Hello,

i just wanted to take a moment to talk about late work.

Right now, all work that was turned in by Sunday night has been graded and entered.

Going forward, if you have any late assignments, as you complete them please email me to let me know you finished, this includes ilearn and ixl. Those websites don’t generate messages, so I have no way to know you finished them, and there are too many assignments and students for me to go back over and check if anyone finished them. If you don’t alert me, it won’t be graded.

To note: You MUST EMAIL ME and let me know you completed any iLearn and IXL assignments if you turn them in late.

Google classroom generates emails when you turn things in so as long as you click turn in, it will let me know.

Email me if you have any questions.

Mr. Blake

May 4 – May 8

Hello, May the 4th be with you. This week we are going to begin looking at the causes of the Civil War. First we will look at how technology starts to change. With that change in technology, there is going to begin a political change. The differences between the North and South are going to be exposed and these changes are going to push each side further and further apart politically. Finally, we will look at some of the ways society was trying to change with various reform movements. We will not have an online meeting on Monday, but this Wednesday we will be meeting on iLearn using the Big Blue Button, more directions on this will follow. 

As you may remember, my dad has been sick and I finally couldn’t wait any longer to go see him so I went up north this weekend. We had to observe social distancing which was hard, but I was glad to see my parents. Here is an image of what that looked like. 

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I know times are tough, and we are all doing our best to get through this. Keep pressing on and we will get there together. I miss you all. 

Monday: Read and annotate the reading on the Antebellum Period.

Tuesday: Complete IXL assignment: N.1 Industrial and Transportation Revolution

Wednesday: Class Meeting on iLearn, the Big Blue Button.

Thursday: Complete IXL assignment: N.2 Comparing the North and the South

Friday: Complete IXL assignment: N.3 Antebellum Reform Movements

Here is a link for The Oregon Trail game. I know some of you were struggling with the other links not working. I opened this one on a school chromebook, so hopefully you will be able to access it as well.

Remember, you have to use the keyboard to play.

Also, I will be posting a review of Western Expansion tomorrow. Please wait until after watching the video for your last attempt on the Review.

Have a great night,

Mr. Blake

April 27 – May 1

Hello, because of some poorly behaving students, Google Meets are cancelled for the immediate future. I am waiting for advice from the district and I will hopefully get some information about what can be done. If you need any help please email me. The technology department has suggested using Big Blue Button on iLearn. I have been apprehensive about that since it would be the addition of another place where you have to go to do work, however it looks like there isn’t really a way around that right now. Hopefully by the end of this week things will be setup and we will be able to transition to meeting over there.

Thank you for your patience and flexibility at this time, it is greatly appreciated. Here are your assignments for this week.

Monday: 

• Class Meeting cancelled.
• Google Classroom: Complete Day 1 of the Mexican American War assignment

Tuesday

• Google Classroom: Complete Day 2 of the Mexican-American War assignment.

Wednesday

• Class meeting cancelled.
• IXL – The US-Mexican War – https://www.ixl.com/social-studies/grade-8/u-s-mexican-war

Thursday

• Play the Oregon Trail Game – Make sure you take a screenshot of your score with your name as the main character, you will turn in your picture/screenshot on Google Classroom.
• How to play: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ECJ_SCYQEI49Xtj9eOVcernl5yizDlK9/view
• Link to game: https://classicreload.com/oregon-trail.html

Friday

• iLearn: Complete the Western Expansion Review on iLearn. You have three chances to get your best score. 

For those of you celebrating Ramadan, I wish you a very blessed month and I hope you and your families are well and peaceful.

Remember that all assignments for the week are due by 11:59 tonight.

If you need any help, I will be grading and online most of the day so please don’t hesitate to reach out.

I miss you all! Stay safe!

Mr. Blake

April 20 – April 24

Hello, here are the assignments for this week. All assignments are due by the end of the afternoon on Friday for grading. I know a couple of the assignments are going to be a review, but based on some of the scores I wanted to review them again. Please email me if you have any questions during the week. We will have video conferences on Monday and Wednesday. Monday will be an introduction to the week and a chance to review and ask questions from the week before. Wednesday’s sessions will be a chance to ask for help.

Monday:

Attend the class meeting online. (check your calendar) Click (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NQGekYgUAsK8SD-fJjjVCtSjAImqn1Om/view) to find out how
Google Classroom: Complete the Intro to Manifest Destiny assignment.

Tuesday:

Google Classroom: Complete the Louisiana Purchase assignment.

Wednesday:

IXL: Complete The Louisiana Purchase assignment on IXL. (if you already completed it, but didn’t get 100, redo).
https://www.ixl.com/social-studies/grade-8/the-louisiana-purchase

Thursday:

Google Classroom: The Trail of Tears

Friday:

IXL: Complete The Trail of Tears assignment on IXL. (if you already completed it, but didn’t get 100, redo).
https://www.ixl.com/social-studies/grade-8/indian-removal-and-the-trail-of-tears

Hello,

I wanted to send out this update before we get into the weekend so that everyone knows what is going to happen on Monday.

