It runs in the family

My eight-year-old grand-daughter has a blog now -- check it out! http://www.thelittleclover.blogspot.com/

Whatever will you do with three weeks of vacation?

I do have a few ideas:
(1) Write an essay on Hamlet that will make the angels weep (in a good way). You will hand this masterpiece to me on Jan. 6, when I will see you again for the first time in 26 days. Hopefully we will still remember one another.
(2) Engage in the discussion on "Mr. Green" -- many of you have not yet done so. Remember -- participation will make up 15% of your final grade this term.
(3) If you are one of the eight students who has not yet dazzled us with your mastery of a soliloquy, plan on doing so on Jan. 6
(4) Play a great deal -- I miss you!

Following is a poem by RG Gregory -- enjoy!

Images of snow - february 1996

snow is a thousand flowers
the chinese probably said
hundreds and thousands this morning
drop their garlands on my head
last night the festoons started
long before we went to bed

snow is a white-furred rabbit
the chinese probably wrote
hedgerows and fields this morning
wear a similar fluffy coat
last night the winter danced back
with a white fur round its throat

snow is a treacherous fox-face
the chinese probably thought
it lurks in wait this morning
for the weak and overwrought
last night it laughed its head off
loving the fear it's brought

And the snow keeps coming!

But of course I have another snow poem! The following is by one of my favorite poets, Robert Frost (appropriate name today):

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree,
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And changed some part
Of a day I had rued.

Snow Day! (the third)

So, as I am sure many of you have now heard, school is cancelled for Wednesday December 17th. I just was driving up around Sunset HS and the roads in the West Hills are pretty slippery still. We can thank the person that made the Beaverton District boundaries because we have some of the highest points of elevation in the Metro area. Ms. Minor, are there any more snow day poems out there for us?

Enjoy your day off, and keep on being safe!

Ah -- a glorious snow day!

I'm looking forward to another lazy day like today -- hot chocolate, a good book, nowhere to go. Meanwhile, respond to the "Mr. Green" prompt before Wed. and I'll see you then. Oh -- and the eight students who have not yet dazzled us with their soliloquies will do so on Wed -- you know who you are.

Enjoy the following poem by the 2001-2002 poet laureate of the United States, Billy Collins:

Snow Day

Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,
and beyond these windows

the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried, the post office lost
under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.

In a while I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch,
sending a cold shower down on us both.

But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
as glad as anyone to hear the news

that the Kiddie Corner School is closed,
the Ding-Dong School, closed,
the All Aboard Children's School, closed,
the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed,
along with -- some will be delighted to hear --

the Toadstool School, the Little School,
Little Sparrows Nursery School,
Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School,
the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed,
and -- clap your hands -- the Peanuts Play School.

So this is where the children hide all day,
These are the nests where they letter and draw,
where they put on their bright miniature jackets,
all darting and climbing and sliding,
all but the few girls whispering by the fence.

And now I am listening hard
in the grandiose silence of the snow,
trying to hear what those three girls are plotting,
what riot is afoot,
which small queen is about to be brought down.

Discussion prompt for "Mr. Green"

Read, then re-read, "Mr. Green" by Robert Olen Butler. Discuss the thematic implications of the two repeated phrases "not possible" and "what then". The story can be found online at http://www.deanza.edu/faculty/swensson/green.html

Assignments for next week -- 9th and 11th

1. Come up with a working thesis for your Hamlet essay and bring it (typed on a piece of paper -- not hovering around in your brain) to class on Tuesday.
2. Be prepared to perform your memorized soliloquy on Tuesday or Thursday
3. Be prepared for an objective test on Hamlet on Thursday
4. Write the Hamlet essay. Caveat: It is technically due on the day before the holiday. However, you may turn it in the first day of class after the holiday if you simply cannot complete a polished articulate essay before then and I will not zing your grade for doing so.

Prompt for Friday, Dec. 5th

 In Hamlet 1:5:59-70 Hamlet Sr. (ghost) tells Hamlet how Claudius killed him by pouring poison in his ear:  

Sleeping within my orchard, 

My custom always of the afternoon, 

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole

With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial 

And in the porches of my ears did pour 

The leperous distilment, whose effect 

Holds such an enmity with blood of man 

That swift as quicksilver it courses through 

The natural gates and alleys of the body, 

And with a sudden vigour it doth posset 

And curd, like eager droppings into milk, 

The thin and wholesome blood.  

In Shakespeare's Othello the evil Iago  plots, in a soliloquy, to "pour pestilence into his [Othello's] ear" to infect his relationship with Desdemona.  In this case, the poison is in the form of words.  

Look back over Hamlet  and consider all the times that one character pours poison into the ears of another.  How do these infected words poison as lethally as Claudius's real poison?  

Homework due on Wednesday, Dec. 3

This is not an official announcement.

Assuming Mrs. Minor doesn't post a prompt, your homework is to...

-Finish Act 5
-Get a start on your Hamlet essay
-Find and memorize a soliloquy