Sunday, November 11, 2012

How I Got Kids to do Homework for Fun


Gamification of Social Studies aka How I Got Kids to do Homework for Fun

Game On: Building the US

Wikipedia defines “Gamification” as “the use of game mechanics and game design techniques in non-game contexts.” Apps like 4Square do this - you get points and earn badges and “mayorships” - and do this to compete against your friends. After attending a session at the 2012 ITEC conference on how one school (Bettendorf High School) “gamified” their professional development, I was intrigued. Could I pitch this to our administration for our own professional development? Maybe...

Then the first quarter ended. I wrote a blog about my daughter and her unbridled excitement about learning and trying new things without fear of making mistakes. So I applied it to my kids and I applied it to myself. Who cares if it doesn’t work out perfectly, I need to find a way to get kids excited about learning. Now. So over the weekend, before the start of quarter two (yes, I did this between Friday night and Monday morning), I redesigned my 8th grade social studies class into the game linked above (Game On: Building the US).

Here’s what I did:

Step 1: Identify all relevant content that I would normally teach during quarter 2. Fortunately I already had a sort of syllabus outlined - no need to reinvent the wheel, I just copied and pasted what I already had into a Pages document and then chunked it into 5 key topics/units.
*American Revolution
*Constitution
*Founding Fathers/Early Presidents
*Expansion of America
*South & Slavery

Step 2: Quickly teach myself enough about Google Sites to be able to put the design together.

Step 3: Organize the content so that students are exposed to the different topic areas throughout each level, building from level to level.

Step 4: Incorporate the game aspects
*Badges for special “missions”

*Point System

*Levels: My kids start at level 1 as “Noobs” and can work all the way up to level 10 to become “Dumbledore”   

*Leader board (I only post the top 5, and only in the classroom so that I don’t publicly point out that Johnny only has 1 mission done, while Susie has done 24). A certain level of competition motivates some students

*Prizes - I have included small prizes at a few of the levels - when they get to level 2 they get a sticker, at level 9 they get a homework pass (they’ve obviously already gone above and beyond on the homework since I only require up to level 4), etc. 

Step 5: Best Practices - Don’t worry, this wasn’t actually the last thing I considered, just the last one I’m typing
*Students are given a lot of choice over creation and demonstration of mastery

*The game lends itself to immediate extension activities for all types of learners, regardless of ability

*Students do MANY practice pieces (homework) before they work on the “assessment pieces” (the required assignments at the different levels)

*Assessments are based on the Core and the bigger picture- they are open ended and ask students to THINK, WRITE, and CREATE

*Students have rubrics for all summative assessments prior to even getting to any given level and have the opportunity to do them again to achieve a higher score - some of them (not all at this point) have more than one corresponding activity so students have choice in how they demonstrate mastery of the standard as well. 

*All types of media, learning, and assessment are used - videos, text, primary sources, lecture, games, infographics, debate, discussion, creating, communicating, and more

Keys to Success:
*We still do some (1-2/week) group activities, videos, assignments in order to make sure that everyone is moving along, getting certain pieces of information that I want them to have, and to allow me to maintain a little bit of control as a check point.

*Because I was still building, I took the parts where I was stuck (coming up with names, developing levels, badges, etc) and asked for their input! It gave the students some ownership over the project.

*Twitter: I publicly praise those who are doing great work, who level up, or who earn a badge - I recognize any of their successes, large or small in a public sphere.

*Trust: I have a group of students whom I quickly developed a strong relationship with. They went with me on this crazy journey because we trust each other. If you don’t have that, this may not be for you.

Successes:
*Kids going home over the weekend and working WAY beyond the suggested guidelines! I told them that they would be on track (I put all the required assignments in by level 4 so that all kids had the opportunity to work through the summative assessments before the end of the quarter) if they took 2 weeks per level. We started two weeks ago - I have kids who started level 2 on Friday and are ready for level 3 on Monday.

