Letter Home with Progress Report #2 Sept. 24, 2012

                                                                                                            September 21, 2012

Dear Parents and Guardians,

On the opposite side of this sheet is your son/daughter’s progress report. In class we recently finished a unit on Megacities. These are the 21 cities in the world that have populations larger than 10 million people. We watched a few short clips that illustrated the differences between life in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tokyo, Japan, Shanghai, China, London, UK and Mexico City, Mexico. The students compared and contrasted the cities’ differences and similarities. In class we discussed how many of the first-world megacities can learn from those of the third world and vice versa. The mini-unit helped the students see an unfamiliar to them way of life. If you are interested in watching the documentary it is called Andrew Marr’s Megacities and is available streaming from Amazon.com.

This week we are going to start a unit analyzing early human migrations from Prehistory to 1000 BC. Students will be able to identify the difference between BC and AD (Which is now called CE for “Common Era”). As a class we will be studying four river valley civilizations, the Mesopotamia, Nile, Indus and Huang He. The students will use their five themes of geography to analyze each of these civilizations.

I mentioned to the students that I am collecting used tennis balls to put on the legs of the chairs and desks to protect the floor, if you have any please send them with your student.

On the Progress Report, if a grade is shown as a 59, it was NOT turned in to me by your child. If a grade is shown as a 60, the actual grade scored by your child was BELOW a 60.

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Thanks for your time,

Mr. Grove

grovety(at )hickoryschools.net

828-327-6300 x108

Class Blog: www.grovesclass.blogspot.com

PS. If you want to see some really cool old historical photos embedded into Google Maps, check out www.historypin.com  

No Current Events this week! Sept 17-20th, 2012

Because it is a 4 day student week and we do not have school on Friday, students DO NOT have a Current Event Assignment for this week!


If student's have already completed the assignment it will be used for next weeks Current Event Assignment (CE 5)

Students will have a quiz Tuesday Sept 18th on Daily Geography Week 5 and 6.
Thanks
Mr. Grove

Current Events Weekly Form

Here is a link to a digital copy of the Current Events Form.


Here is a link to the NEW and Improved Current Events Sheet. Thanks Caroline! :)



Download File 

Andrew Marr's Megacities

We are watching a few short clips in class from this excellent Documentary.

For better or worse, tens of millions of others across the globe are making similar migrations, for a variety of reasons, to teeming metropolises, some of which have ballooned to over ten million residents. At that population point, the vaguely science-fiction term urban planners have coined is “megacity”. In BBC One’s recent three-chapter documentary Megacities, BAFTA-winning journalist Andrew Marr examines five immense cities – London, Dhaka, Shanghai, Mexico City, and Tokyo – to reveal their triumphs and tragedies, and discover what makes these unwieldy leviathans tick.
More information on the Megacities Documentary Episode synopsises   BBC Page

Wiki loves monuments USA Contest!

We are going to see if we can get images for every Historic Monument in Catawba County.
 Here is a link to a list of all the National Register of Historic Places in Catawba County, and which places need an image. I have already done four in Hickory, how many can you do?



Wiki Loves Monuments USA is a photo contest on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons that will run throughout September, 2012. It is part of an international Wiki Loves Monuments competition organized by the Wikimedia Community in over 30 countries.

In the U.S., the contest will focus on sites on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), which have been organized on Wikipedia by state and county.

To get started, you’ll need to set up an account on Wikimedia Commons and then find the historic sites in your area.

If you are ready to go, just click the ‘Get Started’ button in the header.

Cultural heritage is an important part of the knowledge Wikipedia collects and disseminates. To improve the number and quality of photos of historic monuments and places, the Wikipedia community started a photo contest in the Netherlands in 2010, which resulted in 12,500 freely licensed images of monuments that can now be used in Wikipedia, or by anybody for any purpose. In 2011, 18 countries participated in the contest, which resulted in 5,000 participants submitting more than 165,000 images.

From: Wiki Loves Monuments USA

Letter home with Progress Report 1

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This is Mr. Grove, and I just wanted to write a short note to accompany your child’s progress report. We have had a great start, and I look forward to the upcoming school year. In my Social Studies class we have been focusing on learning about the World’s geography. We have been learning where different countries in the World are located and how to find them using their coordinates of Latitude and Longitude. If possible, please allow your child to install Google Earth on the home computer. You and your child can use this program to take virtual 3D tours of many important locations around the world.

Usually we do not have daily homework in the class. However, if a student does NOT finish the class assignment, it will become their homework. We do have one weekly assignment. A current events assignment is due each Friday. We have discussed in class the expectations for this assignment, and the students have already turned one in.

On the Progress Report, if a grade is shown as a 59, it was NOT turned in to me by your child. If a grade is shown as a 60, the actual grade scored by your child was BELOW a 60. If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me. Thanks for your time, and I look forward to an excellent year working with your son/daughter.

Thanks again,
Mr. Grove

grovety(at)hickoryschools.net

828-327-6300 x108
Grovesclass.blogspot.com

Word Wall week of September 4th 2012

5 Themes of Geography Culminating Activity

5 Themes of Geography Culminating Activity Students will create a paper tri-fold to show their understanding of the basic knowledge of the 5 themes of geography and the application of how the themes may influence the environments of the world today.

The tri-fold will consist of 6 sections. Section 1 will be the cover page. Each cover page must contain a title, student name, date, class and period, and teacher name. The cover may be decorated as creatively as the student desires, keeping in mind that the teacher must be able to read the above mentioned required items.

Section 2 will demonstrate the theme location. The section should include the theme name, a correct definition of the theme, and a minimum of one real world example and an accompanying illustration of the example.

Section 3 will demonstrate the theme place. The section should include the theme name, a correct definition of the theme, and a minimum of one real world example and an accompanying illustration of the example.

Section 4 will demonstrate the theme region. The section should include the theme name, a correct definition of the theme, and a minimum of one real world example and an accompanying illustration of the example.

Section 5 will demonstrate the theme movement. The section should include the theme name, a correct definition of the theme, and a minimum of one real world example and an accompanying illustration of the example.

Section 6 will demonstrate the theme human-environment interaction (HEI). The section should include the theme name, a correct definition of the theme, and a minimum of one real world example and an accompanying illustration of the example.

The tri-fold will be an in-class project on September 4 and 5. It will need to be completed at home if not finished by the end of class on the 5th. The tri-fold is due at the beginning of class on Friday the 6th of September.