Election Reflection

Weigh in on the election this week.  You can post before, during, or after the election on Tuesday, November 6.  Offer predictions, comment on election coverage, or react to results.  Do you have a vested interest in one candidate or another?  Do you tend to vote along party lines?  Do you follow the political tendencies of your parents?  Are you 18?  First time voting?  What did you think?  Do you have any particular opinions of the six proposals on the ballot?  Obviously, lots of stuff here to think about.  Don't feel compelled to address it all.  Pick and choose, but remember to respond to at least one other classmate's post.

Utopia

Nineteen Eighty-Four, like so many other books and movies, features characteristics of a dystopian society.  Orwell wrote the book to caution people about the danger of a world in which totalitarian regimes stifle the individuality and thought of its citizenry.  Many would argue that we are, indeed, living in a police state, an Orwellian society in which people's rights are being oppressed, in which government censorship and surveillance impede on people's privacy, and in which propaganda poisons the minds of citizens and forces the fear and disrespect of other cultures.  It would be easy to find evidence to support this notion, but I want you to focus on the opposite.  What things in the world are good?  What aspects of the world give you hope?  What evidence is there that the world in which we live, the world you will soon inherit, has value and gives cause for optimism?  What motivates you to get up in the morning instead of drawing the shade and saying, "Wake me up after the apocalypse"?  This can be simple.  Focus on the things that make your world happy.  Be specific.  Euchre?  Soccer?  Rain?  The Simpsons?  Bass Guitar?  Coco Puffs.  Make it personal.

Television: The Plug-In Drug

Write a response to Marie Winn's article "Television:  The Plug-in Drug."  What do you think of some of her assertions?  Do you find her writing to be accurate?  Indicative of the influence of TV on mainstream America?  Do you see your family within the lines of her writing, or is she out of touch?  Be sure to pick a specific line or two from the text to respond to, rather than making a blanket response devoid of evidence of close reading.

What's Eating Winston?

You have read Book One of 1984, by George Orwell.  In these opening eight chapters, what seems to bother Winston the most about Oceania, the superstate in which he lives?  What does Winston think is wrong with his society?  Do you recognize any of these same concerns in our own society?  Use specific examples from the reading to support your response.  Remember, 150 words or so.  Remember, also, to comment on at least one peer's response.

Catcher EVAL

Write an evaluation of The Catcher in the Rye in which you point to one good thing about the book and one negative thing before arriving at an overall assessment.  Get to the question of, "Did you like it?"  Offer evidence from the reading to support your claim.  Consider Holden as narrator, but also setting, theme, conflict, characterization, irony, Salinger's writing style, personification, hyperbole, or anything else you feel compelled to add.  Remember to read several of your peers' posts and offer a response to at least one other classmate.

Funding

So the federal and state governments give some money to each public school based on how many students attend.  If you were in charge of dividing up that money, how would you slice the pie?  Consider categories of spending like busing/transportation, teacher salaries and benefits, athletic programs, extra-curricular programs like band or ROV, building maintenance, food service, support staff wages and benefits, supply orders of consumable items like workbooks but also capital outlay items like furniture and technology.

Education

Our theme for the next three weeks will be education.  During that time, we will be reading one of the most iconic novels about teenage angst, about the disillusionment and pessimism that sometimes surrounds students lost in the system.  In this post, write about your opinion of the educational system as it exists today.  Has your education so far been a positive or negative experience?  What can the public school system do differently to engage students and make learning more relevant and authentic?  Is furthering your education a passion for you or simply a means to an end?  Don't forget to respond to at least one of your peers' posts.