Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

A Very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year to you and your families!

When we return, Honors Sophomores will continue work on The Alchemist.

C-1 Sophomores will continue their work on Macbeth.

Freshmen will begin work on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Have a restful vacation!

Mr. Hacker

Week of December 2, 2013

Hello and welcome back!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.

Upon our return, Sophomore C-1 groups will be starting Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth.

Honors Sophomores will be starting Paulo Coehlo's wonderful novel The Alchemist.

Freshmen will continue their work on The Hobbit.

Progress reports will be issued through Edline next Friday.

-Mr. Hacker

Week of November 25, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you!

Beginning the Monday after Thanksgiving, the Sophomore Honors class will begin work on Paulo Coehlo's recent literary classic The Alchemist.

The C-1 Sophomore classes will be starting Macbeth.  Hopefully we will have enough books to go around.

Freshmen are in the middle of The Hobbit.

Have a great holiday,

Mr. Hacker

Week of November 18, 2013

Hello Everyone,

This week, the sophomores will be presenting their Kamishibai projects in class.  The final Beowulf test will be either this Friday or next Monday, depending on how many presentations we get through.

Freshmen started The Hobbit last Friday and will continue reading through chapter 5 by the end of the week. We will have a quiz on chapters 1-5 on Friday.

Thanks,

Mr. Hacker

Week of November 11, 2013

Happy Veterans' Day to all our military men and women who are serving or have served our country bravely.

Sophomores are working on group Kamishibai projects for Beowulf.  Please see the link to the right for a description of the project.  The groups will be presenting starting next Tuesday, November 19.

The Freshmen are working on their essays for the Odyssey, which will be due this Friday, November 15.

Thanks,

Mr. Hacker

Week of November 4, 2013

Hello,

Sorry about the late post.  A reminder that grades close November 8.

Sophomores will complete Beowulf with a quiz on Thursday/Friday.  Next week, we will begin a "Kamishibai" project on Beowulf (see link to the right).

Freshmen are planning their comparison essays on Odysseus and Luke Skywalker which will be due next week.

Mr. Hacker

Week of October 28, 2013

Hello,

This week, sophomores will be completing the English Dept. writing assignment and then continuing on with the last third of Beowulf.

Freshmen will be finishing The Empire Strikes Back and moving on to Return of the Jedi.  Freshmen will have a quiz on Wednesday on the first two Star Wars films.

Thanks and as always, please email johnhacker@k12.waltham.ma.us with any questions or concerns.

Mr. Hacker on Twitter

Follow Mr. Hacker on Twitter @MrHacker115

Week of October 21, 2013

Hello Everyone,

Sophomores will continue working on the third part of Beowulf this week.  At the end of the week we will conduct our district writing assessment for sophomores, which will continue next week.

Freshmen are completing their district writing assessment this week and then continuing on with Star Wars and the Hero's Journey.

As always, please email with any questions or concerns.

GO RED SOX!!!

Mr. Hacker

Week of October 7, 2013

Sophomores will continue work on Beowulf.

Freshmen will be working on their group projects for the Odyssey.

Week of September 30, 2013

Freshmen will finish reading The Odyssey. Sophomores will write their essays on why Beowulf is the only person qualified to kill Grendel and pass them in Friday, October 4.

Week of September 23, 2013

This week, Freshmen C-1 students are continuing their work with the Odyssey. All sophomores, C-1 and Honors levels, are working on Beowulf.

Welcome Back

Welcome back everyone! Each week, I will post the activities of my classes on this blog. Hopefully you will find it useful. This week, the Freshmen class is beginning "The Odyssey." Sophomore classes are working on their Appeals, based on Logic, Emotion, and Ethics. Any questions, please email me at johnhacker@k12.waltham.ma.us

Happy Summer!

Have a safe, joyous summer and celebrate all your hard work this year!

See you in the fall!

Mr. Hacker

Finals Week - June 17, 2013

Well, I should be home still sleeping right now, but instead, I am preparing for final exams (stupid snow...)

The Final Exam Schedule is as follows:

June 19 - F and H blocks
June 20 - D and E blocks
June 21 - B and C blocks
June 24 - A block and makeups

My classes are as follows:

Freshmen - C block
Sophomore C-1 - D and F blocks
Sophomore Honors - B block

Good luck and thanks for an interesting year.

Mr. Hacker

Almost There...

We are now 15 days away from summer vacation, but we in 115 are still in full teaching mode.

Biology MCAS is tomorrow and Wednesday, June 4 and 5.

C-1 Sophomores have finished reading Night by Elie Wiesel.  We have moved on to Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful, a wonderful film about a father's love for his family during the Fascist rule of Italy.  From there we will finish with Steven Spielberg's epic film Schindler's List.  The final assignment will be to complete an Ethical Will, a living testament to what we wish to impart to our fellow citizens of the world.

Sophomore Honors students will be finishing John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men this week.

Freshmen are working on their haiku poetry projects this week, trying to finish writing 4 haiku and a haibun.

I do not know the finals schedule yet.  When I do, I will post it.

15 days...

Week of March 25, 2013

Let's hope there is no more snow.

Sophomores are taking the MCAS Long Composition test today.  Later this week, we will finish the play "Raisin in the Sun" and have a test on Thursday.  Next week, C1 Sophomores will begin work on haiku poetry and Honors Sophomores will begin Shakespeare's Henry V.

Freshmen will finish Great Expectations this week with a test on Wednesday.  Friday we will begin Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Hopefully the snow will melt soon so our spring sports teams can get on the fields and begin playing.

Reminder - No school this Friday due to Good Friday holiday.

Week of March 18, 2013

MCAS WEEK

This week, Sophomores will be taking the MCAS English/Language Arts test.  The dates are Tuesday, March 19 (Long Composition), Thursday, March 21 and Friday, March 22 (ELA reading and open response).

Good Luck to all Sophomores this week!

Freshmen will be finishing up on Great Expectations.  We will have our Part 3 quiz on Friday, March 22.

Also, Happy Spring!

Week of February 25, 2013

Welcome back.  Hopefully you had a restful vacation.

Sophomores will have their test on Macbeth and then begin working on Raisin in the Sun later this week.

Freshmen will continue working on Great Expectations.

Thanks.

Week of February 11, 2013

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!!

After three days out of school, sophomore students finally returned to review for their test on Macbeth on Tuesday, February 26, 2013.

Freshmen are continuing in their work on Great Expectations.  We are now on the second stage of Pip's "great expectations."  He has traveled to london to become a gentleman to win the hear of the beautiful, but cruel Estella.

Have a great vacation week.  Upon return, sophomores will be working on "Raisin in the Sun" after their test on Macbeth.  Freshmen will be continuing Pip's journey to adulthood and becoming a gentleman.

Mr. Hacker

Week of January 14, 2013

Happy New Year

Sophomores have begun work on Shakespeare's great tragedy Macbeth.  See the Shakespeare links to the right for more information.

Freshmen have been working on short stories in the new year.