Power may be out, but costumes are always in...

So missing school tomorrow has two ramifications.
1) Anyone who wants to come in costume on Tuesday, extra credit is still available! (What your friends and family think of you, well, that's another issue...)
2) Second period, you get to miss out on the DBQ this quarter.  We will write it the next time the long block comes around on the schedule.  Fourth Period, you lucky students you, you still get the DBQ on Wednesday.
Of course, if school is still off on Tuesday, well...stay tuned for other updates!

Oh, and as far as projects go, they are do in the same pattern as if tomorrow were Monday. So just advance one day in the week for all due dates.

All Hallows Eve

Here's the deal:
Come in to class on Monday with a costume and get points on the last test.

• Come to class in a lame "costume" ("uh, this is a Red Sox hat...I'm here as Pedroia") get 3 points.

• Come to class in a costume of any type (be a zombie, or one of the pumpkins you stuff with leaves, witch, ghost, etc.) and get 5 points.

• Come to class in a costume as a person of significance to the history of the world (from any time period, any location on the globe) and get 7 points.

I reserve the right to declare a costume "lame" and dock points.
Points will be added to the total points, not the percentage.
You should not be spending money on the costume! Be creative, not consumer-ish!
You must bring your scored test answer sheet with you to class on Monday for me to add points to!

The Silk Road project is due for periods 2 and 4 at the start of class. So you will be handing in your completed maps and electronically passing in your paper (1 paper, regardless of whether you were a pair or a singleton.) Period 1, you will have 20 minutes of class on Monday to work on your map to make up for the time lost today. Period 1's paper will be handed in electronically by the end of the school day on Monday. Period 1's map will be due at the start of class on Tuesday.

Period 2 will write their DBQ on Monday. Period 4 will write their DBQ on Wednesday.

There will be a quiz on Chapter 12 on Thursday.

Parent Sign up form for Conferences November 10

If your folks want to come in to talk with me during the day on Thursday November 10, please use this link to sign up for an appointment from 7:30-2:30. You are welcome to come with your folks if you would like to come too! November 10th will be a better time for a longer conversation, since Thursday night, November 17 from 6:30-8 will be a first-come, first-served, quick meeting time.

Homework for October 24 and Parent Conferences

For tonight, you should read pages 300-310 in the textbook. You will have most of the period tomorrow to work on your maps, and you will have half of the period on Thursday to do the same. Period 1 will write their DBQ on Friday in class, and then have map time (not nap time, map time!); the rest of you will have half the period again to work on the maps. Period 2 will write their DBQ on Monday, and Period 4 will have their DBQ on Wednesday.

Please pass along to your parents that I will have a google document set up in the next blog entry for them to sign up for a time to come in for a conference on November 10th, that's the full day for meetings. If they would like to come in the evening on November 17th, that will be first-come, first-served drop in appointments more suitable for a quick check in than for a lengthy conversation, and no appointments will be honored that night.

Don't forget that Posterous posts are due by 11:59 tomorrow night!

Homework for October 24--Silk Road

For tonight, read pages 294-300, about the transmission of disease and religion on the Silk Road.  In case you missed the email, the project is linked here.  The rubric for the project is linked here.

Homework for October 21

1) recover from the test
2) read pages 287-294, start getting in a Silk Road state of mind. Notes are recommended, not required.
3) Posterous posts are due (for the Classical Age) by 11:59pm on Wednesday, October 26

No homework, study for the test!

If you like, the slides from today's flyswatter game are linked up here...and remember, the two things that determine success on tests are:

A) a good night's sleep, and
B) Breakfast!

Homework for October 19

1) Finish watching the video From Jesus to Christ. You want to watch Chapter 6: Apostle Paul and his Message. Answer the questions that remain about Paul of Tarsus. I will not be collecting your answers; they are just for your knowledge.
2) Read the selection from the Sermon on the Mount found on page 281. The italicized question at the bottom is your assignment. Post your answers on your blog. Remember 2 things: 1-this is a good review for the test! 2- you don't need to use paragraphs! This assignment lends itself nicely to venn diagrams or charts. Feel free to use those if that is better/easier.
3) Review for the test! A good source of help is the textbook's website, linked here. You can take practice tests, play some games, look over outlines, and generally help yourself out. Remember, if you do what you've always done to study, you'll get what you've always gotten for grades. Be active, write, talk, move and think while you review. You have 70 Multiple Choice questions from chapters 7-11. That's a lot of information, so don't wait until the last minute to study. We will review tomorrow in class.

