Completion of Legacies

Happy Friday! Today we completed our study of primary sources from ancient Greece and connected them to the legacy. Students then worked to become an expert on one legacy and learn all the details. Students we able to work on their alpha-blocks when they finished.

Homework:  Study 2-3 legacies (out of the 11)with details for essay quiz likely to be Tuesday, Alpha-blocks due Monday

Connecting Legacies to Primary Sources

Today we discussed the definition to primary sources and legacies. These are not easy concepts and we will continue to work with them. Students then worked on their gallery walk with the primary sources from ancient Greece. They worked with their partner to complete the reading notes connected to the document. We will complete these tomorrow. We are looking at a possible assessment Tuesday. Students can be working on the alpha-blocks. Those who qualify, will be completing a retake for latitude and longitude as well as chapter 26.

Golden Age of Athens Quiz

Hello! Today we took our quiz on chapter 29, Golden Age of Athens. Students then worked on the alphablocks from yesterday on the 8 vocabulary words for chapter 31, Legacies of Ancient Greece. Students were introduced to primary and secondary sources and then began viewing visual documents depicting legacies of ancient Greece. We will continue this activity tomorrow and finish up on Friday.  Students also completed an exit card explaining what they learned about both legacies and primary and secondary sources. We have included a video on Edmodo on the Battle of Plataea, a final battle between the Greeks and the Persians.  Thsi is not homework, but it is interesting information. (3 min)

Homework:  Edmodo:Video Push Battle of Plataea, Chapter 26 and Latitude/Longitude Retake Friday (for those who need it)

Alpha Blocks

Sorry, this is a little late tonight. Today students worked on an activity called Alpha Blocks. It is a creative way to work through vocabulary making connections to each one of eight vocabulary terms. They also had an opportunity to talk through their responses in their Interactive Notebooks. The notebook is one study strategy for the quiz tomorrow. For more clues on the quiz, see last night's Daily Blog post. There is no video push tonight. Tomorrow, I will have the fourth battle between the Greeks and Persians. Quiz tomorrow chapter 29.

Monday

Well, Monday has come and gone already. Students completed the station work in chapter 29. Tomorrow, we will practice the vocabulary terms that are located on the Focus Sheet for ch. 29. Wednesday, we will have a quiz over work completed in chapter 29 and I will include as many study notes, here, in this post as possible. The following is a sample of the verbal Study Guide we talked about today.  I had a special request to push out a Greek Government Graphic Organizer. This is not for the chapter 29 quiz.

Study the vocabulary for chapter 29 found on the Focus Sheet.

Know the three types of Greek Columns.

Study the Interactive Notebook pages 190 and 191. All of these are connected to chapter 29 and are not related to any videos specifically. The video push for tonight is not related to the quiz and other than to watch it there is no assignment or turn in button. Here are some Study Stack cards I had made for another year. The terms are nearly the same as chapter 29.

Battle of Salamis

Golden Age of Athens Study Stack Flash Cards

Awesome Friday

Hey, its Friday! Hope you had a great week and an awesome Friday. Students continued work on the stations they began yesterday. Mrs. Cobb's classes received back their quizzes and reflected on them. Mr. Hogue's classes will do that on Monday. We will offer some sort of retake opportunity for the chapter 26 quiz. The retake will take on a bit of a different form and because of that will have a ceiling placed on it. We should need part of class on Monday to complete the stations and reflect on their meanings. We will be having a quiz on Tuesday or Wednesday over the concepts of chapter 29. We are working toward completing our work in Greece in the next week or so and then an assessment with a test value connected will follow.

The Golden Age of Athens

Happy Thursday to you all. Today we began work on the Golden Age of Athens. Students took part in stations representing six parts of Athenian daily life from temples to Socrates, six in all. We will maintain a tight schedule tomorrow and attempt to complete the hands-on work as well as the text book and interactive notebook work. Today I pushed out part three of three video clips on the Battle of Thermopylae. Each of the three 7:00 + video clips use video game technology to reenact the battle and tell the tale of Spartan's 300 brave that went down in defeat at the hands of the Persians. This battle, Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea are visited to set up the story of Alexander the Great and his feats. I will push similar video clips out for student viewing at home. Most, if not all, will have no homework assignment attached to them other than to view them and be able to have a discussion in the coming days at school.
Battle of Thermopylae Part One
Battle of Thermopylae Part Two
Battle of Thermopylae Part Three

Wednesday

Students today viewed most of a video clip in class hosted by Arizona Smith. The clip was accompanied by a graphic organizer to help students organize notes on Greece. We introduced tomorrow and Friday's activity where students will visit various stations representing Greek life. This will be a fun learning experience where they will have to use their imagination to place them in Ancient Greece. There is a pushed video tonight. It is part 2 of 3 parts and is titled Battle of Thermopylae. There is no assignment attached to this video. Students should read the "Daily Blog" on Edmodo and view the approximate 7:15, in length, video. If students have any trouble bringing up the video, they can always search YouTube for the same title. That is where the video lives.

