Week 11

DEVOTION

For our devotion today, we considered one of the ten Booms' favorite verses (Psalm 91:1) and several related passages:

PSALM 91:1 (NIV): Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

PSALM 119:114 (ESV): You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word. 

PSALM 32:7 (ESV): You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.

PSALM 46:2 (NIV): Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea....

Corrie ten Boom once said:  “If we are hidden with Jesus in God, then peace remains. We are not afraid, even if the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea (Psalm 46:2). Even if it is night, we can experience the promise that ‘He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty’ (Psalm 91:1). Hallelujah, what a sure security!”

We discussed the question: Where did Corrie get her courage from?  
Her unique kind of courage did not come from an unusually strong constitution, but from hours spent in her own special “hiding place.” That place, for Corrie, was anywhere in the presence of Christ Jesus…even in a concentration camp where she lost her precious sister.

LATIN

This week, you will complete lesson 11 on pronouns - learning the 2nd and 3rd person pronouns, as well as the special pronouns used for reflexive pronouns in the 3rd person (reflexive pronouns in the 1st and 2nd person use the normal pronouns).  For next week, you should have the following charts MEMORIZED (found in the blue Henle book):

Rule 123 (1st person pronouns)

Rule 124 (2nd person pronouns)

Rule 128 (3rd person pronouns)

Rule 127 (special pronouns to use with 3rd person reflexive pronouns)

I will be emailing several charts and resources for you in memorizing these pronouns, so check your inbox!

You also should be able to completely fill in the 1st and 2nd conjugations for Chart 1 (the two far left columns).  Almost everyone - but not quite - was able to do this today.  Keep practicing!

Continue to drill vocabulary daily (including the six new lists from last week and this coming week) and complete (and check!) your assigned exercises.

MATH

Thank you, Micah, for leading us in our math discussion!  We also played a variation of "100" to review our multiplication facts.  Don't forget to drill these as well as your basic math facts - you might see them week 15 on the blue book.  ;-)  We also looked at how to find the area of irregular shapes, and students tackled some math puzzles.

ASTRONOMY

Students presented their research on Maria Mitchell (pronounced Ma-RYE-uh).  Remember to check your note-taking journals for my comments on your papers/presentations.  Nice work overall!  Not everyone had an exordium in their papers - don't forget this great attention-grabbing tool!  Using quotations from or about the astronomer can work really well, and Mitchell had some good ones:

- "We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry."

- "The greatest object in educating is to give a right habit of study." 

- "Every formula which expresses a law of nature is a hymn of praise to God."

- "Question everything." 

- "I made observations for three hours last night, and am almost ill today from fatigue; still I have worked all day, trying to reduce the places, and mean to work hard again tonight."

This week, you have a fun assignment that will take a bit of thought and time!  You are researching Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and you should include her background (including her faith) as well as her research on stars and stellar luminosity.  Some questions to consider:

- What is a star?  
- What are stars made of?  
- How many stars can you see at night?  
- How many stars are there?  
- What is the closest star to Earth?  
- Is the sun the largest star?  
- Why do stars twinkle?  
- What are constellations?  Why do they only come out at night?  
- Why are some stars bright and others dim?  
- How far away are the stars?

Now for the really fun part!  You are going to present your research using your choice of medium.  Some options might include:
- an essay or play
- painting or drawing a picture
- composing a song or a poem
- making a model
- creating a poster

I am very excited to see how CREATIVE you can be with this project!  :-)

We also took a look ahead....
Week 13 Hubble: you will create a poster on galaxies and use it as an aid in presenting your research.
Week 14 Hawking: write a five-paragraph essay
Week 15: Shoe Box Activity! + blue book exams

For the Shoe Box Activity, I need everyone to let me know this week who your top three astronomers are!  Here are your choices - I have heard from some of you...if you haven't yet decided, please consider some of our older (pre-Newton) astronomers.  ;-)

Hipparchus
Ptolemy
Copernicus
Galileo
Kepler
Cassini
Newton
Banneker
Herschels 
Mitchell
Leavitt
Hubble
Hawking

Also let me know if you would like to make two shoe boxes - we need three students to do that.

LOGIC

We discussed lessons 27-29 and practiced making immediate inferences.  Immediate inferences are helpful in translating arguments from everyday English into standard-form syllogisms for analysis:

CONVERSE: (only E & I)
S <—> P   (switch subject & predicate)

OBVERSE: (all)
+ <—> - (opposite quality: All…No; Some are…Some are not)
P —> C (negated predicate = complement of the term)

CONTRAPOSITIVE: (only A & O)
S <—> P (switch subject & predicate)

+ both to C (negate both subject & predicate)

Students also worked on filling out this chart themselves:

And we have a nice diagram to easily remind us about distributed and undistributed terms:


Lastly, students played logic vocab "slap jack" - we will have our championship round next week!

