Skip to main content

Week Two: Friday, September 9, 2022

 Welcome! 

Week two is in the books and it already feels like we've been here for a few months (and I mean that in a good way)! The students are doing a great job in picking up the routines and procedures in my class and school in general. We watched a great video about the true meaning of life and what we can be striving to achieve by Jay Shetty on Friday--give yourself a few minutes to watch it, I think you'll like it. 


Social Studies Update: 

Tuesday:
Today was another day getting into routines and using new tools. We used Google Autodraw to create icons today to help the students get used to doing quick "Sketch & Tell" activities. We also completed a Frayer Organizer to better help the students understand Mastery-Based Learning since that will be the focus for the year. 

Wednesday: 
Today was the first day the students really directed their own learning. We spent the day working through #006-Unit Zero Mastery Grid. The students worked on the note-taking process, understanding how the Google Classroom is set up, guiding their own work, and keeping track of it. 

Thursday: 
The focus for today was getting the kids used to creating infographics using Google Slides and creating a particular type of presentation called Thick Slides. We'll create both of these things from time to time throughout the year to help tell the story of American history.

Friday: 
It's finally the end of the week and the students spent time submitting their #006-Mastery Grid, reflecting on the work they did, and using Flip (formerly Flipgrid) to explain their work and thinking through the mastery grid. Finally, we finished up by having the students do a "History of Mr. Brilla" by investigating primary sources from my life. 

Next Week in Class 



This upcoming week will be the first Mastery Grid the students will complete that will be history-based and end in a graded assignment. The students will start by watching three videos about historical content and skills that they will use later in the unit. The videos will replace the traditional lecture you might be familiar with when we were in school. Upon the completion of the videos and notes, the students will take a Mastery Check to ensure they got the concepts from the videos. While this mastery check is not graded, the student will need to score at least a 90% before they can move on with their work. Towards the end of the week, the students will begin to look at primary sources in history and finally investigate sources from the Boston Massacre to help them decide which side, the British or the Colonists, deserves more of the blame for the violence. 

Podcast Link: 

Click here to listen to the podcast.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week Six: September 30-October 4

Welcome:  Just like that, we are into the last week of September. I was talking to one of the students in my third-period class about how quickly this year is flying by—we are already one-eighth of the way through it. The students participated in some Spirit Week competitions to help celebrate Homecoming this week and it was great to see so many kids decked out in jerseys, team colors, and, school colors.  I decided to show a quick clip from the movie The Pursuit of Happyness  since we were discussing the Declaration of Independence. The movie is a great movie based on the real-life story of Chris Gardner. We watched a 2-minute clip about the importance of dreams and never letting anyone squash your dreams.  This Past Week:  The Fight Begins: The students used this slide deck to guide them through most of the work they needed to complete this week. I was out on Monday and Tuesday for training from the district so this helped them.  Boston Massacre Writing A...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week Seven: Friday Ocbtober 13, 2023

Welcome:  And just like that we are finished with the seventh week of school and halfway through October! This past week was a fun one as we celebrated homecoming with a Spirit Week that culminated with some fun in the gym at the end of the day on Friday. Don't forget that we have team spirit wear available and information about the Make a Difference Day food collection on our middle school website.   This week brought another Friday and another opportunity for an inspirational video. This week we watched a video of one of the most inspiring people I've ever seen--Inky Johnson. Inky talks all about belief and overcoming obstacles in this video.  Social Studies (Pd. 1, 5 and 6):  This Past Week:  Monday:  On Monday we finished the episode of America the Story of Us  that we were watching about the American Revolution. The students also picked topics for the Common Craft video portion of the American Revolution Menu and got into groups.  Tuesday: To...
Post a Comment
Read more

Week Two: Friday, September 6, 2024

Welcome:  I simply cannot believe how quickly these past two weeks have gone! We are nine days into school and the students are doing great. They have been learning the new morning routines and bell schedules and it's starting to feel like we never left for summer break.  This week I showed a quick little video about happiness by Jay Shetty. If you follow anything in the personal growth space you may know that Shetty has come under fire recently as claims that he may have embellished his background have surfaced. I feel that we can all believe whatever we like about him, but the message of this video still stands--it's all about how to be truly happy in life.  This Past Week:  Tuesday: The students came back from their long weekend today and were given time to finish the Week 1 Gameboard before we used MagicSchoolAI to practice using AI to research so we can formulate and defend opinions. The big question for today was "Should we study history or is it a waste of tim...
Post a Comment
Read more