Monday, September 28th

-The in class essay is during the Friday and Monday class periods (October 2nd, 5th.)
*check online for essay topics*
-Movie time on Wednesday!
- Essay due Friday Oct. 10 (Make sure to meet with Mrs. Smith)
-Finish annotations
-Check website

TODAY IN CLASS September 28th

3 big questions chapters 92-end

-Which story do you believe? Which one do you want to believe?
-Why does Pi compare himself to the tiger?
-Why did Pi stay so faithful to his faiths?
-Why did Pi give away his cookies?
-Do Pi and Richard Parker have an emotional connection?
-Why is it called Life of Pi if its just a story?

Essay topics:

• Check website link
• Look at rubric
• 100pt Essay

Monday, Septemeber 21, 2015

Good morning Smith!

Smith handed back our college essays. We need to pick our favorite essay to go over with Smith. Make an appointment with Smith in her daily calendar. The whole idea of the appointment is to make your essay better. The final essay will be due around the end of October. Her off hours are MWF:6 and TH: 1,4 and 6.

We got into groups of about four to discuss chapters 79-86 on a gigantic sticky pad. The mission was to make connections to: belief, barbarism, hope and fear. In order to make connections we were encouraged to find connections to self, unanswered questions, quotes, images and specific words. Groups had about thirty minutes to do so. Once time was up, groups stuck the sticky notes to the black board near Mrs. Smith’s desk.

Class read chapters 87-90 aloud. We read until page 308. Class discussed what happened during those few chapters. Ideas that came up where; Pi is going crazy because he is malnourished and Pi isn’t talking to anyone, he is just hallucinating. While we read, Smith came by to check our annotations.

Homework: finish reading through chapter 91, make an appointment with Smith to finalize your essay. Bring food on Monday for Pi Day.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Class:

• Got back our college essay. Tips: Don't restate the question, write a story. 
• There will be a book discussion on either Wednesday or Friday. Movie on Monday (Mental Health Monday, Pi Day) - Bring snacks!
• Annotation checked 79-86
• Sign up meeting one-on-one with Smith to talk about college essay you're most pleased about. It's one of the biggest grade of the semester, worth about 100 points

• Who are we? Hope, fear, barbarism, belief. Write in a sticky note on who we are in terms of hope, fear, barbarism and belief.
• Read chapter 87- mid 90 out loud

• Homework: read chapter 87-91, annotate. Finalize college essay: must meet with me before submitting final essay. Sign up! Smith's off hours: MWF 6th, TR 1st, 4th, 6th

September 18, 2015

Homework: Read 79-86 (annotation check next week), Set appointment time w/ Smith


Class: Self Reflection Day
-Create graphs for reading, speaking, and writing
-Evaluate yourself based off of the rubrics
-Create table and give yourself and overall grade (1-4) in each topic
-Answer questions:
Hows's it going? Really how's it going?
What's one thing that is going well for you? Explain.
What's one thing that is really challenging for you? Explain.
How can I help?

September 14, 2015

Homework:

• College essay due Friday, what is the moment that defines you? what moment made you, you?OR who has had the greatest impact upon your life? Why? How? What have you learned as a result? Read: annotations
  • Reading consists of chapters 60-66. (With annotations) 
  
  
  Class: 
  At the beginning of class you got your crossroads essay back and got to look over it. 
  During class we began to watch parts of the "Life of Pi"
  Watched Life of Pi: Watch ship sinking scene: power of hope v. power of fear; what’s stronger? Barbarism or belief
   Also Mrs. Smith went around and checked annotations for everybody. 
  (If you were gone, go and see her to get your annotations checked).
  Descriptions of Scenes:
  1. We start with seeing Pi playing a musical instrument for a group of dancers. This is because the normal music instructor could not attend that day. In the process he is introduced to a female character. They begin to talk and get close.
  2. We see that Pi is at the dinner table with his family and receives the news that they are moving to Canada. With this news he parts the female character and sets off on a new journey to Canada. Along with them they take the Zoo animals to sell in North America.
  3. We now see Pi on the freighter and he is just taken away by the weather. Later a storm comes and wakes a sleeping Pi. Pi goes out to the thunderous storm and yells that he wants more rain. Right at this moment an alarm sound starts to take place. Pi goes down to try and save his sleeping family, but has no luck doing so. He goes to the upper deck only to be thrown onto a lifeboat. He is then separated from his loved ones and floats away with a few companions. A few Zoo animals got onto the boat, such as the hyena, zebra, and Richard Parker. 
  4. We see a scared Pi make his own life boat to get away from Richard Parker and the other animals. Stranded out in the middle of the sea, Pi starts to develop survival skills for food and how to deal with the zoo animals. Orange wonders in on a raft of bananas and is soon taken by the hyena. While stranded the zebra also falls victim to the hyena. Later however it is the hyena who falls to Richard Parker.
  5. We see Pi trying to learn how to control Richard Parker and is fairly successful when using fish as a bait for the tiger. Yet the fish also has a second purpose for Pi. He gives in to hunger and eats any fish that he catches. 
  The class stopped at this point.   
  
