Screencasts

We have had some "snow" days these last few days.  I decided to take advantage of this extra time to work on my flip (in addition to bleaching the grout in my bathrooms and cleaning my washing machine- but that's for another blog...maybe confessions of a type-A crazy clean person).

So, my dear husband showed me how my Mac already has a program to allow me to make a screencast of the column notes.  I spent Monday (our holiday) and yesterday recording and then uploading on my Schoology page.

Here is a sample of a screencast.  The screencasts are not as fuzzy on Schoology and this is an edited one.  I got distracted and forgot what I was talking about.  The average length of the screencasts is 6 minutes.

The first part of the column notes is one screencast where I fill in the blanks and discuss new vocabulary, new concept or relate back to previous information.  The second screencast is the second column answers.  I encourage my students to answer before watching.

The supervisor of blending learning is coming by to see me to help me figure out what exactly I'll be doing with our time in class.

Happy Teaching!

C

I'm FLIPPING

Flipping you ask?  I am flipping my class in my next unit.  This means I will be delivering notes through video presentations.  Students will be responsible for watching assigned lessons and or videos prior to coming to class.

Now that I have more time in class I will be assigning project based learning activities.  Now, I'm not really sure what those activities are yet.

What I do know:
1. My unit is on Middle Ages Europe
2. My unit will be approximately 3 and half weeks
3. My students will need access to both the internet and some sort of electronic presentation program
4. I want a variety of different student outputs: formative and summative
5. I want my students to share their output: either in class or online
6. I will use Schoology to facilitate the delivery

What I do NOT know:
1. How exactly I'm going to deliver my lessons
2. What exactly will my students produce
3. How much time should I allow for class work

I have talked to my county blended learning coordinator, my school ITRT and consulted a ton (okay, that's a hyperbole) of websites.  My favorite website is bie.org.  It is full of very useful and well organized information.

I will keep you up to date on my flipping!

Days like today

I had a day today that reinforces why I teach.  To give you a little perspective: I am teaching about the Byzantine Empire and the Byzantine culture (including art, architecture and religion).

The first question came from a student in 2nd period: "Mrs. Virginia World History Teacher?  Why do we know history is history?"  I responded by telling him that it was a great question and then I opened it up to the class.  His classmates responded with a few "okay" answers but a classmate hit it: "The more you see it in a primary document, the more it is true!".  YES #1!

The second question came out of that same class.  Another student asked that ubiquitous, "Why do we need to study history?"  I told him that a society is doomed to repeat past mistakes if they don't learn from the past.  I posed the following scenario to the class, "A family member's church (and this is a true story) burned all things that had nothing to do with living a worshipful Christian life.  Why would this bother me a historian?"  Some students gave okay answers, "Burning books is not a good idea." or "That is weird."  Then another students said, "That is what the Nazi's did!"  And I said that is exactly what I thought!  YES #2!

The third moment came in 3rd period and shed some light on what Mrs. Virginia World History Teacher was like in school.  I gave two examples of how I felt I righted a wrong.  I think the students, for the most part, enjoy hearing that I too am a human.  YES #3!

The fourth moment came in 4th period when we a student realized that the Hagia Sophia (Greek Orthodox Church in Constantinople) looked like Jabba the Hut's Palace.  We compared the pictures and sure enough...the Hagia Sophia may have served as model for it- click here to see more.  YES #4!

The fifth moment came at the end of 6th period, after we had discussed the Great Schism.  He wanted to know how new religions come about.  He also wanted to know how people know that their religion is right.  I told him that those are great philosophical questions and some  people wrestle with those questions for their entire life.  I told him to keep up those big thoughts.  YES #5!


What about your YES! days?!

Happy Teaching-
C

Justianian I BioPoem

Our first week back was a success!  However, we only had two full days, two two-hour delays and one closure due to the super freezing cold.

So, like all good teachers I cut and pasted my lesson plans and squeezed things into smaller time slots.  I originally planned this reinforcement activity as a solo project.  However, the short period on Friday forced me to work this into the fifteen minutes I had after the clicker quiz.

Here were the instructions I used:

I divided the class into six groups.  The first group worked with the adjectives and relationship.  Then next four groups identified accomplishments we had discussed.  I encouraged them to have two accomplishments incase their first one was taken by another group.  The last group worked on two obstacles.  I filled in the first, next to last and last lines.  After a few minutes I wrote the group's line on butcher paper.  

