Mr. Helmsing’s Backyard

…to Ms. Wohlafka, Ms. Schaffer, and Ms. Schoch for the excellent choir concert this evening!
The choir concerts are a hidden gem at North, especially since so many of our students are in choir, many of whom rarely get recognized during the day (many wouldn’t even expect them to be singers!)
The stage and decorations were ornate, the [...]

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The elements of fiction are what make literature the unique form of art that it is; every type of art has its own elements:  stage directions, scenery, lighting for theatre; pitch, acoustics, and timbre for music; light, composition, and distance for photography. 
For fiction, there are a variety of elements often working in tandem, although at times [...]

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Garrison Keillor selected some of his favorite poems from authors old and new shared on his daily radio program The Writer’s Almanac.  He edited an anthology of poems particularly suitable for when someone’s having a “rainy day” entitled Good Poems for Hard Times.  These poems are meant to inspire, uplift, cheer up, confront, and provoke [...]

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One of the best ways to become a better writer is simply to write…and that’s exactly what we did today in English class.
G2 chose an essay topic they felt most comfortable tackling as they responded to an in-class timed essay exam on Criterion over Dracula. 
In G4, we discussed the questions over the final chapters [...]

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From time to time I hope to post thoughts for your consideration about one of my passions - film.  I visit our local cinemas frequently (usually with my fellow film connoisseur Mr. Phibeck and at times with other film aficionados Ms. Sandberg, Mr. Aiken, Ms. Loser and even Ms. Sweeney and Mr. Chaffin have been [...]

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I’ve heard people use the word balmy six times today to describe the weather.  I am enjoying every creeping degree of it.  Snow should fall on December 24 and 25, stay around for the 26 and 27, and melt away on the 28.  That’s what I would do if I could have a tete-a-tete with [...]

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The last two weeks have assaulted my morale and anyone at BHSN who has been able to put up with my grumpy crankiness is to be applauded.  What started out as a cold almost a month ago seemd to go away and then came back with a vegenance after Thanksgiving and turned into laryngitis.  In [...]

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Here is a file to my first attempt at using a webcam…Mr. Helmsing’s First Video Blog

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