No Post in 20 Days?!?!?!

I've become horrible at posting the extra credit blog.  I get that.  And I apologize.  There are a number of reasons for it, but I'm not going to go into it here.

Instead, I'm going to give you a bunch of opportunities to get extra credit.  The rules have changed a little bit with this post.

You still need to read and discuss these posts with an adult.  But you may only do one of these a day.  (And you may only do one for the entirety of Fall Break.)  Sure, you may read more, but you'll only get credit for one.

Some of the things will have changed, since the posts are from previous years, but overall the content is the same.

In order to get credit, you need to write the current date, the date of the post, do whatever the post tells you to do, and have the adult you read it with sign signifying that you read and discussed that post with them.

Here are the posts:  Dealing with Economics:

• The Economy
• Supply, Demand, and GDP
• Economics
• Urbanization

Dealing with Human Capital:

• Human Capital
• Human Capital II
• Human and China
• Human Capital: People With Skills

Busy, Busy Days

It's been pretty busy around here.  Grades continue to be updated.  If I were you, I would double-check them to make sure they're accurate.  If there's anything you need to turn in, well...  Get it turned in.

I'm hoping to post some of the ingredients of culture pictures here on the blog, but I might not get that done for a day or two.  We're still studying culture, but we're mixing it with economics.  We're working our way toward globalization.

Today students reviewed the ingredients of culture by writing a short story which included each ingredient.

After that, we got new seats.

Then, they looked in The Hunger Games and found examples of some of the things we've been studying.

They had to find:

• standard of living (3 examples)
• economies
• traditional (1)
• market(1)
• command(1)
• ethnocentrism (1)
• ingredients of culture
• food (1)
• dress (1)
• religion (1)
• customs (1)
• ethnicity (1)
• values (1)
• the arts (1)
• government (1)
• language (1)
• standard of living (already listed above)

I think it went pretty well.

Students can get extra credit by reading and discussing this blog with an adult.  After you've read and discussed it, write a sentence about your discussion.  Have the adult you read with sign the paper.  Make sure your name, date, and hour are on it.  Turn it in tomorrow.

Hunger Games Quotes

Thursday and Friday of last week, I gave the students 6 "big idea" terms, along with a definition/explanation:

• culture
• government
• economics
• standard of living
• ethnicity
• ethnocentrism

Today, in class the white boards around the room had a quote from The Hunger Games.  Each quote dealt with a term.  Before we started reading, the students had to figure out the term, and why it fit with the quote.  Here they are, page numbers included.

Quote 1:  "Besides, the Capitol accent is so affected, almost anything sounds funny in it."  p.8

Quote 2:  "'Mm, still warm,' O say.  He must have been up at the crack of dawn to trade for it.  'What did it cost you?'

         'Just a squirrel.'"  p.7

Quote 3:  "Since almost no one can afford doctors, apothecaries are our healers." p.8

Quote 4:  "He could be my brother.  Straight black hair, olive skin, we even have the same gray eyes." p.8

Quote 5:  "It's to the Capitol's advantage to have us divided among ourselves."  p.14

Bonus: Quote 6: (More than one term applies):  "No one in the Seam would turn up their nose at a good leg of wild dog, but the Peacekeepers who come to the Hob can afford to be a little choosier."  p.11

Students can get extra credit if they read and discuss the blog with an adult.  If they've done this, have the students ask the adult if they can match any of the terms with the quotes.  On a sheet of paper, either write how the adult answered, or tell me how they did.  Did they get them all?  Most of them?  Did they miss any?

When you're done, have the adult sign the paper.  Make sure your name, date, and hour are on the paper.  Then turn it in tomorrow in the extra credit tray.

Hunger Games: Big Ideas

As promised, there's a blog post today.

We've started The Hunger Games!  Woo hoo!  I'm really excited about it, and I'm doubly excited that this year I get to work in tandem with Mr. Ogle, who will be teaching the Language Arts side of things.

Why The Hunger Games?

The content of The Hunger Games ties in with multiple 7th grade social studies standards.  It's a well-written, captivating story about the dangers of unlimited government.  Many of the big concepts we study are expressed in narrative fashion, allowing me to reinforce what we're learning in class.

Today, we talked about 4 of the big ideas that will show up in the book.  I had students write down a definition/explanation (in their own words) for:

• Government
• Economy
• Culture
• Standard of Living

These are hardly the only social studies topics that will show up in the book.  After students wrote down what they thought those things were, I gave them my definitions and explanations.  By page 6, each of these concepts had been brought up in some fashion.  We'll delve into it more, as we read the book.  I can't wait.

For now, here are some pictures of some things we did during the days I missed posting.  (The information on how to get some extra credit points is found below the pictures.)

If you want the extra credit, define/explain at least one of the following terms on a sheet of paper: government, economics, culture, standard of living.  If you were class, try to use my definition/explanation.  If you were absent, give it a good guess.  You may get help from a parent.

When you're done, have the parent or adult you read and discussed the blog with sign the paper.  Make sure your name, date, and hour are on it.  Turn it in in the extra credit tray tomorrow.

Economics

The test grades were sent out.  Shazaam!  (They were a little late... I had some issues with technology.)

I'm impressed by the report though.  If you didn't sign up to have your grades emailed to you, you should next time: tre cool.

We're in to economics now.  This is the definition I gave the kids:

After that, we simplified the definition.  (I also added services in after goods...)

So, we could say, "the economy deals with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services."

Or, we could say, "the economy deals with the making, selling, and buying of stuff."  

I prefer the former, but for 7th graders the latter is easier to understand.

We discussed the difference between a good (or healthy) economy and a bad (unhealthy) economy:

And of course, we discussed Black Friday just a little bit.

I'm not a big fan of rampant consumerism.  I'm worried it's destroying our country.

But, of course, I'm glad people buy things.  If they didn't, where would we be?  It's because people buy that allows us to have jobs and a higher standard of living.  The problem comes in when "stuff" becomes more important than people.

To get the extra credit today, you should read and discuss the blog with an adult.  On a sheet of scrap paper, write a paragraph about your discussion.  Write your thoughts about the paragraph from above.  Do you agree?  Do you disagree?  Why?  What should we do about it?

Some classes also watched some videos about this topic.  Watch if you want to, but you don't have to for the blog credit if that's what you're here for: