Friday, April 29, 2011

Political Field Trip

This past Monday we took our annual trip over to the Village Hall. This year, in addition to a Q&A session with Village President Peter Silvestri, we where also able to sit down with our U.S. Representative, Mike Quigley.

History Fair Ideas & Links

We had a productive day today. We developed the scope, criteria and timetable to roll-out the Elm Middle School History Fair for next year.
Our pilot Fair with be called Making History and will feature a theme. More info TBA.

Links

National History Day http://www.nhd.org/

Chicago Area History Ed Center is a great place to start http://www.chicagohistoryfair.org/

Illinois History Fair

http://www.canalcor.org/CCA2005/ilhistoryfair.html

Illinois History Expo

http://www.state.il.us/hpa/illinoishistoryfair.htm

State Goals and other info

http://www.illinoishistory.gov/GoalsStandards.htm

http://images.library.uiuc.edu/projects/tdc/lessonplans/IllinoisFair.asp

Nice Pictures of Physical Products

http://www.niu.edu/clasep/fairs/history/11Pictures/index.shtml

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

PBIS Wednesday: Paying for College

http://www.channelone.com/generationmoney/

Look up your college(s) and get the tuition info, then use one of these:

http://www.savingforcollege.com/college-savings-calculator/

http://apps.collegeboard.com/fincalc/college_savings.jsp

Illinois Constitution Practice Materials

Check these out to help you on the Illinois Constitution Test.

Review Games:

Illinois Constitution Battleship

Illinois Constitution Hangman
Illinois Constitution Rags to Riches

And there are flashcards up at flashcardexchange.com Click on "study."

Practice Quiz if you want a challenge and have some extra time:

Illinois Constitution Practice Quiz
http://www.quia.com/quiz/2405981.html

Note: this quiz has some info that isn't on the test and not everything on the test is on this quiz. It's meant to be fun but is not a substitute for studying for the test.

Monday, April 25, 2011

50 State Geography Games & Review

We'll started working on the geography of the 50 states in class. Use these sites to help you study. You must correctly identify all 50 States on an outline map by May 13.

An easier game and a good place to start if you don't know your states well:

http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/unitedstates.html

A fairly tough game where you need to type in the names of all 50 states while looking at an outline map:
http://www.sporcle.com/games/states.php

Challenging game using a satellite map that you drag the outline of the states onto:

http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/fiftystates2.jsp

Click and drag the name of the lower 48 states to their place on an outline map:

http://www.pibmug.com/files/map_test.swf

History Channel site about all the states. Lots of info and hunt around for some fun and challenging games.

http://www.history.com/topics/states

If you’re not at school, you can play the computer based geo game (that you remember from last year) online at:

http://www.yourchildlearns.com/mappuzzle/us-puzzle.html

Good luck!
Which one is your favorite? What's your best score. Be prepared to share your thoughts and scores in class.

Broken links? Other study sites? Let me know.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Blagojevich Haiku: big hair, big troubles / charged with fraud, bribes, and bad schemes / to trial he goes

We're following the retrial of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich as homework and in class. To get us thinking and using our creativity, we'll be working in groups and writing haiku poems about Blagojevich. We'll follow the 5-7-5 format and the poem must include Blagojevich or Blago (or, if you're feeling particularly adventurous, at least a political word) and see what you come up with.

Here are some of my favorites. They range from simple to poetic. Some follow the guidelines a little more closely than others but most are 5-7-5.

We voted for our favorite in class. (Ok, I know the winner isn't a true a haiku by the syllables standard, but it's still good.)

Rod Blagojevich
really bad politician
addicted to fame
(5A)

Rob Blagojevich
tried selling senator's seat
first to be impeached
(4A)

pay to play schemes is
what Rod Blagojevich did
as my governor
(4A) [tied for third]

big hair, big troubles
charged with fraud, bribes, and bad schemes
Blago goes to trial
(1A, by SK & EN) [Voted #1 by students]

was the governor
attitude adjustment much?
Rod Blagojevich
(1A)

shady scam artist
tried to sell Obama's seat
Rod Blagojevich
(1B)

criminal; a fraud
Blago, convicted one count
tried to sell the seat
(1B)

Blago was impeached
least popular governor
rats live in his hair
(4B)

Blago's punishment
no one liked him, got impeached
man, that Rod Blago
(4B)

The man should be ashamed
for he had done bad things
yet he still has fame
(4B)

what a crazy guy
if I do say so myself
Rod Blagojevich
impeached for his corruption
what a heart-breaking story
(tanka poem, 4B)

sold Obama's seat
but couldn't keep it discrete
so he was impeached
(5B) [voted second place]

Blago was impeached
tried to sell Obama's seat
he wasn't very smart
(5B) [tied for third]

Rob Blagojevich
a disgrace to democrats
they call him Blago
(5B)

Read more on Blago here:
Short primer here.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-blagojevich-legacy-20110424,0,996878.story?track=rss

And get the latest news from Google news.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

US Constitution Flashcards & Study Resources

While you're studying, don't forget to use http://www.flashcardexchange.com/flashcards/view/344858. Click on the "study" button near the top and you're ready to go.

Please just study on your browser. You don't have to pay for any of the other services.

Here are some Quia activities to try your hand at. Please log-in to play these but you don't have to to play.