Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Beginning your blog experience


Hello Bloggers.

Today we have created a professional email (which you should check for homework assignments) as well as created a google account and password so that you may submit comments to this blog. You are responsible for this information now. Losing your password is not an acceptable excuse for not submitting homework. I will also give you sufficient time between assignments to get yourself to the computer lab (if you do not have internet access).

First, go ahead and vote on the poll question in the right hand column.

Next: You should spend the rest of class time seeing how the comment forum can work.

  1. Post a comment about the summer reading (start with a solid paragraph long)—your thoughts, observations, likes or dislikes and why, favorite characters, etc.
  1. After you post your paragraph, scroll through the comment section until you read a post that you like. Respond to that post (another paragraph). It helps to start with something like: “Dear (blank), I was interested in your comments on (blank).” Then you may want to quote something he or she said and continue the idea, or ask a specific question, or move on to a related topic. Intellectual dialogue is the key here.

Three Blue and Gold Rules:

1. Compose your comments in Word and paste in when you are complete. If the internet crashes while you are composing, you will lose all your work.

2. Sarcasm is basically impossible to pull off in this forum. Keep all dialogue professional, courteous, and appropriate. This is a virtual classroom and once you post your comments, there is a record of them. This is the reality of the world you live in and you may as well learn how to perform in it.

3. Never post your last name. (You do not want a literary stalker.) This site is publicly viewable. Simply write your first name, last initial and period number.

Photo of Salvador Dali with rhino mustache tied with flowers. He claimed that he wore his mustache this way because it pointed toward God.



64 comments:

aquaV said...

hi Mr.Gallagher

Unknown said...

hello mr gallagher

Juliana C 7 said...

Hi, Mr. Gallagher

Excited to start the year in your class!
Juliana

HaopingW,p1 said...

My summer reading choice was Angel and Demon, it is a great book but I didn’t finish yet. And by the way it has some bloodily seen in the book.

RyanK1 said...

I read “The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green”. Prior to reading the book, I heard some people talking about it, saying it was a slow read, and that it didn’t flow very well. Most people I talked to just said it wasn’t that good. I was surprised when I read it though. I related to it very well, and I think that’s a key element to reading. If the book gives you something you can compare to your own life, it makes the book that much better.

me said...

The summer reading I have read is Angels and Demons. It is a fast paced book. My favorite character in the book is Mr. Langdon. He was forced to get involved in the event that happened in the Vatican. I think he is a responsible person. He knew there would be a great danger to stay in the city, he still stayed there and tried his best to help.

Thanh P1 said...

My choice for the summer reading is “The curious incident of the Dog at the Nigh Time”. This book is about 280 pages long. The book “The curious incident of the Dog at the Nigh Time” is a short and easy to understand.

GeraldT1 said...

The novel I read for summer reading is The Bookseller from Kabul. This novel is pretty interesting to read. The reason why this novel is so interesting is because the author tells how one family deals with society and changes within the family. A couple of observations that I made was that the women in the Middle East have very little freedom

CASEYG1 said...

In the novel All Souls, by Michael McDonald, he writes about his experience growing up in South Boston, and having experienced growing up around violence and drugs. This becoming a major part of his life due to his other 9 siblings and their incorporation with crime.
The book was interesting to read, it was rather deep, and makes you think about what is really going on in society, and shows how the media can exploit the working classes. It also shows the racism that was going on during that time period.

Tony Seng said...

HELLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Yan X.2 said...

Testing

Miranda V2 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
MikeL P.2 said...

Test yo what up g

SoloDolo1025 said...

Testing 1 2

kai.L2 said...

Test

Heather M Per.2 said...

Test

Jameel T2 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
william w2 said...

Test

Tony Seng said...

Testing 123

Jess J2 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jesse L. 2 said...

Testing testing 123

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nicke F2 said...

Test

Anh C2 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
aline o.2 :) said...

testing 1..2..3..

Gradey S. H. 2 said...

Testin’ 407 wut da bidnes ilz...

