The past two weeks have been very engaging in American History Class. Students have been investigating one of my favorite topics in American History, the Early Republic. Names like George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton have been the topics of discussion in the majority of these lessons. In addition to these famous founding fathers, students used an iBook to investigate the Whiskey Rebellion. Several years ago, I created the iBook on the Whiskey Rebellion in order for students to learn more about local history. Individuals like John Neville, Oliver Miller, David Bradford, and Albert Gallatin were all mentioned in the Whiskey Rebellion iBook. The iBook contained several videos, interactive images & maps, concept check questions, and 3D images. Students also used eBackpack, Google Earth, and other applications to enhance their study of the Whiskey Rebellion. Students also participated in a sequencing activity on portions of the iBook. The students used the iBook to judge George Washington and his administrations response to the Whiskey rebels. Hamilton’s Report on Public Credit and national bank were also topics that were examined. Students worked together to complete a concept map on Alexander Hamilton’s financial plans for the young country. The students used their knowledge of Hamilton and his financial plans to link different aspects of the plan. At first the tasked appeared to be daunting, but once the students got started it was great to see the students apply their knowledge on the topics. Students also got the chance to role-play as advisers to President Washington. I presented the students with several challenges that faced President Washington and used the Poll Everywhere application to project the students’ advice to the President. The challenges involved the Whiskey Rebellion, conflicts with Native Americans, and issues pertaining to Great Britain and France. It was very interesting how the students created solutions to these problems, and that many of the solutions were similar to how President Washington responded to these difficult challenges. Class periods also participated in Mr. Hartnett’s Key-Concept Matching March Madness Competition. I created 60 topics with descriptions that have been recently presented to the students. Students worked as a complete class period to correctly match the concept(s) with the descriptions. I timed each class period and added a five second penalty for every wrong match. Congratulations to American History Period 2 for the winning time of 4:19 seconds! Irish Culture Day was celebrated on St. Patrick’s Day. The students were taught how to do several steps of an Irish River Dance. Students also participated in a Kahoot competition that pertained to different aspects of Irish Culture. Finally, students had the chance try out Irish Road Bowling. The students were taught the rules and lingo of the Irish Road Bowling and put their skills to the test outside on a course that went around Elizabeth Forward Middle School. For anyone that would like to check the presentations from the past two weeks, please check out these out below: Section 8-1 Emaze Section 8-2 Prezi Section 8-3 Near Pod
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Over the past two weeks students, have been acting as founding fathers in a simulation pertaining to the Constitutional Convention. Students were assigned actual members of the Constitutional Convention and first used the Teaching American History website to research their founding father. For example, students could have been Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, or Benjamin Franklin. Students used the Ed Puzzle App to become more familiar with the issues that faced the country under the Articles of Confederation. Students then worked with delegates from their region to investigate the types of constituents they would represent at the Constitutional Convention. Students represented specific individuals, such as farmers, merchants, and plantation owners. The students, also known as delegates, worked with other delegates from their region to develop stances on the burning issues that faced the young United States under the Articles of Confederation. Some of these issues dealt with slavery, the slave trade, representation, war bonds, debts, and the type of government that would work best for the nation. The delegates worked together create proposals that were then shared with the all of the delegates. The actual Constitutional Convention was held in the EFMS auditorium. The delegates went on stage and began to form compromises with the other delegates. The delegates did their best to create compromises that would work best for their region, but also help solve some of the burning issues. The delegates did an excellent job in all of my class periods! I was very impressed by the compromises made and how the students were able to present their arguments to the other delegates. In addition to the Constitutional Convention, students utilized the Smithsonian Learning Lab tool to investigate American History through pieces of art. To introduce this Artful Thinking lesson, I had students use thinking-routines developed by Harvard University’s Project Zero. The thinking-routines that were used were the “see-think-wonder” and “explanation game” routine. Both routines require students to closely observe works of art and to contemplate the observations they make. The pieces of art that students observed were “Watson & the Shark” and “War News from Mexico”. Researchers from the Smithsonian observed the lesson and were very impressed with the work done by Team 8-1 students! This past week, students compared the compromises that they formed at the Team 8-1 American History Constitutional Convention with the actual Constitutional Convention of 1787. It was very interesting that some class periods formed compromises that were very similar to the compromises made at the actual Constitutional Convention. Following the convention, students were introduced to specific features of the Constitution, including federalism and checks & balances. Students also went on a virtual field trip via Near Pod to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. To prepare for the Chapter Seven Exam, students participated in a review that used a wide-arrange of iPad application. Students used Kahoot, Brain Rush, Socrative, Quizziz, and Quizalize to prepare for the Chapter Seven Exam. Next week, students will be investigating the Whiskey Rebellion, which is full of local history! Have a great weekend everyone! |
Mr. Steve Hartnett
Mr. Hartnett will update the Room 212 Blog with classroom updates on a regular basis. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @ MrHartnett212 Archives
July 2019
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