2nd Annual Blaine Rawlings Leadership in Excellence Award 2008-09

At the beginning of the school year we had a lesson about leadership and how it is necessary for civilizations to thrive.  Somebody has to step up to the challenge and call of leadership.  At the end of the school year we watched the movie Flyboys to finish our unit on WWI.  In the movie, the main character Blaine Rawlings exhibits great leadership qualities; and like bookends I have used the idea of leadership to start and end my year.  In recognition for exemplary leadershipp qualities I awarded the Blaine Rawlings Leadership in Excellence Award to the following students for 2008-09

1st Hour: Chelsie P.

2nd Hour: McKenzey B.

3rd Hour: Esai G.

4th Hour: Jazmin G.

6th Hour: Isaiah H.

A look back at 2008-09

We ended another successful school year last week at DVMS.  Here is a look back with a few pictures, and honors for those in my class.

Students of the Year:

1st hour: Anthony M.

2nd hour: John L.

3rd hour: Alyssa N.

4th hour: Deneatra W.

6th hour: Sadaf R.

4th Quarter, Week 8

2 more mondays!  Here we go…

Monday:

1. New Warm Ups
2. Conflict and War Chart
3. Place WWI events on jumbo timeline

• Homework: Bring in the lyrics to a song that you would like to transform into a WWI poem.

Tuesday

1. Turning current songs into WWI poetry

• Homework: Finish song/poem if not done in class.

Wednesday

1. WWI Stations

Thursday

1. Review

Friday

1. Clicker Quiz

4th Quarter, Week 7

Hello everybody,  We are so close to the end but are finishing strong.  We are just beginning our last unit, WWI, this week.  The kids are pretty excited to start learning about this war.

Monday:

1. New Warm Ups
2. 4 Choices for WWI Vocabulary

Tuesday

1. Creating a map of Europe in 1914

Wednesday (1/2 day)

1. The Century video on WWI

Thursday:

1. America’s entry into WWI
2. WWI Propaganda

Friday:

1. Writing WWI Poems

4th Quarter, Week 5

Here is the schedule for this week:

Monday:

1. New Warm Ups
2. 1st-2nd: VIP reading activity on acquisition of Hawaii and Alaska
3. 3rd, 4th, and 6th: Read and Sketch on acquisition of Hawaii and Alaska

Tuesday:

1. Yellow Journalism: determining fact from fiction in the media

Wednesday:

1. Timeline of the Spanish American War

• Homework for 1st and 2nd hours only: Biography of Jose Martin and Martin Poetry analysis.

Thursday:

1. Notes on the Spanish American War

Friday:

1. Rough Riders

4th Quarter, Week 4

I apologize for the break in updates. AIMS testing is now over, and I have been busy with matters of a more personal nature, so now I am back on track with updates for you. We are really heading into the home stretch of the school year now! Hard to believe! Here is the schedule for the 4th week of the 4th quarter:

Monday:

1. New Warm Ups
2. 15 minutes to work on review sheet for Progressive Era
3. Jeopardy Review

• Homework: Review for quiz with handout from today

Tuesday

1. Reform Era Quiz with Clickers

Wednesday (1/2 Day):

1. Begin Imperialism Unit
2. Map of US Imperialist Colonies

Thursday:

1. Notes: 3 reasons for US Expansion Overseas

• Homework: Should the US be an imperialistic nation?  Why or why not?

Friday

1. Imperialism video

4th Quarter, Week 1

Time is flying!  I cannot believe we are beginning the 4th quarter this week.  This is exciting and we need to remember to “Aim high, stay strong, and finish strong!” 🙂

Here is this week’s schedule:

Monday:

1. New Warm Ups
2. Review immigration unit

Tuesday:

1. Booker T. Washington Vs. W.E.B. Dubois debate

Wednesday:

1. Clicker Quiz

Thursday and Friday (1st, 2nd, 3rd hours on Thursday, 4th, 5th, and 6th hours, on Friday).

1. Video

3rd Quarter, Week 6

Hi everybody, here is the information and schedule for the week:

Progress Reports will be going home this week.  They will include two quizzes and two units worth of work.  We are currently working on our 3rd unit this quarter: the Industrial Revolution. 🙂

Pre-Ap classes are working on a photo essay using PowerPoint to compare and contrast technology from the Industrial Revolution to now, the Technological Revolution.  We will be spending some time in the lab and the students are to be taking photos of technology in use in 4 different categories:  Work/school, communication, transportation, and entertainment.  They are off to a good start. 🙂

Monday:

1. Reading the children’s book “The Bobbin Girl”
2. Notes: Why the Industrial Revolution occurred when it did.

Tuesday:

1. Pre-AP: Computer lab for photo essay projects
2. 3rd, 4th, and 6th:  Chapter 20 vocabulary
3. The Business Cycle and the board game “Monopoly”

• Pre-AP Homework: Chapter 20 vocabulary

Wednesday:

The impact of the Transcontinental Railroad

1. Pre-AP: Building a 4 car railroad showing the economic, political, geographic, and social causes and effects of the Transcontinental Railroad
2. 3rd, 4th, and 6th Hours:  Categorizing the causes and effects of the Transcontinental Railroad

Thursday:

1. Comparing and Contrasting the Impact of Individuals in the Industrial Revolution:  Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Jay Gould; Mother Jones and Jane Addams.
2. Slideshow on the Gilded Age

• Homework: Philanthropy writing assignment

Friday:

1. Stations: History Challenge!

3rd Quarter, Week 3

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day everybody.  We are having a good time learning about many of the details and aspects of the Civil War by watching it come to life in “Glory” right now.  We started it last week and will finish it this week.  Made 20 years ago it is still a powerful, moving, and inspirational movie, which Denzel Washington won the Oscar for best actor in a supporting role. 

Students had homework last friday to answer 5 questions about what we had seen in “Glory” so far and it is due Tuesday.

Here is what is happening this week:

Monday: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, have a good day off

Tuesday:

1. New Warm Ups
2.  “Glory”

• Homework: Written Response to Glory

Wednesday: Begin Reconstruction:

1. 1st and 2nd Hour: VIP (Very Important Point Readding Exercise).
2. 3-6th: Notes 
3. Lego Model

Thursday:

1. History Challenge:  Reconstruction

Friday:

1. Review Stations
2. Vocabulary Game

And We Have A Winner!

The 2nd Annual Deer Valley Middle School Geogrpahy Bee was held on January 15, 2009.  We had 14 competitors and went through all 7 preliminary rounds to get down to 2 finalists.  Our two finalists were Dejan U. and Nicky B.  In the Final Round the score was tied after two questions and Nicky became our school winner on the third Final Round Question.   Congratulations Nicky!  All of our competitors put a lot of time and effort into preparing and I commend them for all of their hard work!