I read In Cold Blood (after seeing Capote ) and thought it was fascinating. Scary but interesting.

Never saw Capote. I do think it's fascinating and scary. I think it might be attention grabbing enough for 12th graders, while still having literary value on its own. I worry that it might be too difficult for some.

My other option is Into the Wild which is what the district says I'm supposed to teach. But really? I think a kid going off on his own Alaska is too far of a stretch for my urban kids. Multiple murder yes? Dying of one's own hubris? No.

You guys, we just saw the International Space Station fly over our area!

Perfect timing -- it happened to be flying over at night, and it's a clear, cloudless night. The article describes it as a "dazzling bright object" with movement similar to a high-flying aircraft, and that's pretty much what it looked like.

We went outside, stood in the street, and kept staring southwest like we were awaiting the Rapture or something. We kept seeing lighting bugs, but nothing that qualified as "dazzling bright," and nothing moving through the sky.

Then suddenly, this fairly swift-moving bright white dot came up out of the southwestern sky, and cheerfully flew over us to the northeast.

So. Damn. Cool. Even though it just looked like a really bright dot, just knowing that the International Space Station was FLYING OVER US and that we were actually seeing it in real time -- it gave me goosebumps.

And I just finished In Cold Blood. Has anyone else read it? I think this might be what I teach to my non AP comp class. Thoughts?

I read it a couple of years ago and could not put it down. Compelling. It should certainly generate discussion.

very cool , steph.

That's great, Tep!

Eta: if I remember right, I got to see it zipping overhead years ago from the parking lot of the outdoor equipment shop where I worked, so we had some pretty good binoculars to see it with, as well. Which meant we got to see a bright dot with a bit of shape to it. Very exciting!

The Boy says they waved to us, but I think he's crazy.

They clearly mooned us.

We went outside, stood in the street, and kept staring southwest like we were awaiting the Rapture or something.

Kinda sounds better than the Rapture. And awesome, really, really awesome.

I read In Cold Blood when I was in high school, just because it was on the bookshelf in my room and I found the story compelling. But of course I remember nothing about the book as a book now.

Why else would she redo without looking? Looking=gathering data. Not looking and redoing sounds like something didn't get taken right, no data to gather.

Well, the first set (front) she went and looked at, then asked to redo the left side. Then went to look at the next set and had the same technical error when doing the side set, but again only on the left. And then took an extra image of the left front for good measure? I dunno. Sounds like maybe looking for something to me.

Prom at the Moulin Rouge?

I AM SO THERE.