accountability (for the other sections)

Honors section 202 has today off. Woo-hoo!

The SupWestCiv section and Honors 201 section will do the assignment detailed on yesterday's blog. Write a thoughtful, personal essay that summarizes your feelings about the bullet points I posted in my Monday March 30 blog.

accountability

Today, the SupWesCiv section has the day off. See you tomorrow!

Honors 201 does not have a written assignment, but is asked to consider the relationship between the events we have been studying, and what is occurring in the world today. You are not required to write a blog for class today; it is optional. Please enjoy time with your family, practice social distancing, and really ponder these SOCIAL studies. Thank you!

Honors 202 will write a thoughtful, personal essay that analyzes, interprets, and synthesizes the following thoughts: 

• Students and teachers are currently facing a challenge unlike anything we have ever faced in our educational lives. 
• Cyber school, distance learning, remote education - whatever you call it, it is new to us all.
• We all have new responsibilities and goals:
• Students, you find yourselves needing to take more ownership of your learning, teaching yourselves material outside of the comforts of the classroom.
• You do not have personal access to the teachers that you have become used to.
• You have an increased workload, reading and writing more than ever.
• Teachers have much less access to the tools we have become used to - answering questions from students in real time, or being able to give traditional tests and quizzes.
• Teachers have an increased workload, writing out lessons we used to be able to simply speak, or grading more essays than ever (678 grades in two weeks, in my case).
• Issues of integrity take on new importance. Students find yourselves tempted to copy/plagiarize/cheat in order to reduce your workload - behavior you might never consider while in a classroom might seem too easy to resist.
• Teachers might be tempted to take shortcuts, merely glancing at student work that we used to read closely, shortchanging our students in order to keep from falling behind.
• Does living in a time of crisis change who we are, or how well we behave, or alter our essential nature? Do we take advantage of a bad situation to become...bad?
• I think not!
• I believe we can all rise to the occasion, and actually strengthen our resolve to be good people who do excellent work.
• Most of you have been doing excellent work under difficult circumstances, and I applaud your efforts. Please keep up the great work!
• A handful of you may have slipped up, given into temptation, or just gotten sloppy.
• Together, we are going to raise the bar. I expect students to write well, to check your work for errors and correct those errors, and to turn in work worthy of conscientious John School students.
• You should expect me to grade your work fairly, holding you to a high standard, and making sure you are getting your money's worth.

This all begins now.  

Starting with your response to this blog, I expect an honest effort to do your best work. I have been making comments on many of your blogs, and this practice will continue, so be on the lookout for feedback that will explain why you received the grade you did. 

We don't know how long we are going to be in cyber school, but I know we are going to make the most of it!

cyber assignment #8 for SUP and Honors 202

Today SupWestCiv and Honors 202 will be meeting.

Consider the relationship between the events we have been studying, and what is occurring in the world today. You are not required to write a blog for class today; it is optional. Please enjoy time with your family, practice social distancing, and really ponder these SOCIAL studies. Thank you.

cyber assignment #7

All three WestCiv sections meet today.

Compare the plague that hit Athens during the Peloponnesian War with COVID-19.

Write your own original reflection, post it to your blog by 11:59pm tonight, for a possible total of 10 points.

History is not just the events of long ago...

welcome to the fourth quarter

Today is the first day of the fourth quarter - congratulations!

Also today, the SupWest Civ section and Honors 201 will be "meeting." Here are your assignments.

Please note that you are expected to do your own writing for every assignment. When I see work that has been copied from another student, there will be disciplinary action. Please look at my blog from Saturday, March 21 for more details.

Write brief biographies of the following three people: Phillip II, Alexander the Great, and Darius III. Make note of the connections between the three. Post to your blog by 11:59pm tonight. This assignment is worth 10 points.

happy Tuesday to you

Hello, and good morning to both Honors sections! I hope you are all well this fine morning. Here are your cyber assignments.

Honors 202, this is your work for today:

Write brief biographies of the following three people: Phillip II, Alexander the Great, and Darius III. Make note of the connections between them. Post to your blog by 11:59pm tonight. This assignment is worth 10 points.

Honors 201 will work on this assignment:

When he was young, Alexander the Great was living an amazing life. His father, Phillip II, was the king of Macedonia, and Phillip hired one of the greatest minds of his time, Aristotle, to be Alexander’s personal tutor. When he was around 13, Alexander acquired a horse named Bucephalus. Bucephalus is a Greek term meaning “ox-head,” a reference to the horse’s huge head. The relationship between Alexander and Bucephalus was exceptional, lasting from Alexander’s youth through the many times he rode his horse into battle.

Your assignment for today is to do some independent research, and find out everything you can about the amazing relationship between Alexander and Bucephalus. As always, post your work to your blog by 11:59 tonight. I’m looking forward to reading everybody’s essays, especially those of you who have your own horse stories.