Hero's Journey/Monomyth

 

Covid-Era Retelling of The Odyssey

 I just found this retelling of the Odyssey.  It's pretty crazy, but fun.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boHGU9kb49Q&list=PLij2XTFgmBSRdh-NwqS5P-Ipr1zBbiLbo&index=5&t=0s

Stay-at-home orders or not, nothing can stop the Troubadour Theater Company (aka: the Troubies) from giving us some much-needed comedy! The ODDyssey recounts Homer’s epic tale in five live-streamed webisodes, offering a whimsical retelling of Odysseus’s adventure for audiences of all ages.

Why Study Mythology -- Answers

It’s Tuesday.  After school lets out you head off to soccer practice.  You love your new coach. She was almost on the Olympic team for the U.S. 15 years ago, but she tore her Achilles tendon the day before the final tryouts.  You tie up your cleats (Nikes) and start running laps as Coach’s whistle echoes across the field.

After you get home from practice you get bored, so you start searching through Netflix, and you come across Hidden Figures.  You haven’t seen it yet, so you put it on and learn that it’s about the women who worked on the Mercury missions to put an American astronaut into space.  You really like the movie, so when it finishes you add more space movies to your queue to watch with your friends this Friday, including Apollo 13 and The Martian.  Wait, why is Netflix recommending My Fair Lady?  You don’t even like musicals.  And The Titanic?  You wouldn’t watch that one even if someone hypnotized you.  

You keep thinking about space and get curious about NASA’s current space missions, so you hop onto Instagram and look at NASA’s feed.  They have some cool close up pictures of Pluto and its moon Charon as well as lots of new pictures from the probe flying around Saturn.

You wander into the kitchen where your brother is eating a bowl of cereal and ask if he knows when Wonder Woman will be added to Netflix, but then you see your psychology book on the counter and start to panic because you totally forgot about the test tomorrow.  You open your book, turn on Pandora for a bit of background music and start to study.  You read about severe arachnophobia, but then you get hungry.  You remember a tantalizing slice of cake left over from last night.  You eat the cake and decide you’re tired of science homework and switch to history.  You open up your atlas and study for the map test that will be on Thursday.

While you study you start to realize your brother stinks.  You wish he cared more about hygiene.  He almost never showers.  Your sister, on the other hand, showers every single day.  In fact, she’s on Amazon right now ordering another pack of Venus razors.  Sometimes you tease her about being a narcissist because she spends so much time in front of the mirror each morning.  Honestly, it’s a Herculean effort to drag her away from the bathroom every morning and stuff her into your mom’s Honda Odyssey so you can all drive to school.

You finish your study by making a list in chronological order of recent natural disasters for social studies.  There was a volcanic explosion in Indonesia last week and a typhoon is making landfall in Japan.  You’re just about done with your list when your grandma texts and asks if you want to go to the museum with her next Wednesday.  You think that sounds fun.  Your grandma looks like Minerva McGonagall from Harry Potter, but she’s not nearly as strict.  She’s more like Remus Lupin; she’s fun and likes to do hands-on projects with all her grandkids.

It’s been a long day, so you head off to bed.  That night you have a weird dream about being a famous martial artist.  Maybe you shouldn’t eat before bed.

[Thanks to Tessa White!]

Welcome! 2019-2020

While the sales on school supplies are available, it's a good idea to stock up on the things you'll need later, but that will be much more expensive then!   If you are able to, you might want to get enough paper, pencils, and pens to last for the school year. 


Note: If your family cannot afford school supplies, please speak with a teacher or administrator. 

⇒  Parents, please sign the AUP (computer/internet use) agreement as soon as possible.  Parents must sign into Skyward under their parent account to do this.  Look for a link to "Computer and Internet Use Permission Form." 

Here are some required and suggested items.
1. Required (You will definitely need these):  

• Composition books -- Ms. Dorsey asks her students to bring a composition book to keep and use in class.  You might want to buy a couple when they are on sale.  You should have it at school by the beginning of the second week of school. Sooner is better!

• Plenty of lined paper (Get enough to last for the school year, since it costs so much more when it's not on sale.)
• Plenty of pencils (Teachers usually keep some on hand for students to borrow in an emergency, but students should supply their own, and should not break or throw pencils.) If you like to use mechanical pencils, have extra lead on hand. Teachers likely won't have it. 
•  I'd really appreciate it if you could donate  some pencils to the class! 

• Pens with black or dark blue (indigo) ink

  

  http://www.tigerpens.co.uk/blog/blue-black-ink/
  This link leads to some interesting
  information about choosing a pen color.

A red pen might be used sometimes, but do not do your homework and in-class writing with it or with other odd colors of ink.

• Parents, please don't send sharpies or other permanent ink pens to school with your students. They can quickly become a nuisance item. If they need to use them to mark binders, notebooks, P.E. clothes, etc., please do that at home.

• Colored Pencils (This can just be the regular pack -- a larger variety of colors is totally optional!)  We will use these to  add snaz (coolness, awesomeness, excitement, greatness) to some assignments.  

