6/6: HOMEWORK: Portfolios are due in class tomorrow. Remember that you need to present one piece.
In class: We responded to college essay drafts.
6/5: HOMEWORK: Continue to work on your portfolios (due Friday) Bring two hard copies of your draft essay for response tomorrow.
In clas: portfolio work.
6/3: HOMEWORK: Continue to work on your portfolios (due Friday). Bring two hard copies of your draft essay for response on Wednseday.
In class - work on the college essays.
5/31: HOMEWORK: Continue to work on your portfolios (due next Friday) and on the draft of the college essay (complete draft due by Monday).
In class: Interesting podcast suggestion from Sofia Merto - the episode is called "The Good Samaritan" (please do not use for portfolio).
We worked on portfolios (looked at some student samples and a sample of a poem mark up) on the website. I also pointed out tips (again) and other resources. We also spent some time working on drafting the college essays.
5/30: HOMEWORK: Continue to work on your portfolios (due next Friday) and on the draft of the college essay (complete draft due by Monday).
In class, we worked on drafting the college essays. THINK about what works for you: 1) brainstorm all of the details you can think of about your topic 2) imagine that you had three photographs spanning different time periods of your essay topic. Describe each one. 3) Write about a virtue you believe in by telling a story about a time when that virtue was on display OR about a person whose actions illustrate the virtue.
5/29: HOMEWORK: Continue to work on your portfolios (due next Friday) and on the draft of the college essay (complete draft due by Monday).
in class: portfolio work day.
5/28: HOMEWORK: Juniors - continue to work on your portfolios.
In class, we looked at several different essays in an attempt to think about what makes for a good essay. Here are the common application prompts for 2019-2020 (they have not changed from 2018-2019).
5/23: HOMEWORK: Juniors - continue to work on your portfolios.
In class, on the front of the notecard: do some thinking about memorials - write about a memorial that you find moving/memorable and why, about the meaning of memorials, about what we memorialize, what it means that we create memorials, about what these say about our values, our priorities, etc. Fill the front of the card. We used this as a springboard for a discusison about the upcoming Supreme Court case that wrestles with the separation of church and state and war memorials.
5/20: Please read Acts 1-2 and 9 for Tuesday. Continue to work on your portfolios. Senior portfolios are due on Wednesday in class. Everyone needs to present one piece.
In class: today is the final in class work day for the portfolios. PLEASE make sure that you have read all of the tips and warnings (on the resources pages for each of the sections we've studied) and that you read and use all of my notes on your previous portfolios. Do not forget to take seriously the reflection. It is a quarter of the grade on the final portfolio.
5/17: HOMEWORK: Please read Acts 1-2 and 9 for Tuesday. Continue to work on your portfolios.
In class: crucifixion and resurrection in all four of the gospels. We looked at Jesus' last words in John.
5/16: HOMEWORK: Please read the end of Mark tonight, with an eye to the work we did in class today. Continue to work on the portfolios. Here are some tips and warnings.
In class: we worked in small groups on the Last Supper and Crucifixion.
5/15: HOMEWORK: Please make sure to have read the end of the Gospels for tomorrow (Matt 26-28, Luke 22-24, John 18-21). Continue to work on the portfolios. Here are some tips and warnings.
In class: portfolio work day
5/10: HOMEWORK: Here's the reading schedule for the rest of the seniors' time in class. Continue to work on the portfolios. We have a work day next week (Wednesday) and then one on 5/20. By Tuesday 5/14 you should be nearly done with three of the four required pieces and should have pulled together some resources for the Q4 portion (either old pieces revised and pulled forward or new ones).
In class: work day
5/9: HOMEWORK: Here's the reading schedule for the rest of the seniors' time in class. Tomorrow is an in class portfolio work day.
