I taught from the TM but typed up and printed out all of the poems on separate paper. I added blank lines somewhere on the page where they could write a reflection on how the poem made them feel or what was interesting to them. I also added a blank box where they could draw a picture of what they visualized when they read/heard the poem. At the end of they year we bound these, along with some poems they wrote themselves, trying some of the techniques in the book. We also kept notebooks where they added definitions and examples for different terms/elements as they came up in the book. This was just a section in our language arts notebook.

We have used calculators starting in Algebra 2: 1) When working with exponents and logarithms. At the very end of the unit I taught them how to use the different calculator functions. They were also allowed to use them on application problems like exponential growth and decay, future value of money problems, etc. 2) When working with trig functions, after we had spent a lot of time working with special right triangles and exact values. 3) At other times when solving applied word problems where the numbers would be cumbersome to work with and not using a calculator would detract from the skills I wanted them to focus on. Or where having a decimal approximation made more sense than leaving the answer in radical form, etc.

Thanks so much!! ❤️

Thanks! I’m looking through the course descriptions.

I voted a B for the first and a C for the second. Student X could have easily received an A if they had just checked their work. Student Y is missing some foundational concepts.

I see; that is unfortunate but it makes sense.

Thanks Lori. I didn’t mean that the instruction would only take place during a few weeks in the summer, just that being away from my family for 2-3 weeks at a time would probably be workable, with the rest of the work happening at home. This program definitely sounds interesting. I am adding it to my list! I would want to take some more entry-level English and writing courses first before I’d be ready to apply to a program like this. Thanks for the other resources as well! I will look into them.

This looks very interesting, thanks!

That’s really too bad that the online instruction is lacking, especially since it seems that English and writing are areas where online instruction could actually work well. I hope you find a solution and are able to keep going with your studies.

I’ve only taught Latin, but I feel that sentence diagramming helps a lot, because the location of each noun in a diagram gives away its case. My more analytical daughter actually enjoyed diagramming sentences. We did quite a bit in second and third grade.

Honestly, I would really love to do this certificate program that is offered through Oxford’s continuing education school. https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/about/undergraduate-certificate-of-higher-education I could do a mix of English literature and creative writing courses, either online or as 1-3 week summer classes at Oxford. There is also a Foundation Certificate in English Lit that is a set two-year program. It includes 4 live 3-hour sessions and two one-on-one tutorials per session. https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/about/foundation-certificate-in-english-literature Do you think there is a chance a master’s program might accept one of these certificates (they amount to the first 1/3 of a bachelor’s degree, from what I can tell) to cover the requirement for previous work in the major?

I saw you added to your response. 12 units is nearly halfway! I will probably only be able to take a max of 6 units per semester and maybe another 3-6 over the summer, so it will likely be a couple years before I start master’s level work. Are you taking classes at a school that you might stay at for the master’s? There are a few universities near me but they aren’t really highly ranked. But I could commute an hour (maybe more) each way to take classes during the summer at a good university. If I don’t need a bachelor’s degree, then maybe for my lower-level work I would be able to do a mix of in-person locally during the summer and online during the school year at a couple different schools...

Re: credit hours, that is good to know. Some of the bachelor’s programs I looked at say they will transfer in up to 90 units of previous coursework, so the requirements might end up being similar to needing 30 credit hours in the field of study to apply for the master’s degree. But not needing a bachelor’s degree first might help simplify things. Hopefully within that preliminary coursework I will be able to produce some good writing samples, because I don’t have much to offer at the moment. I’ll try searching “low residence” and see what I come up with. That’s a great idea and I think a 2-3 week summer course would be doable, and it would be nice to have some sort of in-person aspect. As for publication, I don’t expect the degree to help, but hopefully my skills and confidence will improve through the process! I have so many ideas but lack the needed execution skills. I am also highly analytical and can’t get past wanting to immediately edit my work. I need to develop my process and learn from experienced writers. And if all that comes from the degree is being able to feel good about what I have produced (whether it is published or not), I’d be content with that. Thank you for the reply.

Thanks, everyone, for all of the input. She ended up deciding on the smaller school. I have a feeling that if we had moved forward with the larger school, the credits would have ended up working out. But she felt such a strong connection with the smaller school’s program and campus that we decided it was worth the extra money it would take to send her there. And after more discussions with a few of her dance instructors, it does seem that the quality of the smaller school’s dance program is higher as well. She’s excited for fall and I am relieved that a decision has been made! 😅

I am thinking about returning to school to get an English degree. I’m looking for a 100% online program and would like to eventually end up with a master’s degree. I already have a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, earned around 20 years ago (yep, feeling old...). Do I need to start by getting a second bachelor’s in English? Or can I go straight into a master’s program? I have done a lot of self-study and have taught American and British Literature with a fair amount of success at co-ops and private schools. I have also taught argumentative writing and am helping to develop a 7-12 grade writing curriculum. But I don’t have much formal English education. My goals would be to be able to teach writing and literature at the community college or high school level, as well as to hone my own fiction and non-fiction writing skills and hopefully publish some work someday. I am really hoping for a high quality program with peers that care about learning and not just checking off requirements to earn a degree. I want deep discussions and lots of feedback. Most of the reviews and rankings I’m coming across are focused on affordability, flexibility, and speed with no mention of the quality of the instruction. Am I just out of luck finding an online program with the characteristics I am looking for? So far I have found a few options that seem worth looking into. These are for bachelor’s degrees, but SNHU also has an online master’s degree. University of Massachusetts Lowell https://gps.uml.edu/degrees/undergrad/online-bachelors-english-degree.cfm Southern New Hampshire University https://www.snhu.edu/online-degrees/bachelors/creative-writing I have also looked at Harvard’s extension school and even the UK’s Open University. These programs look interesting also.... Any suggestions?