*Kids challenging themselves and setting goals! I have kids who are planning out how much they need to do by when to get to the level they want to achieve. Even though the minimum amount of work is to complete level 4, I have a kid whose goal is to  get to level 10 because he wants nothing more than to be “Dumbledore”

*The leader board! I had a kid go home one night and complete 5 assignments  beyond what he had done in class that day because he wanted to be on the leader board - it helped that up until that point no other boy had cracked the top 5, so the girls were dominating. :-)

Failures/Struggles:
*I don’t know if it’s a failure, but the kids who want a “traditional” classroom are the ones who are farther behind - there are a few who are good a different game: School. They want to get info, memorize, regurgitate, receive A. This isn’t really set up that way. I need to find a better way to motivate these couple students.

*My bad: I worked far enough ahead that the kids could get started (remember, I did this over the weekend), and then have continued building from there. They worked faster than I anticipated, so I had to play a little bit of catch up - can’t let that happen again!

*Because I am still held accountable by my district and parents for grades (obviously), I had to find a way to make this work within my traditional grade book (JMC). This is a constant struggle, and I’m still not sure I have found the best way to do this... Right now I just have about 50 assignments (and that’s only through part of level 3) and tried to explain to parents at conferences that their child is not responsible for all of them, and that many are optional. 




So there’s a brief(ish) introduction to my latest education experiment. So far, I’m really excited. Will I turn every class into a game? Probably not. I want to offer my students a wide variety of learning experiences throughout their learning careers with me. Will I keep it for next year? Unless something drastically changes in the coming weeks, we will be doing this again next year. 

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

BHP Investigation 2 Samples

Check out Investigation 2 of the Big History Project from these students!

Harli - http://www.babybooth1.blogspot.com
Lillian - http://www.nehbighistory.blogspot.com
Leah - http://www.leahbighistory.blogspot.com
Kyle - http://www.kylesbhp.blogspot.com
Nick - http://www.jeffersbighistory.blogspot.com
Austin - http://www.austinbighistory.blogspot.com

Monday, October 29, 2012

8th Grade Blogs

Cassie - zombies125.blogspot.com
David - mcwmrhm.blogspot.com
Maegan - maegannich23.blogspot.com
Luis - luis8thblog.blogspot.com
Taylor - taylorlo.blogspot.com
Zach - allthingsminecraftwithzach.blogspot.com
Shyann - knowingthezombies.blogspot.com
Kylee - kyleeisblogging.blogspot.com
Mason - modernwarfare2.blogspot.com
Hayley - 8thgradel.blogspot.com
Devyn - devynvk.blogspot.com
Nick - nickwallen99.blogspot.com
MaKayla - howtoatpinterest.blogspot.com
Kory - massmankory.blogspot.com
Hunter - hunter8thgrade.blogspot.com

Friday, October 26, 2012

EdTech Lessons from a 6-year-old

This is Rylee. Rylee is my 6-year-old. She is in first grade at Northeast Hamilton.



Poor Rylee is the definition of a teacher's kid. I love her dearly for the extra hours she spends sitting at school. Today was one of those days, because even though her friends got to go home at 1:30 for an early dismissal, she was destined to sit in my room for 2 1/2 extra hours while I had PD and worked on grading. Of course I try to leave her things to do, usually a movie on my computer, but today I wanted to take it with me. So I left her my iPad and said "You can play penguin racer...".

Did she play the penguin game? Probably. But her innate 6-year-old curiosity kicked in and she came across an app called ShowMe. The Waverly-Shell Rock middle school kids showed me this app when we visited last year. They use it to show mastery of skills (like work through math problems) and submit it to their teacher. You can add pictures, record your voice, and draw. You can probably do other things, I've never actually used it.

With no instruction or guidance today, Rylee created a ShowMe that she titled "Wind". She started by drawing a picture, was unhappy with it, erased it, and then narrated a wistful sounding story about a windmill by inserting a picture that one of my students had gotten from his brother to use for his own project. She then proceeded to upload it to the internet. When I came back from our meeting I had received an email that my video had been uploaded and was ready to share. Thinking someone had hacked my account, this is what I found:




At what age do we lose that fearlessness? Nobody told her what to do or how to do it, she figured it out  herself. Granted, she has had her own iPad for over a year now, but this is the first time she had seen the app. She was not thrilled that I wanted to show it to people, but I explained to her that I know grown-ups who don't know how to do this and that I was just very proud of the work she had done.

