Juan's First Blog

    Agenda

• Take a minute
• blog-corrections
• School Trip/RJ
• Week 3: Song/Lines/Quiz
• HW Enjoy the four-day weekend!

    I started off the very short third period by sitting down without a worry in the world, Ms. Nakada then read Eli's blog. After the blog, Eli chose me to do the next blog, I packed up and sat down and started writing. We then went over the last chapter in the book School Trip. We discussed different French words we find in the book like viola, and how Ms. Rawle was now considered a person of color. We talked about how the last week of middle school is nine months away.

    We then opened our reading journals and came up with three words to describe the chapter. Our first word is "improvement," the second is "mentor," and the third is "home," the extra fourth word is "resolution." Ms. Nakada then walked around checking everyone's journals to make sure we wrote down everything for the week. Then, we added our first finished book to our book list. Ms. Nakada then told us how we can check out one of her books.

Ms. Nakada then told us to take out our Chromebooks to do the quiz about what we learned this week, but we ended up not doing it because we ran out of time.

    

Eli's First Blog

AGENDA
take a minute
blog - corrections
SCHOOL TRIP
Week 3: Song / Lines
Back to School Night

HW: RJ 3.3 School Trip p. 230 - 250. 

We started the day off like always with a minute of a box breathing video while people wrote their daily agendas down or doodled. After this, we went over Omar's blog correcting any punctuation, spelling errors, or capitalization mistakes. Then, deciding to make a cruel unjust and horrible decision, Omar chose me for the blog. 

After that we had a conversation about the book School Trip by Jerry Craft, talking about what happened in the book, character changes, lessons and other interesting things that happened in the book; then came up with three words for our reading journal about said book which were: thumbs-downer, lessons, reflection, and an extra word which was, reality. Then, Ms. Nakada proceeded to discuss and talk about a small French field trip she was trying to plan and get accepted for all of us to go too. 

After, we moved onto our Week 3 Quote: Question Song lines, this week we used a quote from School Trip, today we are working on our question, "How can we balance hard work and taking time for ourselves?" Our teacher's answer was that she would implement workshop Wednesdays, inspired by how the French don't have schools on Wednesday. Then we moved onto our song and quote. Today's song was "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" by Edith Piaf. We listened to the song and after discussed what the song was about and what the song writer meant with the lyrics. Most of us concluded it was to forget your mistakes and not regretting anything including happiness and sadness. We then picked favorite lines. 

Then we started making an invitation for our parents for after-school night, which included the schedule for it and what was going to be there. All of us were given a piece of blank paper then folded it into a card, on the front we put "You're invited to... Back to School Night!" and then the date and time for when it was. On the inside we started writing the schedule like what teachers were in which room, and when the parent meeting was. Then, poems were passed out to glue in our books so we could go over. She gave us "The Orange" by Wendy Cope. We all packed up getting ready to leave to fourth period.

Omar's First Blog

 Agenda

Take a minute

Blog - Corrections

School Trip

The Writing Process

Week 3 QQ

Homework

RJ 3.2 School Trip

Page 186-219

    We started off the day by walking into the classroom and doing the usual. We took out our binder reminders out and wrote down the Agenda. After that, we did box breathing. Then, Adrian read his blog and chose the next blogger, me. We started on the School Trip book, and we talked about the French word phrases. Some of them were rendezvous, deja vu, bon jour, bon voyage, and touche. We went over the idioms in the book, School Trip. The class went over the chapter we read for homework that night and wrote down three words summarizing the chapter. Ms. Nakada then wrote down her three words. Ms. Nakada then told the class to take out their reading journal. She went ahead and walked around the class checking our reading journals. 

    Ms. Nakada then collected The Writing Process papers. Some students were still working on it and some turned it in online through Schoology. We took out our English Notebooks and turned to our table of contents. The class wrote down "Week 3 Quote, Questions, Song, Lines" in the table of contents page four. We turned to page four and wrote the quote down. "In France, we work in order to live. But in America it seems you live in order to work" by Sylvie from School Trip by Jerry Craft. Unfortunately we ran out of time since its a short day. We packed up and left class.

