Thursday, April 17, 2014

Final Blog Post - Please Join Us in Canvas

Greetings,
Over the course of this school year we have been involved in big transitions. We began the year using Edmodo to make our connection to home and also using it as a student academic dialogue tool. It served us very well and its Facebook look alike features were very popular. We also posted to Blogger as per our beginning of the year announcement at our family "meet and greet." We employed both systems until mid October when we began making a transition away from Edmodo to Canvas. We ran Canvas announcements as our daily blog and mirrored that blog post to this Blogger site where some of you and your children were following our posts to recount what happened in class each day.

Today, after 32,500 page views in two years, will be the final blog post to Blogger. As stated we have been mirroring our announcement posts here for the benefit of you that have followed. If you are following these posts via notifications or email thank you for your participation in your child's education. I hope this vehicle worked for you and I also hope you join us by following our blog posts in the daily announcements posted on Canvas. Canvas has features that allow you to set notifications to email or even text you when a new announcement or assignment is posted. You may log on as your child, look over their shoulder, or follow specifics through your child's period class where you are included as an "observer." I will be posting farther instructions on how to set up notifications. If you would like more information on that and I have not addressed it, please email me and I will do so. I will not be taking down this Blogger site but will not be updating nor posting any new information as we are making the complete switch to the Canvas Student Management System.

See you in Canvas,
Mr. Hogue and Mrs. Cobb

Thursday Test Day

Today in class students took the test over lesson 32. It was in two parts. Part one was multiple choice and included the ten vocabulary terms plus five content questions. Part two consisted of eight matching and one essay question. The "ticket" to begin the test was a completed "Exit Chart" and students that did not have that completed worked on it during the class today and must complete it by Monday and will be set to take the test. You will miss work completed in class on Monday so that will have to be completed that night to keep you up with the class.

Mr. Hogue's second period class had some major Canvas disruptions and will be completing the essay portion of the test Monday. About 20 minutes will be allowed to complete that portion of the test as that is about how much time was lost reloading it.

We will be starting lesson 32 about the scientific revolution on Monday. See you then. Have a nice short break.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Study Day

Today students spent class time in the way listed below.You will need to work the impact of your choice over very carefully to prepare for the essay part of the exam on Thursday.

Tomorrow will be a study day and you will be given increments of time to work on each segment.

Wednesday Class Study Time:
- 5 minutes to login to your computer/TCI-Canvas-Drive
- 5 minutes to study vocabulary- Study your definitions document or Study Stack definitions below the game options.
- 5 minutes to play with the flash cards in Study Stack. Choose each term, say the definition quietly to yourself or write it down, and check by turning the card over. Place the ones you get correct in the correct pile and ones you miss in the incorrect pile.
- 5 minutes to take the test/quiz provided in Study Stack to see how you are set for the vocabulary. Remember, the Study Stack link is on your Hogue/Cobb class in Exploration Module or click here. If you do poorly, as in miss more than 2, you need more work on your vocabulary. Remember, there are five additional questions concerning the content learned from lesson 32. They are included in the Study Stack practice below the vocabulary terms.
- 20 minutes to complete or study the Explorers Table or play with the Gliffy sorting activity. This will prepare you for the eight matching questions over the explorers, their country they sailed for, and the region/country they sailed to.
- 20 minutes to review or rework your impact slide of choice. You should have made a copy in class Tuesday or you may click the link in the Hogue/Cobb class and make a copy of your choice. Remember, the essay will require you write about one of the impacts which will include the following information: Use the following bullet points to guide the content of your response: name of impact name of explorer responsible for impact country explorer sailed for name of country/settlement impacted (only explain about one) explain the exploration fully explain the impact (only explain about one)

Use the following bullet points to guide the content of your response:

  • name of impact 
  • name of explorer responsible for impact 
  • country explorer sailed for 
  • name of country/settlement impacted (only explain about one) 
  • explain the exploration fully 
  • explain the impact (only explain about one) 

  • Remember, the impacts are clearly spelled out in the second half of each reading section. You only need to choose one impact and be sure to include the bullet points above on your essay.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Final Exploration Work

Today students worked to complete their impact slides. I have posted a final copy to Hogue/Cobb class for Mr. Hogue's class and Mrs. Cobb's class made copies of theirs. Mrs. Cobb's class is free to use Hogue's as well. Use these to help you study but remember they are student created and may not be perfect on facts. You will need to work the impact of your choice over very carefully to prepare for the essay part of the exam on Thursday.

