Necessity is the mother of invention

Here's another of the smart cows adventures with the animals of the jungle. Enjoy!

Grade 9 writing prompt iii

Yo guys! Consider this your narrative writing graduation project. I want it to rock the block!

Make sure it is a minimum of 200 words (20 lines handwritten or 10 typed)

Choose an attractive title

Plan and organise your Ideas well

Use adjectives and add interesting details

Revise Revise REvise

Enjoy!!!!!!!

Meet Bahr, my most favourite dog in the world, isn't he so cuddly?

well, what do you expect? he's a security dog and he used to work in the navy when he was a puppy. Besides, underneath all that pitch black shaggy hair, he's just a baby.
Although poor thing, people start rumours about him that his mum was a she-wolf or that he is possessed by a demon! I don't believe in that stuff anyways.

contribution by Nikhil Myana: Grade 9

India Is Cradle Of The Human Race, The Birthplace Of Human Speech, The Mother Of History, The Grand Mother Of Legends And Great Grand Mother Of Tradition.

Mark Twain....

to anonymous grade 7

Thank you for your sweet note; let bygones be bygones. I appreciate your gentlemanly gesture. I also hope that any offences on my part be forotten. C U 2morow. God Bless.
P.S. If you haven't received your revision sheets, pls contact me; i'll email them to you. Best of luck.

Contribution by Seif Megahed Grade 10 Green: This is outsatndingly amazingly brilliant: Must Read

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how to feel-good since politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

If you agree, pass it on. If you can read this - Thank a teacher!

Grade 7: Revision sheet answer key

60- 61: Cancel
62a
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74a
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88-91 cancelled
92c
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107c
Best of luck! If you have any problems or questions, drop me a comment or send me an email.
See you on Sunday.

Grade 10: Contribution by Hossam Galal; thank you dor the outstanding performance in class and on the blog; ps the photo is of che guevara and castro

(Fidel Castro)

He was born in August 13-1926 but this is a Spanish name ;

the first family name is Castro and the second is Ruz ,

He was the prime minister of Cuba from December 1959 to December 1976

and then president until his registration from the office in February 2008.
He was a prime minister for: 17 years.
He was a president for: 32 years.
He lived for : 82 years.
Now the president of Cuba is Raul Castro (The brother of Fidel Castro)

GRADE 10

I sent the attachment for the first lesson and am sending the second one currently i need your feedback
Best of luck
God bless
P.S. some of you didn't send me their email
P.S. to the sweet young ladies who asked after my health, am better thank you, you made my day

Grade 7: Those were the days we will never forget

Grade 7: An American Youtuber venting her feelings about school

Lol! Personally, I have no comment, but I'm definitely looking forward to receiving yours. What is this creature exactly?!

P.S. (Although we do have to admit some of the stuff she says might be a bit true)

Grade 10: World HIstory: Henry VIII's Wives, Contributed by my superstar Farah Khalil; I am proud to be your teacher, thank you

Catherine of Aragon, Henry's first wife. Catherine, a Princess of Spain, was married to Henry for many years. Her determination to stay married to Henry, in the face of his desire for Anne Boleyn, would change the course of history forever.

Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife, and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. Henry fell passionately in love with Anne while married to Catherine of Aragon. He waited several years to marry Anne, but, ironically, lost his desire for her once she became his Queen.

Jane Seymour, Henry's beloved third Queen. Gentle, capable Jane gave Henry his long-awaited male heir after one year of marriage. Sadly, she gave her life to do so.

Anne of Cleves, Henry's fourth wife. This German princess served as Queen for only a few months before she and Henry agreed to divorce by mutual consent.

Katherine Howard, Henry's fifth wife. Henry's marriage to this sensuous teenager brought him brief happiness, but ended in tragedy.

Katherine Parr, Henry's sixth Queen. This intelligent, loyal, forward-thinking Renaissance woman outlived three husbands, including Henry, and went on to finally marry the man of her choice.

Grade 7:Message from Gary Soto to all youngsters of the world

Quoted from his website www.gary soto.com

Young people, to build our intellectual capital, to get us thinking beyond the video world, we must put down our electronic toys and read. This is what I do during the day and at night—I read for pleasure and to enforce what I think is important—language used right. Here are some of my favorite titles fit for high school students and older readers. Search them out.

