Writing Contest!

The University of Alaska Anchorage and the Alaska Dispatch News is holding its annual creative writing contest. They accept fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. They award cash prizes to the winners in each genre. (There's a category for grades 7-9). This is a great chance for students to get their work out into the world! Click HERE for more information.

FAHRENHEIT 451

In Language Arts, we're starting Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Over the next few weeks, we'll be reading, analyzing, and discussing this dystopian novel. When we finish, students will be writing essays  in response to the themes in the novel. We'll begin each part by previewing the vocabulary, we'll use the following three Reader's Notebook packets to guide our vocabulary study and class discussions: Reader's Notebook One, Reader's Notebook Two, Reader's Notebook Three. A recent re-read of the novel reminded me of how fascinating it is and how relevant the themes remain even now, years after it was first published--we'll have a lot to talk about!

Also, an update: we sent home notices earlier this week, but in case anyone missed it, we have postponed our field trip to Eaglecrest due to snow conditions. We've re-scheduled for March 26th and 27th. Keep hoping for snow!

Yearbook Survey

Yearbook students have asked that all students at Dryden take a survey for the yearbook. Please click HERE for the Yearbook survey.