Chapter 26: Greek Governments Quiz

Hello! Today we reviewed for the quiz prior to taking it. Students were given a quiz with 10 multiple choice and one essay. The quiz took students about 30 minutes leaving most time to get started on the vocabulary words from chapter 29: The Golden Age of Athens. We are skipping the chapters 27 and 28. We will be viewing on Edmodo some of the content from chapter 28 with videos. Tonight there will be video to view about Battle of Thermopylae. Also, for your viewing pleasure, a different little ditty about the battle taking about 3 min. There will be nothing to do with those videos other than discuss them in class tomorrow.

Homework: complete chapter 29 vocabulary on the unit vocab sheet

Return Quizzes/ Prepare for Government Quiz

     Hello! Today we were lucky enough to get back to the computer lab to complete our discussion about the Battle of Marathon. Students who were prepared were able to join the discussion on Edmodo. Others were able to view the 7 min videos. We then were able to discuss the study guide. Students were shown how to use a website for creating notecards found at studystack.com. Some students were even able to sign up (for free) and get started! This will be a great resource for any subject, not just social studies! We also reviewed the expectations for paragraph (essay) answers that we discussed and practiced before. We will be looking for main ideas, details, and correct use of content vocabulary to score these. The quiz tomorrow will have 10 multiple choice and one esssay.
     Students were also given their quizzes back from latitude and longitude. Correct answers were given so students can use the quiz as a resource for future quizzes. Those quiz scores will be posted on HAC.

Homework:  Study for Chapter 26 Quiz (use Edmodo videos for review)

Lat/Long Quiz and Edmodo Work

Hello! Today we completed our retake quiz on the latitude and longitude skill. After students completed the quiz, they used their devises or the computers to watch the assigned video of the Battle of Marathon. Students then viewed on the blog the Edmodo Tutorial. At the end of class, we had a chat online about the video. It was a great learning activity that we would like to do again! Hope you have a great weekend!

Homework:  Edmodo Push View part 2 and 3 of video, Edmodo Review Sheet Chapter 26 (Study for Quiz on Tuesday)

Governments of Ancient Athens

Today we completed our role plays of the governments of ancient Athens. They consisted of Monarchy, Oligarchy, Tyranny, and Democracy. We also finished the interactive notebook pages 172 and 173. If a student did not finish in class, he or she should complete that on their own and may use the text book pages 254-257 to that end. That should not take more than a few minutes as the role playing should have answered the questions. Tonight we have pushed out a couple of videos. The assignment for tomorrow is to view the video clip The Battle of Marathon. The second one is a clip that I found related to "The Man Who Walked Between The Towers" video pushed out Monday evening in honor of 9/11. It is about the man who did the high wire act in 1974. He is alive and well and still teaches the art. His last public feat was in 2002 according to my research. The video consists of still images as his partner was too tired and weak to film the event as per Petit's instructions. This event seemed to peak the interest of our students which is exciting.
Battle of Marathon Part One
Battle of Marathon Part Two
Battle of Marathon Part Three

Governments of Ancient Greece

Hello! Today students completed another warmup on latitude and longitude. We want to encourage students to work on this skill at the home. The more the students practice correctly, the better and more confident they will become. We are preparing for the quiz on Friday! We then completed our gallery walk of the vocabulary for chapter 26. Students viewed each others "posters" of information about each word and were able to learn from what other students created. Students should have completed a chart with the vocabulary word, definition, and picture of each of the 8 words for this chapter. They will complete this chart for all of the unit so in the end they will have one place to go to prepare for the Greece test. When then started in chapter 26 with some pre-reading activities. Some classes were able to begin the activity for each of the types of governments involving roll playing and music. Students will hopefully complete this activity tomorrow.

Homework:  Study for latitude/longitude quiz on Friday, Bring Your Own Devise (BYOD) day on Friday

Gallery Walk

Hey, it's Tuesday already. The days are flying by. Today students completed their vocabulary Running Word Walls. By the way, we cut them into poster size so I'm not really sure what they would be called. Anyway, they are poster like with the term, a definition, a sentence, and an illustration representing one of the eight vocabulary terms for the Greece government section of our study. Tomorrow they will walk around and gather information from their class mate's posters to help them complete a vocabulary graphic organizer. We also viewed a CNN Student News report on current events and talked very briefly about 9/11. We pushed out a video clip called The Man Who Walked Between The Towers. I have included it below if you are interested.