Grade 10: Farah Khalil: Lectures on Early Modern European History

It is a bit long but it does clarify the whole story. Just skim through it and ask me if there's anything you need to explain further and of course you are more than welcome to post a comment.

Lecture 3: The Protestant Reformation

Arise, O Lord, and judge Thy cause. A wild boar has invaded Thy vineyard. Arise, O Peter, and consider the case of the Holy Roman Church, the mother of all churches, consecrated by thy blood. Arise, O Paul, who by thy teaching and death hast illumined and dost illumine the Church. Arise all ye saints, and the whole universal Church, whose interpretations of Scripture has been assailed. (papal bull of Pope Leo X, 1520)
It truly seems to me that if this fury of the Romanists should continue, there is no remedy except that the emperor, kings, and princes, girded with force and arms, should resolve to attack this plague of all the earth no longer with words but with the sword. . . . If we punish thieves with the gallows, robbers with the sword, and heretics with fire, why do we not all the more fling ourselves with all our weapons upon these masters of perdition, these cardinals, these popes, and all this sink of Roman sodomy that ceaselessly corrupts the church of God and wash our hands in their blood so that we may free ourselves and all who belong to us from this most dangerous fire? (Martin Luther, 1521)
Young people have lost that deference to their elders on which the social order depends; they reject all correction. Sexual offenses, rapes, adulteries, incests and seductions are more common than ever before. How monstrous that the world should have been overthrown by such dense clouds for the last three or four centuries, so that it could not see clearly how to obey Christ's commandment to love our enemies. Everything is in shameful confusion; everywhere I see only cruelty, plots, frauds, violence, injustice, shamelessness while the poor groan under the oppression and the innocent are arrogantly and outrageously harassed. God must be asleep. (John Calvin)
The 16th century in Europe was a great century of change on many fronts. The humanists and artists of the Renaissance would help characterize the age as one of individualism and self-creativity. Humanists such as Petrarch helped restore the dignity of mankind while men like Machiavelli injected humanism into politics. When all is said and done, the Renaissance helped to secularize European society. Man was now the creator of his own destiny -- in a word, the Renaissance unleashed the very powerful notion that man makes his own history (on the Renaissance, see Lecture 1).
But the 16th century was more than just the story of the Renaissance. The century witnessed the growth of royal power, the appearance of centralized monarchies and the discovery of new lands. During the great age of exploration, massive quantities of gold and silver flood Europe, an event which turned people, especially the British, Dutch, Italians and Germans, money-mad. The year 1543 can be said to have marked the origin of the Scientific Revolution -- this was the year Copernicus published his De Revolutionibus (see Lecture 10) and set in motion a wave of scientific advance that would culminate with Newton at the end of the 17th century. In the meantime, urbanization continued unabated as did the growth of universities. And lastly, the printing press, perfected by the moveable type of Gutenberg in 1451, had created the ability to produce books cheaply and in more quantities. And this was indeed important since the Renaissance created a literate public eager for whatever came off the presses.Despite all of these things, and there are more things to be considered, especially in the area of literature and the arts, the greatest event of the 16th century -- indeed, the most revolutionary event -- was the Protestant Reformation. It was the Reformation that forced people to make a choice -- to be Catholic or Protestant. This was an important choice, and a choice had to be made. There was no real alternative. In the context of the religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries, one could live or die based on such a choice.
We have to ask why something like the Reformation took place when it did. In general, dissatisfaction with the Church could be found at all levels of European society. First, it can be said that many devout Christians were finding the Church's growing emphasis on rituals unhelpful in their quest for personal salvation. Indeed, what we are witnessing is the shift from salvation of whole groups of people, to something more personal and individual. The sacraments had become forms of ritualized behavior that no longer "spoke" to the people of Europe. They had become devoid of meaning. And since more people were congregating in towns and cities, they could observe for themselves and more important, discuss their concerns with others. Second, the papacy had lost much of its spiritual influence over its people because of the increasing tendency toward secularization. In other words, popes and bishops were acting more like kings and princes than they were the spiritual guides of European men and women. And again, because so many people were now crowding into cities, the lavish homes and palaces of the Church were noticed by more and more people from all walks of life. The poor resented the wealth of the papacy and the very rich were jealous of that wealth. At the same time, the popes bought and sold high offices, and also sold indulgences. All of this led to the increasing wealth of the Church -- and this created new paths for abuses of every sort. Finally, at the local level of the town and village, the abuses continued. Some Church officials held several offices at once and lived off their income. The clergy had become lax, corrupt and immoral and the people began to take notice that the sacraments were shrouded in complacency and indifference. Something was dreadfully wrong.
