Monthly Archives: March 2020

Spring Break

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Dear Ones,

Due to the mass exodus from our classroom this week, your homework sheet for Spring Break is posted here!

Must Do’s:

1. Watch Survivor each week (including this week if you were absent) and take notes in your graphic organizer (or your comp book).

You can DVR the episodes if you have that ability at home; or you can watch free on-line by going here: https://www.globaltv.com/shows/survivor/

On that main page, if you scroll down a teeny bit, you’ll see the “Full Episodes” section.  Please note that episodes are usually posted on Thursday mornings and get locked after one week – so you must watch that week’s episode before the following Wednesday.

I have redone the graphic organizer according to the new tribes, to spare your poor little fingers a lot of page turning (“How did Prof. Great Brain get to be so kind? Is there no limit to his generosity??”) (answers: by watching Sesame Street and no) (or rather, not yet – growth mindset!).  You can download the new g/o here: Survivor Observations Graphic Organizer season 40 after tribe swap

Note that the graphic organizer is on 11″ by 17″ paper – if you cannot print that out at home, you can type into the doc and print it out at school, or create a quick table in your comp book and transfer your notes once we are back in school.

After each episode, please take an extended moment to think and take notes on the following: what was the learning here?  What might that look like in my life?  Think back to some of our previous discussions – the dangers of trying to control others or playing both sides of the fence, Danni’s getting paranoid that everyone was talking about her when they weren’t and a simple conversation could have cleared things up, the power of simply standing with someone who is struggling, etc.

2.  Go outside.  Pay attention to nature.  What are the lessons?

3.  Get together with friends.  Arrange to go to someone’s house or to go for a hike or to the park.  Go for a walk with your friends.  If you are unable to do this in person, please arrange for video chats. As a last resort, spend time on the same server and play some games.  But remember the common thread going through so much of what we have learned this year: connection.  Connect.

 

Maybe Do’s (not required, but can help set you up for success for Term Three):

1. Practice sketching the characters, objects, and places that appear in your chapters of The Black Cauldron.  Have your hand ready to go when we meet again. Remember that our goal is to funnel the character guidelines through your imagination, not to copy from book covers or Disney images.

2.  Practice printing the alphabet slowly, letter by letter, aiming for precision and legibility, so that you are ready to add text to your panels.

3.  Practice drawing lines that bisect a page, then again in half, and again and again until you can’t fit another line in.  Try to do each line in one bold stroke.

4.  Check in with the NewsHour or other options from our media list.  Stay on top of international developments. 

5. Learn how to play Dungeons and Dragons.

NYTimes: “Why the Cool Kids are Playing Dungeons & Dragons” 

New Yorker magazine: “The Uncanny Resurrection of Dungeons & Dragons”

Open source access to the Players Handbook can be found here: 5e Players Handbook 

(It may take a couple of minutes for the above pdf to load.)

There are also many, many, many videos to explore on YouTube.  Aim for a general understanding rather than expertise, unless you can’t help it!

 

Do’s If You Have Nothing Else to Do and Feel Like You’re Going Stir Crazy (totally not required):

1. Find more writing and videos by and about Richard Wagamese.

2.  Read graphic novels and notice techniques for panel construction, page lay-outs, and transitions that you like.

3.  Lie out on your roof (with your parents’ permission!) or go on a blanket on the grass and spend time under the night sky, contemplating your place in the Universe.

4.  Find cool resources for your Science research.

5.  Do your Daily Diary so that you have an archive of this strange stretch of human history for future reference.  

6.  Put on a 3-4 minute song and do an index card drawing in your comp book.

7. Get lost in one of these amazing performances by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under the direction of Claudio Abbado.

 

A Couple of Other Important Things:

1. If your family decides to travel over the break, please be mindful of the Provincial Health Guidelines: as of this writing, the government says that if you travel outside of Canada, it is recommended that you and your family self-isolate for two weeks upon your return. If you know that this will apply to you and your family, please be in touch.

2.  Let’s acknowledge the strangeness of these times.  I appreciate that we are all managing our own sense of uncertainty and maybe also some anxiety and fear.  Remember to stay grounded in facts, and remember to try to allow these kinds of crises to move you toward compassion and empathy and away from clannishness and paranoia.  Keep reaching out to others.  Beware of obsessive news-checking.  Double-check your sources.  Keep the elders in your life at the front of your mind.  Do the things we know help keep us safe, but if you find yourself getting scared or ruminative, reach out to someone else and let them know how you’re feeling.  Pay attention to those around you: who might benefit from you being Natalie, Amber, and Danni to their Ethan? 

And finally, 3.  At some point over the break, maybe when you are feeling scared or down, check this out:

See you on the other side,

Prof. G.B.