Here is your assessment on World War I Themes

Click here to take your assessment on World War I Themes.
All assessments are due at the end of the period today. Please work well and best of luck.

Best of luck. You may not use the packet for the assessment. When you are done start/ continue your enrichment sheet on Helen Keller's primary source, "Strike Against War." Log the computer out and shut down.

All best. Grades will be updated this weekend.
Mr. Kannan

Recognizing intricacies

ATTENTION ALL 8TH GRADERS: YOUR EDMODO POSTS NEED TO BE UP AND READY FOR CLASS BY MONDAY. YOU WILL BE ASSESSED ON YOUR TWO EDMODO POSTS ON MONDAY. PLEASE BE PREPARED BY WORKING ON YOUR TWO EDMODO POSTS ON SUNDAY, IF THEY ARE NOT DONE ALREADY!
ATTENTION ALL 7TH GRADERS: IF YOU ARE WORKING ON YOUR FLASH CARDS AND WANT TO CHECK OUT AN ONLINE SITE THAT MAKES THEM FOR YOU AND HELPS YOU REVIEW, CLICK ON THE LINK ON THE LEFT SIDE, UNDER THE EDMODO LINK. IT'S A GREAT SITE AND HAS A MOBILE APP SO THAT YOU CAN REVIEW EVERYWHERE. I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THIS IN CLASS THIS WEEK, BUT YOU CAN CHECK IT OUT NOW!
For both groups of scholars, February brings with it greater study of challenging concepts. Greater commitment will be required. This might involve having to sacrifice for academic achievement and ensuring that a plan to succeed in Social Studies is concurrent with planning in other realms, as well.
7th Grade
This week will bring with it the memorization of the Amendments, as well as explanation and detail regarding different elements of the Constitution such as principles, the Articles, as well as ensuring that nightly study of these concepts is present. A three to four question quiz will open class each day. Students will not be graded on these assessments, but rather they will be used for Progress Monitoring where students are and how interventions can be designed to ensure that there is a maximization of effort to ensure that students are successful.

8th Grade
We begin our study of Primary Source material this week in World War I. Starting out with Keller's "Strike Against War," students will have to read Primary Source material from the time period and complete an enrichment sheet on their reading. At the same time, students will have to make consistent and steady contributions to edmodo, our online learning environment about the material. 8th Grade students must also ensure that they are making progress on their work in other classes. Failure to plan is a plan to fail and in order to see our current 8th graders successful at the next level, it will be incumbent that they learn the gift and strategy of long term planning. With a Review of Literature for Science/ LA projects due on the 11th, this is an excellent opportunity to display prowess in this domain.

My hope is to see as many of you as possible for conferences next week. Please continue to encourage your students to continue striving for scholarship.
All best.
Mr. Kannan

Do you hear that, young scholar? That is the sound of inevitability. It is the sound of your own opportunity for triumph.

I will be honest enough to say that I had a fairly horrific student teaching experience. It was bad. I cannot even begin to articulate how many things transpired that convinced me of my own ineffectiveness in the classroom. There were only a few rare rubies that were collected from this quest. One such gem was when I was at on of many low moments:
"February is the best time to teach. With the combination of the cold and the weather, they are just primed to learn. February is the month."

As we look at the calendar, we are moving towards "the month." Both groups are going to experience the upcoming week and month with different senses of trepidation and challenge. The journey will look different for both groups with the only constant being that February being "the month."

7th Grade
This week marks the commencement of the Judicial Branch with "the greatest video of all time." It is almost a rite of passage. If a student learned American History with me, they had to do their time with "the greatest video of all time." Students will be asked to take notes on specific sections of the video, ensuring that information is reviewed on a nightly basis.
In addition to this, students should be spending time reviewing their concepts learned about the goals and principles of the Constitution, as well as the Legislative and the Executive Branches. Flash cards is an excellent way to initiate this process. There is much information to be reviewed in preparation for the Final Exam that will start on February 22. Starting from next week, I will open up my room for study sessions to assist with this process of studying and reviewing.

