Deadline for entries: Saturday, February 6, 11:59 P.M.
The Saints. The Colts. Two high-powered offenses. How many points do you think both teams will combine for in the Super Bowl? 60? More? Less?
Three points for entering: send an email to Murdock stating how many points will be scored in Sunday's Super Bowl. The closest seven students will receive extra extra-credit (seven to the student whose guess in the closest, six for the second-place guess, and so forth).
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
EC #12: Caption Contest #8
Deadline for entries: Saturday, February 6, 11:59 P.M. Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit?Write a humorous caption for the following cartoon: What is the alien doctor saying to his/her/its patient? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
All responses must be spellchecked and most-likely proofread.
All responses will be kept anonymous during the vote.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
EC #11: Caption Contest #7
Deadline for entries: Friday, January 22, 11:59 P.M.
10th grade students: you may only enter if you turned in AoW #17: Inventions on time.
AP students: you may only enter if you posted the magazine and podcast reviews on time.
Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit?Write a humorous caption for the following cartoon: What is the woman in the dryer saying to the woman outside the dryer? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
All responses must be spellchecked and most-likely proofread.
All responses will be kept anonymous during the vote.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
Must be received by Friday, January 22, 11:59 P.M.
EC #10: Eternal Object
Available until Sunday, December 13, 8:00 P.M. Eleven points extra credit: responses may be posted anonymously on twenty-six.
We know that humans won't last forever; one day, all that we have done on and to this earth will rust, fade, and whither away. Let's assume that, long after humans disappear, aliens happen to land on the planet. What man-made artifact do you want the aliens to stumble across? What thing, made by humans, do you want to last forever? Scale doesn't matter here, you can write about anything from a titanium screw or a contact lens to the Hoover Dam or a Boeing 747, but the object must be man-made and be interesting for its own sake; thus, while a Beatles CD or a Wizard of Oz DVD would be interesting, aliens would not, we assume, be able to play CD's and DVD's.
NOTE: before you decide about what to write about please check the "Eternal Object" paragraphs I collected last year (click here). You may not write about an object already written about!
Responses must be between 75 and 100 words long (extra credit will not be granted if spelling and/or punctuation errors appear in your post).
All responses will be kept anonymous.
Murdock's students will vote for their favorite paragraphs and the winners of the voting will receive extra extra-credit.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address): murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
Example: I want the Golden Gate Bridge to last forever. Whether viewed from the perspective of a pedestrian strolling across the windy span or from miles away, sitting across the San Francisco Bay while having a sunset dinner of bread, cheese, and wine in the Berkeley Rose Garden, the Golden Gate Bridge never fails to awe one with its sheer beauty. Moreover, the Golden Gate Bridge impresses upon its viewers a sort of double symbol. Like those visual puzzles -- is it a woman's face or a vase? -- the bridge both symbolizes the amazing audacity, productiveness, and creativity that is the United States of America, and, at the same time, the genocidal nature of a country that bloodily wrestled nearly an entire continent away from those we have decided to call "Native Americans." (Murdock)
EC #9: Anonyponymous
Available from Thanksgiving Day through Tuesday, December 1, 9:00 P.M. Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.
The word we are looking for here is eponym: the person for whom something is named; "Constantine I is the eponym for Constantinople."
And, yes, there are plenty of fake eponyms out there. For example, according to a story on NPR about Anonyponymous, "Domenico De Comma wasn't actually killed by the Inquisition for attempting to punctuate the Bible. He never even existed in the first place."
The extra credit? Make up / create a fake eponym and explain the eponym in a sentence or two. In order to qualify for extra credit, your eponyms must be class appropriate, grammatically correct, and apparently proofread..
And, no, the governor of Hawai'i is not Governor Furlough.
All responses must be spellchecked and most-likely proofread.
All responses will be kept anonymous during the vote.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
Must be received by Tuesday, December 1, 9:00 P.M.
EC #8: Caption Contest #6
Available from Friday, November 20, through Monday, November 23, 9:00 P.M. Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit?Write a humorous caption for the following cartoon: What's the crawling man saying to the astronaut? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
All responses must be spellchecked and most-likely proofread.
