TKAM Blog Post

Now that we're done with the movie, compare and contrast it to the book in a blog post of your own.  Then comment on the posts of others.

• COMPARE means to find similarities.
• CONTRAST means to find differences.
• How did the movie compare to your expectations?
• What would you have changed?
• Was anything better than you imagined it in your mind?
• Include any other relevant thoughts or conclusions.

National History Day, 2018

History Day Resources

The following links can help you with your project for this year's National History Day theme: Conflict and Compromise.

https://www.docsteach.org/topics/nhd

https://www.nhd.org/students

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/finding.html

https://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/History_of_the_United_Kingdom:_Primary_Documents

http://www.shsulibraryguides.org/worldprimary

http://guides.library.duke.edu/c.php?g=289297&p=1929346

https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog

https://www.nhd.org/conflict-and-compromise-history?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq93-1oaZ2AIVgbjACh1irgGcEAAYASAAEgLIuvD_BwE

Financial Literacy Investigation

Investigate all the episodes at http://bizkids.com/show.  Find some of the topics you gave low ratings on our financial literacy pretest.  Educate yourself!  We'll report out what we learned at the end of class.

When you're done, try some of these financial literacy games:

https://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/play

http://www.genirevolution.org/

https://financialentertainment.org/

http://financeintheclassroom.org/student/activities.shtml

https://www.mymoney.gov/Pages/for-youth.aspx

http://www.richkidsmartkid.com/

http://senseanddollars.thinkport.org/

http://bizkids.com/games

https://handsonbanking.org/htdocs/en/k/

Iowa State OPPTAG Experience Reflection

7th grade GOAL:

Reflect on your day in Ames.  Answer the following questions in a thoughtful paragraph.  Back up your opinions with evidence and/or explanation.

Here's a link to the official track titles, if you need them.

• Describe your first class.  What did you learn?  What did you do?  
• Describe your second class.  What did you learn?  What did you do?
• What was the most educational part of your day?  Explain.
• What was something you learned about Iowa State University?
• What was the most fun part of the day?
• If you could give one piece of advice on how to improve the experience, what would you say?  Explain.
• What is your biggest "takeaway?"  In other words, why did we do this?  What did you get out of the experience?

Thesis Statements

Here's a quick and easy guide to writing thesis statements.

Persuasive Paper Topics

Not sure what to write about?  These links might give you some ideas:

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/writing/persuasive-essay-topics/

https://www.thoughtco.com/persuasive-essay-topics-1856978

http://www.myspeechclass.com/persuasivetopics2.html

http://www.k12reader.com/persuasive-essay-and-speech-topics/

Deep Thinking Friday

Here are some videos to get us thinking about plastic water bottles... why we have them, their impact, and what we can do about the problem of SO MANY of them.  Watch these in any order you'd like.  Comment with your thoughts and ideas.

Plastic Bottle Village from MEL Films on Vimeo.

Coding

Computer Science in Education week is coming up.  Let's celebrate a little early!  You will develop your own independent study course for coding.  Come up with a plan about what you want to learn.  You may use any of the following options:

https://code.org/ (drag and drop/block coding... this is the beginner level for those who haven't tried coding before)

https://scratch.mit.edu/ (more block coding... this site lets you use your imagination to create more than to solve puzzles like on code.org)

https://www.madewithcode.com/ (several coding activities... I don't know much about this one... maybe you could become our expert on this site!)

https://www.codeschool.com/learn (this is where you can learn different computer programming languages like HTML, JavaScript, and iOS)

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing (a variety of computer programming experiences in the Khan Academy course platform)

https://www.codecademy.com/ (another site to learn different coding languages)

Look through the sites and find an area that interests you.  Decide what you will learn between December 5 and December 25.  You will be submitting your plan & goals next week into Canvas.  Create an account for yourself using your school e-mail and password, and start learning!

Sentence Diagramming

Mandarin Chinese

Today you will explore on your own, listening and practicing words made up of the initials and finals we went over in class on Tuesday.  Get some headphones, watch the following videos, and talk out loud when you need to repeat things.  Don't worry... everyone will be talking.  You won't even notice it if you're concentrating on your own learning.  Have fun! 

When you're done, leave a comment here about what you think is difficult about Mandarin Chinese so far and what, if anything, is easy.  Build on the comments of your classmates, and have a conversation.

Deep Thinking Friday 9/22/17

Read/watch the following, and be prepared to discuss:

https://www.tweentribune.com/article/teen/dubai-will-get-self-flying-taxis-year/

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/01/technology/future/free-transportation-self-driving-cars/index.html (Watch the clip, but don't forget to read the article too)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/05/23/how-drone-technology-is-changing-our-lives-the-good-the-bad-and/

https://iq.intel.com/5-awesome-uses-for-drone-technology/

How to Make a Good Comment

6th Grade GOAL Survey

Students, please take the survey at this link.  Make sure you are logged out of Google when you're finished. 

