Mr. Cheng's English 10 blog

Blog Assignment: Wrap-up of Education Presentions and Intro of Animal Dreams

2012-02-13T09:08:00.000-08:00

Please reflect on what you learned through this project. Please write informally and in as loose a structure as you are comfortable doing. 500 words required. Consider some of the questions below (or ignore them all and come up with your own topics).

PRESENTATIONS
What content was interesting?
What presentations were effective and why?
What makes a good presentation?
What makes a presentation persuasive?
What makes a good learning environment?
What makes a good teacher?
What makes a good student?
What works well in our classroom?
What needs to be improved in our classroom?
What questions do you have about grading/results?

ANIMAL DREAMS
What questions do you have about the book/unit?
What are your initial thoughts about the content of the book and/or the structure and methodology of the unit?
What do you expect of the book?

Random thoughts

2012-02-07T19:51:00.000-08:00

Hi folks,

I really appreciate all your responses to the "sucks... rocks" assignment. It has given me lots of food for thought and lots of ideas in how to make 2nd semester a better experience for you than 1st.

In no particular order, I have gotten the following from your blog entries:

Papers MUST be graded and returned earlier. That will be accomplished or my name isn't Fred Nai-Chung Cheng (trust me, it is).

Most people (though not all) like book discussions. I am thinking up ways to make them more focused and in-depth.

Most people want more structure to the writing assignments, which includes built-in deadlines and grading rubrics. These ideas make sense. Even though I was strongly CS in high school, I think I've gotten more random in my old age. Grading rubrics and schedules feel restrictive to me, but I hear this message loud and clear: they help you. If I am going to ask you to try to go outside your comfort zones, I should be willing to do the same.

You have waaay too much homework. I hear that. I did not have hours and hours of homework every night when I was in high school (back in the late 20th century). I remember having math homework almost daily and reading for English and social studies classes. I sometimes practiced for band (trombone) and usually crammed for science tests. I can't remember what else I took - isn't that sad? Oh yeah, Children's theater and creative writing. Some homework for those, but not a lot. Anyhow, I will try very hard to have mostly classwork. You should know right now that I can't ALWAYS give work time on assignments, so you will likely have some homework. Also, reading will probably still be assigned as homework - though I have some ideas on that, as well. Also, giving you class time requires that you be ON TASK when I give it. Even a couple students who squander this time will ruin it for everybody. Eh, maybe not. Maybe I'll just put them at the loser table and see how that works.

Most of you are very good writers. Many of your papers have not been well written. That tells me something. There has to be a way to transfer your natural ability to express yourselves into your essays. That's one of my big goals for semester two. Essay writing doesn't have to be strenuous or brain-wracking. A first draft should be as easy as writing a blog. Now if blog writing is not easy for you, then it might not be your cup of tea...

Finally, I like the idea of having a dialogue via the blogs. My kids used to do these reader response journals in elementary school where they would write thoughts about what they're reading, and their teachers would write back. I would like to try blogging regularly on various topics - from the literature we read to more open-ended stuff, and maybe even creative stuff like poetry. I can do an overall response like this entry.

Anyway, I'm going to go back and read more "sucks... rocks" entries, and I'll probably touch base with some more random thoughts. Almost all of you are awesome students. And those of you who aren't know who you are. (Just kidding)

Mr. Cheng's Learning Styles

2012-02-01T08:06:00.000-08:00

We did this activity in my 10th grade Humanities class, and I've remembered it to this day. That's how much of an impact it had on me. I have always enjoyed learning about myself, my personality, how I think. This may have changed in the ensuing 25 years, but back then, I was +35 in 3 areas: CS, AS, and AR. I was very little in the CR domain. What that told me was that I was fairly well-rounded and worked well in a process. It also told me that I had an expressive, creative side. I liked that. I didn't want to be a logical type, maybe because it fit the Asian stereotype. In fact, I was disappointed to learn that I was strong CS. Anyhow, for your assignment, write a reflection on your learning style - even if you already knew it. Discuss, as I have, what it means to you, and what you might be able to do with this information. Specifically, how can you apply this knowledge to your education and learning?

Due at 11:59pm.

How school sucks... rocks...

2012-01-31T07:35:00.001-08:00

Our first unit of semester 2 will focus on teaching and learning.

Think about what you like and don't like about school generally, and this class specifically. Think about activities you have enjoyed doing both this year and in the past. Think about how you learn best.

For today's classwork, you will write a 300 word blog entry on what sucks about school/English 10, and what rocks about it. Write informally, but write thoughtfully about your general philosophies and beliefs about education, and your unique individual experiences.

3 truths and a lie

2011-10-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

Identify the lie out of the following 4 statements about Mr. Cheng:

a. Won $1500 on a cable television game show
b. Worked as an intern at Jodie Foster's production company
c. Was an extra in Batman Begins.
d. Performed weekly at a Los Angeles improv comedy club.

What I expect to learn

2011-10-07T06:36:00.001-07:00

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be handing back papers, and students will be working on independent reading of their choice books. I expect to have a better sense of the range of ability the students have for literary analysis and writing - which, to be clear - are two different things. I also anticipate learning how motivated, directed and independent the students are. More on that next month.