For the 3rd time this month I come back to Miss Frizzle from TV's The Magic School Bus: "Take chances, make mistakes, and GET MESSY!" How do we challenge students AND educators to do what Rylee did? Who cares if it doesn't work out perfectly? She made a mistake, erased it, and moved on. How do we foster this in others? When did we become so hung up on right and wrong (correct and incorrect) that we started missing out on the experience, the experiment, and the learning process? I have a lot more questions than answers, but at least I'm thinking about them. Are you?

#ITEC12 Interview

I love that they put this together to make it look like I knew what I was talking about!

Check out my interview at #itec12 for my thoughts on the role technology plays in my classroom and district.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Geography 2.0: A brand new experience


I decided to do a different take on Geography this year. Instead of going country by country through the list and giving students a very limited view of a few regions and countries, I opted to redesign the course as a whole. This year, after doing a quarter of 5 themes, earth's structure and landforms, water, climate, and vegetation, an increasing population, and resources and trade, next week we're digging into the different regions. 

Students will work at an individual pace on 5 projects for 6 different regions. Students will complete a Wii weather activity where we will get on the Wii each day to chart weather conditions in the region, a scrapbook (on Google sites linked to Google Maps), pack a suitcase, bring back souvenirs, and write blog posts (Blogger).  

I want the kids to be more involved with the material, study the areas they want to study, and address the standards from a unique perspective. As you will see outlined below, the kids will be doing a LOT of research and writing. A lot of writing.  We will also have a daily (usually) activity together based on a short reading, and a weekly mapping activity where kids will practice their map skills. 

For kids who need extra extension activities I have designed a "passport" program where they can earn stamps as they "travel" to extra countries - students receiving a certain number of stamps by the end of the year will receive a prize. I'm *hoping* to get a trip funded to go down to Veishea for the culture/food fair.

Below is a brief outline of what I've got planned. 

Wii: Ongoing Class activity
Chart weather
-What environmental factors exist that cause the weather to be that way?
-How does the physical environment affect life? Where people live?
-How do people adjust their surroundings to the weather conditions here?
-> Clothes, houses, transportation, water/heat/light?
-> What are the consequences of people changing the physical environment?



4
3
2
1
Chart
Accurately charted weather 12 of 15 days
Accurately charted weather 10 of 15 days
Accurately charted weather 8 of 15 days
Accurately charted weather 5 of 15 days
Written Weather Response
Thoughtfully answered all three writing prompts, using details and research to provide an accurate description, includes pictures and/or graphs to complete the explanation
Thoughtfully answered all three writing prompts, using details and research to provide an accurate description
Thoughtfully answered two writing prompts, using details and research to provide an accurate pictures
Answers are mostly complete but show no research or depth

Blog: Pretend you are a travel agent/reporter/blogger (Do 4 posts)
-What is similar to or different from our customs? What is most different from how you live at home? What is the  same? Why aren’t things the same? What would happen if we lived like they did?

-What famous site did you visit while in the region? What is its significance? Why is it famous? How does it represent the area or the culture? Give some facts about the site you visited

-A natural disaster occurs while you are visiting. What type is it? How are people impacted? How do their lives change? How will the area handle this new stress?

-What type of religion is prevalent in this region? Is there one? Many? What sort of practices do the people observe as part of the religion(s)? What major holidays (religious or national) do the people celebrate? How do they celebrate them? When?

-What major industries exist in the region? How do the people make money? What are their major imports and exports? Is there a large portion of the population in poverty or are the people generally well off? How will these things impact your visit?

-Describe the historical background of one of the countries in the region. How was the country established? Was there a fight for independence? What happened? What are some of the major historical events in the country? How do the people celebrate their history?

Scrapbook (Google Site?):
-Major physical landforms (3)
-Cultural highlights (3)
-Tourist activities (3)
-Major cities (5)
-Food pics/recipes (2)

GoogleMaps - pin your scrapbook pages to the countries you visit in each region

Suitcase: Beginning of each regional unit
-What will you pack to live in this region?
-What clothes will you pack?
-How will you interact with the people?