Clean Up Day

Hello! Well....we are back indoors after a beautiful weekend. Hope you all had a chance to enjoy it! Because both of us were out on Friday, we had to clean up a little loose ends before moving on today. Edmodo work continues to raise questions for students and know that we are working on them. As we all become more familiar with how to use it, many of our issues will be resolved. For now however, parents please continue to communicate with us if there is a technical issue and your child is unable to complete the assignment (either by note or email). Next, we discussed the quiz from Friday on latitude and longitude. We discussed the question, "when do you know are ready to take a quiz?". Students should have a great answer for you including something like....practice when you know whether or not you have the right answer. We then discussed the answers and all students who didn't receive a 100% will need to retake it on Friday. We will be practicing this skill daily in our warm-up. Finally, we worked on our running word wall for the vocabulary words for chapter 26 on the focus sheet. Students will finish this work tomorrow.

Homework:  Study (Practice) Retake on Friday, complete Edmodo videos and take notes on handout

Writing in Social Studies

Hello! Today students reviewed latitude and longitude again in preparation for the quiz tomorrow. Many students feel they have it mastered and won't need much study, but others feel they need to spend a little time working on it tonight. We also completed the processing paragraph for chapter 25. At the end, students viewed a quick showme about what kind of paragraph would receive what grade. (See the showme on the side of blog under videos/resources) Students then graded their own paragraphs to see what grade they would have earned. Basically, we will be grading writing on the main ideas, details, and use of content vocabulary all year long. In most classes, we then discussed the focus sheet for the Greece unit. Students will keep this in their binder for the whole unit. (See the showme on the side of blog under videos/resources). Only a few classes were able to start the vocabulary activity for chapter 26. We will finish tomorow.

Homework:  Study for lat/long quiz tomorrow (paper pencil), Edmodo videos on types of Governments in Greece with attached handout to be printed out at home to take notes with during the videos

Focus Sheet Explained

Each unit or major area of study Mrs. Cobb and I put together a tool we call a Focus Sheet. This tool is designed to be student friendly and student useful. A few years ago we offered a Study Guide and over the years student feedback led us to trim down and shape up our study guide into a more useful tool. It had become just another piece of "homework" students had to labor over and our goal was for it to be useful in preparation for assessments and for students to be able to self assess their own learning. Thus, the reasoning behind displaying the Learning Targets section with self assessment "sliders" included. We also wanted a place to display vocabulary terms that would be needed for the area of study. Lastly, we included some study strategies that we would use and teach students along the way. After we teach a few of them, students may pick and choose the one that works best for them giving them ownership and choice. I have included a video ShowMe screen cast that explains the Focus Sheet. This entire concept has been fluent and a work in progress.

Lat/Long Review and Chapter 25 work

Hello! Today we practiced more with latitude and longitude. We were using more specific numbers with latitude and longitude. Tomorrow we will practice more. If there are any students who feel they need more practice than what they can get at home or with Edmodo videos, Mrs. Cobb will be available before school on Thursday and Friday about 830 to answer questions. Be sure to let her know you are coming and check in at the main office first.  When then discussed some answers to the chapter 25 questions in the interactive notebook that students were working with their partner to complete. Some classes started on the paragraph about why ancient Greece colonized. We will work more with it tomorrow.

Homework: study latitude and longitude for quiz Friday, complete reading notes chapter 25 if not finished

Latitude/Longitude and Greek Colonies

Hello! Hope you all enjoyed the extra day! Today students worked with the new information that was learned about latitude and longitude from the Edmodo videos and the quiz. We practiced with the world map finding absolute location. It was strongly suggested that students use the Edmodo videos as a resource if they still have questions as we will be having an in-class, paper/pencil quiz on Friday finding absolute locations (to the nearest degree). It was also suggested that students take notes as needed from the videos in their social studies binders adding it to the loose leaf paper already set up for Edmodo Responses. We also problem solved some solutions for those that were having problems with Edmodo. Anyone not completing the videos and quiz will need to do so tonight. It is very important that students understand that the Edmodo work is to be done as assigned. If students are unable to complete it for technical difficulties of some sort, then they must have communication saying such from parents. Students then worked on reading Chapter 25 in the textbook and answering questions related to the content with their partners. We will finish it in class tomorrow!:)

Homework: Study for Lat/Long Quiz on Friday:)