Designs for a Dollar

Check out this website, where Pratt Institute students designed beautiful furniture, lighting, and decorative pieces using materials costing less than a dollar.

We tend to believe that good things, or more valuable things, tend to be more expensive, but a bit of creative thinking will take you a long way!

Think about the kinds of connections these design students had to make in order to come up with the beautiful shapes they created for these pieces (like a sweater sleeve and a juice bottle to make a light fixture). Thinking creatively means bringing strange, seemingly different and disparate ideas together to make something new (like portmanteaus!).

Weekend Journals

All sections:

We will begin reading Alice in Wonderland in the coming week. One of the most important characteristics of this text is Lewis Carroll's use of dream logic. Indeed, we discover very quickly that the rules of the real world don't really apply in Wonderland.

Over the weekend, write two "dream journals" (one for each day). Try to notice your dreams. What happened? Who was in it? What was unusual about the landscape, the people, and the conversation you may have had? Did you visit strange places? Were ythe people not who you thought they were? If you can't remember you dreams exactly, don't fret! Go ahead and just make it up! As always, let you imagination go; don't edit yourself! The stranger, the better.

Journal for the day

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Freewrite!

(When you see this on the board, rejoice! You get to write about anything, anything you want! You can write a story, a poem, a rant on something that's on your mind, comment on a movie you saw, or start writing your own script. In short, let your imagination fly! The possibilities are truly endless)

Homework (due 9/18)

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Today in class we talked about Lewis Carroll's poem "The Jabberwocky." This is a classic of English nonsense poetry, where Carroll makes liberal use of portmanteaus.

A portmanteau is a word made up of other words squished together. You've probably seen some of these in your experience.

For example, chocoholic is a smush of alcoholic and chocolate, meaning that a person is addicted to chocolate. Another more pop-culture related one in Brangelina (mush of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie). A telethon is telephone and marathon. Chillax (you'll make fun of me for bringing this one up) is chill and relax. So you see that we use portmanteaus in our language all the time!

For homework, come up with five of your own portmanteaus and write a poem or a short story which uses these invented words! At the top of your page, write down your portmanteaus and define them, explaining which words you smushed together. Have fun with this assignment, and take the opportunity to experiment with words and meaning.

Journal for the day

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How do you feel when you don't get what you expect?

Vocabulary Quiz Tomorrow!!!

There will be a vocabulary quiz on Friday. You can use the comments section of this post to exchange good definitions and share some of your sentences. Help each other out!

1. Inquisitive
2. Lamasery
3. Devised
4. Permutation
5. Aeries
6. Parapet
7. Vertiginous
8. Swoop
9. Morosely
10. Gibberish
11. Inexorably
12. Obscure
13. Manna
14. Blasphemy
15. Sabotage
16. Incessant
17. Savoring
18. Ebullience

Seating Chart

As promised, here is the seating chart. Effective immediately.

				Shana
							Stefani		Brian
Tiara		Nala					Victor		Tybria
				Shannen	Treece
Sky O.		Darrell					Reginald		Shae
Malik		Jaque		Jonathan	Steffany		Steven		Isaac
Kejohna		Briana		Mary	Skye B.		Danielle		Abdo
10-2
				Alexia	Isaiah
							Elizabeth		Morgan
Naya		Jeffrey					Ivory		Chynna
				Shaheem	Dominic
Sasha		Taquasia					Kbudah		Tiffany
Natasha		Shaina		Destiny	Ineyda		Jhai		T-Milly
Javonte		Darryl		Breanna	Janiece		Princess		Kendall
10-3
				Shaniqua	Akeem
Cordell		Sadio					Sion		Ticquan
Naila		Kia					Manny		Stephanie
				Taniesha	Sade
Marcus		Janay					Latisha		Zakiyah
Christina		Rellly		Sayquan	Raven		Amari		Krisbill
Jocelyn		Brandon		Scrappy	Malik		Brandasia		Comar
10-4
					Vonia
Dot		Myelle					Lizandro
				Shanequa	Michelle
Kadijah		Angelina					Kevin		Najee
		Danny					Joey		Solomon
Tayja				Raphael	Deury
		Jeremy		Manny	Terrance		Jesse		Denver