NOTEWORTHY: In order to complete this week's test in our Magna Carta class, we had to listen to four lectures and read three extracts. The extracts were from: Henry Care (1646-1688) "English liberties, or, The free-born subject's inheritance containing, I. Magna Charta (sic), the petition of right, the Habeas Corbus Act (1680)"; "Notes on Magna Charta (sic)," reproduced by Henry Care from Edward Coke's "A Commentary on Littleton)"; and "The Petition of Right, 1628."
Fascinating reading, it was, but not exactly easily digestible. Written long ago in old-timey English, about life and times nearly 400 years ago and full of legalese, it wasn't something you could breeze through. For instance, the Petition of Right (pictured at the top of this blog post) was drafted by a committee headed by Sir Edward Coke, and was ratified by both the House of Commons and House of Lords in May of 1628, and eventually accepted by King Charles the I of England a few weeks later.
As we worked through it, I gave the kids tips about taking notes and how to effectively highlight key ideas. Naturally, one of the things I mentioned was that highlighting everything is not very efficient or effective, IMHO. I mean, look at the ink Annabelle laid down here.
CJ didn't use as much ink, but if you denote the ENTIRE PAGE is a key idea, as he did with huge swaths of the Petition of Right, well, that's not super helpful, either!
Since the excerpts were so full of new-to-us words and ideas, we took our time with them. We talked about each document, and what we thought the authors meant, paragraph by paragraph.
After working our way through the three excerpts, it was test time.However, I thought it best we check on the class' online forum first to see if there were any helpful hints there. Well, that was a mistake. What I mostly found was post after post of people complaining about how impossible the test was, how unreasonable the homework was, on and on. It wasn't exactly reassuring, and it made me wonder if we were so lame that we didn't even realize the assignment was so overwhelmingly difficult, especially given the fact that students each get three attempts at the test. Hmm. ...
Happy to say, CJ and Annabelle got 100 percent the first time. I wasn't that perfect, and used a second attempt to get a perfect score. Yay for us!
Truth be told, I was bit worried we might be in over our heads by taking this course, but so far, so good.
MODERATION: Last night, CJ was talking about how "addictive" pistachios are and was asking what he'd have to do to get a lifetime supply of them. To that, Christian and I agreed that pistachios are amazingly delicious, but noted that they're meant to be a small snack, not a steady diet, and we lectured him about pistachio moderation. ;)
Today, a Facebook friend posted a video by foodie Alton Brown that I shared with the kids. It's a brief story about exactly how Brown lost 50 pounds. As he points out, he changed his diet, and it wasn't via a diet in the standard sense of the word these days. Rather, it was in the manner regarding its root in classical Greek, where diaita meant 'way of living.' Alton's take is smart, straightforward, and drives home the importance of moderation. And most importantly, it sounds like we can keep eating pistachios daily!
WORTH A LOOK: Like so many 'round the world, we at MPA have followed the European Space Agency's comet- rendezvous mission Rosetta with great interest. Buzz about the mission peaked when Rosetta launched a small craft, Philae, which managed to land on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Though Philae has fallen silent (as expected), the Rosetta mission continues. Some comet close ups the ESA just released are definitely worth a look, including this one.
Per an ESA caption, "This OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image shows part of a large fracture running across Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko’s neck, in particular where it has left Hapi and is extending into Anuket. In this orientation, the Seth region is at the uppermost left and Hapi in the lower left."
More comet close ups can be viewed here:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Highlights/Comet_close-ups
HALLELUJAH: Whilst working around the house today, we had Handel's Messiah, as performed by The Choir of King's College, Cambridge. We managed to listen to all two hours and thirty eight minutes of it, which was comprised of three scenes, with a total of 53 pieces, including perhaps Handel's greatest 'hit,' the "Hallelujah" chorus.
Here's a link, if you're similarly inclined: http://youtu.be/AZTZRtRFkvk
CAN'T HOLD US: The kids finally got back to guitar today, taking on what seems like it should have been a pretty simple endeavor, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Can't Hold Us." There are only four chords (C, D, Em and Bm, the latter being the most difficult one). We found a decent YouTube tutorial for it, and employed the chord cards I designed to help the kids play it. However, the timing is tricky and the words are rapid fire. Let's just say it's not a learn-in-one-hour song. Here's my favorite version of it - a special one Seattle son Macklemore did for a Seahawks game on Sunday Night Football.
Go Hawks! :)
CAN'T HOLD US: The kids finally got back to guitar today, taking on what seems like it should have been a pretty simple endeavor, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Can't Hold Us." There are only four chords (C, D, Em and Bm, the latter being the most difficult one). We found a decent YouTube tutorial for it, and employed the chord cards I designed to help the kids play it. However, the timing is tricky and the words are rapid fire. Let's just say it's not a learn-in-one-hour song. Here's my favorite version of it - a special one Seattle son Macklemore did for a Seahawks game on Sunday Night Football.
Go Hawks! :)
What a day! Magna Carta and Rosetta. How cool.
ReplyDelete