Here we are at the end of the October and almost to the end of the 1st marking period. Of course, like many, my thoughts have turned to last year. What a strange fall it was with no electricity and no school for 2 weeks. I am so glad that we are a year away from that and I am hopeful that most of our neighbors are in a better place in 2013.
As we close into our last weeks of the 1st marking period, the majority of the students are making progress in both their content knowledge and study skills. Parents--don't forget that you can have your own parent account on Edmodo if you want to see what we are doing in class. Have your son/daughter log on and then look on the bottom left of the screen and there will be directions to help you open up your own account. Every class has a syllabus for each unit that spells out all homework and assessments for class. Each unit has a folder that includes the syllabus, any assignments and readings, projects, and rubrics.
In A.P., the students are writing their second DBQ (Document Based Question) this week. Please encourage your students to review their rubrics and reread my comments on past essays so that they don't continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. As for content, we are finishing the Progressive Era and we will be starting World War I. The Academic classes have already started W orld War I and will be debating American neutraily tomorrow. The ELL students are still learning about the Progressive Era and will be blogging about child labor tomorrow.
Happy Halloween and Fall!
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
In the AP class last week, we had a mock congressional hearing to judge both President McKinley and President Roosevelt's actions in regards to imperialism. The students had to use documents and historical information to write testimony from the perspective of their historical person. Some struggled with the application skills but with a little help from me and their classmates, they were able to extrapolate the information and evidence they needed. After our test on the 16th, they will begin the Progressive Era. My student teacher, Ms. Kirchmer will begin to team teach with me in those classes next week.
In the Academic USII classes, they are in the middle of the unit on Progressivism. Ms. Kirchmer assigned a very creative project that required the students to research a famous person from that era and create a "Fakebook" page for them. This week the students will look at their classmates' "Fakebook" pages and determine which ones would have been in their "network". For example, the Civil Rights figures will have to locate each other and the Suffragists will have to find each other. They will write historical appropriate posts on each other's walls. Finally on another day, their "networks" will work as a team to determine overall how successful their movements were and what effect, if any, they had on history. The students were required to use Facts on File, a database that the district pays for and is available in school and at home, for their research. I love the idea for this project because it hits so many skills--research, information processing, application, technology, and evaluation.
Finally, in our ELL. USHistory II class, our focus last week was on vocabulary and map skills. All of the teachers that teach ELL this year are using the same graphic organizer for vocabulary. We are hoping that the consistency will help them across the board in all of their subjects. Subject wise, we have been talking about Imperialism so it has given us a chance to talk about some of their home countries like Colombia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and China.
This is a day off from the classroom but not a day off from the work involved. I am grateful for the day to catch up. I am determined to finish all of my college recommendations for my former students before returning back to school tomorrow. It is lengthy assignment but one that must be taken seriously--I would never want to be the reason a student was kept from their dream college. Students seem to be applying to more and more universities each year; most of the applicants are applying to ten or more. Luckily, with almost all universities, the process has moved online and I no longer have to feed the CNHS letterhead into the printer (and hope I put it in the correct direction). Technology has definitely made this an easier process, at least on the teacher side of it. Now of course, I intend to finish the ones that have already requested a recommendation from me, but from experience I know I will get a few more requests about one week before their applications are due. A teacher's work is never done. ;)
In the Academic USII classes, they are in the middle of the unit on Progressivism. Ms. Kirchmer assigned a very creative project that required the students to research a famous person from that era and create a "Fakebook" page for them. This week the students will look at their classmates' "Fakebook" pages and determine which ones would have been in their "network". For example, the Civil Rights figures will have to locate each other and the Suffragists will have to find each other. They will write historical appropriate posts on each other's walls. Finally on another day, their "networks" will work as a team to determine overall how successful their movements were and what effect, if any, they had on history. The students were required to use Facts on File, a database that the district pays for and is available in school and at home, for their research. I love the idea for this project because it hits so many skills--research, information processing, application, technology, and evaluation.
Finally, in our ELL. USHistory II class, our focus last week was on vocabulary and map skills. All of the teachers that teach ELL this year are using the same graphic organizer for vocabulary. We are hoping that the consistency will help them across the board in all of their subjects. Subject wise, we have been talking about Imperialism so it has given us a chance to talk about some of their home countries like Colombia, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and China.
This is a day off from the classroom but not a day off from the work involved. I am grateful for the day to catch up. I am determined to finish all of my college recommendations for my former students before returning back to school tomorrow. It is lengthy assignment but one that must be taken seriously--I would never want to be the reason a student was kept from their dream college. Students seem to be applying to more and more universities each year; most of the applicants are applying to ten or more. Luckily, with almost all universities, the process has moved online and I no longer have to feed the CNHS letterhead into the printer (and hope I put it in the correct direction). Technology has definitely made this an easier process, at least on the teacher side of it. Now of course, I intend to finish the ones that have already requested a recommendation from me, but from experience I know I will get a few more requests about one week before their applications are due. A teacher's work is never done. ;)
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Well today is October 2nd and I feel like we are really getting into the groove of the school year. The students have done an amazing job of getting my classroom routines down which allows us to get to business right away. Those 47 minutes fly by! In all of my classes, we are now studying Imperialism in the late 19th century and we were able to draw some parallels between the Filipino War and our most recent Iraqi War. We also made some time this week to discuss the government shut down and the Affordable Care Act. We even took a few minutes to watch a clip from Jimmy Kimmel's show about that topic. It was funny, if not a bit sad. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx2scvIFGjE
I did lecture all of the classes some about their responsibility to be informed citizens and encouraged them to read the news--even if it is on their phone. I encouraged downloading Zite or Flipboard to help in that endeavor. I will continue to discuss relevant current events in class while using websites like Factcheck.org to encourage discussions that are fact based. Parents, please bring up current events with them at home--it is so important for them to go to college with basic knowledge of important people and recent events. Plus many of them will be voting in one short year! Also if someday they get asked basic information on the street by a camera crew, they'll be able to say something intelligent, which probably won't get them on TV but won't embarrass them either. :)
I did lecture all of the classes some about their responsibility to be informed citizens and encouraged them to read the news--even if it is on their phone. I encouraged downloading Zite or Flipboard to help in that endeavor. I will continue to discuss relevant current events in class while using websites like Factcheck.org to encourage discussions that are fact based. Parents, please bring up current events with them at home--it is so important for them to go to college with basic knowledge of important people and recent events. Plus many of them will be voting in one short year! Also if someday they get asked basic information on the street by a camera crew, they'll be able to say something intelligent, which probably won't get them on TV but won't embarrass them either. :)
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