Does Process Writing Work?

8 February 2011

Anne Lamott argues that “very few writers really know what they are doing until they’ve done it.” Therefore, she advocates for writing at first without fear of consequences, creating a first drat that is “the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that [...]

Some Feeds about Feed

18 November 2010

As we begin reading M. T. Anderson’s novel Feed, I wanted to provide some links for students to interact with and comment on that will further introduce some of the concepts that the novel deals with.   I’m reminded first and foremost of some work we completed in my TOK course that might be useful to [...]

Art Trip to Spain (Day Six): “O España, ya te echo de menos”

8 October 2010

After a visit to the Poble Español, our now infamous Art Trip Quiz, and some last minute shopping around Las Ramblas, we made our weary voyage northward back to Norway.  As I reflect upon the trip, I’m reminded of something we learned last year while on the art trip in Rome: the important distinction between [...]

Art Trip to Spain (Day Five): Sitios Sagrados, Barríos Goticos, y Museos Picassos

7 October 2010

Our Big Barcelona day began with a trip to La Segrada Família (The Sacred Family), Gaudi’s ongoing masterpiece, which we got to experience from the inside and out.  We then spent some time sketching the cathedral’s impressive facade from the park across the street.  After a quick lunch, we headed back to the Paseo de [...]

Art Trip to Spain (Day Four): “Nos Vemos, Madrid. . . Qué tal, Barcelona?”

5 October 2010

We had an early start this morning in order to catch the high speed AVE train, which teleported us from Madrid to Barcelona in under three hours, with speeds approaching 300 km/h.  Now students realize why the acronym AVE, which stands for Alta Velocidad Española (Spanish High Speed), is also a clever pun on the [...]

Art Trip to Spain (Day Three): Un Museo, Toledo, y Flamenco

5 October 2010

Today started with a trip to the Museo Reina Sofia, where we got to experience Picasso’s amazing mural “Guernica,” as well as rooms adjacent to “Guernica” that include sketches of Picasso’s plans for his finished piece, photography of the actual process, and other artwork that deals with the Spanish Civil War.  Students also had time [...]

Art Trip to Spain (Day Two): Arte, Plazas, Jardines, Parques y Palacios

3 October 2010

We began our second day in Madrid by visiting El Palacio Royal (The Royal Palace), as well as the beautiful adjacent gardens.  We then made our way to the Museo Nacional del Prado, by far the most comprehensive museum of art in Spain.  We focused our experience on the Spanish painters: Goya, Velazquez and El [...]

Art Trip to Spain (Day One): “Hemos Llegado”

2 October 2010

This afternoon we were welcomed to Spain by beautiful weather and friendly faces.  After a quick stop at the hotel, we walked to the Plaza de España, and enjoyed the Cervantes Monument, as well as the market taking place in the square.  This was followed by a stroll through La Puerta Del Sol, the heart [...]

Writing for an Audience of One: Yourself

25 September 2010

As we continue to experiment with what I call “journaling” as a means of creating sustained thought through sustained writing in my English and Theory of Knowledge classes, I wanted to post some ideas by Peter Elbow that I find relevant and useful, especially because he focuses on the idea of private freewriting–including what it [...]

Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?

13 September 2010

Indeed, it’s poetry time for my 12th graders. The most useful resource for criticism about Modern American Poets is this site (I also have it linked on my sidebar).  For our study of The Waste Land, there are some nice sites as well:
Exploring The Waste Land This website is a learning resource allowing exploration [...]

Ralston Updates

17 August 2010

A lot of my students will recognize Aron Ralston’s story, since I like to use it to investigate ideas involving heroism and what it means to be a hero.  I found the video above from  The New York Times to be interesting.  The report mentions that Ralston’s book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, [...]

Kesey’s Modernized Combine

17 August 2010

The Los Angeles Times seems to be preparing for Ray Bradbuy’s 90th birthday by publishing his most recent angry remarks. This one caught my eye (I love it when people pluralize “Internet”):
“We have too many cellphones. We’ve got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines [...]

Gatsby’s Green Light

15 August 2010

Two years ago the The New York Times published an article about Gatsby’s dreams and how these relate to our own. The article brings up ideas about how we connect to this abstract and dated story, arguing that teachers think that their “students see in ‘Gatsby’ glimmers of their own evolving identities and [...]

Misplaced Intentions

25 June 2010

We are pleased to announce that the first issue of Misplaced Intentions is now available as an online Google Document, and in a PDF format for download.  In keeping with our attempts at remaining a carbon neutral publication, we ask that if you download the PDF, you keep it as such on your computer [...]

Pi (Faith in Chaos)

19 May 2010

We have been enjoying Aronofsky’s first movie Pi as a nice starting point for our exploration in TOK of Mathematics as an “Area of Knowledge.”

After viewing, students will respond to one of the following questions in the comments below, incorporating an idea from Pi into their responses:

How do the knowledge issues in Pi relate to [...]

Music and Emotions

27 April 2010

In TOK class, we have been investigating Emotion as our fourth and final way of knowing (according to IB), and using music as a guide.  I wanted to provide a couple links to what we have been listening to and viewing. We began by watching and listening to cLOUDDEAD perform their song “Apt. A, [...]

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