For all of you who love big words, here's one of my favorites. The cartoon isn't the funniest in the entire world, but on the other hand, I don't know that a big-word-spouting t-rex needs that great of a punchline.

It's also worth noting that there's an example of irony here--the cartoonist apparently knows how to use big words like "sesquipedalian," but not that "alright" is actually the improper form of the two separate words "all right."

Keep on integrating those vocab words into classroom conversation!

Pictures from Concord Bridge

No posts necessary--I just thought that for those of you who were interested, I'd post some pictures a friend of mine took while he and I were visiting the bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, where some of the first shots were fired in the Revolutionary War.

Tim O'Brien and Joseph Martin - Same Battle, Different Wars?

By now, you should have finished reading A Young Patriot, as well as the two Tim O'Brien pieces. The two works present very different perspectives on what war means; A Young Patriot tells the story of the American Revolution in broad strokes, while O'Brien tells a much more personal story. Spend a few minutes considering what the two different pieces have in common and where they differ in terms of what they say about war in general, and then post a comment sharing your thoughts with your classmates.

Some questions to help you get started: How do the two works give depth to one another? Or, in other words, what can you learn about one work by reading the other? After reading both, how has your understanding of war changed?

I'm a big believer in the power of cartoons to impart a quick change of perspective. Get Fuzzy, by Darby Conley, happens to be one of my favorites that I check daily. This Sunday strip should serve as a reminder for us to be careful how we phrase our questions--unless you are specific, you just might end having to listen to a teacher's long-winded, incredibly detailed answer that doesn't come near what you wanted to learn in the first place.

Hello and Welcome

Hello, everybody. And by everybody, I mean Mr. Nekrosius's seventh grade humanities students at the University of Chicago Lab School, and anybody else who happens to drop in.

By now you should be used to posting responses to questions assigned in class; we'll continue to have those kinds of assignments in this new forum, and I look forward to seeing the same depth of thought, intellectual curiosity, and mutual respect that you have displayed in all your other endeavors show up in these posts.

I will also periodically post brief questions, ideas, or information related to class here--you should all feel free to respond if you wish, or to propose independent postings of your own. This blog is a place for us to engage in a different kind of conversation than those we have in class. Let's make the most of it.

Mr. Nekrosius