These abuses called for two major responses. On the one hand, there was a general tendency toward anti-clericalism, that is, a general but distinct distrust and dislike of the clergy. Some people began to argue that the layperson was just as good as the priest, an argument already advanced by the Waldensians of the 12th century (see also my HERETICS, HERESIES AND THE CHURCH). On the other hand, there were calls for reform. These two responses created fertile ground for conflict of all kinds, and that conflict would be both personal and social.
The deepest source of conflict was personal and spiritual. The Church had grown more formal in its organization, which is hardly unsurprising since it was now sixteen centuries old. The Church had its own elaborate canon law as well as a dogmatic theology. All of this had been created at the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. That Council also established the importance of the sacraments as well as the role of the priest in administering the sacraments. 1215 also marks the year that the Church further elaborated its position on Purgatory (see Purgatory: Fact or Fantasy). Above all, the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 established the important doctrine that salvation could only be won through good works -- fasting, chastity, abstinence and asceticism.
The common people, meanwhile, sought a more personal, spiritual and immediate kind of religion -- something that would touch them directly, in the heart. The rituals of the Church now meant very little to them -- they needed some kind of guarantee that they were doing the right thing – that they would indeed be saved. The Church gave little thought to reforming itself. People yearned for something more while the Church seemed to promise less. What seemed to be needed was a general reform of Christianity itself. Only such a major transformation would effect the changes reflected in the spiritual desires of the people.
Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries the Church was faced with numerous direct challenges.
Heretics had been assaulting the Church since the 12th century. The heretics were Christians who deviated from Christian dogma. Many did not believe in Christian baptism -- the majority felt left out of the Church.
There were also numerous mystics who desired a direct and emotional divine illumination. They claimed they had been illuminated by an inner light that assured them of salvation.
There was an influential philosophical movement called nominalism that stressed the reality of anything concrete and real, thus doubting faith.
Renaissance humanism rejected the Christian matrix almost completely and instead turned to the Classical World, the true source of virtue and wisdom.
The breakdown of feudalism and the discovery and exploitation of the New World gave way to commerce and trade, as well as an increasing tendency to view life in the here and now as something good.
The Church was also challenged by an increasing awareness of ethnicity and nationalism, e.g. Joan of Arc and the 100 Years' War.
Merchants and skilled workers living in cities were growing wealthy and influential as they began to supply Europe with more and more "stuff."
European kings consolidated their power over their nobility.
There was an awareness, thanks to the age of discovery, that there was a pagan world outside the world of Europe that needed to be tamed.
The Reformation was dominated by the figure of MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546). Luther was the son of Hans Luther, a copper miner from the district of Saxony. Hans was a self-made man. As a youth he worked menial jobs in copper mines -- but by the time Martin was born at Eisleben, he had risen to prominence and owned several mines. Hans Luther wanted his son to do even more with his life so while Martin was in his teens, it was decided that he would study law. So, after his preliminary education was complete, at the age of 17 young Martin Luther entered the University of Erfurt. At the time, Erfurt was the most important university in Germany (more on German universities). It was also the center of a conflict between the Renaissance humanists and those people known as the Scholastics, who were adept at combining medieval philosophy and theology. Luther enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy and studied theology and law as well. It was at this time that he read widely in the classical authors, especially Cicero and Virgil. He obtained his Masters degree and finished second in a class of seventeen students. In 1505, a promising legal career seemed certain.
But at this point, Luther rejected the world. He was twenty-one at the time. In 1505, Luther tells us that he experienced the "first great event" of his life. In that year he experienced some kind of conversion after having been struck by a bolt of lightning. He cried out, "Help, St. Anne, I will become a monk." He was struck by the hand of God and felt that God was in everything. He felt doubt within himself – he simply could not reconcile his faith with his worldly ambitions. And so, Luther was plagued by an overwhelming sense of guilt, fear and terror. To relieve his anxiety he joined the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine. There he would be shielded from worldly distractions. There he would find the true path to heaven. He fasted, prayed and scourged himself relentlessly. But he still felt doubts. One day, as he sat in his cell, he through his Bible on the table and pointed at a passage at random. The passage was from the Epistles of St. Paul: "For the justice of God is revealed from faith to faith in that it is written, for the just shall live by faith." (Romans 1:17)
By 1508, Luther had been and was transferred from the monastery at Erfurt to Wittenberg. At Wittenberg, Luther joined the university faculty as professor of philosophy and quickly became the leader in the fight to make Wittenberg a center of humanism rather than Scholasticism. In the end, Luther was more interested in preaching a religion of piety than he was studying philosophy or theology. In 1510, he devoted himself to discovering God and during a trip to Rome on official business he acted more the part of a pilgrim than humanist scholar. He climbed the steps of St. Peters, he knelt before the altars and prayed. He was soon shocked by the apparent immoral life of the priests and cardinals whom he found cynical and indifferent toward Church rituals.
