December 03

Hello,

It was wonderful meeting many of you at Parent Teacher Conferences last week. It is always a pleasure to meet the support system behind my students. Thank you for all you do for them every day!

I should probably rename this blog, "Chats" as Fridays never seem to be long enough to write one then. At any rate, I haven't updated in a while so I thought I would let you know what's been going on in history class.

In class: Students are working on 4 projects between now and winter break. They have a Choice Board that they are using. There are a total of 9 project options, they are picking 4. They have all the rubrics for each of the projects in advance, when they finish one project they move on to another.

We are studying Ancient Egypt this term so we are also viewing several films in class. This week we will be watching Egyptian Secrets of the Afterlife. It is a National Geographic film depicting the Pharaoh's journey to the underworld as well as expert archaeologists taking us to current "digs' in Ancient Egypt. If you have Netflix and would like to view it as well it is available on there.

Some other things they may have told you about class: I've been experimenting with music in class. Many studies show that soft classical or instrumental music can help students focus. I have been playing Vince Giraldi (the man who created the music for Charlie Brown) softly while students work on their projects. I have seen an enormous success with this. Overall it has kept the volume level of class down, and I've noticed without the awkward silence students are able to focus and start their work. As a test one day last week I did not use music and I saw an increase in volume, extraneous conversations and found myself having to redirect students more than usual. If your student struggles to focus on homework at home, this may be something you want to try with them.

BYOD: A few classes have been doing a "test run" of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) more information and permission slips about this will be going home later this week. Not every class is doing it this term, I will implement it in classes based on maturity, responsibility and cooperation being displayed on a daily basis. My goal is that by the end of the year all classes will have BYOD.

Last week's projects looked great, please encourage your student to use their creativity and enthusiasm, it makes for better, more interesting projects!

At home: Students should continue working on Schoology Lectures. This term there are 4 per week, however they are shorter than usual (around 5 minutes) so the time spent on them shouldn't be more than last term.

December 21st is a big "due date" for us. The Schoology lectures and coursepacks are due that day. Also they must turn in their in class projects. This is the 1/2 day before break so I will be taking the projects home over the break to correct.

There are only 3 Mastery Tests this term, students should have already taken Mastery Test 4.

As always please let me know if there are any questions, comments, or concerns.

Happy Monday (yes I just said that)!
Ms. Miller