Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

  Stretching the thinking in History education sometimes happens spontaneously. A few years ago I found a resource from the incredible iCivics site related to the role presidents play in government, featuring examples from the early years of the nation, and the first four presidents. It became a great review of the big picture events of these presidents, their roles in building a strong nation, as well as a review of the Three Branches of Government. Students read the scenarios and decided if the examples represented Stable Finances, Peaceful Politics, or Self-Defense. I decided to extend the learning on the moment and took a poll as to which of the three students felt was most important. The next task was to calculate the percentages and create a pie chart with the poll data. The result was a strong opportunity to strengthen students' learning in a different way. This year teaching hybrid (teaching students synchronously in-seat and virtually simultaneously) makes planning more ...

Student Historians recently presented their National History Day projects to our school community. Thanks to the support from our 6th and 7th Grade Social Studies teachers, 8th Grade students were able to successfully defend their theses to their peers. The 7th Graders can see what they will be asked to do next year and the 6th Graders can use these projects as a spring board for their student-centered projects they will complete within the next month. Each grade reflected on the event and related it to what they knew, as well. It was also a wonderful community-building activity. National History Day projects are so meaningful to me because they are, at heart, Genius Hour projects within the content area of History. I promised myself this year's focus would be on helping students hone their passions and I believe this was achieved. Middle Schoolers need to find who they are and what they're about. Delving into what's important to them will help on their journe...

The students are finishing up their city budget presentations but we started class reading an article about Governor Snyder's budget proposal, which was released today.  The students are much more prepared to discuss the Michigan budget now that they have completed their budget simulation and they feel confident in expressing their opinions.  They also feel a greater stake in the outcome of the final Michigan budget and its ramifications. I am very glad that we've done this project because a goal in teaching is to provide students with meaningful opportunities for learning and I feel that was accomplished.  This activity was challenging because it called on students to think and create, both on an intradisciplinary (economics and political science) and interdisciplinary (math, technology and language arts) level. I will be compiling information about students' budget cuts, student ideas to generate revenue and tho...