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Mrs. Janice Simmons Class
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Monday, January 5, 2009 01:13 PM
Classwork
Chapter 60: Jai and Me
This chapter is mainly about how much Mr. Pausch appreciates his wife and cancer caregiver Jai. He describes how much time she has spent on her family and not on herself. Mr. Pausch continues to tell how his wife is the most selfless woman he has ever met. Mr. Pausch also tells of how he got 400 people to sing his wife "Happy Birthday".
Chapter 61: Dreams Will Come to You
Mr. Pausch ends his Last Lecture with these words, "It's not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you."
Max Roelen
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Thursday, December 11, 2008 01:13 PM
Devotional
Chapter 58: The Input of Others
In this chapter Professor Pausch discusses the gratefulness for the encouragement and hope he received from others which made him feel that he was never alone.
Chapter 59: Dreams for My Children
Chapter 59 talks about how a parent's dream for their children may not be the same thing that they want to do or become. Most parents want their kids to learn whatever they want them to, and not what they would like to learn. Professor Pausch believes that it is the parent's job to encourage their kids to find their own joy in life and to follow their own dreams. The best thing that a parent can do is help their kids develop the skills that they need in order for them to accomplish those dreams.
John O'Connor
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Wednesday, December 10, 2008 01:44 PM
Devotional
Chapter 55: All You Have to Do Is Ask
In this, section Mr. Pausch, his son (Dylan), and Mr. Pausch's dad where visiting Disney World. While they were waiting for the monorail, Dylan got the urge to sit in the front of the train. Mr. Pausch's dad said that they could do that, but Mr. Pausch told his dad that he knew a trick that could allow them to sit in the front. That trick was to ask the train driver if they could sit up front, and they were allowed to. Mr. Pausch continues by saying that you should always ask because you may never know how far asking can get you somewhere.
Chapter 56: Make a Decision: Tigger or Eeyore
In this chapter, Mr. Pausch tells readers that the Winnie-the-Pooh characters Tigger and Eeyore can describe just about everyone. Either you are a fun love person or you are a sad sack. Mr. Pausch continues on by stating that he considers himself a Tigger and tells readers a couple of examples, and he was going to fill every moment of his life with fun for the time he has left.
Chapter 57: A Way of Understanding Optimism
Mr. Pausch starts this chapter, talking about how his doctor telling him that he needs to live his life as if he is going to be alive for quite awhile. Mr. Pausch responded to him by telling him that he just bought a new convertible and a scheduled a vasectomy. His doctor view him as a patient with a "healthy balance between optimism and realism", since Mr. Pausch kept living his life as if he was going to live for another ten years at least. Mr. Pausch did this so that he had a better mindset to help him get through each day.
Max Soucy
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Tuesday, December 9, 2008 01:00 PM
Devotional
Chapter 51: No Job Is beneath You
Chapter is storytelling about Authors advice toward those youth that many of youth would have experienced of question coming from lack of life experience, which is complaining and Unacceptable mind or attitude about the situation among his job.
Chapter 52: Know Where You Are
It is story of his experience exploring Disney Land with his fellow student, however, he have great helped by his student about the place and his attitude of learn about something new is quiet impressive while he learn something from younger than he does. The Reason author tell this story, as he mentioned in chapter, is to emphasize how sensitive reader need to be when crossing from on culture to another...
Chapter 53: Never Give up
Brick wall, which is should show up the most of people's lifetime multiple times. He gave his story in which his unreliable effort to attach Brown University and getting PH D. he said that there are a few key moments in anyone's life. A person is fortunate if he can tell in hindsight when they happened. However, he tells that those Brick Walls are another type of opportunity to jump up the next stage of successful Life.
Chapter 54: Be a Communitarian
His one of life direction, that is just same as chapter title, shown itself in this chapter. When people connected to others, they become better people. And he support this topic by give us short story of the way that his father done author's earlier life.
Jeon Hong
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Monday, December 8, 2008 01:07 PM
Devotional
Chapter 48: Tell the Truth
This chapter is about honor and keeping your word. Mr. Pausch's parents told him, "You are only as good as your word." Mr. Pausch tells of his experience at UVA and its Honor Code. He said he loved the fact that the students had enough dignity to not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.