Tomorrow will be a study day and you will be given increments of time to work on each segment.

Wednesday Class Study Time:
- 5 minutes to login to your computer/TCI-Canvas-Drive
- 5 minutes to study vocabulary- Study your definitions document or Study Stack definitions below the game options.
- 5 minutes to play with the flash cards in Study Stack. Choose each term, say the definition quietly to yourself or write it down, and check by turning the card over. Place the ones you get correct in the correct pile and ones you miss in the incorrect pile.
- 5 minutes to take the test/quiz provided in Study Stack to see how you are set for the vocabulary. Remember, the Study Stack link is on your Hogue/Cobb class in Exploration Module or click here. If you do poorly, as in miss more than 2, you need more work on your vocabulary. Remember, there are five additional questions concerning the content learned from lesson 32. They are included in the Study Stack practice below the vocabulary terms.
- 20 minutes to complete or study the Explorers Table or play with the Gliffy sorting activity. This will prepare you for the eight matching questions over the explorers, their country they sailed for, and the region/country they sailed to.
- 20 minutes to review or rework your impact slide of choice. You should have made a copy in class Tuesday or you may click the link in the Hogue/Cobb class and make a copy of your choice. Remember, the essay will require you write about one of the impacts which will include the following information: Use the following bullet points to guide the content of your response: name of impact name of explorer responsible for impact country explorer sailed for name of country/settlement impacted (only explain about one) explain the exploration fully explain the impact (only explain about one)

Monday, April 14, 2014

Welcome Back

**This will be the last week I will be posting our announcements to Blogger. After this week, please check up with your child's period class or look over their shoulder to the Hogue/Cobb class. You can set notifications to have an email sent to your inbox, if desired, so that all new announcements come directly to you. (Go to settings/notifications and set the type you want. You may even choose a text message.)

Here we are at the start of the last 8 weeks of school. We are gaining momentum and will be concluding the section on explorers this Thursday with our lesson 32 test. Today students worked on completing their Exit Chart which focusses on the impacts of the explorers on the places they visited. This chart will be student's ticket to take the test and failure to complete it will result in a delayed test taking event until the chart is complete. Tomorrow, we will be working on the viewing and note taking of video #2 as well as the Explorer frayer model chart. It seems that we are working on a number of charts that is correct as we are pulling together information to help you study for the exam.

The following are the charts and activities you should have complete to this point:

Age of Exploration - Video #1 Lesson 32 Video Notes Chart: video #1 - Reasons to, not to, and Problems they faced as well as connections on the right column. (Video #2 has not been viewed yet.)

Lesson 32 Vocabulary Chart: 10 vocabulary terms with definitions and tweets - hash-tags. TCI Setting the Stage Europe Enters the Modern Age lesson 32 (geography challenge - which is the map and five questions)

TCI Lesson 32 reading notes for questions spelled out in the module. We are not doing them all.

Exit Chart should be completed for Hogue.

Study Tips: We are building quite the arsenal of study tools to help you prepare for the first assessment of the fourth quarter. Use them wisely. 

Exit chart: This will be your required "ticket" to begin the test. Study Stack for lesson 32. This includes vocabulary and multiple choice items to help you prepare.

Explorers Practice by Gliffy. This chart will allow you to manipulate the shapes and categorize explorers with their deeds. If this is your style, complete and organize them correctly to sort into the correct groups. Groups should include where the explorer went and who sailed for.

Explorer Table. Complete this table to help you study for the matching portion of the exam.