Jameel T2 said...

Text my brothahhhh! hollah dawg

Anh C2 said...

testing

Shannon D2 said...

Testing 123

SoloDolo1025 said...

My summer reading book was straight…. I read “Kite Runner” I don’t really like to read but it was a requirement. It was okay it was pretty long and took me about a week to read it. I hope I do well on the test.

Shannon D2 said...

Hey Mr. Gallagher! I’m reading “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.” I’m not finished with the reader’s journal yet, but I should be by tomorrow. The book is fast paced and it’s easy reading.

Jess J2 said...

This summer I read The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green. He struggles with his relationship with his father who doesn’t want to accept anything less then perfect. Jacob struggles with trying to live up to his fathers expectations. In Hebrew school he was praised but when he is transferred to public school his learning disability is brought to light and making his father proud begins to be difficult.
This book is very good and I enjoyed reading it.

Tony Seng said...

My summer reading was a really good experience. I read “The Hot Zone”. I actually read something that I had some sort of interest. It was about a real disease that is still alive which kills people instantly which originated from primates. Such as diseases like HIV are deadly but can be controlled nowadays but diseases in the book described so far has no cure for. Even HIV doesn’t have a cure just a treatment. The diseases described where Ebola, which breaks your nervous system down, you feel throbbing pains all over, and soon you end up week and bleed to death. The disease is a mixture of different symptoms combined.

Guy O2 said...

My favorite book I read was the hamlet it was fun and mysterious and I like it because we had to do a performance of a character in front of the class and also made a video by acting a chapter in the book

Nicke F2 said...

The summer reading was really interesting. I liked the fact that it was nonfiction because I enjoy reading true events. The book I read was The Hot Zone. It’s about a virus that originated from Africa and made its way to the U.S. It killed thousands of people and changed the way we look at the world today. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.

Jesse L. 2 said...

My summer reading book was The Kite Runner. It is a fantastic book filled with a great storyline as well as heart-beating moments. It shows a boy named Amir living with his best friend, Hassan. The only difference between them is race (Amir is a Pashtun and Hassan is a Hazara). Many conflicts occur in the story as well as Hassan getting killed by Pashtun soldiers who ordered him and his wife to move out. They refused and were shot to death. Amir feels this sudden guilt that it was him who caused his death because of his hate towards him. This book is amazing =D

Gradey S. H. 2 said...

During the summer I read The Time Travelers Wife. When I moved here I didn’t know I had a book to read so I got the book kind of late, but it’s all good though. When I started the book I didn’t really like it, but it turned out to be “off da chain”!

Anh C2 said...

"All Souls", is about life in the South Boston written by Michael Patrick McDonald. “All Souls” is true story about Michael, his family, and the death of his siblings. Starting off the story was when Michael was young and when the family was poor living in the Harbor Point projects. “All Souls” is basically about life in the streets, what society was to them at the time. The things in the streets are drugs, violence, racism, and people protecting their own kind.

Heather M Per.2 said...

I read The Bookseller of Kabul for my summer reading. This was not my first choice but it was the book I ended up with. To me I thought the book was pretty uninteresting, although it did have a few good parts. The book is about a bookseller in Iraq who has two wives, one in her fifties and the other is still a teenager. The bookseller is a man called the Sultan. In Kabul many types of books are not allowed because of higher authority. Sultan knows this but continues to takes his chances anyway.

Anonymous said...

Well, I’m new student here, 3 weeks ago I came from Peru and I still a little bit confuse because I can see lot of differences between the methods of teaching. But I’m trying to handle so it’s going to be interesting learn in this school because I’m looking with expectancies how is going to be this year for me.
I hope be a good student!

Unknown said...

I read the book “Angels and Demons” and I wanted to read this book because I heard that it was pretty good and interesting. But it’s about multiple problems in this city called Vatican. It’s kind of a mystery solving story where they needed to find out what happened to theses cardinals that were important to them some how. They need to look for the cardinals with the information they have because there are 4 in the story and the birds are separated into 4 different churches. But so far this is what I read in the book.