All responses will be kept anonymous during the vote.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
Must be received by Monday, November 23, 9:00 P.M.
EC #7: Caption Contest #5
Available from Saturday, November 7, through Friday, November 13, 8:00 P.M. Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit?Write a humorous caption for the following cartoon: What's the boxing referee telling the boxers? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
All responses must be spellchecked and most-likely proofread.
All responses will be kept anonymous during the vote.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
Must be received by Friday, November 13, 8:00 P.M.
EC #6: Collective Nouns
Available from Saturday, November 7, through Friday, November 13, 8:00 P.M.
First, a bit about collective nouns: Many that refer to natural history have some basis in animal behavior. A parliament of rooks derives from the way the birds noisily congregate in their nests in tall trees; an exaltation of larks is a poetic comment on the climb of the skylark high into the sky while uttering its twittering song; an unkindness of ravens refers to an old legend that ravens push their young out of the nest to survive as best they can. Some are witty comments on daily life, such as drunkship of cobblers and eloquence of lawyers . . . updated examples frequently emerge from the fruitful imaginations of jokesters even today, such as intrigue of politicians, tedium of golfers, addition of mathematicians, expense of consultants, or clutch of car mechanics. Type “collective nouns” into any Web search engine: you’ll find dozens of sites featuring them, though the level of wit is sadly variable (source: World Wide Words). The EC: submit a classroom-appropriate collective noun for whichever applies to you:
A (your idea for a collective noun) of Kalaheo sophomores;
A (your idea for a collective noun) of AP English Language students.
All responses must be spellchecked and most-likely proofread.
All responses will be kept anonymous during the class vote to determine the week's "extra" extra-credit winners.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
Must be received by Friday, Nov. 13, 8:00 P.M.
EC #5: Caption Contest 4
Available from Sunday, October 18, through Sunday, October 25, 8:00 P.M. This extra credit only available to those students who have brought back the signed "New Late Policy" notices. Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit?Write a humorous caption for the following cartoon: What's the man saying to the monkey? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
All responses must be spellchecked and most-likely proofread.
All responses will be kept anonymous during the vote.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
Available from Sunday, September 20, through Friday, September 25, 9:00 P.M.
10th grade: Only available to students who have turned in all six Article of the Week assignments.
AP: Only available to students who have turned in the "Serving in Florida," "Entrance to the Woods," "Killing an Elephant," and "On Seeing England..." answers.
Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.
The extra credit? Write a caption for the following cartoon: What's the doctor saying? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
All responses must be spellchecked and most-likely proofread.
All responses will be kept anonymous during the vote.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
Must be received by Friday, September 25, 9:00 P.M.
EC #3: World-Changing Product
Available from Wednesday, September 16, through Sunday, September 20, 8:00 P.M. For their "article of the week" assignment, my 10th-grade classes are reading an article about the top innovations mankind has produced. Most of the innovations are ideas and concepts, or, as the article says, "platforms." The list, in order, reads: weapons, mathematics and the number zero, money, printing, free markets and capital markets, domesticated animals and agriculture, property ownership, limited liability, participatory democracy, anesthetics and surgery, vaccines and antibiotics, semiconductors, the Internet, genetic sequencing, and containerized shipping.
The extra-credit: during the past 100 years, what inventions have changed/influnced our lives the most? At the end of the extra-credit, I will share a list of the top inventions of the last 100 years I read about in a design magazine (the article actually covered the years, approximately, from 1900-2000). Submit your idea through email and your peers will vote for the most influential/life-changing inventions you list.
10th grade: Only available to students who have turned in the first five "Article of the Week" assignments.
AP: Only available to students who have turned in the "Serving in Florida" and the "Entrance to the Woods," Shooting an Elephant" and "On Seeing England for the First Time" questions.
Submissions are worth five points extra credit and may list one or two inventions.
All responses must be spellchecked and most-likely proofread.
All responses will be kept anonymous during the vote.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
Must be received by Sunday, September 20, 8:00 P.M.
EC #2: Caption Contest 2
Available from Saturday, September 5, through Friday, September 11, 9:00 P.M.
10th grade: Only available to students who have turned in all four Article of the Week assignments AND are in 3rd or 5th period English.