LTW

Students shared their essays - we had some great exordiums; nice work on making amplifications smooth and natural; and people seemed to have a good handle on antithesis.

We continued our discussion of The Hiding Place.  This was one of my favorite parts of our day!  Students shared which character they particularly liked or were drawn to, and we compared Corrie ten Boom to Elie Wiesel, a devout Jew before the war who penned one of the other best known Holocaust memoirs, Night. 

Wiesel's experience in the Nazi death camps destroyed his faith.  He wrote, "Why, but why should I bless Him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because He had had thousands of children burned in His pits? Because He kept six crematories working night and day, on Sunday and feast days? Because in His great might He had created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many factories of death? How could I say to Him: 'Blessed art Thou, Eternal, Master of the Universe, Who chose us from among the races to be tortured day and night, to see our fathers, our mothers, our brothers, end in the crematory?...This day I had ceased to plead. I was no longer capable of lamentation. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes were open and I was alone -- terribly alone in a world without God and without man. Without love or mercy" (Night, p. 64-65).

We contrasted this with Corrie and Betsie's reaction to the same horrors, and especially Betsie's dying words, that she and Corrie "must tell people what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still. They will listen to us, Corrie, because we have been here" (p. 240).  It was wonderful to hear our students work through and analyze these starkly different interpretations of God in the midst of extreme suffering, and how they decide which interpretation to embrace as their own.

On Monday, be ready to share your sorted ANI charts and completed outlines.  You have worksheets to complete, too!  And Tanglewood Tales to be reading...(remember this will help you on the NLE in March!).

CURRENT EVENTS

Should the electoral college be replaced by a popular vote?

We changed things up a bit today.  Instead of dividing into groups to build arguments, we discussed our issue collectively, and students were to physically move to different areas if/as their opinions changed.  One thing that was apparent: they all love the electoral college!  We did end up dividing into two groups to formally argue each side - but they only spent about 6 minutes preparing with their groups, and they only had notecards to use when speaking (instead of writing out all their proofs on a whiteboard).  I wanted them to work on their extemporaneous speaking skills, and they did a great job!

Next week will look different, too.  We do not have a new issue!  Instead, students will do additional research and further develop arguments in creating a Speech to Congress.  The guide asks them to do this on the electoral college issue, but given the very apparent collective lack of enthusiasm for this issue, ;-) we decided to open it up to any issue we have studied this semester in current events.  So here are the parameters:

- You may select any issue we have done in current events so far.  They are all spelled out in prior blog postings if you need to get the exact language.

- You need to let me know this week (1) which issue you are choosing, and (2) which side you will argue.

- Gather additional research as needed!

- Compose a 1-3 minute speech arguing for your side of the issue.  I am encouraging you to end up closer to the 3-minute mark than the 1-minute mark!  

- Include in your speech ALL LTW elements from Essay 6 (use the checklist on p. 113).

- MEMORIZE your speech!  You should have plenty of time to practice over multiple days since most of your research is already done.  You may have one notecard if you need it, but your speech should be memorized.

- Dress up!  You can bring clothes to change into next Monday.  Think of this as a dress rehearsal for Mock Trial.  Guys do not need to go buy a suit for this assignment if you don't already have one (you will need to do that for Mock Trial, but don't rush because you'll likely outgrow it by April if you buy now!).  But dress pants, dress shirt, and a tie at a minimum.  Ladies, wear something you think would be appropriate for Mock Trial (think business dresses, blouses and skirts, suits, dress shoes, etc.).

- Parents, siblings, etc. are WELCOME to attend class and observe the speeches!  We will do this immediately after lunch (1:00).  I plan to film the kids as well so they can see and analyze how they did.  I will make those videos available to each of you, so if you can't attend, don't worry.  :)

NOTE:  You need to properly introduce yourself when giving a speech to Congress.  You can say something like this:

Good afternoon, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, and honorable members of the Congress. My name is ____ and I am from ________.  Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about _________________.


POSTREMO

- MOCK TRIAL INFO!  Please mark your calendars now for our two competition dates:  April 24 (9:00-1:00) and May 1 (8:30-12:00).  The competition likely will run a little over, and it would be fun to debrief and celebrate after each if you are able to hold the whole day open.  :-)  We will also have several prep sessions outside of class - tentatively hold open the day before each competition, and we will work later to schedule a few more.

- Don't forget our Lone Tree Craft Fair on November 26 (our first day back after Thanksgiving break!).  We are hoping a lot of the Challenge students will participate - why miss out?!  You can make some good money!

- I will send prayer requests via email.  I am also working on putting together several resources for you for logic, Latin, and Blue Book preparations.

- TeenPact is February 18-22, 2019, at the Capitol downtown.  This is an amazing week of learning and growing in faith, public speaking, knowledge of our system of government and politics...and it's during our week off from CC!  Several of our students will be there - check out the website to see if this might be a good fit for you!  https://teenpact.com/states/co/ 

~ Love, Mrs. D.