In 1512, he returned to Wittenberg to teach and preach. He ignored the Scholasticism of the Middle Ages and concentrated on the Psalms and Epistles of St. Paul. By 1517, there would be no reason to think that Luther was a particularly dissatisfied member of the Church. But 1517 is a very important year. Albert of Hohenzollern was offered the archbishopric of Mainz if he would pay the required fee (Albert already held two bishoprics, even though he had not yet reached the required age to be a bishop!). Pope Leo X asked Albert to pay 12,000 ducats for the twelve apostles but Albert would only offer 7,000 for the seven deadly sins. A compromise was reached and Albert paid 10,000 ducats. Leo proclaimed an indulgence in Albert's territories for eight years with half of the money going to Albert and the other half to construct the basilica of St. Peter's.
The storm broke on October 31, the eve of All Saints Day. On that day Luther nailed a copy of the NINETY-FIVE THESES to the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg. The Theses (actually 95 statements), all related to the prevalence of indulgences and Luther offered to dispute them all. The day chosen by Luther -- All Saints Day -- was important. All of Wittenberg was crowded with peasants and pilgrims who had come to the city to honor the consecration of the Church. Word of Luther's Theses spread throughout the crowd and spurred on by Luther's friends at the university, many people called for the translation of the Theses into German. A student copied Luther's Latin text and then translated the document and sent it to the university press and from there it spread throughout Germany. It was the printing press itself, that allowed Luther's message to spread so rapidly. [Note: Following the research of Erwin Iserloh, Richard Marius has suggested that perhaps Luther never posted the Ninety-Five Theses. We know, for instance, that Luther wrote a letter to his archbishop complaining about indulgences. The story that Luther nailed the Theses to the church door comes from Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), a professor of Greek and one of Luther's colleagues. However, Melanchthon did not arrive in Wittenberg until August of the following year. Luther never mentioned this incident in any of his table talk. See Marius, Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death (Harvard, 1999), pp. 137-139.]
The particular indulgence which attracted Luther's attention was being sold throughout Germany by Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar. Tetzel was trying to raise money to pay for the new Church at St. Peters in Rome. In general, an indulgence released the sinner from punishment in Purgatory before going to Heaven. The system was permitted by the Church (since 1215) but had been abused by the clergy and their agents such as Tetzel.
Luther also attacked indulgences in general, and he voiced his objections to the sale of indulgences in his LETTER to the Archbishop of Mainz in 1517. According to the Church, indulgences took their existence from the surplus grace that had accumulated through the lives of Christ, the saints and martyrs. The purchase of an indulgence put the buyer in touch with this grace and freed him from the earthly penance of a particular sin, but not the sin itself. But Tetzel's sales pitch implied that the buyer was freed from the sin as well as the penance attached to it. Tetzel also sold people on the idea that an indulgence could be purchased for a relative in Purgatory – this meant the relative's soul would now fly to Heaven. For Tetzel: "As soon as pennies in the money chest ring, the souls out of their Purgatory do spring." Luther answered (Theses 28) in the following way: "It is certain that when the money rattles in the chest, avarice and gain may be increased, but the Suffrage of the Church depends on the will of God alone." (my emphasis).
Luther claimed that it was not only Tetzel but the papacy itself which spread the false doctrine of the indulgence. By attacking the issue of the indulgences, Luther was really attacking the entire theology and structure of the Church. By making salvation dependent on the individual's faith, Luther abolished the need for sacraments as well as a clergy to administer them. For Luther, faith alone, without the necessity of good works, would bring salvation. This was obviously heretical thinking. Of course, Luther couched his notion of "justification by faith alone" within a scheme of predestination. That is, only God knows who will be saved and will be damned. Good works did not guarantee salvation. Faith did not guarantee salvation. God alone grants salvation or damnation.
This discussion all begs the question: why did people follow Luther? It is simply amazing that within a relatively brief period of time, that so many people turned their back on the Roman Church, and followed Luther. For the wealthy, becoming a Lutheran was one way to keep their wealth yet still be given a chance for salvation without paying homage to Rome. In other words, it can be said that the wealthy followed Luther as a form of protest against the Church. For the very poor, Luther offered individual dignity and respect. Not good works or servitude to Rome could guarantee salvation. Instead, faith held out the possibility of salvation. For most Germans of the mid-16th century, Lutheranism was a way to attack the Holy Roman Empire and Charles V (1500-1558). Voltaire once wrote that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor truly an Empire. Therefore, Germany became Lutheran for reasons other than religion or theology. The bottom line is this: Luther told people exactly what they want to hear. Luther appeared as an alternative to the Roman Church. Whereas the Roman Church appealed to men and women as members of a group (i.e., members of the Church), Lutheranism meant that faith was now something individual, and this would have profound consequences..
