Happy New Year!

As I write, there is less than 12 hours left in 2009. I wonder what the new year will bring? Happiness? Sadness? What successes will I have? What trials or struggles will I face? Will the Chicago Cubs win the World Series in 2o1o? New Year's Day is the perfect time to reflect on the past and ponder the unknown future we are about to experience.

Many people like to make resolutions on New Year's Day. These are goals they resolve, or promise, to do better or differently. My New Year's resolution is to exercise more in the coming year. What is your New Year's resolution?

Happy New Year! I look forward to seeing you again in a few days.

Oh yes, and....Go State, Beat Tigers!

Yellow Power!!!

Sev-enth Grade! Sev-enth Grade! Sev-enth Grade!

Bravo to all who competed and cheered on the 7th grade representatives in the Winter Olympics today! You guys were awesome! You wore YELLOW, were loud and enthusiastic as a class, and competed without fear on the court.

• Team 2nd place in the spoon race!
• Megan A took silver in knock-out.
• Johnny P takes the gold in musical chairs!

You were one tug-of-war win away from taking 2nd place overall. Believe me, the school is talking about the 7th grade!

Check out the Sun-Gazette photo gallery from the Winter Olympics.

SNOW DAY!!!

Hope you all are enjoying your day off mid-week. How are you spending your snow day? I slept in, made pancakes, and then shoveled snow. I'm about to take an online test for my graduate class. They say it is going to take three hours...yuck!

Enjoy your day off, but not too much! Don't forget the Unit 4 map test tomorrow, and that your Unit 4 wikis are due Friday.

See you back tomorrow!

My Weekend

What a weekend of highs and lows. Went to the dentist. (low) Didn't have any cavities. (high) Got Penn State tickets for the big game this weekend and had great seats. (high) Penn State got crushed. (very low) The weather was awesome all weekend (high), which meant I had to rake the leaves before it rains again and they get embedded into the grass (low). Raking leaves: could this be another example of human-environment interaction? I think so.

Hope you all had weekends full of highs and not many lows! Excited to see you all on Monday, except of course for all you Buckeye fans (ahem, Balawajder and Mistretta).


Mrs. Rodgers raking leaves. She looks a little too happy.

Jr. High Costume Day

Lets give a shout out to all the students who dressed up for Jr. High Costume Day today. By my estimation, we had over 75% of the 7th grade dress up today, along with almost half of the 8th grade. There were many great costumes. Here were a couple of my favorites, or at least the ones I was able to catch up with for a picture: Michael Jackson and the Zombie Dancers, the Greasers (from The Outsiders), and a scary clown and Troy Palamalu.

H-EI Update

How are your human-environment interactions coming as you and your families prepare for winter? My wife and I lowered our storm windows this weekend. Then, with the help of our fathers and our friend Mike, we completed a major task by adding insulation to the attic of our home this weekend. My friend Mike and I had to crawled into the crawl space behind the finished walls in our attic. Then my father and father in-law passed insulation to us so that we could insulate the floor and walls behind it. You can see how tight the space was in the picture. All told, Mike and I were in the crawl space for about 5 hours!

Blogging Updates and Reminders

I had 82 blog posts when I returned to school today. That's awesome! Here are a few tips and reminders:

• You can now enter blogs at school! Oh happy day!!
• Remember that blog entries will not appear until I approve them. Also remember that I cannot, and will not, approve everyone's entry for every week. Check back to read the entries from the week before and see if yours was selected.
• Make sure you enter your first name and last initial. Someone entered "anonymous" for a post last week. Since I do not know the identity of that person, I cannot give them credit.
• Only certain blogs are being graded. Those are the ones that begin "Week 1", "Week 2", etc. You can respond to any of the blogs, but I only grade the responses to the weekly posts.
• Spelling and grammar will begin to count very soon! Be sure you are practicing proper grammar and English skills on the blogs.
• Finally, you can only respond to the blog for THAT WEEK. Meaning, once Week 4 is over, you cannot respond to that blog any longer. This may sound harsh, but it makes it very difficult for me to grade otherwise. The dates are posted at the top of each blog post in order to help you keep this straight. Only respond to the most recent blog.

It's good to be back and blogging once again. If you have any questions about blogging, please ask me in class, or post them to the comments section for this post. I look forward to continuing to read your posts.

FULLY OPERATIONAL!

My blog is now fully operational and accessible at school!!! Mara tested it out after school to confirm. I think I heard the Hallelujah chorus being sung as the blog opened on her screen. Students may now blog at will.

Students will be permitted to respond late to Week 1 and Week 2 blogs. Now that all students can view the blog at school, you will only receive credit for responses that are posted within each calendar week. The Week 3 blog will be posted on Sunday.

Have a great weekend; see you Monday!

Great Start!

We're all off to a great start this year. I've had 45 students, plus Mrs. Roberts, respond to the blog so far. That's incredible! Nice job everyone!

It's still not too late to respond to the blog for Week 1. You have until Sunday to leave a comment. Make sure you completely respond to the blog though. Partial entries will not earn you full credit.

Is anyone having problems with the blog or with the new moodle site? Do you have your new social studies notebook, or plans to get a notebook by tomorrow? Is anyone still nervous or confused about any of the new "stuff" here at the high school--lockers, schedules, expectations? Please let me know if you do.

S.O.U.T.H.

After a year of using the S.O.U.T.H. incentive program, how does the S.O.U.T.H. program affect your actions and behaviors in school? Also, explain how it outlines the expectations teachers have for you in school.

Welcome Back!

The beginning of the school year is still almost two weeks away, but I am already getting ready. I am very excited to be starting my second year at South. I have a new curriculum, new textbooks, new computers, and a new blog! Not to mention new students. We will be starting the year with world geography. Let me know what you are looking forward to learning this year.

End of the Year--One Final Test

My FIRST blog post: wow, my thoughts are now digital. That's right, Mr. Rodgers is now digital, baby! This will undoubtedly go down as a momentous day in history--June 3, 2009.

As I've said many times, this year's students are my test pilots; my beloved guinea pigs. I'm hoping you will help me out with one more test run this year by responding to this blog.

1) What was the best part about 7th grade social studies?
2) What was your favorite activity, or favorite topic we talked about this year? What topic are you still wanting to know more about?
3) What advise would you give to next year's 7th graders on how to succeed in Mr. Rodgers' class?

Have a wonderful summer! Come back and see me next year.