Today in class...
Friday, 11/8/2024
Today talked about Veterans' Day.
The learning objectives were:
Describe the significance of Veterans' Day (We did talk about the difference between Veterans' Day and Memorial, Day)
Explain why societies observe holidays
The skill objective was:
Uses annotation skills to demonstrate understanding of content vocabulary and key ideas (RCG - Reading Comprehension Guidelines)
Pre-Class Materials:
Dearly Departed Friend Lyrics for RCG
In-Class Materials:
Congressional Medal of Honor Society
Veterans Day commemorates the service of all U.S. veterans, Memorial Day specifically honors those who died while in military service. We observe holidays for a number of reasons...
Governments want to give people something to celebrate and/or give them a break from the day-to-day living. We also observe holidays as a form of remembrance (collective memory) and there is an impact on culture (depending on the holiday).
Thursday, 11/7/2024
Today we worked on revisions of the field trip paragraph. Students worked with peer coaches to fix issues with their paragraphs.
Wednesday, 11/6/2024
Today we talked about the outcome of the presidential election. Regardless of how some people feel, the outcome is the outcome.
Tuesday, 11/5/2024 - Election Day - No School
Monday, 11/4/2024
Today we talked about the presidential election. We walked through the poster below (Left). We also watched approximately 10 minutes of the one presidential debate. (Right).
Friday, 11/1/2024 (NO SCHOOL)
What is Diwali?
Take a look at National Geographic Kids for more information.
Thursday, 10/31/2024
Today continued talking about government. We laid out the structure of the U.S. Government along with the structure of state and local governments. We also talked about where governments derive their power (Economics, Politics, Authority). At the beginning of the week we started out discussing belief systems. The reason that we started there was because belief systems affect the way power (Economics, Politics, Authority) is handled by people elected to office. Add to that the fact that we have Election Day on Tuesday, and it seemed like a good time to lay out some basic concepts about government and power.
Slideshow (from the past 2-3 days).
Tuesday, 10/29/2024
Today we talked about a number of things regarding government and politics.
We discussed the different levels of government in the United States.
We also talked about belief systems. A belief system is a collection of ideas or teachings which influence a person's understanding of life. It usually gives instructions on how to live. As you will see, religions are a blend of both facts and belief systems. It can be proven that at least some of the religious leaders actually existed. The ideas they taught and some of the things they did, however, cannot be proven.
Vocabulary:
A fact can be proved true. For example, it is a fact that Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. A fact can be proved either by actually observing something or by consulting a reliable source such as an encyclopedia.
An opinion is a statement or idea that tells how a person feels about something. If your friend says, "Pizza is the best food in the world," he or she is stating an opinion. However, opinions supported by facts are more convincing. If your friend took a survey and discovered that more people ate pizza than any other food, he would have some support for his opinion.
A belief is an idea or conviction that someone accepts as true or real. Some people, for example, believe that walking under a ladder is bad luck. Can this be proven? Probably not. But the person may still believe it true. Another person may believe in certain gods, while others do not. For them, these beliefs are like facts.
Patriotism - The quality of being patriotic; devotion to and vigorous support for one's country.
Nationalism - Identification with one's own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.
Nativism - The policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants.
Jingoism - Extreme patriotism, especially in the form of aggressive or warlike foreign policy.
Interdependence - The dependence of two or more people or things on each other.
Infrastucture - The basic systems and services, such as transportation and power supplies, that a country or organization uses in order to work effectively.
Institutions - a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity; a significant practice, relationship, or organization in a society or culture
Monday, 10/28/2024
Today started talking about the U.S. Government. We talked a bit about The Constitution, The Bill of Rights and the three branches of government here in the United States.
Legislative
Congress is the legislative branch of the government. Congress is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate has 100 senators, two from each state. The number of representatives each state has is based on its population.
Executive
The executive branch is led by the President. The executive branch also includes federal agencies, departments, committees, and other groups.
Judicial
The judicial branch includes the Supreme Court and other federal courts. The Supreme Court is the highest court in the country. Federal courts interpret the law and apply it to individual cases.
Friday, 10/25/2024
Thursday, 10/24/2024
Today we wrapped up the Climate Change Project. Tomorrow students have no school because of parent/teacher conferences. On Monday we will be back in the classroom.
Wednesday, 10/23/2024
Presentations continued for the Climate Change Project.
Tuesday, 10/22/2024
Presentations began for the Climate Change Project. Overall, things went well.
Monday, 10/21/2024
Today students rehearsed for presentations. The presentations start tomorrow.
Friday, 10/18/2024
Today we went on our Boston Field Trip.
Thursday, 10/17/2024
Today students were creating their Group Google Earth presentation. Monday will be a rehearsal day.
