Happy Halloween!

Here are some pumpkins that my friends and I carved!





And, if you're looking for some Halloween-y reading, try this:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

A couple of great blogs...

It's really easy to start a blog!

Here's a great one about books, written by a fifteen-year-old from Seattle.

Book Crumbs

And, this one's by a woman who likes food, books and travel. She reviews all kinds of different books, and has a really interesting perspective. She also includes a lot of links to additional interesting blogs...

A Foodie Bibliophile in Wanderlust

"The Lottery"--a pretty disturbing story...

"The Lottery" is a short story that was written by Shirley Jackson in 1948. There have been some film versions made, including this one from 1969--an "educational film."

English 12: Books we recommend

A quick conversation after independent reading today yielding the following list of books we've read recently, or maybe a long time ago, that we really liked and think other people might like, too!


We'll update this list throughout the year, with more recommendations...


Before I Die by Jenny Downham
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Holes by Louis Sachar
So Far from the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Monster by Walter Dean Myers
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Stephen Colbert reads "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury

Public Radio International's show Selected Shorts is pretty awesome. On it, famous people read great short stories. Here is a reading, by Stephen Colbert, of Ray Bradbury's short story "The Veldt."

Part One


Part Two


Part Three

Get me into college, part 2!

Here are a couple more sites to take a look at as you write your essays. The College Board generally recommends that your admissions essay is around 500 words, while other sites say 600-900 words. A good goal is an essay that's a page long, single spaced. You don't want the admissions folks to have to read for a long time; they'll only have a few minutes to read yours, so you want it to be awesome.

Here's the site from the College Board (you know, those SAT folks) that talks about essay writing.

And here's a pretty interesting and useful site from Teen Ink that also talks about essay writing.

Have ideas about the economy and about the arts/arts education?

The folks at the White House have kicked off a series of Tuesday Talks, where they're hosting live chats about current issues. You can find out more information here. Today's topics are the economy and the arts and arts and humanities education. Get involved in the conversation, or read the transcripts. You can even ask questions on Facebook!

Get me into college!

In class, you'll be working on your college application essays. Even if you're applying to a school that doesn't require an essay, or you're not planning to apply to college yet, you'll still write an essay for class. The skills of writing a personal essay are important--personal essays are all about choosing the right topic, writing clearly, and writing with voice.

There are a lot of resources out there about writing the college admissions essay. There's no easy answer; there's not one way to do it. You'll want to read some examples, and then you'll want to spend a lot of time writing drafts, editing drafts, and fine-tuning your essay before you start mailing it off.

Here's a pretty solid resource for college admissions essays/personal essay writing. Here, you'll find tips and models that might be helpful for you as you write your own.

Here's a link to the forms for the Common App. You can find the essay questions if you click on the "Application (student form) only" PDF and look to page 4.

Good luck!