Welcome to the 2018-2019 school year!

Welcome back to school, everyone! I’m very glad that you are in my class. We have a lot of hard work and learning ahead of us, and maybe a few fun and exciting things too. Please take your time to look around our class website, as we will be using it occasionally throughout this course. We will be using Canvas more frequently; the URL for Canvas is wsd.instructure.com .

Of particular relevance at this time in the school year is the disclosure statement for this course, which you will find if you click on your class in the drop down menu “Classes” above. Please also see this post: Tips for English with Mrs. Sorensen.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns whatsoever. I can be most easily reached by email: whsorensen@wsd.net (IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT MY LAST NAME IS SPELLED WITH AN “EN”).

I hope you all have a great year!

Cheers,

Mrs. Sorensen

Painting: A School for Boys and Girls by Jan Steen, 1670. This is the largest of several schoolroom scenes by Steen. The composition is loosely based on Raphael’s fresco of ‘The School of Athens’ in the Vatican, depicting the greatest scholars of antiquity. Basing this unruly scene on the famous gathering of greats, Steen made a visual joke, which is also echoed in the incidental detail. The adults seem oblivious to the unruly behaviour of their pupils. At the right is an owl, traditional symbol of wisdom and attribute of the goddess Athena. Here a boy offers it a pair of spectacles alluding to the Dutch proverb ‘What use are glasses or light if the owl does not want to see?’ This could apply to both pupils and teachers.