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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: Today was all about the beginnings of the first group project we'll do this year--the Common Craft video on the American Revolution Menu. The students got into their groups today & then started to conduct research for their projects. 
  • Wednesday: The goal of today was to complete the research portion of their Common Craft video so that the students could start writing the scripts for their videos today. 
  • Thursday:  The goal of today was to evaluate the research the students have completed to this point, finish it up, and then begin writing the scripts for their videos. 
  • Friday: Today was all about creating their common craft-style videos for the students. We watched an example of a student-created video from last year for some ideas, went over the rubric, and then spent time creating their crafts for the video. The goal is to be ready to film by Wednesday of next week. 

Next Week: 

The students will do the following things this week: 
  • Common Craft Video:  The students will work in their groups to finish creating their Common Craft videos. The goal is to be ready to film their videos by Wednesday. All filming will be done in class on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. 
  • Ranking Assignment: As the other groups are filming their videos the students will work on their independent ranking activity from #029-American Revolution Menu. These will need to be completed by the end of class on Friday.
  • Link to Today: The students will also finish the "Link to Today" assignment in the American Revolution menu while the videos are being recorded. These will need to be completed by the end of class Friday as well. 

Accelerated Social Studies (3 and 8)

This Past Week: 

  • Monday: We started the day and week with a quick content burst about the principles of the Rule of Law and Federalism and how they are reflected in the Constitution. The students then had time to work on the assignments they needed to complete for the #031-Three Branches Mastery Grid. 
  • Tuesday: After playing a quick review game today the students "played around" with Canva to see if they could create an infographic since it will be the final product for their mastery grids. 
  • Wednesday: The students spent almost the entire period working on their Mastery Grids today. 
  • Thursday: We did a quick content burst on the debate over the need for a Bill of Rights during the Constitutional Convention and then the students had the remainder of the period to work on the Three Branches of Government Mastery Grid before we played a quick Blooket to review.
  • Friday: We only had our 3rd-period class today because of the pep rally. The students watched the Friday video and then spent the rest of the time completing their work for the mastery grid.

Next Week:

Next week is exciting for me--we'll start our first debates of the year! Now that we've finished the functions of our government we've actually finished all of the historical content we needed to cover for the unit so we will turn our attention to today. The students will have the opportunity to pick one topic related to the Bill of Rights to research and then debate in class over the next few weeks. This week the students will select topics, get into teams, and research for the debates. Check out the debate guidelines and assignment sheet here if you'd like to see what we'll be doing 

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