May Madness update

We are almost done with the first round!  Results by period:

Period 3
Marcus Aurelius def. FDR
Ismail def. Chandragupta
Akbar def. Hong Xiuquan
Empress Cixi def. Ataturk

Coming on Monday:
Mao vs. Akbar
Aurelius vs. Genghis Khan
Catherine vs. Cyrus
Gandhi vs. Ho Chi Minh


On Tuesday:
Queen Victoria vs. Empress CiXi
Mutsuhito/Meiji vs. Ismail
Suleyman the Magnificent vs. Fidel Castro
Stalin vs. Deng Xiaoping

Period 4
Tokugawa def. Queen Elizabeth
Charlemagne def. Ashoka
Qin Shi Huangdi def. Justinian
Han Wudi vs. Napoleon paused until Monday

Coming on Monday:
Bolivar vs. Alexander the Great
Toussaint L'overture vs. Augustus
Jomo Kenyatta vs. Mansa Musa
Kwame Nkruma vs. Tang Taizong

May madness update, may 30

The scoring form for the first round of May Madness: You can download the form by clicking on the link here.

May Madness stuff

It's time for May Madness, the role-playing competition that determines who the greatest leader in world history is, was, and ever will be!  Helpful links for you are below:

The description of the project is linked up here.

The description of the different rounds is linked up here.

The rubric for the bibliography is linked up here.

The rubric for the Explain Everything project is linked up here.

The scorecard for Round One is located at: https://docs.google.com/a/bpsk12.org/forms/d/1hKIR8xBEb85V6xrDfPbRXIPhpKaGUGg4HsKKVw3ykqI/viewform

Deadlines:

Biography is due May 28th

Explain Everything is due May 24th

The First Round will begin May 30th, and away we go!

Post exam

Congratulations on completing the AP Exam!  I hope it was all you dreamed about and more...

I'm pretty sure that with all the field trips today I will not be seeing any of you in class, so we will kick off May Madness on Monday.

In order to do that, you will need to have an app on your iPads that is paid, so I will be supplying it. (well, the school will be supplying it, really.) So to that end, please make sure you have your iPad in class, charged and ready to go, even if you normally use your phone.

I hope that most of you have a great time with Jay Gatsby.  I hear he's a bit of a problem child...

The rest of you, please make sure that the laws of physics still work.  We're all concerned...

And the remainder, perform well at 6 Flags.  Remember that people go there for the music...

Review Assignment

This project is pretty simple in conception.  You are going to work in groups to create a timeline of events/people organized by the themes of the class.  The timeline will encompass all the time periods of the course, from 4000 BCE through to 2000 CE.

You will be broken into teams of students based on the themes of the course. I will take care of the first theme.  I will generate a google document for each theme, and share it with teams from each period.  As a team, you are to go through each time period (listed on the board and on the Google Document) and come up with items to be placed on the timeline.  Each theme has its own color scheme, and there are markers/pencils designated as such on the table.  Each theme also has a designated location (indicated by the theme itself) on the timeline.  The timeline itself is posted on the walls in the alcove outside the classroom, as it won’t fit inside the classroom.

You are to generate a list first by brainstorming, which means you are to write down everything you think of as being relevant/important without trying to filter them for importance.

Those items you brainstormed then need to be curated. This means that

you are to go through and collectively determine what you think are the most likely events/topics/people who will show up on the exam, and then place those items on the timeline.

 Next to each time period in the Google Doc is a percentage.  That percentage represents how much of the multiple choice section of the exam is given to that time period.  So 15% of the 70 total questions are from 600 BCE - 600 CE.  In other words there are 10 or 11 questions on the test that are drawn from that time period. This information means you are to determine no more than 11 items for the timeline for that period. So winnow your list to those 11. You will have Monday and Tuesday's classes to complete this process.

Each team will be presented with a folder that contains several pages of small icons that represent the different geographic regions. When you put an event/topic on the timeline, it must be accompanied by the appropriate geographic location icon, so you will need to cut those out and tape or glue them on.  This is just a starter pack; I can make more if you need them. So on the Google Doc, be sure to include information about location, as well as the names and events themselves. So for instance, if your theme is Gender Roles, then you would want to write: Footbinding begins as a practice in China under the Song Dynasty, and the years of the Song Dynasty.

The Process

Your first step is to generate the list of items for the time line. You can split up your team into time period groups (or have one period take the first three, the other take the remainder) if you like, or you can all just contribute as you go. Use the book, your notes, old tests, blog posts, etc. to help you come up with ideas. Both periods will be working on the same document with the same topics. You should leave a note to the other period to indicate what you have accomplished. This you will do on your own, with no real help from me.

Your second step is to calculate the number of items you can have for your time periods on the test (yes, do some math...) and curate that brainstormed list down to that number. I am available to help you with this process if you want. You will need to run your choices by me for approval before proceeding to step the third.

Your third step is to place those items on the timeline in the appropriate color with the appropriate geographic icon. I have started that process with the first theme on the walls outside the classroom. (hopefully you noticed that on the way in to class...check it out to see how this is going to work!)

The timeline is to be completed by the end of the day on Friday, May 10th. You may then take pictures of it or transcribe it in some other manner so you have it to guide your studies.

The groups are linked up here, and the google documents have been shared with groups via school emails.

On the board are the time periods, themes and information about each of the essays. Be sure to review on your own as well!

Weekend Homework

Have a safe and happy Prom everyone!

Over the weekend you are to read Chapter 40.

We will begin the review process on Monday, so be sure to bring all your notes, tests, etc and a fully charged iPad.

I will be out Monday and Tuesday, but will check email periodically, so check the blog for information and I'll see you Wednesday.

May 1

Hi folks-

Blogger is not wanting to accept my upload of any ppt for some reason.  I'll try to update it later tonight, but the content is all in the chapters and you should have notes you can use as well.  In the mean time, if you go to slideshare.net and search Todd Whitten, you should be able to see the powerpoints I've been posting on the blog as well, including the most recent one, which also doesn't want to finish uploading either...I'm starting to feel persecuted by wifi!

In any event, study for the test and finish up reading chapter 39.