Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Let's say what we mean, or nothing at all.

I didn't see Mr. Boyle for an entire week! The Monday after the long weekend we dropped, meaning it had been a whole seven days since we last met. That far back is hazy, so I guess I'm glad I don't have to remember what we did in History class that day.

Yesterday was dedicated to our slave friend Dred Scott. Our very hoarse History teacher gave us an article to read and questions to answer about his trial. Once he had completed this, we made sure we had a basic understanding of what we had read - that sounded really posh. In actuality, we just talked about how how the times effected his loss to his master.

At the very end of the previous class we started to talk about Steven Douglas and Abraham Lincoln. I guess you could call this foreshadowing, since that's what we were learning about today. We watched a scene from the black and white movie, "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" that showed the debate between the two. Once we got over the fact that, no, they were not the actual people, and yes, this was a recreation we were able to understand their arguments. Enough to fill in a sheet even.

What amazing adventures will transpire (I love that word, almost as much as 'autodrefrenistrate') tomorrow? Huh?

To add onto this enthralling (also a great word) blog post, I'm going to talk about my 30 Day Challenge, which, actually, hasn't turned out to be a challenge at all. It's easy to tell people what you like about them.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Let's discuss, discuss, and discuss some more.

Ok, let me start out with a formal written apology. Homecoming has been screwing me up, and I got confused as to what day it was. I swore I blogged on Friday, but I guess not. In order for my blogging days to remain the same, you get a triple blogpost today.

All the way back Friday we got our promised discussion on Uncle Tom's Cabin, the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe. We talked about the Fugitive Slave Act and the basic plot line of the story, before he handed out copies of one of the chapters. For the rest of class, we got to read about the escaped slave Eliza (not my friend Eliza, another Eliza) and some everyday psychopathic slave owners who were trying to get her back without mauling her.

We got back on Monday for a Uncle Tom's Cabin refresher, yet it was postponed four fifteen minutes while we all went into MLA format overload. Mr. Boyle did his 'it's okay' thing and extended the deadline to the end of the unit. We could then resume talking about how the book had an impact on the upcoming civil war.

Yesterday we had History lunch period again, and the first half of class we read and answered questions about some articles pertaining to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and some violent actions that people did in order to get their point across - John Brown and machete-ing people to death, anyone? When we got back from lunch we went over them with Mr. Boyle.

Today, well, today we were notably history-less.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Let's make political decisions.

It feels like forever since I blogged ... not like, posted, since that was yesterday, but actually blog blogged. If you know what I'm trying to convey.

Yesterday we talked a lot about the Missouri Compromise and the Mexican War. At the very beginning of class, we all took out the worksheets that we completed last Friday. And then - voila! - the same map appeared on the projector, like magic or something. Or technology. Whatever. Mr. Boyle explained how they needed to keep a balance between free and slave states, and how they came to the agreement that the 36'30 line would represent the split between the slave territory and free territory.

I left class shortly after we split into groups to read what different textbooks had to say on the Mexican War, which followed the Missouri Compromise. This ;ed us into class today, where we spent the first half watching a video about the Mexican War, featuring a woman who spoke very quickly. Not ideal for taking notes. Follwing this was a quickie quiz (alliteration, score).

We got back from lunch and discussed the nation's problems some more, and we had to come to our own decisions. It some cases it looked like we had overestimated our founding fathers, as, for at least trying to decide what to do with the territory, they chose to do absolutely nothing.

What other great decisions lie in our nation's future? Stay tuned to find out.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Let's root for antislavery (like Lincoln.)

Once upon a time there was a girl, a girl who was trying to record her VoiceThread. She tried and tried desperately for her recording to work, but no matter what she did, it would not let her record an acceptable audio response to her pictures of Abraham Lincoln. Therefore, the sad girl had to type out her comments into VoiceThread instead so she could get it in one time.

Based on a true story. Those are the scariest, no?



https://voicethread.com/share/3695213/

Friday, November 9, 2012

Let's read about "Black Moses."

You can't think about slavery for more than ten minutes without getting depressed, and if you don't, then you must have some very good reason why the thought of millions of people forced into pitiful lives doesn't make you at least have a twinge of misery.

That was very poetic, was it not? It kind of sums up my thoughts on this unit. Yesterday we watched and took notes from another powerpoint, this time revolving around the Underground Railroad and how many slaves escaped to Canada for a better life. We were given excerpts from several different American history textbooks, about what they had to say on the Underground Railroad. Very different things, as it turns out.

Today, for a change of scenery, we walked down to the library computer lab to read up on the Missouri Compromise, using maps. Even though one of the worksheets wasn't map based ... hmmm ...

As for my thirty day challenge, it hasn't turned out into much of a 'challenge' surprisingly. It's so easy to just walk up to someone and say the first nice thing that pops into your head. Why more people don't do it, I don't know.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Let's vote (but not really).

It feels like just yesterday that I was blogging, but hey, time flies when you're talking about the cruel lives of slaves during the 1850's. Oh wait, that isn't the saying, now is it?

Yesterday - Election Day, for all of you living under a rock - we finished going over the people whose biographies we received. In those same groups, we were also given the task of reading through certain parts of the Constitution to decide whether or not it supported slavery, the same way Frederick Douglass did oh so many years ago. This took the rest of the class period, along with everyone voting for their candidates.

Over the course of the night, many of us realized that the paper Mr. Boyle gave us mentioned a writing assignment, causing several heart attacks. He started class by explaining it, and from there we moved into the roots of slavery in the South, like the start of the Industrial Revolution and the need for cotton. And cotton gins. Can't forget the cotton gins.

Insert more document reading and sharing notes here.

As for my thirty day challenge today, I complimented five people, at least. I lost track this morning when I complimented at least five people in a row. So ... progress.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Let's ramble about crackers.

I know, I know, everyone (meaning you, Eliza, the only one whose following me) must be devestated that I haven't blogged in, oh, a week. Between Hurricane Sandy and our integrated projects there just wasn't the time. And tech week. We can't forget tech week.

Since we finished our unit on the Revolution, it looked like on Friday we were jumping right into a new one on slavery. To mentally prepare ourselves, Mr. Boyle had us watch an enlightening Ted Talks video on a woman who photographed slavery in modern day. As Chelsea informed us, "a picture is worth a thousand words."

We were then split into groups based on whatever reading we received. You guessed it, we had to read and summarize, along with putting it in a storyboard. My group recieved "Childhood," a excerpt about the childhood of a girl born a slave. She truely brought to light that ignorance is bliss, since she seemed completely content with her childhood, her mistress, and spent a lot of the time going into great detail about her grandmother's cracker making process. Yes, crackers. Lots of crackers. You can even see my love artistic interpretation of crackers and cracker making on the storyboard.

Today we filled out a Ven (or Ben) Diagram about the three different readings from the day before, before getting split again into different groups, based on whose biographies we had. Lucky, lucky me, I got Frederick Douglass, someone who I had already been acquainted with - I'm reading his book, maybe?

On an almost completely unrelated note, Mr. Boyle is having us start a 30 Day Challenge. Exciting, right? I've decided for my challenge to be to compliment at least five people a day, for thirty days. You'll be getting progress on my challenge every other day (ish.)