Wednesday, 10/16/2024
Today students were free to conduct independent research, using library resources. The focus of today's research was to take a look at the aspect of climate change that each group chose and researched and figure out how it impacts the way we live. So, the focus is someplace on earth and answering the following questions:
What was it like before the climate started changing?
What is it like now?
What could it look like?
Tomorrow students will be creating their Group Google Earth presentation. Monday will be a rehearsal day.
Tuesday, 10/15/2024
Today students continued to conducting research using the NOAA website. Some groups still need to come up with a project plan...
What is your focus?
How you are going to research?
Who is doing what?
Look at the checklist and make sure that you have a plan to move forward.
Tomorrow will be independent research. The focus of the project is not the factor of climate change that students started out with. It's about the impact of climate change on how we, humans, live on the planet. That's what the final presentation will be about.
By Thursday, 10/17 students should have wrapped up their research, finished their group bibliographies, checked in with the librarian about the quality of their bibliography entries and started work on the visual presentation (the least important part of the project).
Friday, 10/11/2024
Today students continued to conduct research using the NASA site on climate change. They also needed to come up with a project plan.
The plan should answer the following questions...
What is your focus?
How are you going to research?
Who is doing what?
Look at the checklist and ensure you have a plan to move forward.
Thursday, 10/10/2024
Today students started to research. We were using the NASA site on climate change. Each project group needs to research the seven vital signs for climate change. The idea is to see if any of the data fits with the focus topic taken from the New York Times article that we read earlier this week. Whether the vital sign works with their area of focus or not, students have to write at least 5 sentences about each vital sign. They are also reading the information on the Mitigation and Adaptation tab. If there is anything to say about Mitigation and Adaptation, that's fine. However, the focus is the data on the vital signs. If some of the vital signs do not fit with the focus area for the project, then after this assignment the kids will not have to look at those focus areas as we move forward. They will be concentrating on the ones that do tie into their area of focus. To be clear, the point of the project is to talk about how climate change impacts the way people live.
Wednesday, 10/9/2024
Today Mr. Wolke, a technology specialist, showed students how to create a presentation using Google Earth. That will be the presentation vehicle for the Climate Project. He also taught a lesson about climate change using VR goggles.
Tuesday, 10/8/2024
Today I was at Central Office all day. The students were with Ms. Nickerson, the librarian, learning about research and getting a refresher on NoodleTools. New information/skills that were introduced were how to set up shared bibliographies and how to share the bibliography with a project dropbox.
Monday, 10/7/2024
Today we launched our Climate Project. We will be having class in the library for the next 3 weeks. Students will use an article, How Close Are the Planet's Climate Tipping Points? to decide on a starting point.
Students will also review the Vital Signs and Mitigation and Adaptation on the NASA Climate Change website.
The focus is how does climate change affect the way we live.
Friday, 10/4/2024
Today students took a look at the settlement of Australia. They also completed a survey about the classroom environment. The latter is something that I will do on a monthly basis.
Thursday, 10/3/2024
No School
Wednesday, 10/2/2024
Today we wrapped up the map work. A few students still have not finished. They do have the opportunity to take an atlas home and wrap up the assignment. Then we looked at the Australia section of the atlas and students talked about what they found the most interesting. We are wrapping up Oceania this week and moving into our climate project (HEI - Human Environmental Interaction).
To wrap up class today we watched a few short videos...
Physical Geography
Weird Animals of Australia: Why Down Under is so unique
Human Geography
Making a didgeridoo
Adele & Zalem, Diderioo Duet
Tuesday, 10/1/2024
Today we reviewed the map of the Oceanic Islands. We talked a bit about the island types.
There are six different types of islands Continental Islands: islands that at one point in time were connected to a continent.
Tidal Islands: technically still connected to the main continent, but that connection sits below the water at high tide.
Barrier Islands: long, narrow, offshore deposits of sand or sediment that run parallel to the coastline.
Oceanic Islands: islands that are not connected to a continent and are formed by volcanic activity.
Coral Islands: islands that are formed by the accumulation of coral reefs.
Artificial Islands: islands that are created by humans, often for commercial or military purposes.
Regions of Oceania
Micronesia - Low Islands. Micronesia is a region in the western Pacific Ocean that consists of thousands of small islands and atolls. The name comes from the Greek words micro (small) and nesoi (islands).
Melanesia - High Islands. Melanesia is a region in the Pacific that refers to the islands inhabited by Melanesians. The name comes from the Greek words melas, meaning "black", and nēsos, meaning "island", and literally translates to "islands of black people". The name was given by Europeans to the region in reference to the dark skin of its inhabitant
Polynesia - High Islands. Polynesia is a term that refers to a group of islands in the central and southern Pacific Ocean, and means "many islands". The word comes from Greek.
Monday, 9/30/2024
Today we reviewed the homework for the week and worked on a map of Oceanic Islands. We will finish that up in class tomorrow. The map is not homework.
