Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

This week featured a deep dive into this year's theme utilizing a graphic organizer (entitled "The 4Cs") from the National History Day organization. We were fortunate to have Ms. Amy Bradfield, Education Services Manager with the Historical Society of Michigan, observe part of 5th and all of 6th hour Tuesday. Ms. Bradfield helped us all (myself included) enhance our understanding of the theme and I'm truly grateful for her knowledge and expertise!  The Cs refer to Conflict , Compromise , Context , and Change . The first two, Conflict and Compromise , represents the lens all students must view their topic in History through. Students do not have to represent the conflict and the compromise of a topic equally, it's perfectly acceptable to have an uneven representation of the two, as long as both are reflected in the thesis, document selection, and persuasive justification. Students need to clearly state the problem of the situation and the give-and-take in...

Twitter has transformed my life as a teacher. The world has become much smaller and the role my students play within it has grown due to this social media outlet. Twitter is a terrific way for me to allow parents and the community to witness our learning in action. The teens in my classroom may not always connect with their parents about their day. Posting the successes and events happening in our room 2-3 days a week (on average) enables parents to have a starting point for conversations about the learning and thinking that occurs.  Twitter brings the world into our classroom. I have followed and been followed by leaders in Historical research, Authors, Educators, and educational organizations. My Student Historians and I have been assisted time and again by these experts and my students are excited to take part in these adventures. (So am I!) We've Tweeted to authors during Skype sessions, interacted with the National History Day Webmaster, been asked to Tweet our thoughts...

Tomorrow students will go to the Media Center for National History Day work. This year's theme is our focus. Here's our agenda: Noodle Tools app (approximately 5 minutes) Databases (from last week's Sway) Read the 2017-2018 NHD Theme Narrative and answer 6 short questions on Socrative (these questions are simple if you have read the information). Link: https://b.socrative.com/teacher/#import-quiz/30553462  Complete tasks left from last week's to-do list on Noodle Tools The day is once again very technology-centered. Students will use many sites and apps (is that app-smashing??) and will explore the theme "Conflict and Compromise" in depth. The theme is two-fold this year and both parts must be analyzed and represented in projects.  The National History Day organization has developed a Theme Narrative that gives students examples and breaks down the concepts of historical compromise and conflict. I've written a very short quiz on Socrative--al...

This week in NHD featured "The Shift". The Shift is moving from my planning what we are doing the entire class period to the students taking responsibility for their own planning. Our agenda: *Noodle Tools--write to-do list (we will do this one together to model it--you will create individualized to-do lists from now on) *take survey (if you haven't already) *see Symbaloo updates (links to previous category descriptions, etc.) *search MS Media Databases (they're on Symbaloo ) *write research question in Noodle Tools *write 1-2 checklist items of your own This project, as previously stated, is multi-faceted. Students need to have some general guidelines so they aren't overwhelmed. What they equally need, though, is the parameters to take on planning themselves . To-do lists are an excellent way for students to clarify what needs to be done and note when these tasks are completed. (Many students know how to do this, but just as many do not.) I in...