Geography, Day 2 - Class Recap

The ball of yarn that we used in class today for the Class Unity Activity! Thanks for participating in this!

Dear class,

I enjoyed getting to know you all a bit better today! We had a productive time with the yarn activity and learning more about what is going on in the world at the end of the class. If you did not finish the philosophy reading and questions, it is homework. Come prepared to discuss it next class!

Learning Targets Addressed: 

Knowledge LT 6: I can demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of locations and regions.
Knowledge LT 7: I can demonstrate the ability to use geographic tools.

Soundtrack: "Comin' From Where I'm From" by Anthony Hamilton. Because today, we talked about where we are from and how we got to be at Westview, via our family background. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/10/14:
PRIDE Lesson
News Brief
Class Unity Activity
Photos
Global Discussion

Homework: Read the blog and post a comment (if you have not already). Bring a photo if you have not already! The next news brief is assigned to: Tess.

PRIDE Lesson: The PRIDE lesson for today's class focused on Personal Responsibility. Specifically, we looked at phone use in class. I explained my policy of simply telling students when phone use (usually for music) is permitted - at all other times, it is prohibited unless I specifically authorize it. If you choose not to comply with this policy, I will ask you to put your phone away, and then (upon repeated attempts to politely request it to be away) reserve the right to take it for the rest of the class and/or day, as per school policy. I hope we don't have any major issues with this, though!

News Brief: Kendall had the news brief today and selected this story to talk about: Independent.co.uk - British ex-pat dies in great white shark attack off Australia's east coast. This was a sad story to start the day. The Great White Shark is an endangered species, too. Hard to know how to possibly avoid this from happening in the future - obviously, people are still going to want to surf and go swimming! Thanks for the article, Kendall. Tess, you were selected to be next up.

Class Unity Activity: I always love this, for many reasons. One, because I love hearing about how everyone came to be in our classroom. Two, because of how the yarn connects us all. Three, because it helps the class (and me) learn names and a little about each other! Thank you for participating in this. It can get lengthy, I know, but I value it so much more than just lecturing for that time.

Photos: When we got back to the classroom, we heard from students who remembered to do their homework and bring in a photo from a place they have been, a place they want to go, or a picture of their family. I really enjoyed this, but I wish more students had remembered to do their homework! Three students out of 37 is completely unacceptable. If you did not bring in a picture, please do so next class.

Global Discussion: At the end of the class, I asked students to get back into the groups from analyzing the pictures from last class and then asked what happened in the world over the summer. We came up with a pretty good list as a class. Next time, we will analyze this a bit more and talk about it!

We finished with that. Please be ready to discuss next class! Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks!