KHS fencing, 2013-2014... Ish

So, we (the various coaches) were able to meet yesterday and get a lot of the groundwork laid for this coming academic year's season. 

So vital items:

• There are 10 teams in the league for sure, with two more possible
• Ergo, we are returning to the model of a two seasons ago and dividing the league into two division: East and West (we're in the East)
• There will be four meets (one a month) from October through January with the two finals (A-team and individual) in February
• The tentative dates are:
• 19 October
• 23 November
• 14 December
• 25 January
• 8 February (A-team final)
• 22 February (individual final)
• I will ask Mr. Mitchell and Coach Wright to let us, again, host one of the meets
• Epee is in!  If a school wants to put forward a B-team in epee, the can (but do not have to) and the epee equipped B-teams will be pooled together
• Saber remains in the wings, at present, since there is a great deal of interest amongst many of our younger (elementary and middle) but not as much, presently, amongst high school--But the plan is to work towards it
• As the coach from Reynolds put it, "What a wonderful problem that will be."  ;)
• Cape Fear Fencing has many elementary and middle school students who, along with us, make up the only sub-high-school group of fencers; so we're going to plan accordingly.  Once we (myself, Mr. McCurdy and Mr. Freudenrich) know who we can safely enter into competition and Cape Fear has a similar count...  We can plan for younger B-team(s) which would only face other younger B-team(s).
• This is not a for-sure-all-hands-prepare-for-launch-thing! Like much in school and sports, we will have to make choices and adjustments as we get closer to the season
• In order to avoid many of the problems in the last couple years at the individual tournament, all fencers must qualify to compete:
• In order to qualify, a fencer must have fenced in at least two out of the four meets in the regular season
• A-team fencers get a bye into the individual tournament
• B-team fencers will need to have won at least 25% of their bouts

Morehead summer camp computer lab usage schedule, 9-19 July

The Morehead summer camp has signed out the lab for the following times this week and next (9-19 July) and while they are in there, online students are welcome to use the computers in my classroom (room 105). 

Be nice, they're little.  ;)

• Wednesday, 10 July:
• 10-11:05am 
• 1:10-3:40pm
• Thursday, 11 July:
•  1-3:40pm
• Friday, 12 July:
• 1-3:45pm

•  Monday, 15 July:
• 1-3:50pm
• Tuesday, 16 July:
•  1-3:50pm
• Wednesday, 17 July:
• 9:40-11:40am
• 1:10-3:45pm
• Thursday, 18 July:
• 1-3:50pm
• Friday, 19 July:
• 1-3:50pm

Uh... Mr. McConnel, why are there comic books all over your desk?

While I have had cause to use graphic novels and comic books as teaching tools in the past, I've struck on a gold mine in the form of The Graphic Canon edited by Russ Kick.  Let me just highlight the Greco-Roman authors...  (deep breath)  HomerSapphoEuripidesAristophanesPlatoLucretiusaaand Virgil.  Not enough?  Ok fine, on the Medievals!  Hildegard of Bingen, Dante, Francois Villon, Chaucer, Malory, Beowulf, Abelard and Heloise, Teresa of Avila and Shakespeare.  ;)

My only gripe with Kick is that, while some of the pieces in the collection were produced to be read in isolation (i.e. one poem by Sappho), a lot of what he has put in is taken from a larger work.  I get the importance to including Gareth Hinds' rendering of Beowulf and the Odyssey and to only include a part of those larger works...  But still, I feel a bit...  Well, cheated I guess.  I get that some of these works are small, like Plato's Symposium, but Dante reduced to four or five pages?

Still, Kick has gathered a host of work from such a variety of artists and authors that I cannot help but see this book (and the plethora of notes I've already taken) playing a part in my teaching next year.

And then there's Jonathan Hickman; Red Mass for Mars and Pax Romana both make me wonder if this guy was sitting down to write his dissertation on Roman history and culture...  Then said, "HECK WITH IT" and went off to write comic books.  Impressive, if NSFW, writing and format.  Red is mostly of interest because it plays with the idea of a Superman-like figure landing earlier on in history, i.e. the early Middle Ages, when the ethos of 'might makes right' prevailed (at least, more so than we tell ourselves it does today...) and, as such, he takes on the mantle of Mars.  It's a superhero genre piece through and through however.  

Pax, on the other hand, is predicated on the idea that if time travel were ever feasible, what would the repercussions be... If, say, a zealous cardinal in the Catholic Church hornswaggles a well-meaning pope into sending back an "Eternal Legion" to Constantine in order to ensure a true Pax Romanae...  Best laid plans and all that.  ;)

What's really got stuck in my craw right now, though, is the question I pose to you now: when is it appropriate to communicate with an author, artist, etc about a work?  I mean, can't ask Cicero or Catullus...  So is it reasoble to, say, email Jonathan Hickman or any of the folk in the Canon and barrage them with queries?