Because February is the celebratory month for "Black Americans" and March celebrates "Women in History", I'm combining the two for our reports and adding in other ethnic famous people as well for the 7th and 8th graders to research.  Most of the people are not as well known by the students and will be a good exercise for them to get to know the people that made our world a better place to live.

     All 7th and 8th graders are finishing their concept maps.  Then the 7th graders will research and do Power Points of their person.  We have already studied and discussed the color wheel and the importance of the visual representations of their reports in Power Point.  The Power Point medium is for group interaction and must be seen and enjoyed by more than the author.

     All 8th graders will do their reports in Microsoft Publisher.  Their reports will, of necessity, have more content value and less pictures.  More indepth information of the person's life is required.

     These reports will take about two months to finish, probably.

     In the meantime, because of so much snow and the schedule inconsistencies, I've read the book "The Necklace" to some of my classes.  This is a favorite of mine about a women unhappy in her life because, even though she has a relatively nice place to live, she wants to be wealthy and feels she deserves to be.  After a night at a party, her entire life changes!  If you don't remember this book - it is a great story for a 20 min. read that has a great moral and provokes discussion.

Reading vs. Electronics

   "Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair" by Patricia Polacco is a fantastic book by itself.  However, I read this book to my students for them to compare their lives to the lives of the people of the town.  Do they read today or watch TV and play video games?  Is there library going to be torn down because of disuse?  What will be the consequences of such an event?

Debates

   We had the debates again this year. The students were grouped into 4 or 5 with 2/3 for the Pro/Yes and 2/3 for the Con/No side for the 7th grade, but the groups for the 8th grade had only two, with one for the pro and one for the con.  The subjects were chosen to be of interest to the students.  Each group had two weeks to look up information to support their viewpoint before the debates began and I showed a 3-minute video and explained what I wanted them to do.  

   The first person for the Pro/Yes viewpoint was to stand at the podium, state her/his name and list all the reasons why he/she supported their viewpoint.  Then that person would clarify one or two reasons from the list.  The next person on the Pro side would then clarify the rest of the reasons from the list.  This would be repeated by the Con/No side - The first person for the Con/No viewpoint was to stand at the podium, state her/his name and list all the reasons why he/she supported their viewpoint.  Then that person would clarify one or two reasons from the list.  The next person on the Con side would then clarify the rest of the reasons from the list.

   After both sides had stated all their viewpoints, the Pro side began the debate.  The debates for the 7th grade were on such questions as:

Should the government rate music?

Should schools have dress codes?

Should laws be stricter for teenage drivers?

Are teen curfews a good thing?

Should teen criminals be locked up in adult prisons?

Should you change the way you dress because of what other people might think?

   The debates on the 8th grade were on such subjects as abortion, stem cell research, animal testing, etc.

   After the students heard some good debates, they really enjoyed this.  I filmed these and it went much better this year than last year.  I still have to work on the sound and have been working with the Technology Dept. for the county to try to find a solution.  The films that could be heard were put on the school website under "Students' Work - Projects - Debates".

Alabama Virtual Library

   Research projects will be beginning after the Christmas holidays for the 7th and 8th grades so it's time to give out Alabama Virtual Library Cards and talk about the information on this site.  The individual AVL password code is already on the two library cards given out previously this year, so the students know about this.  It's always good to review how to use the passwords, as they always say they've never seen the information before.

   As usual, I use PowerPoint to show the great advantages of the AVL.  The students are shown where to Login and where to put the Password code. Then the multiple sites are shown with me pointing out the ones that I think will be of more interest to them. 

   For the 7th grade, the encyclopedias and biographical reference sites as well as the science and social studies sites will be useful.  For the 8th grade, the literature with its poetry should be added to the list, as well as magazine and newspaper references which are needed for some research papers.

   I also showed a PowerPoint on the new Online Library system and gave out cards with passwords for students to get into this site so they could reserve books from home, create their own private lists, and check their fines and overdue books. 

   I hoped by giving them these cards right before Christmas that they would make it home safely as both cards contained somewhat confidential information.  From what the students have told me since, they have gotten the cards home when they cleaned out their lockers that week.  My planning actually might have worked!

"They Broke the Law, You Be the Judge"

   "They Broke the Law, You Be the Judge" is a book by Thomas A. Jacobs, J.D., and I think it's very relevant to events happening today. When some of my classes are finishing a project, this is a good time to have discussion groups with the others. This is the subject of this discussion - "Adam, 15 - a threat made in school".

   Adam's Crime - Adam is talking to friends and other students hear him saying that a better way to get rid of kids you don't like is to put sleeping gas in the school vents, and then go through the school and "kill the people you don't like".  Adam is reported to the office, the police are notified, and an investigation is conducted.  Adam is brought to court.

   Students are given about six sentencing options of what they would give Adam if they were the judge.  There are questions to consider before sentencing and then they vote on their option.

   What actually happened is told and the students find out if they were correct when they voted in class with their option. 

   I read a "Letter from Adam While Serving His Jail Sentence" and see if it would have influenced their decision.  We discuss the fact that because of his words, Adam spends three years paying for his actions.  

   I then tell them what Adam is doing today.

   We discuss talking to parents, counselors, and friends when you have problems.  We also discuss how many students in the U.S. bring guns to school, bully other students, and have trouble with anger issues.