Posts from old "HonorsBlog"

honorsblog
The Quasi-Official Blog of SJC's Honors Program
Tuesday, April 11, 2006

FYI: from Dr. Connolly
Childsplay Benefit Concert on Friday, April 28th!
posted by Michelle at 9:00 AM 0 comments

FYI: from Dr. Connolly
Childsplay Benefit Concert on Friday, April 28th!
posted by Michelle at 9:00 AM 0 comments

FYI: from Dr. Connolly
Childsplay Benefit Concert on Friday, April 28th!
posted by Michelle at 9:00 AM 0 comments
Friday, November 18, 2005

Flashback: Snippet from Yamato Japanese Drummers!
Putfile - yamato
posted by Michelle at 4:16 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Re: Capstone - "Focus Now on Getting Kids to Finish Degree - Yahoo! News"
Focus Now on Getting Kids to Finish Degree - Yahoo! News
posted by Michelle at 10:52 AM 0 comments
Monday, November 14, 2005

LAST CALL! Honors' Event for Nov.:YAMATO JAPANESE DRUMMERS
There are only something like SIX tickets left!!!
Wanna go?? Run a.s.a.p. to Student Affairs and get your $4 ticket!!!
We'll be leaving SJC by van from in front of Alfond CENTER @ 6 pm!!
----------------------------------
YAMATO Drummers of Japan!!
Thursday, November 17 @ 7:30 pm
Merrill Auditorium, Portland
Witness a breathtakingly modern take on traditional Japanese drumming!
A cross between music and dance, performers use their entire bodies to beat the drums, some of which are 6-feet wide, 900 pounds, and 400 years old!!
I've just learned that Student Affairs has kindly offered to co-sponsor this event! Honors' students will only need to pay $4 each (instead of the usual whole ticket price of $28!)
For more information on Yamato Drummers of Japan, see PCA Great Performances' website and Yamato's official website.
(Don't worry... for the latter, you can just keep hitting "cancel" for the Japanese language pack update, and the page will eventually load anyway!!)
posted by Michelle at 10:49 AM 0 comments
Saturday, November 12, 2005

Newsflash: "Smarter kids may live longer: study"!
Smarter kids may live longer: study - Yahoo! News
posted by Michelle at 10:31 AM 0 comments
Friday, November 04, 2005

QUOTE OF THE DAY :-)
"Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth." Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)
posted by Michelle at 4:40 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Senior Honors Meeting this Monday *MOVED* to Monday, November 14th!
Ciao, all me most honorable students! I have not yet heard back from the Maine Compact for Higher Education, and I've been invited to attend a workshop on service learning (my first!) next Wednesday, so we might as well postpone the Honors meeting about Capstone that we’d originally scheduled for this Monday until Monday, November 14th at 5 pm in the Cafeteria. BTW, I’m thinking about assigning as a textbook one of the “annual editions,” a textbook series published brand-new, hot off the presses EACH AND EVERY YEAR with all the latest information and updates… in this case, the one on “Global Issues.” You can read more about it and check out the table of contents of the brand, spanking new one here … Be sure to tell me what you think about the idea of having such a cutting-edge text!See you not this Monday but next!Dr. Laughran
posted by Michelle at 1:13 PM 0 comments
Sunday, October 30, 2005

BLAST FROM THE PAST!
Hey, Seniors... Remember this?!

And, last but not least... (What can I say? I was--and am--easily amused!!)
posted by Michelle at 12:30 PM 0 comments
Friday, October 28, 2005

*CEILI!* (Irish Dance...)

posted by Michelle at 10:50 AM 0 comments
Thursday, October 27, 2005

20% off Borders's Coupons good for this Weekend!!
Borders
posted by Michelle at 2:48 PM 0 comments

For Fun: Einstein Blackboard Generator
Make your own Einstein blackboard message!
(Not to mention the Bart Simpson chalkboard generator...)
Enjoy!! :-)
posted by Michelle at 2:32 PM 0 comments

Foreign Policy - Complimentary Digital Subscription!
For those of you interested in current events... I've done a number of these, and there's really no strings attached. (They just want to get you hooked on the publication, so that hopefully you resubscribe... but they don't even get a credit card number ahead of time!!) Foreign Policy - Complimentary Digital Subscription!
posted by Michelle at 1:35 PM 0 comments

From Allyson Joy re: Capstone
Hi Michelle,You must have a great class….this will be perfect! I personally know Sue Gendron ~ the Commissioner forThe Department of Education.Would you like to still meet? I will need a course syllabus, also a contract from each student. We will have to contact them and match a need with your course…student may be involved in this process.This will be FUN! AllysonFrom: Michelle Laughran - History Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2005 2:13 PMTo: Allyson JoySubject: RE: Honors ideasDear Allyson,After meeting with the Honors seniors Monday night, they seemed to get excited about working together with the Compact for Higher Education ( Home Page).What do you think??Thanks!!Michelle
posted by Michelle at 1:31 PM 0 comments

