Mr. Brilla's Musings

 Welcome:  Happy Friday & welcome to the first full week of December! As many of you might be aware, Ms. Brinson put together a calendar full of spirit days for the month so it's been great seeing so many different costumes and personalities. The school also continued the Operation Giving Tree collection this week and the students had clubs on Thursday. Finally, we watched one of my favorite commercials ever on Friday--a video on YouTube for West Jet called "A Christmas Miracle."  This Past Week:  This past week was all about starting our new topic & conducting independent research for their Common Craft Videos. Here's a quick rundown of what we did each day.  Monday:   The students were given time today to finish up their work on #020-Quarter Two Essay. The students that were finished were then given time to get a jump on their research for our Common Craft Video Project on Native American tribes.  Tuesday:  We took time today to fill out...

Welcome:   Welcome back from the Thanksgiving Break and into the first week of December! Our school started an amazing community outreach program called Operation Giving Tree by collecting toys for local families for Christmas. We also watched a great video about overcoming challenges and obstacles.  This Past Week: Monday:  Today was all about research--the students got back into the groove of school by completing their research for the second quarter writing assignment in #013-Trails West Research.  Tuesday:  I was home today with a sick kid, and the students spent time completing their research without me.  Wednesday:  The students created their first mind map for me today. They sifted through the research of all of their classmates to pull out the top 3 dangers/difficulties for each of the four groups we've been researching. They then used that to create their mindmaps to help organize their thoughts. Thursday:  We continued our preparati...

Welcome:  Here we are, our last full week before parent-teacher conferences and Thanksgiving break. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I did want to be sure to take some time to thank you all. I have been having an absolute blast this school year with my students because they truly are a fun bunch of kids. I appreciate the opportunity I get to teach this group of students.   I showed a great video from Goalcast this week about choosing how you show up and trying to be the best and happiest version of yourself on a consistent basis. The talk, given by Ryan Estis, is about a quick interaction he had with an impactful barista while traveling for the holidays. I hope you watch the video and enjoy it.  This Past Week: Monday:  We started the week by taking a look at a painting called "American Progress" to introduce the idea of Manifest Destiny to the students. The students also watched an EdPuzzle video about Manifest Destiny before playing a Blooket version of the Trai...

 Welcome:  The first week of the second quarter has come and gone and this year is cruising along! I'm looking forward to getting to talk to many of you during conferences in a few weeks. This week we watched a great video on not judging others on superficial things like appearances & the importance of standing with the people that often get ignored in life. I hope you take the time to watch the video--it's a great one.  This Past Week:  This past week was another week where both the Honor's American History & American History classes did most of the same types of learning activities so the updates are combined here.  Monday:  Today was all about introducing our next unit of study--"Manifest Destiny: Surviving & Thriving in the American West." We started by doing a Pear Deck flashcard factory to help introduce some key terms to the unit and then the students watched part of America the Story of Us: Westward.   Tuesday:  No School ...

  Welcome:  American History (Periods 1, 4, and 5):  This Past Week:  Monday:  This week started with the students working on their study guides for the civics exam. The students were given time to complete as much as they could on their own and then work with their desk groups and get help from me to make sure they had the correct information. We also took some time today to play some Blooket review games for the Civics Exam.  Tuesday:  I was out today and the students worked on a Pear Deck meant to help them use the CRAAP test to locate & evaluate sources of information on the internet. I will be completely honest here--I used Pear Deck because I felt like it would be a logical step-by-step way to introduce the topic to the students and it didn't seem to work as well as I hoped it would. I think it ended up overwhelming some of the students.  Wednesday:   We spent some time today discussing the assignment the students worked on yesterda...

Welcome:  Nine weeks down! I can't believe that we are already at the end of the first quarter and that the students will be taking their Civics Exam on Friday! This past week we were able to watch a great video from Goalcast that talks about the wisdom of a third grade drop out and asks the students "how ya living?" The video is a longer one (almost 10 minutes) but is well-worth the time to watch and I pick up new things each time I watch it. I hope you enjoy!  Social Studies (Periods 1, 4 & 5)  This Past Week: Tuesday:  The students did an activity called Iron Chef today. They worked in groups of 4 to create a presentation about 4 amendments in the Bill of Rights and then presented before leaving class. Check out some of the slides they were able to create here.  Wednesday:  We started to look at some of the responsibilities American citizens have today by discussing the process by which we elect our presidents. After playing a bit of a review game fo...

 Only two more weeks to go and the first quarter is over--this year is already flying by! This past week was a fun one at OJRMS as we had our spirit week to coincide with homecoming at the high school and finished up our Make a Difference Day collection. It was great to see how many kids participated in each of the spirit days!  This week I was able to show another video on Friday and I chose one that fit well with our themes of diversity and acceptance from the advisory meeting we had on Thursday.  For this week's video, I showed a short clip from the movie Dead Poets Society  about finding your own walk and not always conforming to others. The whole movie is certainly worth a watch if you've never seen it!  American History (Periods 1, 4 and 5) This Past Week: The students worked on completing the assignments for the #030-Three Branches Mastery Grid this past week. The students did turn in their ✅ #034-Three Branches Infographic as the culminating (and only gr...