Anonymous said...
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MikeL P.2 said...

Last year in my English class I read the The Grapes of Wrath I thought this book was extremely interesting. The Grapes of Wrath was the one book I thought was one of the best books I have read junior year. The Grapes of Wrath shows how difficult life was like for people during the dustbowl. This also shows many readers how life was like during the dustbowl because of the things the Joad family went threw to seek the American Dream. The American Dream was a mission for these people that was infected by the Dustbowl. In the book the Joad family came across many task on there mission to seek this so called “American Dream”. The Joad family had to travel from Oklahoma to California which is very long ride.

jameelah s2 said...

My summer reading was an adventure. It was nice to be able to compare the book to the movie. One thing I really disliked about the book was too many details. It took a long time just to get to the point. I could predict what was going to happen, and it wasn’t because of the movie. The author led you to what was coming up by giving hints. But, the way he did it was as if we would never figure it out.

aline o.2 :) said...

My summer reading selection is the novel “Angels and Demons”, by Dan Brown. This novel is very fast-paced and it is also interesting. What I like most about it is how the plot is centered between the constant struggle science and religion has had over hundreds and hundreds of years. Everything from the legend of the “Illuminati” and the ways Catholicism had and still has an effect on the progress of science made me not want to put the book down.

Anonymous said...

Hello, I read “Snow Flower and the Secret fan” by Lisa See, the main idea of the story was to show how woman acted and were treated in ancient Chinese society. I had an even like and dislike of the characters but I really disliked Snow Flowers mother in law. In the book they talk about a thing called “Nu Shu” a secret code that woman use to write to each other, they sewed it unto their shoes and wrote it in papers but were destroyed when the woman died so many woman’s accounts where ruined. Also this book taught me how their marriages went, rules and how to take care if their in-laws. Their in-laws were ruler and if you married the eldest son and had many boys (children) once the mother-in-law died you could become head of the house. Of course you were always under your husband and once he died your sons. This book also showed on how woman connected with other woman either as a “old sames” or sworn sisters, Lily and Snow Flower are old sames and would never part, until issues arise in the book.

Tony Seng said...

Dear Jesse,
I'm surprised that you finished the kite runner because you went to the mall with me to get that book like 2 weeks ago. So it has to be a really interesting book to read, and I might give the book a try next time.

Jesse L. 2 said...

Dear Tony,

I am surprised that you finished the book. It is extremely long (about 500 pages). I was trying to read The Hot Zone as my summer reading book, but the beginning was really boring. However, I noticed that as you read on, it will get really interesting. Nice job. Did you get your book at the last minute? You stayed up all night before first day of school doing notes... =/

Jess J2 said...

Dear Nickef2,
That book does sound really interesting. Do you know if it really ever happened or is it just made up? It sounds like a book that you really enjoyed reading.

Gradey S. H. 2 said...

Dear Shannon c2,
I’m glad you posted that. Now I can read that book over night. Is it even good? I guess I doesn’t matter. It’s for a grade. “Ya dig?”

SoloDolo1025 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nicke F2 said...

Jahm what book did you read you forgot to mention it?

Nada.A 2~.~ said...

My summer reading choice was the kite runner. It was a very touching book. What I liked about the book is that I was able to understand every word because it was from my language, plus I was able to relate to it because in some ways, the way that the author had talked about society and people in Afghanistan was almost exactly how society is in my country Yemen.
My favourite characters were Hassan and Amir. I liked Hassan because back in my country, I had a friend that was almost like him. Amir, in the beginning I hated him but then at the end I saw that he had made up for his many mistakes when he was little. The saddest part was when Amir found out that Hassan had been his half brother by the time Hassan was dead, and he didn’t get the chance to know that they were brothers either. I also enjoyed the book because I got the chance to learn about the Taliban which I had only heard of many times but never knew anything about it. The last thing I would like to say that if you have not done your summer reading yet, I would definitely recommend this book.

Jameel T2 said...