  
  (Would try and find scenes on YouTube if you can)
  
  
   

Friday, September 11th

HOMEWORK
-Read Chapters 52-59
-College Essay Due Next Friday!!!
                 -Last College Essay
                 -Moment that defined you
                 -A moment you realized who you are/a major learning moment that you had
                 -Might be the first moment you ever did something (certain sports, reading, thinking about the                         world differently, ect.)
                 -Follow 1/3 and 2/3 Essay Rule!
CLASS

We started class off by turning in our college "Crossroads" Essay
We will have a self assessment in:
                   -Essays
                   -Annotations
                   - Overall growth (especially in fishbowl discussions)
We then discussed:

Why was the certainty that the tiger was going to kill him cheer him up?
-There is nothing to lose, so he might as well do his best
-It's better than a slow death
-When we lose all hope in things, the only thing we can have is hope and that he just wants to be happy again
-You can't lose anything else, and throughout there seems to be a lot of divine intervention

False hope vs. Fear
-Better to not be let down than to set our expectations high

Descriptions of animals, killing of them, ect.- Importance?
-Show desperation, link between humans and animals
-Separation between animals and humans, how we as people think that we could never kill like that
-Pg. 159 a good page for barbarism as it talks about killing

Is the hyena representative of barbarism and the tiger (Pi's protection away) like religion?
-More afraid of the tiger, and he is glad that he only has the hyena
-Religion tends to be harder to take on, versus day to day life of surviving

Do you think the goat used to track the panther represents anything greater?
-That you should know your place in life
            -Should we then push our limits?
            -People should push in order to achieve, learn what we are able to do and face our fears
            -Orange Juice faced her fears, because she broke out of her comfort zone because she was                              desperate. like we do when we become desperate
            -All on the boat are alike, and there is barbarism everywhere
            -Emotion changes instinct

Do you think Pi would resort to barbarism if need be?
-Less vulnerable to it, but still possible
-He feels sorry for the zebra, but he doesn't stop it because he is so focused on his own survival
-Mostly scared, power of fear

Losing OJ
-Wasn't worth it to stop the hyena
-Fear once OJ dies, because he is next
-Gave up hope on OJ's life, yet underestimated her
-We tend to underestimate others and ourselves, and Pi is underestimating himself
-Motherly figure for him, emotional creature
-"She reminded me of us", eyes expressing human like emotion
-Bottom of pg.164

Pi being "Numb"
-So tired, not being able to handle what is going on
-Look to religion possibly
-pg.165 "Christ on the cross" comparison to OJ
                     -Dying so Pi could live
-Orange=hope
        -OJ=hope
        -Richard Parker also hope bringing?

Necessity is the mother of invention
-There is a reason why he is here
-Hard to see the greater purpose
-Found himself
-Is it a test to see which religion what he is going to follow?
-Time to find out who he is, exposing who he really is

Why is he not blaming God or asking for help?
-Not going to blame God
-View of religion is loving, ect.
-Feels like God is watching over him
-Trying to stay hopeful

Why does he describe the boat in such great detail?
-His whole life, nothing else to focus on
-Wants to know, so that if something can go wrong he can know what to do
-Ways to survive

Why did the sailors toss him onto the lifeboat?
-They made the mistake, he was the only one that survived
-They wanted to get the hyena off so they could get on
-Could it be a coincidence?
-How did the animals escape? Was it the sailors?

Do you think Pi's curiosity benefits him?
-Not very curious, he was the type of person to go back to sleep
-Ultimately what saved him
-Getting out of his comfort zone
-Walked past his parents room so that he could be his own person
-Curiosity can't hurt you

The boat fits 32 people, but only 32 cans?


MOVIE ON MONDAY!!!!!!!!!


Have a great Weekend! :)

September 2, 2015

WORK DUE

• Reading and Annotations of chapters 19-28 completed for today’s discussion

HOMEWORK

• Finish reading 28-36 Friday, (Don’t Forget to Annotate)
• Power of fear (visual) -add to Google Slides link (add a visual and a quote to support Power of Fear

CLASS

Today in class Mrs. Smith failed to arrive, good thing Mr. Rosenberg was there to save us.

Donut Day was met with disappointment from the lack of Donuts.

Graded Group discussion of chapters 19-28 (Katie volunteered as tribute and kept record of participation)

Mr. Rosenberg had us put our discussion questions on front board and asked us if we were confused about anything in the previous chapters.