Our Italian greyhound has a serious prey drive. She wasn’t even a year old yet when she killed a rabbit in our backyard, brought it into the house, and left it on the couch for us. 🤢 Since then she has caught another rabbit and a squirrel. Poor squirrel tried to squeeze through a hole in the fence but didn’t fit. It was rather traumatic. 😓

Dh had Covid. He was very tired for a couple days and had a fever. Then a cough that lasted a couple weeks. He isolated and the rest of us quarantined ourselves in one half of the house. None of us got it. We tested when his test came back positive and again a week later - all negative.

Taco bar with rice and beans for sides.

I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot. I would love to see churches put more emphasis on serving their communities and not just serving the church body with a community outreach project thrown in here and there. I would love to attend a church that focused on community service as its main mission.

I agree with the others. I would test at 5 days after exposure unless she shows symptoms before that. If she is negative, no one else needs to test. If she is positive, you and other dd should test as soon as you get those positive results. If you want to be extra cautious, you could test again at day 10 just to be safe since kids are likely to be asymptomatic. When dh had Covid, I went back to work a week after his fever was gone. The rest of us got tested when his symptoms showed up (negative) and again 5 days later (also negative). We quarantined a total of 10 days (he only had a fever for 2 days). He isolated and no one else in the family got it. Not sure about your area, but test results where I live are coming back next day now, which is really nice.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/world/pfizer-covid-vaccine-young-teens.html Pfizer has already applied! I agree that @Corraleno’s posts are always informative and much appreciated!

Ok, thanks. My only other experience with this was at the smaller university, where the admission advisor put us in touch with a transfer advisor that got back to us the next day with course equivalencies for all of dd's classes, and then ran everything by the ballet and math departments for us. I realize now that this is not the norm! Because dd really wants to be able to double major in four years, and can't do that without transfer credits, it sounds like this has become a relatively more important issue for us. Thanks. I do understand the dilemma and realize my expectations were a bit high. It just isn't making our decision-making process very easy! At any rate, it feels like the small school will offer her a lot of support in navigating this, and at the state school she would be more on her own to make things work. The credits might all transfer just fine, but we'd be dealing with uncertainty.

We've made a little progress on transfer credits. The registrar told her to input her classes into the the online transfer system (the one that the website said in-state students should use). So we did that, and it gave equivalencies for three of her twelve CC classes. The other nine are not in the system and might count but will need to be reviewed. Sent screenshots of that info to the registrar and they basically said that the review process would not be happening right now, but that she could make an appointment to talk to a transfer advisor. We'll see if they will talk to her; the advising site says that appointments are only for students who have gone through orientation. Do students really commit to schools without knowing if any of their credits will transfer?

She has from the smaller school. A friend a couple years older than her from our studio is currently there and loves it. I’ve also connected with a mom there and asked her a lot of questions. We don’t know anyone at the larger school, but she was connected with a dancer there through Instagram and has asked her a couple questions. It’s hard because everyone seems to have only positive things to say. I know the performances won’t give much info on class style, but they will give an idea of the rep she’d be auditioning for/performing, and that’s important to her too. She loves story ballets and there are a lot of programs that don’t do them much anymore, or will just do excerpts here and there. She likes contemporary ballet, and modern, but would like to balance that with traditional rep.

I wish she had been able to audition in person. 😭 Covid really made this a challenge. She was able to visit small school and the dance department, and was supposed to observe class, but classes ended up being cancelled that day due to a performance, which was a bummer. We were able to watch a couple recent virtual performances from this year and those were very impressive and in line with the type of rep that she would like to perform. So she at least was able to do that. For the audition she had to record herself doingset combinations that they provided a recording of using one of their students. They were challenging and she enjoyed them even though it meant doing a specific 30 minute audition video just for this one particular school. So, she has some idea of the style of their training and has liked what she’s seen so far. But no opportunities to take class, which is part of the reason why the decision is so hard. She doesn’t have a clear idea of large school’s style of training or rep. They seem to be more ABT/American but eclectic. Their faculty definitely come from a wider range of training backgrounds and there has been more turnover in their faculty (small school’s instructors all have the same background and there is hardly any turnover). She hasn’t been able to find any recent performances to watch. When she reaches out to the ballet department she will definitely ask if there are any performances available for viewing or if there are any opportunities to observe class. The audition for this one was just a list of steps she needed to execute and she put the combinations together herself, so no real feel for what class would be like.