What I've learned

2011-10-07T06:27:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, we teachers learn as much or more from our students as they learn from us. This past September, I learned a lot about the curiosity and intelligence of 10th graders. As I've described, this is my first time teaching the enriched class, and I've been so pleased by how enthusiastic many of my students are about learning. To wit: when I mentioned that I'd be chaperoning a field trip to see Hamlet, several students audibly groaned in envy. Previous classes might have groaned in agony for my anticipated 3 hours of boredom. That's just one thing I've learned. My students have provided new insights into Things Fall Apart, offered all kinds of creative approaches to class material, and generally made my sophomore English teaching experience even richer than I'd anticipated.

Proposed Guys in Lit jerseys

2009-06-12T15:04:00.000-07:00

Front:

Back:

Please email Mr. Cheng at frecheng@edina.k12.mn.us with feedback on whether you would like to purchase T-shirts for students in the Guys in Lit class of 2012.

Mr. Cheng has hockey fever!

2009-02-28T11:52:00.000-08:00

First thing's first. Here is how you properly cite a TV show in MLA format:

"Name of episode." Name of program. Network. Station, city. Date of broadcast.

Now, since this clip came from a locally-produced news program, there is no need to cite the network (which would have been NBC); nor is there a name for the episode, since news shows don't name their episodes. Sometimes news programs do title their segments, so if that information had been available, I would have listed it first. Since it wasn't, I am beginning with the name of the program; thus, the proper citation for this news clip would be as follows:

KARE 11 News at 10. KARE, Minneapolis. 26 Feb. 2009.

Now, contrary to popular belief, I do not have all of this information stored away in my brain as if I am some kind of MLA-formatting Rain Man ("Yeah... definitely alphabetize by author's last name... ten minutes to Wapner" - that's a really OLD reference). I looked it up on the Purdue Online Writing Lab that I am frequently recommending to you. When I don't know how to do one of these things, I look it up, just as I expect you guys to. It's really not as hard as it might seem. There are plenty of clear instructions and examples, and if you're not sure, you can always take a stab at it and then ask me to check it over for you.

On to the hockey fever part. Man, some of you EHS kids can skate! From Feb. 20 to Feb. 27, I attended three high school hockey games and listened to another online. I have plans to attend another later today (Feb. 28). I generally like sports, enjoy watching the occasional NHL game, and really got into some of the playoff runs of the Wild and late-great North Stars teams, but I never understood the high school hockey tournament hype in Minnesota. Until this week.

It really helps to know some of the players on the team. From EHS's section champion / state tournament girls hockey team, I have two students. I'd love to name them, but in the interest of privacy, I'll just leave it at that. Suffice it to say that they both were involved in scoring plays in the quarter- and semi-final games. It's been a thrill to watch them shine in areas outside the classroom. I'm so proud of these kids; I can only imagine how their parents feel.

Anyway, if you haven't watched it yet, the clip is from the channel 11 news of some of the team's highlights from their Thursday afternoon victory. Go Hornets. Guess I'm a cake-eater now : )

I am not a teenaged girl!

2008-11-26T23:55:00.000-08:00

Can the Twins get a Cullen to bat cleanup next year? (photo by Peter Sorel)

Yep, I saw "Twilight" (and Mitch C. and Cullen N. from 1st hour) last night at the Southdale AMC Theater. I actually enjoyed it, though my expectations were fairly low. I have spent the last month or so teasing my wife for being a "Twi-mom," and more or less bagging on the swooning of Bella Swann. There were also a few occasions when I laughed out loud at the over-the-top melodrama, as when Bella's eyes went crossed when Edward was sucking her blood at the end to keep her from turning into a vampire. I know it was supposed to be dramatic, but she just looked kind of silly to me. The baseball game scene also felt like a Moutain Dew commercial on steroids. Give the storytellers credit for this, though, they followed the hero's journey quite closely. If you consider the world of the vampires to be a new threshhold that Bella crosses, then the whole story of "Twilight" offers many of the ingredients of the monomyth. For instance, her Belly of the Whale moment is when Edward makes her say "vampire" aloud. Once she acknowledges that she knows who and what he is, there is no turning back. The elixir is when Edward sucks her blood at the end. It is a magical moment that saves her life. Edward himself is a supernatural guide. When Bella survives her near-death experience, she has returned from the land of the dead and become a master of two worlds. There is also reconciliation with the father and a whole bunch of helpers in the whole Cullen family. See? It's not just a bunch of random note-taking. Hollywood really believes in this stuff.

Mr. Cheng says, "Are you not entertained?"