Adrian's First Blog

 

Agenda

-Take a minute

-blog corrections

-week 2 wrap up

-The writing process

-Week 3: QQ

Home work

-RJ 3.1 School Trip

Pg. 154-185

    We started off class by reading Isaac's blog and correcting it. After we finished correcting it, Isaac then chose me to do the blog.  After he chose me, we brought our books and chrome books to take the quiz. 

bring my goat back

The class was dead silent during the entirety of testing. After we finished taking the quiz, we closed our chromebooks to let Ms. Nakada know that we were finished. Once we all finished the quiz we circled back to the writing process. 

                free my goat

We had to write a paragraph for each of the five steps about our own personal writing process. Ms. Nakada showed us an example on how to do it so we knew what we were doing .We also had the option to describe it more graphically. After some time, Ms. Nakada then decided to let us work on them over night. Then, we started to pack up and get ready to go to fourth period.

Isaac's Super Fantastic Blog

 Agenda:

Take a minute

Blog-Corrections

Reader's workshop: School Trip

R.J. Check Binder Check

Week 2: Song Lines

The Writing Process Quiz

HW Have a good weekend

    The day started as any normal Friday in our English third period class. The class started by going over Alex's blog and making corrections to her blog. The class then decided to ruthlessly pick me to be the next blog writer, as Alex was absent today. Ms. Nakada then checked everyone's binders. We then took out our School Trip books, and talked about what happened this chapter. We then started talking about food and delicious food people had gotten in places like Japan. Then, Ronan started pointing fingers at Charles for embarrassing them in Japan. We then went back on topic and continued talking about School Trip. We talked about how this chapter was about peoples hopes and dreams in RAD. We also talked about how, very, very American Andy is. We then chose our "three" words food, experimental, difference, Maury, and dreams. Ms. Nakada then checked everyone's reading journals.

    Then, we moved on to finishing our QQSL, as we had already done Quote and Question. We started off by listening to "Whats Goin On?" by Marvin Gaye. Then, we discussed what this song was about and our favorite lines. Before we could discuss, and unexpected guest came by. She was a former Emerson student, and she gave us advice for Eighth grade and High School. We then moved back to the song. We talked about how this song was about protests, maybe a reference to the government, and inter-generational conflict. We also talked about how this song isn't really universal as parents didn't realize how their children felt. We also discussed what our favorite lines were, such as "Picket lines and picket signs don't punish me with brutality". We then moved on to the lines of this week, "I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was the jail of other peoples interests; the library was open, unending, free." By Ta-Nehisi Coates. We talked about the quote and what he thought about school. We came to the conclusion that he probably thought that school was very structured. After that, we discussed if schools were made to perpetuate domination, and we didn't really come to a conclusion.

With nine minutes left, we attempted to get caught up about the writing process so we could take the quiz. Moving on to discussing the writing process, we learned the writing process is pre-writing, then drafting, after that is revising, then editing, and lastly you publish. Then, we packed up and left to fourth period.

Sincerely, 

Isaac

P.S. Y'all are so mean :(

Blog by Alex K-W

 Agenda

• Take a minute
• Blog-Corrections
• Reader's workshop: School Trip
• Week two: Q.Q.S.L
• The writing process

Homework RJ 2.3 School Trip p.130-153 and summary.

Marcus' First Blog

We started the second day of the second week a little differently. We waited outside the classroom for Ms. Nakada, who was not available at the moment. For the time, she would be replaced by the new assistant principle, who apparently taught English in earlier years. She greeted us as, "eighth grade scholars," as we walked into the classroom. 

We pulled out our binder reminders to write down the Agenda: Take a minute, Blog Corrections, readers workshop School Trip, Week 2: Quote, Question, Book Distribution, and the homework: RJ 2.2 School Trip, p. 100-129 and summary. We then reviewed the pages that were read yesterday, p. 76-99. 

After that, we told the assistant principal (Ms. DeRoss) the three words chosen for Friday last week, because we didn't get to the reading journal yesterday. She then taught a lesson on parts of speech, based on the words that we chose on Friday last week. 

