A letter from my coworker to the parents of students at Mark R Isfeld

November 15, 2012

Dear Parents,

As we are nearing the end of November, students in English classes have been busy preparing speeches/ted talks, spoken word poetry, and music to present at Mark R. Isfeld’s Second Annual Humanities Week at their very own Model TEDx conference. This will happen on Nov. 30 at 1 pm-3:30 pm in the Multipurpose room.

Your son or daughter may be involved with this event, and if so, we are inviting you to attend on Nov 30. Just show up at the Multipurpose Room at 1 pm to see students ‘celebrate the humanities’ by presenting their hard work.

Secondly, we are hosting, the next day, (Dec. 1) our second annual TEDx conference, also in the multipurpose room. This year is looking to be an even more fabulous event than our 2011 edition as we are taking part in a worldwide TEDxWomen event that is happening in over 140 locations around the world - we will have live speakers at our event as well as live-streaming from some inspiring and intriguing speakers from the TEDxWomen mothership event in Washington, DC.

One speaker, Marianne Elliott, is the author of the book Zen Under Fire: Finding Peace in the Midst of War (Penguin NZ, coming in US & Canada, June 2013), the story of her experience as a human rights monitor in Afghanistan. She is even coming from as far away as New Zealand to speak at our school, passing up an opportunity to speak in New York at the same event!

Space is limited for Dec. 1 and you need to sign up online. All the details and the form for tickets can be found at http://tedxisfeld.com . There is no cost, but you must sign up for this part of the event.
Looking forward to seeing you there! Please email me if you have any questions.

Jodie Zuccato
English Teacher
Writing Coach
Mark R. Isfeld School

Ah, how time flies when report cards are due.  Yes, report cards are coming home Monday, please watch for them.

Humanities 9
Task 6 should be done at this time.  We will be working on tasks 7-10 next week and the week after that is assembly time for our books and then the project will be due Dec 3.  I won't take any late assignments, students will hand in what they have finished on Dec 3 and I will mark them as is.  My hope is to have all of these projects marked before the Winter Break...then no one has homework over the break, including me.

Socials 11
We are finishing up our work on The Second World War.  The notes and review packages were due today.  The test will be on Wednesday.  I will hold a study session in my room (401) on Tuesday at lunch.  I'm available every Friday at lunch for extra help.

Have a great weekend!