Period 2 U.S. History Monday, October 19

1. Turned in review sheet.
2. Took Immigration, Industrialization, & Progressive Era Test.  The ONLY make-up time will be Wednesday, October 21 at lunch in my classroom.  See me before then if you have a schedule conflict or you will receive a zero on that test.  No Show = Zero
   

Periods 1, 3, 5 for Monday, October 12

Just a reminder that we will be having our test on the Immigration, Industrialization, and Progressive Era unit on Thursday, October 15.  Here's what we did in class today:

1. Review sheet in preparation for the test.  The review will be due the day of the test.
2. Assigned an essay for this unit.  Also due the day of the test, typed.  This essay will follow all of the typical formatting of an essay for your English class:  hook, thesis statement, topic sentences, concluding paragraph, etc.

Period 2 U.S. History for Friday, October 9

Just a reminder that we will be having our test on the Immigration, Industrialization, and Progressive Era unit on Thursday, October 15.  Here's what we did in class today:

1. Review sheet in preparation for the test.  The review will be due the day of the test.
2. Assigned an essay for this unit.  Also due the day of the test, typed.  This essay will follow all of the typical formatting of an essay for your English class:  hook, thesis statement, topic sentences, concluding paragraph, etc.
   

U.S. History Periods 1, 3, 5 Thursday, October 8

Continued with 7 Super Americans chart.  Copy the notes from a classmate if you were absent.
We will be having the test on this unit on Friday, October 16th, not Wednesday as previously announced.

U.S. History: W.E.B DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk

There is a new edition of W.E.B. Du Bois' classic work The Souls of Black Folk available from the Library of America (LOA).  We discussed this book the other day in class as we were reviewing Du Bois' ideas.  I read it last fall and found it intriguing.  This particular edition is really nice as the LOA puts together a quality book.  I wrote about the LOA last fall.  Incidentally, one of the people featured in the video I posted was Henry Louis Gates, the Harvard professor who became the key figure of the police incident that caused a firestorm this past summer.

Anyway, these books by the LOA are printed on acid-free paper and are beautifully produced.  I've seen some at Borders so you can get them there or find them at the Library of America website.

Period 2 World History for Wednesday, October 7

1. Finished off the 7 Super Americans chart.  Copy the notes from a classmate.
   
2. Watched a short video on the Gilded Age.  No make-up assignment for this.
   

Periods 1, 3, 5 U.S. History for Tuesday, October 6

Hope you enjoyed the stations today.  Sounded like Pit kept everyone active and even stirred up some hostility!  Here's what we did today in case you were absent:

1. Notes on political machines.  Copy from a classmate.
2. Page 250 #5, 6 and page 272 #1, 2 all under the "Main Ideas" section (not the "Terms and Names" section).  This is due at the beginning of the period on Thursday, October 8.
3. Played Pit.  This game is designed to help you remember what a monopoly is.  That is what guys like Rockefeller and Carnegie tried to achieve.  There is no make-up assignment for this game--you missed it!
   

Periods 1, 3, 5 U.S. History for Friday, October 2

Same lesson plan as Period 2 for Thursday, October 1.

Period 2 U.S. History Thursday, October 1

1. Continue 7 Super Americans chart.  
2. Watched the first 20 minutes or so of Made in L.A.  There is nothing to make up for this part--you missed it!
   

U.S. History: Made in L.A.

The video I'm showing (part of it, anyway) to my U.S. History classes right now is called Made in L.A. It highlights the struggle of immigrant laborers against the company Forever 21.  I came across this video a couple of years ago.  It was on PBS (yes students, some people actually watch PBS!) and I found it to be poignant and shocking.  Sadly, I almost expect there to be labor abuses in other countries around the world.  But workers being underpaid and abused here in the United States?  In California?  In Los Angeles, just a few miles from where I used to live?  Hard to believe, yet true.

There are scenes in the video from places I am very familiar with in L.A., including my beloved UCLA.  One of my favorite scenes is when the workers go to the Forever 21 store at the Beverly Center shopping mall and talk about how little they got paid to make some of the garments in the windows.  I like showing the film to my students because I think it opens their eyes a little bit to the struggle that many people face here in America and also brings the laborer's struggle that we discuss in the early 1900s up to the present time.  There are some thought-provoking issues and even though the majority of the film has English subtitles, students do a great job of paying attention.  Check out the website for the film.

Periods 1, 3, & 5 U.S. History for Wednesday, September 30

Above:  The cover of the very cool Penguin Deluxe Edition of Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle.

1. Took notes on the social gospel.  Copy from a classmate.
2. Read an excerpt from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle.  Read the excerpt here.
3. Began group work on the activity 7 Super Americans.  See me when you return to find out which group you are in.

Currently Reading...

In preparation for upcoming units, I'm reading a couple of books. For our French Revolution unit in World History, I've started Napoleon: A Life by Paul Johnson. Johnson, a Briton, is also the author of a popular United States history book called A History of the American People which has helped me through some of our U.S. History units. Napoleon is a pretty small book so I'm hoping to get through it rather quickly so that it will help my students understand his role in history.

The other book I just received today (from Buy.com; great prices, btw) is W.E.B. Du Bois' classic The Souls of Black Folk. Our unit on the Progressive Era is coming up soon and Du Bois plays a major role. Now if I can just get out of morning supervision duty, and football duty, and social science department meetings, I might have some time to actually READ these books!