Wednesday

Today we will finish our work on the First Peoples of Canada (hopefully.) Students will share their research and will take notes on other's research. We will have an open note quiz on Friday. Also there is a current event due Friday.

Here is the note sheet:
First Peoples

Happy Constitution day!

Today is national Constitution Day!

Today we will get a brief overview of the Constitution after our quiz on Canada.

Can you find Nunavut on a map? Our 7th graders can.

A current events assignment is due today.

Parents

Here is a form that I sent home for you to read and sign. It is due on Friday.

Parent Form

Monday's Class

We did three things in Monday's class:

1. We went over the syllabus. If you want to see a copy it is pasted below. It lets the students know my expectations for the year.

2. I modeled a current event assignment for them and assigned a current event assignment due on Friday.

3. We began to look at the political geography of Canada.

Attachments:
Map of Canada

Syllabus

Current Events

Your first current event assignment is due this Friday--September 17. Remember it has to be about the elections in Michigan. A good place to find stories about this is mlive.com under politics or just click on a story listed on my blog. Please take your time and have an acurate summary filled out.

Here is a current events sheet in case you lost yours:

Current Event Template

Extra Credit

There has been much talk about whether we should even rebuild the city of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina, today I want you to explore that question. This week we talked about why cities are where they are and New Orleans is a perfect example of this. For extra credit (10 points.) I want you to answer these three questions in complete sentences. I would assume you will need to do a little research.

1. Explain this statement: "New Orleans has a perfect situation and a horrible site."

2. In early American history why was New Orleans so important?

3. What is another American city that exsists for the same reason as New Orleans? (You will need to know why New Orleans exsisits.

Monday February 8

Today we played a little game to see how cities grow. All the students had 5 trading cards and they needed to get one of each type of card. They all started in outlying parts of the room but by the end they were all in the big city trying to get their business deal done.

It really shows real life--big cities just don't happen randomly. They are always the effect of their location, resources, industries or a combo of the three.

No homework today.

Wednesday February 3

Today we did a mapping lab on the Middle East. We looked into things like land use, population, climate and natural resources. If you missed it, you can't really redo it. It is an in class activity. We also took a quiz on the Middle East.

Homework: Current Event due Friday

Monday February 1

Today we looked at Islam and how it shapes many countries in the Middle East. In order to understand the way the Middle East works you must understand Islam. I hop I was able to help them understand that not all Muslims are violent (in fact very few are.)

Homework: Current Event Due Friday and a Quiz on Wednesday

Wednesday January 27

Today we will be comparing the abundance of oil in the Middle East to the scarcity of water. As a country what would you rather have a ton of oil or a ton of water? The lack of water is quite amazing and is probably most easily seen in the disapperance of the Aral Sea. Here is a picture.

















Objective: I can contrast the abundance of oil in the Middle East to the lack of water and be able to tell the impact of each

Homework: Current event about Middle East due Friday

Here are the notes we took today:

Oil and Water Notes

Friday January 15

As a Social Studies teach I feel I would be remiss if I did not spend my current event day on Haiti, so that is what we did today. I believe as humans it is important to stay connected with the struggles of others and right now there really are no bigger struggles. I hope that you extend this at home and talk to your students about this tragedy.

My heart breaks continuously for the people of Haiti and I hope some of that passion was seen be the students today and maybe passed on.

No homework--JUST STUDY FOR YOU MIDTERM!

Wednesday January13

Midterm Exam review! This is how we spent the majority of the class today. The 7th graders social studies midterm will be on Wednesday January 20. The students should all have a concise review sheet with correct answers on it. This paper is the key to a good grade. Please use it.

Homework:Some students need to finish their Iran information sheet it is due Friday

There is no current event due this week!

Here is the midterm review sheet:
Review Sheet

Monday January 11

Sorry about the lateness of this post. I was ill on Monday and did not get to it. On Monday the students began learining about the vast (that depends on who you ask) resources of oil in the Middle East.

Homework: Finish Oil Packet

Midterm exam on Wednesday January 13.

Quiz Friday January 8

There will be a quiz on the major political features of the Middle East. This will be primarily a map quiz. They will also need to know a couple major current events.

Wednesday Jan 6

***Change---We did not get to the Iran research sheet today so it is not homeowork---so, study for you quiz instead***

Today we will begin to look at the geography of the Middle East. We will start with the main political points (countries) and we will spend a little time researching the physical geography and the people who live there.

Objective: I can label the major countries of the Middle East and place the locations of some major current events with the countries the are happening in.

Homework: Finish the Iran research sheet and finish the basic geography of the middle east sheet

Attachments:

Country Info Sheet

Iran info sheet

Southwest Asia Info Sheet

Monday! Monday! Welcome Back.

Welcome back after the long Christmas Break.

Since this is my first lesson post I will explain a little of what follows. First I will start with the objective of the day. This is what I hope the students will learn on that day. After that I might have some general information and then I will end the post each day with homework that was assigned. Any handouts will be attached on the bottom of the post.

Objective: I can explain some of the major current events occurring in the Middle East and I can relate them to major themes of the area.

Info: We looked at events occurring in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Israel, Pakistan and Yemen. The class work today can not be made up. Sorry.

Homework: Return the signed parent slip by Wednesday and a Middle East Current Event due Friday.

Parent Signature Sheet

Changes and a Parent Signature

Remember that you need to return the sheet of mid year changes to me by Wednesday, January 6. This sheet needs to be signed by you and your parents. If you have lost the sheet it is right here.

A Couple of Changes Sheet

Middle East Countries

For the next month or so we will be studying the Middle East. Each class period we will spend about 20 minutes and we will look at a country. Each time we will fill out a sheet about that country. Sometimes we will get done in class sometimes it will be homework. At the end you will hand in a six page packet for the six countries we will look at worth 60 points(10 points a page.) If you miss a day or lose one the file is located right here (all the pages are the same you just fill in info about that country. These are the six countries:
-Iran
-Iraq
-Israel
-Pakistan
-Saudi Arabia
-Pakistan
-Afganistan

Document:

Country template