Friday, April 4, 2014

Exploration Continued

Today students continued working on the exploration lesson 32. We have been working through the reading notes and have completed the following items to date. If you have any of these blank or missing, that is what you need to complete before Monday April 14. The test will be Wednesday, April 16. Mrs. Cobb is working through the reading notes and completing the Exit Chart at the same time. Mr. Hogue's class should be complete with the reading notes and is working through the Exit Chart and it should be complete down to the start of the Spanish Exploration section. We will complete the last four sections on Monday. You also have been introduced to the Explorers Practice on Gliffy. There is a link in the Age of Exploration module in your Hogue/Cobb class as well as below. This is for practice making connections between explorers and who they were. You may also regroup the shapes to exhibit a better understanding of the concepts. There is a match component on the test. If you are behind on any of the forms, you should use TCI lesson 32 to answer all your questions. Remember, that is where our information is coming from. The video clip is just another source and is available in the module as well.

Age of Exploration - Video #1 Lesson 32
Video Notes Chart: video #1 - Reasons to, not to, and Problems they faced as well as connections on the right column. (Video #2 has not been viewed yet.)
Lesson 32 Vocabulary Chart: 10 vocabulary terms with definitions and tweets - hash-tags.
TCI Setting the Stage Europe Enters the Modern Age lesson 32 (geography challenge - which is the map and five questions)
TCI Lesson 32 reading notes for questions spelled out in the module. We are not doing them all.
Exit Chart should be completed down to start of Spanish Exploration for Hogue.

Study Tips: We are building quite the arsenal of study tools to help you prepare for the first assessment of the fourth quarter. Use them wisely.
Exit chart: This will be your required "ticket" to begin the test. Study Stack for lesson 32. This includes vocabulary and multiple choice items to help you prepare.
Explorers Practice by Gliffy. This chart will allow you to manipulate the shapes and categorize explorers with their deeds.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

More Exploration

Today students worked in their TCI textbooks on lesson 32 reading notes. Each should pay special attention to the assigned questions as we are not doing them all. The list is in the Age of Exploration module under TCI Instructions. Some began work on the Exit Chart and Mr. Hogue's class will start that tomorrow. Yesterday's post an updated list plus the textbook below of what should be complete as of today. Mrs. Cobb's class may only have half of the reading notes complete as they worked back and forth on the Exit Chart. By the way, the Exit Chart is the ticket to take the test early in the week after break.

We added the TCI textbook lesson 32 reading notes to our complete list. Mrs. Cobb's class is working with the Exit Chart at the same time so is probably about 1/2 way through them both. Hogue will start Exit Chart tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Exploration

Today students had an additional opportunity to complete their Geography Challenge for lesson 37. We also gathered in groups to share out your tweets and hash-tags for the vocabulary. After reading your tweets, although some were very interesting, I noticed that many of you missed the point. The point was that your tweets should have reflected the definition or by reading them you could tell what the definition of the vocabulary term was. This was another way to write sentences that reflect the vocabulary.

We are quickly gathering our completed resources together that must be finished for Monday when we come back after break. This material is not homework as we have given you plenty of in-class time to work. They must be complete so you can review and prepare for the assessment to follow. Below is a list of what you should have completed by now in class.

Age of Exploration - Video #1 Lesson 32 Video Notes Chart: video #1 - Reasons to, not to, and Problems they faced as well as connections on the right column. (Video #2 has not been viewed yet.)

Lesson 32 Vocabulary Chart: 10 vocabulary terms with definitions and tweets - hash-tags. TCI Setting the Stage Europe Enters the Modern Age lesson 32 (geography challenge - which is the map and five questions)
You should have placed copies of each in your Exploration folder (if you followed directions).

Study Stack for lesson 37 is provided, as well.

This list will grow after Thursday and Friday's class.

The bolded titles are linked if you go to Canvas class Hogue/Cobb.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Age of Exploration

Today students had an opportunity to complete their Geography Challenge for the Age of Exploration. It was a map and six questions covering the routes of four explorers. If you missed today, please go to the module titled Age of Exploration and choose the fourth sequence TCI reading instructions. The assignment was the first one listed: Setting the Stage Europe Enters the Modern Age. You were to complete the map in TCI lesson 32. When students finished they were to complete the rest of the vocabulary we worked on yesterday. We have to stay on top of things as the days are winding down. Tomorrow, we will continue reading in TCI and move through the reading notes. We have selected a number of questions to complete and will not use all of them. The test for this lesson will be approximately one day after we return and have a chance to work on some review. There is a Study Stack posted on the Age of Exploration module if you wish to work ahead for this lesson.