The First Friday Post

Hi all! We are wrapping up the first week of school and I have loved meeting all of your enthusiastic and energetic students! Thanks for following our class updates.

This week: Yesterday and today are more "set up" days than instructional. Today students worked in groups to develop class "Expectation Guides." I felt it was important to have students involved when choosing our class expectations. They came up with some great ways that we can work together to have a successful history class. I will be printing these this weekend and sending them home on Monday. Some students were also able to receive their Coursepacks today. If your student did not get to due to a time crunch or the assembly, they will receive it on Monday so please assure them they are not missing anything.

This weekend: Please help your child to log on to Schoology if he/she has not yet done so. It is important  for me to know that everyone's passwords and logins are working correctly before we get started with content. Once they sign on to Schoology they should go to the "Courses" tab at the top and select 7Green (its the only option). From there they can view our entire course. The videos I asked you to watch are located in the "Contents" folder. Students also have an "assignment" which is just a check in with me so that I know they were able to sign on.

Next week: Next week we get to begin content. We will be talking about skills and tools that historians use when studying the past. I will be lecturing live in class (for this week only) so that students get used to my lecture style. I will also model how to watch a video at home. So for next week your student does not have to watch the video at home, however they should be taking the quizzes and filling in the Coursepack Section Reviews. Tuesday we will do a practice Critical Reading in class so that students know how to do them at home. Wednesday and Thursday I will lecture again and go over flashcards. Friday we will have our first CNN Student News quiz and Critical Reading discussion.

The following week we will "flip" so students will start watching the videos at home, hopefully by then they will feel supported and confident enough to do this! Please remind them to rewind, pause, and rewatch as needed!

My apologies for not being able to post the video yesterday, here it is:

I will also be sending home information for my text blast service. Its just a way for you to receive class updates (due dates etc) via text message if you wish. More on that to come. Thanks for checking in, I hope you have a great weekend!