Friday, 9/27/2024
Today students started with a vocabulary quiz. Then they focused on 2 peer edits getting completed. After this class, they should only need a verbal edit from a parent/guardian. From there they can resolve all suggestions from the editing process and then submit the assignment (turn it in). Some students have gotten ahead and have already submitted their work, which is fine.
There is one more homework assignment out there about the six types of islands.
Thursday, 9/26/2024
Today students wrote their argumentative paragraphs. Students do need to have 2 peer edits completed and a verbal edit (parents/guardians).
Wednesday, 9/25/2024
Today students painted clay models/sculptures of land or water forms that represent them (Personification). We also reviewed the rubric and how to analyze for the writing assignment, Tomorrow students will write their argumentative paragraphs.
Tuesday, 9/24/2024
Today students created clay models/sculptures of land or water forms that represent them (Personification). Tomorrow we will paint the models/sculptures. On Thursday we will write an argumentative paragraph about why the land/water form is representative of them.
Monday, 9/23/2024
Today we reviewed the homework for the week. We also watched at a couple of videos:
How the Great Artesian Basin Works (Physical Geography of Australia)
Earth's Rotation & Revolution (Physical Geography - Seasons - Yesterday was the first day of Fall/Autumn
Vocabulary Word: Aquifer - a body of permeable rock that can contain or transmit groundwater. An underground supply of generally potable (drinkable) water.
Tomorrow we will be working with clay. So, students should dress appropriately.
Friday, 9/20/2024
Today was a bit of a buffet of learning. What I mean by that is we did a few different things today and they all related to prior learning. So, I guess it was actually more like tapas. I started out having the kids power down their laptops. This is good to do at least once a week. From there the computers went to the middle of the tables and we got started.
The first thing we did was a worksheet titled, "What Does It Mean?", which was "translating" sentences from Australian to American English. This connects to culture because language is part of culture. It also relates back to vernacular regions from the theme of geography Regions. We talked through the worksheet and then moved on.
From there the kids booted up their laptops and went to a website focused on the size of Australia. To be fair, I told students that the site was not something to site, but the visuals were what we were looking for.
After that, we watched a few minutes of Finding Nemo. Specifically, we looked at the segment that involved the East Australian Current.
Ocean currents act much like a conveyor belt, transporting warm water and precipitation from the equator toward the poles and cold water from the poles back to the tropics. Thus, currents regulate global climate, helping to counteract the uneven distribution of solar radiation reaching Earth's surface.
Then we watched a short video about coral reefs. The Great Barrier Reef is a major feature off the northeastern coast of Australia.
The Great Barrier Reef is home to thousands of marine species, including 25% of all marine life. If it disappeared, many other species would be affected, including fish, turtles, and other sea creatures.
Coastal erosion -Coral reefs protect coastlines from powerful waves and extreme weather. Without them, shorelines would be more vulnerable to erosion and rising sea levels.
Food crisis - Many coastal areas could suffer a food crisis as fish numbers begin to drop.
Loss of medical treatments - Plants and animals found in coral reefs are being used to develop treatments for diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's.
Economic loss - The Great Barrier Reef alone brings in over $6 billion in tourism each year.
Global health - The loss of marine life and coral's medical uses would have a negative impact on global health.
Climate change - Coral reefs are vital for the planet's health and climate.
The Great Barrier Reef is at risk of vanishing completely due to climate change. In the past 30 years, the reef has lost half its coral cover. The video below was not shown in class, but it may be of interest.
Thursday, 9/19/2024
Today students filled out a political map of Australia. They did this after reading a bit about the states & territories of Australia.
The Australian territories are not part of any state. Unlike a state, territories do not have legislatures to create laws for themselves, so they rely on the federal government to create and approve laws. Territories are not claimed by any state so the Australian. Parliament directly controls them.
After that, students did a bit more research about what land or water form could represent them. Next week we will create clay models of the land/water forms, paint them, and write an argumentative paragraph about them. So, what we are doing this week are all pre-writing activities.
Wednesday, 9/18/2024
Today students used an. atlas as a source for note-taking. The focus was the land and factors affecting climate. The land/water forms affect the enviroment. The climate affects the land/water forms.
Mountains:
Windward - The side of a mountain range that faces the direction from which the wind is blowing.
Leeward - The side of a mountain range that faces away from the direction from which the wind is blowing.
Rain Shadow - When hot, dry air descends the leeward side of a mountain resulting in a dry area.
Large bodies of water, such as oceans, seas and large lakes, can affect the climate of an area. Water heats and cools more slowly than landmasses. Therefore, the coastal regions will stay cooler in summer and warmer in winter, thus creating a more moderate climate with a narrower temperature range.