Souvenirs: End of each regional unit
-What will you bring back for your friends and family to show them how the people live and what you experienced?
-Create an interesting and/or funny “travel story” behind one of the items you brought back. 



4
3
2
1
Gifts
3 neat/creative replicas or pictures of items that you bring back for families or friends
3 replicas or pictures of items that you bring back for families or friends
2 creative replicas or pictures of items that you bring back for families or friends
1 replica or picture of item that you bring back for families or friends
Explanation
A detailed explanation of what each gift is, how it represents the region, and where you may have acquired it
An explanation of what each gift is, how it represents the region, or where you may have acquired it
A detailed explanation of two of the gifts, how it represents the region, and where you may have acquired it
A detailed explanation of what one gift is, how it represents the region, and where you may have acquired it
Story
An interesting 2-3 paragraph story about how/why you brought back one of the items that you did. It is realistic and representative of the region.
A 2-3 paragraph story about how/why you brought back one of the items that you did. 
An interesting 1 paragraph story about how/why you brought back one of the items that you did. It is realistic and representative of the region.
A 1 paragraph story about how/why you brought back one of the items that you did.


GeoSpy - Map/Location Quizzes

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Big History Project - Investigation 1

My students finished their first Big History investigation today. As a group we discussed the ultimate answer of "what advantages are there to studying things on different scales" and then discussed what view points were similar to and different from their own. Students shared their ideas and I recorded them on the board. I had the students create graphic organizers about their thoughts using the Idea Sketch app on their iPads. I have included their thoughts about scale and some examples of their Idea Sketch creations.


(Stars = points students made more than once)




 

Friday, September 28, 2012

Another MineCraft Project: Explorers - Columbus


I asked the students to create some representation of an explorer of their choosing: Poster, time line, PPT, etc. Three of my students opted to do Minecraft presentations. This is one of them - this is not the original presentation (which was much more informative), this is the retake because I decided I wanted a video, so enjoy!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Landform Polls

My 7th graders have been creating polls about landforms that they have been studying. Please take a few minutes to answer as many of these as possible - I'd love for all the kids to have some results!

Poll 1            Poll 9                Poll 17             Poll 25
Poll 2            Poll 10              Poll 18             Poll 26
Poll 3            Poll 11              Poll 19
Poll 4            Poll 12              Poll 20
Poll 5            Poll 13              Poll 21
Poll 6            Poll 14              Poll 22
Poll 7            Poll 15              Poll 23
Poll 8            Poll 16              Poll 24
     

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Five Themes Finished!

After weeks of hard work, planning, learning, traveling, and craziness, I am proud to present my students' Five Themes of Geography videos! There are four total, they will all be added by the end of the week.







Thursday, September 6, 2012

Our 5 Themes of Geography

Over the last week my 7th grade students have been working on a video project that I outlined last spring.

Students have spent time working on identifying and defining the 5 themes of geography, writing scripts, and now recording video of how the 5 themes fit into their lives in Blairsburg, IA. Yesterday I sent one group to main street to film, while I escorted another group all the way out to Old 20 from the school! For those of you unfamiliar with the area, we walked about 30 minutes (about 2 miles) to take 15 seconds of video.

At the beginning of the project the students were featured in an article on the front page of the local paper, the Daily Freeman Journal. The kids are using iPads, iPods, and phones to capture the video that they will edit using iMovie and Splice after we are finished. More to come!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Big History Origin Stories

As part of the Big History Project the students are learning about different "origin stories" or "creation stories" from cultures throughout history. I decided that the best way to learn about all 7 stories would be to jigsaw them. The students are using their iPads and the app "StoryKit" to create actual story books of their assigned origin story. On Friday the students will share their books with the class.

First, the app is great. It's nothing fancy, but it's really easy to use and doesn't have a steep learning curve, so the students were able to get right to work.

