First, here is the question for Hawkesdale and MMS:
What is the most precious item in your life? The one thing that you cannot do without. The thing in life you value the most. This question does leave some room for interpretation. There is no wrong interpretation. Please answer with what pops into your head first. Please do not over think it!
Please post your answer on your own individual blog with a image of the item. The image can be of an item just like yours. So if your turtle is the most precious thing and you don’t have a picture of her, find a copyright free image from the net that looks like your turtle to use. 50,000 bonus points for images that you have created. Then copy and paste your answer to a comment on this post with a link to your blog so that we can view the image.
As promised, this week Mr. B takes over all the classes so you will see me periodically popping in and out of classes. Today he will be starting a unit on immigration that will last for two weeks. There will be four groups of students working outside of Mr. B’s classes. This post will give some insight into what they will be working on for the next two weeks.
First is a group that will be working with Mr. Means’ AP Psychology Class from Lindbergh High School in St. Louis, MO. Mr. Means’ description: “Groups of students will use multi-media instruments to communicate with each other in order to research 19th century psychological treatment theories and institutions. Each group will be responsible for different aspects of the culminating project. The psychology students will assume the responsibility for educating others on the diagnostic approaches and treatments of mental illness during the 19th century, while the social studies students will examine many of the institutions that were constructed during this period, particularly in the New England region.” This will be a real fascinating trip into the changing mindsets of nineteenth century Americans, specifically those living in CT.
The second group will be creating children’s books on 19th Century American Immigration(there titles will be more interesting) for Ms. Callahan’s three second grade art classes from Kennerly Elementary school. We will be doing the research and text, they will be doing the illustrations. It just so happens that her classes are also in St. Louis, MO. We should look for a third school to send them to for review. Would any visitors to this like some? Let me know!
The third group will be working on a project with Young American Heroes. A TV show and 2 websites about Frederick Douglass are being produced this spring and summer in Connecticut. The websites will be launched in September 2008. The television show will be broadcast statewide on CPTV in September 2008 and nationwide on PBS stations in February 2009. The producers are looking for student input and involvement in all aspects of the content for TV and the Web. Our students will be able to join their educator production team and give them creative input on the script, the characters, the curriculum and Web designs, and suggest locations.
The fourth group will be working on a project about Harriet Tubman. This actually came out of a conversation with a student a couple of months ago. There are many historical figures whose names are well known to students. They are so well known that if a student does not know what they accomplished they are embarrassed to ask because they think everyone else knows. It came up that Harriet Tubman was one of these figures. Everyone knows her name, but why? This group will create a 15 minute extravaganza to present to out team on May 2, 2008 in the Auditorium. They will also create a wiki that would allow any visitor to know what impact Harriet Tubman made. A visitor must be able to navigate through everything on the website in 10-15 minutes.
Phew…I think that’s it. A reminder…if you are in one of the above four groups you will be meeting in the library every day during class time starting tomorrow.