Homework for October 18

For homework tonight, read pages 277-283. Your Philosopher dialogs are due tomorrow, but it looks like we won't be performing them due to a lack of time. Your test will be on Friday and covers chapters 7-11, 70 multiple choice questions...fun fun fun!

Homework for October 17

For tonight, read pages 267-277. Compose a blog post in which you answer the question: Why do empires form? You must use at least one example from Rome, China and India (each) as support for your answers.
You will have a test on Friday covering chapters 7-11 (inclusive). It will consist of 70 multiple choice questions. I recommend beginning your review now. We will review in class on Thursday as well.
During the long period this week, you will be composing a practice DBQ, and will be writing the real thing during the next long period. If you did not finish today's in class twitter activity, you must do so tonight. (except 1st period will have 10 minutes to finish up in class tomorrow.)

Homework for October 14

Read pages 259-266 in the textbook; we're jumping into the Roman Empire, the last of the Classical Era societies we'll study. Notes are optional, but strongly recommended.

Compose a blog post about today's work. Consider Wikipedia's presentation of information about Buddhism, Jainism or Hinduism and compare/contrast it with the textbook. Which works better/does the job better? Why? Do you have a preference? Would you prefer a class based on Wikipedia over a textbook?

Lastly, don't forget to share the google doc of your script with me! You need to have the topic in order to get the conversation going between the philosophers, and the weekend will be a good time to get the ball rolling!

Homework for October 13, post PSAT madness

     Today we began the "6 philosophers walked into a coffee shop..." project. Your task is to each take on the role of a philosopher/religious founder from the Classical Era, and as a group (formed in class today) compose a dialog/skit of what the conversation would be like if they all met up in a coffee shop and started talking about a modern dilemma.  Each group must have at least one representative from each of the major civilizations we see in the Classical Era: China (Confucius, Lao Zi), Persia (Zoroaster, Amos, Job), India (Gautama, Mahavira), and Greece (Socrates, Plato, Solon).

You are to open up a Google Document in which (on which? prepositions are hard...) you will compose your dialog, share it among the groups and with me. Make sure everyone has the ability to edit the document!

Develop a dialogue that illustrates how each one of these characters would react to or explain the modern dilemma. Make sure you are being true to each philosopher’s own unique nature.

This should be a dialogue, not a series of monologues, so make sure your characters are responding to one another.

Each character must “speak” at least five times. (And “I agree.” Doesn’t count as speaking…)

You may begin the discussion any way you like, but you should be sure to identify who you are, address your fellow group members in character and start the conversation about your modern dilemma. You can add stage directions also, if that makes it more fun. For example:

Zoroaster: (Walks into Starbucks and orders a black, fire-roasted coffee with lots of foam)

“Hello there friends. Have you heard the news? President Obama is planning on taking troops out of Iraq and adding troops in Afghanistan. I applaud his attempts to maintain balance …"

     You need to each type your character's portion, though you do not all have to get together to do so. (or, you could actually meet in a coffee shop...) So, start by listing which student is which philosopher, and I will add in your topic of conversation.  For tonight, you should read the section of the packet that pertains to your philosopher's region.   The document is linked here in case your scanning history wiped, or it never loaded properly.  So if you are Confucius, you are reading the section about China. (note that the section on Greece doesn't discuss Socrates or Plato directly.  You still need to read it!) You should all skim the introductory material, but it will largely be a repeat of what the textbook has covered for you.  Remember the Axial Age is the Classical Era.  Tomayto, Tomahto...

     The final script is due by next Wednesday by the start of class. (Not the end of the day!) You don't want to wait on this folks.  Your grade is based on your individual contributions, so if you lose the internet at the last moment, and you waited, you are out of luck...