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564) represents the second wave of the Protestant Reformation. Although Luther and Calvin were more less contemporaries of one another, Calvin was an entirely different man. John Calvin acquired his early education in Paris -- here he learned to develop a taste for humanism. In the mid-1520s he studied law at the University of Paris and then left to study law at Orleans and Greek art at Bourges. I mention all this simply to show that Calvin was indeed a humanist scholar in his own right. He studied Hebrew, Greek, and Latin and thrived on the humanist texts of the classical world and his own. By 1533, Calvin fell under the influence of the New Testament translation by Erasmus as well as certain writings of Martin Luther. So, before Calvin became a Calvinist, he was clearly a Lutheran.
On All Saints Day in 1533, Calvin delivered an address at Paris which clearly defended the doctrine of "justification by faith alone." Renouncing his Catholicism, Calvin settled at Basel, in Switzerland, and there wrote a draft for his book, the Institutes of the Christian Religion, a book which contains more than 80 chapters and took him almost the rest of his life to complete. The core of what became known as Calvinism, was that man was a helpless being before an all-powerful God. He concluded that there was no such thing as free will, that man was predestined for either Heaven or Hell. Man can do nothing to alter his fate. It was Calvin, and not Luther, who gave to the Swiss and French reformers of this time a rallying point for Church reform. So, it was almost natural that when a few men were trying to convert the town of Geneva to their reformed doctrines that they called upon Calvin's help.
Calvin came to Geneva and immediately imposed a social order of harsh discipline and order. The people of Geneva groaned under his repressive measures but they also felt that Calvin was good for them and their children. Calvin was kicked out of the city for three years but eventually returned -- those who objected to his terms left the city or were jailed or executed.
Calvin urged -- actually forced -- all citizens of Geneva to succumb to his rigorous ideals of a religious life. In this way his career at Geneva is remarkably similar to that of Girolamo Savonarola in Florence. Genevan men and women were told to wake up early, work hard, be forever concerned with good morals, be thrifty at all times, abstain from worldly pleasures, be sober, and above all, serious. There was, then, very little laughing in Calvin's Geneva. What we're talking about here can only be called a "worldly asceticism," that is, the denial of all worldly pleasure while living in this world.
Of course, foundation of Calvinism was clearly the doctrine of predestination, that is, the idea that all of mankind is assigned to either Heaven or Hell at birth. There is nothing you can do that would change or destiny since it was an hands of all-powerful God. Such an opinion logically leads to anxiety -- after all, no one knew just what to do. While Calvin would not argue, as did the Church, that good works were one needed to go to Heaven, he did admit that good works served a purpose. Good works, then, became a divine sign, a sign that the individual was making the best of their life here on earth. It was, however, still no guarantee.
Calvin also introduced his concept of the "calling." Some men and women seemed ill-fitted for life on earth. They were avaricious, slothful, amoral. However, there were others who seemed to work happily in their lifetime, accomplishing much and in the right spirit. In other words, they had been "called" to do a certain thing here on earth.
Of course, we wake up early, work at your calling, are thrifty, sober and abstain from frivolity, there is an unintended consequence. That consequence was the acquisition of wealth. So, while Calvin did not invent free enterprise, nor did he invent capitalism, or the desire for wealth, he did rationalize that desire by arguing that certain men are imbued with the spirit of acquisition, the correct spirit. That spirit has often been called the Protestant Work Ethic. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904), the German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) asked why it is that the world's most wealthy men were of Protestant origin. His answer was that it was these men who were also Calvinists, men who had internalized the religious code set down first by Calvin and then by the Puritans of 17th century England. In other words, the ethic says to work hard, save what you have made, and reinvest any profit in order to increase wealth. That is capitalism in a nutshell. Calvin does not invent this idea, he simply rationalizes it by ascribing a certain spirit or calling to certain men of his own age, all of whom just happened to be Calvinists. Of course, such a scheme could and did lead to tension, conflict and anxiety. How much of a calling was a good thing? When did one know when enough was enough? Anxiety and its sister guilt, then, seemed to become one of the guiding principles of Calvinism.
While Lutheranism spread widely in Germany and Scandinavia, Calvinism made inroads across Europe. In general, Calvin produced an organization unmatched by any other Protestant faith at the time. The Institutes spelled out faith and practice in fine detail. Tight discipline within each cell, or synod, held the entire system together. Calvinist ministers traveled throughout Europe winning adherents and organizing them into new cells. From the city of Geneva flowed an endless wave of pamphlets, books and sermons whose purpose was to educate the Calvinist congregation. By 1564, the year of Calvin's death, there were more than a million French Calvinists or Huguenots, Scotland had been won over to Calvinism, and the religion also found a home in England, the Low Countries and Hungary.
[See Lecture 4 for the Radical Reformation, Lecture 5 on the Catholic Reformation and Lecture 6 on the Age of Religious Wars. You may also want to see Lecture 5, of my series of Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History, for a different approach to the Reformation.]
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Grade 10 Blue suggestions

