Oh Flannery!!!

Flannery is going very, very slowly... I'm switching between the autobiography and her fiction... and they're both sooooo.... blah.

It's just as bad as I remembered. Apparently my just-developed-frontal lobe was accurate in it's interpretation of MFOC.

FINISHED PERCY !!!

I finished the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series :) I think Mr. Riordan did a fantastic job. I even found an "extra" book in the series in my room today ... "The Demigod Files"... and read that today during AR hours. ( I got a perfect score on the AR quiz for that one! LOL )

Next projects:

Mr. Rentel and I are preparing to start a book club with some of his sophomore girls and I hope we will quickly expand to include the other gender :) We are coming up with some neat ideas... if you have any book club suggestions, please send them my way.

I am going to read "Flannery, A Life of Flannery O'Connor" by Brad Gooch. At MSSC, English majors were required to take a semester that focused on the entire works of one author. The author during my rotation of that course was Flannery. My professor was a Flannery fanatic and I was too young and stupid to take advantage of his knowledge to gain/learn an appreciation for her work. So... my first step of academic redemption is to read the biography and remember how she came to write those stories and then I'm going to tackle a collection of her works -- Wise Blood, A Good Man is Hard to Find, The Violent Bear It Away, Everything that Rises Must Converge, and her essays and letters.

Want to read some Southern literature? join me!!!

Percy #5

I'm reading Percy #5... I'm enjoying this last novel in the series.

Percy has heard The Great Prophecy and I'm anxious to see how this story ends!

Jake and I watched "The Lightning Thief" Saturday. I was disappointed in the translation from book to screen. There were so many parts that I was looking forward to... I thought Chris Columbus would have a different setting for Camp Half-Blood. I wanted to see his interpretation of the demigods cabins. :)

The freshmen have finished Act II of R and J today... those old married kids...

Wow!!! I haven't blogged for a while!

I have been reading the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series. With the movie coming out today, anticipation in the classroom has been rising :)

(This is primarily male excitement... the females are excited about "Dear John", based on a Nicholas Sparks' novel. )

I am on book 4 of the 5 book series. A few of the boys and I are challenging each other to see how fast we can read the series. It's neat to have a series I can discuss with them ... generally, I am usually talking "girl books" with the females. :)

I really like how author Rick Riordan has incorporated the ancient Greek mythology into a modern setting. It's been a great tool to use in class to illustrate the concept of setting/time/place.

I hate putting them down when I'm reading! I've been reading at night and not getting enough sleep b/c I want to read the next chapter :)

My favorite character is Annabeth, a daughter of Athena. Annabeth is a great example of a character exemplifying loyalty. Her loyalty to Percy is constant, but it is her loyalty to Luke, even as they find further evidence of his evil plans, that is good for kids to read. It's a good reminder that sometimes your friends do stupid things, but they still need and value your friendship.

English 3 read "To Build A Fire" by Jack London. Their teacher chose to read that on two VERY cold days... my students didn't appreciate my lesson planning! As the main character was freezing to death in the Yukon, they were chilling in Room 308. Our heater wasn't working too well in those frigid temperatures, but it made for some great environment while reading/listening :)

English 1 is waging their way through Romeo and Juliet. I am always amazed at the lines they understand on their own and how they miss the more obvious stuff. (Of course, I am speaking of the "dirty" content in R and J. They seem amazed that Shakespeare just might have had a really dirty mind :) ) They are also appalled by the 13 and 15 year olds getting married after knowing each other less than 12 hours! :P Not that any of them would make an impulsive decision!!! :)

Until I finish another book / or / the Percy Jackson series...