The American Dream, Day 1 - Class Recap

The ball of yarn that we used in class today for the Class Unity Activity! Thanks for participating in this!

Dear class,

I enjoyed getting to know you all a bit better today! We had a productive time with the yarn activity and discussing what happened in the United States over the summer.

Learning Targets Addressed: 

Behavior LT 3: I can communicate and work effectively within a team or group.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: "Comin' From Where I'm From" by Anthony Hamilton. Because today, we talked about where we are from and how we got to be at Westview, via our family background. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 8/30/18:
News Brief/Blog Recap - Jalen
Looper and Newer
Class Unity Activity
The Summer

Homework: Read the blog and post a comment (if you have not already). The next news brief is assigned to: Julian.

News Brief/Blog Recap: Today's news brief was brought in by Jalen, who selected an article about this story: WSJ.com - Michael Cohen Pleads Guilty, Says Trump Told Him to Pay Off Women. We discussed this for a bit and then moved on. The news brief is pretty easy, I hope!

I also asked about the first few days of classes and if anyone was up to anything particularly fun or interesting. I like checking in and giving the opportunity to see what students are up to!

Julian was selected to do the next news brief.

As part of the news brief, we also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

I also showed this website and the blog post from last class, so students could see the level of detail with each post.

Looper and Newer: We did not have time to get to this last class, so I wanted to make sure we had time to do it today. Since about 70% of the class are "loopers" that I had with Mr. Puterbaugh last year, I wanted the "newer" students to be able to hear some advice and meet some of the students that already know us well. Here were the questions for guidance that I asked:

What should the newer students know about Mr. Fritz and Mr. Puterbaugh?

What are some keys to success in our classes?

What were some major assignments that you remember from last year? How did they go for you?

Thanks for being up for this, everyone!

Class Unity Activity: I always love this, for many reasons. One, because I love hearing about how everyone came to be in our classroom. Two, because of how the yarn connects us all. Three, because it helps the class (and me) learn names and a little about each other! Thank you for participating in this. It can get lengthy, I know, but I value it so much more than just lecturing for that time. It was nice to enjoy being outside the classroom for a bit, too!

The Summer: At the end of the class, I asked students to get into groups and then asked what happened in the United States over the summer, as we made a class list of big events. Next time, we will finish this up and keep talking about current events!

We finished with that. Please be ready to discuss next class. See you next Tuesday!