Chapter 49: Get in Touch with Your Crayon Box
Mr. Pausch tells of how his personality is black or white, with no gray in between. He also explains that when he wants to escape his busy adult life, he smells a box of crayons to bring him back to his childhood. Mr. Pausch says the smell of wax and paper are a heavenly combination. Every year he gives his students a crayon so if they feel overwhelmed they can take a deep breath and escape for a while.
Chapter 50: The $100,000 Salt and Pepper Shaker
In chapter fifty Mr. Pausch recalls when his family was on vacation at Disney World.
Max Roelen
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Friday, December 5, 2008 02:20 PM
Devotional
Chapter 44: Show Gratitude
Chapter 44 gives the message to go out and do for others what somebody did for you. Some ways of doing this could just be by talking to someone about the dreams and goals that they have, which could open up a better understanding or respect for that person. Just by showing that you care about someone is a way of saying that you will do anything to help him or her.
Chapter 45: Send Out Thin Mints
Chapter 45 talks about how Professor Pausch used boxes of Girl Scout Thin Mints as a motivation for other professors to read and review densely written research papers. The boxes put a smile on people's faces, and it meant that Professor Pausch would never have to complain to them for not reviewing a paper. He thought of it as a great communication tool, and a sweet reward for job well done.
Chapter 46: All You Have Is What You Bring With You
Chapter 46 puts emphasis on being prepared for any situation that you might find yourself in throughout your daily tasks. Being prepared for something could just be by carrying extra money around with you during the day, or anticipating what someone might do. Professor Pausch writes that another way to be prepared is to think negatively by imagining the worst possible thing that could happen. When you go out of your house to face the day, the only thing that you can count on is what you bring with you.
Chapter 47: A Bad Apology Is Worse Than No Apology
Chapter 47 states that weak or insincere apologies are often worse than not apologizing at all because most people find bad apologies insulting. Professor Pausch puts it like this: a good apology is like an antibiotic, where as a bad apology is like rubbing salt in a wound. Relationships with others are important. Even if they other person doesn't apologize at first, they still might apologize later on.
John O'Connor
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Thursday, December 4, 2008 02:15 PM
Devotional
Chapter 41: The Lost Art of Thank-you Notes
For Mr. Pausch hand-written thank-you notes go a long way to show gratitude and kindness just because they can help you. For one of his students a thank you note got her into his class and the note was not even for him.
Chapter 42: Loyalty Is a Two-Way Street
A student named Dennis Cosgrove was an A student but sometimes he did not have time to even go to some of his classes so he would have all As and an F. The dean wanted to kick him out but Mr. Pausch told him not to. It was a risk, but his student was not kicked out. Years later, he would be carrying on Mr. Pausch's professional legacy.
Chapter 43: The Friday Night Solution
When Mr. Pausch received tenure a year earlier than he was supposed to, it impressed other faculty. They wanted to know what his secret was and he replied, "Hard work!"
John McGlynn
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Wednesday, December 3, 2008 02:08 PM
Devotional
Chapter 37: Watch What They Do, Not What They Say
Author left his personal advice from his female colleague to her daughter that he might want to tell her, when she old enough. However, he saves this massage to us, it is not just concept of love between opposite sex, but it is good edification and concept of life that we might always remind.
Chapter 38: If at First You Do not Succeed
Understanding the new by exploring the old, taking a lesson from the past, Author introduce his great favor of cliché and its body and details, so that how we can learn from old and apply in our life. Cliché is old stuff, however human's lifestyle is not change that a lot in concept sequence, and it's telling you good direction or advice which developed and evaluated in long times.
Chapter 39: Be the First Penguin
Experience is what you get when you did not get what you wanted, it is a nice expression well mixed with its title and theme, and this line is start line of this chapter. Each of experiences is piece constructing your completion Ego, and it comes from failing not from success, therefore Author gives this example as a penguin and teaches you how it comes from and how it is important.