Two things about this assignment.  I loved it when a student in each class said, "Mrs. Virginia World History Teacher! Is this like a biography but a poem?!"  And I said, "Why yes Virginia World History Student...it is!!!"  I also like this because you could use this for any person or even inanimate objects.  When I was Virginia Civics Teacher I assigned this to my students but they were to write about the Articles of Confederation.

Here are some student creations:

First and Second Period

Fourth Period

Sixth Period 

Okay, hope you are settling into your new year nicely and I look forward to blogging some more.  Thanks for reading!

Happy Teaching!
C

It's the end of the world: a project

The first semester had two projects.  Both of them were thesis papers based on specific SOLs.  I am not sure the students enjoyed it but I think most honed their research and writing skills.  

Second semester will offer a new project.  I got the idea from another teacher, who I found online, that gave a similar assignment.  

So here it is: I will give the students a scenario that the world's population has dropped by 98% as a result of an influenza outbreak.   That means there are a little over 100 million people in the world and only 6.5 million people in the United States.  Currently, Virginia has a bit over 8 million people.  In the scenario, the influenza outbreak has been stabilized but the government, economy, and society have failed and need to be restructured.  The new government has put a search committee together to locate students of World History to help advise the new government on how to proceed.  What worked well in the past and what should our new government, economy, and society.  

I would like to offer a few options for the product the student is producing.  Obviously, they could  do a written report: like on you would turn into a boss for a proposal (not a research paper).  I am also thinking power point.  I would like to come up with a few more products.  I guess I'll keep my thinking cap on.

Happy Teaching!

C 

Semester One: Post Mortem

Well...here I am...on Christmas break and semester one is OVER! Exams have been given, final comments for report cards (except two classes) are finished and two weeks of lessons in January are done.

Today's post is going to be a post-mortem of sorts.  If you are not familiar with a post-mortem it is when you look at something after it has happened to figure out what went well and what didn't go well.  Medically, it's like an autopsy.  So, what went well in semester one and what didn't go well in semester one.  If something went well, can I duplicate it in semester two?  If something did not go well, can I avoid it in semester 2?  So here goes....


What didn't go well:

1. I lost TWO flash drives.  This was a major stressor for me.  The first one was lost during teacher work week and the other was lost sometime later in the second nine-weeks.  My husband tried to fix the problem by giving me a flash drive attached to my lanyard.  This did not work as I lost that flash drive.  My fix: use google docs or dropbox.

2. Missing one week of school due to family deaths.  Yes, I said deaths.  My dear grandmother passed after an illness in October.  The morning of her funeral we found out that my husband's grandfather had passed.  As fellow teachers can attest, you can leave the most fabulous plans but get a cruddy sub and nothing goes as planned.  I had five different subs for those five different days.  My fix: hope no one dies until summer break ( a long time from now).

What could have gone better (okay- adding another category):

1. My Ancient Greece and Rome knowledge.  What? You may ask: you don't know anything about Ancient Greece or Rome?  And I would say: I do now!  During my time at Roanoke College I took Western Civ I & II but then focused my history classes on three areas: Africa, Medieval/Renaissance Italy and Modern Asia.  So....I would like to expand my knowledge for both of these areas.

What went well:

1. Pass rates.  I have 98 students who are passing World History I. However, I have one student that is totally failing.  I have offered tutoring, help with test corrections and contacted howe with little change.  As for the my quarterly assessments and exams: both of those have pass rates in the 90s.

2. Lessons.  I think, for the most part, my lessons are well developed and varied.  I am hoping to keep this momentum up and keep it through the end of the school year.  



I hope I've inspired you to conduct your own post-mortem.

Happy Teaching!
C

Romulus and Remus Mythology Comic

We are quickly approaching the end of our Rome unit!  We have been discussing Roman mythology and the beginnings of Christianity this week.  On Monday, I read the students two myths.  Both of them are about Romulus and Remus.  We talked about how mythology offers explanations of life events or natural phenomena.  Romulus and Remus are brothers and Romulus was the first king of Rome.

The cover of the book I read
to my students.  

This is the myth that explains how Romulus and Remus were born.  

The story about the founding of Rome.  

Students were encouraged to take notes as I read.  After I finished reading the students created a comic strip that contains a minimum of six story cells.  I also required that students include dialogue and color in each of the cells.  

Student's work 

One comic

I think most of the students enjoyed "story time".  They did a good job with their comic creations.  

Happy Teaching!

C