Period 2 Blog #23

*Your comment post should be at least 400 words this week due Thursday by 11:59 pm (worth 70 points) and you will be responsible for responding (respectfully) to one of your classmates in at least a one paragraph reply entries by Sunday at 11:59 pm (worth 30 points).*

Live & Learn and Pass It On: "I Have Learned. . . "

As the year come to a close, I would like to share one last piece of literature with you.  Below you will find The Dash Poem by Linda Ellis- one of my favorites.  Read and consider the poem carefully- the simple message is definitely thought provoking. .  . after you’ve finished reading, respond to the prompt below.

I read of a man who stood to speak

at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on her tombstone

from the beginning...to the end.

-

He noted that first came the date of her birth

and spoke of the following date with tears,

but he said what mattered most of all

was the dash between those years.

-

For that dash represents all the time

that she spent alive on earth...

and now only those who loved her

know what that little line is worth.

-

For it matters not, how much we own;

the cars....the house...the cash.

What matters is how we live and love

and how we spend our dash.

-

So think about this long and hard...

are there things you'd like to change?

For you never know how much time is left.

(You could be at "dash midrange.")

-

If we could just slow down enough

to consider what's true and real,

and always try to understand

the way other people feel.

-

And be less quick to anger,

and show appreciation more

and love the people in our lives

like we've never loved before.

-

If we treat each other with respect,

and more often wear a smile...

remembering that this special dash

might only last a little while.

-

So, when your eulogy's being read

with your life's actions to rehash...

would you be proud of the things they

say about how you spend your dash?

Writing Prompt- Consider the title of this blog post “Live & Learn and Pass It On”.  Write about the most valuable lesson you have learned over the course of your life and share it in your response.  Explain how you came to learn this lesson and how it has changed your life.  Most importantly, think and write about this lesson will help you move foreword and do the most with your "dash".

Period 3 Blog #23

*Your comment post should be at least 400 words this week due Thursday by 11:59 pm (worth 70 points) and you will be responsible for responding (respectfully) to one of your classmates in at least a one paragraph reply entries by Sunday at 11:59 pm (worth 30 points).*

Live & Learn and Pass It On: "I Have Learned. . . "

As the year come to a close, I would like to share one last piece of literature with you.  Below you will find The Dash Poem by Linda Ellis- one of my favorites.  Read and consider the poem carefully- the simple message is definitely thought provoking. .  . after you’ve finished reading, respond to the prompt below.

I read of a man who stood to speak

at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on her tombstone

from the beginning...to the end.

-

He noted that first came the date of her birth

and spoke of the following date with tears,

but he said what mattered most of all

was the dash between those years.

-

For that dash represents all the time

that she spent alive on earth...

and now only those who loved her

know what that little line is worth.

-

For it matters not, how much we own;

the cars....the house...the cash.

What matters is how we live and love

and how we spend our dash.

-

So think about this long and hard...

are there things you'd like to change?

For you never know how much time is left.

(You could be at "dash midrange.")

-

If we could just slow down enough

to consider what's true and real,

and always try to understand

the way other people feel.

-

And be less quick to anger,

and show appreciation more

and love the people in our lives

like we've never loved before.

-

If we treat each other with respect,

and more often wear a smile...

remembering that this special dash

might only last a little while.

-

So, when your eulogy's being read

with your life's actions to rehash...

would you be proud of the things they

say about how you spend your dash?

Writing Prompt- Consider the title of this blog post “Live & Learn and Pass It On”.  Write about the most valuable lesson you have learned over the course of your life and share it in your response.  Explain how you came to learn this lesson and how it has changed your life.  Most importantly, think and write about this lesson will help you move foreword and do the most with your "dash".

Period 9/10 Blog #23

*Your comment post should be at least 400 words this week due Thursday by 11:59 pm (worth 70 points) and you will be responsible for responding (respectfully) to one of your classmates in at least a one paragraph reply entries by Sunday at 11:59 pm (worth 30 points).*

Live & Learn and Pass It On: "I Have Learned. . . "

As the year come to a close, I would like to share one last piece of literature with you.  Below you will find The Dash Poem by Linda Ellis- one of my favorites.  Read and consider the poem carefully- the simple message is definitely thought provoking. .  . after you’ve finished reading, respond to the prompt below.

I read of a man who stood to speak

at the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on her tombstone

from the beginning...to the end.

-

He noted that first came the date of her birth

and spoke of the following date with tears,

but he said what mattered most of all

was the dash between those years.

-

For that dash represents all the time

that she spent alive on earth...

and now only those who loved her

know what that little line is worth.

-

For it matters not, how much we own;

the cars....the house...the cash.

What matters is how we live and love

and how we spend our dash.

-

So think about this long and hard...

are there things you'd like to change?

For you never know how much time is left.

(You could be at "dash midrange.")

-

If we could just slow down enough

to consider what's true and real,

and always try to understand

the way other people feel.

-

And be less quick to anger,

and show appreciation more

and love the people in our lives

like we've never loved before.