Chapter 40: Get People's Attention
Another good short chapter, mixed of many different little drop of worth words with big advisory, begins with his memory of original lesson (not like last Lecture) in University of Virginia. He emphasizes of how we ends up something in actual purpose of creation that you made have great importance as when you planned and started. Also, later of chapter, he will have been emphatic about his lecture in UVa, getting great attention in first time, that tell the his student to make up something in point of view of consumer that they are not want a break the product with sledge hammer (read this chapter and you will understand what "Sledge Hammering" means ).
Jeon
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Tuesday, December 2, 2008 01:52 PM
Devotional
Chapter 32: Don't Complain, Just work Harder
In the chapter Mr. Pausch talks about how if people complained less during their lives then more things could be done. Mr. Pausch mentions his friend and first landlord Sandy Blatt who was an excellent athlete but was hit by a truck while backing up and was push down a flight of stairs to go down into a cellar and became a quadriplegic. Mr. Pausch talks about how Mr. Blatt did not complain as well as one of Mr. Pausch hero Jackie Robinson. That Mr. Robinson worked harder than all the other baseball players and didn't complain like they did.
Another person who does not complain and has more disabilities than most people is a man named Kyle Maynard. Kyle was born with a rare disorder called congenital amputation. That means that he is born without a limb, but in Kyle's case he had the worst case. He was born with no arms or legs.
Chapter 33: Treat the Disease, Not the Symptom
Mr. Pausch talks about his former girlfriend that he had dated years ago, who had a few thousand dollars in debt. She use to go to yoga classes on Tuesdays to relieve her stress, and Mr. Pausch thought of a way to get rid of her debt by doing a part-time job on Tuesday nights. She listened to his advice and after a couple of months, she got rid of her debt.
Chapter 34: Don't Obsess Over What People Think
In this chapter, Mr. Pausch discusses the feeling people have and how well they work when they are wondering about what other people are thinking about them. Mr. Pausch says that if people stopped worrying about what other people think we would be 33% more effective. He got this number because he likes exact numbers but is not able to prove if it is correct. What Mr. Pausch does to improve his team's effectiveness is that he will tell them exactly what he is thinking. Mr. Pausch will tell them the positive comments and the negative ones as well. That way the team doesn't have to worry about what Mr. Pausch is thinking.
Chapter 35: Start by Sitting Together
Mr. Pausch gives his students tools to help them function to the maximum potential as a group. Some of those tips were: meet people properly, find things you have in common, try for optimal meeting conditions, let everyone talk, check egos at the door, praise each other, and phrase alternatives as questions. Mr. Pausch went on further by calling out attendance and saw that people where not sitting with their groups. He told them that he was going to leave for one minute and that when he came back he expected everyone to be sitting with their groups. He mentions at the end of this chapter that he never had to remind his student to sit together again.
Chapter 36: Look for the Best in Everybody
Mr. Pausch mentions that his friend Jon Snoddy taught him that he must have patience and people will eventually surprise you. But that the amount of time you have to wait for is different for everyone, and in the end you will see the person's good side.
Max Soucy
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Sunday, November 30, 2008 09:02 AM
Devotional
Chapter 28: Dream Big
Chapter 28 is about Mr. Pausch’s recollection of the 1969 moon landing. He was eight years old and at summer camp, when the camp counselors called all of the campers into the main facility to watch this monumental event. The only problem was the astronauts were taking too long to prepare to walk on the lunar surface and as it grew close to 11:00 pm the counselors made the campers return to bed. Sent to bed during such, a huge event substantially bothered Mr. Pausch. However, much to his surprise, when he returned home from summer camp he found that his father had taken a photo of their television set so Mr. Pausch could see Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. Mr. Pausch saw this gesture as a reminder from his father to always dream big even if it goes against following the rules.
Chapter 29: Earnest Is Better Than Hip
In this chapter, Mr. Pausch explains the difference between being earnest and hip. He believes people should concentrate on being lastingly genuine not just when it is convenient. Mr. Pausch gives an example of this by talking about Boy Scouts, he believes if someone who graduated from being a Boy Scout to an Eagle Scout they had to have some earnestness to them. He stresses the importance of lasting and not being there only for one moment.