8th Grade
World War I starts this week. Students will begin the process of understanding the war from the perspective of thematic analysis, historical development, and primary/ secondary source rendering. It will require a great deal of planning to ensure that students COMPLETE WORK ON A NIGHTLY BASIS. ASSESSMENTS WILL BE GEARED TO MAKE SURE THAT STUDENTS ARE KEEPING UP WITH WORK CONSISTENTLY AS WELL AS UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS DISCUSSED IN CLASS. This unit is driven by reading and comprehension, as students will be introduced to some of the finest writers and some of the most heart rendering conditions that humanity has had to face.

With conferences looming large next week, I can only stress the importance of making sure that all steps are taken towards academic success. This starts every night with competent completion of assignments and not falling behind. At the same time, student advocacy where uncertainty is present will also be another formula in ensuring that students are successful.

Happy hunting.
Mr. Kannan
Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/lloydcrew/3264114260/sizes/l/in/photostream/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Basketball Losses and American History

I will not lie in composing this blog. I am writing this after a tough loss in conference finals game, so if my usual witticisms or precision might be lacking, please do forgive.
While heartache and melancholy do present themselves, I am immediately reminded about the Progressivist mantra: "The fight goes on, the cause endures, and the dream shall never die." Indeed, this might cover much of what our students will be working on in history in the upcoming week.

7th Grade Students
Students will be absorbing more of the Constitution this week. Students should be engaging in nightly study of these concepts. Seeing that the Final Exam is coming up in under a month, I would suggest that students invest in studying skills such as the development of note cards to assist them. Creating flash cards on concepts covered, as they are covered, will ensure that students cover all relevant information and will allow for a very strong base of knowledge to increase in strength and fortitude through nightly and incremental steps towards success. Goals, principles, legislative, executive, and judicial branches will have been studied by next Friday. This is ample enough to start the flash card process.

8th Grade Students
Students need to be reading chapter 20 and completing their chapter 20 assessments. These will be due Friday, 1/21. Students will have to ensure that they complete the required work and reading in a timely fashion to complete the assessments on time. This weekend will be very big towards this end.

As students receive progress reports soon, conference sign ups even sooner, and ensure that their focus lies on achieving academic success at this point in the year where the difficulty and toughness increases, one is reminded of the always encouraging mantra of "forming a more perfect union." The Framers understood, perhaps better than anyone else, that the drive for perfection is perfection in its own right. In this light, students have to see how much of what they have been trained to do in this class embodies the very best of our nation and what we profess to believe as part of that creed.

Apparently, I have to link my class to American historical consciousness to feel better after a loss in the Finals.
All best.
Mr. Kannan

Photo Courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/gi/3027204/lightbox/#/photos/gi/3027204/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

The Highwaymen and 7.8/3 Social Studies

The Highwaymen might have been talking about the upcoming week in 7.8/3 Social Studies. The "road does go on forever" while the intellectual "party never ends." With what is at stake this week, the traveling troubadours of American consciousness were dead on. My hope is that all of us can help our emerging scholars better understand what this road entails and how progress can be made upon it.
7th Grade
* Monday will be the collection day for the Chapter 7 Assessments- Students were given this assessment on Thursday and my hope is that they are ready to submit it by the end of Monday's class.
* Tuesday will be the collection day for the "Bundle" of Chapter 7 Homework- Assigned last week each night, there are assignments that are to be collected at the start of Tuesday's class.
* Wednesday will start the discussion of the Constitution with the breakdown of the Preamble and the inspirations for the Constitution through Friday and the weekend.

8th Grade
* Monday and Tuesday will be the last days for students to assemble their Chapter 19 assessments and five identifications- One completed assessment and five identifications will be submitted by Wednesday at 5:30 PM.
* Wednesday will be an "exit assessment" on Chapter 19 that will gauge student reading of chapter 19 that was assigned last week and forms the basis of their work in the past ten days.
* Thursday and Friday will be spend working on the Chapter 20 Assessment. This will involve reading the content and completing a choice of assessments to go along with this. All work on Chapter 20 will be due on Friday, 1/21.

With conferences and the midway point of the trimester approaching, I can only hope that students are taking advantages of each step along the intellectual highway. With study of the Constitution and World War I awaiting, the party does indeed never end. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further assistance.

All best.
Mr. Kannan

Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/japokskee/4133415996/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en