Period 1: Revolution! Day 1 - Class Recap

My view of the 2011 BCS National Championship, between Oregon and Auburn, on January 10. Not a game that I particularly like remembering, but a good example of an activity that brings people together. Before the Olympics, this was the biggest sporting event I had ever attended.

Dear class,

I loved today. It was such a relief to get all your graded work back to you, and so much fun to move on to the start of the next unit! Here's what happened in class:

Essential Questions: What brings people together? What tears people apart? - New essential questions! We will be looking at the answers to both in the revolution unit.

Soundtrack: “Where is the Love?” by The Black Eyed Peas. Chosen for today because we have been talking so much about war, genocide, and revolutions (soon) - I thought we needed to focus a bit on love and what brings people together across the world. Lyrics here. 

AGENDA 2/19/13:

News Brief

Debrief WWI Essay

Grades

Togetherness

Homework: Read the blog! Turn in missing World War I work. Sakib has the next news brief.

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News Brief: I started the class off by checking in about the long weekend - interesting activities the class did, and such. I mentioned that I visited the Museum of Flight in Seattle, which was really cool. I even saw a father explaining to his daughter what happened in World War I with the trenches and why airplanes became a valuable new technology. Just like I was talking about in class! I love it when that happens.

I also talked/bragged about booking a flight to Europe later in May (after Mrs. DeFrance Gilman comes back, which should be around May 1). I will have to keep in touch with you all about that! I'm really excited. :-)

The news brief article for today was brought in by Amanda. Here it is: CNN.com - Robbers breach gate, steal $50 million in diamonds at Belgian airport. This sounds like the plot of Ocean's 11 or The Italian Job! Very interesting. Thanks, Amanda! Sakib, you are up for next class.

Debrief WWI Essay: Next, I asked the class for general feedback about how the in-class essay went. I really appreciated the responses here. Khushali noted that you will have to do such tests in the future, like for SATs, and this was good practice. That was definitely my hope! Yes, it may have been tough to write so much, in an entire class period. I do think that most of you did very well with it.

Grades: Speaking of grades, I handed back the essays with comments written. The basic marks: underline in green was the thesis and highlighted words were vocabulary. I used stapled the rubric I used to each of the essay tests, and underlined what made up your grade. I took the three category scores and multiplied it by 3, so the final score was out of 30 points.

I also passed back all of the World War I packets that I received to be graded. If you have not turned these in yet, they are late and will be graded accordingly. However, a B on these is still WAY better than a zero, which I will have to start entering as scores soon, for those of you that were missing assignments.

Togetherness: After looking at all of the grades, I turned our attention to something more exciting and interesting (I hope): ways in which the world comes together. I showed five consecutive videos (a record, but there are so many good ones out there)! Here are the links to them, if you want to watch again:

"Dancing (2008)"

The world's reaction to the United States Men's National Team winning a critical World Cup game at the last second in South Africa, 2010: YouTube.com - Landon Donovan Goal Reaction.

The "Free Hugs" campaign in Australia: YouTube.com - Free Hugs.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Thanks to McKenzie for emailing this to me over the weekend!

"Dancing (2012)"

I LOVE these videos. All great examples of what brings people together across so many different areas.

Your task after watching this was to start creating a poster of something that brings the world together. Again, this is extremely low stakes - it's not going to be a huge grade or anything. Just a fun activity to remember that there is more to the world than just conflict. We will try to finish these up next class, present, then move on to the revolution unit. Sound like a plan? Thanks for the great class today! Let me know if you have other videos that you enjoy along these same lines! :-)

Period 1: World War I, Day 8 - Class Recap

Hopefully you feel like you just won a big game after completing your World War I final essay in class today. I took this picture on April 21, 2009, as our Portland Trail Blazers beat the Houston Rockets in a playoff game.

Dear class,

Hooray! If you were in class today, you completed the essay test for our World War I unit! I'm looking forward to reading them all. In the meantime, relax and enjoy your three day weekend. Here's the short class recap for today:

Essential Question: Why does war happen? - Definitely related to the end of World War I, as well, considering what happened in Europe later.

Soundtrack: "Duel of Fates" from Star Wars: Episode I. Chosen because it is the soundtrack for the ending battle of the movie (like the final essay for the unit). No real lyrics for the song, but if you are a huge Star Wars nerd like I am, you can learn all about it here.

AGENDA 2/14/13:

Introduction

Essay Test

Homework: Read the blog! Turn in missing work if you do not have it today. If you forgot to turn in your World War I packet, here it is what needs to be in it:

1) Borijove Jevtic/Gavrilo Princip story response. You read this story of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wrote a response with a prediction of what happened next (one paragraph).

2) Your graphic organizer/brainstorm for the World War I practice essay (on the start of WWI). Here is an example to fill out if you lost yours.

3) The World War I "practice" essay. If you already completed this and showed me it during class, you are good to go. If you did not have it completed (or you are unsure if I gave you credit for it), please turn it in. If you missed the multiple classes we were working on it, the last slide in this PowerPoint has the essay question and explanation of what you should do.

4) The "Why Did the US Enter WWI" worksheet response. If you missed this, here it is to download and complete (at least a paragraph on what YOU think are the main reasons the United States entered World War I).

5) The Treaty of Versailles worksheet. Read over what Germany had to agree to at the end of the war and on the back side, write out how these might have impacted Germany in various ways (economic, military, and pride).

