THE BODY and Party Committee TO-DOS

We finally conquered THE BODY of your speech writing!  So by now you should have a hook, transition to the thesis, a thesis, and a body made up of three topics with proper support.  Remember to fill your speech with ethos, logos, and pathos.  Make your audience believe, feel, and hear evidence.  NEVER use my or I in your speech!!

On Thursday, be ready to write your conclusion.  Everything up to that point should be completed.

During fourth hour, we enjoyed some news from CNN.  Our news discussions have really improved.   We were able to talk about more than the penguins. Woohoo for us!

Also, you got with your committees and made a list of your responsibilities and goals.  I hope you are working on those right now.  Be ready to report and finalize last minute details.  The party is NEXT WEEK!  Yes, NEXT WEEK!!

This Thursday, we get to hear from Jared.  He is going to present his book presentation.  I know we are all excited.  We are then going to hear about your next presentation.  It's going to be a good one.  We are also going to check in with how your class requirements are going. 

Everyone seems to be checking off boxes.

See you Thursday!  Work on your committee to-do lists!!

The Podium and Merry "Whisk"mas

During third hour, Eric, Logan, and Morgan took on THE PODIUM.  They each delivered impromptu speeches and tried to control their body movements.  Eric convinced us to make the best of those "once in a lifetime days."  Morgan enthusiastically sold us an amazing blanket that doubles as an absorbent mop.  Sham-snuggie?  I am definitely going to buy the neon orange one.  And Logan persuaded us to never, ever venture near a pizza oven.  We definitely should just rely on the guys at Dominos.  They know what they are doing.

Great job!  Improvements were seen by all!!

HOMEWORK:

1) Finish intro outline and draft of persuasive essay

2)Write transition to thesis of persuasive essay

3)Make power point or video (this is from the class requirements page)

During hour four, Adam delivered a presentation on his "mom approved" book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens.  He shared some great excerpts and insights from the book.  He said we all should read it.  And I think he didn't like to admit his mom was right about the book : )!!   Thanks, Adam!

Next week, Jared is up with his book presentation.  I predict it will be fantastic.

Lastly, we chose what we wanted to focus on for the Christmas party. Logan wants to have his hand in most things.

This is how we stand on the groups:

Talent Show: Trey, Eric, Logan

White Elephant Gift Exchange: Morgan, Adam, Jared

Baking Contest: Logan, Morgan, Adam

Service Project: Genevieve, Logan

Décor/Advertising/Refreshment Table: Katie, Jennifer

Santa's Workshop: Student Government

HOMEWORK:

This Thursday during lunch ANNOUNCE, ANNOUNCE, ANNOUNCE!!!  Generate excitement for this event.  Get people to SIGN - UP!!!  I want to see HARD EVIDENCE of your work!!!  Come ready to update the class on what you did to prep for the party!  This means talent should be secured, bakers should be ready to bake, décor planned, everyone in FILA should know what kind of gift to FIND for the exchange, and everyone should know to bring food and plastic bags to donate for our service project!!

Also, feel free to EMAIL mentors, students, etc.  Let's build ENTHUSIASM!!!

Intros, Iguanas and White Elephants

We welcomed Morgan back to class this week and she told a TRUE story about a near iguana attack! We gave her feedback, which I know she will put to good use.
Then we hit the ground running in regards to the upcoming speeches all about some aspect of "the future."
Logan chose to focus on possibilities. Eric is tackling changes. And Morgan is going to explore careers.
Teacher Genne laid out the best way to introduce your speech. Everyone was able to brainstorm questions, research quotes, and brainstorm anecdotes.
For HOMEWORK- make a decision about which you will use to introduce your topic and then jump right in! Start outlining your speech!!

During 4th hour, Morgan presented on the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
She gave great self examples of principles from the book. Everyone appreciated her use of having classmates read quotes. And she highly recommends this book to EVERYONE! Great job, Morgan!

We then reveled in all the positive feedback we received from our fabulous Halloween bash!
But we also talked about what went wrong and what could've been better. It was the perfect time to turn in a written activity brief. I could really tell you put your whole heart and soul into these;). Thanks to those who turned them in.
Remember getting and giving feedback is the perfect way for us to grow and hone our leadership skills. We will take all this feedback and quickly apply it to our next event--Christmas!
Lastly, we brainstormed for our Christmas party. I think we came up with a really great game plan. Next week, we will break into focus groups to set it into action. Be thinking about what portion you want to see come to fruition.

-White Elephant Gift Exchange
-Talent Show
-Dessert Christmas Bake-off
Refreshments
-decor
-service project
-Craft room- (hopefully, student government can take this over)

HOMEWORK-
-Choose a fictional leader for your leadership quote this week (ex-Dumbledore, Gandolf, etc). This is supposed to be fun:)
-Figure out what part of the Christmas party you would like to be involved with. (Or you will just be assigned a part.)

Also, next week Jared and Adam will present on a leadership book!! I know they can't wait.

Have a wonderful week!

Sent from my iPhone

Be heard, The Element, and Bash triumph

I hope you have all recovered from your marvelous activity making on Friday.  I am so proud of the work you did.  You all stepped up to make it happen!!!  I got a bit teary -eyed as I watched you all work so hard on the different aspects that brought it all together.  So much positive feedback has been given about your event.  GREAT WORK!!  Be ready with some positive and negative feedback for our debrief on Thursday!  We will apply it to our Christmas party in December!  We need to have a quick brainstorming session for Christmas ASAP!

During 3rd hour, after some hilarious jokes, Eric and Logan worked on projecting their voices to fill whatever their surroundings may be.  They stepped outside and combatted the elements and traffic noise to deliver their oral stories. Both did incredibly well and gave valuable feedback to each other.  HOMEWORK - prepare another oral story and apply feedback

Fourth hour focused on feedback - the good and bad of it.  We were treated to a book presentation from Logan regarding the book, The Element by Ken Robinson.  He quickly fessed up to NOT finishing the book, but was still able to deliver some interesting insight of the book and the idea of "the element."

We had a great opportunity to aid Logan by giving him our positive and negative feedback. (Remember always give 3x more positive than negative feedback!)

Morgan and Adam are up next with their book presentations.  I can't wait to listen to them and to YOU as you chime in with amazing feedback!!!

HOMEWORK-

-be ready to DEBRIEF the Halloween activity by writing down some positive and negative feedback!  Part of your class requirements is to write an activity debrief and lead an activity debrief.  BE READY TO CROSS THIS OFF YOUR LIST : )

-be ready to BRAINSTORM for our Christmas activity!  It would be great for you to jot down your ideas before class.  It would be so awesome if you asked around and asked what your fellow FILA friends are looking for in a Christmas activity and apply it to your personal brainstorming session.

-Leadership quote or experience