Chapter 30: Raising the White Flag
In Chapter 30, Mr. Pausch tells of his experience with a name that he hated, “Randolph”. Because Mr. Pausch’s mother was born on a poor Virginia dairy farm, she wanted to give her son a regal sounding name. Mr. Pausch resented the idea of having a certain name just because it was fancy. As he grew older, Mr.Pausch tried to erase his identity as “Randolph”. Looking back, Mr. Pausch realized that because his mother had done so much for him, he did not mind if she added the extra “olph” to his name.
Chapter 31: Let’s Make a Deal
When Mr. Pausch was younger, he would always lean back in chairs and his mother would reprimand him. He argued that it was comfortable and the chair seemed fine on two legs. One night after his mother had reprimanded about leaning back in his chair, he proposed a contract that stated if he were to lean back in his chair and should it break, he would buy his mother a whole new dining room set. To this day, the agreement still stands and the chair still has broken. The theme of the chapter is that compromise can be used to avoid conflict.
Max Roelen
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Friday, November 21, 2008 08:51 AM
Devotional
Chapter 26: They Just Blew Me Away
Chapter 26 says that we are all capable of providing better work just as long as we put our minds into it, along with putting in more effort. We are all capable of doing work, but sometimes people have to raise the bar for us in order to make us work harder, or more efficiently. Sometimes, receiving difficult work is the only way that we can improve ourselves, and learn how to create a higher level of work proficiency.
Chapter 27: The Promised Land
Chapter 27 explains how we can all make the dreams of other people possible through many different ways, whether it is on a small or large scale. According to Randy Pausch, the only way you can do it on a very large scale is if you have large ambitions and a measure of chutzpah, only then can you make the dreams of millions a reality. Everyone has dreams, and sometimes they only need help from someone else to make them come true.
John O'Connor
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Thursday, November 20, 2008 08:48 AM
Devotional
Chapter: 24 A Recovering Jerk
The goal he wanted to achieve with his classes was to help them learn how to judge themselves. To help them see their abilities their own flaws so they could fix them and to be realistic. Getting people to listen to feed back has been the hardest thing he has had to do.
Chapter: 25 Training a Jedi
His favorite thing to do is help people reach their dreams like one of his former students Tommy Burnett. He wanted to work on the Star Wars movies so Randy pushed him and now Tommy has been the lead technical director on all of the three newer star wars films. This has been huge boost for Randy.
John McGlynn
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Wednesday, November 19, 2008 08:25 AM
Devotional
Chapter 22: The Truth Can Set You Free
He spoils his personal experience to afford a lesson, being honest and true make one's self free, to certain readers. It starts with after his migrating to Virginia, and just another days of its, he had pull off by police officer and had confronted with a trouble. However, eventually he divulges about his cancer and his limited lifetime, and it makes giving him opportunity to set him free. He personally lectures about telling truth is somewhat important in our lifetime too.
Chapter 23: I Am on My Honeymoon, But If You Need Me...
In this chapter, actually because of it first chapter of another new section, it does not start with story similar to title, by the way it still relates to end of this chapter. He taught us that consideration of whether which one has more value or not, it depends on your point of view. However, his primary value, may not just of his cancer, is time, he told us time is unique. In addition, he comes up with many of his personal philosophy from teaching his student.
Jeon
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Tuesday, November 18, 2008 08:17 AM
Devotional
Macbeth is one of the most famous of Shakespeare's tragedies. To the people reading this that are not familiar with the Tragedy of Macbeth our class has constructed an informative tour that will familiarize you with the historical and fictional aspects of this Shakespearian classic.
Using the modern technology provided to us by FUMA, our class has been able to create a 3-D virtual tour, which will place you in the 11th century Scottish Highlands.
The primary tools we used for our research were our literature books and the ever so helpful internet. However, a book and the super information highway did not do the job alone.
We used programs such as Google Earth and One Note to synchronize up and coordinate each other's ideas.
