Two for One

CWI

You have just finished your second current events assignment and should start to feel more confident on what is expected. Students who earn high grades in this class are the ones who consistently do the current events assignment and try to exceed the standard. You have the rubric and a list of helpful hints so you should be successful. If you have been asked to revise, take this opportunity and make the necessary improvements and return it the next class period.

You do not need a computer to do this assignment. Late work is not acceptable and since you have ample time to do the assignment excuses such as “I ran out of paper...or ink” will not excuse you from the assignment. Plan ahead....use the public library if you are short on supplies or lack internet access at home. You can do this assignment!

Your next current event is due October 5 (yes, this is during the NECAP testing week but it is still due that day). Your current event must have some link to one or more of the world’s religions. This coming week we will be talking about religions of the world and you will quickly see that many of our international conflicts are rooted in religion.

In addition to our current events from students, we also watched ABC News. We saw President Obama speaking before the United Nations and heard about the four main issues he was tackling: trying to restart peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis; helping reduce global warming; aiding Africa and avoiding a trade war with China. If you watch the evening news on a regular basis you will find the discussion in CWI much more meaningful.

This past week you also had your first announced quiz on the Five Themes of Geography. Most of you did a great job. The quiz was a mix of objective questions (only one correct answer) and open ended questions (a variety of responses are acceptable as long as you give evidence or reasons).

We also did an exercise on values...those beliefs that are especially important to you and to our country (periods A, B, and E). Keep these values in mind as you select your current events and write about the significance of the story.

We also had a geography worksheet activity that gave you the opportunity to get to know the text that we will be using. Hopefully our books will arrive shortly and you will be given a text. You discovered that the front of the book has a mini atlas of both physical and political maps. You also discovered that each unit has detailed maps of the regions we will be studying, and finally the index gives you a quick way to access locations that you may not be familiar with.

We ended the week with a note-taking strategy: bold to bold notes. This system of note taking focuses on the big ideas of each section and allows us to learn new vocabulary. We don’t want to get bogged down in details. Understanding the context will make it easier to see why certain facts are important. Next week we will continue our discussion of culture and focus on religions from around the world.

Finally, we set up our portfolios this week. Each student must keep a pocket folder of work in the class bin. Your folder must contain all of your graded work and the status of assignment sheet. This is our way of keeping organized and monitoring your grade.

World History

We have gone from the Greeks to the Muslims, the Italian Renaissance and now the European Renaissance in these first few weeks of class. We have been using our guided reading questions from the text, primary source readings and art to help us better understand this time period.

Last week you had your first book quiz on the Renaissance and many of you did a great job. You will get your quizzes back next week and we will set up our portfolios where you will keep all of your work organized. You will have a status of assignment sheet that lists all of the assignments and your grades. You can thus monitor your grade on a regular basis.

Next week you will some additional time to complete your primary source reading on the importance of history. We will be spending a great deal of time using primary sources as your graduation tasks are based on documents.

Your first current events assignment is due on September 28. You have a list of helpful hints and a rubric to help guide your work. This is a fun day as we get to share the different events and hold a class wide discussion on them.

PSAT’s

It is time to sign up for the PSATs. The test gives you exposure to what the SAT’s are like and also gives you the chance to earn scholarship money. In Saturday’s Providence Journal, there is an article naming the 59 Rhode Island students who are National Merit semifinalists, and two MHS students are on the list: Patrick Fogerty and Katelyn Shouse. Congratulations to Pat and Kate, and good luck to all who sign up for the PSATs!

Thomas Burns Race

It is that time of year when we show our school spirit and honor a great teacher, friend and couch in the Thomas Burns Memorial Race. The 5K walk/run is scheduled for October 4 and registration forms are available in the office.

Open House

Our annual open house is scheduled for September 30 from 6 to 8 pm. It is a great time to share with your parents and guardians what a day at MHS is like and to show them your portfolio. I hope to see you there with your family.

Welcome

Welcome back to a new school year and to our new blog for 2009. I know the first question you may have is why I named the blog MHSCOTW. I believe that all of us should start viewing ourselves as “Citizens of the World.” If we thought of ourselves as parts of a bigger community than Middletown, or Rhode Island, or even America itself, our world would benefit. I think this global thinking would lead to less strife and more cooperation. This idea truly hit home when my son graduated from an American university and was hired by a German bank that immediately sent him to London, then on to New York City, India and Tokyo. His story is not that unusual for recent college graduates as more businesses have an international presence.

The blog is a way for us to review what we worked on during the week and to provide additional information on a variety of topics through links. You will notice that the entries include highlighted words which are active links to other sites where you can read further about a particular topic. For reasons of time and space, the blog is not an all inclusive wrap-up of the week, and because five different classes will be using the blog, it cannot provide detailed information about homework.

I hope you enjoy reading the blog. Please feel free to offer recommendations.

Contemporary World Issues (CWI)

This week we spoke about how all of our lives are affected by other countries. Just by doing a quick check of your shoes, shirts and jackets you quickly realized that most items are made overseas. Our economic and political relationship with other countries helps determine what you can purchase and what type of work our own citizens are engaged in or not engaged in.

You have been given the current events assignment and rubric. We practiced finding articles about international issues and we spoke about writing the first paragraph to summarize key facts and the second paragraph to offer your own thoughts on the subject. Just as we discussed regarding President Obama’s speech to students, you may have to overcome obstacles to do this assignment. Maybe you don’t have a paper at home... maybe you don’t have a computer or printer... maybe you work on the weekends... these are all potential obstacles, but you can surmount them. Make sure to take advantage of the school library or the public library on West Main Road. You can use this assignment to start the school year off with great success! Your assignment is due Monday.

You will find that your understanding of the issues we discuss in class will be greatly enhanced by watching the news or reading a daily paper. Next week we are scheduled to start receiving UpFront, a magazine produced by The New York Times for high school students. This is a major investment on the part of the District and I know you will appreciate having this opportunity to read a world class publication. As good thinkers and policy makers, we will also be consulting other sources, such as The Wall Street Journal, the international press, and news web sites. If you have a favorite, please bring it in and we will add it to our list of resources.

Honors World History

This week we started by reading President Obama’s speech to students. You quickly identified the key ideas of working hard and being persistent.

We also talked about the major units of study for the year. After hearing your concerns about repeating some of the material you already covered at Gaudet, the Social Studies teachers will be making some changes to better align your interests and introduce new units of study. Your ideas were very helpful as we discussed these new units.

We will do a brief overview of the Greeks and you have your 3-2-1 assignment for Chapter 5 section 1. You want to look for the 3 big ideas, make 2 connections, and come up with 1 question. This is a good reading strategy you can use in any content area.

Supplies

Each student needs to have a 3 ring binder, a pocket folder, a small box of colored pencils and pens/pencils for daily use. Please be ready with your supplies next week as we all want to work on staying organized.

In Closing

We are fortunate to be members of the Middletown school community. We have a great school with wonderful students and a supportive faculty and administration. I know we are going to have a great year. Please do not hesitate to see me if there is anything I can do to help you have a fun, safe and productive year.