Finally, Ms. Nakada entered the room during the lesson, and explained that she had a meeting with the principal of Mark Twain. After, we then took a minute and reviewed Otem's Blog (which was very good and entertaining) for blog corrections. It was now time for the readers workshop, going through yesterday's pages for homework. We discussed Maury's privileges from his wealth, flying first class and ordering room service, Jordan's pairing with Andy, and how Americans usually don't sit themselves down to eat the meals while in France they do sit themselves down for the meals showing the differences in culture. The words we chose were etiquette, roomies, and new culture.

A Very Sad Day and Sad First Blog Written by a Very Sad Man by the Name of Otem.

Agenda:

                - Take a minute blog corrections

                - Week 1: QQSL

                - Week One Quiz

                 -Book Distribution

HW: RJ 2.1 School Trip p. 75 - 99

    The day started off like any average monotone Emerson day. We came into Period Three English and sat down in the uncomfortable hard plastic chairs that make many students at Emerson need chiropractors in the foreseeable future. The class started off with making the necessary notations in the binder reminders before Ms. Nakada started the class off with the blog corrections and called the blogger of the day, who was Lucas Roberts, up to the front of the class to read his manuscript out loud. Little did the class know a terrible event was about to unfold. After Ms. Nakada was done editing the blog, she called upon the forces of evil once again, Lucas Roberts, to pick his victim. Lucas pointed a finger out to the class, and suddenly the lights flickered and settled on the unfortunate child on the aisle seat of F row.

    

  As this poor victim fled to the front of the class to nurse his wounded pride, Ms. Nakada continued the lesson on. The class went over the poem "Wild Geese" which is a prose piece of poetry written by Mary Oliver, and also the source of another terrible event for the class in the future. Ms. Nakada led the class through annotating:

We ended with a quiz, and by the end of it the bell had sounded, and I'm running out of time and help me please.

Lucas's Super Duper Awesome Amazing and Cool Blog

Agenda: Take a minute, blog-corrections Reading Journals School Trip

Week 1: Q Q S L

Week 1: Quiz

Hello Class,

We started this day off with writing down the agenda, and then we also used the extra minute of class to take a minute and box breathing, where classmates would doodle or read like Otem. Then, Ronan came up and read his amazing blog about yesterday. He then chose today's blogger who is a kind person named Lucas.  We then pulled out our Reading Journals and started talking about School Trip.  Ms. Nakada then started talking about School Trip chapter three where Jordan and his buddies go to Paris. Ms. Nakada then talked about how Jordan hasn't hit his growth spurt and the hidden clues inside School Trip, such as how Liam's grandparents have old fashioned ideas about race.  Then, we found out that the mischievous kids from the first chapter switched the chaperones for all the trips. 

Afterwards, we put down our three words to describe the chapter, and Ms. Nakada told everyone to take out their journals and made sure everyone was doing their Reading Journals. We then talked about our hopes and how Ms. Nakada was going to a baseball game. Go Giants! We then listened to a song called "We Are Going to Be Friends" by The White Stripes, who also made the song "Black Math." We listened to and discussed the meaning of "We Are Going to Be Friends." Then, unfortunately Ms. Nakada revealed we wouldn't be able to do the weekly quiz. We then read a line of Wild Geese by Mary Oliver. Then, the bell rang, and we left for Period four or Science. Shoutout to Leo.

Best Regards,

Lucas Roberts

Ronan's blog (one of the best blogs of all time)

 The Joe Biden Fan Club

Agenda:

Minute blog-corrections

Reader's workshop

Writer's workshop: Letters

Week 1 quote: Quote/Question

HW: RJ 1.3 School Trip p. 52 - 75

     Today we came into class after a very hot nutrition, after sitting down we began class with Box breathing, after a minute of silence and doodling, Charles began reading out his blog. He went through everything that happened in class like the Eight Grade letters and School Trip. After he was done reading he chose to select me as the new blog writer. We then began doing blog corrections. We went through Charles' blogs for any errors in spelling and grammar. We then began to talk about School Trip and Jordan's family dynamics. We talked about protective parents and things that they might do and why that's the worst. We talked about how his father is very loving and doesn't really have a sense of when and where to show affection. His mother on the other hand is a different kind of protective where she wants to get him out there and doesn't really approve of how his father is protective of him, but if someone messed with him she'd go full mama bear.