AP: Only available to students who have turned in the "Serving in Florida" and the "Entrance to the Woods" answers.
Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.
The extra credit? Write a caption for the following cartoon: What's the naked man saying to his neighbor? Responses will be printed out anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
All responses must be spellchecked and most-likely proofread.
All responses will be kept anonymous during the vote.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com
Must be received by Friday, September 11, 9:00 P.M.
EC #1: Caption Contest 1
Available from Saturday, August 29, through Thursday, September 3, 8:00 P.M.
Only available to students who have turned in all three Article of the Week assignments.
Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.
The extra credit? Write a caption for the following cartoon: What's the man in the striped tie saying to the balding man? Responses will be printed out anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.**
All responses must be spellchecked and most-likely proofread.
All responses will be kept anonymous during the vote.
Responses only accepted via email (don't forget to sign your email with your name; either click on the email link or copy/paste the address):murdockm001@hawaii.rr.com//
Must be received by Thursday, September, 8:00 P.M.
Table of Contents
EC #13: A Super Bowl Special!
Deadline for entries: Saturday, February 6, 11:59 P.M.
The Saints. The Colts. Two high-powered offenses. How many points do you think both teams will combine for in the Super Bowl? 60? More? Less?
Three points for entering: send an email to Murdock stating how many points will be scored in Sunday's Super Bowl. The closest seven students will receive extra extra-credit (seven to the student whose guess in the closest, six for the second-place guess, and so forth).
EC #12: Caption Contest #8
Deadline for entries: Saturday, February 6, 11:59 P.M.Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit? Write a humorous caption for the following cartoon: What is the alien doctor saying to his/her/its patient? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
EC #11: Caption Contest #7
Deadline for entries: Friday, January 22, 11:59 P.M.- 10th grade students: you may only enter if you turned in AoW #17: Inventions on time.
- AP students: you may only enter if you posted the magazine and podcast reviews on time.
Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit? Write a humorous caption for the following cartoon: What is the woman in the dryer saying to the woman outside the dryer? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.EC #10: Eternal Object
Available until Sunday, December 13, 8:00 P.M.Eleven points extra credit: responses may be posted anonymously on twenty-six.
We know that humans won't last forever; one day, all that we have done on and to this earth will rust, fade, and whither away. Let's assume that, long after humans disappear, aliens happen to land on the planet. What man-made artifact do you want the aliens to stumble across? What thing, made by humans, do you want to last forever? Scale doesn't matter here, you can write about anything from a titanium screw or a contact lens to the Hoover Dam or a Boeing 747, but the object must be man-made and be interesting for its own sake; thus, while a Beatles CD or a Wizard of Oz DVD would be interesting, aliens would not, we assume, be able to play CD's and DVD's.
NOTE: before you decide about what to write about please check the "Eternal Object" paragraphs I collected last year (click here). You may not write about an object already written about!
Example:
I want the Golden Gate Bridge to last forever. Whether viewed from the perspective of a pedestrian strolling across the windy span or from miles away, sitting across the San Francisco Bay while having a sunset dinner of bread, cheese, and wine in the Berkeley Rose Garden, the Golden Gate Bridge never fails to awe one with its sheer beauty. Moreover, the Golden Gate Bridge impresses upon its viewers a sort of double symbol. Like those visual puzzles -- is it a woman's face or a vase? -- the bridge both symbolizes the amazing audacity, productiveness, and creativity that is the United States of America, and, at the same time, the genocidal nature of a country that bloodily wrestled nearly an entire continent away from those we have decided to call "Native Americans." (Murdock)
EC #9: Anonyponymous
Available from Thanksgiving Day through Tuesday, December 1, 9:00 P.M.Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.
Anonyponymous: The Forgotten People Behind Everyday Words is a book about just that. Sandwich? Galvanize? Silhouette? Leotard? Frisbee? Yes, all named for people.
The word we are looking for here is eponym: the person for whom something is named; "Constantine I is the eponym for Constantinople."
And, yes, there are plenty of fake eponyms out there. For example, according to a story on NPR about Anonyponymous, "Domenico De Comma wasn't actually killed by the Inquisition for attempting to punctuate the Bible. He never even existed in the first place."
