First and seventh periods had another informal practice PASS. We are participating in the Great American Mail race, and students wrote their first letters today. (First, seventh period finished up the work from yesterday regarding subject-verb agreement.)

Second period began a new unit by writing about the perfect world.

Fourth period began Great Expectations. We went through a short exercise in parsing to help students become comfortable with Dickens’ style. I’ve also uploaded a short glossary for students to use while reading Great Expectations.

Lastly, the Greenville County School District Board of Trustees passed the following resolution.

Whereas, South Carolina is experiencing a severe economic crisis that is significantly impacting state revenue and has resulted in General Fund budget cuts totaling $484 million to South Carolina’s K-12 public schools during the past two fiscal years including a cut of more than $42 million to Greenville County Schools General Fund budget; and

Whereas, These budget cuts have reduced the base student cost to $1,764 per student, reflecting 1996-1997 funding levels[. …]

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE GREENVILLE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF TRUSTEES, DOES HEREBY STRONGLY URGE the South Carolina General Assembly to support public schools during this economic crisis and prevent the loss of more teacher jobs by providing new revenue streams such as removing some of the more than $2.8 billion in State sales tax exemptions. […]

The complete original is available at the GCS web site.

Homework

• First period: turn in journals Monday, March 15.
• Second period: none.
• Fourth period:
  • read chapter two from Great Expectations;
  • complete number two from sentence parsing worksheet;
  • write reader’s response journal entry for chapters one and two (prompts are here); and
  • work on Shakespeare soundtrack project.