Greetings from Louisville KY

Hello Kids!
It's Day Three of the reading and I'm on the synthesis question about locavores. lovacores. lavacores. locavorianism. locavorization.

The top half papers have a TIGHT LINK OF SUPPORT between the sources and their analysis, and the writer has staked out a position that they are carefully outlining for the readers. I have seen everything from a 1 to a 9, and I am dutifully looking for you in every stack of essays I plow through. I've read 250, but my pace is starting to pick up...we spend quite a bit of time "norming" ourselves to the rubric, talking about the 4/6 split, the characteristics of a 5, the 2/3 split, and the 3/4 split. I am having a little trouble with the lower half of the rubric...I have to think a little while when I am asking myself, is this Inadequate, or Inadequate minus something? Is this Inadequate minus something, or is this Little Success?

I am polling my colleagues about whether a writer can merely IGNORE sources they don't want to deal with and still write an upper half paper. I have read a few diatribes about how locavores are aging hippies who are subverting the capitalistic, corporate American ideal -- nicely written, but completely ignoring the positive evidence put forward in the question. I am finding differing opinions on this. The rubric does say "identifies KEY ISSUES," which to me suggests that a writer must AT LEAST engage in the other side's point of view...I'll let you know how that whole conversation shakes out.

I am watching the room from time to time, and I want you to know that the hundreds of AP teachers and college professors in the room are attentively reading your papers, discussing the ones that are problematic, and decoding difficult handwriting. Everyone is on your side. We are working hard to do right by you kids. It's quiet, work focused and dedicated. Honest Injun. We are NOT ALLOWED to take photographs, or I would snap a shot or two and show you what it looks like.

The other morning I was waiting for the elevator to take me downstairs so I could get breakfast and get to work. When the elevator finally opened for me, it was CRAMMED FULL of AP readers. It looked like that cartoon of sardines in a can. There was no room for even one more human body in that box, so I just laughed and ran down the hall to the stairs. But I wished I would have had my camera. It was a funny looking sight!

Off to lunch!

Bon Jovi's Grapes if Wrath

This song reminded me of the Joad family and their struggles in California.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrJgg6APFO4http://

Mayfair Reads Bookmarks

Hi Ms. Fletcher,

Because the magenta on my printer isn't working I figured that you could at least view the bookmarks with the right colors here.

If I were a rich person with plenty of cash...

...I'd buy this for Ben Bravo.

Thinking about Neil Postman

I keep thinking about Postman as I listen to the news about the potential meltdown in the reactors in Fukushima after last Friday's 9.0 earthquake and tsunami, and think about them dropping water from military helicopters and shooting water cannons at cracks in the building, hoping the water will sort of pool near the super hot reactors.

NINE POINT OH-my-gawd earthquake.
Tsunami. 4000 dead, death toll expected to rise.
Nuclear reactor MELT DOWN.
and
What's for dinner tonight? What kind of tomatoes should I plant in the garden? Do I look fat in these pants? Have I used all my cell phone minutes? When is Charlie Sheen going to dry up and blow away? Who's on Twitter? Can I afford a nap this afternoon? I should probably take a walk instead. Oh yeah. There's a nuclear reactor melting down in Japan.

Technology Ruins Romance: The Letters

SAT Vocab 01/02

O Verdun! 8 words from the first multiple choice practice of Second Semester
calamitous; innocuous; cataclysmic; dicomfiting; preponderance; epitome; garish; lionize

Here's my Cindy Lauper example -- can you work out which word this photo represents?

Dear Child: 8 words from the second multiple choice practice of Second Semester, Sample Exam 2, passage 2: precocious, pompous, supercilious, ineptitude, conciliatory, stoic, intimation, duped

If you are looking for the lists of "most frequently used SAT words," A) I would be suspicious of any such list, but it wouldn't hurt to study it, and B), here are some handy links:
100 Most Common SAT words
A list from Scribl
from The Washington Post

The MOST effective way to acquire a strong vocabulary is to read voraciously, deeply (go over your own head), and often. Readers have better vocabularies than non-readers, period; hours spent studying lists may be better spent reading because reading helps build up your contextual skills. Here's an article with ten tips for a better vocabulary. Looking at these tips, do you see why we draw the graphic organizer to make as many associations (positive, negative, visual, exemplar) as possible??

Go play and save the world on Free Rice.

The brilliant Michael Wesch

33 minutes, and worth every moment.