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CAST LISTS

I know many of you are wondering when the cast lists will be published, and it took me longer to put these together than I expected!

Please know, if you didn't get your first choices, it was because either there were MULTIPLE people who wanted the part (in one class, over 9 people wanted the same 2 parts!) or I knew you would do a good job handling an important other part. :)

MOST OF YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE PART! Please click on the link for your class to find out your part(s), and be sure to look through the whole list!

A CLASS:



B CLASS:



C CLASS:


D CLASS:


E CLASS:

Lateral Thinking!

Today we practiced some puzzlers, and for those of you looking for the ANSWERS to some of the puzzlers, check these out ;)

One day a man received a package in the mail. Inside, he found a human left arm. He examined it carefully and then repacked it and sent it on to another man. The second man also examined the arm. He then took it out into the woods and buried it. Why should they have done these things?

The answer is listed here (you must highlight this to see it!): The three men had been together on a flying mission in the Pacific. Their plane had come down and they were adrift for many days in a dinghy. They had had some water but no food and were gradually starving to death. Eventually, out of desperation, they agreed to amputate their left arms in order to eat them. They swore a solemn oath that each would have his left arm cut off. One of the three was a doctor and he amputated the arms of one and then later of the other of his colleagues. Just before his turn came, they were rescued. However, his oath/promise was binding and he later had to have the arm amputated and sent to his colleagues for them to see that the promise had been kept.

Were there any other answers I was to post? If so, let me know! :) Have a great weekend!

Address for our Sister School!

Hello everyone! You will need to have the address to our sister school if you do not have the personal home address for your pen pal. Also, you should take your letter to the post office to have it weighed for postage. It will need more than one stamp to send out of the country. Depending on how heavy your letter is, it may need several stamps!

Remember, when posting a letter, you need to include your name and home address in the upper left corner of the envelope. Please include "USA" under the city, state and zip code.

In the "To" section, write the name of your penpal and then add this information:

(name of your pen pal -- the Chinese name, if you have it)
c/o Zibo No. 18 Middle School
18 Pannan West Road
Zhangdian, Zibo City
Shandong Province 255047
P. R. China

2/22/2010

I haven't posted here in some time (and I cannot access the edit page from school), but it is a handy place to check on your work and assignments.

Tonight's homework is to read the short article "Games for Girls" and then respond to 4 questions. One question is a multiple choice, but the others require longer answers. Through this site, I'll help you look at your responses the way it might be scored on the CMTs.

First thing -- remember to answer all parts of the question. It sounds obvious, doesn't it? You'd be surprised how many kids forget to re-read the question after they think they are done. For example, if the question asks you to describe your perfect day and give examples of what you'd do on that day, be sure you (1) describe the day and (2) give examples. Chances are, one or two sentences will not answer it completely.

Secondly, answer in complete sentences. Yes, TTQA (turn the question around) even if it asks you to make a list. For example "This article explains how to bake a cake in three steps. The first step is....." and then give the three steps in complete sentences.

Finally, go back and re-read your response. Many students do not do this... why not? Is it because you think you don't have enough time? That may be, especially if you are being timed or doing your homework on the bus. During the CMTs you will be timed, but you may be surprised how much time you actually have. If you think you are done, but still have 15 minutes to go, GO BACK AND RE-READ what you've written. I suspect you'll find at least one thing to correct, provide more detail, or clarify (make more understandable).

Did you notice there are three steps listed here? Each of your responses is scored on a 0-1-2 scale. If you completed all three steps accurately, you'll score a 2 (the highest score) for your response. If you didn't complete ALL of the first step (answering all parts of the question), the best score you can get is a 1! That takes your score from 100% to a 50%! If you went back to re-read the question and your answer, chances are you would find the mistake and fix it.

Now that you were reminded of these important tips, go back and check your answers for tonight's homework. Would you score a "2" on each response? Now that you know what is expected, do your very best work. It is good practice for next week!

~ Miss Krenicki

PS -- I'll post the address for our Sister School tomorrow!