We discussed much throughout the hour, here is a quick run-down of the questions that occurred

Some Class Questions:

Does Pi value one of his religions over the others?

Do Pi’s parents support his religious decisions since they themselves are not that religious?

Does Pi care what other people think of his religious ideas?

How can Pi stay with 3 different religions if they contradict each other?

Big Topics:

Why is Pi attracted to Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism

How is Pi’s search for belief much like our own lives?

(If you need to make up or redo the group discussion please contact Mrs. Smith to schedule a time to do so.)   

Link to today's agenda- https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10uz7rjWErev5XaGE-OjynBZG6_iuU_KW268mcRgsy0o/edit#slide=id.p

Wednesday, September 9th

HOMEWORK
-Crossroads Essay (DUE FRIDAY)
           -Fits The Common App
                    -Ex. College, Being your own person, Confronting friends?
                    -SHOW, don't just tell the story. Bring us into the moment of the story
                    -You can use a series of events, but relate them together
           - Remember 1/3 and 2/3 rule (1/3 story, 2/3 YOU)
-Read Chapters 46-51 (DUE FRIDAY)

CLASS
We voted on one of two options:
              A: Work time today, Friday discussion and reading for homework over the weekend
              B: Discussion today, Friday is homework time/work time
                              Either way, essay is due Friday
Our class voted to do option...... Drum roll........................... A! Today will be a work day, for essay and reading, while Friday will be a discussion and homework will be to read.

We also went through the hope power point that was due for today, explaining our quote and the photo that went with it.  https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xOSBb1cBRWW19i7dfWY-slHU1m5LB3OJ9VxBZfvbdKY/edit#slide=id.gba87c6086_6_10

Shania talked about how no matter what people can have hope
Emmy talked about even when people are in their worst points, there can be hope, like looking out a window
Connor talked about in your worst time is when you need hope the most
Brett talked about how you should always have a goal that you are striving for
Foster talked about when you are going into an athletic event you have the hope that you will not be defeated and you will be the best
Josh talked about how when you are at your worse, you need to hold on the most
Felipe talked about how his ultimate hope in life is to get to heaven and be the best he can be
Eion talked about Pi wanting all religions having a "passport" to heaven and there is hope in conflict
Scott talked about how there is always hope in God
Kat talked about how there is always the ability for a good outcome, and how the sun will rise tomorrow
Kenny said not to give up easily and to be consistently hoping for something better
Andrew said that even if you fail once not to give up, and even if you get bad grades you should get better eventually
 Joe said that even if you don't see anyone else like Pi didn't after the ship sunk, not to give up
Bruce commented that false hopes versus fear and how fear can be overcoming
Michael mentioned that we can make any dreams come true if we are creative
Haden said that the power of hope is more powerful than disappointment and problems
Dasia mentioned that we learn from previous experiences and everyday is new
Quinn saw that you have to work hard and hope at the same time to be great
Giuliana talked about how even though our hurts are bad, they can become something good
Katie mentioned that if there is hope and work are combined you will get what you want in the end
Jacob mentioned that even though most people fail, you have to push on


Get to work!

Link to today's agenda- https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oxi8pTyH2kBn3-sNsSb30nKnh-qwuSA_tYYZAcE0MtA/edit#slide=id.gba2b4aa6a_0_0

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Welcome to the 2nd day of September!

Today, Mrs. Smith did not show up to class but no worries! Mr. Rosenberg was our sub today and the class played out like it normally would have.

The reading and annotations on Chapters 19-28 in "Life of Pi" was due today.

In the beginning of class, students went up to the boards and asked the questions that they were wondering regarding those chapters.

A few of the questions class asked:

• Why are people trying to set boundaries on Pi's beliefs and how he views the world?
• What do you think Pi's ultimate purpose will be at the end based on what we know now?
• Is it right for someone to judge others religions when they themselves don't know what they believe?
• How does the environment affect what we believe?

The big questions to think about:

• Why Christianity? Muslim? Hindu- what attracts him to each? 
• How is Pi’s search for belief much like our own lives?

We then discussed these and many other questions in a large group graded discussion (If missed or need to remake, go in and talk to Mrs. Smith to set up a time). 

After, we had about 5-10 minutes of work time to read.

HW:

• Read Chapters 28-36 for Friday
• Add to "power of fear (visual)" (add a visual and a quote to support Power of Fear) 

Link to the Power of Fear (visual): 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Prh8LF3t5nQLwdbhtMDDvZD1vGcZVsFHyjIoblddHpg/edit

A special thank you to Michael for bringing in Krispy Kreme Donuts,  to Talen for volunteering to record participation, and to me for taking one for the team and Scribing because no one was signed up and/or wanted to today. Have an Amazing Day!