-

If we treat each other with respect,

and more often wear a smile...

remembering that this special dash

might only last a little while.

-

So, when your eulogy's being read

with your life's actions to rehash...

would you be proud of the things they

say about how you spend your dash?

Writing Prompt- Consider the title of this blog post “Live & Learn and Pass It On”.  Write about the most valuable lesson you have learned over the course of your life and share it in your response.  Explain how you came to learn this lesson and how it has changed your life.  Most importantly, think and write about this lesson will help you move foreword and do the most with your "dash".

Period 2 Blog #22

Your comment post should be at least 400 words this week due Thursday by 11:59 pm (worth 70 points) and you will be responsible for responding (respectfully) to one of your classmates in at least a one paragraph reply entries by Sunday at 11:59 pm (worth 30 points).

Student Question | What Are Your Earliest Memories of Music?

By SHANNON DOYNE

MAY 9, 2016 5:02 AM May 9, 2016 5:02 am 4

What does that statement mean to you?

David Gonzalez interweaves a story about what music meant to his father as he tells about his own first memory of listening to those songs in the section of the article called “A Bolero Between Father and Son”:

My earliest memory of being alive comes with its own soundtrack. My father, Pedro, used to sit with his battered guitar by the window of our first-floor apartment in the Bronx and slowly pluck out the songs he had learned decades earlier in Puerto Rico.

They were romantic boleros, filled with melancholy and heartbreak, or traditional aguinaldos from his own rural childhood in Caguas.

God, I hated those songs.

During the 1960s, when Puerto Ricans were depicted as knife-wielding know-nothings who would be the downfall of the South Bronx, the last thing I wanted to hear was some corny music that reminded me of where my parents were from. Besides, by the end of that decade I was too enamored of Jimi Hendrix, Creedence and The Guess Who to even give a second thought to papi’s music. So while he tried once to teach me guitar, all I ever learned to play were records.

A few weeks ago, I was driving by Van Cortlandt Park on a sunny morning when one of those old songs popped up randomly. I only had to hear a few notes from the lead guitar to know it was “Noche de Ronda” by Dúo Pérez Rodríguez, one of papi’s favorite groups. With flowery, poetic lyrics, they declared loyalty to a vanished lover, vowing to wait until death.

Waiting. Maybe that was also a theme of papi’s life. He had come here as a teenager to work in factories where, in time, he would lose most of two fingers on his playing hand. No longer able to play leads, he switched to rhythm. He didn’t really talk about that. Nor did he talk much about Puerto Rico, having only gone back to visit once in the mid-1940s after he married my mother.

Music was the link to the island he left behind. Along with his brother Eusebio, and Luis Reyes, a family friend, they would break out the guitars to perform the music of their youth.

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

— To what degree do you identify with Mr. Gonzalez’s story of listening to his father’s favorite music from his own childhood?

— Is being a fan of a certain style of music or artists connected to how you see yourself? What about how you view other people? Explain.

— What are your first memories of music? What is the setting for those memories?

— Have your parents, grandparents, other older family members or teachers introduced you to music that they loved when they were younger?

— If so, what artists or musical styles have you “inherited” from them?

— Have you likewise brought new music to older family members? If so, what?

Period 3 Blog #22

Your comment post should be at least 400 words this week due Thursday by 11:59 pm (worth 70 points) and you will be responsible for responding (respectfully) to one of your classmates in at least a one paragraph reply entries by Sunday at 11:59 pm (worth 30 points).

Student Question | What Are Your Earliest Memories of Music?

By SHANNON DOYNE

MAY 9, 2016 5:02 AM May 9, 2016 5:02 am 4

What does that statement mean to you?

David Gonzalez interweaves a story about what music meant to his father as he tells about his own first memory of listening to those songs in the section of the article called “A Bolero Between Father and Son”:

My earliest memory of being alive comes with its own soundtrack. My father, Pedro, used to sit with his battered guitar by the window of our first-floor apartment in the Bronx and slowly pluck out the songs he had learned decades earlier in Puerto Rico.

They were romantic boleros, filled with melancholy and heartbreak, or traditional aguinaldos from his own rural childhood in Caguas.

God, I hated those songs.

During the 1960s, when Puerto Ricans were depicted as knife-wielding know-nothings who would be the downfall of the South Bronx, the last thing I wanted to hear was some corny music that reminded me of where my parents were from. Besides, by the end of that decade I was too enamored of Jimi Hendrix, Creedence and The Guess Who to even give a second thought to papi’s music. So while he tried once to teach me guitar, all I ever learned to play were records.

A few weeks ago, I was driving by Van Cortlandt Park on a sunny morning when one of those old songs popped up randomly. I only had to hear a few notes from the lead guitar to know it was “Noche de Ronda” by Dúo Pérez Rodríguez, one of papi’s favorite groups. With flowery, poetic lyrics, they declared loyalty to a vanished lover, vowing to wait until death.