     Scoring categories for this project include: Mechanics of writing (punctuation, spelling, grammar); Accuracy/Authenticity (You have to sound like your philosopher and reference his beliefs); Number of times you speak (at least 5!); Relevance (You are discussing what you are supposed to be discussing!). This will be counted as a full project grade.

     Lastly, the score guide for the DBQ, which we went over today, is linked up here. Spend some time with it, get comfortable with it, 'cause it will be with us all year long.

Homework for October 11, India

For tonight, read page 227, the selection from the Bhagvad Gita. At the bottom of the tan box containing the excerpt, there is a question in italics. Please answer that question in your personal blog post. Given that so many of you will be taking the PSATs tomorrow, this will not be due until Thursday.
I also have updated Posterous for the Classical Age, but it comes with a twist this time, so look that over sooner rather than later. The Posterous assignment will be due by 11:59pm on October 26th.
The long range forcast calls for an essay with a test at the end of next week. At the moment, I'm looking at the test being on Friday the 20th, with the essay the following Monday, but don't quote me yet...

Long weekend! Still have homework...

Spend the long weekend in Classical Age India! Read all of Chapter 9, starting on page 207. Notes are optional for you, though I recommend them strongly!

I'll see if I can figure out what is going on with protopages to get the blogs to function better, and compile your suggestions into my own blog post, so check back here later on for how those will be assessed from here on out.

Lastly, bring in Guns Germs and Steel on Tuesday and I'll take those off your hands. If you bought a copy, and want to donate it to future generations, feel free to do so!

Looks like we'll be writing an in class essay the end of next week/beginning of the following week, and the test will be two weeks out or so...

Enjoy the warm weather!

Homework for October 6 "Come and join me everybody, onboard"

For tonight, a little meta-cognition. Use the link here or the QRCode here to go to the protopage.com account where your blog's rss feeds are compiled.

Once there, read over what your classmates in any of the three sections have posted about Alexander the Great and Confucianism. Then compose a blog post of your own. In this post, discuss what you think the assessment criteria for blogs should be. Is it connected to length? Quality? Style? Grammar? None of the above? Blog posts will fall under the homework category, so there are three (3) possible points to earn for each assignment. What's a 3, 2, 1? Can a person get a zero, even if he or she writes a post? Should you assess each other, or should it just be me who does that? Think about it, write about it, comment back to each other and let's see what comes up.

Homework for October 5 "On the airplane movin' like a Concorde"

For tonight, read pages 189-197 in the textbook and take written notes as you go. I'd recommend adding them to what you already took in the chapter, so they stay contiguous. This will cover the Qin and Han Dynasties rise and fall. We'll go over it tomorrow in periods 1 and 4. Period 2, you'll have time to explain your versions of Daoism, and we'll then jump into the Dynasties afterward.

Homework for October 4 "but I will have fun and I'll get the job done."

For tonight, you need to finish up your demonstrations of Daoism. You also need to read the examples of Legalism linked here. We will discuss both tomorrow. Though second period will be going to the Invisible Children assembly, so you all should be ready to go on Thursday.

Homework for October 3 "Who do I know there, I guess no one"

I just thought of something: good people do their homework.  You are all good people (by your own admission in class today--you would all help the toddler in trouble...except for Peter...) Good people do their homework.  Therefore, you all do your homework...So many logical fallacies, so little time...

For tonight, read the selections from the Dao De Jing, the classic text from the Daoist philosophy. The selections are linked here.  Remember that you may not understand them completely, or well, and that is actually part of the point...They exist to make you think, not to give you an answer, so you may find that you "get it" without really getting it at all, and then you think about it and the answer is gone because you thought about it...we'll explain it tomorrow...maybe...

The whole of the DDJ is linked up here, in case you want to read more of it...Translations vary, and you can see from my selections that there are differences that make a difference in how different people read the DDJ, and that can make a difference to how you understand it... So feel free to read Lau's translation on that website if you find mine isn't as clear as you'd like.

Remember, I'd like to figure out a good way to assess your blogs, so your other assignment is to think about what makes a good blog entry?  Is it different from other writing, or should it be treated the same? Do conventions of English matter as much on a blog?