2008-10-25T20:33:00.001-07:00

(photo courtesy EW.com; body courtesy Russell Crowe and "Gladiator")

I've heard the grumblings and I understand that The Odyssey is a challenging text. Hey, I didn't have to read the epic poem until my first year of college. But trust me when I say that this translation is much more readable than the one I had to read, and if you give it time, the story will yield many rewards. It's a terrific adventure with many wonderful archetypal elements (we will get into the definition of archetype more in class). We'll spend most of the coming week (Oct. 27-31) practicing strategies to make the poem more comprehensible. Foremost among these strategies is understanding that the poem was intended to be performed for its listeners. Try reading it aloud, and really make a point of understanding how it is to be read. Don't worry so much about the names as you do the pauses and the ebbs and flows of the lines. Imagine being at a campfire and having the story told to you. It can be very rewarding. Just give it a chance, and you might find yourself enjoying it. People have been for nearly 3000 years. (Besides, you don't have a choice : )

Siddhartha Vocab Definitions

2008-10-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

Definitions and pronunciations taken from Merriam-Webster online.

ablutions: (noun) \ə-ˈblü-shən, a-\ the washing of one's body or part of it (as in a religious rite); bathing

onerous: (adjective) \ä-nə-rəs, ˈō- \ involving a burden; troublesome

samana: (noun) \sə-'må-nə\ a wandering ascetic in India

exalted: (verb/adjective) \ig-ˈzolt-əd\ raised in rank or power; praised

atman: (noun) \ˈät-mən, -ˌmän\ the innermost essence of each individual; the supreme universal self

asceticism: (noun) \-ˈse-tə-ˌsi-zəm\ practicing strict self-denial

erudition: (noun) \ˌer-ə-ˈdi-shən, ˌer-yə-\extensive knowledge acquired mostly from books; booksmarts

courtesan: (noun) \ˈkor-tə-zən, -ˌzan ˌkor-tə-ˈzan\ a prostitute with courtly, wealthy, or upper class clientele

equanimity: (noun) \ˌē-kwə-ˈni-mə-tē, ˌe-kwə-\evenness of mind, especially under stress; calm, mental balance

engendered: (verb) \in-ˈjen-dər-əd, en-\ caused to exist or develop; produced

ennui: (noun): \ˌän-ˈwē\ weariness or disssatisfaction; boredom

expiation: (noun) \ˌek-spē-ˈā-shən\ the act of atoning; making up for something

pallid: (adjective) \ˈpa-ləd\ lacking in color; unlively

pyre: (noun) \ˈpī(-ə)r\ a combustible heap for burning (usually for a funeral)

samsara: (noun) \səm-ˈsär-ə\indefinitely repeated cycles of birth, misery, and death caused by karma

exhortation: (noun)\ˌek-ˌsor-ˈtā-shən, -sər-; ˌeg-ˌzor-, -zər-\ the act of urging; making urgent appeals or warnings

entwined: (verb/adjective) \in-ˈtwīn-əd, en-\ twisted or wrapped together

om: (noun) \ˈōm\ a mantra consisting of one sound in contemplation of ultimate reality

venerable: (adjective) \ˈve-nər(-ə)-bəl, ˈven-rə-bəl\ deserving respect due to age; honored or revered

intrinsic: (adjective) \in-ˈtrin-zik, -ˈtrin(t)-sik\ having internal or built-in value

This is my example for how to post a photo

2008-10-06T11:44:00.001-07:00

This is the picture that I created at Simpsonizeme.com.

Let Mr. Cheng POINT you toward Barbara Kingsolver's official website!

2008-09-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.kingsolver.com/home/index.asp

On Animal Dreams...

2008-09-21T09:42:00.001-07:00

Hi folks. This is the third time I've tried to make this post, so just know that you're not the only people trying to figure this blog thing out. Harumph. This is my first time reading and teaching the book, and I just finished reading it. I have found it to be absolutely lovely. Now, I'm an old softie at heart, with a particular weakness for love stories with happy endings - I'm partial to romances and so-called "chick flicks," so you'll have to pardon my sentimentality, but I could practically hear orchestra music swelling when (spoiler alert!) Codi and Loyd reunited on that train platform. It's like a scene out of a movie. In fact, the whole book reads like a movie to me. It gets me thinking who I would cast as Codi, which is not unlike the scrapbook assignment that we did a couple weeks ago. The actress would have to be tall and slender and beautiful, so the obvious choices would be Angelina Jolie or Gwyneth Paltrow (whom I once heard Robert Downey, Jr., describe as "naturally about 8 feet tall) or Keira Knightly, but I picture her more dark complected. The person I pictured when reading was more like Irene Bedard, who was the voice of Pocohantas in the Disney animated movie (first photo, upper left corner). Or a friend of mine from my Los Angeles days, Nina Revoyr, who is now a novelist. She's a former basketball player (self-described 5 foot 13 inches) and really looks exactly how I pictured Codi except for the Billy Idol haircut that she keep describing that she has (upper right corner). Do you kids even know who that is? I'll have to find a picture of him, as well (lower left corner). And then there's Barbara Kingsolver herself (lower right corner), who sounds like a hybrid of Codi and Hallie, a biologist by education who lives a very environmentally conscious life. Her latest novel has metaphors for ecological systems and whatnot. I'll post a link to her website elsewhere on this blog. (Photo credits: Irene Bedard, sunzoftheeaerth.com; Nina Revoyr, blognetwork.poynter.org; Billy Idol, photobucket.com; Barbara Kingsolver, depauw.edu)