Getting Started

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**STUDENTS: Read this entry and leave your first comment — you will not be graded for grammar or content…this time.

Alright everyone, here we go.

We’ll be using this blog a lot through the year, but for now I want to get you used to the look and feel of it, then get you started using it.

Do you remember agora from your Global Studies class? How about the Roman forum? These are the words the ancients used to call their public meeting places where people would gather to gossip about their neighbors and the proper way to sacrifice a goat, to buy and sell wares, or to have loftier ideas about philosophy, the meanings of life, what makes a man a Man, and so forth. All the ancient cities worth their Dead Sea salt had an agora (or forum), and since we are just as prone to gossip, trade or talk philosophy today, we too have our agorae (more than one agora). We call them parks, barber shops, Gristedes — and more and more these days we call them blogs.

Ruins of the agora in Jerusalem

This blog is our agora. I will post all your assignments on here — you can ask for clarification on them or share your thoughts. You will be given weekly prompts based on the books we read together as a class, or sometimes just prompts about life, school, relationships, what have you. Your responses will be anonymous and will stay that way unless you out yourself.

For this blog to be useful to you, you’ll need to read (and reread) the rules on the sidebar to the right, and you’ll need to know how to start. Here’s how.

1) The fact that you’re even reading this now means I’ve come to your class, you’ve written down your email address for me and I sent you a link. What you need to do now is respond to my email with a name that you’ll use to comment on this entry.

2) So do that. And remember something: I’m a pretty cool guy, but I’m still your teacher, so don’t tell me you’re name on here is going to be mad$exiBoricuaMaMa, or talk2meShawty, or BKG4NG$T4. In fact, try to impress me with your literary knowledge — pick a name that’s a reference to something you’ve read. Be Hucksraft, Hester’s Red A, or JGat$by…something beyond the usual. Or anything as long as it isn’t suggestive of things a person your age ought not to be doing, or just plain tacky.

3) After you’ve chosen your name and have emailed me to let me know what it is, you can return to the blog and leave a comment on this entry just to say, “Hey! I’m here!” Be warned: If I think the name you’ve chosen is inappropriate based on the requirements above, I will ask you to change it and expect you to do so quickly. You should also know that every time you leave a comment the comment is sent to my email address, so it’s easy for me track how often you’re responding…and I will.

4) Now it’s time for you to begin reading your summer reading texts. Every student will read James McBride’s profound memoir The Color of Water, which should have been distributed to you already. There will be a blog entry added soon with writing prompts. Respond to these prompts in your comments.

5) Once you’ve finished The Color of Water it’s time to begin your second text, and this one you’ll have to find on your own, either by going to the library or to your local bookstore. The first option is cheaper, the second option is preferred if you (like me) prefer to keep books you’ve read so that you can a) reread them later, and b) look really smart by having a large personal library. Your options for book #2 are:

Riding the Bus with my Sister by Rachel Simon
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

If you have any further questions, please feel free to email me. I will respond promptly.

I’d be lying if I weren’t to tell you how excited I am to work with you all! I started planning a month ago for the 2008-2009 school year, so there will be some really great things awaiting you in English in September. Until then there’s the summer and our own little blog-agora where I hope to get to know a little about each of you, how you write, how you think, et cetera. It will be as good as you make it, so make it great!

Oh yeah, and have a fantastic summer! Best wishes, Mr. Weber

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