Let's make travel brochures.

I was sick yesterday, so I really can't elaborate on what we did. All I know is that I have notes to copy and that it had to do with the Civil War.

Today we made travel brochures in the form of a very long scroll. It's like a ... troll. Hahaha, get it? Nope? Okay. We were split into two groups, one reading up on the battle at Gettysburg and another learning about Vicksburg. Once we answered all the questions using our devices, we inscribed them on our long piece of paper.

Let's watch Mr. Boyle get maniacal.

Yes, you read that correctly. Mr. Boyle is maniacal. He gets far too much enjoyment out of playing "devil's advocate" and setting us off on wild debates that ultimately lead to some greater meaning. Hm.

Why do I say this, you ask? Today, when we were talking about habeaus corpus, he hadus determine whether or not we would agree with it's suspension in different situations. That would lead to questioning - "And why did you choose that? Hm? HM?" - and a very involved class discussion.

The day before we were sent on a Scavenger Hunt to learn about the battles of the Civil War. We scanned them (which took a while, for us) and then found the answers as to which famous battle they were talking about.

Shouldn't the thirty day challenge be over by now? Hmm.

Let's rock some history talks.

If this blog post was an 1850's novel, the title would be "A Brief Summary of the Life and Times of Mr. Boyle's History Class." Summarized in my 'post title' as 'let's rock some history talks.'

Yesterday was dedicated to reading Lincoln's aunagural address, since before lunch we read it, and after lunch we discussed it. Mr. Boyle handed out some questions for us to answer about it, which he then asked us later in the period. They mainly focused on Abe's feelings, like any good therapy session should.

Today we took a field trip all the way down to the computer lab, where we divvied up a GoogleDocs presentation about the advantages the North and South had.  We will then use this to write an essay later in life. A week from now, more specifically.

Let's blog ... obviously.

History class has been same old, same old recently. Nothing really exciting to report. Which explains my same old, same old title, right?

Yesterday in class we recapped what we talked about at the end of last unit, how South Carolina and the rest of the south seceded from the union.  We read what Abraham Lincoln had to say about this. Fun fact of the day: he has the second-most amount of books written about him. Right after Jesus. Who would have thought.

Today we also read documents, this time being split into groups based on which ones we received. We all had to read the one that talked about why South Carolina left the union, and half the class had to read mine, which was Lousiana's reasons as to why the Republican party was conspiring against them.

Yup, I know you were enthralled by this lack-luster review of my last two days. Yup.

Let's marvel at the beauty of my timeline.

Here it is. Marvel at will.

Let's breck the ridge.

Let's mix it up a bit. Not a lot, mind you, just a bit. Rather than stick to the norm and go today yesterday, I'm going to yesterday today. I know. Scandalous.

Today was our EdCafe, an event everyone almost completely forgot about. All of us, however, were experts on our people after making our VoiceThreads, so it was all good. It followed normal EdCafe format, except to choose who presented he drew slips of paper at random. We then had to explain to our group why our person was the most important. This led to some great discussions.

Yesterday was devoted to learning about the election of 1860, with my man Abraham Lincoln. He ran against Stephan Douglas, John C. Breckenridge, and John Bell for presidency, and won the majority of the electoral votes. They managed to show all this information into one political cartoon, which we spent a lot of time talking about.

As for my thirty day challenge, well, yeah. It's fine. Per usual.

Let's read testimonies.

This is the, what, second time I've forgotten to blog in two weeks. And this time I have no excuse. Looks like I just have to summarize the past two days and my thirty day challenge and be done with it.

Thursday - gosh, it feels like a long time ago - we talked more about John Brown. The guy who beat people with machetes. Great guy, huh? His demise turned out to be during an attack on the federal armory, which failed. He was tried and convicted in Virginia, where he was found guilty and hanged. We were given some primary source documents to convert into chart form.

Yesterday we had a substitute, and were given packets to work on. Automatically, everybody clumped into groups to work on it, reading aloud and such. It's main content was excerpts from documents and questions, which didn't turn out to be that bad.

As for the thirty day challenge, there's not much to report. I've resorted to stranger compliments then usual - "You are a sunflower in a field of sunshine and butterflies" - but still, five a day.