Hello Class, the activity we will be working on today and tomorrow will help each of you to learn about the Civil War using pictures.  Often we just scan a picture and move on without trying to figure out why the picture was taken.

During Civil War times, people didn’t just shoot random photos as many of us do today.  The technology was relatively new and not nearly as portable as our pocket sized digital cameras today.  When a picture was taken, it was very intentional and was meant to tell a story.  Lets get started…..

Download the worksheet by right clicking this link and pressing “SAVE AS”

Save the document to your H: Drive and open it up to begin.

We will work through the picture today in chunks, so please pay close attention to my directions.

Hello students and parents, we are now wrapping up the 3rd quarter of the 2008-2009 school year.  Looking ahead to the 4th and final quarter, I just wanted to let you know what we will be covering in our class.  The topics are listed below, but you can find more detailed daily information as it happens over on the homework calendar.  Click on a date to view the details.

Topics to be explored:

1.  Causes of the Civil War

2.  Civil War

3.  Reconstruction

4.  Settlement of the West - Treatment of the Native Americans

5.  Immigration and the Industrial Age - (This will only be a preview, but will be covered in depth in high school classes)

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me:  dsimonsen@swcrk.org

Take Advantage because I don’t give too many offers like this.

Write a poem or a song and get 10-15 points extra credit

Some students in 2nd hour were really pestering me about extra credit, and they suggested that they could write a song.  I like the idea….and so I said they could.  However, any song that is written must be able to be sung by someone….I suppose it doesn’t have to be you, but, you coult get a full 15 points if you’re willing to sing the song into my recorder and make yourself famous in a podcast

The subject of your song should be something from Chapter 14:

Push and Pull Factors

Reformers

Reform movements, etc.

Sing about the things you’ve learned!!

Ask me if you have questions…..the end of the marking period is near….

After reading p. 400-405 download (and save) the following document and follow the directions carefully :)

Manifest Destiny Timeline

Pages we didn’t read yet that you’ll need for the assignment:

p. 406 - Polk’s Election

p. 409 - War with Mexico

p. 412 - California Gold Rush

Hello everyone!  Due to some issues with the way my website displayed when using Internet Explorer, I have switched back to my old look.  I have my tech team (Myself and Mr. Murphy up at the High school) working to get the bugs out of the theme we’re all used to.  For the time being, this will have to do.

Check back regularly for all the class updates and the new podcasts coming soon!!

U.S. History:

Today students were given time in class to read Section 10-3 in their textbooks.  This will give them the information to complete the notes on our First Essential Question dealing with the changes in foreign relations with Britain and France over the first three presidencies.

They will also need to fill out notes on our fourth essential question which deals with the court case of Marbury v. Madison.  We covered this yesterday in class.

You can download any of the essential questions worksheets by clicking on the links below.

homework: notes on essential questions 1 & 4 will be due tomorrow.

download question 1 worksheet

download question 2 & 4 worksheet

download question 3 worksheet

Download Essential Questions 2 & 4 here

Save it to your documents and type your answers

I found this cool website in my surfing this evening…..Go ahead and view it.  I thought it was pretty cool.  It should give you an in depth view of how a person might go about becoming President…..For all you with extreme ambition out there

http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/ushistory/presidentialelection/zoom.weml

Greetings….this audio file is my first attempt to record the information that is presented in class.  Please let me know if you find it helpful at all.  I would also like to hear if you think I could make it better.

Alright….get on with the learning!!

Good news!!  I’ve submitted our podcasts to iTunes and they should be up and running with our feed in the next day or two.  If you’re in the iTunes store, click on podcasts and search for “swartz creek” or “mr. simonsen” or something like that.

You may see my old World Geography Podcast from two years ago….but that’s not yours.  Your podcast will have a nice image of an American Flag and a good old “Mr. Simonsen.com” written on it.

See you in class.