Deep Thinking Friday 9/15/17

Grab some headphones and watch the following video.
Get ready for some great discussion after.

 

Deep Thinking Friday

For your first DTF, grab a pair of headphones, and watch this video.  We'll discuss after.

TheButterflyCircus - HD from The Butterfly Circus on Vimeo.

Mrs. Edlin's End of the Year Evaluation

Go to the following link and answer all the questions.  

https://goo.gl/forms/aHTttrZANNWcia1G3

Images of Greatness... THE BIG REFLECTION!

This quarter has been all about Images of Greatness.  Using elaborated communication, reflect and respond on a new blog post to the following:

1. Upload an image of you with your display board.  Mrs. Edlin will send it to you through e-mail.
2. Who was your Image of Greatness?  Why are they great, and what about them do you admire?
3. What part of the unit makes you most proud?
4. What part of the unit was the most challenging?
5. How did you grow as a student/learner/person because of this unit?
6. How could you improve your work on this unit?  What would you do differently?
7. What was the best part of the actual Images of Greatness Celebration?

Now, think of our Images of Greatness field trip.  Upload a picture or two... ask for Mrs. Edlin or a friend to send you some if you don't have any of your own.

1. What was your favorite educational part the field trip?  Explain.
2. In which part of the field trip did you learn the most?  Explain.
3. What about the trip surprised you?  Explain.
4. Discuss one of the categories you listed on your paper from the art museum.
5. Did you break out of your Escape Chamber?  Why or why not?
6. What part of the trip was the most fun?  Explain.

Now, think of your four years (or less) in GOAL.  

1. What's the best part of GOAL?
2. What advice would you give students for how to succeed in GOAL?
3. What would you warn them about?
4. What should they be excited about?
5. What will you miss?

Deep Thinking Friday 4/7/17

For today's Deep Thinking Friday, go to the following link: 182 Questions to Write or Talk About.

Look over the list and pick out 3 questions you'd like to discuss with your class (a first choice and two backups if your first choice gets taken).  Some of these questions are from previous years, so adjust dates as necessary.

Whoever has the closest birthday to today gets to first.  Ask your question to the class.  Everyone should participate in the discussion... after all, that's what Deep Thinking Friday is all about!  Feel free to get a computer from the cart to look up any needed facts to back up your opinions.  When the discussion reaches a natural stopping point, the asker can choose the next person to go.

THINK DEEP, BACK UP YOUR OPINIONS WITH GOOD REASONING AND ELABORATED COMMUNICATION, AND HAVE FUN!

Moral Dilemma Literature Circles

To reflect on your recent literature circles experience, please write a blog post in paragraph form answering the following:

• What is a moral dilemma?
• What was the moral dilemma in your book/books?  Which characters were involved? Be sure to include title(s) and authors' names.
• How was the dilemma solved?
• Would you have done things differently if you were in the character's shoes?  Why or why not?

Proofread your post and then publish.  Please comment on the posts of at least three other students to make connections.

It's Time for the FMS Musical!

FMS Musical! by Tena Edlin

Invent Iowa Reflection/Self-Assessment

Now that we've had our Invention Convention, it's time to reflect.  Complete the following:

1. Using your rubric, mark where you think you scored in each section and add up your totals.  Make sure your name is on it, and hand it in to Mrs. Edlin on your way out today.
2. Start a new blog post called "Invent Iowa."
3. Upload the picture of your invention that Mrs. Edlin will be sending you to your blog post.
4. Answer each of these questions with a short paragraph on your blog post.
1. What is your invention called?  Give a brief description.
2. What problem were you trying to solve?
3. How does your invention solve that problem?
4. What are you most proud of with this project?  Explain.
5. What were the challenges you faced during this project?  How did you face those challenges?
6. What would you do to improve your project or make it better for the next level of competition, if you were to go?
5. Publish your post!

History Day Primary Resources

The following links can help you with your project for this year's National History Day theme: Taking a Stand in History.

https://www.docsteach.org/topics/nhd

https://nhd.org/student-resources

http://www.digitalvaults.org

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/finding.html

https://eudocs.lib.byu.edu/index.php/History_of_the_United_Kingdom:_Primary_Documents

http://www.shsulibraryguides.org/worldprimary

http://guides.library.duke.edu/c.php?g=289297&p=1929346

https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog

Deep Thinking Friday

Watch the following video:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/class-divided/

We'll discuss when you're finished.

History Day Category Examples

Go to this link to see examples of all the possible category entries for History Day.