May 9

We're currently on different schedules due ot Star testing. Today I saw periods 3 and 4 for 78 minutes. We began discussing the Crusades, and students watched about 12 minutes from the History Channel's "Crescent and the Cross" series. Students then had time to complete and hand in their animated maps which illustrate the spread of the black plague from Asia to Europe and then northwards across Europe.

May 7, 2013

I'd stopped adding blog posts because it didn't look like anyone was reading them. Well, I was wrong. I'll make an effort to post.

Here are the assignments that were in the last packet that was graded (Feudal Europe 1):

1. Dark Ages I
2. Europe Physical Map
3. Dark Ages II
4. Reading Guide, Chapter 9 pp. 291-293
5. Postcard from Europe directions day II
6. Reading Guide, pp. 293-297
7. Geography Notes
8. The Manor
9. Excalibur
10. Reading Guide, pp. 300-302
11. What is Feudalism? fill-ins
12. Digital Medieval Manor instructions

April 15-19

This week we began our unit on the Middle Ages in Europe.

Monday: We watched a segment of the History Channel's "The Dark Ages" about the fall of Rome. Students then worked on a map of European geographic features.

Tuesday: We continued "The Dark Ages." Students also worked on a reading guide (pp. 291-293).

Wednesday: Students were assigned a geographic feature from Monday's map. They began creating a "greetings from ____________________" postcard combining a picture of themselves and an existing image of the geographic feature they were assigned.

Thursday: Students continued the postcard assignment. They will add the postcard to a two slide Powerpoint presentation that they create. The second slide will contain information about the geographic feature.

Friday: Students finished and handed in the two-slide powerpoint. They were also assigned a reading guide covering pp. 293-297. Both reading guides will be checked for completion on Monday.

Mar. 19, 20 and 21

March 19: Students had more time on their animated maps.

March 20: We completed a vocabulary word study on the word "Proximity." Students then read about, and aswered questions about Prince Shotoku of Japan.

March 21: Students began a 2-day project today. They will create a mock feature film poster for a fictional film about Prince Shotoku using Photoshop. Packets are due on Monday, here is a list of what's in them so far:

1. Japan Geography Notes
2. Creation Myth of Japan
3. Old School Japan Map
4. Animated Map Instructions I
5. Animated Map Instructions II
6. Shotoku Questions/Proximity
7. Creation Myth 'Toon
8. Reading Guide 251-253

March 15 and 18

Students have continued to work on their animated maps of the 16 features we discussed in class.

March 8 -14

March 8: Unit test on China.

Monday, March 11: Began the unit on Japan. Students took fill-in notes about 16 important features of the islands of Japan. Students also read/answered questions about the creation myth of Japan.
Tuesday, March 12: Students created a draft map of the 16 features we discussed on Monday. Students also finished reading about the creation myth of Japan.
Wednesday, March 13: Students worked on creating the animated map of Japanese features using Photoshop.
Thursday, March 14: Students worked on creating the animated map of Japanese features using Photoshop.

March 7

Today we reviewed two of the short answer questions that will appear on the test tomorrow.