The extra credit? Make up / create a fake eponym and explain the eponym in a sentence or two. In order to qualify for extra credit, your eponyms must be class appropriate, grammatically correct, and apparently proofread..
And, no, the governor of Hawai'i is not Governor Furlough.
EC #8: Caption Contest #6
Available from Friday, November 20, through Monday, November 23, 9:00 P.M.Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit? Write a humorous caption for the following cartoon: What's the crawling man saying to the astronaut? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
EC #7: Caption Contest #5
Available from Saturday, November 7, through Friday, November 13, 8:00 P.M.Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit? Write a humorous caption for the following cartoon: What's the boxing referee telling the boxers? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
EC #6: Collective Nouns
Available from Saturday, November 7, through Friday, November 13, 8:00 P.M.First, a bit about collective nouns: Many that refer to natural history have some basis in animal behavior. A parliament of rooks derives from the way the birds noisily congregate in their nests in tall trees; an exaltation of larks is a poetic comment on the climb of the skylark high into the sky while uttering its twittering song; an unkindness of ravens refers to an old legend that ravens push their young out of the nest to survive as best they can. Some are witty comments on daily life, such as drunkship of cobblers and eloquence of lawyers . . . updated examples frequently emerge from the fruitful imaginations of jokesters even today, such as intrigue of politicians, tedium of golfers, addition of mathematicians, expense of consultants, or clutch of car mechanics. Type “collective nouns” into any Web search engine: you’ll find dozens of sites featuring them, though the level of wit is sadly variable (source: World Wide Words).
The EC: submit a classroom-appropriate collective noun for whichever applies to you:
A (your idea for a collective noun) of Kalaheo sophomores;
A (your idea for a collective noun) of AP English Language students.
EC #5: Caption Contest 4
Available from Sunday, October 18, through Sunday, October 25, 8:00 P.M.This extra credit only available to those students who have brought back the signed "New Late Policy" notices.
Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit? Write a humorous caption for the following cartoon: What's the man saying to the monkey? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
October Break EC (10th grade only): AoW #9
Legal AliensEC #4: Caption Contest 3
Available from Sunday, September 20, through Friday, September 25, 9:00 P.M.- 10th grade: Only available to students who have turned in all six Article of the Week assignments.
- AP: Only available to students who have turned in the "Serving in Florida," "Entrance to the Woods," "Killing an Elephant," and "On Seeing England..." answers.
Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit? Write a caption for the following cartoon: What's the doctor saying? Responses will be printed anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
EC #3: World-Changing Product
Available from Wednesday, September 16, through Sunday, September 20, 8:00 P.M.For their "article of the week" assignment, my 10th-grade classes are reading an article about the top innovations mankind has produced. Most of the innovations are ideas and concepts, or, as the article says, "platforms." The list, in order, reads: weapons, mathematics and the number zero, money, printing, free markets and capital markets, domesticated animals and agriculture, property ownership, limited liability, participatory democracy, anesthetics and surgery, vaccines and antibiotics, semiconductors, the Internet, genetic sequencing, and containerized shipping.
The extra-credit: during the past 100 years, what inventions have changed/influnced our lives the most? At the end of the extra-credit, I will share a list of the top inventions of the last 100 years I read about in a design magazine (the article actually covered the years, approximately, from 1900-2000). Submit your idea through email and your peers will vote for the most influential/life-changing inventions you list.
EC #2: Caption Contest 2
Available from Saturday, September 5, through Friday, September 11, 9:00 P.M.- 10th grade: Only available to students who have turned in all four Article of the Week assignments AND are in 3rd or 5th period English.
- AP: Only available to students who have turned in the "Serving in Florida" and the "Entrance to the Woods" answers.
Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.The extra credit? Write a caption for the following cartoon: What's the naked man saying to his neighbor? Responses will be printed out anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.
EC #1: Caption Contest 1
Available from Saturday, August 29, through Thursday, September 3, 8:00 P.M.Only available to students who have turned in all three Article of the Week assignments.
Five points extra credit + more if your response places amongst the favorites when we vote in class.
The extra credit? Write a caption for the following cartoon: What's the man in the striped tie saying to the balding man? Responses will be printed out anonymously and your peers will vote for their favorites.**