Second, the origin stories have been fascinating. The students are shocked at some of the stories - we had a discussion about being respectful to the beliefs of others since some of the stories are so "out there" to the students.

I have two girls who are creating a book about the Mayan origin story. One of the things they have to include is the age of the earth. We started looking through different websites together and learned that the Mayans do not ACTUALLY believe (as we interpreted it, anyway) that the end of the world is Dec. 21, 2012. So fear not! What we established from the research is this:

Mayans believe that the cycle of the universe can be split into 5 periods of 5,125.36 years. Dec. 21, 2012 is the end of the 4th cycle of the world. Therefore, we actually have another 5,125.36 years before people could really begin saying that Mayans are predicting the end of the world. What we are really approaching is the end of the 4th cycle. Cool, right? This is SUPER news!

I plan to have the students post their stories to their blogs after they are finished, so stay tuned to the blogs listed in my last post to see what they came up with!



Friday, August 31, 2012

NEH Big History Blogs

Follow the NEH Big History Project with the students:

Andy - http://www.andrewjpate.blogspot.com
Harli - http://www.babybooth1.blogspot.com
Lillian - http://www.nehbighistory.blogspot.com
Hunter - http://www.neh4bighistory.blogspot.com
Truman - http://www.trumanbhp.blogspot.com
Leah - http://www.leahbighistory.blogspot.com
Haley - http://www.haleybighistory.blogspot.com
Sierra - http://www.sierrabighistory.blogspot.com
Kyle - http://www.kylesbhp.blogspot.com
Nick - http://www.jeffersbighistory.blogspot.com
Bryce - http://www.bryce212.blogspot.com
Kyler - http://www.kylerbhp.blogspot.com
Austin - http://www.austinbighistory.blogspot.com

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

One month out...

We're only about one month out from the start of school. The pieces are finally coming together following a couple of sleepless nights! My goal this year is to not only have solid, meaningful content for my students, but to have an over-arching piece that ties it all together. This has ended up existing in many forms. Since it's 4:30am and I've been working (and tweeting, and Facebooking) for the last... 7 hours, I'm just going to go ahead and jump right into what each class looks like at this point.

Middle School Tech: As I mentioned, this has taken on a "Create - 6th grade, Collaborate - 7th grade, and Connect - 8th grade" feel. We'll focus on different programs and apps that hit the core of these elements.

6th Grade Civics: This one is still a work in progress...

7th Grade Geography: This is my masterpiece for the summer. The one I am most proud of. It is everything I wanted it to be and more. Starting with a quarter of "geography basics" we'll use geography, science, and history sites to really analyze what geography is - physical and human. Next comes 2 quarters of digging into different regions. The students will work in 3 week periods on scrapbooks, passports, blogs, souvenirs, packing "suitcases", the Wii, etc. to really dig into what each of these regions has to offer. The final unit is geography + history: Archaeology and all it has to offer!

8th Grade US History: In addition to getting more in depth than last year by cutting out some of the "extras", I have incorporated an ongoing blogging project that focuses on not repeating history. In fact, you can follow it at http://nehrepeatinghistory.blogspot.com - later this fall, of course. Students will apply historical lessons to current events, giving us a chance to cover both!

9th Grade US History: Again, a work in progress...

10th Grade World History: I mentioned before that this will be Big History - more on this to come as I keep working on putting the pieces together, but follow #bighistory and/or #nehbighistory for more on this! Conference call at 1pm today will leave me with more info. :)

12th Grade Government: Worked with TJ Schaefer from South Hamilton and Kayla Gaskill (@kaylagaskill) from Manson Northwest Webster a few weeks ago. We outlined our government courses together to follow the Constitution instead of a textbook. Follow that adventure at #NESMGov. We're hoping to continue to collaborate throughout the year!

12th Grade Government: I anticipate Econ looking much the same, I was pretty happy with it last year. I'm hoping to shorten the financial skills unit, and do some adjusting to our reading, but I plan to stick with teaching Friedman's book.

My first two years I pushed hard, making a splash with new technologies. Last year, not wanting to be all show and no substance, I dropped many of the flashy tech pieces for rigorous content. Now, as I approach year 4, I am ready to put the pieces together. I hope you will see well-balanced, rigorous, 21st century relevant courses from me! Stay tuned...

