Class Recap 10/24, 10/25

Yesterday in class was a combination of tedious and informative. As we walked in, we were handed a worksheet on which we were told to take notes because there might be a question on the test about whatever we were going to do. Soon, I found out we were going to look at artists of the Revolution and their paintings. We watched a slide show with an accompanying narration for the entire class. It was beneficial, but it was also a very very long class period.
Today was a more laidback day. We walked in first thing, sat down and wrote word for word the section of the Declaration of Independence we were told to memorize. As soon as we were done, we were given time to study while Mr. Boyle graded what we had written down. At the end of class, we recieved our grades. I got a 95. Today was a relaxing day in class.

Class Recap 10/17, 10/18

Yesterday in class, we focused entirely on the Declaration of Independence. We were divided into two large groups and we shared with each other what we had analyzed the day before. Each partnership was assigned a small section of the Declaration, and we took notes on it, which we shared with the rest of the class yesterday. After our sharing of information with the group, we held a class discussion on the similarities and difference between Brutus and the conspirators, and the Continental Congress. We also talked about what our word meant, and how important a promise is and whether or not we should trust promises. It was an interesting discussion.
Today in class, Mr. Boyle was not here, and in his place was Ms. Buswell. She handed us a document when we came in called "The Crisis No. 1" by Thomas Paine. We were told to read it and then write an essay on whether or not 2012 was times that "try men's souls" like the American Revolution was. It would have been a rather simple exercice if Ms. Buswell would have stopped talking about it and let us write. Reading the document took a lot of time in itself, so we had even less time to write, which was extremely frustrating.

Who Fired the First Shot?

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kBxqDSmgJ_11A1rFxPBMJMUTfl4y_8XgSCLr625RgNQ/edit

American Revolution Timeline, 10/25

Civic Values in the Nation

Class Recap 10/17, 10/18

Yesterday in class, we learned more about the Declaration. We split into two groups, each partnership divided one into one group, one into another. In the groups, we shared the summary of each section that we had to read and shorten. Things like that have a good side and a bad side. Ont he one hand, it saves a pretty good amount of time by eliminating the necessity of reading the entire Declaration of Independence, or any other document that we do the same thing with, and it also enforces discussion and interaction with peers. On the other hand, it makes it so that you never really read the entire document, which could have significance. If you only read a small part of the document, how can you know that the people who read the other parts put down an accurate summary? It might be better to summarize the entire document in some cases. Towards the end of class, Mr. Boyle put out a question- What is your word worth? What is a promise worth these days? Can you trust someone to keep a promise? We made connections to Julius Caesar. Was Brutus right to trust everyone involved in the conspiracy with just their word, or was it better for the writers of the Declaration to make everyone who agreed with the cause to sign the page in their hand?  It was an interesting discussion.
Today, Mr. Boyle was absent. In his place was an essay assignment to go along with Thomas Paine's "These are times that try men's souls" paper. It was pretty cool to read, but I did not have very much time to write a full essay. It was rather stressful because by the time the substitute finished talking and because she made us read the entire, dense document, I was only left with about 25 minutes to write an entire essay. I did not finish, but I came pretty close. I hope that I have some time to finish it in another class period.

Class Recap 10/15, 10/16

Yesterday was dedicated to our lovely guests from the American Revolution. I actually really enjoyed it! I liked learning about significant people that way. It was interesting to see how people interpreted the assignment, and how they problem-solved. Some people preferred paint, while others used magic marker or colored pencil. Each guest was so unique. I loved seeing the personality of each project reflecting onto the maker of the guest. Some presentations were really good and informative. Yesterday was a great class.

