Indus River and Punishment

First - and this is VERY important.  If you did not complete your Hammurabi Power Point Presentation, this is the time to complete it.

You may be wondering how to access your files from home.  CLICK ON THIS LINK, AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.

Next, you need the link to get to the Power Point instructions.  YOU CAN FIND THE HAMMURABI WEBQUEST BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK.

That brings me to my next point: if you have a facebook account, it might help your friends to remind them that they can earn some extra credit by coming to this blog and reading it and discussing it with an adult.  Trust me, some of your friends need the extra credit.

To all the parents, and adults reading this: Thank you.  (Really, students - you should have said that yourself.)  Thanks for taking the time to find out what we're doing in social studies.

We just finished up the Hammurabi ppt.  (Well, if you read the instructions above, you'll see that not EVERYONE finished it, but most of us did...)

We discussed the reasons for the law (or more appropriately, the reasons for punishment) today.  I gave 4 reasons - students: can you tell the adult one of those reasons, and give an example of it?

Hammurabi punished people for many of the same reasons we punish people today: he stopped them from committing the crime again (often because he had them executed), he deterred others from committing crimes (because they saw people being executed), people could take revenge on those who wronged them (through execution...).

Ok... I'm being a little tough on Hammurabi here, after all, a lot of his laws did not include execution.  For instance, if a kid hit a parent, the kid only had his hands chopped off.

At any rate, we talked about this a lot in class today.  I don't want you to have to spend 45 minutes reading though, so I'll allow your kid to sum up.

We also watched a quick little video (and I do mean quick - John Green talks faster than most of the adolescent girls in my class...) about the Indus River Valley Civilization.  If you missed any of it, you can watch it again below.

If you want the extra credit for reading and discussing this blog with an adult, write down one thing you remember from the video.  Then, have the adult you discussed the blog with sign the paper that you wrote it on.  Turn it in tomorrow.

Here's the video again:

Facebook?

First of all, to those of you with facebook: consider reminding your friends that they can earn extra credit by visiting this blog and discussing it with an adult.

I know I'm getting a lot of extra credit turned in from people who don't have facebook accounts - either they're too young, or they don't have time for it.  That's fine.  If you DO have one though, it's always nice to help friends out.  And this extra credit is easy, as always.

I'm saying this because next week is the last week of the marking period.  So time is running out if you want it on this quarter.  And I had that great feeling today, when I put some extra credit in the grade book, and I saw a students score go from a C+ to a B-.

Speaking of grades, the quiz was today.  Not bad.  A lot of Cs.  They are all entered, so unless you were absent today, it should be in there.  I'm planning on having all the power point presentations graded by the end of this weekend.  1st and 2nd hour will be in by 3:30 PM today.

So, to get the extra credit, you had to read and discuss this post with an adult.  There's not too much social studies content on here, so adults, here are some questions you can ask your kid:

• How'd you do on the quiz?
• How are your grades?
• Really?  Do you mind if we go on STI and check them?
• Oh... Ok... We can check them later, I know your favorite TV show is on right now.  (Parents/adults: you can still force them to go to STI and check their grades if you want... I leave this entirely up to you.  But don't feel like you have to do it to get credit for reading and discussing the blog... it's your life, you know?)
• What was that quiz about?
• The first section, you either picked Egypt, Mesopotamia, or Both.  Can you tell me anything that was in the Both category?
• Theocracy?  Polytheism?  Great!  Looks like you're really learning something in there.
• Although, it's been a while since I've been in social studies.  What's a theocracy again?

There you have it.  On a scrap piece of paper, the student should write down a sentence or two telling how the conversation went.  Then, parent or adult, sign that paper.

Turn it in on Monday and BAM! extra credit!

Quiz Tom Or Row

In case you suffer from short term memory loss, we're having a quiz tomorrow.  Please be ready for it.

I'm not posting a long blog entry.  Instead, take out your review guide and study with the adult that you usually read the blog posts with.

If you forgot it, you can get it from Monday's post.

When you've studied for at least 5-10 minutes, write the following quote on scrap piece of paper and have the adult that you studied with sign the paper: "They're smart cause they like it."  Indeed, a subject is much easier to study if you like the subject.

Good luck tomorrow.

Ancient Egypt

We graded the maps today.  They should be in the grade book by the end of the day.

While the students finished working on their maps, I played a song.  It's a loose tie-in to Ancient Egypt, but I figure it's nice to have some background music.  And I already like the song.  Here's the music video if you want to check it out:




Once the maps were graded, we read from the text book.  I interrupted the reading a couple times to show some other clips.  Ancient Egypt was polytheistic, so I showed a clip from The Prince of Egypt.  It's a scene where they go through the different gods.  ...Ok... I realize that it's in Bulgarian.  Apparently, youtube took the English version down.  It didn't really matter though, because we didn't make it that far into the clip.  Here it is:



We also read about theocracy, mummies, and their view of the afterlife, so I showed another little clip too.  If someone's going to interrupt their reading, it might as well be a guy with a Ph.D.




Some of you probably want extra credit for reading and discussing the blog.  If you're one of those people, you have to discuss this with an adult.  Talk about Ancient Egypt.  Maybe you could compare it to Ancient Mesopotamia.  You could watch the videos.  If you find any other short videos that you think are pretty good, you could put them in the comments section, or email them to me...  At any rate, once you're done discussing this post with an adult, find a scrap piece of paper.  On that paper, write the following quote: "Think of them as an immense invitation." - Josh Ritter.  Have your parent (or whatever adult you discussed the blog with) sign the paper.

Turn it in tomorrow in the extra credit tray.

Big Grades Coming Up

Well, well, welcome back.

We finished up the Hammurabi Power Point today.  Students who did not finish, are cordially invited to finish on their own - at lunch, CAP, after school, whenever.  There may be a couple notable exceptions, come see me if you think I'm talking about you.

We've got some big grades coming up.  Get ready:

• Hammurabi ppt. 64 pts.
• Ancient Egypt Map 25 pts.
• Egypt Mesopotamia Venn Diagram 15 pts.
• Ancient Civilizations Quiz 40 pts.

There you have it.  We probably won't talk about Egypt so much since you already know about it.

If you want extra credit for reading and discussing this blog post with an adult, click on THIS LINK RIGHT HERE!!!!  That takes you to the review guide.  Have the parent or adult you read the blog with quiz you over some of the material that's going to be on the quiz.

Then, write two things you studied on a piece of scrap paper.  Write the following sentence: I studied __________ and __________ with ___________________.  On the final blank, have the parent or adult that read the blog and studied with you sign their name.

Put it in the extra credit turn in tray.

Have a great evening.

Hey: here's a picture of a ziggurat, in case you wanted to see one.  And a pyramid from Egypt.

Image Credit: http://jesseaumiller.com/track/ziggurat

 

Image Credit: http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/the-great-pyramid/deck/2993569