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Looking ahead...

So many exciting things will be happening at NEH next year my head has been swimming.

First, we will be a PBIS school next year! Suggestions for apps are appreciated!

I will tentatively be teaching 6-8th Social Studies, US History, World History, and Government/Econ, as well as a middle school (12 weeks of each grade) tech exploratory.

We will also be going 1:1 with iPads for grades 8-12 - the kids and teachers are very excited! I look forward to offering new opportunities for NEH students with these great devices! A few of us are taking an iPad workshop this summer to get ready!

I took a page from the fabulous Shannon Miller (@shannonmmiller) and decided that the themes for the tech exploratory will be Create, Connect, and Collaborate - one for each grade level. By the end of middle school they will have worked through all 3. What that looks like has yet to be determined. I'll also be opening each class (the first year, then in 6th grade from there on out) a digital citizenship blended learning module from the #IACoPi!

World History, as I've mentioned, will be participating in the Big History Project - this is such an amazing, exciting opportunity for the kids and the students. I have a lot to learn still, but with the University of Michigan running assessments and the amazing group of teachers that have come together to work on this project I have no doubt that it will be a phenomenal course for all of us. I look forward to working on this initiative with other #IACoPi friends!

7th grade geography is a course that I'm really excited about. I'd like to move this one to SBG too, but have yet to discuss that with our administration (which will also be changing for next year). I'm looking at running a large portion of the course as a series of blended learning/self-paced centers that incorporate writing, researching, technology, and creating at every level. This isn't your grandparents' geography class!

I also have plans to get together with 2 other #IACoPi teachers this summer to work out a blended learning style governent course! I've already made some changes to my class with the regional work, but I'm hoping to bring next year's seniors a really top notch class!

Finally, I'm looking at working with the students to create e-portfolios. I'd like this to be cross-disciplinary, but at the very least will be completed for my courses. I don't know what this looks like exactly yet, but it's an idea I've been toying with. What better way to show that all our students are meeting their standards/benchmarks than having them showcase a cumulative file of their best work over the course of their high school career? Maybe it could be a senior graduation tie-in.... Or something. This is one of those big ideas that needs staff and student buy-in that I have just started tossing around in my head.

We've reached the end

The last days of school have been crazy and wonderful! I just wanted to outline my courses with some end of the year thoughts!

8th grade Social Studies ended pretty calmly. This is one class that I will be revamping over the summer.

Our Bullying PSA turned out really great, I thought, in Street Law




We got through 3 more chapters of Friedman in Econ before the end of the year and for next year I hope to outline it better so that we can accomplish more. I thought the book was pretty meaningful in terms of conversations about our modern society and I love hearing the kids ideas!

The World History kids were troopers as we worked through the ups and downs of my attempt at SBG.  Next year, as we move forward with the Big History Project as a large part of our World History curriculum this will again take some work over the summer. Fortunately it will be fully supported by BGC3 and their fabulous staff!

The Sports History newscast was funny, I wish we'd had more time for editing!

The US History kids' newscast is excellent. Some were more dynamic personalities than others, but all of the kids worked really hard. Their video is uploading to YouTube as we speak (35 minutes!) and I'm hoping to have it available to share later today.

The 6th graders are ending the year with some mapping skills in terms of US geography. They've been working in self-paced centers, and that's something that I'm hoping to continue next year for them in 7th grade social studies. Here are the ideas that I've put together so far! I am BEYOND excited about this class for next year! I've also issued an open call for video collaborators on a project I want to begin the year with for 7th grade geography.




Sunday, April 29, 2012

The end is near...

The end of the year is quickly approaching and that can sometimes mean that kids are ready to be outside, not sitting at a desk (especially for the seniors!). So I'm doing everything in my power to get them out of their seats and moving around, working with other people, and trying new things.

I'm on a bit of a kick with iMovie now since putting together the Minecraft piece with my World History kids. The upcoming features will include: a PSA about cyber crime from my Street Law class, a "Dateline" special about 2011 Sports Scandals from my Sports History class, and the 10:00 news(ish) covering the Obama presidency in my US History class.

