Welcome students and parents! I am really excited for the new year to begin and look forward to getting to know each and every one of you. This year, I promise, there will not only be a lot of learning being accomplished, but there will also be a lot of fun as we get to know each other. Please take a moment to read this page. It gives a brief summary on what is expected this year, as well as a way to get to know me better. If you have any questions or concerns during the school year, please do not hesitate to email me!
The Four MAJOR Units
For each quarter expect ONE unit test, ONE major project, weekly quizzes, weekly electronic portfolio pages, current events, and other small homework assignments! Best advice to you--use your class time and study hall time wisely. You are ALWAYS more than welcome to come to my class during 4th AND 10th period study hall.
The most important thing to know is that my classroom is pretty much 100% paperless. All of my assignments are uploaded to Google Classroom. Students will become very familiar with the ins and outs of this classroom by the end of the year. One of the many things I like about Google Classroom, is that it emails the students when I post an assignment. If your child does not have internet access at home, please email me. We will make sure they are coming in during study hall.
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Throughout the school year students will be expected to create an electronic portfolio that displays, not only the content they learned in World Studies, but also the work they produced in their other classes. This will be a yearlong project and hopefully students will understand the benefit of their portfolio and add to it each year. The learning goals of the electronic portfolios: 1. To show student growth 2. To help students reflect on their learning 3. To celebrate student success 4. To help students gain familiarity with using different sources of technology
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Students will be expected to use a variety of media to display their work. My classroom is, pretty much, paperless. Very rarely, students will turn in anything that is a hard copy. Gone are the poster boards! Away with printing out essays and turning them in to me. Students share everything with me via Google Classroom. Since, everything is digital in my classroom and I am no expert when it comes to EVERY media creator on the internet, I expect students to empower themselves and discover/teach themselves media they find on the internet. Of course, I will help them troubleshoot but I want them to take the initiative and discover new ways to demonstrate their learning in my classroom. Why write an essay when you can create a digital story on the topic? Why do a PowerPoint when you can create a mini-movie on the content? The internet is your oyster, you have the ability and freedom to create anything and discover everything.
I am a firm believer in teaching students how to properly use social media in ways that will benefit them in other ways than socializing with their friends and posting random thoughts. If we don't teach them NOW, I worry that the digital footprint they leave behind will haunt them. In some ways I am glad social media was NOT around when I was in school but I also think to myself, how cool would it have been to have an entire digital diary of my middle school years to look back on.
To help students learn how to use social media in a proper way, I have a teacher account on both apps. On my Instagram account, which is PRIVATE, I will post pictures of what we are doing in the classroom, as well as homework assignments and random historical memes. If students have an Instagram account I will encourage them to take pictures of the life that is around them and record their moments, rather than take a bunch of pictures of themselves in a mirror making a duck face!
There is also a Learwood Twitter account and a Learwood Instagram account that I run. Both of these highlight student activities and communicate news to parents and students. I highly recommend following my classroom and school accounts! It will make your time at Learwood even more enjoyable!
To help students learn how to use social media in a proper way, I have a teacher account on both apps. On my Instagram account, which is PRIVATE, I will post pictures of what we are doing in the classroom, as well as homework assignments and random historical memes. If students have an Instagram account I will encourage them to take pictures of the life that is around them and record their moments, rather than take a bunch of pictures of themselves in a mirror making a duck face!
There is also a Learwood Twitter account and a Learwood Instagram account that I run. Both of these highlight student activities and communicate news to parents and students. I highly recommend following my classroom and school accounts! It will make your time at Learwood even more enjoyable!