English 7 2nd 9 Weeks News
Welcome! Learn about what your child is doing in ELA class.
Mrs. Aounallah
Time is Flying By!
The first nine weeks grades will be pulled from the grade-book on Monday. If your child has an incomplete, encourage them to get the missing assignment taken care of promptly. To clear up any confusion with your child’s grades, when you look in parent access, you might see a letter rather than a number for the grade. If this is the case, the:
“ex or na”- indicates that the student does NOT need to make up the assignment
Quote of the Quarter
-Julie Andrews
What's Happening in Reading?
The next reading log due date is Oct. 20.
In reading class, we will start our book study on Notes From the Midnight Driver. This will be our book study for the next 4 weeks. We will continue our study of characterization, plot, basic figurative language, mood, point-of-view, and author's purpose while we read Notes From the Midnight Driver. We will also make reading connections with various poems, articles, and short stories.
I have included a link where you can purchase the book if you would like to have your own copy.
Author's Note on why he wrote this book
What are we up to in writing?
What are we up to in Grammar?
Teacher's Message to Students
S-T-R-E-T-C-H
When is the last time you really had to stretch to reach something? Stretching implies that you have to expend some unusual effort. It may even produce a little discomfort, even pain. It also means that it is something which at one time was outside your grasp, but if you stretched, worked, reached beyond even what you thought your limits were that you found that you actually had a reach far greater than you expected.
There is a lot of talk about dreams these days. It is popular to say “dream big” or “go for it” or “just do it”. It is not so popular to talk about what it takes to make those dreams actually come true. Your greatest dreams, those desires of your heart that are so strong that they inhabit your waking moments as well as your sleeping visions will not come easily and without effort.
The ancient Greeks had a great word that captured the idea really well. It is orego. Orego is sometimes translated into English as desire, but the literal translation in the Greek is to stretch oneself out to touch or grasp something. Can you see it – you actually have to stretch yourself, to go for something that is just out of your comfortable reach. You have to get off your rear end, exercise your muscles, contort your body into an uncomfortable pose to go for something that is so attractive, so alluring that you simply have to go for it.
The next question is: what is it that so motivates you that you would be willing to stretch for it. Sometimes we desire (or reach for) things of very little real value. Let me encourage you to stretch for things with eternal significance, things that will really last. One of those things is the development of your knowledge and understanding. Money will come and go, fame, even friends will move in and out of your life but the development of your mind and character is a long term investment that will never leave you short-changed. You will carry it with you forever. What you learn will help you love, live, adapt, grow, in short it will change your perspective on the world. But it will not come easily. You will have to read, think, struggle, fail, try again, question, guess, compare, hypothesize, defend, reconsider, become inspired, conquer boredom, laugh, cry, celebrate, experience pride, be embarrassed, help others, flounder, and a thousand other actions and states of mind as you S-T-R-E-T-C-H.
By the way, where can you get some of that stretching desire and where can you learn to increase your grasp – glad you asked, right here at Bear Branch Junior High.
Your Teacher,
Mrs. Aounallah
Important Dates
Bear Branch Junior High
Email: daounallah@magnoliaisd.org
Website: mrsaounallahs.weebly.com
Location: 31310 Farm to Market Road 2978, Magnolia, TX, United States
Phone: 281-356-6088
Twitter: @BBJHRoomF314
Do you want to donate for our classroom?
We are always in need of the following items:
pencils
glue/ glue sticks/tape
white copy paper
tissues
BOOKS
Also appreciated:
Dry erase markers
hand sanitizer
scissors
markers
colored pencils
highlighters and red pens