Welcome!

I haven't posted here in some time, and it is now time to update this page! I'm heading to Dearborn, Michigan for the National Council of Geography Education (NCGE) conference. I'll be able to upload photos to this site, so please feel free to leave messages!

This weekend we have the opportunity to go to the Ford Museum in celebration of the 100 years of Ford! Can you believe there have been cars for 100 years?? Interestingly, at the end of the day on Wednesday, an article arrived at school to discuss the Ford anniversary! I'll be sure to share it with you when I return. I'll take a lot of photos, too, so be sure to check here for the photos.

We also have the opportunity to go to Motown recording studios! Most of you will have NO idea about the Motown musicians, so you should ask your parents :) Here is the website of the museum we'll visit.

I expect to bring my computer along with me, but in case I can't log in for some reason, don't worry! I return home on Sunday afternoon, so I'll update the site that evening.

Have a great weekend, and please kindly assist the guest teacher. Thanks!

:) Miss Krenicki

Demels in Vienna

I am up early this morning, on a day we have off, because the wind and rain outside jolted me awake. Marlyne wrote to me, who was ALSO in Europe the same time I was, and we loved a place called DEMELS ~ the famous bakery/restaurant in Vienna.

Our discussion reminded me that I had a lot of photos of that place that I hadn't uploaded yet!

So, for the first time, I'm going to post photos of DEMELS (which, if anyone is interested in going, is in the Kohlmarket in Vienna, right near the Imperial Hofburg Palace).

Here is the view of Demels from outside, looking TOWARD the palace:



As it was about a million degrees outside, we decided to go inside for lunch.



On the way to the seating, we passed the bakery with viewing windows to see their latest creations.

Bill Clinton.....








What IS this creature?? It is funny though!



Here is the work space of the bakery:





What is she making there? Oh wait! Mozart cookies!



They were about 3 1/2" big each, and cost about $15 per cookie. We didn't buy any....



So, we went to the second floor and ordered lunch.



These are called "sausages" but are really like long hot dogs. In the little cup there is shredded horseradish and mustard to dip pieces of the "sausage" in..



Then dessert...





After lunch, we went down to the gift shop. Everything there was so expensive, even a little box of mints, we didn't buy a thing.

Photos of Vienna :)

Here are my teacher friends, Heather and Audrey, while we were riding the tram!



Here is our room!




Near our classroom was this hotdog stand. Can you see how the hot dog fits in the bun??



Here are photos from Cafe Central ~ a famous cafe in Vienna...




Finally, here are two photos of Salzburg, Austria. It was just beautiful!

Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen....

London is a fascinating city. It is especially good to visit when you have a friend who used to live there as your personal tour guide! It saves on orienteering and figuring out the transportation system, and lets you get right to the fun stuff fast!

After arriving in Paddington Station, I headed off to the hotel where my friend was waiting to meet me!


The first day we arrived, we took a walk down a posh street in Chelsea lined with designer stores. Dark cars with tinted windows were parked along the sidewalks while secret service security stood beside the cars while elegant women, in dress indicating they were probably from the Middle East, were directed into the shops. These were stores like Prada and Chanel, with door persons waiting to open the door for you. These stores had one item on a hanger, a pair of shoes, or a handbag for display in the window. Looking inside, there would be five garments hanging in the entire store. These places were WAY too expensive for the average window shopper. But, it was fun to walk down the street in dark sunglasses, looking into windows and seeing who was buying.

After an incredible visit to Harrod's of London, THE fabulous department store famous in London, we decided to make a reservation for High Tea in the Georgian Room, on the top floor of the department store. It is THE place to go for tea.

When we arrived, there was a gentleman playing a grand piano through the silk dogwood trees placed around the room. The art deco architecture and pastel decor made it feel like we were in a garden, rather than on the top floor of a department store in London.




