Rams International Newsletter

This week:

Class song and poem:

On Thursday the 1st, the class analyzed a new poem called General William Booth enters into Heaven by Vachel Lindsay. It was a long, but fairly simple poem about William Booth and had heavy religious Christian undertones. The poem was written in 1920, which a prosperous time for America after just winning the First World War. William Booth was a general and after he came back from the war, instead of partying, he decided to create the Salvation Army to help people in need on the streets. Mr. A informed us that Lindsay wrote this poem because Booth was his hero. Lindsay was homeless himself and that’s why Booth is his hero, because he helped people like him. The main idea of the poem was that William Booth salvaged rejects and turned them into kings and queens. In Heaven, Jesus rewarded William Booth by personally making him a king. We discussed the theme of the

poem, which was, if you do the right thing and help others, you will be rewarded in the future.

On Tuesday the 29th, the class analyzed the song Fidelity, by Regina Specktor. It’s a short love song. The song is based on a girl who is too scared to fall in love. In class Mr. A described is as a drop tower. Some people are scared to to ride them and never expirence the rush. This represents how love is, if you never fall in love you’ll never feel the rush. She also shares how her friends get in her head. All of her friends who have felt the rush. The voices get in her head, all throughout the song shares how it breaks her heart.

This week was an exciting week for Rams International, with a song, poem, discussion board from Corporate, and an activity from Professional. We analyzed a poem called “General William Booth enters into Heaven”, and a song called “Fidelity”. Along with a class activity of TRUTH OR DARE. One boy and one girl would go in the front of class with either a truth or dare to represent the song we did in class.

SOL OBJECTIVES EACH DEVELOPMENT

R A M S

9.5 a: recognize an author’s intended purpose for writing and identify the main idea 9.1 i: give and follow spoken directions to perform specific tasks, answer questions, or solve problems. CONTRIBUTIONS: Ava: Wrote the “each development” section and edited the newsletter and website. Courtney: Wrote the poem section. Jimmy: Edited vocab tab on website Cailor: SOL standards Maddie: Created template and wrote class song section. Matt: Employee of the week tab. Tyler: Employee of the week tab.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT This week, Research & Development analyzed “Fidelity” by Regina Spektor on their website. This song is about a girl who is scared to love someone, because she doesn’t want to have her heart broken. They also analyzed “General William Booth Enters into Heaven” by Vachel Lindsay. Vachel Lindsay was homeless as a child, so his hero was General William Booth because he started the Salvation Army. The poem relates Booth’s followers to Jesus’ deciples. R&D also went over to Mr. Campbell’s room to see what they’re learning, and added it to their website. CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT

This week, Corporate Development did a discussion board on “The Lego Movie”. This movie is a cliché about how Emmet, who always follows the rules to a tee and is clueless and cumbersome, finds his voice and defeats the villain by admonishing him for trying to control everything. The discussion board went smoothly, and there were some thought-provoking questions and great responses. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

This week, professional development did an activity on “Fidelity” by Regina Spektor. Two volunteers or randomly selected boy and girl had to choose either truth or dare. Those who picked truth got very easy questions such as “What’s your favorite animal?”. Those who picked dare, however, had to do an extremely hard task such as singing to their partner or waltzing with their partner. It relates to Fidelity, because the people who picked truth played it safe like Regina. The people who chose dare were willing to take a risk, even if it could have ended in a dilemma.