Staple all five (or four, if your essay is already checked off) together in this order, make sure your name is on it, and then put it in the box for your period in class.

Amanda, you have the news brief for next class, please.
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Introduction: At the start of class, I put everyone in a seating chart, then offered some last minute review points before passing out the final essay.

Essay Test: I was VERY pleased with how this went. Almost every single student worked hard for over an hour, quietly writing and responding. Mostly, I tried to stay out of your way with this, aside from occasional updates on how much time was left in the period. Again, I am really looking forward to seeing how everyone did. Thank you so much for your hard work and focus!

Have a great long weekend and come back ready to start something new. I am headed up to Seattle on Saturday to tour the Boeing Airplanes factory that makes the 737, but other than that, I'll be grading for the entire weekend. Hopefully by the time I see you on Tuesday, I will have a complete set of grades up for the second semester, so far.

Period 1: World War I, Day 7 - Class Recap

One of the conditions placed on Germany at the end of World War I was that it had to greatly reduce the size of its navy. After the war, it may as well have been like the sailboat here (another one of my favorite pictures from Hawaii, in 2011).

Hi everyone,

I really hope you are reading this in the hopes of preparing for your final essay next class! This post should have just about everything you need to get ready, so let's get started.

Essential Question: Why do wars happen? - Even in looking at the end of World War I, this is an important question to be considering, because World War II can be directly traced to the end of WWI.

Soundtrack: "The Hardest Part" by Coldplay. Chosen because the hardest part of the final essay test should be the review and getting ready. Writing 25 sentences should not be too hard. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 2/12/13:

News Brief

Finish “A Flawed Peace”

Treaty of Versailles

Missing Work/Jeopardy

Homework: Read the blog! One page of handwritten notes for the final essay. Bring all World War I class work to turn in. Which is (in this order):

1) Borijove Jevtic/Gavrilo Princip story response. I don't blame many of you for not remembering this (it was my first day as your teacher). You read this story of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and wrote a response with a prediction of what happened next (one paragraph).

2) Your graphic organizer/brainstorm for the World War I practice essay (on the start of WWI). Here is an example to fill out if you lost yours.

3) The World War I "practice" essay. If you already completed this and showed me it during class, you are good to go. If you did not have it completed (or you are unsure if I gave you credit for it), please turn it in. If you missed the multiple classes we were working on it, the last slide in this PowerPoint has the essay question and explanation of what you should do.

4) The "Why Did the US Enter WWI" worksheet response. If you missed this, here it is to download and complete (at least a paragraph on what YOU think are the main reasons the United States entered World War I).

5) The Treaty of Versailles worksheet that you did today in class. Hopefully this made sense. Read over what Germany had to agree to at the end of the war and on the back side, write out how these might have impacted Germany in various ways (economic, military, and pride).

Staple all five (or four, if your essay is already checked off) together in this order, make sure your name is on it, and then put it in the box for your period next class. Aside from #5, everything else is work we have done in class before today - none of this should be a surprise. Make sense? Absolutely ask me questions if it does not!

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News Brief: Michelle brought in this article, talking about the Pope (the head of the Catholic church and Vatican City) resigning at the end of this month: NYTimes.com - Successor to Benedict Will Lead a Church at a Crossroads. The Catholic church has an estimated 1 billion or so followers. This Pope becomes the first to resign since 1415. It will be very interesting to see who the next Pope is. It is a very important story, for sure.

The other topic I brought up in class was that North Korea tested a nuclear bomb earlier today. This is the third test in the last decade - we know that they actually did it, because we can measure the earthquake that it caused. Here is an article about that (and the potential response of the United Nations): CNN.com - Tough U.N. action vowed after North Korean nuclear test.

There will be no news brief next class, as I am hoping to give you as much time as possible to complete your essay test.

Finish "A Flawed Peace": We reviewed the last three slides of the PowerPoint that we did not get to last class. Here is the presentation again, in case you missed it, or if you wanted to review for your final (a VERY good idea):

Google Drive: The End Of World War I - A Flawed Peace PowerPoint

You will be asked to write about these topics for your final essay, so make sure that you know them and have good notes! One of the terms I showed you (and you will be expected to know for your final essay) was President Wilson's Fourteen Points (that is a link to the actual 14 points). "Armistice" is another term you will absolutely need to know how to use in your essay.

Treaty of Versailles: This section involved looking at some of the elements that the Allies (in particular, France) made Germany agree to at the end of the war. The final agreement, which Germany was forced to sign, did not incorporate much (if any) of President Wilson's Fourteen Points. Again, if you missed it before, this is the worksheet I had the class complete.

Missing Work/Jeopardy: This was fun, but maybe got a little out of hand. I will have to think of ways to run it so that our class doesn't drive everyone crazy in Mrs. Carpenter's class next door. Here it is (as a warning: it is somewhat difficult to run) if you are interested in seeing it again: Google Drive: World War I Jeopardy PowerPoint.
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Next class will be your final essay for the unit. I will try and make sure to give you as much time as possible from the very start, since we only have class from 7:45-9:00, due to forecasting. Again, you need to know: how to write a basic essay (the exact format of 25 sentences/five paragraphs). This PowerPoint will help if you need to review: Google Drive: Writing Easy Essays in Social Studies.

You will also need to be able to write about what happened at the end of World War I and how it impacted (or effected) the world.

If you know these three things well, then you will do fine. Please ask questions in the comments here if you are at all confused! See you on Thursday! :-)