Students completed the map of China and East Asia today, then turned it in. I presented a brief lecture about Christmas customs, specifically how the figure of Saint Nicholas turned into the American Santa Claus, and the contributions of Washington Irving, Clement Clarke Moore, Charles Dickens, Thomas Nast and Haddon Sundblom. If you are wondering about any of these people, ask a Freshman and see if they remember.
We also watched the last 2014 episode of CNN Student News. I hope each of my students and their families have a wonderful Christmas vacation. Remember, we come back to school on the 12th day of Christmas, January 5. You are welcome to bring food to share with the class that morning in celebration of the final day.
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We had a guest speaker in class this morning. Kim Lee, Joshua Harder's aunt, is visiting from South Korea, where she works with an NGO helping recent defectors from North Korea. She told us about some of the places where she and her family have lived, taught a short lesson on 20th century Korean history, then spoke about living conditions in North Korea, and the difficulties facing North Koreans who are able to escape. Thank you for visiting and for the bagels!
Students searched for the 10 largest Chinese cities (by urban population), GDP per capita, and one major product for each city. We will add more information to the map on Wednesday, then turn it in at the end of class. We finished class watching the CNN Student News. We began class with the CNN Student News.
Today we bean our study of China. Students identified countries, capitals, rivers, bodies of water and other natural features on a map of Asia. We will complete this next Monday in class, then add more information to the map. I introduced the first section of Chapter 31. Along the way we learned what makes the United States a republic. There will be a quiz over this section next Monday - terms and major ideas. Take notes as you read. Students took a short quiz over Chapter 29 which we graded in class.
Today we read Chapter 30 in class. Students answered questions on pages 634, 636, 638 and 642 in their notes. We are moving on to Chapter 31, ahead of schedule. We'll be studying China for three weeks, before the end of the semester. We ended class by watching the CNN Student News. Students watched the CNN Student News.
We used the map of the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia that students turned in before Thanksgiving vacation and our 2014 Almanac to find information about language, GDP, literacy, life expectancy and government, then label countries with that info. See the Assignments page for more information. We will complete this assignment in class on Wednesday. Using the handout on Hinduism that we began reading before vacation, we learned a little about the Indian caste system and Hinduism. |
James WaltersMr. Walters has taught at RAA since 1985. He currently teaches Geography, World History, American History, Government, Economics and Handbell Ensembles. He is Music Director/Organist of Magnolia Presbyterian Church and is an adjunct professor at Concordia University Wisconsin, teaching Handbell Methods and Materials. Archives
August 2017
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