Well - 1/2 days came and went --- conferences went well --- I enjoyed meeting with those of you who dropped by :)
In our standard blocks:
English - we finished, "Shakespeare's Secret" and turned in our final literature circle prep page and questions. Following this, we delved in the world of E. A. Poe -- quite suitable for the Halloween season. The Tell Tale Heart is in our lit. book, and the sampling of a few other works really left an impression on the students. They completed an in-class writing that detailed what they had learned about his life and a paragraph on the opinion of him as a man and an author. The vast majority of kids found him fascinating and would like to read more of his work in the future!
History - we have now completed 5 chapters and are currently working on the 6th. Ch. 5 and 6 deal with the settlement of the PNW by "whites". We have covered Lewis and Clark, the fur trade, missionaries, settlers, Chinook Jargon in addition to how this leads into the Indian Wars. We are watching the series Frontier House to supplement these chapters.

Next up: To Kill a Mockingbird --- look for this at home within the next week.

FYI - Jerry Harms will be subbing for me on the 17th, 18th, 28th, and 29th while I am in Canada for my husband's knee surgery.

In Essentials - we did a 2 week unit on the genre of Horror. We read the Legend of Sleepy Hollow (and watched the Disney version as well) - we read an essay by Stephen King on whether or not children should be exposed to horror and read a short story of his as well (from a previous lit. book. We culminated this unit with a few other short stories and E.A. Poe. Much writing was done - and the students were very engaged!

WSH - we are finishing up group presentations for ch. 5 and will begin watching the series Frontier House.

Next up - Al Capone Does My Shirts :)