Monday, January 7th, all students were given a copy of this paper and asked to write any missing assignments AND upcoming due dates in their planner. Please read and let me know if you have any questions.

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ALL students (including those who were absent yesterday, or today, will need to complete their final draft of the Monkey’s Paw Prequel this weekend. Students who are not in school on Monday are required to have the paper turned in, as well. This assignment has been forming for over a week now, and students have all information/papers they need available in google classroom.

All directions and the rubric are posted in google classroom; I will attach pertinent papers here, as well.

Please email asap with any questions.

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Here is the list of superstitions from class today. Choose one and create a visual of it. Your picture must include the title from the list and a picture that represents the superstition. You must include 5 facts (NOT EXAMPLES) about your choice superstition. All work must be done on one side only. It must be colored and fill the page. You may use colored pencils, crayons or markers for this. It is due when you walk through the door Monday. I have included the rubric; remember, this is for summative points.

Superstitions Poster
Choose one of the 13 superstitions discussed in class, OR you can do one of your own choosing (must be approved by me) and create a poster. You will need to have a visual component, fully illustrated and colored by you. You will also need to list 5 facts about your superstition. All work must be done on the front side of the paper. You can use the information given in class and/or search the internet.
Rubric
Neat, colorful and fills the page _____/5
Proper spelling and grammar _____/5
Total (Summative) ______/10

13. Beginner’s Luck
Usually grumbled by an expert who just lost a game to a novice, “beginner’s luck” is the idea that newbies are unusually likely to win when they try out a sport, game or activity for the first time.
Beginners might come out ahead in some cases because the novice is less stressed out about winning. Too much anxiety, after all, can hamper performance. Or it could just be a statistical fluke, especially in chance-based gambling games.
Or, like many superstitions, a belief in beginner’s luck might arise because of confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is a psychological phenomenon in which people are more likely to remember events that fit their worldview. If you believe you’re going to win because you’re a beginner, you’re more likely to remember all the times you were right — and forget the times you ended up in last place.
12. Find a penny, pick it up …
And all day long, you’ll have good luck. This little ditty may arise because finding money is lucky in and of itself. But it might also be a spin-off of another old rhyme, “See a pin, pick it up/ and all day long you’ll have good luck/ See a pin, let it lay/ and your luck will pass away.”
11. Don’t walk under that ladder!
Frankly, this superstition is pretty practical. Who wants to be responsible for stumbling and knocking a carpenter off his perch? But one theory holds that this superstition arises from a Christian belief in the Holy Trinity: Since a ladder leaning against a wall forms a triangle, “breaking” that triangle was blasphemous.
Then again, another popular theory is that a fear of walking under a ladder has to do with its resemblance to a medieval gallows. We’re sticking with the safety-first explanation for this one.
10. Black cats crossing your path
As companion animals for humans for thousands of years, cats play all sorts of mythological roles. In ancient Egypt, cats were revered; today, Americans collectively keep more than 81 million cats as pets.
So why keep a black cat out of your path? Most likely, this superstition arises from old beliefs in witches and their animal familiars, which were often said to take the form of domestic animals like cats.
9. A rabbit’s foot will bring you luck
Talismans and amulets are a time-honored way of fending off evil; consider the crosses and garlic that are supposed to keep vampires at bay. Rabbit feet as talismans may hark back to early Celtic tribes in Britain. They may also arise from hoodoo, a form of African-American folk magic and superstition that blends Native American, European and African tradition. [Rumor or Reality: The Creatures of Cryptozoology]
8. Bad luck comes in threes
Remember confirmation bias? The belief that bad luck comes in threes is a classic example. A couple things go wrong, and believers may start to look for the next bit of bad luck. A lost shoe might be forgotten one day, but seen as the third in a series of bad breaks the next.
7. Careful with that mirror
According to folklore, breaking a mirror is a surefire way to doom yourself to seven years of bad luck. The superstition seems to arise from the belief that mirrors don’t just reflect your image; they hold bits of your soul. That belief led people in the old days of the American South to cover mirrors in a house when someone died, lest their soul be trapped inside.
Like the number three, the number seven is often associated with luck. Seven years is a long time to be unlucky, which may be why people have come up with counter-measures to free themselves after breaking a mirror. These include touching a piece of the broken mirror to a tombstone or grinding the mirror shards into powder.
6. 66
Three sixes in a row give some people the chills. It’s a superstition that harks back to the Bible. In the Book of Revelation, 666 is given as the number of the “beast,” and is often interpreted as the mark of Satan and a sign of the end times.
According to State University of New York at Buffalo anthropologist Philips Stevens, the writer of Revelation was writing to persecuted Christians in code, so the numbers and names in the book are contemporary references. Three sixes in a row is probably the numeric equivalent of the Hebrew letters for the first-century Roman Emperor Nero. [End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]
5. Knock on wood
This phrase is almost like a verbal talisman, designed to ward off bad luck after tempting fate: “Breaking that mirror didn’t bring me any trouble, knock on wood.”
The fixation on wood may come from old myths about good spirits in trees or from an association with the Christian cross. Similar phrases abound in multiple languages, suggesting that the desire not to upset a spiteful universe is very common.
4. Make a wish on a wishbone
The tradition of turkey bone tug-of-war goes back a long way. Legend has it that first-century Romans used to fight over dried wishbones — which they believed were good luck — and would accidentally break them, ushering in the idea that whoever has the largest bit of bone gets their wish. Bird bones have also been used in divination throughout history, with a supposed soothsayer throwing the bones and reading their patterns to predict the future.
3. Cross your fingers
Those wishing for luck will often cross one finger over another, a gesture that’s said to date back to early Christianity. The story goes that two people used to cross index fingers when making a wish, a symbol of support from a friend to the person making the wish. (Anything associated with the shape of the Christian cross was thought to be good luck.) The tradition gradually became something people could do on their own; these days, just saying “fingers crossed” is enough to get the message, well, across.
2. No umbrellas inside
… And not just because you’ll poke someone’s eye out. Opening an umbrella indoors is supposed to bring bad luck, though the origins of this belief are murky. Legends abound, from a story of an ancient Roman woman who happened to have opened her umbrella moments before her house collapsed, to the tale of a British prince who accepted two umbrellas from a visiting king and died within months. Like the “don’t walk under a ladder” superstition, this seems to be a case of a myth arising to keep people from doing something that is slightly dangerous in the first place.
1. Friday the 13th
If you’re not scared of Friday the 13th, you should be scared of the word used to describe those who are: friggatriskaidekaphobics. (An alternative, though just as tongue-twisty, word for the fear is “paraskevidekatriaphobia.”)
For a superstition, the fear of Friday the 13th seems fairly new, dating back to the late 1800s. Friday has long been considered an unlucky day (according to Christian tradition, Jesus died on a Friday), and 13 has a long history as an unlucky number.
According to the Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute in North Carolina, about 17 million people fear Friday the 13th. Many may fall prey to the human mind’s desire to associate thoughts and symbols with events.
“If anything bad happens to you on Friday the 13th, the two will be forever associated in your mind,” said Thomas Gilovich, a psychologist at Cornell University. “All those uneventful days in which the 13th fell on a Friday will be ignored.”

