Summary of Class 4/26-5/1

Over the past couple of days, Mr.Boyle has not been in school. While he is gone, he is letting us work on our projects while we watch a movie. So far, the movie is interesting. I had some problems with the program scratch, but now I am using Power Point, which is much easier for working on our project.

Summary of Class 4/23-4/24

On Wednesday in class, we took a look at the life on the prairie and the many hardships that went along with it. One of the many troubles on the prairie was that the people lived in soddie houses. To learn about soddie houses, we started off by smelling the grass that these houses were made of. We were asked if we would be able to live in one, with all the stench and I don't think I'd be able to do it. We were then asked to sit, sleep, cook, and eat in the small area that would be considered our house with a group of five other people. Mr.Boyle wanted to know if the area and the amount of people would affect us and seeing that the soddie houses were smaller than my bedroom now, it definitely would. Back then in all of the pictures, you had to hold your position for a minute or else the picture would get blurry. Because of this, we also had to do the same thing. On Thursday in class, we were in the computer lab and put into groups. Each group had a different tool that was used on the prairie in which they had to create a presentation on. Tomorrow in class, we will be presenting these presentations and we will be trying to sell our product, imagining that we lived in the 1800's.

Summary of Class 4/12 and 4/22

On the Friday before April Vacation, we took a look at the push and the pull factors for people moving west. Since no one was able to watch the sophia video from the night before, we took the time in class to watch it. For each topic (push and pull), we had to come up with three questions. These questions were later used in our socratic seminar. Each question had a different level of difficulty where in one question, the answer was obvious, in the other you had to analyze to find the answer, and in the last one ,you had to think beyond the video and connect it to the world. In our socratic seminar, we were assigned to either a push or a pull factor and based on which group you were in, you either had to have a discussion while the other group listened and took notes or you were the group that took notes, while listening to the other group. Once ten minutes was done, the roles changed. In class today we were in the computer lab and we were introduced to the 16% plan. This plan gives us 6 days of class time to work on accomplishing the goal of getting a badge on a topic that we have chosen from a list. With this topic that we chose for our badge, we have to complete multiple quests along the way. These are going to be judged by a group of people, but will not count as a grade in any way. We are supposed to present our finding to our class on June 10th.

Summary of Class 4/11

Today in class we were asked to pair up with someone. Because of the odd number, I was partners with Sarah and Rachel. We were immediately asked multiple questions about Manifest Destiny that were projected on the board. These questions ranged from what is Manifest Destiny to questions about pictures that had relevance to the topic. We were introduced to the idea of Manifest Destiny in our sophia.org tutorials that we were assigned to watch last night. We were then given some new questions about Manifest Destiny and we were assigned to create a skit with our partners, in which we answered the questions. For the most part, everyones skits were pretty impressive.

Overall Impact of the Erie Canal

The overall impact of the Erie Canal was positive  The Erie Canal most importantly, was a way of western expansion. This western expansion was now quicker and more affordable because of the Erie Canal. Along the route, it gave the opportunity for more social and economical development, in a sense that more people were stopping in these towns, in which business was now booming. The Erie Canal was also a significant improvement in means of trading and shipping.Although the Erie Canal had some down falls, for the most part the impact was positive. Some of the downfalls of the Erie Canal was that it was a transporter for many diseases, such as cholera. 

Summary of Class 4/5-4/8

Due to the half day on Friday, we did not have class. Today Mr.Boyle was absent, so we had Ms.Jones as our sub. She gave us five documents to read that were all about the Oregon trail. With these five documents, we wrote a short paragraph on each, shortly summarizing it. We were then assigned to writing three journal entries on the back of the paper. Over all, the assignment was easy, but it took a lot of time.

Summary of Class 4/3-4/4

On Wednesday we did not have class due to accuplacer testing that our whole history class had to take. On Thursday however, we created a slogan, an icon, and a poem. We did this after we were introduced to the star spangled banner and the slogans that were around during the war of 1812. We were partnered up and with our partner, everyone received a different document. My partner and I received a document about the British perspective on the war. They believed that it was just an annoyance and they were more focused on Napoleon  We then took facts and created a slogan, an icon, and a picture. We then presented them to the class.

Flipped Class Room- Snap Debate 4/2

Today in history class, we were put into groups based on what we answered in the survey yesterday night. The survey asked us what we thought was the most influential event that caused the War of 1812. I picked the Impressment and when asked if we wanted to change based on others speeches, I continued to stay in my group. Impressment was when the Royal Navy went aboard U.S. ships and took men without notice. They then placed these men into their navy. They did this because they thought that some were British citizens, even though they picked random people. In one instance, the British took four men and those four men were later proved to be U.S. citizens. I believe that this was one of the things that started the war because they were taking men off their ship without a cause, that were not even British citizens. The British had no reason to be taking them, which gave the U.S. a reason to fight. Although events such as the Chesapeake Affair, Orders in Council, and Incitement, I still believed that Impressment was the biggest cause for the War of 1812.

Diary of the Corps of Discovery