In class: we started by reflecting on the parable of the father and two sons. On the paper with your notes for that story: reflect on your final thoughts about the parable. Do this by keeping in mind the purpsoe of parables: how did the story make you uncomfortablem how did it make you turn inward and reflect on your behavior? Which character made you most uncomfortable and what does that help you to think about, etc.? Turn this in with the notes you took about the parable for yeterday's class.
We also talked through the very dark, very difficult, very threatening teachings in the readings for today, with a special focus on the Lazarus story in John and Matthew 20-25. We looked at Rembrandt's The Raising of Lazarus
5/8: Here's the reading schedule for the rest of the seniors' time in class.
In class, we worked in groups with the parable about the father and his sons.
5/7: Here's the reading schedule for the rest of the seniors' time in class. TONIGHT, please reread carefully Luke 15: 11-32, with an eye to the way we are reading and analyzing parables in class. Please take notes (on a piece of paper you can hand in) about the action, setting, characters,etc of the text (read carefully) and then apply the techniques we've used in reading parables to this story. I will be looking for a page of notes.
In class, we continued to work with the parables in Luke 15. We talked about the rule of 3, about reading carefully and thinking about the action in the stories themselves, rather than allegorical readings. The first two stories connect in many ways, among them by focusing on loss, on what we should do with loss, on what challenges.
5/6: Here's the reading schedule for the rest of the seniors' time in class (the film options for the portfolio are at the bottom of the reading schedule). By Friday (if you want to schedule) you should have at least one more of the required portfolio options finished -so, wrap up the poems, or the art or the modern day references, and you should either be well on your way to finishing another (either on the final portfolio OR in the T 4 options).
In class: we spent time applying the parable criteria to the story about the Samaritan and started working together on the man who lost one sheep.
5/3: HOMEWORK: Here's the reading schedule for the rest of the seniors' time in class (the film options for the portfolio are at the bottom of the reading schedule). By Monday (if you want to schedule) you should have at least one of the required portfolio options finished -so, wrap up the poems, or the art or the modern day references, OR watch a film or pull together quotes or visuals or allusions for the T 4 section.
In class, we talked at length about John 8 and the woman. We also talked about the danger inherent in reading these stories without an eye to audience and purpose and the ways in which the stories have been twisted to cause harm.
We also started to talk about reading parables
5/1: HOMEWORK: Here's the reading schedule for the rest of the seniors' time in class (the film options for the portfolio are at the bottom of the reading schedule).
In class work on the final portfolios
4/30 HOMEWORK: Here's the reading schedule for the rest of the seniors' time in class (the film options for the portfolio are at the bottom of the reading schedule).
In class, we worked in small groups with the chapters we read for today in an effort to understand what was dark and scary, what was confusiing, how these teachings challenged, etc. We also began working with some poems. You can find those here and here and here.
4/29: HOMEWORK: Here's the reading schedule for the rest of the seniors' time in class (the film options for the portfolio are at the bottom of the reading schedule).
In class: we talked about fear and darkness, about change, about the awe-ful nature of miracles and about the Lord's prayer.
4/26: HOMEWORK: Please read Matt 8-11, John 2-4 and Mark 6-8. Pay attention to miracles, to the disciples and to all we talked about today.
In class: we worked in small groups then in large to examine what was so challenging and hard about Jesus' teachings, about how they would have been heard by his audence, by later audiences and now.
4/25: HOMEWORK: Read and respond to the Sermon on the Mount.
In class: portfolios returned + final portfolio assignment. We talked about temptation and trust and the dangers of Jesus' teaching. We read teh end of John the Baptist's story in Mark 6:1-13.
4/24: HOMEWORK: for tomorrow- early activity including temptation: Matt 4; Luke 4-5, Mark 1-3, John 2
IN CLASS: we talked through the differences, surprises, similarities and recurring motifs in the gospel readings.
4/22: HOMEWORK: Read and respond to the birth stories
We began by looking at Luke 1 in an effort to see motifs continued from the Tanakh as developed in the story of John the Baptist. I also shared some preliminary background notes about the New Testament.