Tuesday, 9/17/2024
Today students we reviewed tried to wrap up the physical maps of Australia and Oceania. I will check them one last time tomorrow. Students also had the opportunity to look at materials (globe, atlas, 3D land/water form map, etc. ). We will do this a couple of more times this week. This is an opportunity for students to get more information about land and water forms so they can choose a land or water form for this week's assignment. Next week we will create clay sculptures of the land/water forms and write an argumentative paragraph about it.
Monday, 9/16/2024
Today students we reviewed the homework for the week. Students also self-corrected their physical maps of Australia and New Zealand. Tomorrow we will talk about the physical geography of Oceania.
Friday, 9/13/2024
Today students worked on physical maps of Australia and New Zealand. I was out today. We will review the maps next week.
Thursday, 9/12/2024
Today we did more and started out with a vocabulary quiz. From there students collaborated on note-taking. Basically, they talk through the notes about the physical geography of Australia. This is a way to calibrate and share ideas. Sometimes students will add to their notes during this process. After that, students referenced atlases and globes to try to apply their thinking about the Aspects of Geography and the Five Themes of Geography to the physical geography of Australia. We wrapped up by discussing the students' findings.
Climate (Temperature & Precipitation) dictate vegetation to a large degree.
Wednesday, 9/11/2024
Today we did more note-taking. However, today students had a pre-formatted template to guide them through the process. The focus was wrapping up the aspects of Geography (Human and Physical) and then covering the Five Themes of Geography.
A summary of the notes needs to be completed. If it was not finished in school, it does need to be completed for homework. I will check
the summaries tomorrow.
Tuesday, 9/10/2024
Today we eased into more note-taking. The focus was the Aspect of Geography. Tomorrow we will continue with the Five Themes of Geography.
If possible, watch tonight's presidential debate. It starts a 9:00 PM. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/debate-how-to-watch-kamala-harris-donald-trump-2024/
Monday, 9/9/2024
Today we reviewed the homework for the week and students had some time to start their homework.
Thursday, 9/5/2024
Today we started with students calibrating on their notes. Note-taking is a process. At this point, the note-taking format is very structured. Each note-taking session starts with an overarching question or main idea. Writing in an overarching question or main ideas can be done later in the process, but it does need to be there. From there students identify what they perceive to be big ideas (feeding into the main idea) and accompanying details. At the end of a note-taking session, a brief summary is required. The summary should be able to answer the overarching question OR address the main idea. Calibration is also part of the process. Kids sit with other kids and briefly discuss their notes.
After that, we talked about the reading on map projections. All maps have at least one type of distortion. Why is that? The simple explanation is that it's physically impossible to take the surface of a sphere and accurately represent it on a flat plane without distorting it in some way.
Conformality - the shapes of places are accurate
Distance - measured distances are accurate
Area/Equivalence - the areas represented on the map are proportional to their area on the earth (size)
Direction - angles of direction are portrayed accurately
Friday, 9/6/2024
Today we reviewed the Class Expectations (See the Class Expectations page on this site). After that we looked at two maps:
Hobo-Dyer Equal Area - While the Hobo-Dyer projection minimizes distortion in terms of area, it does introduce distortion in terms of shape and direction. Like many equal area projections, shapes near the poles may be distorted, but this is a trade-off for maintaining accurate area representation.
Peters - While it preserves the area of land masses, it still does not preserve the shapes of countries, making it challenging to use for navigational purposes. It also has some distortion near the poles.
We also compared the maps to a globe. From there we watched a video about map projections (see below). All of this was done to reinforce the idea that all maps contain some form of distortion. Map makers face the challenge of representing a spherical globe on a flat map, leading to distortions in shape, distance, direction, and land area. Different map projections offer trade-offs in preserving shape or accurately displaying size, impacting navigation and perceptions of countries.
This was not covered in class, but it may be interesting, perhaps fun, to check this site:
Interactive Album of Map Projections
FYI, there is a website mentioned in the video, truesizeof.com. I did not post it because the District blocks it. I tried to see what was on the site using my phone and I got a malicious site alert. So, I would not go to it.
Wednesday, 9/4/2024
Today students started with pre-class vocabulary.
Conformality - the shapes of places are accurate
Distance - measured distances are accurate
Area/Equivalence - the areas represented on the map are proportional to their area on the earth
Direction - angles of direction are portrayed accurately
From there we went into note-taking. It's a structured format that we walked through. Tonight students have a homework assignment where they will be applying the note-taking process to a short reading about map projections.
Tuesday, 9/3/2024
Today we reviewed the homework for the week and students bookmarked the Team Resilience website and the William Diamond Middle School site. Homework for World Geography will be put out at the beginning of each week. Very rarely will students get additional homework assigned during the week. The exception to that would be if something was done in class, but a student hasn't completed the work. Unless otherwise stated, it needs to be completed for homework that day.