Hi!
It's time for the teacher to say something! What a wonderful set of classes I have this semester! I am so enjoying all three of them and the students I get to work with. I thought I'd throw a quick update out there so you're all caught up on the awesome things that we're doing!
Middle East Studies is hard at work. We have moved into the modern day and students are learning about Israel and Palestine. This week, they have been dealing with the 'partition' and have even tried their hand at breaking up the land. Today, we had presentations from four groups with their partition plans, and tomorrow students (who have various "roles") will be voting on the plan that they think is best. This project has been eye opening for many of them...and it is fun to see them think critically about the area. Many of them feel confused or frustrated about how that area was created in the 20th century - especially those who are reading "In Search of Fatima" for their reading project. It is an exciting and interesting topic that has direct ties to the Middle East today.
US History is also cruising right along. After learning about the initial colonies, we've moved into the Salem Witch trials among other things. Students are hard at work acting as historians and diving into a multitude of primary sources. Tomorrow, we are going to start learning how to do a DBQ (Document Based Question) where students will learn to use primary and secondary sources to form an opinion and to write about it. Although difficult, it is a very important skill for budding historians! Speaking of budding, our plants are off and running. So far, about half of them have sprouted and about five students were able to remove their plants from the little greenhouse box we have and put them into their pots! Exciting!
The Cold War just finished watching an interesting and intense movie about the Korean War. It is called Tae Guk Gi and created and filmed in Korean. The students were disappointed at first to have to read the subtitles, but got into the swing of things and learned a lot. They have been making a lot of progress with "evidence" (primary sources - usually declassified documents) and have been enjoying learning about the USSR. They are reading a difficult text and doing a wonderful job pulling important pieces together and keeping everything straight - which is hard with the Cold War! We are hoping to visit a missile silo in the next few weeks and learn about how the Cold War was present in Colorado!
That's all for now -
Lizard
It's time for the teacher to say something! What a wonderful set of classes I have this semester! I am so enjoying all three of them and the students I get to work with. I thought I'd throw a quick update out there so you're all caught up on the awesome things that we're doing!
Middle East Studies is hard at work. We have moved into the modern day and students are learning about Israel and Palestine. This week, they have been dealing with the 'partition' and have even tried their hand at breaking up the land. Today, we had presentations from four groups with their partition plans, and tomorrow students (who have various "roles") will be voting on the plan that they think is best. This project has been eye opening for many of them...and it is fun to see them think critically about the area. Many of them feel confused or frustrated about how that area was created in the 20th century - especially those who are reading "In Search of Fatima" for their reading project. It is an exciting and interesting topic that has direct ties to the Middle East today.
US History is also cruising right along. After learning about the initial colonies, we've moved into the Salem Witch trials among other things. Students are hard at work acting as historians and diving into a multitude of primary sources. Tomorrow, we are going to start learning how to do a DBQ (Document Based Question) where students will learn to use primary and secondary sources to form an opinion and to write about it. Although difficult, it is a very important skill for budding historians! Speaking of budding, our plants are off and running. So far, about half of them have sprouted and about five students were able to remove their plants from the little greenhouse box we have and put them into their pots! Exciting!
The Cold War just finished watching an interesting and intense movie about the Korean War. It is called Tae Guk Gi and created and filmed in Korean. The students were disappointed at first to have to read the subtitles, but got into the swing of things and learned a lot. They have been making a lot of progress with "evidence" (primary sources - usually declassified documents) and have been enjoying learning about the USSR. They are reading a difficult text and doing a wonderful job pulling important pieces together and keeping everything straight - which is hard with the Cold War! We are hoping to visit a missile silo in the next few weeks and learn about how the Cold War was present in Colorado!
That's all for now -
Lizard