I know it's a little repetitive, but none of the kids repeat, so I'm excited to introduce them to the new program and give them an opportunity to try something we don't do much (that I'm aware of) at NEH - video work/editing. The US History kids are excited to try something that they have decided is a little like WCTV (which they will have an opportunity to participate in next year).

I'm excited to have the kids excited about working together to fit the pieces together. In addition to having a research piece to put together, which they will write, edit, and rehearse, they each also have some sort of production role. We're hitting a lot of the universal constructs, and as we close out the year I'm really looking forward to having something to keep them moving forward!

Friday, April 27, 2012

Minecraft in the Classroom



Here it is! Our first attempt at a Minecraft project. I was blown away by the amount of work that these kids put into this project. Before school, after school, during study hall, during class, on the weekends, getting a pass out of another class (when they could) - all because they were excited about this project. They worked together on the speech, recording, learning new ways of screencasting, taught others their new tricks, brought new ideas to other classroom teachers, and took more pride than I have ever seen in any other project. I'm excited to share with you, their work over how technology and people change the land and environment and the lasting impact of those changes on people and geography. Kevin, Gunther, Kaleigh, Skylar, and Michael - I am so beyond proud of how hard you all worked on this. I hope it is the beginning of many more amazing efforts.

The Task:
Topic/Theme: Agricultural Revolutions (They chose "Chinese Agricultural Revolution)

With your group you will prepare a presentation, with visual aides, addressing the
following:
1. How did humans change the land?
2. How did this change improve their life?
3. What affect has this change in environment had on humans, animals, etc?
4. What new “technologies” were introduced at this time?
5. How did (or how might) the new developments change society over time?

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

21st Century Learning for 21st Century Jobs

My Econ students have been reading Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat 3.0. Last week we read the chapter about what skills would be needed for the new "middle jobs". This week we started reading chapter 7, which talks about how we learn and prepare in terms of education for those jobs. I draw a box on the board and called it our "school" and asked students to fill it with "classes" that would help prepare them for the 21st century jobs that we had previously discussed. Here is what they came up with:

Defining the Modern Presidency

I asked my students to define the modern presidency in a Wiki discussion post. Below you'll see the prompt and the answers I've gotten so far. I thought some of them were pretty insightful and wanted to share.