While we were there, a group of people arrived and sat at a table behind us. They obviously were famous (well, at least one in the group was), and had their own security staff with them. The security staff sat at other tables around the room. People in the restaurant started taking out their cameras and snapping pictures of the mystery table. Well, they were a mystery to US, who didn't know who they were... we still don't! I did overhear the women at the next table asking the waiter if they could have their photos taken with So-and-So, and he said that it would be fine, after the guests had their coffee. I wish I had the nerve to ask WHO they were. Oh well!


After a quick taxi ride, we jetted off to Buckingham Palace. Here is a photo of the inside of one of the taxis. You can fold down extra seats on either side of the tv screen in case you have extra passengers. Pretty cool, huh?




I'd hoped to meet the Queen, as I had already spoken to the President of the European Union and the Chancellor of Austria, so I figured she would have no problem seeing us. She was at home, in fact! But, we did not have the pleasure of meeting her this time.

We did get to see her royal horses (I somehow managed to get a picture of the WRONG end).... and the carriage that took her to her coronation!





One of the funniest things we saw at the changing of the guard was the musical concert the guards play before the change is complete. They played a medley of Beatles songs! I tried to record it with my camera, but for some reason there is no sound. If I can fix the sound problem, I'll post the movie clip here!






On our first night, we went to the West End of town to see "WE WILL ROCK YOU" which is a show based on the music from the band Queen. It was really fun! I hope it comes to New York. In front of the theatre were four telephone booths ~ not only were they the cool red ones from England, but when was the last time YOU saw a telephone booth? It has been a while. I had to take a picture....

On to London....

I left Vienna early to fly to Paris before going to London for a few days. The Paris airport is HUGE!



I have lots of photos from London because I wasn't able to go online! Here are a few to start:

Here is the Parliament Building:


We went shopping in Harrod's of London, a famous department store, and they were having a big 1/2 off sale! The escalators were so cool! Look how they were designed!

Here we are!

Here is a photo of all of the teachers on our last day in Vienna! Thank you for the photo! :)

Kunsthistoriches and Rathaus

I have not had a chance to catch up for a few days due to the hectic schedule we have kept out last few days in Vienna. There are a lot of photos that need to be uploaded off of the camera and into the computer, so as soon as we are settled in London, I’ll get to work!

One of the most interesting things to see is the Kunsthistoriches Museum in the Museum Quarter of Vienna.



Located right next to the Hofburg Palace, this grouping of museums are some of the most comprehensive in the world. The highlight is the exhibit of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian artifacts. I have never seen so many artifacts from these regions before! I wish we could go on a entire field trip here…. There were some VERY cool things to see. I was able to take non-flash photos in this museum, so there are some good ones that I will share.



MUMMIES!!




I have HUNDREDS of photos from this museum, and I will have to sort through them all to figure out which ones go together!


The Rathaus (don’t you LOVE that name? It is the city hall!) has a big movie screen over the front of it during the summer months. They show old movies, concerts on film, operas, etc. on the big screen in the evenings. Most films start after 9:45, when it is really dark. There are little vendors all around the sidewalks in booths shaped like teepees! In fact, many of them are just covered with cloth to keep the air circulating. Each vendor has food specialties from various countries. It is like going to the Taste of Connecticut ~ all kinds of things to sample. However, the portions are HUGE, so if you plan to sample things from different parts of the world, you may not want to eat earlier, or come back every night to have a new dish! We did not stay for the film (it was too late), but we had dinner out there. Across the street from the Rathaus is the Burgtheatre. They had a dance troupe doing a live performance, and there have been posters all over the city advertising them for a month. All of this activity made the area very crowded.




This guy has an interesting look on his face... does he not want his picture taken? Did he eat a lemon? I'm not sure....


Are those for me? Oh... you shouldn't have!


Next to the Rathaus is the Parliament building. The construction is definitely Greek influenced, and can be seen in the fountain in the front. Athena is standing there holding Nike (which you HOPEFULLY noticed on an earlier post :) ), and there are Greek philosophers sitting along the walls.







I will miss Vienna. There were still things I didn't have a chance to see or visit, so that will have to be on our next trip here....

I am on to LONDON, England for a few days! I will post again from there!