3/31

Happy (almost) April! It’s hard to believe that March is over and we are heading into the last eight weeks of school. The fourth quarter has started off with a bang and the kids have wasted no time getting to work to set themselves up for success for the end of the year! Here’s a quick rundown of how the week has gone.

WH7:

This week, the seventh graders had their first homework assignment for the quarter and had some class time to work on those this week. It was a vocabulary assignment about Greek culture. They read about Greek philosophy, drama, art, and mythology. In their reading, they were introduced to many important Greeks and their works. We will take this knowledge further in a couple weeks when we actually read excerpts of some of their work, but we will first focus on mythology. To wrap up our week, students were introduced to the Greek creation story and some of the major players in Greek mythology. We read the story and the students filled out a quick chart about the gods.

Using some of the background information they learn from this chart, they will choose a god or goddess to research and write a short children’s story about. They will use an online book maker called Story Jumper. I’ve had some students use this site with other projects and it has gone really well. This will be an individual assignment and the students will have a couple of classes to work on this before it is due. We will then take some time in class to look over them.

WH10:

My tenth graders also had their first assignments this week. First, we finished a film we started before spring break that discussed three major European explorers who had a significant impact on the discovery of the New World: Dias, Columbus, and Cortes. The students had a film guide to go along with this and they turned that in for a grade. In the middle of the week, we turned our focus to the triangular trade among Africa, Europe, and the Americas. They’ve learned about this trade from the American perspective before, with Mr. Lee and freshmen, but I wanted to look at it from the perspective of the Africans and Europeans. We also did a map together to view how these routes looked. We wrapped up our week by looking specifically at the expanding Spanish empire in Mexico. We analyzed life during the colonial period in Latin America and discussed how those colonies drastically affected the lives of the natives and their futures.

Next week, we will continue those discussions about colonial Latin American and start to review for our unit test. I want to revisit some of the important European explorers we talked about earlier in our unit and analyze the overall impact these individuals had on the development of the New World. Our unit test will be the following week on Wednesday, April 12 (A Day) and Thursday, April 13 (B Day).

That’s all for me! Have a great weekend!

3/17/17

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, all! We’ve made it to the end of the third quarter! I know the students (and teachers) are ready for spring break. Here’s a breakdown of how the week went:

WH7:

We wrapped up the third quarter by discussing life in Athens during the Peloponnesian War. We began to discuss the culture of ancient Greece but didn’t quite get through all the basics. We will dive into mythology when we get back from break, and I know the kids are incredibly excited about that! Students will get to choose a Greek god or goddess to research and put a project together about them and their story later on.

WH10:

Students finished up their European Explorer Google Maps this week and they turned out pretty well! I think the students will find that this map will be helpful when studying for the unit test. We then shared some information about each explorer and we even had a guest speaker! Mrs. Pearson (technology integrationist and former history teacher) came in to talk to the kids about the misconstrued legacy of Christopher Columbus. It is amazing that so many students don’t actually know the truth behind his explorations. I think the students really gained some insight about Columbus and are questioning why he is so celebrated in our country. After spring break, we will specifically discuss Spanish exploration in the Americas and how the triangular trade worked.

That’s all for me this week. Have a FANTASTIC spring break! For those going somewhere fun, ENJOY the time off!

3/9/17

Happy March, everyone! I hope this finds you well and ready for the weekend! Here’s a quick look at how our week went.

WH7:

For our seventh graders this week, we looked at Alexander the Great, a man who’s father took over the Persians and established a massive empire for the Greeks. Alexander took over the empire and continued to expand to other parts of the Mediterranean region. The kids learned about Alexander’s life and legacy and then took a short quiz over it. They could use their notes on this quiz and some did a very nice job on their quiz (proving they did a nice job on their notes as well). Others didn’t do so hot. We had a conversation about spending more time to be sure our work is high quality. We wrapped up our week by discussing the Greek leader Pericles, who was an Athenian general who was continuously elected through democratic practices.

Next week, we will begin to discuss life and culture of the ancient Greeks. We’ll start with daily life and eventually get to philosophy, math, art, and mythology.

WH10:

For the sophomores this week, students started working with a new technology on Google called My Maps. We are using this to plot out the explorations of European explorers of the 15th-17th centuries. We’re focusing on 12 explorers in particular and each student was assigned one explorer’s voyages to research and plot on a class Google Map. The kids have adjusted to this new technology very well and I think most of them are actually enjoying this assignment. This map is due the middle of next week and will be the last assignment that will go into the grade book for the third quarter.

After they finish the projects next week, we will go over the map as a class and talk about each individual explorer a little closer. We will wrap up our week by using a formative assessment tool to see how much about the explorers the kids grabbed onto.

That’s all for me this week! Only one more week until Spring Break (just get your kids to hang on)! Have a great weekend!