Wouter “Wally” De Backer (born 21 May 1980), also known professionally by his stage name Gotye, is a Belgian-Australian multi-instrumental musician and singer-songwriter. He has released three studio albums independently and one remix album featuring remixes of tracks from his first two albums. De Backer is also one-third of Melbourne indie-pop band The Basics, who have independently released three studio albums and numerous other titles since 2002. You can hear his most recent single “Someone I Use to Know” by clicking on the player below.

Mr. McClung

On Friday we had a little bit of spare time on our hands, since we recently finished up our study of the trail of tears, so we had some fun with poetry and history. I gave my students the assignment of coming up with Haiku’s about the Trail of Tears. Each period had some great entries that were both amusing and serious…much like the submission from Jack in the video above.

Of course once we finished with our real Haiku’s, we then had a little bit of fun by creating Haiku’s about non-sense topics. Check out Chase and Isabelle in the video above.

Mr. McClung

Lesson One – LMS

Monday was a tough day at school. Not necessarily because anything bad happened, but mainly due to what was going on outside…snow. Several school districts around us had closed due to road conditions, however we did not and that did not set well with the kids. We had many absences that day and therefore made teaching class very difficult. So I did what any self respecting teacher would do, I spent a large majority of the class ranting about Facebook and my own personal pet peeves…a airing of grievances, if you will. Of course this got a lot of traction with my kids and they were very vocal about their own pet peeves as well.

Lesson Two – Final Stand

Last night was the final home game for our Woodland boys basketball team, and it was quite a game. The 9th grade team played one of the best teams in the conference and won the game on a last second shot. It was an great final home stand for this group of 9th graders and you can see the last second shot by clicking here.

Lesson Three – Presidential Treatment

We will not be in school on Monday due to President’s Day. So rejoice, sleep in, and play Xbox…I know I will.

Mr. McClung

Students, here are your three discussion questions for today’s Three Things Thursday…

• Why do you think that the international community is concerned about Iran’s nuclear program?
• What’s one reason for tension between China and the U.S.? How could diplomatic missions impact trade between the two countries?
• According to the program, under what conditions do students at a charter school in Ohio get paid? What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of this plan? How do you think that parents and students might react to this idea? Do you think that paying students to attend school is a good idea?

Mr. McClung

Students, today we will continue our conversations about early politics in Arkansas, Indian removal, and the road to statehood.

Mr. McClung

Today in class we continued our conversations about the early territorial period in Arkansas and we took a few notes…shocker. In an effort to switch up our normal routine of taking notes we changed up our style just a bit. Today we used a Kagan learning strategy called expert groups. Their guided reading notes were divided up into four sections and students were numbered off and placed into one of four groups. Once in their groups they would then be given a section of the notes to work on and become “experts” on that specific section.

Upon finishing the work with their expert groups, students were then placed into heterogeneous groups and asked to teach their newly found information to everyone else in the group. The idea is that students become an expert in one section then have to use listening skills to learn the sections that they do not have.

Mr. McClung

In my AVID class we have been discussing the recent debates about the Alabama immigration law. In class we took some time to listen to a podcast from This American Life about these laws and I thought I would share the story on our blog.

Mr. McClung

As we continue to move forward with our study of Arkansas history, we now begin to enter the portion of history that deals with Arkansas becoming a territory. For the past two days we have discussed the boundaries that were established by the Missouri Compromise in regards to slavery in the US. The Missouri compromise had three major components:

• Missouri would enter the Union as a slave state.
• Maine would enter as a free state, and any state entering the Union after this point as a slave state would have to enter with a free state in order to maintain balance.
• All the land that was included in the Louisiana Purchase would be a free states, expect for Missouri.

The Missouri Compromise not only had a major impact on state boundaries but it also prolonged slavery in the US as well by allowing southern states to continue to own slaves.

Mr. McClung

Yesterday in class we took some time to discuss the New Madrid Fault Line that is located in northeast Arkansas and southeast Missouri. This fault line is still active and it is thought that back in the early 1800′s the line produced an earthquake of an 8.0 magnitude. In order to show my students the seismic activity in this region I introduced them to the USGS site that measures such activity all over the world. The site is a great tool for anyone that is teaching science, but it also adequately fits the need for this lesson.

Mr. McClung

Elizabeth Woolridge Grant (born June 21, 1986), better known by her stage name Lana Del Rey, is an American singer/songwriter. Grant was born in New York City and grew up in Lake Placid, New York. When she was 15, she attended Kent School, a boarding school in Connecticut. She is the daughter of domain investor Rob Grant, who supported her in her early career as a singer. Del Rey attended Fordham University in New York City. She has released two albums, including her most recent “Born to Die”. She has received tons of buzz for her style of music and her song “Video Games” has been covered by many other artist. You can hear the original version of this song by clicking on the player below.

Mr. McClung

Today we will be discussing the art of writing a strongly worded letter. Today the topic of your letter will be in response to the journal entry of Schoolcraft and his response to Arkansans. For the sake of this activity, we will say that his journal entry was published in a local newspaper (1820ish) and you respond by writing a letter to the editor…bonus for style points.