FYI for Capstone: Rich Nations Aiding 'Brain Drain' - Yahoo! News
Does the same happen for Maine, do you think?? Study: Rich Nations Aiding 'Brain Drain' - Yahoo! News
posted by Michelle at 7:20 AM 0 comments

SENIORS: CAPSTONE time!
Based on a review of the current schedule for Spring 2006, the Honors seniors have opted for TUESDAYS @ 5:30 - 9 pm for Capstone (so as not conflict with as many classes, internships, clinicals, etc. etc. as possible!)
posted by Michelle at 5:48 AM 0 comments

Honors' Outings: Friday, Oct. 28th & Nov. 17th
Dear all,We'll leave from in front of Alfond CENTER at 6 pm Friday evening for the Halloween silent movie and costume contest in Portland! (If you haven't yet, and you wanna go, be sure to RSVP so we have enough van space for everybody!!)(And the tickets for Yamato have been purchased... More info coming soon!!)See you then!Dr. Laughran
posted by Michelle at 5:28 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Idea for Honors Senior Capstone Service-Learning Project... Whatcha think?
Compact for Higher Education - Home
posted by Michelle at 7:10 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Blog Updated...
Dear all,I just moved the links for "goings-on in Portland" to the sidebar, in case you go looking for them!Be sure to check out the Honors' events (Yamato... Halloween... Ceili...) coming up on the calendar listed above and below this post!!:-)Dr. Laughran
posted by Michelle at 4:02 PM 0 comments

HONORS HALLOWEEN HAPPENING!
We've got 2 vans reserved, leaving here at 6 pm.(Meet in front of Alfond Center.) Be sure to rsvp so we'll know if we need more transportation!!See you there! (It'll be a blast!!)Halloween Silent Film Night"The Phantom of the Opera"(1926 version with Lon Chaney)David Peckham, organist (playing the ginormous Kotzschmar pipe organ!)Costume Contest 7:00 pmAdmission: $10.00 suggested at the door ($5.00 if wearing a costume)@ Merrill Auditorium in Portland
posted by Michelle at 11:01 AM 0 comments

Senior Meeting about Capstone @ Mon., Oct. 24th!
Howdy Seniors! We'll have our second serious (well, as serious as we ever are...) meeting to plan Capstone on Monday, Oct. 24 at 5 pm in the Cafeteria, where we'll sit off to the side and gab while grabbing a meal. Bring your suggestions for themes we might like to explore in Capstone, as well as possibilities for a class service-learning project!!See you then!!Dr. LaughranP.S.You're the first ones to be entered as the members of the Honors Students’ very own blog at http://sjchonorsclub.blogspot.com. Congratulations! ;-) You can go ahead and start posting, if you like, about your ideas for Capstone.
posted by Michelle at 10:27 AM 0 comments
Friday, October 14, 2005

Honors' FUN! Ceili (Irish Dance) with Dr. Connolly
Ask the upperclasspersons... by now, Dr. Connolly's Ceilis (or Irish Dances) are legendary! Don't miss this chance to join the fun!!Don't know how to ceili? No worries!! That's why there'll be...
Ceili Workshop
(How to Irish Dance!)
Wednesday, November 9 @ 7 pm
Mercy Cafeteria
to be followed by...
A real Ceili with LIVE IRISH MUSIC!
Sunday, November 13 @ 2:30 pm
Ri-Ra's Irish Pub & Restaurant in Portland
(This program is co-sponsored by the Honors Program and the Cultural Affairs committee.)
posted by Michelle at 12:58 PM 0 comments
Friday, September 30, 2005

Goings-On in Portland: Chorale
Henry Purcell's (1659-1695) short opera "Dido and Aeneas" is based on the story of the legendary Trojan hero from Virgil's "Aeneid." Aeneas is shipwrecked on the Mediterranean Sea and lands in Carthage, where he is royally entertained. He falls in love with Dido, the Queen of Carthage, but witches conspire for their downfall. Purcell's opera is the best known English Baroque opera, featuring clearly drawn characters and beautiful arias. This performance is accompanied by the DaPonte String Quartet and Ray Cornils on harpsichord.Maine Irish Heritage Center34 Gray Street,Portland, MaineSaturday, November 5, 20057:30 p.m.Advance Tickets: $15At the Door: $15/$20
CAS sings Handel's Messiah, for many the best known and best loved classical choral work. This large-scale performance, featuring both a massive oratorio chorus and our more intimate Camerata, will bring out the intricate as well as the grandiose spirit of Messiah. CAS presents the best of both worlds in a spectacular performance not heard in Merrill Auditorium for over a decade.Merrill Auditorium20 Myrtle Street,Portland, MaineSunday, April 2, 20063:00 p.m.Tickets: TBA (available around the first of the year, through PortTix)
Finally, Toshiyuki Shimada is conducting Verdi’s Requiem for his final concert with the Portland Symphony: CAS Masterworks Chorus joins the Portland Symphony Orchestra in Toshiyuki Shimada's musical farewell to Portland, with what many consider Verdi's greatest work.Merrill Auditorium20 Myrtle Street, Portland, MaineTuesday, May 2, 2006 7:30 p.m.Tickets: available through PortTix 207-842-0800(limited seats are available, please call the box office directly)
posted by Michelle at 9:30 AM 0 comments
Friday, September 23, 2005