The Book I started reading this summer is called “Angels and Demons” which I have just started reading by the way, and I’m already hook to this novel. Story is basically about a man who was murdered by a man, who we really have no idea who or what he is to start with. The main character is John Langdon and he is called up early in the morning to come investigate this murder scene. I’m not finished with the book, but I love it so far, and I’m really looking forward to finishing it, even if I don’t finish it in time for the test coming up, I think I’ll still be reading it long after the test has come and past, but basically the book is about a man who was murdered and it lends to a cult being involved with it, because of religious and scientific purposes. The issue in this book starts out with the murder, but ultimately ends with something much bigger then just a murder scene. In conclusion I really enjoy reading this book and I think it’s going to have a great, action packed ending.

P.S.

This paragraph was brought to you by the KING OF THIEVES! so watch out because i'm watching you.. all Muwahahahha!

jameelah s2 said...

Nicke I read the Hot Zone, as you. Did you see the movie?

Miranda V2 said...

So yea I started out the summer reading with All Souls, but it was a pretty slow read and it didn’t really catch my attention. I ended up reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. I found that it was a really good book. When Christopher decided to runaway from home and find his mom I was really surprised. With his autism and all his different dislikes such as things changing, being near strangers, and the color yellow, I never would have assumed that he would go off on his own without any family members and go to a strange place surrounded by a bunch of strangers.

SoloDolo1025 said...

Dear Jesse l.2,

You seemed to really like the Kite Runner, for me it was okay because I do not enjoy reading that much. Also I felt like it was overrated because a lot of people were saying it was a good book, and I thought it was kind of depressing to see how those people were living. Also I do not really remember a story unless it really touches me or it reminds me of my own life or someone I know. It was good but not really something that captured my attention.

Anonymous said...

Dear Miranda,
I'm sorry the fist book you read was icky, but I'm glad you got into the other one. Hope you rember everything for the test!

Shannon D2 said...

Hey Miranda, who was your favorite character and what quotes did you find to be important?

<3 Shannon

P.S.- Jameel, you scare me!

Nicke F2 said...

Dear Jess,

No it not made up it actually happed. You should get it sometime.

david b2 said...

The novel I read for summer reading was “All Souls”. I like the book a lot, it was very interesting. It is a type of book I like, non-fiction. The book takes place right around here in South Boston, Ma in The old colony projects. It talks a lot about the organized crime that use to and still does to this day go on in that city. It also talks about F.B.I most wanted whitey Bulger. Whitey was from South Boston and was very involved in organized crime “Irish Mob”. It’s also about the crime in general in South Boston “Southie” all the robberies, murders, and suicides. I just think that it is a very well written novel and it talks about the truth that goes on in organized crime and just in a rough inner-city neighborhood. The main character in the novel is Michael Patrick Macdonald and it’s mostly tells you about his family and the things they went threw growing up in The Old Colony Projects in South Boston, Ma, also the deaths that struck his family.

Yan X.2 said...

My summer reading book is “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”. It is an interesting book, it tells about Chinese women’s history. The book used the woman’s whole life to show how girls treated in the pass history. The book has many strange Chinese words, some kind like “lao tong” means “old same”. The woman’s name is Lily, and Snow Flower is her “lao tong”. They got into laotong when they were 5 years old; they shared everything and more close than sisters. After they both got married at 17, they wrote some book called “nu shu” on the fans because it was difficult for women to go out after marriage at that century. But they got misunderstand. That is what I had read at this time.

Miranda V2 said...

wow catherine that books sounds wicked good. I can't type all that much since class is about to end, but ya i shall comment more later

kai.L2 said...

My summer reading book is “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan”. It talks about in 19 century China, the names are call Lily and Snow Flower, they have a “lao tong” relationship, means completely different from a sworn sisterhood. They use “nu shu” to communicate each other. “nu shu” is women’s secret writing. Then, Lily and Snow Flower because misunderstand each other, so they regret each other, also they had try to forgive each other. This book is include friendship, love, regret, pain and mother love.