Welcome back to Third Quarter!
I hope everyone enjoyed his/her break and holidays. I did a fair amount of traveling in the region, visiting family in Iowa and spending a lovely long weekend on Lake Superior in Lutsen over New Year's. Other than that, I was pretty lazy :) Although, I did start taking pottery classes, which has been challenging but enjoyable.
Here are a few general announcements for all 7th & 8th graders:
First, a reminder that any Extra Credit Book Reports for Q3 are due tomorrow, Friday, January 20th, 2012.
Next, we hosted a Macalester education student on Tuesday; Ms. Johnson shadowed us for just one day, but it was a great experience and we wish her well as she works to complete her major in Education and her teaching license!
Lastly, we welcome a new co-teacher to 7th & 8th grade Social Studies this quarter: Mr. Dave Mitsch. Mr. Mitsch has been co-teaching in 2nd grade up until this point in the year, but with some welcome staffing additions in Lower Academy, Mr. Mitsch was freed up to join us upstairs; everyone wins in this situation, really, because Mr. Mitsch has a background in teaching older students, as well as teaching Social Studies, and I get the advantage of working more consistently with a co-teacher! This week has gone very smoothly, and I feel so lucky to be working with Dave.
Here's what we're up to:
7th Grade:
This week we started off on Tuesday by doing a "Source Rotation", reading children's books that pertain to the 1920s and 30s and recording facts about U.S. culture, politics, and economics during this time period; yesterday we used the laptops to do credible internet research for our Independent Country Research Projects, which are on-going throughout this school year; this quarter we will be doing the bulk of the research, and next quarter we'll be drafting and completing a 5-Paragraph Essay and Oral/Visual Presentation to inform audiences about the history, current events, and culture of countries around the world. Today we reviewed the chapters we read last quarter in The Truth About Sparrows; students numbered off, got into small groups, and performed short skits presenting at least the three main events in their assigned chapters. Tomorrow we'll end the week by reading on in the novel and completing another Reading Packet; we will also begin a new 4-Source Comparison Packet about The Roaring Twenties, our first source being a documentary video clip from United Streaming.
8th Grade:
This week in 8th grade looked very similar, activity-wise, to 7th grade, only we're studying the 1950s and 60s this quarter. Tuesday we did a "Source Rotation" activity with children's books about the 50s and 60s and recorded facts in graphic organizers about U.S. culture, politics, and economics during those decades. Wednesday we used class time to completed some introductory but directed research for our Independent Country Research Projects; today we reviewed The Russian Revolution by rotating between stations; stations included short video clips about the revolution, excerpts from The Romanov Bride (an historic fiction novel by the same Minneapolis author as The Kitchen Boy, from last school year), quotes by Trotsky and Lenin, and political cartoons about the Russian Revolution and Red Scare in the U.S. Tomorrow we will begin a new 4-Source Comparison Packet about The Cold War, our first source being a documentary video clip overviewing the 1950s.
That about covers it! I'll try to keep you updated as the weeks roll on.
Please don't forget that I post homework assignments and due dates on a daily basis on my class Twitter account: @MsHoodsHoodlums @twitter.com
Please always let me know how I can be of help!
Thanks,
Leah Hood