prallekeehn Apr 13, 2012 1:53 pm
How would you describe the modern presidency? Who do you think will leave the greatest legacy from the modern era? With the new wave of media will we ever have another legend like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, etc? Why do we still remember those greats? Why do we consider them great? Due Monday!
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leahmeyer1996re: Modern Presidency
lm Sunday, 5:20 pm
modern presidency is now more focused on the economy and ways to reduce the debt. i think that Obama will leave the greatest legacy because he was the first African American president. i don't think that we will ever have another great like George Washington etc. we still remeber those greats because they made big changes to our country and our culture. we consider them great because they followed through on issues even when public support wasn't completely with them
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Carlsontr-15re: Modern Presidency
TC-15 Today 11:09 am
Modern Presidency is now focused on getting publicity and not fixing our nations issues. A woman president would leave the greatest impression on the U.S. No we wont because the media tries to end great presidents. They are the greats because they were the beginning presidents so there was more to get done. The are great because they got the most done in there presidencies.
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brandonb14re: Modern Presidency
BToday 11:12 am
I think that modern presidents are corrupt and only care for media. Obama, I think, will have the greatest legacy, but only for being the first black president. I think that the only way we will have another great president would be to kick them out of the media and force them to actually do something for America. We remember the greats for doing something extraordinary. Washington was the first president and a war veteran. Lincoln was the president who ended slavery.
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NicholasJeffersTHAD
NJ Today 11:18 am
The modern presidency is now rich people that are able to have advertizing and lie to people about what they are going to do when they are president. I think president Bush will leave the greatest legacy because he was president during 911 and was president when the Iraq and Afghanistan war started. No, i don't think we will ever have another legend like George Washington and the other presidents because they were war heros and people that ended major issues like slavery and a bad economy. We remember those presidents because they were war heros and people that ended major issues like slavory and a bad ecomomy. We consider them great because they started great things and did great things that helped our nation.
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kylepruismannre: Modern Presidency
kp Today 11:19 am
I would describe the modern presidency as a more popularity race than a actually on issues which it should be because then we could have a president that actually knows what he is doing. I believe that the greatest legacy left from our modern presidency is that we elected a black man as president for the first time in history. no we will never have another great as long as the media keeps interfering because they can tarnish the presidents reputation which makes the people like them less. we still remember those greats because they did not have the media to tell the people about stuff they were doing wrong which allowed the people to see them as great presidents. we consider them great because they did do some great things but we never saw the do the bad things so presidents now cant be seen as great as them because of the reputation given to them by media. so we see them as great because we didn't see the bad. they still did great things that helped our nation which is why we see them as great.
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BryceVanlangenre: Modern Presidency
Bv Today 12:03 pm
I would describe modern presidencies as trying to get the popular vote of the people and making tax cuts and creating more jobs for the united states people. I think that a woman president would also be our most memorable modern era presidency. I don't think we will because the media ruins a persons reputation by saying lies or false commericals to vote for the other president. We still remeber these greats because they helped with civil rights like lincholin abolished salvory and led the union troops to a victory. We consider them great because they were the original founding fathers and they were great leaders and role models and some fought in a war some didn't but the presidents back then were great.
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HaleyNerlandre: Modern Presidency
HN Today 12:10 pm
I would describe modern presidency is more about the economy and trying to get out of debt. I think that Obama will have the greatest legacy because he is the first African American president. If the media keeps interfering with all the presidential stuff we will never have another legend like George Washington and the others. We remember them because they fought in wars, and helped with major issues, like slavery and the economy. We concider them great because they helped build our nation and they got things started.
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SierraThomasre: Modern Presidency
ST Today 12:15 pm
I would describe modern presidency as its now more focused on the economy. I think president Bush will leave the greatest legacy from the modern era. No we wont have another great one like George Washington etc is what i think. Yes we still remember those great people because they made big changes to our country and our lifes. We also consider them great because they started great things and did great things that helped our nation out a lot.
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lillian9re: Modern Presidency
LToday 12:18 pm
The modern Presidency is the government trying to get involved in everyone’s business and take everything in their own hands with the Economy. They are also trying to bend the laws and make it so that the government gets more money so that they can get out of debt. I think President George W Bush will leave the best legacy because he was involved in making big choices with 911 and that we should go into war with Iraq. Obama just came in and said that he wants to change it and made us look like we were running away form the problem. We will never have a legend like Washington and FDR because the media had come in and taken all the bad that is going on in the war back home to the American People and make them lose faith in the President and his choices. We remember those greats because they are the ones that made our country and put us on the correct track and know we are starting to mess that up and lose what was the American Idea back when we were created. We consider them great because they did so much for us to be what we are.
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jakeratzke3re: Modern Presidency
jToday 12:26 pm
The modern president is more focused on their publicity because the more they have the more they appear on tv, magazines, etc. The more the American people see them doing stuff like normal Americans. The way i put it the media controls the government today. I say this because when something gets put out on the internet the president has to come up with the reason why they did that and try to fix it. To be honest I wouldn't consider Obama great because what has he done with our economy? Nothing at all because he has tried to fix but when he tries something the worse he makes the problem. Why do we consider president of our past great? We consider them great because they have actually done something that has changed American history.
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smith3austinre: Modern Presidency
as 5 minutes ago
there are new laws and rules for the president, but other then that it's basiclly the same to the past. I think Reagan haqd the most impact in the modern lagcy because he brought us out of debt and was responisble for the soviet union collapse. No because the media has more power then it did before and will portray presidents and their plans worse then they seem usually. Also you have groups that split up the political and social groups and those groups will always oppose each other. We still remeber them because we compare how they did something to what a good president should do. We also see their names because they are great and many people dislike the current president. We consider them great for what they did as president and because they were very popular.