Week Two: Friday, September 8, 2023

Welcome: 

Week two is in the books! The one thing I love about starting before Labor Day is that the students have truly come to appreciate the holiday weekend. I hope you all had a great weekend and a good second week back. This week we watched a video that was created by Jay Shetty all about the real meaning of success in life. I try my best to remember this as a teacher throughout the year. 

This Past Week: 

1. Tuesday: We'll be having quite a few discussions/debates in class this year and today the students experienced something called a Carousel Debate. This activity forces students to think of things from multiple perspectives to develop an argument. We discussed whether or not students should spend time studying history
2. Wednesday: We continued learning about ways to develop an argument today when we investigated the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning method of argumentative writing. The students investigated whether or not they consider a hot dog to be a sandwich, compiled research onto a class document, and then started writing a response using evidence and reasoning to support their claims. 
3. Thursday: The students did a team-building game today since many of the classes got new seats. Once we were finished with the game the students had the rest of the period to finish their C-E-R writing piece about hotdogs. 
4. Friday: We started our discussion of early American history today by introducing the content by playing a Blooket to see what the students already know. The students were then given time to complete any of the work they were supposed to have done this week or to get a jump on the first graded assignment of the year, #008-American Revolution Timeline. 

Next Week: 

• #008-American Revolution Timeline: The students will be completing their first graded assignment of the year throughout the week. This assignment is meant to help the students gain an understanding of how the history of colonial America progressed and to help them practice the skill of using Google to locate information. 
• Content Bursts: We'll take anywhere from 5-15 minutes at the start of most classes this week do short "content bursts." These mini-lessons are meant to introduce the students to the key content they will discuss in class. Feel free to check out the Daily Presentation links on the Google Classroom to see what we discussed. 
• Boston Massacre (Accelerated): The students in periods 3 and 8 will dive into primary sources to study history this week as they investigate what really happened on the night of March 5, 1770, in Boston. The students will be analyzing the primary sources this week so that next week they can have a discussion and do their first piece of formal writing in class.