Figurative Language in Songs
I am pretty excited about my lesson tomorrow. We are going to listen to some songs and analyze them for simile, metaphor, cliche, alliteration, etc. Today I told one class what we would be doing and she asked, "Are these recent songs?" I laughed and told her they were songs from my computer. I would like to show them through songs they know, but it took me long enough to find figurative language in songs that I know, it would take so much longer with songs I don't know. So these are the songs that I ended up with:

• We didn't start the fire by Billy Joel. (allusions)
  
• On a Prayer by Garth Brooks (metaphor)
  
• Blinded By the Light by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band (parallel structure, alliteration)
  
• All for Love by Bryan Adams, with Sting and Rod Stewart (cliche) And I DO have to say that I did not own this one but purchased it for the cliche.
  
• The Freshman by Verve Pipe alliteration
  
• Don't Rain on my Parade (idiom)
  
• Maxwell's Silver Hammer by the Beatles (onomatopoeia)
  
• Every Other Time by LFO (repetition, hyperbole, simile)
  
• You are the Sunshine of My Life by Stevie Wonder (metaphor)

I think it will be a fun day.
- posted by Alicia @ 5:34 PM |

 
so i can have it if i am at a party
I broke down and bought an iPod today. I got my first paycheck that is not dedicated to car repairs or tuition yesterday so I thought I would go spend it. When I walked into the Apple store, it was very hot, as places raditating so much technology sometimes are. The store was packed with people too. I browsed around a minute, even though I pretty much knew that I wanted the 30 G version. I listened in to a salesperson. She was talking to a couple of people deciding between the 30 G and 60 G. She said that SHE would have to have the 60 G so that all of her music would be on there so that if someone mentioned that they liked a song at a party, she would have it on her iPod, even if she didn't even like that song.

Well, I am just going to be selfish here, and only put songs that I LIKE on my iPod, so sorry if you ever encounter me at a party and choose to rely on me for your listening pleasure.
- posted by Alicia @ 6:27 PM |

 
big stack of paper.
A few days ago I got a bag full of Houston telephone books. It was a surprise because I thought that you actually had to purchase a phone number to get one. That has been my experience, anyway. But more than a surprise it has been just plain weird. I grew up having only one phone book. All the cities of northwest Arkansas fit in just one phonebook that never had to be separated into A-L and M-Z. It doesn't seem normal to have the Adams in a separate book from the Smiths.
But I guess I use the Internet to look up numbers anyway. So now maybe I have an additional kitchen stool?
- posted by Alicia @ 7:56 PM |

 
books books books
Thanks to Barnes and Noble's Educator Savings Week and the fact that I redeem my credit card rewards with Barnes and Noble gift certificates I got a bunch of Young Adult books today for my students to read. A little of me cringes when I am slowly but surely building a classroom library which detracts from students using the school library, but with some of these kids, if I didn't hand them a book, they would read nothing.

Anyway, this is Teen Read Week and I would like to do a book talk for one of my new books each day this week. And I will try. But in the midst of cramming everything else into the curriculum, I'm not sure if it will happen.

On Thursday we have a TAKS benchmark test in the morning and I will only see my afternoon students. Maybe I could spend the afternoon reading a few chapters of a few books to my students. They would love that.
- posted by Alicia @ 8:44 PM |

 
Great webquest experience and rewards
I have been so busy with grades, life, and school that I haven't posted much. I had such a successful experience with my webquest. I took three days in the computer lab and the students turned out some awesome projects. Some of the best were great looking Publisher newsletter documents with creative titles, several articles about things related to Of Mice and Men, and extra items to make it look like a real newspaper. Some of the worst were simply questions and answers, but at least they turned something in and learned something.

We are now diving into the book, Of Mice and Men. We have read a chapter so far and will take a quiz on it tomorrow.

This week, in order to get late work to be turned in, I offered a semi-party to the class that got the most work turned in. My fourth period class suprised me and actually won. I would have bet money that it would have been a different class. Fourth period is the lunch period, and a very lively, social class. Today when I announced that they had won, I told them that I was frankly, surprised, but so very proud of them. One of them said, "Aw, Ms. Lauve, you're gonna make me cry." And then I actually teared up. But I didn't cry or anything. (Not like with the four year olds when they deliberately spilled the vegetables in the middle of lunch.) But it was a nice moment. And for the rest of the class period, I had the threat of taking away the food if they weren't good. That was very nice.
- posted by Alicia @ 7:13 PM |

 
silly kids
We recently had our parent teacher night, where I found out that one of my kids has forged his grade. Nice. Please, if you are going to forge it, you have to go all the way, do the best you can, make it look real, and catch the school's copy in the mail before it gets to mom. But then, if you are going to put that much work into it, why don't you just do the work in the first place?
- posted by Alicia @ 5:55 PM |