Thursday, June 11, 2015

Does having gratitude and saying "Thank you" make it more possible to receive more gifts?



http://www.ted.com/talks/lee_mokobe_a_powerful_poem_about_what_it_feels_like_to_be_transgender?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button__2015-06-12


What is thinking? 

Do you believe in the abilities of your generation to affect change?



Why do we think?  
Is thinking a pleasurable activity?
Why does writing make thinking more manageable?
Why do we keep thinking, even if we feel we have had enough?  (We don't do that with other natural activities, why can't we turn off our thinking?)
Is it thinking that can get annoying when it goes on so long or is it that it won't obey our orders?  
What rewards encourage us to think?

Even when there are no rewards, what encourages us to keep thinking?

Can we know what thinking is?
Can we think about thinking?
Does the way we think about thinking influence the conclusions we have about what thinking is?
Why do thoughts lead to more thoughts?
Is there an energy connection between thinking and thanking?
http://www.ted.com/talks/laura_trice_suggests_we_all_say_thank_you


Martin Heidegger, famous for his thinking ,suggested that there are different kinds of thinking but that all thinking is a form of thanking.

When we use the gift of thinking we are showing gratitude and reverence for the gift of thinking.  Being able to thank is also a gift, and it encourages us to receive more gifts and thoughts.

Heidegger, using reason, showed us that the cycle of thinking and thanking makes us more whole and gives us more life energy to ask more questions, think more thoughts, and feel more courage to think.  Thinking is thanking, but also, to thank is to think.

 Each time we use it, we are being thankful for it.

Think of someone you would like to thank and your thinking will always improve each time you give thanks.


YEMEN
http://nyti.ms/1GlYRYt

http://www.nytimes.com/?WT.z_jog=1

Summer Reading 2015

9th Grade
Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

I Was Here by Gail Forman

Flight by Sherman Alexie

Belzhar by Meg Wolizer


10th Grade
In the time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez

Hero by Perry Moore

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman


11th Grade
Bliss by O.Z. Livaneli

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

After Dark by Haruki Murekami


12th Grade
Everything I never Told You by Celeste Ng

The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Norberg

The Chosen Place, the Timeless People, by Paulie Marshall

Monday, June 8, 2015

The Zebra Storyteller by Spencer Holst and A Fable by Mark Twain Martian sends a postcard home A Little Fable by Franz Kafka




AIM: Without stories and storytellers, how would we know what might happen next?

 10 Minutes of Silent Writing 

1. What is the difference between something just happening next and something that happens next is related to or caused by what had happened before?
2. As a general rule, are things that happen next related to or caused by things that had happened before? 
3. Can stories create the future, predict the future, or are they unrelated to the future? 

Do Now: Please look over the vocabulary before reading the story so you enjoy the story more...

Vocabulary
  • Siamese cat  
  • Zebraic
  • “Fit to be tied” -  meaning that you are so furious you might need to be physically restrained - like the way they do to people who can't control themselves
  • Decadent - luxuriously self-indulgent, overly selfish
  • Filet mignon—Yummers!  the most expensive and tenderest cut of meat
  • Superstitious — believing in ghosts, or being scared monsters who are lurking in the dark....
  • Function— purpose, in the sense of how things relate to each other, as the storyteller relates to the society by sharing imaginative stories with them.

THE ZEBRA STORYTELLER by Spencer Holst


Once upon a time there was a Siamese cat who pretended to be a lion and spoke inappropriate Zebraic.


That language is whinnied by the race of striped horses in Africa.


Here now: An innocent zebra is walking in a jungle and approaching from another direction is the little cat; they meet.

"Hello there!" says the Siamese cat in perfectly pronounced Zebraic, "It certainly is a pleasant day, isn't it? The sun is shining, the birds are singing, isn't the world a lovely place to live today!"

The zebra is so astonished at hearing Siamese cat speaking like a zebra, why---he's just fit to be tied.

So the little cat quickly ties him up, kills him, and drags the better parts of the carcass back to his den.

The cat successfully hunted zebras many months in this manner, dining on filet mignon of zebra every night, and from the better hides he made bow neckties and wide belts after the fashion of the decadent princes of the Old Siamese court.

He began boasting to his friends he was a lion, and he gave them as proof the fact he hunted zebras.

The delicate noses of the zebras told them there was really no lion in the neighborhood. The zebra deaths caused many to avoid the region. Superstitious, they decided the woods were haunted by the ghost of a lion.

One day the storyteller of the zebras was ambling, and through his mind ran plots for stories to amuse the other zebras, when suddenly his eyes brightened, and he said, "That's it! I'll tell a story about a Siamese cat who learns to speak our language! What an idea! That'll make 'em laugh!"

Just then the Siamese cat appeared before him, and said, "Hello there! Pleasant day today, isn't it!"

The zebra storyteller wasn't fit to be tied at hearing a cat speaking his language, because he'd been thinking about that very thing.

He took a good look at the cat, and he didn't know why, but there was something about his looks he didn't like, so he kicked him with a hoof and killed him.


That is the function of the storyteller