I don't know if we can do this... But I'd love to sponsor a trip for the Honors program to see this historic event!
King Tut exhibition. Tutankhamun & the Golden Age of the Pharaohs. Treasures from the Valley of the Kings. (Will be the closest to us in Philadelphia, starting Feb. 2007!)
posted by Michelle at 11:52 AM 0 comments

A few more suggestions...
Oh, a few more suggestions that I just remembered that Dr. Bridge had passed along to me..."Hi Michelle,Just finished up with the honors orientation. Thirteen students in all--it went very well. (We ended up using the AFI quotes.) Good group. I took notes for the programming interest survey. Similar to what I've heard in the past. I promised I'd pass them along:Rock concerts (Paranoid Social Club, etc.) - PortlandSea Dogs, Pirates gamesTenting/Camping/Hiking - Acadia, etc.Whitewater rafting tripsMontreal tripPeace,Steve "
posted by Michelle at 11:46 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Honors program suggestions so far...
Copied and pasted from my WebCT class last spring..."Subject: Honors Program!!!Message no. 40Author: Danielle Levesque (dlevesque)Date: Tuesday, April 5, 2005 12:36pmAlright, for those of you who don't know/weren't in class today (4/5) for whatever reason, we spent a good part of the class discussing ideas for/about the Honors Program, since Dr. Laughran is taking control of the HP at the end of this spring semester.Here's a list of ideas we discussed in class today, if you have any others or any comments on these, please post them!1. Honors Club (to have access to SGA funds as any other club would)2. trip to Italy (possibly a Senior Honors trip?)3. trip for more people (instead of just 10 or 15 lucky people per semester)4. ceilidh (with Dr. Connolly's involvement)5. Honors House (for housing, almost like a frat house- only concern is elitism, but point made that sports teams i.e. baseball have the same kind of elitism, baseball team has a whole section of quads)6. fun Honors activity for the group as a whole7. Senior Trip Savings Account (so each year's Honors Seniors can go somewhere pretty awesome, like, oh, say... Italy?)8. fundraisers (each fundraiser's participants are noted, and the $ earned goes equally into the "accounts" of ONLY those who participated- Nichole's idea)9. ***Honors Overnight/Afternoon in Alfond (perhaps an overnight, BBQ, general bonding-type thing for ALL of the Honors kids)10. ******weighted grades OR priority for housing selection/room selection (discussed that it wasn't fair that non-honors classes are easier, and if a person has a lower grade in an honors class than someone else has in a non-honors class, it's almost like the honors students get penalized for their classes being more difficult- maybe honors classes could be weighted but ONLY for room selection?)11. Honors Hall/Suites (see #5 & 10)12. Honors Lounge (see #5, 10, 11)13. invest $/endowment for Honors (take portion of money each year & put it away to grow)14. hands-on activities for Honors group15. Honors group at whole wants more credit for performance/achievements16. more SGA involvement17. more trips/less people on each trip or less trips/more people on each trip?18. class-specific trips, class-specific funds19. summer program/week/end for Honors group20. more of an orientation for Honors group (rising first-years?)21. will the HP become a pseudo-National-Honors-Society?22. DaVinci Code/Angels & Demons project? (read books and then go to places discussedin them???)23. Reading Club as extention of Honors Club/Program24. Honors Program listing on Web CT (post announcements about trips, mtgs etc. without having to always go through email... and we could move this thread to that listing as well)Well, that's all I have for notes on that... I definitely think we need to work on #1 (an Honors Club), #9 (the Honors shindig), and #10 (priority housing for Honors students) as soon as possible. The more input everyone has, the better I guess- instead of it just being a "maybe", we can really make it happen. If there's anyone in this class who's somehow involved with SGA, Senate or something who could get info on club requirements/process etc, it would be fabulous- so we can work on getting what we need to do this, if it's what we want and its possible.""Subject: Re: Honors Program!!!Message no. 60 [Reply of: no. 40]Author: Dr. Michelle Laughran (HY102-M)Date: Friday, April 8, 2005 4:39pmDanielle, thanks for a great job on documenting our discussion!! Are you sure you're not a latent historian?? :)Some great ideas here... Maybe I'll try to get an open link posted on our Honors website so everybody can take part in this discussion!! Keep the ideas coming!!!!!!!!Thanks again, everybody, both for your ideas and your support!! :)Michelle Laughran"
posted by Michelle at 11:46 AM 1 comments
Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Borders' Coupon: 20% Off TOTAL PURCHASE for Students!!
Borders - Feature - students
posted by Michelle at 11:31 AM 0 comments
Sunday, September 04, 2005

