Friday, January 23, 2009

Test Questions, Please...


This will be a new experience for you on Water for Sixth Grade. An experience, I believe, you will find very beneficial. Using your guided notes, notes for videos, ABC book, etc., you will be coming up with "test questions" for ancient Greece. Each student must post 10 test questions dealing with Ancient Greece. The test questions can be multiple choice, short answer, or true false. Try to have a variety, though. Variety is good. For True/False questions, if you make a question that is false, you MUST explain why the question is false. Multiple Choice questions must have at least 3 choices. Do NOT have ten questions about what the gods and goddesses are. You must post both the question and the answer, of course. Number them, so I can quickly check how many question you have. This is graded. At the end of the day, this post will be the ultimate tool to help you study for the test AND help you with your Ancient Greece Board game we will be starting next week. I will pull questions from this post and insert them into the real ancient Greece Exam that you will take at the end of the Unit.
Example:
1. Who is the ruler of the gods?
Answer: Zeus

2. What is Democracy?
A. rule by one man
B. rule by the wealthy
C. rule by no one
D. rule by the people (Correct answer)

3. True or False. Greece had a major river
(answer:False)

Point Total: 20
DUE Date: January 30th, 2009. 9:00 p.m.


I greatly appreciate your effort and enthusiasm so far during this unit. Keep up the hard work.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

What is in a Name?


We will begin talking about Greek Mythology this week. The main part of Greek Mythology are the gods and goddesses. Some, perhaps, are quite common: Zeus, Apollo. Others may be new to us: Ares, Haphestus, Hera. We will be taking a look at the notable Olympians and the Titans. We will discover that the names of these gods, goddesses and Titans means something. Posideon: god of the sea, Ares: god of war, etc. With this as the theme to our new post for the week, let's think about what our own Name means. Using the link along the side under "Name Meaning," find out what your first name means. Simply click on the link, type in your first name, and share the origin and meaning in your comment. It should be interesting to see what all of our names mean. Enjoy!
Example:
Name: Abby (my wife's name)
Origin: Hebrew
Meaning: A Father's Joy

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Joe Roos: "Troop"


I went to high school with the singer of the song. He is in the Army and made this music video while he was in Iraq. Respect the Troops.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Here's Democracy!


Before the snow and wind came on Monday, we were having a riveting discussion about Democracy. We will now blog about Democracy and what our thoughts are pertaining to this form of government, which happens to be our form of government in the USA (At least something very similar). It is hard for us to imagine what it would be like living under a government of anything but Democracy. Sometimes I think we take our freedom for granted and don't appreciate what we have/where we live. Most, if not all, of us have always lived in a democratic nation. Let's begin to think about this fact and appreciate what we have by discussing Democracy and comparing it to other forms of governments that are in exsistence throughout the world. Let's gain an understanding of how good we have it. This is a multi-task post. You must do all tasks. In-Class blogging. You may do all 3 tasks in one comment or seperate comments.

Task 1: Answer the following Questions: (Use your Greek City-States Guided Notes)
*What is Democracy?
*Who Rules?
*What does the word 'democracy' actually mean?
*What happens if the Assembly gets too large? What did the Greeks do?

Task 2: Click on the Democracy Link "All Forms of Government." Choose one of the other forms of Government listed (Do not Choose anything involving Democracy). Tell me what the form of government you chose is and COMPARE it with Democracy. For example: tell me why democracy is better or why the other one is better. Tell me what it would be like living under each of the governments, etc. The point of this task is to introduce ourselves to other forms of government around the world and compare them with Democracy.

Task 3: (FUN) Click on the Democracy Link "Weird forms of Government." Look through the list on all the weird forms of government. Not all of these governemnts are actually in exsistence. Choose one from the list and argue your case as to why the government you chose is the best one. You may respond to other people's comments, of course.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Starting Ancient Greece


Welcome to Ancient Greece. To start this unit, we are going to do something a little bit different on this blog. It is basically an online version of the Library Book Fact Search assignment that we do from time to time to begin Units. To help us start thinking about Ancient Greece and to help us get in the "Greek" frame of mind, we are going to be taking a look at some Greece websites. The websites will be listed on the side under "Greece Links." The instructions are vague, but simple: Look at the websites I have listed for you and post a comment telling me 2 things you have learned about Ancient Greece. That is all that is required of you. My thought is that with vague instructions, it will allow you to have a bit more freedom with this assignment. Good Luck on our first Blog assignment of 2009!
DUE: Friday, January 9th, 2009. 9:00 p.m.
Points: 10 School points

I am glad to be back in school to have a chance to see all of you again. I am looking forward to a great second half of the school year.