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Week Four: Friday, September 23, 2022

Welcome

    Happy Fall! It sounds like a broken record a little bit but I can't believe that we're four weeks into school already! This past week the students had the opportunity to learn about the NJROTC course that our high school offers, select clubs for the year, and meet our amazing staff in the guidance office during our WIN periods. Needless to say, it was a busy week for the kids! 
    This week's video is a short one and comes from one of my favorite movies of all time--The Pursuit of Happiness. The students were all working on graded assignments on Friday so I wanted to be sure they had as much time as possible to work. This segment is a 2-minute clip all about the importance of having dreams and goals--the whole movie is a "must-watch" but this clip is especially great in my mind. 



Social Studies Update (Periods 1, 4 & 5) 

This Past Week: 

  • Monday: We started our Monday with a quick game of Blooket to get the students thinking about history and the Boston Massacre again. Most of the students spent time finishing up their Wizer.me activity on primary and secondary sources today and beginning to investigate the primary sources bout the Boston Massacre. 
  • Tuesday: The focus for today was to analyze the primary source documents about the Boston Massacre. The students took time to look at a few different primary sources to try and figure out who was to blame for the violence that occurred on March 5, 1770. 
  • Wednesday: The students spent today finishing the work they started on Tuesday. 
  • Thursday: Today was all about catching up & preparing for tomorrow's in-class assignment. Additionally, the students were given time to work on a Claim-Evidence-Reasoning graphic organizer to help with their writing. 
  • Friday: Today was all about writing in social studies. The students had all class period to write out their independent writing response to the question "Which side deserves more blame for the violence on the night of March 5, 1770?" This is the first graded assignment of the year and is worth 40-points. 


Honor's Social Studies Update (Periods 2 & 8) 

This Past Week: 

  • Monday: The students worked hard on finishing up their investigation of the primary sources about the Boston Massacre today. 
  • Tuesday: We held a class discussion called "Philosophical Chairs" where the students got to discuss their interpretation of the primary source documents and who should be blamed for the violence that took place on the night of March 5, 1770. 
  • Wednesday: Today was all about writing in social studies. The students had all class period to write out their independent writing response to the question "Which side deserves more blame for the violence on the night of March 5, 1770?" This is the first graded assignment of the year and is worth 40-points. 
  • Thursday: The students did an activity called "Cyber Sandwich" today. This activity is meant to help students build a collaborative slide deck in which they compare and contrast different topics. The focus of today's activity was the various methods the Colonists used to protest the various laws and acts passed by the British Parliament. 
  • Friday: The students finished up looking at the various forms of protest by creating a product of their choice to compare and contrast and then tell which protests was the most effective. 

Next Week: 

We'll shift our focus for next week to history's greatest break-up letter--the Declaration of Independence. We'll take some time to review the events that led up to the American Revolution before we dive into the Second Continental Congress and the Declaration of Independence. The students will create their first Infographic when we do an activity called "Numbermania" about the Second Continental Congress and Declaration of Independence. Finally, we'll finish up the week with the students working in collaborative groups to paraphrase the preamble to the Declaration of Independence so they are understandable to today's students. 

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