The two cadets responsible for the ascetic views of the tour are Maximilian Soucy and John O'Connor. John McGlynn headed the historical research. On site, our own international jet setter Jeon handled imagery. And the brilliant leadership of the tour construction was done by no other than Maximilian Roelen.
Continue reading
"Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow"
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Monday, November 17, 2008 08:41 AM
Classwork
This assignment was a Photo Essay. The class chose one photo from four photos of objects with historical significance and they were to write a story detailing events that they thought contributed to its historical significance. They were to do no research and they were not to choose a photo they recognized. John O'Connor chose the shoes. The shoes were a pair of Nikita Khrushchev shoes which represented his notorious shoe-banging incident in front of the United Nations General Assembly in 1960.
John O'Connor
Mrs. Simmons
English IV
14 November 2008
The Extra Duty Shoes of '72
In the fall of 1972, there was a young boy who attended Fork Union Military Academy for his Freshmen year of High School. He arrived at the school early in the morning with his parents and began to start the admission process, a long and tiresome experience. The boy was frustrated at his parents for sending him to a military school against his own will, where he would be expected to do everything that he is told when he is first told. He kept trying to think of a way to stop his parents from sending him there, but before he knew it, he was stuck there without his parents and under the leadership from another student.
Soon the boy began his orientation period of becoming a cadet, which meant that he would be learning how to shine shoes and march whether he liked it or not, and undeniably, he did not. When he marched, he always got out of step or walked without any grace, and when he shined shoes, he barely even worked the wax in. He did not care if his hair was too long, if he scuffed his shoes, or if his uniform was on right, he figured that this place was torture enough so why would he have to listen to what some other high school student tells him to do. The boy detested FUMA, and he just wished that he could still be at his old school where he could do whatever he wanted to do and he did not have to care about his grades.
After a few short weeks, the boy's grace period finally ended, and he started to rack in the demerits, most of which were Category II's or higher. By the first time that he had been put on Extra Duty, he had accumulated a total of 50 tours with several others pending. Even though he was already on ED, he would still receive demerits and more tours, but in order to help him out, the Commandant would continuously give the boy demerit reductions so that he would not go on to a tribunal, or get kicked out. However, the Commandant soon became tired of giving out demerit reductions for the boy, so he came up with a brilliant idea that would keep the boy out of troubling situations, and would keep him from having to write demerit reductions. The Commandant decided that the boy would not receive any demerits for any of his actions, but he would have to march for each one of his demerits, meaning that his demerits would be turned into tours.
The boy marched for days, which soon turned into weeks, the weeks soon turned into months, and the months soon turned into years until he was finally done with his high school years at FUMA. The boy marched for every single one of his high school years and he never received a single demerit for any of his tours, neither did he ever get off from marching ED within his time at the school. Because he never shined his shoes, he always had this one pair of shoes that he would use to march in, and by the end of his senior year the shoes had become ripped, dusty, and destroyed. His shoes became a sign of the sacrifice that he had to put up with in order for him to remain at the school and receive a high school diploma. The boy, who is now a man, holds on to those shoes as a keepsake of his time while at FUMA, and he keeps the shoes relatively in mint condition, besides the rips and holes in the shoes. He wants to put the shoes in a glass case so that they do not become anymore damaged, but he is afraid that the shoes deteriorate during the process.
O'Connor
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Friday, November 14, 2008 10:56 AM
Classwork
Chapter 20: "In Fifty Years, It Never Came Up"
In this chapter, Mr. Pausch is going through his father's belongings that he inherited after his father's death. Mr. Pausch came upon a stack of papers and for a citation issued in 1945. This citation was for his father's heroic achievements during World War I. He had leaped out of cover to give medical treatment to eight wound soldiers and received a bronze star for his actions.
Chapter 21: "Jai"
In this chapter, it is talking about how Mr. Pausch's wife, Jai, is dealing with the knowledge that her husband is going to die. Jai decided that the time they have left should not be filled with petty arguments about small problems, and that she would talk to friend or write in her journal to describe release her anger. Jai would also take time to go to forums of people talking about their cancer and how they were coping with it. However, more times than not she would have to leave because many of the forums were very depressing.
