This link is for the teachers who attended the Blogging for Teachers session last night. It is a good place to go for answers when you are wondering how your new WordPress blog works and how to get the most out of it.
What is a blog?
The word blog is short for web log and it is just an online diary. Although this word doesn’t appear in many dictionaries many people use blogs to share a vital information and daily trivia with their friends and family.
It’s not just idle teenagers and middle aged nerds using blogs. Companies, newspapers and educators all use them as well to build and strengthen relationships.
Blogging is not difficult. You just add new content and the software looks after pretty much everything else.
Read the rest of this entry »
This is just an example of how easily an image can be included in your blog entry. For some people including images really brings the whole page to life.
Elicit – to draw out (v)
I try to elicit a response from students.
Illicit – illegal or forbidden (adj)
I should not make jokes about illicit drugs.
Here is a worksheet we are using in class this week. Earlier this year we talked about character archetypes and characters that turn up again and again in stories.
This worksheet gets to to watch characters from popular stories (Lord of the Rings, X-Men, Harry Potter) to the archetype they represent. You might not be able to do this for every story mentioned (you might not have seen them all) but I want you to complete this for all the stories you are familiar with.
character-archetypes-worksheet.doc
Council – a group that controls or advises (n)
I needed permission from my local council to paint my house bright orange.
Counsel – to advise (n)
My sister counselled me to leave my house as it is.
The earth is made up of a number of different climate zones.
Tropical
Between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
The area around the equator
Latitude 23.5 degrees north and south.
Experiences high temperatures.
The seasons in this zone are marked by changes in wind and rainfall.
The wet season and the dry season.
Ideal conditions for vegetation to grow.
The world’s greatest rainforests grow within 10 degrees of the equator.
Trees grow as much as 60 metres tall.
The rainforest is layered.
Different plants grow at different levels with different amounts of light and moisture.
Countries in the tropical zone include
The Congo
Malaysia
Indonesia
Brazil
Somalia
ACTIVITY
1. Colour the land masses in the tropical zone red on your world map.
2. Using your atlas find and list ten countries that are in the tropical zone.
Conscience – sense of right and wrong (n)
Macbeth had a conscience but did the wrong thing anyway.
Conscious – awake, aware of yourself and the world around you (adj)
I am usually fully conscious by about 11am.
Complement – complete set (n)
I made sure we had our full compliment of students before we left for the excursion.
Compliment – to praise (v)
I decided to compliment the bus driver on his driving.
Cite – quote or document (v)
I needed to cite where I found my information in the assignment.
Sight – vision (n)
I wear glasses to help with my site.
Site – position or place (n)
The might be building now on the new school site.
Breath – air inhaled or exhaled (n)
I stopped to take a breath.
Breathe – to inhale or exhale (v)
People need to breathe to stay alive.
When I return your Macbeth essays I will be providing you with a feedback sheet with this list of common issues. Where you have had these issues in your work I will circle it on the sheet but also mark the related number on your essay.
For instance if you see a red 1 on your work this indicated a spelling error. If you see a 7 is means that the marked area is not addressing the question asked.
Of course I will also provide other feedback where required.
1. Incorrect spelling. If you are not sure of the spelling of a word then use another word that you do know.
2. Capitalisation. Capital letters should be used at the start of a sentence and for proper names.
3. Lacks a clear introduction. Your introduction should restate the question, show off your knowledge of the subject and indicated the nature of your answer.
4. Lacks a clear conclusion. Your essay should finish with a conclusion which explains your main points and ends with a clear statement of your answer.
5. No obvious topic sentence. Each paragraph should be about one idea. This idea should be expressed early in the paragraph with a topic sentence.
6. Factual error. You appear to have misunderstood something factual in the text or topic.
7. Off topic. This does not address the question asked.
8. Another topic. You appear to be answering a different question to the one asked.
9. Too brief. Not enough information to demonstrate this point.
10. Use Quotations. This point could be made stronger if you used a quotation from the text as well.
11. Strong connections. This idea needs to be obviously linked back to the question being asked.
Ascent – climb, the act of going upwards (n)
The mountain climber began his ascent of Everest.
Assent – agreement (n)
I gave my assent to watching Brotherhood of the Wolf again.
This small research assignment is due on Wednesday 23rd of October this year. You will have two sessions to work on this in class. The rest will need to be done in your own time.
Chances are excellent that I adapted this from either Ms Fraser or Mr Earls’ work.