    We then went over a summary of what we had read in class and wrote down in our reading journal of how much we had read. We  pulled out our letters to Ms. Nakada to either turn them in or keep working on them. Ms. Nakada then collected all the finished papers, and told the people who hadn't finished to keep the papers and that we would work on tomorrow. Also, we got a point due to the donation. Ms. Nakada then introduced the class to Quote Questions, something we would do every week. The quote of the week was "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." The quote was by Ralph Waldo Emerson, who the school is named after. The class then began to talk about our own impressions of the quote. 

Charles's First Blog

            

             Joe Biden Fan Club Blog    

        Agenda :    

               - Take a Minute  

               - Blog-Corrections

               - Notebook / RJ Set-up

               - Reader's Workshop

               - First day letters

        Homework :

               - RJ 1.2 School Trip Pages 28-51

    Today started by handing out previous eighth grader letters which were written at the end of the 2022-2023 school year. Many were from friends and family. Then, using the extra minute added to each class, we decided to take a breather, and prepare for English. Ms. Nakada put a breathing exercise on the screen named square breathing where you breathe in for five seconds hold breath out for five seconds hold and repeat. After, we took some time to do blog corrections for the 8/15/23 blog by Leo Behar. Then, Leo picked the next blog writer.

    Once we finished with Blog corrections, we moved on to Notebook/RJ Set-up. We started with Ms. Nakada explaining what we will use our books for, then titled our notebooks, "English Notebooks." Then, we went over the School Trip book and what we read over on the 8/15/23 homework by talking about the problems Jordan the protagonist had. We also went over what we thought of other characters.

Joe Biden Fan Club Blog ( Adrian Is hot )
 

Leo Behar: First Blog

 Agenda:

    Blog-Corrections, collect form, first day letters, New Kid review, book distributions

Homework (Yay!)

            RJ 1.1 School Trip

             Read Pages 1-27 

             Bring supplies!

    Today our class started blog-creations, and blog-corrections. Blog creation entails a student being picked, at first by the teacher, then the previous blog-creator. That student then spends class at a separate desk from their own, recording what happens in the classroom. Blog corrections involve the class correcting to any punctuation, grammar, or spelling errors the class might pick up, while the teachers scrolls through the page, and points out anything the class, or blog-creator might have missed.  After the blog is corrected, our class was handed the Jerry Craft title, School Trip.  

       Once the books are handed out and recorded, the class goes through a letter from the teacher, which was an explanation of who Ms. Nakada is, and things that were important to them. The class was given the assignment of writing back to the teacher, talking about who they are, some things that are important to them, and a bit about who made the student the person they are in the present. The class started writing, but the bell cut off their writing time right as they began.

All hail Charles, and have a nice day.

Ms. Nakada's First Blog for the First Day of School

AGENDA

new seats

Welcome! Planners/Welcome Packets

Course Outline/Syllabus

First day letter - Blog name

HW: Return C.O./A.U.P./E.C./H.Q.

It was the first day of school at Emerson! Third period started after nutrition today, and as students made their way into the room, they found seats based on the letter I assigned. Then, I passed out binder reminders and students labeled them and wrote down the agenda. 

After that, we went over the contents of the Welcome Packets with all of the forms that needed to be returned and a reminder about the uniform and phone policy (along with a new "don't order food" policy). 

With that school business out of the way, I passed out the Course Outline, and we went over how this was everyone's last first day of middle school. We talked about making sure you have space and quiet to get school work done. 

We proceeded through the Course Outline and reviewed materials needed for class. We talked a little about equitable grading and expectations for work habits and cooperation. After the simple rules for the class, we took a quick look at the syllabus before naming our blog: The Joe Biden Fan Club.  

I started reading the letter for the first day, but then we ran out of time. 

Everyone pushed in their chairs and left the classroom for second period. Welcome back, Class of 2024! It's going to be a good year.