GREAT First Week!

Hi all!

What a fantastic first week back! Truly, this has been the best start to a school year I have ever had. The class dynamics of each one of my class periods is focused and positive; the students are so precious and polite, and we are off and rolling! It feels good. We're actually well into content and it feels like we've been together for longer than one week.

7th Grade:
This week in 7th grade Social Studies we discussed The Gilded Age, which is the time period at the end of the 19th century, following the U.S. Civil War. The Gilded Age is defined by big, unregulated business (laissez-faire economics, the Gospel of Success, the Gospel of Wealth, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act) and robber-barons/tycoons such as Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller.

We start each class period with a 3-6 minute writing assignment that leads us into the day's topic and lesson. Some examples from this week were: "What might these images tell us about The Gilded Age? Describe what you see. Compare and contrast this set of images and analyze what they might symbolize about the era." And, "In your opinion, what might be some positive effects of imperialism? Some negative effects? Is the U.S. imperialistic today? In the past?"

7th graders also did some reading from Flocabulary, and performed sections of a hip-hop song about The Gilded Age.

Today (Friday), 7th graders took a map pretest over Canada; the quiz is one week from today, Friday, August 19th; the quiz will cover the Canadian provinces. Students have two Study Guides for reference, and I'll be sharing with them some other study tools early next week.


8th Grade:
This week in 8th grade Social Studies we jumped right into learning about the U.S. government. Students wrote and shared journal responses to questions such as, "What words, phrases, facts, opinions, or images come to mind when you think of the term, 'Government'?" And, "Write down anything and everything you know (or think you know) about the U.S. government." I have been so pleased at the high level of student participation in our group discussions, as well as the high level thinking the kids have been bringing to the table about this topic!

8th graders did some reading from Flocabulary about the American Revolution and performed a hip-hop song that summarized the reading; we're not going to spend any more time covering the Revolutionary War (because our unit is really about U.S. government), but I think it's extremely important (if not necessary) to review and discuss the basic historic context from which the key documents (the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights) arose.

There are a TON of vocabulary terms that go along with this unit; because of this we will be laying aside our regular map quizzes and temporarily replacing them with vocab quizzes. 8th graders took a pretest today over six terms: Government, Politics, Anarchy, Ideology, Sovereignty, Federalism; the quiz will be next Friday, August 19th.


Please be aware that I am continuing to post homework assignments and upcoming quizzes and due dates on my class Twitter account: @MsHoodsHoodlums

This week was truly one of the best weeks of teaching I have ever had! I am so looking forward to the year-- I can tell it's going to be a positive and productive one!

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Have a great weekend!

Take care,
Leah Hood

Map Quiz #2!

Please note that our second map quiz will be next Thursday, September 16th.

7th graders will be tested over North America and the Caribbean.

8th graders will be tested over the Indian Subcontinent Region.

These map quizzes coincide with our units of historical study; in 7th grade, we are nearing the end of our study of The Spanish-American War/America Becomes a World Power/The American Empire; in 8th grade, we will begin learning about The Decline of the European Colonial System (8th graders have already started reading the Core Knowledge novel, The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, in Language Arts.)

Here are some recommended study tools:

http://www.ilike2learn.com/

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/


Also, this is new:

I now have a class Twitter account, which is "MsHoodsHoodlums". You can check it for assignments and due dates!

Thanks for reading!
Leah Hood

Upcoming Map Quiz!

Hello all, and welcome to Week 3, Q1!

Please be aware that next Wednesday, September 1st, ALL 7th and 8th grade students have their first graded Map Quiz in Social Studies.

7th grade:

8:30-9:25= U.S. States

9:30-10:25= U.S. State Capitals

8th grade:

10:30-11:25= World Continents and Oceans

11:30-12:25= U.S. State Capitals


You can view or print off labeled or unlabeled study guide maps on the following FREE (!) website:

http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/


Or, you could take the quizzes on this website:

http://www.ilike2learn.com/


There are plenty of other study options out there, I know, and please feel free to utilize whatever works best for your child! These are just a few that I know of and think are good sites.


Besides reading on in our historic novels, this week we are beginning to think about and work with the following terms, which are one way of categorizing what all human societies "do":

Business
Transportation
Socialization
Environment
Education
Technology
Recreation
Government
Religion
Fine Arts

We will be working with these categories a lot in Social Studies! The purpose is to give us a manageable system for breaking down how human societies function; hopefully, we will be able to think more holistically by using this system of categorization.


Please note that I will be out this Thursday and Friday (I'm going to the Boundary Waters!); students will be watching historical documentaries about the time periods we are studying.

As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or comments, please feel free to email me at: lhood@paideiaacademy.org

Take care,
Leah Hood