The Silent Review Video Project: Ancient Greece

What is the Silent Review? It is a video that allows the viewer watch as questions are shown, then the answer. This is an interactive flashcard experience. Watch the video. Read the questions, say the answer. This is a great review tool. Watch the videos below. One from each class period.

Our little guy gets a new name...

My new name and Greece Review
by: danklumper

What is Democracy? The Results are in...

During our ancient Greece unit, we learn about Democracy. Since that is also the type of government philsophy we have in America, we decided to see what people know about Democracy in the US. My sixth grade students completed a project called: "Ask the Public: What is Democracy?" For this project, they had to interview 4 adults 25 years or older. They did a great job and the results we found are very enlightening. The picture posted with this blog post shows the results from this project as far as how many people got 100% and how many people got each specific question right. The sample size of this project is 425 adults. Out of all those people, only 32 people were able to answer every question correctly. Which concerns me. I also broke down the results based on some of the specific questions.
If you want to see how you stack up against the public, you can take the Democracy Questionnaire yourself and see how you do. Try to answer the questions without looking them up. Don't look at the answers until after you take the questionnaire.
What is Democracy? Questionnaire
Answers

A thought you should be thinking...

Let me clue you in on a little secret. It's a secret that shouldn't be a secret. It's a secret that I want to expose to the whole world. A secret that should be exposed to the whole world. A secret that needs to be in your head. Ready? Here it is: You can do anything you want. There it is. That's the secret. I am not joking. I am serious. You can truly do whatever you want in life. You want to be an astronaut? Make it happen. You want to play in the NFL? Make it happen. You want to be President of the United States? Make it happen. The deal is this: You can be anything you want in life but you can't just say you want to do it. You have to have that goal in your head all the time and be a person of action. Now that you know the secret, I have one question for you: What are you doing to achieve your goal? It doesn't make sense if you tell me your goal is to play in the NFL and you sit around everyday playing video games for 2 hours. Unless you are in the VERY VERY small group of people born with enough physical gifts to be a professional athlete, you have to make yourself good enough. It takes sacrifice. It takes focus. It takes dedication. It takes all the things you always hear about but do you actually listen? Start listening. Start heading down the path you want to take in life. In 6th grade you have everything ahead of you. You have the opportunity. You have one life. Make it what you want it to be.

Greek Contributions/People

Greek Contributions on Prezi

Use this Prezi to learn about some of the REAL people of ancient Greece. You will use this Prezi to help you complete the "real people" section for your board game. I did not make this Prezi, but simply found it and thought it was worthy of Water for Sixth Grade.

Greek Mythology Interview

You have all selected a greek mythology character. Today, you will be completing the third activity with this character: a blog post in which you pretend to interview the character you chose. With the greek mythology character you chose, you have done three very different activities, all in an attempt to not just memorize your character, but to learn about them and be able to share knowledge about them. For this blog post, you will interview your greek mythology character. You are the person asking questions. Assume you know nothing about your character and are trying to learn about them. Though you already know the information, this will help others learn about your character through a different mode of learning. This is the third way you will be sharing your greek mythology character with the class.
TASK: Pretend you are interviewing your greek mythology character. You need to ask them AT LEAST five questions. THREE of those questions MUST be about information about your character. These interviews will help us learn even more about each other's characters.
DUE: In-Class blogging.
FOLLOW-UP: Once all interviews are posted, you will have to post a follow up comment about a classmate's interview in which you summarize what the interview was about.
These interviews will also help us post to our Wall-Wisher.

EXAMPLE INTERVIEW:

Me: Hi, what is your name?

Ares: My name is Ares.

Me: Cool. Do you do anything special?

Ares: HA! What kind of question is that? Of course!

Me: Well, what is it?

Ares: I should not even be talking to a meager mortal like yourself.

Me: Come on, just tell me what is so special about you.

Ares: I am the God of War!!!

Me: Not scared. I heard you were a coward.

Ares: How dare you say that! Take it back!!

Me: No.

BlueMan Goes to a Restaurant

BlueMan is at a restaurant. He is excited about meeting his date there. However, Mustache shows up and wants to talk to BlueMan. In BlueMan's typical rude, annoying style, he and Mustache have a very weird, awkward conversation. Your job is to find the ancient Greece information. Included the BlueMan comic is the Olympics, Pericles, and the Spartans. Your job is to post a comment telling me what the comic says about Olympics, Pericles, and the Spartans. That's it. Just those three things.
Task: Post a comment telling me what the comic says about the Olympics, Pericles, and Sparta.
DUE: Wednesday. February 22nd. Midnight.
Points: 20 points

Democracy Movie Short

I need a name for this little guy. Any suggestions? Post a comment with what you think his name should be...

