Reading Journal Post

Taking pictures of your reading journals.

Today, you're going to start archiving your reading journals.  If you have a phone, you can take pictures of them and email them to yourself.

Once you've emailed them, download them to your computer (in your profile - make sure you check where it's going).  Once they are downloaded, you need to start a new post of your blog.

The new post is called Reading Journals.

Click on the picture button to load them one by one onto the post.  Like this:

Once you finish, click the View Blog button at the top of the screen.  Then send me a link to that through email - to tmi@tmiclass.com.  If you don't do this, you will not get credit.  For any of it.

Our Learning (Personal BWP) 1/29

So I want this blog to be a place that shows what Mr. Thomasson and I are learning about, thinking about, watching, reading, etc. so you can see what it's like for us to be "Life Long Learners" - exactly as we want you to be.


So right now, I (Morris) have been obsessed with a few different things.  That means my free time on the internet are spent on these things:

• Mr. Thomasson and I (and a group of 10 of our closest friends) launched a website.  It's called the Flipped Learning Journal and it's a place to find resources for teachers looking to learn more about flipping their classes.
• Switched at Birth stories.  Like this one.  Or this one.  Started getting interested in this after looking for a beautiful podcast for San Francisco Stories.  And I was obsessed with the Lifetime movie Switched at Birth that aired when I was a kid.
• I've been on a Nerdfighters/Vlogbrothers kick.  Here are some videos by the Green brothers.  They started making them because Hank and John lived in different states and wanted to try communicating without any form of text (email, texting, etc.).  This was 2007 (I think?).  Now they make things like Crash Course and The Lizzie Bennett Diaries (based off the novel Pride and Prejudice).
• I've been reading a few books: Who Do You Think You Are, about identity; The Brothers Karamazov, one of my favourite books ever, San Francisco Stories, about...well...stories from San Francisco; and The Fault In Our Stars, a YA novel.
• I've been watching the TV shows Dexter, 30 Rock and Top Chef.
• I've been learning more about website design, video editing, close reading, podcasting, and the novels I'm teaching (Death of a Salesman and Night).

That's it for now. 

Beginning of BWP

In this first blog post (TITLE: BWP initial ideas), I want you to write down some ideas for questions/projects you'd like to do.

If you have a good idea for what you want to do, then start looking for some sources/inspiration around the web.  Add those sources into your post, with a quick description of what you found there.  For example:

I love the new Crash Course videos about English Literature.  I'd love to do one like this:
(pretend this is the URL of that video)
That video has some cool stuff, like the Secret Compartment segment, and roll-in chairs.

When you finish, I need a link to your first blog post.  You need to click "Publish" first.  Then send me a link to tmi@tmiclass.com 

Blog Post 2: Learning Environments

Instructions for this blog post are found here. Best/Most interesting posts will be posted here.

Blog Post 1: What is Literacy?

The word literacy has been used in a wide variety of contexts in recent years. Educators now speak of computer, visual and media literacy, for examples. What does being literate mean in the 21st century? What does it mean to be academically and technologically literate at Redwood HS (for Ms. Morris' students) or Forestview HS (for Mr. Thomasson's students)? Write a definition for the word "literate" that can apply to those questions, being sure to support each point you make with an example. Post your answer to your own blog, and we will post the best/most interesting ones here.

Welcome to Thomasson Morris Instruction!

This blog is a place for the best of our students' writing. Stay tuned for it...it may just be your work published here!