Monday, September 18, 2017

Regions of the U.S. and Tornado Alley

Today we discussed the major geographic regions of the United States and discussed a bit about the climate of each. I touched on the fact that we are in central Texas which is considered the southern edge of an area known as "Tornado Alley." This area encompasses most of the Great Plains region and sees more tornados than any other area on earth.

After the initial discussion, I showed a short video that detailed the terrible F5 tornado that struck Jarrell 20 years ago. Jarrell is only 25-30 miles south of us and the video makes quite an impression. I have included a link to the video below (I did show the first 2-3 minutes without the sound on as the filmography uttered a couple of profanities. These words were NOT broadcast to the class).

I have also attached a short video of an elementary social studies teacher mapping out the regions of the United States. Students may want to refer back to this video when they start their mini-project tomorrow.




Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Chapter 4 Vocabulary Builder Worksheet

Today the students were assigned the Vocabulary Builder worksheet for Chapter 4. They were given most of the period to complete the worksheet. The assignment is due at the beginning of the period tomorrow (I will likely allow 10-15 minutes for the students to finish it up). The worksheet is attached below.



Monday, September 11, 2017

North America Unit Started, 9/11 Video

We started class today by watching a video on the 9/11 attacks 16 years ago. For these students, this event seems like ancient history as the event took place before they were born. We discussed the fallout from the event and how it has deeply affected our Fort Hood community with deployments to Afghanistan.

After the video, we took some brief notes over Chapter 4 - Lesson 1 over the geography of the United States. Attached below are the notes taken in class. Any student who did not finish the notes in class may print these notes off or fill in any gaps by referring to them.


Friday, September 8, 2017

Vocabulary Due, Map Activity, and Online Textbook Access

The vocabulary assignment for Chapter 1 was due today at the beginning of class. Any student who was absent today will need to be ready to turn in the assignment upon their return to class next Monday. The assignment can be found below on the post from 9/5.

In class today the students practiced their map interpretation skills and use of latitude/longitude. The students rotated between five maps and answered questions pertaining to each. Any student who was out of the classroom today will need to make arrangements to come after school and make up the assignment.

Online textbooks can be accessed by following the steps listed below:

- Go to the Killeen ISD home page
- Click the "Students & Parents" link at the top of the page
- Click on the "Learning Resources" link in the left hand margin of the page
- Click on the "McGraw Hill Online Textbook" link

These steps should take you to a log in page where a user name and a password are required. The user name is simply the letter "s" followed by your child's six digit student ID # @killeenisd.org. The password consists of the first three letters of your child's last name followed by their six digit student ID #. So, log in information for a mythical student named John Smith, who had ID #123456, would look like this:

User Name: s123456@killeenisd.org
Password: smi123456

Your child may also check out a hard copy of the textbook from the library if online access is a problem.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Welcome Back, Chapter 1 Vocabulary Assigned

Welcome to the 2017-18 school year. The first week is behind us and the students are now getting ready to go to work.

The vocabulary for Chapter 1 was assigned today. Please see the assignment and instructions below. Make sure your student has this assignment completed and turned in no later than this coming Friday.


Wednesday, May 4, 2016

South Asia Mini-Project Assigned

The students were given the instructions for their mini-project over South Asia today. The instructions for the project are attached below. We will be working on the project during class this week. The likely due date is the end of the period on Friday 5/6.


Monday, May 2, 2016

Mini-Project Over Africa Due Today, Chapter 25 Vocabulary Over South Asia Assigned

The mini-project (brochures) over Africa was due today at the beginning of class. While almost all of my students turned in this important summative grade, a few did not. This counts as a major test grade and any student receiving a grade of "0" on it will almost certainly fail for the 9 weeks. Please check with your student to make sure this important assignment was completed and turned in on time. If not, please make sure they have it ready to turn in tomorrow.

The vocabulary assignment over Chapter 25 (South Asia) was assigned today. This assignment is due at the beginning of the period tomorrow. I have attached the assignment below.