Waiting. Maybe that was also a theme of papi’s life. He had come here as a teenager to work in factories where, in time, he would lose most of two fingers on his playing hand. No longer able to play leads, he switched to rhythm. He didn’t really talk about that. Nor did he talk much about Puerto Rico, having only gone back to visit once in the mid-1940s after he married my mother.

Music was the link to the island he left behind. Along with his brother Eusebio, and Luis Reyes, a family friend, they would break out the guitars to perform the music of their youth.

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

— To what degree do you identify with Mr. Gonzalez’s story of listening to his father’s favorite music from his own childhood?

— Is being a fan of a certain style of music or artists connected to how you see yourself? What about how you view other people? Explain.

— What are your first memories of music? What is the setting for those memories?

— Have your parents, grandparents, other older family members or teachers introduced you to music that they loved when they were younger?

— If so, what artists or musical styles have you “inherited” from them?

— Have you likewise brought new music to older family members? If so, what?

Period 9/10 Blog #22

Your comment post should be at least 400 words this week due Thursday by 11:59 pm (worth 70 points) and you will be responsible for responding (respectfully) to one of your classmates in at least a one paragraph reply entries by Sunday at 11:59 pm (worth 30 points).

Student Question | What Are Your Earliest Memories of Music?

By SHANNON DOYNE

MAY 9, 2016 5:02 AM May 9, 2016 5:02 am 4

What does that statement mean to you?

David Gonzalez interweaves a story about what music meant to his father as he tells about his own first memory of listening to those songs in the section of the article called “A Bolero Between Father and Son”:

My earliest memory of being alive comes with its own soundtrack. My father, Pedro, used to sit with his battered guitar by the window of our first-floor apartment in the Bronx and slowly pluck out the songs he had learned decades earlier in Puerto Rico.

They were romantic boleros, filled with melancholy and heartbreak, or traditional aguinaldos from his own rural childhood in Caguas.

God, I hated those songs.

During the 1960s, when Puerto Ricans were depicted as knife-wielding know-nothings who would be the downfall of the South Bronx, the last thing I wanted to hear was some corny music that reminded me of where my parents were from. Besides, by the end of that decade I was too enamored of Jimi Hendrix, Creedence and The Guess Who to even give a second thought to papi’s music. So while he tried once to teach me guitar, all I ever learned to play were records.

A few weeks ago, I was driving by Van Cortlandt Park on a sunny morning when one of those old songs popped up randomly. I only had to hear a few notes from the lead guitar to know it was “Noche de Ronda” by Dúo Pérez Rodríguez, one of papi’s favorite groups. With flowery, poetic lyrics, they declared loyalty to a vanished lover, vowing to wait until death.

Waiting. Maybe that was also a theme of papi’s life. He had come here as a teenager to work in factories where, in time, he would lose most of two fingers on his playing hand. No longer able to play leads, he switched to rhythm. He didn’t really talk about that. Nor did he talk much about Puerto Rico, having only gone back to visit once in the mid-1940s after he married my mother.

Music was the link to the island he left behind. Along with his brother Eusebio, and Luis Reyes, a family friend, they would break out the guitars to perform the music of their youth.

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

— To what degree do you identify with Mr. Gonzalez’s story of listening to his father’s favorite music from his own childhood?

— Is being a fan of a certain style of music or artists connected to how you see yourself? What about how you view other people? Explain.

— What are your first memories of music? What is the setting for those memories?

— Have your parents, grandparents, other older family members or teachers introduced you to music that they loved when they were younger?

— If so, what artists or musical styles have you “inherited” from them?

— Have you likewise brought new music to older family members? If so, what?

Period 2 Blog #21

Your comment post should be at least 400 words this week due Thursday by 11:59 pm (worth 70 points) and you will be responsible for responding (respectfully) to one of your classmates in at least a one paragraph reply entries by Sunday at 11:59 pm (worth 30 points).

Please respond to the following quote:

*Explain what you believe the meaning to be behind this quote. What is the message Hemingway is trying to get across to the reader?

*Explain how this quote relates to a character we have read about this year. Use examples from the book whichever character you chose is from in order to support your opinion.

Period 3 Blog #21

Your comment post should be at least 400 words this week due Thursday by 11:59 pm (worth 70 points) and you will be responsible for responding (respectfully) to one of your classmates in at least a one paragraph reply entries by Sunday at 11:59 pm (worth 30 points).

Please respond to the following quote:

*Explain what you believe the meaning to be behind this quote. What is the message Hemingway is trying to get across to the reader?

*Explain how this quote relates to a character we have read about this year. Use examples from the book whichever character you chose is from in order to support your opinion.

Period 9/10 Blog #21

Your comment post should be at least 400 words this week due Thursday by 11:59 pm (worth 70 points) and you will be responsible for responding (respectfully) to one of your classmates in at least a one paragraph reply entries by Sunday at 11:59 pm (worth 30 points).

Please respond to the following quote:

*Explain what you believe the meaning to be behind this quote. What is the message Hemingway is trying to get across to the reader?

*Explain how this quote relates to a character we have read about this year. Use examples from the book whichever character you chose is from in order to support your opinion.