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Thursday, November 13, 2008 01:14 PM
Chapter 18: Lucy, I'm Home
Is the story of how Jai Pausch, Randy Pausch's wife, managed to crash both of their cars. The incident happened early in their marriage. Mr. Pausch compares that day to an episode of I Love Lucy. In addition, just like in the show, a bunch of drama led up to a simple non-chalente outcome.
Chapter 19: A New Year's Story
Mr. Pausch tells us about the turbulent birth of his first son Dylan. It was New Year's Eve and his wife Jai's placenta had ruptured. She had to be rushed to the hospital, or she might go into shock killing herself and the baby. Eventually their son Dylan was born healthy and even though Dylan was going to have health issues in the future, they made their motto "Saddle up and ride."
Max Roelen
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Wednesday, November 12, 2008 12:38 PM
Devotional
"Romancing the Brick Wall" and "Not All Fairy Tales End Smoothly"
Chapter 16 and 17 express that everyone has certain problems, or brick walls, that we each have to overcome, whether being problems with school, work, people, or family. When we do eventually hit that brick wall, we can always seek assistance from our families, or friends, to help us get through the problem. Taking a problem head on, in most circumstances, can be suicidal, but with the support from others, we have a better chance of making it through okay. Professor Pausch describes his situation when he first met his soon-to-be wife, which forced him to reevaluate his life, as a giant wall that he had to overcome. He could not do it by himself, and neither can anyone else. Sometimes just talking to someone about you problems is all you need to get through it.
John O'Connor
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Tuesday, November 11, 2008 12:34 PM
Devotional
Chapter 13: "The Man in the Convertible"
Robbee Kosak sent Randy Pausch an email about seeing him in his car enjoying life knowing that he was going to die. It allowed him to see how he really was when not around people.
Chapter 14: "The Dutch Uncle"
Mr. Pausch came across arrogant and tactless to people and he didn't know it. One of his professors spoke to him about this and gave him some constructive criticism because he needed it. He feels lucky now to of had friends tell him these things.
Chapter 15: "Pouring Soda in the Backseat"
Before he had kids he was Uncle Randy to his sister's children Chris and Laura. He would take them out in his nice car and didn't care if they got it dirty because he knew that people were more important than things like his car.
John McGlynn
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Monday, November 10, 2008 08:46 AM
Devotional
Chapter 11: The Happiest place on Earth
In this chapter, Mr. Pausch talks about how he has since he was a little kid, wanted to work at Disneyland. Mr. Pausch says that he applied to Disneyland and got the "nicest go-to-hell letters" and that he was really bummed out about not getting a job there. Then we go ahead in time to 1995, where Mr. Pausch had worked at the University of Virginia and built a virtual reality system. Mr. Pausch finds out that Disneyland was making a virtual reality ride and was contacting experts in that field, and when Mr. Pausch found out about this, he called Disneyland. He went through the hassles of the phone the tree and ended up talking to Jon Snoddy, the head supervisor of the project. They agreed to meet and the after talking to each other, Mr. Snoddy agreed to let Mr. Pausch and his students take a sabbatical to work there. Mr. Pausch flies back home and to talk with "Dean Wormer", this dean said that the sabbatical could not occur. Mr. Pausch then went to the dean of sponsored research and he agreed to let Mr. Pausch and his class take the sabbatical.
Chapter 12: The Park is Open Until 8 p.m.
In the chapter, Mr. Pausch and his wife go on a small romantic vacation and to visit the MD Anderson Cancer Center check out his latest CT scan results in Houston. They had a blast during their small vacation, but everything went downhill when they found out the Mr. Pausch had 10 tumors in his liver. Jai became an emotional wreck but Mr. Pausch's doctor, Dr. Wolff, comforted her. His advice was to live their lives to the fullest with the time they had left, and as he said this Mr. Pausch thought back to his day when he worked for Disneyland when the employees where asked when the park closes they would reply "The park is open until 8 p.m.". After this emotional episode, Jai and Mr. Pausch both agreed to live their lives to the fullest with the time they had left.