If you have not heard yet, you will soon, you are being asked to communicate with your Advisory teacher at least twice a week. Most advisory teachers are using Remind. Please download the app and then sign up for their Remind. Here are directions for how to sign-up. https://help.remind.com/hc/en-us/articles/203179887-Join-a-class

The codes to sign up will be posted HERE. Some teachers may also reach out by email. Please make sure you are responding.

Next week will start assignments that will be graded. I will post those assignments on Monday on this blog and on Google Classroom.

I will be meeting with you online on Mondays and Wednesdays. This will involve going over lessons, reviewing questions, and possibly just general conversation as time permits. I have created Calendar events that provide a link to the assignment. Please accept the invite when you receive it and add it to your Calendar. Your hour has a specific time and that time is limited, please make sure you are on time.

• 1st Hour – 11 – 11:20
• 2nd Hour 11:25 – 11:45
• 3rd Hour 11:50 – 12:10
• 5th Hour 12:15 – 12:35
• 6th Hour 12:40 – 1

I will go over all of this and any additional information in our Meet on Monday, please check your email for the invites.

Mr. Blake

Hello,

I hope that everyone had an excellent Spring Break.  My family celebrates Easter, since we couldn’t be with each other, we all decided to have a get together on Zoom, it was very interesting and I had a lot of fun. This week we are going to slowly change up a couple things and start to work on some more engaging activities. Going forward, we will be working on reviewing material we have covered so far this year and new material as the district gives directions. I am also going to be moving some things from Google classroom to iLearn as the need arises, I will make it clear in directions when and what that will be. Finally, I am going to be working with some individuals on specific content from this year that 

Chats will begin increasing this week. I will have weekly chats Tuesday – Friday so that I can address questions and have time to address learning needs. For now I am going to move these video chats  from Zoom to Google Hangouts.

Chat Times

Tuesdays and Thursdays

1st Hour: 10 am  – 10: 50 am

2nd Hour:  11 am – 11:50 pm

6th Hour: 12: 30 pm  – 1:20 pm

Wednesdays and Fridays

3rd 10 am  – 10:50 am

5th 11 am  – 11:50 am

Here are your assignments for this week.

Monday:

Creating Primary Sources: Spring Break under Quarantine

You will write a summary detailing what you did over Spring Break. Did you spend time with family? What did you do? Games? Food? How did you spend your free time? There should be a paragraph for every day of the week. The assignment will be posted on Google classroom and is due by Friday.

Tuesday: Causes of the American Revolution: the French and Indian War

Work on Spring Break under Quarantine

Wednesday: Causes of the American Revolution: politics and society

Work on Spring Break under Quarantine

Thursday: Causes of the American Revolution: introduction to mercantilism and the Navigation Acts

Work on Spring Break under Quarantine

Friday: Causes of the American Revolution: new taxes and colonial response

Work on Spring Break under Quarantine

Please make sure that you hit the turn in button when you are finished with the Spring Break Primary Source assignment.

Hello,

I am grading extra credit and finalizing grades. Please check emails for alerts and make sure you completed any quiz you may have missed. If you didn’t get an email, you didn’t miss a quiz. If you already responded, thank you.

Last call for any missing assignments. If you completed something online and didn’t alert me, ALERT ME. Don’t email me Wednesday asking why I didn’t put in your score from an online assignment that was due a month ago and you just finished Thursday.

So this week we are going to shift gears for a little bit and start incorporating Economics into our lessons in preparation of learning about the Civil War. Economic differences between the North and the South is going to be one of the biggest causes to the war. The South’s reliance on Slavery and the North’s apprehension to it and their focus on industry are going to create two very different economies in the United States at this time. This weeks lessons are going to focus on the changes that are going to lead up to the war: The Antebellum period.

Before you work on any materials this week, watch the video below.

Here are the assignments for the week.

Monday: N.1 Industrial and Transportation Revolutions and E.1 What is Economics

Tuesday: E.2 Costs and Benefits Wednesday and E.3 Opportunity Costs

Wednesday: N.2 Comparing the North and the South E.4 Trade and Specialization

Thursday: N.3 Antebellum Reform Movements

Friday: N.5 Slavery in the South  and E.5 What is a market?

I know that I seem to be upping my workload a little bit, just do your best and try to do work everyday.

I will be conferencing Wednesday and Thursday this week. Third, Fifth and Sixth hours will meet on Wednesday. First and Second will meet on Thursday. I will post times later today on Google Classroom.

As always, email me with questions.

Mr. Blake