These are Optional Items:  

A couple of three ring binders. Some students do better with everything kept in one binder, and others prefer to have one binder for A-Day classes and another for B-Day classes. (A few students organize better with folders, but in my experience, most students do better with a binder and dividers.) 

• 
  
• Binder dividers -- You can buy these or make your own with index or construction paper.

• 
  Spiral notebooks -- Watch for those that go on sale for seventeen or twenty-five cents each.
• A three-ring hole-punch that fits in your binder is very helpful if you receive handouts that haven't been punched.
• A small manual pencil sharpener is nice to have.
•  A small pack of Kleenex -- We usually have facial tissues/Kleenex available in our classrooms, but they are not soft on a tender nose.
• Hand sanitizer
•  If you find a good deal, you might want to have on hand some poster board. Sometimes teachers will assign students to create posters, and it's helpful not to have to run out to the store at 10 pm when the student remembers he or she has a poster due the next day. [Yes,  I've been there, done that with my own children!]
• Sticky notes and highlighters

Don't forget Back-to-School Night on Friday, August 16 from 3:30 to 5:30 pm.

and 

7th Grade Day (Optional 1/2 Day)

When?Monday, August 19 -- 8:15 am to 11:00 am
__________________________________

     To donate to our classroom -- pick up a form or go HERE 

and specify Ms. Dorsey's classroom under "Purpose of Donation."

We always need more books for students to read!

I'd like to purchase a couple of standing desks for students. 

___________________________________

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Announcements and Reminders for Wednesday, January 9, 2019:                           Did you bring your composition book? Don't forget to return your disclosure signature sheets with the VIP (About You) form on the back filled out.  If you didn't put your name on your group mythology definition chart, please see me.   You may check out books from our classroom by going to CANVAS,  Announcements, Ms. Dorsey's Classroom Library Check-Out/Check-In or directly from here  to https://goo.gl/forms/3zjshLRdUMg3dWut2 (Links to an external site.) Friday is Roxberry Day.

Targets for Today: I can share a story and listen attentively as others share stories. I know about 14 major Greek gods.

Today’s  Agenda Wednesday, January 9, 2019: Attendance question:   We will begin Greek Myths today, after sharing a variety of myths.  Your question is this:  Zeus, the father/leader of the Greek Gods, had power to do many things.   If Zeus got mad at you and turned you into an animal permanently, which animal would you want to be? Campfire Stories You will read/tell a story to a small group around the "campfire." Receive a story to prepare --  Read through the story.  You may write on your paper. Meet with the people who have the same story.  Discuss the story. Now meet together with classmates who have the other four stories. With your group, create a campfire out of paper. Which group can create the most convincing campfire?      -- Without using real fire!                       Prometheus and Raven,  cut that out! Now, in your small group, share your stories around the campfire. Begin Greek Mythology -- Receive and tape or glue into your composition book the Greek alphabet.  You will use this to decode fun facts about mythology.  Υντιλ 1848, Ευροπεανς θουγ-τ  γοριλλας ωερε μυθικ βεαστς.  The Pantheon Pantheon comes from the Greek word pan meaning all and theo meaning god.   So pantheon means all the gods.   We are not going to cover all the gods today because there are many, many Greek gods.  Take notes on The Pantheon -- Give a page to each of the 14 major gods and goddesses.   The notes from today are also on CANVAS under Mythology, Modules, Greek and Roman Mythology,  The Greek/Roman Pantheon Note:  You can also see the PowerPoint by going to  CANVAS, Mythology, Modules, Greek and Roman Mythology, Day 01.3--Who's Who on Mt Olympus (3).pptx ●      Greek/Roman ○      Domain ○      Symbols ○      Family ○      3 fun facts

If You Were Absent: See above.  Use CANVAS to see the PowerPoint and study the notes about the major Greek/Roman gods and goddesses. Take notes in your composition book.

Vocabulary:  The word parts in "Pantheon" together mean all the gods.  pan = all theo = god or a god

Help and Enrichment  ‘TWAS THE NIGHT By: Jon Scieszka Twas the night before Any Thing, and all through deep space, Nothing existed -- time, matter, or place. No stockings, no chimneys. It was hotter than hot. Everything was compressed in one very dense dot. When out of the nothing there appeared with a clatter A fat guy with reindeer and something the matter. His nose was all runny. He gave a sick hack. "Oh, Dasher! Oh, Dancer! I can't hold it back!" He huffled and snuffled and sneezed one AH-CHOO! Then like ten jillion volcanoes, the universe blew. That dense dot exploded, spewing out stars, Earth, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, and Mars, Helium, hydrogen, the mountains and seas, The chicken, the egg, the birds and the bees, Yesterday's newspaper, tomorrow's burnt toast, Protons and neutrons, your grandma's pork roast. The universe expanded. The guy said with a wheeze, "Who will ever believe the world started by sneeze? So let's call it something much grander, all right? Merry BIG BANG to all! And to all -- Gesundheit!" from Science Verse by Jon Scieszka, Viking, NY, 2004

https://www.athenskey.com/the-12-gods.html

https://www.lexilogos.com/keyboard/greek_ancient.htm

Solution:  Until 1848, Europeans thought gorillas were mythic beasts.