Max Soucy
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Friday, November 7, 2008 08:22 AM
Devotional
Chapter 9: A Skill Set Called Leadership
In this chapter, Mr. Pausch tells us about his dream of being Captain James T. Kirk. He attributes all of his leadership skills to watching Captain Kirk run the Enterprise. Mr. Pausch also explains the skill sets each of Star Trek's main characters posses. Captain Kirk was not a doctor, scientist, or a technician, but he was a leader. As Mr.Pausch grew older, he realized he could never be "Captain Kirk". However, while working on a virtual reality program he had the honor of meeting the actor that played Captain Kirk, William Schatner.
Chapter 10: Winning Big
In Winning Big, Mr. Pausch tells us about how he always wanted to be the person carrying around a giant stuffed animal that he won at the carnival.
Max Roelen
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Thursday, November 6, 2008 11:35 AM
Devotional
I assigned the students a persuasive essay last week. The topic was (of course) Why should we vote for your candidate for President? Jeon, our lone Korean in this class, came to class irate because his candidate did not win. Jokingly, I asked him why it was so important to him since he was leaving us and returning to Korea. He looked at me very surprised and said, "What happens in America affects Korea, affects the whole world. That is why we care so much about what happens in America!" (Very astute, why I didn't I think of that?)
With Jeon's permission I am posting his essay (unedited) to share with you one Korean's viewpoint of the election.
Continue reading
""Realities beyond Ideals, Choice of Right Deal""
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Wednesday, November 5, 2008 09:54 AM
Classwork
Chapter 7: "I Never Made It to the NFL"
This chapter explains that even when you are messing up and no one says anything to you, that means that they have given up on you. When you are doing badly and no one is bothering to help you, you need to find someone who can help you, before you get into a worse situation that may hamper you from succeeding. Most often, it is the people who care about you and support you, whether friend or family, who try to make you better in the end.
Chapter 8: "You'll Find Me Under'V'"
This chapter describes the pride you can obtain from your many accomplishments that you gain on this Earth, even the small ones that do not apply much to other people. For example, Professor Randy Pausch explains in his book that he has always cherished the World Book even since he was a child, and his dream was to be a contributor. Once he became older, he received the opportunity to write an entry into the book about Virtual Reality, a subject in which he is an expert. He takes pride in his entry, just as we should take pride in all of the accomplishments that we do, even if they are just as small as his. Each of our own accomplishments is significant, so we should be proud in ourselves for our success, no matter what other people say or think.
John O'Connor
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Wednesday, November 5, 2008 09:28 AM
Devotional
Chapter 5: "The Elevator in the Ranch House"
According to early chapters that shown and already you may know, the big title of chapter is 'Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams'. In Chapter 5, to appeals us - especially anybody who is parents, introduce and gave us experience of his child hood that prime source of developing child hoods dream and construct good morals was based on how his parents had open set of mind that offer him many opportunity that he became himself now.
Chapter 6: "Getting to Zero G"
However, if chapter 5 is not focus on his mindset of childhood but more on resource of it and appeals to parents how to conduct and construct pure good moral, also maintain purity. Then Chapter 6 shows that result of we keep maintain and save our good moral and purity from our childhood such as child dream is the way of prove of positive example of mindset.
Jeon
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Tuesday, November 4, 2008 09:12 AM
Devotional
Chapter 3: "The Elephant in the Room"
With this section, Mr. Pausch begins his "last lecture". Mr. Pausch becomes very nervous and will not make eye contact for a while with the full house of 400 people in the lecture hall. He explains that his lecture is not about cancer and his family. Mr. Pausch shows the people in the lecture hall the ten tumors that he has in liver and states that when there is an elephant in the room that you should address it, and in this case, they were his tumors. As Mr. Pausch begins his lecture, to prove he feels physically good he does pushups.
Chapter 4: "The Parent Lottery"
Randy Pausch's parents were the major reason he was able to live out his childhood dreams. His mother was an old-school English teacher and his father was a WWII medic and ran a small business. Spending very little and buying only necessities, his parents taught him that if wanted something he had to get it himself.