Marwan and Fares suggested that the blog needs to be fattened or spiced up. What kind of juicy details do you need? I'm open to suggestions, questions, contributions, ... you name it, I post it. Waiting for your feedback.

PS. I didn't receive any emails.

Grade 7: 1st Quarter Literary Selection: Short Story

“Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto
On the first day of school, Victor stood in line half an hour before he came to a wobbly card table. He was handed a packet of papers and a computer card on which he listed his one elective, French. He already spoke Spanish and English, but he thought some day he might travel to France, where it was cool; not like Fresno, where summer days reached 110 degrees in the shade. There were rivers in France, and huge churches, and fair-skinned people everywhere, the way there were brown people all around Victor
Besides, Teresa, a girl he had liked since they were in catechism classes at Saint Theresa’s, was taking French, too. With any luck they would be in the same class. Teresa is going to be my girl this year, he promised himself as he left the gym full of students in their new fall clothes. She was cute. And good in math, too, Victor thought as he walked down the hall to his homeroom. He ran into his friend, Michael Torres, by the water fountain that never turned off.
They shook hands, raza-style, and jerked their heads at one another in a saludo de vato. “How come you’re making a face?” asked Victor.
“I ain’t making a face, ese. This is my face.” Michael said his face had changed during the summer. He had read a GQ magazine that his older brother had borrowed from the Book Mobile and noticed that the male models all had the same look on their faces. They would stand, one arm around a beautiful woman, and scowl. They would sit at the pool, their rippled stomachs dark with shadow, and scowl. They would sit at dinner tables, cool drinks in their hands, and scowl,
“I think it works,” Michael said. He scowled and let his upper lip quiver. His teeth showed along with the ferocity of his soul. “Belinda Reyes walked by a while ago and looked at me,” he said.

