Mr Kerry's History and Beyond!

Wow the last full five day week is behind us! Summer is knocking on the door.

8th grade has begun The Civil war! We have talked in great length about the many causes of The Civil war, now we will get into some details about the battles itself

7th grade is right in the middle of Medieval Times. They are working on a research project/presentation about a topic of their choosing during the Medieval Era.

STEM Apps has begun the building process for their cardboard carnival games. I am seeing some really cool ideas and as they come together ill provide photos.

Hello everyone!

The days are getting longer and the school calendar shorter!

 

8th grade has just finished up Antebellum America and will be starting The Civil War next week. They just finished up a new style of assignment in class that made them use analogies to explain events.

 

7th grade has ended the unit on The Mongols and we started talking about Medieval Times! I will be introducing their project for this unit possbly tomorrow or monday. They should be wrapping up a graphic organizer based on the daily life of different groups in Medieval Times

 

STEM Apps shifted gears and we are participating in a Cardboard Carnival for the 5th graders in Howe. They have been split into groups of three and tasked with creating a carnival game made of mostly cardboard. Each game must have at least 2 simple machines involved in the design. May 31st we will open the carnival to the 5th graders and let them try their luck!

Happy monday everyone! i hope those that observe had a wonderful Easter.

 

8th grade is currently finishing up their projects and unit on Westward Expansion. This includes the Oregon Trail and events that led up to the Civil War. This week we will begin the Antebellum period of US History which is the time right before The Civil War.

 

7th grade is in Mongol territory. We are learning how the massive expanse that was The Mongol Empire shaped Europe and Asia’s future. I love teaching this unit as everything we learned about previous civilizations and empires takes a backseat as The Mongols tried things their own way.

 

STEM Apps is plugging right along in their animation and game design unit. The students finished up a project that involved making a personal greeting card that moved in so way when you interacted with it.

Happy spring break everyone!

 

The 3rd card marking has ended and we are in the home stretch.

 

8th grade has begun a unit long project about Westward Expansion and The Oregon Trail. I got to relive my middle schools years with both classes as we played the old Oregon Trail game for part of the assignment.

 

7th Grade has begun learning about the first of the three major empires in West Africa, Ghana. This unit focus a lot on cultural diffusion and the accomplishments of West Africa that many of us never learned in school. It is a personal favorite of mine.

 

STEM Apps has been working deeper with coding learning abotu animation and basic games. By the end of the unit they will each develop their own game and our animation.

 

Have a great vacation everyone!

Happy Pi Day to all!

 

8th grade has finished up their research project on Andrew Jackson and we have begun talking about the reform movements during the 1800s in America. These include temperance, mentally ill/jail reform, women’s rights, abolition, labor, and education reform.

7th grade is plugging along on both their personal financial planning lessons in prep for the field trip in two weeks as well as World Religions. We finished up Hinduism today and begin Christianity. Next week we will delve into Islam and Judaism core belief systems and history.

STEM Apps have been super productive in their website coding! The class really seems to be loving this project and are really putting out some amazing work.

 

We will have our Pi Day celebration today with photos to come of each of the participating teachers getting a pie in the face as long as the weather holds!

 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

Hello everyone. Hope this week finds you all well!

This week in Mr. Kerry’s class 7th grade is continuing through their econ/personal financial planning lessons in preparation for a field trip at the end of the month. More details about that will be coming home soon. We are also learning about World Religions in between these lessons. This is one of my favorite units in the 7th grade curriculum!

8th grade is working on a project for their summative assignment about Andrew Jackson. They have been tasked to provide evidence for why Jackson was viewed as a hero to some and a villain by others. They will have to use this evidence to make their own decision about Jackson.

 

STEM apps began the basics of coding in html today. Wer have a guest speaker coming friday. He is a personal friend of mine that works for Oakland University as one of their web site designers. He will be talking to them about his career, basics of web design, show them some easy coding, and answering questions.

 

Have a great week everyone!

Wow! February is over. Spring should hopefully show its face soon.

 

I am really excited for this month as 7th grade starts an economy unit with many life skills involved in the lessons. Career paths, taxes, incom, paycheck, insurance, financial responsibility, etc. We will also be starting our World Religions unit in between Econ lessons.

 

8th grade is wrapping up The Age of Andrew Jackson. We covered the tragic events of the Trail of Tears today. The students will be working on a project to determine if they feel Andrew Jackson was a hero or a villain in history.

 

STEM Apps has finished up their app design project and we begin webpage development. By the end of the unit each student will have created her or his own two page webpage.

 

 

Hello everyone! I hope that your mini vacation was relaxing and nice.

8th grade has finished up the War of 1812 and are closing out a mini-unit on The Era of Good Feeling. They are working on a document based question (DBQ) pack that will provide them with content for their summative assignment. Next we introduce Andrew Jackson.

7th grade is closing out Ancient Rome. We started a an interactive whole class assignment where the students take on the role of a Roman emperor and attempt to stop the empire from falling.

STEM Apps has been working on ideas for a phone/tablet app of their choice that solves a problem. They will be presenting their apps to the class “gallery walk” style thursday.

Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of communication. Those snow days and NWEA testing really pushed my schedule around. We are trying to make up for lost time.

 

7th Social Studies has finished up The Ancient Greeks. We talked about the rise of science, philosophy, and art in Athens as well as the use of power and might in Sparta. We talked about The Persian Army’s bad luck in trying to capture the Greek settlements and the stories behind the major battles. We move on to The Romans next!

 

8th Social Studies is wrapping up The War of 1812. We covered some of the major battles and important people of the battle and how Andrew Jackson rose to fame because of it. The students know why we went to war and what reasons others were opposed to war. A brief stroll through The Era of Good Feelings is next and on to the presidency of Andrew Jackson.

 

STEM Apps we are working on problem solving and the usage of apps to helps make life easier. We are talking about inputs, outputs, and processing in relation to how an app solves a problem. This will culminate with the students proposing their own app idea for solving a problem with a presentation of their idea.

Hello everyone!

Hopefully everyone is having a good NWEA second week.

Last week 8th grade started The War of 1812. We will be studying causes, arguments for/against, and learning about the usage of propaganda during the war. We will compare/contrast the propaganda with the current usage of propaganda in our lives.

7th grade is learning about Ancient Greece and how they influenced future civilizations, especially America. We are talking a lot about political structures and how new ideas shape a people.

STEM Apps is digging into how proper decisions can be made to create the best out come possible. This will help in all of their projects from here on out in every class.

 

Have a wonderful week! Hopefully we warm up and that snow melts away soon.