Mr. McClung

Lesson One – Spirit Week, pt. Duex

As the basketball season starts to draw to a close, this next week with be our last spirit week of the year. We will play our cross-town rivals, Ramay, next Thursday…and to get ready we will have themed days each day next week. Monday will be blue and white day, Tuesday is Red and Pink day, Wednesday is mix-match day, Thursday is Duct-Tape day, and Friday is purple day.

Lesson Two – Track Weather

Here in Arkansas we have experienced unseasonably harm weather lately…and it is really messing up my track season. Trying to plan for track practice is really difficult when you have 60 degree weather one day and 20 degrees the next day. I suppose the moral of this lesson is that I’m ready for spring and some more consistent weather patterns.

Lesson Three – Catchy Headlines

In the past two days conversations at school have been dominated by recent accusations of a school administrator at another school in our district. In class we talk about the media quite a bit and how they may over sensationalize from time to time to make a catchy headline. Today I just want to remind everyone to look beyond the headlines a bit and try to obtain reliable information because sometimes headlines can be misleading…have a great weekend.

Mr. McClung

Today we will be going back to the early days of the exploration of the Louisiana Purchase and we will be talking about explorers that visited Arkansas during that time period…more specifically, we will be discussing the journey of Henry Schoolcraft. Schoolcraft was a New Yorker who toured Arkansas in 1819 and wrote about his experience with early Arkansans:

Schools are…unknown, and no species of learning cultivated. Children are wholly ignorant of the knowledge of books, and have not learned even the rudiments of their own tongue. Thus situated, without moral restraint, brought up in the uncontrolled indulgence of every passion and without a regard of religion, the state of society among the rising generation in this region is truly deplorable. In their childish disputes, boys frequently stab each other with knives, two instances of which have occurred since our residence here. No correction was administered in either case, the act being rather looked upon as promising trait of character. They begin to assert their independence as soon as they can walk, and by the time they have reached the age of fourteen, have completely learned the use of rifle, the arts of trapping beaver and otter, killing the bear, deer, and buffalo, and dressing skins making mockasons and leather clothes.

Quite the glowing review…today in class we are going to take a look at this passage and dissect it in three questions (it is a Thursday after all).

1. What was Schoolcraft’s opinion of Arkansas during the territorial years?
2. What act did Schoolcraft describe as “a promising trait of character”? Did he agree with this practice and do you support his stance?
3. What does he say most 14 year old boys know how to do? Is this a good or bad thing in your opinion?

Mr. McClung

Here we go, today we will be discussing the Republican nomination, honoring veterans, and old people in arcades…get pumped.

Mr. McClung

Goal One: Beat Ramay...In Every Meet.

Try-out dates for the 2012 Woodland Cross Country Team have been announced. Try-outs will be held May 1-3 from 3:45 to 4:30. These try-outs are for incoming 7th, 8th, or 9th graders who have not ran for Woodland before. Students that are currently on the XC roster need not attend the try-out dates. If you have any questions about XC try-outs or track try-outs please contact me.

Mr. McClung

Today in class we took some time to debrief about our test from the previous day and analysis the data just a little bit. The image above is of a screen shot of the test data that I shared with my students today. We looked at the concept of a bell curve and how we fit into those confines. We discussed that by looking at the bell curve we can create further discussions about test scores and differences that may exist from class to class.

Mr. McClung

Students, today you will take your unit 1 test in Arkansas History. Don’t forget about your essay questions…one of them being how a bill is created.

Mr. McClung

Recently we finished our city projects using the Glogster website. Students were asked to pick a city in Arkansas and do a research project over that city and record it on an online poster board. Although this project gave us plenty of fits, overall I was very pleased with the final product…here are a couple of examples of the this project from my class.

Mr. McClung

Your Super Bowl inspired band of the week is The Darkness.

The Darkness are a British glam rock band from Lowestoft, Suffolk, formed in 2000. The band consists of Justin Hawkins (lead vocals, guitar), his brother Dan Hawkins (guitar, backing vocals), Frankie Poullain (bass, backing vocals) and Ed Graham (drums) and are characterised by their classic rock influences and elaborate stage performances.

The Darkness came to prominence with the release of their debut album, Permission to Land, in 2003. Backed by the singles “I Believe in a Thing Called Love”, “Growing on Me”, “Get Your Hands Off My Woman”, and “Love is Only a Feeling”, the album was certified quadruple platinum in the United Kingdom, with sales of over 1,200,000. After extensive touring in support of their debut album, Poullain left the band in 2005, and was replaced by former guitar technician Richie Edwards. The band’s second studio album, One Way Ticket to Hell… and Back, was released in November 2005. The following year, Justin Hawkins departed from the band after successfully completing a course of rehabilitation from alcohol and cocaine problems. As a result, the remaining members formed Stone Gods, and continued to perform and record without Hawkins, who subsequently fronted his own project, Hot Leg. You can listen to their smash hit “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” by clicking on the player below.

Mr. McClung

Mr. McClung