Mrs. Slaviero's Blog

Students in my History classes are now studying the events that lead up to and contributed to the Civil War. One attempt to settle the issue of slavery in the newly acquired western land was the Compromise of 1850. Today students dissected an excerpt of this document and answered four questions to better understand Congress' point of view: What does the author assume to be true? What do I agree with? What do I want to argue with? What do I aspire to? History shows us that the Compromise of 1850 was an unsuccessful attempt to appease the North and the South but analyzing this document will allow students to better understand the efforts that went into keeping the country united. Link to the Compromise of 1850: http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?doc=27

Music is a powerful way to generate student interest in the classroom. One of today's goals was to link the contributions of Reformers such as Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Dorothea Dix and Elizabeth Blackwell to the meaning of the song "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer. Students were asked to relate these lyrics to the work of the people that tried to better American society in the early to mid 1800s. One interesting student insight was that the lyrics are actually calling on people to not wait, but rather look around and right injustices today. Here's the link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l329U3S3i1U&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Today students started studying the Reform Movement. The time period from the 1820s to the 1860s brought about many changes in American society and one of these changes was the emphasis on higher education. We researched the creation of Michigan State University and the University of Michigan and determined that MSU was founded during the Reform Movement but U of M was founded right before. As an extra credit assignment, students can research another college or university tonight and tell us tomorrow whether it was part of the Reform Movement. I will post our findings here. (First hour, you will get this same opportunity tomorrow.) *****UPDATE***** Many students, including Jesse, researched schools and while some, like his example, were founded during the Reform Movment others were created later. Here's a list: Oakland University, 1957 Stanford  University, 1891 Central Michigan University, 1892 Harvard University, 1636 Princeton University, 1746

One of my favorite activities is to critique and analyze artwork with my students. Today we studied "American Progress" by John Gast and this provided students a great review of Manifest Destiny and the changes it brought to our nation.

        Students started today's class listing examples of the causes of the war with Mexico, then determining which of these causes are still in effect today. One example is the then-disputed Texas/Mexico Rio Grande border.         Student groups spent the rest of the hour analyzing the treaty that ended this war, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Each group recieved a translated excerpt of the document and used it, along with photos of the actual treaty, to determine why the document was written and to make inferences as to what life in the early 1800s would have been like. More information and pictures are available at the National Archives link: http://blogs.archives.gov/todaysdocument/2011/02/02/february-02-treaty-of-guadalupe-hidalgo/

     Mrs. Rita Ward came in to my classes today to present artifacts and materials related to the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Corps of Discovery. Students dressed up as President Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Sacajawea and her husband Toussaint Charbonneau, and the Shoshone Native Americans and re-enacted key aspects of the journey.      The classes reviewed their knowledge of this important historical event and learned a lot about the contributions these people made to American History. Mrs. Ward's extensive knowledge and numerous artifacts allowed my students to experience this time period in a meaningful way.  Thank you, Mrs. Ward! ***Pictures from today's classes will be on the school website in a few days***

               The students and I really learned a lot from this project. The final budget presentations allowed students to not only expand their technology capability but also their social studies skills and were able to present their findings the same way a real city council would during a city council meeting. A test on the material would not have had the same impact on students because it’s not a real-world example like the presentation was.             Students found the iPads to be user-friendly, but still take some getting used to. They said the touch screens were what they liked most about them but the screen’s sensitivity was also frustrating at times. Learning how to use the Numbers, Pages and Keynote applications will greatly benefit my students, should our district decide to purchase more iPads in the future. Students are now familiar and comfortable...