All students worked in class today to create their own study guide for the quiz tomorrow. The amount of time they need at home to complete the work tonight will be directly relative to how much time they wasted in class today (example: talking to their friends instead of working). Once they complete the worksheets, they will use them to study.
I have attached all papers to this post, and students who were absent should complete them as well. They will take the test tomorrow too.
Students can use the online textbook, if necessary. They have the user name and password in their planners
Please make sure to thoroughly read all directions on the paper and e-mail me asap with any questions.

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This is just friendly reminder that the end of the card-marking is next week, Friday November 2nd, 2018.

All students are required to turn in 2 Exit Tickets (one for each book they completed this card-marking), 2 Book Timeline entries (one for each book they completed this card-marking), as well as a Literary Letter, for SSR by MONDAY, OCT 29th.

They know what these items are and should have been working on them prior to this weekend. They also should have all directions/information necessary in their composition books or binders.

The Literary Letter is summative points and was explained in class several weeks ago. All students were given a handout that should be in the SSR section of their binder; it says “KEEP THIS-you will need this all year!” No literary letter by Monday is equal to a zero on a test if not turned in.

Please email me if you have any questions.

For students who were absent, or need a reminder of tonight’s homework, I have attached the details.

Please email me asap, if you have any questions.

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Students are reminded that the final argument writing is due by midnight tonight. This writing is available with directions and explanation in google classroom.
All students should have picked the topic of their choice in class on Friday. Once the topic was chosen, they had class time to begin their writing.
Remember this is not about your opinion on the topic, it is only to address who had the better argument within the topic you chose.

Example: Topic chosen is “Zoos”, then write your CER to prove which article had the better/stronger argument of the 2 zoos articles.

No matter the topic, your opinion should not be included in the writing, only implied in the claim.

Please email me asap with any questions.

Please find attached information and a permission slip for our upcoming 8th grade field trip.
All students who intend to go, must turn in their money by tomorrow to reserve their seat.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Fieldtrip

Students need to complete this classwork at home this weekend. It is due when they walk through the door on Monday. Most students (hours 1-4) had ample class time to complete it, but may need to finish it up. Some students (5th and 6th hour) will need to do the majority of their work at home, due to the PBIS kickball games this afternoon.

All students need to have a multi color pack of highlighters to complete this task. This was on the suggested supply list; we use them quite frequently. They can be purchased at any store with school supplies.

Email me with any questions.

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