Today we began to look at society in the aftermath of WWI. "The Lost Generation" referred to people in early adulthood during World War I. After WWI they were "lost" - described as "disoriented, wandering, directionless." In the 1920s, young people tended to be rebellious, cynical and daring. These included things such as jazz, music, fashion, flappers and bootlegging. We will be looking at many diverse aspects of this generation. In the 1920s, there was a group of American expatriate (former U.S. citizens) writers living in Paris. Gertrude Stein is credited with coining the term, and it was subsequently popularized by Ernest Hemingway who used it in his 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises: "You are all a lost generation."

The aftermath of WWI produced many well known authors and novels. Jaydn was reminded that the term "Lost Generation" was introduced by Gertrude Stein, referring to a generation of writers who came of age during World War I. The main characteristics of Lost Generation literature are themes connected to war and its consequences, the radical change of writing style, and the cynical perspective on life. These writers broke from the past, exploring very personal and intense topics. The war left them aimless, directionless, and cynical. We took a look at other events happening around the world after WWI; from the "Roaring 20s" in the U.S., to the new government in Germany, political unrest in China and Revolution in Russia. We reviewed the content of what Jaydn will be reading for HW tonight as we will we begin to study the Russian Revolution in class tomorrow.

Jaydn read, analyzed, and discussed the next two chapters of A Thousand Splendid Suns. Jaydn discussed the theme of perception through the Taliban's destruction of cultural artifacts and the Taliban's effect on the antagonist Rasheed. She also analyzed the Taliban's archaic laws and their effect on women and Laila in particular. She then reviewed SAT vocabulary being studied.

Today we are scheduled to discuss Book 2 and review the contents of Book 1. We will look at how the plot has progressed and is beginning to become more complicated with the meeting of the brothers, father and elder.

Today we are set to discuss the fads of literary criticism starting with the early 1800s and going up to the present time.

Deaf school activity and discussed pronoun signs for possessive/possessions.

Resumed with the deaf education and community activity.

Jaydn read, analyzed, and discussed chapters 36 and 37 of A Thousand Splendid Suns. We discussed the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and the rules they set up for the people and especially the women. Jaydn discussed the various effects these rules would have on the health, education, and existence of the women and their children. We discussed how she could use the facts learned from this novel in a future persuasive literary paper.

I reviewed some of the main properties of angles between parallel lines and also introduced the formula for the total of all internal angles for a polygon. We worked some problems together to show the relationships between the angles. There was no assignment.

Jaydyn shared with me today that she is not a proponent of Thanksgiving in its current form. She feels that Thanksgiving is currently a day of celebrating what turned into trauma for a large group of people. Jaydn feels there should be a "re-branding" of Thanksgiving. Jaydn very eloquently explained that historically, indigenous peoples helped European immigrants in the "New World" to survive, helping them to find food, shelter, learn to hunt, learn to bathe, etc., White, European settlers quickly turned on Native Americans and we know the history. Jadyn initiated and engaged in a very thoughtful conversation about why American culture needs to show more respect and understanding regarding the indigenous people in North America. We then took a little time to tour the Crazy Horse Memorial - the largest mountain carving in N. America - that is currently being built just minutes from Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota.