Today, Will and I went over some significant details from Chapter One of Watchmen. As the text begins in medias res, the relationship between characters was somewhat opaque. To clarify, I had Will recount all of the things he knew about each character: Adrian Veidt, Hollis, Dan Dreiberg, the Comedian, Laurie Jupiter, and Dr. Manhattan. Using the specific details from the text, Will was able to visualize the background story which connects these characters: at one point, each was part of the masked vigilante group, the Watchmen. Using the setting details, we analyzed the character Dr. Manhattan: what are his powers? Why is he working for the U.S. government? Is this somehow connected to Nixon's continued reelection into 1985, the year in which the book is set? Using these questions as his guide, Will induced that Dr. Manhattan's powers were probably responsible for the U.S.'s winning of the war in Vietnam, which is somehow connected to Nixon's reelection. As graphic novels leave us with visual clues, I had Will go back and look for items/images which foreshadow the impending doom that the novel's narrator, Rorschach, seems to foresee. Will identified a ticking clock, an image of a mushroom cloud, and blood on the streets to support the idea of impending doom. Good discussion.

We explored the corollary which states that, when an altitude is constructed from the right angle to the hypotenuse of a right triangle, then each leg of the original triangle is the geometric mean between the segment of the hypotenuse to which it is attached and the whole hypotenuse.

* Vocabulary: Loisirs 3. * Conjugation: Expressions with FAIRE 3. * Reading: 4 pneus. * Culture: Video on Normandie.

We followed the text book and explored life in the cities as affected by the industrial revolution. Advances in medicine, improved sanitation, paving streets, improved transportation, better lighting all improved the lot of city dwellers rich and poor.

Today's session was divided into two segments. During the first segment, Will worked on his research under my supervision. He downloaded an e-book. From this particular source, I wrote specific illustrations of how to paraphrase, how to quote from the middle of a sentence, how to cite in a footnote or endnote, and how to cite in a bibliography. The illustrations should prove helpful to Will in his use of this source for his paper. Indeed, Will said the exercise was helpful. During the second segment, we resumed discussion of Chapter 11. Topics included the effects of the domestic slave trade on slave families, the smuggling of slaves into the US despite the ban on their importation after 1808, slave rebellions, other forms of slave resistance, aspects of adaptation to enslavement, and the importance of slave culture (religion, music, dance, tales, linguistic codes, etc.) Will used the word "fascinating" to describe the material today.

This series is organized in 20-minute segments of which we watched two. "Revolutions" made the connection between James Watt, the steam engine, the industrial revolution and population growth in the west. Sentimental Journey illustrated the connection between expanded travel opportunities and communications and the spreading of the human gene pool.

At the outset today, Will volunteered that he had taken his first flying lesson over the past weekend. We spent some time discussing this experience, which I take it was favorable, given the enthusiasm of his remarks. He picked up a marker and drew diagrams of the plane in order to explain certain features; this involved a smooth, quite natural role reversal: Will tutored me. Had there been any independent witnesses, they would have been impressed, as I was, with Will's pedantry; he was a good instructor on this subject. Next I returned Will's graded Chapter 10 quiz (29/30) and went over it with him. He and I were both pleased by his excellent performance. We then began consideration of Chapter 11, addressing social and economic issues in the South, circa 1820-1860. The main topics, as one would expect, were the development of the cotton industry ("Cotton is king"), and the corresponding expansion of slavery westward (especially in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, even Texas). Additional topics included the South's inadequate railroad network, its poorly developed banking system, its economic dependence on the North, the resentment such dependence engendered, the notion of Southern white male honor, the placement of the Southern white female on a proverbial pedestal, and the concept of role playing in Southern culture.

* Vocabulary: Loisirs 2.
* Conjugation: Expressions with FAIRE 2.
* Grammar: Plural 3.
* Listening: Francis Cabrel - Je t'aimais.

We explored the Right Triangle Similarity Theorem, emphasizing how astoundingly powerful it is. Then we discussed geometric means and how they differ from arithmetic means. We used the white board to illustrate the Theorem and also how to use proportions to compute the geometric mean between two numbers.

We spent the entire session going over homework problems.