Max Soucy
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Monday, November 3, 2008 11:14 AM
Devotional
Chapter 1: "An Injured Lion Still Wants to Roar"
The first chapter of The Last Lecture introduces Randy Pausch and his philosophy of why he wanted to give one last lecture. In the first chapter Pausch informs us that he has ten tumors on his liver and that he does not have long to live. However, Pausch also says his lecture is not about his cancer, it is about trying to leave something behind for his children to one day see and remember who and what kind of life their father lived. Pausch titled his lecture "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams".
Chapter 2: "My Life in a Laptop"
Pausch tells us how he started working on this all too important last lecture. He explains what turmoil he and his wife Jai (pronounced "Jay") went through deciding if he was really going to go through with this last lecture. This lecture had Pausch torn between giving the most important speech of his life and spending time with his loving family. After long deliberation and consent from his wife he packed his bags and flew out to Pittsburg where he would prepare for that last and final lecture.
Max Roelen
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Friday, October 31, 2008 09:16 AM
Devotional
As part of our Daily Devotional we are reading Randy Paussch's The Last Lecture. Please join us daily as we share this incredible journey with Randy Pausch and the students post their refections. We have also posted the video of his lecture for you to watch.
Continue reading
"The Last Lecture"
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Thursday, October 30, 2008 09:55 AM
Devotional
While studying Beowulf I assigned the class an essay imagining an encounter with Grendel. The class had to uses seven types of imagery-visual, audio, tactile, olfactory, gustatory, kinesthetic, and organic. Max Roelen's impressions follow.
Max Roelen
English IV
Mrs. Simmons
October 15, 2008
Grendel
I should have heeded the warnings of the elders in the mead hall, but because of my young arrogance I thought myself a hero, and now it's too late...
Dusk descended upon the moors and the elders spun tales of the ferocious monster Grendel. They called him the "Seed of Cain", a fearless creature with no remorse. While listening to these stories I scoffed, "No monster large or small can defeat me!" The elders overheard my claim and said, "You are too proud young one, take heed to this warning: no man has ever visited Grendel's lair and returned alive." I had no interest in what the old fools were telling me, so I swiftly turned around and told them, "I will come back with the monster's head," slamming the large wooden doors of the mead hall behind me.
Dusk had turned into night; I put on my helm, sword, and buckler and ventured off into the mossy fen. The smell of rotting wood and animal carcasses penetrated my steel helm and made my insides squirm. From what I had heard from the whispers in the mead hall Grendel the so-called "vicious beast" lived among the cairns of our ancient heroes. My pride preceded my actions and I blindly rushed into the soggy clearing only to find myself confronted by the living embodiment of evil.
I could hear the ripping of flesh and sinew; I saw the armor and weapons of our spearmen stained with their own blood. Then, he rose, with adrenaline pumping through my veins like an unquenchable fire I took my stance and readied myself for battle. He stood up, burning holes through my head with his strangely beautiful crimson eyes, with pupils so black they seemed like the very gates of hell took shelter in his skull. An indescribable smell penetrated his vomit colored hide, which burned my nostrils. Grendel's skin looked so rough; it would probably rip my hands to shreds with even the slightest touch.
A guttural snarl escaped his bared teeth, which shook me to my core, and in one lightning fast swoop, he gored me with his blood soaked claws. Everything stared to turn black and as I sank into the inky seas of death, I could hear victorious laugh erupt from the creature as if my pain was sustenance to him.
I should have heeded the warnings of the elders in the mead hall, but because of my young arrogance, I thought myself a hero, and now it's too late...
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Monday, October 27, 2008 09:01 AM
Classwork
This class will provide you with a survey of British literature and of the origin of the English language from Beowulf through contemporary British literature. Additionally, the course will consist of a process approach to writing, instruction in research methodology and writing, daily reviews of grammatical/mechanical functions as they apply to the writing process, and vocabulary instruction.
Posted by Mrs. Janice Simmons, Wednesday, October 22, 2008 09:36 AM
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