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Week 18: January 2-5, 2024

Welcome: 

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great first week back after the holiday break. As crazy as it may sound, we started discussing course recommendations for next year in my class because my initial recommendations are due very soon. I'm sure many of you will have questions about the course selection process--don't worry, there will be a TON of information coming your way and some presentations from the high school guidance department meant to help you and your student navigate this time. 

Since it's the new year I thought it was a great time to show another video by Prince Ea. This video is called "New Year, New M...Stop!" and was updated for this year. It's a great video with a powerful message about setting goals and living the lives we are meant to live. 



Social Studies: 

This Past Week:

  • Clash of Cultures: We started our discussion of the "Clash of Cultures"--the time when the American government and Native American tribes began to interact. We focused our discussion this week on the Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears. 
  • Ticket out the Door (1/3/24): The students completed a quick ticket out the door activity for a grade on Wednesday. The goal of the activity was for the students to be able to articulate and explain both perspectives of the Indian Removal debate and how the US handled the issue.  The students did this by completing a "One-Word Summary & Explanation" or a "Sketch and Tell" before leaving class. 
  • Trail of Tears Infographic: The students spent some time doing some quick research about the Trail of Tears to share with their classmates. The students then used the entire collection of research gathered by the class and selected 5 of the most important, interesting, or telling facts about the Trail of Tears to create an infographic. The students completed the assignment by answering a few reflection questions about the assignment. 
  • Buffalo & Plains Indians Wizer: We finished the week by starting an activity on a site called Wizer. me to help the students understand the importance of buffalo to the traditional way of life of the Native Americans living on the plains. 

Next Week:

The students will be working on the following activities: 
  • Wars for the West Key Terms: They will be asked to identify and explain the importance of 8 key individuals/terms. They will share their work with groups and use them later in the week. 
  • Wars for the West Iron Chef: The students will work in small groups to create QUICK presentations meant to help them practice speaking to the class and to better understand the interaction between the US government and Native American tribes. 
  • List-Group-Label: The final assignment of the week will be a List-Group-Label activity. The students will be using the terms from the Wars for the West Key Terms assignment earlier in the week and making sense of the Indian Wars. 


Accelerated Social Studies:

This Past Week:

  • Podcast Research: The students started the week with some research for their second-quarter podcast project since we took some time from them before the break. 
  • Clash of Cultures Socratic Seminar: The main focus for this week was a Socratic Seminar activity about the interactions between the Native American peoples and the United States government in the 1800s as the nation expanded. The students investigated a series of primary source documents on Wednesday and Thursday before our class discussion on Friday. 

Next Week:

This entire week will be dedicated to the podcasts. 

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