The Drip Torch
The Drip Torch is a catalyst for fire on the prairie. As an English teacher at Ames High School, I aspire to ignite the smoldering sense of wonder in my students, to alight their inherent desire to learn, to create, to communicate with style and panache. I hope our work together offers a light line, destroys dead wood, and primes the prairie for new growth.
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- Observation Journal Assignment Description
- Observation Journal Moments - Spring 2014
- HE10 Spring Final 2014
- Analytical Paragraph Reminders
Thursday, February 6, 2014
English 12 - Shakespeare Scholars!
Seniors in English 12, you've been doing a fantastic job with your initial interpretations and analysis of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Bravo! Keep up the great work!
Use this link from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. to become a Shakespearean Scholar . Simply paraphrase these 10 facts on a separate piece of paper. Write each of them out in your own words with your own hand on your own piece of paper, in complete sentences, of course.
THEN, explore the Folger's web site to discover at least five more things to teach us about Shakespeare -- his life, his plays, his theatre, his times, or his legacy. Add them to your list and turn them in to Mr. Hayungs at the end of the period. I'll see you Monday, book in hand!
Thursday, January 30, 2014
My Favorite Poem Project
SOPHOMORES! Continue your quest to find your favorite poem! Our readings will begin in a couple of weeks. Find that poem that MUST be shared! I invite you to look at some of the web sites under the Liquid Fire Links and to check out some of the works by the writers named below. Ask your friends, your parents, your brothers and sisters, your co-workers -- what's your favorite poem?
Try:
Walt Whitman
Mary Oliver
Ted Kooser (Ames High Grad!)
Jane Kenyon
Pablo Neruda
Nikki Giovanni
Robert Frost
Kay Ryan
e.e. cummings
Sylvia Plath
James Wright
Eimily Dickinson
Allen Ginsberg
Kim Addonizio
Billy Collins
Adrienne Rich
Friday, January 24, 2014
Senior Survey for English 12
Seniors in English 12 and Advanced English 12,
Please click on this link to the Senior Spring Survey and answer the questions to the best of your ability. We'll discuss the answers on Monday!
- Mr. Brekke
Monday, January 13, 2014
Final Exams!
Seniors in English 12 and Advanced English 12, please use today as an opportunity to add the finishing touches to your final exams and final assignments. You got this!
Please turn the following assignments in by 3:30 p.m. today:
* Independent Reading One-Pager #4 (paper copy)
* Observation Journal Make-Up (An electronic copy is acceptable, but please send me an email today letting me know you took advantage of the opportunity. I will not check your Google folder unless you send me an e-mail.)
* Final Exam Part I (electronic copy in your folder titled "Final Exam Part I")
* Final Exam Part II (paper copy with rubric stapled to the FRONT)
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Creative Writing Club
Hola mis amigos,
Make Creative Writing Club part of your New Year's Resolution! I know you've got poems and stories in your heads and in your journals. It is time to pull them out. Invite yourself to honor your creative spirit and join us every Thursday in 2014 for Creative Writing Club, after school, room #201.
WRITE ON!
Make Creative Writing Club part of your New Year's Resolution! I know you've got poems and stories in your heads and in your journals. It is time to pull them out. Invite yourself to honor your creative spirit and join us every Thursday in 2014 for Creative Writing Club, after school, room #201.
WRITE ON!
Monday, December 16, 2013
Aphorisms from Poor Richard's Almanack
Friends of Honors English 10, we've been studying Benjamin Franklin and the Age of Reason as catalysts of the American Revolution. Franklin's aphorisms published in Poor Richard's Almanack voiced some of these stirrings. Enjoy!
There are no gains without
pains.
Speak
little, do much.
If you would be loved, love
and be loveable.
Who is wise? He that learns
from everyone.
Who is powerful? He that governs his passions.
Who is rich? He
that is content.
Who is that? Nobody.
At the working man’s house
hunger looks in but dares not enter.
Industry pays debts while
despair increases them.
Diligence is the mother of
good luck.
God gives all things to
industry.
Plough deep while sluggards
sleep and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.
Work while it is called
today for you know not how much you may be hindered tomorrow.
One today is worth two
tomorrows.
What maintains one vice
would bring up two children.
Fools make feasts and wise
men eat them.
He that
lives upon hope will die fasting.
He that has a trade has an
estate.
The noblest question in the
world is What good may I do in it?
Sell not virtue to purchase
wealth nor liberty to purchase power.
Nothing brings more pain
than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty.
Wink at small faults;
remember thou hast great ones.
Each year one vicious habit
rooted out, In time might make the worst man good throughout.
Hear no ill of a friend,
nor speak any of an enemy.
Many a man thinks he is
buying pleasure when he is really selling himself a slave to it.
Having been poor is no
shame; but being ashamed of it is.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Nelson Mandela's Favorite Poem
Hey All,
One of my new favorite web sites, Zen Pencils, recently honored Nelson Mandela's legacy with a cartoon depiction of Mandela's favorite poem, "Invictus," by William Ernest Henley. First published in 1875, the poem motivated Mandela and kept his spirits up during his 27 years in prison, and he would often recite it to his fellow inmates. Check it out using the links.
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