Opportunities for Extra Credit!

Don't forget to take advantage of your opportunities for extra credit. You get five of these per 9 weeks. For each newspaper or magazine clipping that has anything to do with a geographrical topic, (such as: current events of foreign countries, earthquake news, geographic expeditions like mountain climbing, climate stories, world religion, maps, etc.) you will earn 20 pts. Five of these over the course of the nine weeks gives you an extra 100. The other opportunity is to bring postcards in from around the country and the world at large. Again, for each postcard you bring, you earn 20 points toward an extra 100 for the nine weeks. You may also do a combination of the two to earn the points.

Make sure that you bring your book to class tomorrow. We have some vocabulary work to do. In addition, I will give each you your first rubric for the first scrapbook page on Map Parts. You will have a hard copy for your notebook, and I have also pasted a copy at the bottom of the Homework page. Can't wait to see how these turn out!

I will be staying after school on Tuesday & Thursday till 3:30 for anyone who needs to finish up their scrapbook.

Check the syllabus! There's a vocab test on Friday.

Hope you had a good weekend and I'll see you all tomorrow.

Types of Map Samples

Physical 

Political

Contour

Climate

Additional Visual for Map Projections

Pictures of Map Projections

Mercator

Robinson

Polar

Goodes



Voki Problems

Most students' Vokis are saying incomplete. After you create your voki and publish it, you must go to the top and "approve" it. Then, and only the, can I see it, and you use it. I'm loving what I see so far!

I Have Just Discovered Voki !!

Do you see my new avatar to the right of this screen? Click on the play arrow and hear my new Voki avatar speak to you. Voki is a program that is being used by over a million teachers around the world, and is changing the way we can learn. You create your own avatar from hundreds of choices in Voki. Then your teacher assigns you a concept to explore and after you have done the research, you tell us all about it through your avatar. You record your voice, and your avatar looks like it's speaking for you as we hear what you have recorded. This is too cool! An entire class can be assigned different components of a concept, then we put all the small pieces together and see the big picture as we listen to each avatar! I can't wait for us to try this out!!! I just purchased a year-long subscription for our team....Get used to the Yorkie over there; you'll be seeing her quite a bit with new messages!

Scrapbooks….

Well, the time has arrived ! We begin the scrapbooks tomorrow. The first step for the scrapbooks is to create the cover, and that is our goal for tomorrow. There are still quite a few of you who haven’t brought them in, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that you remember to do so tomorrow. This is going to be such a fun project for the year; and, it will be an artifact that you can keep for the rest of your life to remember your time in social studies on the Falcon team with that wacky teacher, Mrs. Morton! By creating this scrapbook, you will also be working on those neural pathways in your brain to get the information into your gray matter (the brain) and keep it there! Can’t wait to see what they look like as you create them! See you tomorrow!

Dear Parents....

Your children and I have had a great first week! We have covered the continents and oceans, latitude and longitude, the important lines of latitude and longitude that bear names, parts of a map and map skills, such as scale and plotting latitude and longitude. Whew! We worked hard! And I have had such a good time getting to know your students. They are an exceptionally fantastic group of middle-schoolers. And, by the way, thanks to all of you who helped your student post the Travel Video Project. They were fantastic!

We also began a small in-class project on Social Justice/Human Rights or Animal Rights issues (choose an issue, choose a country, find what you need in one of my National Geographic magazines and create a collage/postcard on an index card). The students are coming up with some fabulous and creative ideas for this project! I can’t wait to put them up next week.

We took a quiz on Wednesday on the continents and oceans. 99.9% of the class made an “A” on that quiz. I was so happy with those grades. However, at the end of the week, we took a test on the parts of the map and two map skills. I was very disappointed that a large group of students reported that they either didn’t study for the test, or they simply “looked over” their notes, or they had not used ALL of the study materials I had posted for them on the syllabus for this test. I have not finished grading all of the tests yet, but I can see this trend reflected in many of the grades, thus far.

