want to know how things will turn out.  Answers give us comfort and a feeling of security that things are going to be okay.  As a society, we tend to look at life through a very narrow lens and down a linear path of what life should look like – go to school, get a job, start a family, and the list goes on.  It’s easy to accept that there is one path to happiness, and it’s easy to find comfort in following a prescribed sequence as opposed to setting out on your own.

But the truth is that there isn’t one path, as much as many of us would like there to be.  As many of the Leaders we’ve interviewed can attest to, you never really know exactly how things are going to turn out.  We can’t control the deck of cards life deals us; we can only control our reactions.  More often than not, we make choices in life based on what feels comfortable, safe, and secure; but those are not necessarily the paths that will make us the happiest.  Many people are too afraid to make changes in their life simply because there is no assurance that things will turn out the way they want them to – but they find comfort in being like everyone else.  (From RoadTripNation)

We'll answer these two questions:

It is important to remember that creativity does not necessarily have to do with art.  Creativity can be applied to thoughts and ideas in many aspects of your life.  What are three ways you could be more creative with the choices you make so that the road you are traveling on is really yours? 

And

Think of yourself (your likes, dislikes, passions, innermost thoughts, and dreams) like a diamond.  What makes you valuable? Unique? Amazing? 

A great RTN inteview that can match this lesson is the Pat Croce one.  Watch the Pat Croce interview here.

Pat Croce has been working since he was eleven years old. His childhood paper route in his hometown of Philadelphia gave him a strong sense of work ethic, and the disciplinary and organizational skills he learned stayed with him throughout his life. During his college years he played on the football team, hoping it would lead to a professional career; but soon it became clear that playing pro football was not in his future, so he decided to take some time off college. He worked various odd jobs around Philadelphia. Still not knowing what he wanted to do with his life, he began volunteering at the hospital where he was introduced to the world of sports medicine: the perfect fusion of two of his passions, sports and health. He immediately began to plan his future in the field, and by 1979, he had opened the first sports medicine center in the US. Fifteen years later, he owned 40 centers across the country. Pat partially attributes his success to his paperboy values of customer service; in therapy, he works to ensure both the physical and mental well-being of his patients. His entrepreneurial spirit has enabled him to accomplish a wide variety of feats throughout his career, from owning the Philadelphia 76ers to being a best-selling self-help author.

Wed/Thu October 21/22, 2009

Quote of the Day: "A true friend is one soul in two bodies." - Aristotle

Sophomores on Wednesday
Agenda:
1.  Tutoring
2.  Road Trip Nation:  Lesson 2 ~ "Lesson 2 : Don't Fall Asleep at the Wheel"
We will watch the lesson on DVD and then write our answers to these two questions and discuss:

1. Imagine your life if you could follow your dreams.  What would it look like?  What would you be doing? How would you be contributing to the world?  In the space below, describe what your life would be like if you could do anything.
2. How have you actively engaged in your life today?  When have you felt most alive and in line with your true self?  Describe a time when it felt like you were living the dream. 

Remember Baron Wolman, the Rolling Stone Photographer?  He is a perfect example of "Don't Fall Asleep at the Wheel."  He has taken advantage of those moments in his life when he's had his chances.  Whether it was "being where the action was" in college with politics and being class president.  Or "being where the action was" by joining a special forces group to become a military spy.  Or "being where the action was" by taking photographs of the Berlin Wall.  Or taking advantage of his opportunities by becoming a Rolling Stone photographer.  Check out his story here (especially if you were absent and missed class):  Baron Wolman Interview from 2008 Road Trip Nation

Juniors on Thursday

Agenda:
1.  Tutoring.  
2.  "Watch "I have a dream" speech by Martin Luther King.  Follow along with the words of the speech.  Annotate & mark the text.  Write questions in the margin that you are needing answered.  Discuss after wards parts that you may not have understood or want to emphasize.
3.  Using the ACR Curriculum (AVID College Readiness Curriculum) we will do the first assignment that was given last period - the "Friendly Letter" assignment.  Instead of writing it out of class we will write it on Friday in class.  
Prompt: Your chosen leader (MLK) had major concerns about problems, issues, or events that occurred during the period in which he or she lived. After studying one of these and the leader’s life, prepare a friendly letter, written as if it were from the leader to a specific audience, in which he or she discusses the problem related to an issue or event and some of the possible causes and suggests a solution. Both the problem and the solution must be consistent with the leader’s views, actions, and goals—and the historical period.

Agenda: Monday, October 19, 2009

Quote of the Day:  "One man with courage is a majority." - Andrew Jackson

Agenda:
1.  Goal of the Week is due:  1 sentence that describes the goal.  1 sentence that explains how the student will accomplish the goal.  Also a paragraph about last week's goal at the bottom.
2.  Juniors - Will see video clip on MLA Formatting and Plagerism.
YouTube.com Video:  Your Writing Not Someone Else's 
Sophomores - Will go to the computer lab to sign up for Road Trip Nation.
3.  Juniors will also look at Martin Luther King, Jr. as our subject of our ACR- AVID College Readiness writing assignment.

We will look at the "I have a Dream" speech and look at Campbell's Six Characteristics of Exceptional Leaders to find evidence of each characteristic.
We are working towards an in class writing assignment that will be a "Friendly Letter" from MLK written by the AVID student.

Watch the MLK "I have a Dream" Speech here

1.  Goal of the Week

2.  Plagiarism videos

3.  First writing assignment, pass it out. Discuss Campbell and MLK and the assignment

4.  Show the I have a dream speech video clip and then read out loud the I have a Dream Speech in class.

Thu

Use campbell and the i have a dream speech to determine which parts are showing which characteristic.

Write a sample friendly letter

Fri w/sub

1. Watch the I have a Dream speech

2. Have the students write quietly in class their "Friendly Letter from MLK."