A book writes home...
Over a year ago in Venice, I released a book into the wild. It was my solution for what to do with my "brain candy" novels after I finished reading 'em...Poor things! No used bookstore in Venice would take them (What can I say? I have eclectic tastes...) and I had received a formal protest from my spouse about continuing to schlep tons of paper back and forth across the Atlantic. But what could I do? I couldn't just throw them away! *shudder*BookCrossing turned out to be the perfect solution!!What is "BookCrossing," you may ask? According to the 2004 edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, bookcrossing is "the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise."And it's a completely free service! As their FAQs say, "I'm looking at your site here, and I can't believe what I'm reading. Do you actually want me to give away my books?" To which they reply, "Ummm, yes...
Trust us on this one. Registering your books with BookCrossing.com, then giving them to a friend, a charity, or otherwise releasing them "into the wild" and following their progress and travels, is infinitely more fulfilling than the small satisfaction you'll get by looking at your books in your bookcase every day. As Austin Powers would say, "It's karma, baybee!"
How does it work? Once you finish reading a book, you can sign onto the BookCrossing website and "register" it. The site will then give you a code number to write in or on the book, along with instructions for future readers. You then "release" it in a public place to be discovered and hopefully adopted and read by some well-meaning passerby, who ideally would also log into the site and report where they'd found the book and where they planned to release it next. And so on... By now, there are over 180,000 "BookCrossers" in the U.S., and nearly 400,000 throughout the world.But you don't have to wait until you just find one of these treasures lying about! You can go hunting for BookCrossing releases! I get email alerts whenever a book has been released in one of my hometowns, and you can also check in periodically to the website to see what's new. Venetian releases, for example, can be tracked here.How many released books "check in"? According to the website, only about 20-25%. But don't give up hope! Some have actually gone years before "reappearing." Case in point, Jane Austin's Mansfield Park that I released over a year ago in Venice at the city's famous Rialto Bridge. It's just been found in a bus in Melbourne Australia, by a person who's vowed to read it and then "release" it back into the wild herself. Via con Dios, librito!
Anyway, I've thought more than once that we should have an official "BookCrossing Zone" here on campus, maybe even sponsored by the Honors' Program. Whatch'all think?
posted by Michelle at 12:56 PM 0 comments
Monday, August 15, 2005

Welcome to the quasi-official "blog" for SJC's Honors Program!
What's a "blog"? Why, it's the latest word o' the year!All Honors' Program related announcements will be here! All Honors' profs will have access to posting, and you can even comment on our posts!What's more, all SJC Honors' students will also be entered as "members" in their very own blog and will be able to post regarding their own observations and comments.In addition, blogs lets you use a handy feature called an "rss feed," which can deliver any updates directly to your homepage (and sometimes also to your email box...) For more info on that, check out "The ABCs of RSS" !!Again, welcome, and have a great year!Dr. Laughran
posted by Michelle at 3:31 AM 0 comments
Related Links
SJC's Local Page
Login to WebCT
"A Good Idea"(Honors' Western Civ Blog)
"Honorable Mentions"(SJC Honors Students' Own Blog)
Goings-On in Portland & Nearby
Going on today (and this week) in Greater Portland!
Portland Stage Company
Madhorse Theater Company
Maine Irish Heritage Center
The Center for Cultural Exchange
The Movies on Exchange Street
Previous Posts
FYI: from Dr. Connolly
FYI: from Dr. Connolly
FYI: from Dr. Connolly
Flashback: Snippet from Yamato Japanese Drummers!
Re: Capstone - "Focus Now on Getting Kids to Finis...
LAST CALL! Honors' Event for Nov.:YAMATO JAPANESE ...
Newsflash: "Smarter kids may live longer: study"!
QUOTE OF THE DAY :-)
Senior Honors Meeting this Monday *MOVED* to Monda...
BLAST FROM THE PAST!
Archives
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
April 2006
This is a paragraph of text that could go in the sidebar.
-->