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...

Creating a large-scale endeavor like a National History Day project takes time. Going through the process for the first time can be overwhelming for teachers and students alike. It's critical to remember, though, that it is a journey. These projects are rigorous and require many steps. Too often we expect immediate gratification--this is not the type of project that will offer quick results.  Students will be thinking, reflecting, pre-searching (to use a colleague's term), researching, selecting a topic in US History they are passionate about, locating primary and secondary sources, writing a research question, developing a thesis, grappling with this year's theme and applying it to their topic, writing digital note cards, keeping track of resources, developing a project, ensuring they place their topic in historical situational context, creating a process paper to reflect on their experience, and possibly back-tracking and at any point if they lose focus.  Students...

I've been trying to come up with a way to update our National History Day journey when the name jumped out at me--I suddenly remembered "This Week in Baseball", a sports show I used to watch with my Grandpa when I was a kid. (Google it for some great baseball memories!) "This Week in NHD" it is! I met with all 8th Grade US History students again yesterday and we completed a few business tasks--we logged onto NoodleTools, the website that will help us organize our sources and ideas this year, joined the Schoology 8th Grade NHD Group I made for all 8th Graders so that I can easily send every student, not just my students, information and resources, gave a brief overview of the project this year, and shared the Symbaloo Webmix I created for them.  This Webmix is going to become an essential resource. The necessary resources are all in a user-friendly format, color-coded and organized for ease of use. I will add tiles to the mix as the need arises and I look...

Our first foray into preparing for National History Day went really well last week. I saw every 8th Grader throughout the day for a mini-lesson and front loading the topic with the students was definitely the way to proceed! The Explain Everything worked really well and afforded students the opportunity to brainstorm without worrying about the specifics of the contest--they could just spend some time thinking about US History. The image above is proof that our students do have a working knowledge of US History, my job now is to help them find topics that fit the theme and that have primary sources to support their eventual theses. Another critical role for me is to make sure the student finds a topic they are passionate about. I always need to remember this learning journey is based on Genius Hour. They will spend many hours researching and learning about their topic, it must be something they care about. My task this week is to introduce the main components of the project, th...