A Great Start to the New Year!

The new school year is off to a great start! In Social Studies, we spent the first couple of weeks getting to know each other, learning about what it takes to be successful in class, developing our cooperative skills, learning about the curriculum, and of course, singin songs. Here are some pictures from the first two weeks:

Two Heads Are Better Than One

Today in class we are talking about the cooperative skills that are needed to be successful when working in groups. Here is a cute video that helps remind us why we work in groups:

Welcome Back!!

The new school year will bring many changes to North Prairie. One of those changes is our Social Studies program. This year, I will be teaching all of grades 6 through 8. Classes will be about 30 minutes each and will be very different from your traditional Social Studies class. I look forward to a very FUN and exciting year!!

Here are some first day of school videos to get you in the right frame of mind:

Welcome Ms. Purta!

Hopefully, each student has already told their parents that we have a student teacher joining us in 8th grade Social Studies for the remainder of the year. Ms. Purta has already taken over all of the main duties of classroom teacher and is doing a great job! Below is a note from Ms. Purta:

Dear Eighth Grade Families,

I would like to take the opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Melissa Purta and I am honored to be your child’s eighth grade social studies teacher. I am a soon to be graduate from Carthage College. This is my second quarter student teaching and I am so excited to be here. I previously student taught freshman to seniors at Burlington High School.

I am looking forward to working with you and your child in reaching his or her full potential. We will have many wonderful experiences and opportunities to learn and grow in the days ahead.

I believe that communication is the key to a great parent-teacher relationship. I encourage you to contact me if you have any questions or concerns at any time. You can send me a note, email me at mpurta@whsd1.org or call me at (847-476-1341). For individual concerns, I will contact you by phone, send a note home, or email you (if an email address is provided).

I am looking forward to a wonderful and exciting year with you and your child!

Sincerely,

Melissa Purta

Ms. Purta has taken over our study of Contemporary American Society with an exploration of the 1970's. Here are some photos of students being introduced to this decade by learning how to disco dance:

The 1960's

Here are some videos I found for our discussion 1960's:

This montage is helpful in hearing how music changed through the decade:


This montage is simply one person's opinoin on the best songs of the decade, but it is still helpful in that it shows the variety of styles and fashisions of artists of the 1960's"


"All You Need is Love" was first performed by The Beatles on "Our World", the first live global television link. Watched by 400 million in 26 countries, the program was broadcast via satellite on 25 June 1967. The BBC had commissioned the Beatles to write a song for the UK's contribution. Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at #362 in their 500 greatest songs of all time.


Bob Dylan's "Subterranian Homesick Blues", 1965:


First moon landing, 1969:


The Early Show looks back the 1960's:

Experiencing the 1950's

As an introduction to the 1950's, social studies classes spent a little bit of time trying to "experience" that period. We listened to 45rpm records, hula-hooped, tossed the frisbee around, learned to dance The Twist, and even sang "Summertime Blues" together. Here is a video I put together featuring some of these activities:

Rock and Roll Comes to TV

The 1950's

We are begining our study of contemporary American society, in which we will look at American culture and significant events in the second half of the 20th Century. Here are some videos from the first decade we will be learning about, the 1950's:

The End of the Cold War

The following videos show two different perspectives as to how, and why, the Cold War ended:

Guest Speakers - The Vietnam War

Recently, we were very fortunate to have two guest speakers come to our class to talk about their experiences in the Vietnam War. These presentations added a lot to our study of how the Cold War affected America and helped us understand the feelings and experiences of those who actually took part in this conflict.

Students found that Mr. Michael Hebert and Rev. Michael Morris had some very important characteristics in common such as the fact that they were both proud to have served their country, and that their experiences had a positive effect on how they chose to live the rest of their lives.

At the same time, they were able to provide the students with a variety of personal experiences about the war since they served in different branches of the military, at different points in the war, and in different capacities.

I found from our discussion and reflection activities that the students truly gained a lot from these visits, especially through their opportunities to ask questions and compare experiences.

Hunting Communists

On Monday, students participated in an activity to help them gain an understanding of the feelings of suspicion among Americans in the 1940's and 1950's regarding communism in the United States. Students were each given a folded index card, most of which were blank. A few cards however, had a red dot on the inside, which meant that they were communists. Students were then asked to form groups with other students, as large as possible, without any communists in them. Any group that had successfully managed to keep out "communists" won. At the same time, any "communist" who had successfully infiltrated a group won as well.

From this activity, students learned that it is not fair, nor productive, to make judgements and decisions based on fear and suspicion.

Joseph McCarthy and the "Red Scare"

Here is some video footage from the infamous Army-McCarthy Hearings:

Duck and Cover

Here is the Duck and Cover instructional video from the 1950's, telling people what to do in the case of a nuclear attack on the United States:



After watching Duck and Cover in class, students were surprised with their own atomic bomb drill. When the alarm sounded, they quickly got under their desks to protect themselves:





During the 1950's and 60's, a number of families built fallout shelters to protect them in the case of a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. This video shows what those shelters were like:

The Butter Battle

On Wednesday, I read The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss, to the classes. This book tells the story of the Yooks, who eat their bread butter-side up, and their enemy the Zooks, who eat their's butter-side down. In order to defend their way of life, each side compete's with the other building newer and more destructive weapons. As I read, students quickly realized that this story was a metaphor for the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.



Here is the TV version of The Butter Battle Book. It is not as good as the book, but may still be helpful in remembering the lesson of the story. The video is in three parts.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:

The Berlin Wall

Here is the Megastructures video we watched in class:

Understanding Communism

In order to better understand the differences between capitalism and communism (as part of our study of the Cold War), students participated in a classroom simulation in which each of them was assigned a role of either a peasant, skilled laborer, or wealthy individual in early 20th century Russia. They were required to budget how they would feed their family based on their income in a capitalist system, and then in a communist one. Afterwards, we discussed the pros and cons of each situation.



Histeria explains Communism:

Josef Stalin

Stalin speech - November 7, 1941[English subtitles]:



A little fun with Stalin (who was actually not much fun):

Cold War Tag

Gandhi

We just finished watching the film Gandhi, in order to understand how he inspired and influenced the American Civil Rights Movement. I have posted some videos that give us a little more insight into this great figure.

"One World" speech:


Rare film of Gandhi:

Civil Rights Protest March