They're Here-Democracy
by: danklumper

Birth of Zeus Story

All in the Family: Greek Mythology

Today we begin learning about one of the most fascinating aspects of the ancient world: Greek Mythology. This very exciting, elaborate system of gods and goddesses in ancient Greece has intrigued people for centuries. Now, we will begin our study of it by first getting organized. Before we delve into the specific gods, goddesses, myths, monsters, and so on, let us first figure out how everything started. You will be creating a Greek Mythology Family tree with will show you how everything started. We have probably all heard of Zeus. But where did Zeus come from? What about Poseidon? Well, with this blog post and our Mythology family tree, we shall find the answers to those questions and more. This family tree will go into your Scrapbook, so make it look nice.
Okay, time for the details:
Greek Mythology: "How it all began." Use this short story to learn about how it all began in Greek Mythology.
Greek Mythology Family Tree Prezi: Use this to get an example of what the family tree should look like.
Task: Using the above links, create a Greek Mythology family tree on your poster paper. Use marker of any color and rulers to make nice, straight lines. Just write the names of the characters. However, for the Olympian gods/goddesses, you need to write their names AND draw/color their symbol, which is given to you in the article.
DUE: TBD
POINTS: TBD

White Shirt Production: What is Democracy?

In 2011, my student teacher and I went to the mall in Sioux Falls, SD to see what people knew about Democracy. After all, Democracy is the type of government we have in our country today, so you would think adults at least would know about our government and the leader of our government which is the president. What we discovered was very interesting. A lot of people refused to go on video because they did not know the answers. Many people could not figure out if certain people were presidents or not. It was very fun and enlightening talking to random strangers. We definitely got a lot of weird looks. Watch the video above to check out our day at the mall.
You will be doing something similar to this in 2012. However, you will not be video taping yourselves or asking strangers. We will be doing a project called, "Ask the Public: What is Democracy?" to find out what people really know about our government.

Explore Ancient Greece at the British Museum

Welcome to Ancient Greece. Due to budget cuts, we will not be able to go on a real field trip for social studies. However, even though we won't actually get to go to a museum, the Internet provides us with a solution. Let's take a little virtual trip to the British Museum. While we are there, lets see what we can discover about ancient Greece. This week, we will be talking about geography, city-states and government. Towards the end of this week and into next, we will delve into Greek Mythology, one of my favorite topics of the school year. As we work diligently in class to learn about this ancient world, you will be working on your own at the British Museum to make discoveries of your own.

The picture above is the Parthenon, a temple built in Athens to honor the goddess Athena. What other interesting things are in store for this ancient world?

Using the British Museum website, browse around the site and post 5 things you learned from the site. You may only use the British Museum website.

Task: Use the British Museum website to post a comment with 5 things you learned about ancient Greece. You must use complete sentences.

Points: 25 (5 points for each complete sentence)

DUE Date: Friday, February 10th, 2012. 5:00 p.m.

Be Number One...

What It Takes To Be Number One
Watch this video and then read what I have written below.
As the weekend of the Super Bowl approaches, lets think a little bit about this game. To me, it is more than a game, it is an event that crowns one team CHAMPION of the NFL, the best team in the world. The winner, whether its the Patriots or Giants, will be Number One. Let's turn this event around and look at ourselves. What can you do to be Number One? What can you do to be a Number One student? Son? Daughter? Brother? Sister? What can you do to be a Number One Person? That is the question that you need to ask yourself. Is it turning in your homework? Is it helping out around the house? Is it respecting your classmates? Is it being Nice? Is it sitting by joining someone who is sitting alone at lunch? I think it is all of those things, and more. To be a Number One person, I don't think it takes a huge amount of effort. It just takes focus and a conscious effort to be that Number One Person. Whether you are in school, at home, playing sports, or hanging with your friends, do the right thing. Make good choices. Excel at life. Be Number One.

This is Ancient Greece...

Welcome to Ancient Greece. This video will give you a preview of what is coming your way. There will be a lot of information, but also a lot of action. In the Ancient Greece unit, we will talk about Greek Mythology, which as been made famous through the countless books, movies, and video games that have been made. Ancient Greece, the first unit of the "Big 3." Let it begin...