Victor didn’t say anything, though he thought his friend looked pretty strange. They talked about recent movies, baseball, their parents, and the horrors of picking grapes in order to buy their fall clothes. Picking grapes was like living in Siberia, except hot and more boring.
“What classes are you taking?” Michael said, scowling. “French. How ‘bout you?” “Spanish. I ain’t so good at it, even if I’m Mexican." “I’m not either, but I’m better at it than math, that’s for sure.”
A tiny, three-beat bell propelled students to their homerooms. The two friends socked each other in the arm and went their ways, Victor thinking, man, that’s weird. Michael thinks making a face makes him handsome.
On the way to his homeroom, Victor tried a scowl. He felt foolish, until out of the corner of his eye he saw a girl looking at hint Umm, he thought, maybe it does work. He scowled with greater conviction.
In the homeroom, roll was taken, emergency cards were passed out, and they were given a bulletin to take home to their parents. The principal, Mr. Belton, spoke over the crackling loudspeaker, welcoming the students to a new year, new experiences, and new friendships. The students squirmed in their chairs and ignored him, they were anxious to go to first period. Victor sat calmly, thinking of Teresa, who sat two rows away, reading a paperback novel. This would be his lucky year. She was in his homeroom, and would probably be in his English and math classes. And, of course, French.
The bell rang for first period, and the students herded noisily through the door. Only Teresa lingered, talking with the homeroom teacher.
“So you think I should talk to Mrs. Gaines?” she asked the teacher. “She would know about ballet?”
“She would be a good bet,” the teacher said. Then added, “Or the gym teacher, Mrs. Garza."
Victor lingered, keeping his head down and staring at his desk. He wanted to leave when she did so he could bump into her and say something clever.
He watched her on the sly. As she turned to leave, he stood up and hurried to the door, where he managed to catch her eye. She smiled and said, “Hi, Victor."
He smiled back and said, “Yeah, that's me.” His brown face blushed. Why hadn’t he said, “Hi, Teresa,” or "How was your summer?” or something nice.
As Teresa walked down the hall, Victor walked the other way, looking back, admiring how gracefully she walked, one foot in front of the other. So much for being in the same class, he thought. As he trudged to English, he practiced scowling.
In English they reviewed the parts of speech. Mr. Lucas, a portly man, waddled down the aisle, asking, “What is a noun?”
“A person, place, or thing,” said the class in unison.
Yes, now somebody give me an example of a person--you, Victor Rodriguez.”
"Teresa,” Victor said automatically. Some of the girls giggled. They knew he had a crush on Teresa. He felt himself blushing again.
“Correct,” Mr. Lucas said. “Now provide me with a place.”
Mr. Lucas called on a freckled kid who answered, “Teresa’s house with a kitchen full of big brothers.”
After English, Victor had math, his weakest subject. He sat in the back by the window, hoping that he would not be called on. Victor understood most of the problems, but some of the stuff looked like the teacher made it up as she went along. It was confusing, like the inside of a watch.
After math he had a fifteen-minute break, then social studies, and finally lunch. He bought a tuna casserole with buttered rolls, some fruit cocktail, and milk. He sat with Michael, who practiced scowling between bites,
Girls walked by and looked at him, “See what I mean, Vic?” Michael scowled. "They love it.”
Yeah, I guess so.
They ate slowly, Victor scanning the horizon for a glimpse of Teresa. He didn’t see her. She must have brought lunch, he thought, and is eating outside. Victor scraped his plate and left Michael, who was busy scowling at a girl two tables away.
The small, triangle-shaped campus bustled with students talking about their new classes. Everyone was in a sunny mood. Victor hurried to the bag lunch area, where he sat down and opened his math book. He moved his lips as if he were reading, but his mind was somewhere else. He raised his eyes slowly and looked around. No Teresa.
He lowered his eyes, pretending to study, then looked slowly to the left. No Teresa. He turned a page in the book and stared at some math problems that scared him because he knew he would have to do them eventually. He looked at the right. Still no sign of her. He stretched out lazily in an attempt to disguise his snooping.
Then he saw her. She was sitting with a girlfriend under a plum tree. Victor moved to a table near her and daydreamed about taking her to a movie. When the bell sounded, Teresa looked up, and their eyes met. She smiled sweetly and gathered her books. Her next class was French, same as Victor’s.
They were among the last students to arrive in class, so all the good desks in the back had already been taken. Victor was forced to sit near the front, a few desks away from Teresa, while Mr. Bueller wrote French words on the chalkboard. The bell rang, and Mr. Bueller wiped his hands, turned to the class, and said, “Bonjour.”
“Bonjour,” braved a few students.
“Bonjour” Victor whispered. He wondered if Teresa heard him.
Mr. Bueller said that if the students studied hard, at the end of the year they could go to France and be understood by the populace.
One kid raised his hand and asked, “‘What’s ‘populace’?”
"The people, the people of France.”
Mr. Bueller asked if anyone knew French. Victor raised his hand, wanting to impress Teresa. The teacher beamed and said, “Tres bien. Parlez-vous francais?”
Victor didn’t know what to say. The teacher wet his lips and asked something else in French. The room grew silent. Victor felt all eyes staring at him. He tried to bluff his way out by making noises that sounded French.
“La me vave me con le grandma,” he said uncertainly.
Mr. Bueller, wrinkling his face in curiosity, asked him to speak up. Great rosebushes of red bloomed on Victor’s cheeks. A river of nervous sweat ran down his palms. He felt awful. Teresa sat a few desks away, no doubt thinking he was a fool. Without looking at Mr. Bueller, Victor mumbled, ‘Frenchie oh wewe gee in September.”
Mr. Bueller asked Victor to repeat what he said.
“Frenchie oh wewe gee in September," Victor repeated.
Mr. Bueller understood that the boy didn’t know French and turned away. He walked to the blackboard and pointed to the words on the board with his steel-edged ruler.
"Le bateau,” he sang.
“Le bateau,” the students repeated.
"Le bateau est sur l’eau,” he sang.
“Le bateau est sur l’eau.”
Victor was too weak from failure to join the class. He stared at the board and wished he had taken Spanish, not French. Better yet, he wished he could start his life over. He had never been so embarrassed. He bit his thumb until he tore off a sliver of skin.
The bell sounded for fifth period, and Victor shot out of the room, avoiding the stares of the other kids, but had to return for his math book. He looked sheepishly at the teacher, who was erasing the board, then widened his eyes in terror at Teresa who stood in front of him. “I didn’t know you knew French,”she said. “That was good.”
Mr. Bueller looked at Victor, and Victor looked back. Oh please, don’t say anything, Victor pleaded with his eyes. I’ll wash your car, mow your lawn, walk your dog--anything! I'll be your best student, and I’ll clean your erasers after school.
Mr. Bueller shuffled through the papers on his desk, He smiled and hummed as he sat down to work. He remembered his college years when he dated a girlfriend in borrowed cars. She thought he was rich because each time he picked her up he had a different car. It was fun until he had spent all his money on her and had to write home to his parents because he was broke.
Victor couldn’t stand to look at Teresa. He was sweaty with shame. “Yeah, well, I picked up a few things from movies and books and stuff like that.” They left the class together. Teresa asked him if he would help her with her French.
"Sure, anytime,” Victor said.
“I won’t be bothering you, will I?”
"Oh no, I like being bothered.”
“Bonjour,”Teresa said, leaving him outside her next class. She smiled and pushed wisps of hair from her face.
"Yeah, right, bonjour,” Victor said. He turned and headed to his class. The rosebuds of shame on his face became bouquets of love. Teresa is a great girl, he thought. And Mr. Bueller is a good guy.
He raced to metal shop. After metal shop there was biology, and after biology a long sprint to the public library, where he checked out three French textbooks.
He was going to like seventh grade.

