Period 4: Last Week, Day 1/2 - Class Recap

The one fun event I was able to attend this weekend was the Portland Thorns FC home opener, in the middle of grading historical investigation papers. Here's the awesome Rose City Riveters supporters group (I am a part of developing it), holding a welcoming display for our new team!

Dear class,

Welcome to the last week with me as your teacher! Only one more day after today as your long term substitute teacher. Plenty of work for me to do, so I will not dwell on that fact. Thank you for your hard work and focus today! On to the recap:

Soundtrack: “At Last” by Etta James. Selected because this is the last week as your substitute! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/24/13:
News Brief
Middle East Map Quiz
Letter to Mrs. DeFrance Gilman
Historical Investigation Grades

Homework:  Check the blog. Next news brief: Everyone that has not gone yet! I have that as Luis, Katie, Osvaldo, Tylin, Elliot, Jack, Casey, Zakeiba, Selina, and Kenji. Obviously quite a lot there - I will not be able to rescue you if you forget, so please have something ready to go!
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News Brief: Today's news articles were brought in by Joe/Enrique (same story), and Zoey. They were: CNN.com - Bangladesh building collapse kills more than 70 and CNN.com - Taliban capture 10 after chopper makes emergency landing.

Thank you for your focus here, in the middle of the earthquake/fire drills! Only one more news brief section to go!

Middle East Map Quiz: Almost everyone did well on this - probably because I gave you time to study right before. I was able to grade these and get them back to you in class. Fast grading in action! Thank you for studying this important area of the world. The points from this helped many get some back from the research project grades.

Letter to Mrs. DeFrance Gilman: For the rest of class, I had everyone write a letter to Mrs. DeFrance Gilman, explaining what you have been up to in the time she has been away (I gave you four areas to write about, with some examples):

What history content have you learned since January?
- World War I
- Russian Revolution
- Historical Investigation
- 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq
- News Briefs
What skills have you developed?
- Essay writing
- Forced Choice Debates
- Researching
- Citing sources
- News gathering
How was Mr. Fritz as a teacher?
What have you been up to since you last saw Mrs. DeFrance Gilman? What should she know about what she has missed with class?

Thank you for working on these! I will pass them on to Mrs. DeFrance Gilman, probably on Friday.

Historical Investigation Grades: Like I said, I spent almost all weekend grading these. Overall, the class average was around a high C. I explained how I graded and that I put lots of comments throughout each paper. I really value your time and effort in working on this difficult project! If you would like to revise it, I am guessing that Mrs. DeFrance Gilman will let you do so (I am not sure I will have the time to take revisions this week).

See you next class! It should be fun, if I have the time to get ready for it! :-)