Thursday, August 31, 2006

AUGUST 31 - STARTING THE BOSTON MASSACRE NEWS VIDEO PROJECT

Today in class we organized the Boston Massacre project. This project includes making a video in the time of the Boston Massacre. We put our names into a box and got drawn out for our parts in the video. Unfortunately I was chosen close to last so I didn’t get the part I wanted but I still got a good part which is the reporter of the eyewitnesses. I wanted to be the news anchor but no luck. After we chose our parts we got started on our scripts. Our scripts are similar to each other especially the reporters. They had to be about forty-five seconds to a minute so it would fit perfect into the video with good timing. We are planning to reenact the scene next Thursday by getting into two lines and throwing rocks and snow balls, along with lots of yelling and fighting going on. We are all looking forward on reenacting the scene of March 5th 1770, The Boston Massacre.

Reported by Kelsey

  • Note from Mr. Langhorst - This post was cool because the student typed it, I took a quick digital picture of the class working on the project, did a copy and paste from a flash drive and it was posted before class ended. The students actually viewed it before they left class and thought it was great!

Posted by Eric Langhorst at 12:45 PM |

Thursday, August 24, 2006

AUGUST 23 and 24 - STARTING UNIT 1 "ROAD TO REVOLUTION"

Note - since we use a block schedule on some days there is
just one entry to Wednesday and Thursday since we are doing the same
activities.


Today in class we went over a number of things. To start, Mr. Langhorst passed out our Unit 1 packet. Unit 1 goes over The Road to revolution. The Unit covers Taxes and Acts, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Declaration of Independence, and more. At the beginning of class we had to complete the first section of the Unit. (#1-15) Once everyone had completed the first section, we headed down to the computer lab. Once we arrived, the class went to a quiz website. We were told to complete a pretest over our new Unit at the website. Once students completed their pretest they were allowed to play the 50 states game on Mr. Langhorst’s website. If you’re reading this you should try it out before you leave the website. It can be very challenging!

Reported by Nick

Posted by Eric Langhorst at 11:02 AM |

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

AUGUST 22 - STATES TEST

Hello. It's Mr. Langhorst reporting again. I forgot to select a student reporter today so I'll give the report for today. I'll have to make a reminder about selecting someone and then giving them the laptop. Today we took a test over the location of the 50 states. Knowing the location of the 50 states is one of the grade level expectations set forth by the state of Missouri and we will take a states test several times over the course of the year until everyone reaches 100%. Many of the students have commented that they used the online states game linked on the bottom of our classroom web site. It is a great way to study and even adults get hooked playing that game.

Reported by Mr. Langhorst

Posted by Eric Langhorst at 10:40 PM |

Monday, August 21, 2006

AUGUST 21 - INFORMATION SHEETS

Today I'm reporting because the students were so busy working there wasn't time to anyone to blog. The students were in the computer lab today filling out their information sheets for me. On the first day I gave them a sheet to fill out about contact information and then some questions to find out a little more about them - what are your favorite all time books, what movies do you like, any extra activities they will be doing this school year, if you could have any job in the world what would you do, etc. My favorite question asks them to name the three people they would ask to dinner if given the chance. I always read that question first because I find it so interesting. I also take their picture the first day and there is a place on the information sheet to add their digital photo. I am terrible with names and it takes me a long time to match faces with names so I study these sheets to learn names and find out more about my students as people. An extra benefit of doing this activity in the lab is showing students how to our different networks in the building - including the instructional drive where teachers can place items to be downloaded by students and the turn-in drive where students can paste documents but only the specific teacher can view and modify them. Students used any extra time to study for the states test tomorrow. It will be our first grade of the school year.

Reported by Mr. Langhorst

Posted by Eric Langhorst at 6:31 PM |

Friday, August 18, 2006


AUGUST 18th - Crashing Landing on the Moon

The first thing we did today in class was work on a sheet in which we ranked items from a story of their importance. There’s a story in which you crash landed on the moon and need to rank the items in their importance. There are 15 items in which to rank. Such items include food, matches, etc. The items listed are what you only have. First, you put the items in order by their rank of how important they are. You then work with your team to match up how you rated their importance. After that, you listen to what their importance really is from number 15 by NASA. You write the importance of the items on your paper on the NASA’s Rank column. By the statements you received from your team and on your own, this tells you how you rank if you were by yourself, or with your team. If you score lower from adding them then you have a good conscience of picking items during this situation.

Pictured is the winning team from the Lost on the Moon simulation.

Reported by Chato

Posted by Eric Langhorst at 10:33 AM |

Thursday, August 17, 2006


AUGUST 17 - Learning Styles - How Do I Learn Best?

Today in Social Studies, we started class by filling out a sheet that tells us how we learn best. The three types of learning things are Kinesthetic, Visual, and Auditory. Kinesthetic is when you learn with doing things with your hands. Visual learning is when you learn by seeing. Auditory learning is when you learn by hearing. When taking the test (on the Learning Styles inventory) it’s best not to think too hard about the answers. Then we got a sheet to score out tests to see how we learn best. I’m kinesthetic learner, which me I understand things easier when I can move around and touch them. After out test Mr. Langhorst passed out the fifty states map to see how many states we know.
Report by Emily

Posted by Eric Langhorst at 10:38 AM |

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

AUGUST 16 - First Day of School

Hello. My name is Mr. Langhorst and I would like to welcome you to our Class Scribe blog. This year will have a blog entry for each day of class. Today is the first day of the 2006/2007 school year. The entry on most days will be written by a student but since today is first day I am writin the post.

Our first day was like many others across the country - some quick reminders about proper conduct in the classroom, an introduction to the class and handing out textbooks. I also had the students fill out an information sheet so I can learn more about them as individuals. These sheets really help me learn more about who they really are and their other interests. I think the most interesting question is "If you could invite any three people to dinner (living or deceased) who would you invite?"

I also took their picture with a digital camera. On Monday we will be in the computer lab and they will enter their information on a PowerPoint slide along with the picture and then I will able to easily print them off. I am terrible with names so I will study them just like flashcards to learn everyone's name. Overall it was a great first day and I'm looking forward to having a great school year.

Mr. Langhorst

Posted by Eric Langhorst at 5:08 PM |