Grade 10: World History: Tasksheet 2: Book page 614-617

1- What two mistakes did James I commit of his own accord, and which problem did he inherit from his cousin Queen Elizabeth I? 614
2- What was Charles I's first mistake when he took over the throne? 614
3- How did Parliament punish Charles I for dissolving it? 614
4-What decreased Charles I's popularity even more? 614
5- What were the three Christian sects in England? 615
6- What Christian sect did the Scottish people follow? 615
7-How did Charles I corner himself a second time, allowing Parliament to have the upper hand?
615
8-How did events in England ascent to a climax that ultimately led to the Civil War? 615
9-What were the names of the two opponents in the English Civil War? Who was each group loyal to? 615
10-Who was the general that tipped the scale in favour of the Roundheads? 615
11- "Cromwell never learnt from the previous monarchs' mostakes and history repeated itself all over again." Do you agree with the former statement? Support your answer with evidence. 615
12- What developments occured happened in 1647, 1649 and 1660? Why was each concidered a turning point in English History? 615,616
13- How many years did the Commonwealth last? 615,616
14- What were the two mistakes that King James II commit? 616
15- What event triggered the Glorious Revolution? 616

Parliament chamber from the inside: WOW!

This is where MPs meet to debate Bills and pass Laws!

Parliament Chambers from the inside out

Grade 10: World HIstory: British Parliament Today

The two chambers for the House of Lords and the House of Commons meet in Westminister Palace. Note the clock with the most famous bell in the world; Big Ben.

Edgar Allan POe's version of Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses and all the king's men
couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again

Isn't that how the cute nursery rhyme used to go? ... Well, not for the horrifically morbid Poe...