Let me explain to you how I prepare students for a test: I cover the material in class, we take notes, practice any skills in class both as a group and individuals, re-teach anything someone may have the need to re-visit, use hands-on materials, games, powerpoints, visuals, smartboard activities and websites to support what we are doing. Then, I post everything they need to have access to on the syllabus that is on this blog. In fact, for this test, I posted an online test for them to review that had half of the questions that were actually on the test to ensure their success. The other half of the questions came directly from the powerpoint we reviewed, and the students took notes on in class. This powerpoint link was posted on the syllabus, as well. They were given every bit of preparation and tools for success to ensure a positive outcome. However, I can’t ensure that they will actually use what I give them in preparation.

So, I am coming to you in this post to ask for your help. Please be aware that everything I do is on this blog. I have already posted the test we took yesterday under the Homework/Quizzes/Tests button on the blog so you can see the test yourself, and the students can access it for future reference. What we do in class is posted on the syllabus. Our themes, our homework, our quizzes, our tests….are all posted. In addition, all of my resources for them are posted to ensure their success, as well. I will never give them anything (a quiz, a test, etc.) that I have not fully prepared them for, and posted the resources for within these pages. So, you can check in every week and see what we’re doing, what we have done, and what is coming up for your student. In fact, check-in often because new posts and info can be posted on a daily basis, and it will help you to help your student.

The transition from sixth to seventh grade is sometimes hard because more is expected of you. We are preparing the students to master the standards for seventh grade, as well as face the challenge of eighth grade. We are also asking students to reflect a higher level of personal responsibility. In addition to which, we are asking our optional and plus students to go above and beyond the everyday norm; to stretch the boundaries and challenge themselves to excel at a higher level. I am confident that every single student on the Falcons team can meet the challenge I place before them, and exceed my expectations. However, as an over-achiever myself, I have trouble accepting work that does not fully reflect striving for excellence.

I know from my many years of teaching, that the most powerful tool I have in helping my students achieve is to form a strong triumvirate relationship between myself, the student and the parents. That is why this blog is such a powerful tool this year…it can keep you all abreast of the needs and activities of your student on a daily basis, as well as provide the pathway for excellent teacher/student/parental communication.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful students with me this year. I take the responsibility of teaching them very seriously, and want you all to know that I try to provide them with the best possible educational atmosphere; one that I would want for my own children. Thanks for your help and I look forward to meeting many of you at the Optional Open House the Thursday before Labor Day Weekend.

P.S. Please feel free to post a comment below after reading this post, or email me at anytime at mortonvm@mcsk12.net or mrs.morton.wsms@gmail.com.

Itttt's Heeeere!!!!!!!!

I'm so psyched up! Mrs. Murphy is signing our school up for the National Geographic Geography Bee!!! Wow! I just know that I have some young geographers on the Falcon Team who will win this bee!! Above is a picture of the official study guide, which you can buy at amazon.com for $9.00. Think seriously about preparing yourselves for this bee. I'd loooovvve to be the teacher with the winning geographer!! You guys are so fantastic, I know that you will get excited about this, too! We'll talk more about it tomorrow!

I Was So Happy to See All of You Today!

Mrs. Murphy and I yacked on the phone tonight about all of our classes and our new students. She asked me what I thought about my new kids, and I said "They were spectacular!!!" I was so happy to meet all of the new faces today, and was comforted by seeing all of the precious old faces from Creative Writing classes last year. I think we are going to have a fantastic year together as we travel around the world and explore the geographical mysteries of this planet...
Don't forget to look at this week's syllabus. It is posted under the syllabus button now. Remember it will be updated by each Sunday with the new week.

Thanks so much to all of you students who have already read the blog and left a comment. Now, that's what I call the "E" in extra which can translate to an "E" in conduct.

Don't forget to bring some index cards tomorrow for journaling and for a postcard. See you all in the morning!!!

Mrs. Morton