Today, we picked apart the Declaration of Independence. I don't think that it was the best way to go about it, becuase we only looked at one tiny part of the Declaration and we didn't share the information to the other kids in class. It was hard because I don't know any other part of the Declaration except for the conclusion,which does not do very much for me. I hope that we go more in depth with it. Then, we made a twitter post which does not seem to be very beneficial to us, and we spent a lot of time on that instead of sharing information on the rest of the Declaration.  twitter

Class Recap 10/11, 10/12

On Thursday in class, we learned all about the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and also the Battle of Bunker Hill. We watched the animated map that told the story of what happened. It was a dry class, but educational. It was neat to see the actual movement of the groups involved and how they interacted with each other and to see in motion what went down in Lexington and Concord and on Bunker Hill. On Friday, we were handed a document and told to get into groups with the same document. There were 3 documents, and each supported a different view of the Americans and how they wanted to deak with the British. I got the document written by the Second Congregational Congress. It was mainly about trying to keep the peace. Then, we were put into new groups and were assigned to discuss, compare and contrast. I liked seeing the different views of each party in America, because the immediate reaction of the average person is that all of the Americans wanted independence from Britain, but that was not necessarily the case. The past few days in class were beneficial to our education.

Revolutionary Replica VoiceThread Project

Class Recap, 10/5, 10/9

On Friday in class, we learned about Paul Revere and his night ride from Lexington to Concord. We read the famous poem and then we talked about the actual events of the ride. It was, in reality, much different than the poem depicted. That was pretty shocking because I kind of felt like we have all been lied to. I guess that that is just how poetry and creative writing works, though. Comparing the poem and the actual events was interesting because it just goes to show how easy we are to believe things, and also how easy it is to alter story. Going through the differences made me start to think about what is actually true with a lot of things in history and even today. How do we know what is the truth and what is mere fiction?

Today in class, we focused on the brain and points of view combined with memory and the way that the brain completes our thoughts. We listened to a lecture on ted.com about a man convicted during a drive-by shooting. He was convicted based entirely off of eye witnesses, not hard evidence. Not even a car was identified in the investigation. It was strange because the lecturer was talking all about how the brain completes thoughts for us, and combines memories to make everything make more sense to us. This applies to the "shot heard round the world." Today, it is easy to find tons of documents recounting the events of that April night, and they all contradict each other. This makes it almost impossible to find the truth. If all the American colonists are insisting that a British soldier fired the first shot while at the same time every British soldier takes it to their graves that the Americans were the ones that started it, how are we supposed to know the truth? I think that it's cool that today, we get to take in all of the information we are given and are able to form our own opinions and versions of what happened in history, even if it might not necessarily be true.

Class Recap, 10/3, 10/4

For the last few days in class, we focused on edCafe. Yesterday, we ventured to the computer lab where we sat with our edCafe groups and did our best to compile a presentation on google. The concept was really cool, the power point was shared with every person in our group and we were all able to work on it together. The purpose of the presentation was to summarize each topic. Our topic were the Intolerable Acts.  The topic was confusing and the article made it hard to piece the information together as one event, so I had a hard time that night trying to come up with a discussion I wanted to lead the next day at edCafe. EdCafe is always really fun for me. I love talking to people with different views, and I also like to try and change sides and argue against my original point, and edCafe is a great place to do that. I am always a little disappointed when the 8 minutes are up, because usually we are deeply engaged in a certain topic. EdCafe always gets my mind working, and that's what I like about it.

Presentation edCafe, 10/3

Slide Show Intolerable Acts

Class Recap 10/1, 10/2

Yesterday in class, our main discussion featured the original colonies and what they were good for. The colonies were split into three different regions, and each region was known for a different reason. New England was known specifically for being established for religious freedom. It is strange that the reason America was established in the very first place was to get away from the controlling religion of Great Britain. From that sole reason, a world-dominant nation was born. The other regions were developed for slavery and     for land of the friends of the king. It was interesting to think about the different ways that the regions were known as, and how they are distinguished by today. Today, we learned about the story of George Washington and what he did for our country and why he is important to our country. It was cool to go into depth with his life and go beyond the basics. At the end of class, we were assigned a topic for edCafe. All in all, the past two days were overall successful.