Revision by Rebecca L. 8D

Sometimes when Mr. Armstrong ask us question, to make sure that we understand, people would be eager to answer the question in my eyes. Today, Mr. Armstrong asked us question to test us if we've been doing well at taking notes without him being in the class. As he gave out question, the questions were always answered by various students and eventually getting them right. Some students made up jokes or made mistakes that were really funny making the class spirit rise. But as always I thought his questions was always challenging and it is still challenging for me, but when other students answer the question and the teacher elaborating the answer made me understand more about this American Revolution and have fun because of all the jokes that had happened in between study time.

We went through many topics during class. First was about why and what the Indians were fighting with either with the British or with the Americans. There were several answers and a joke (The Thinker) when a Native American came out and we had to guess what the picture was about. We learned that the Native Americans were fighting to save their homeland and they didn't care if the Americans were independent or not.

We had several map questions that we didn't need to take notes on. I felt as if he was testing if we are reading the details he is giving out or just finding the keyword and take notes or if we could guess well by reading the map and noticing what was going on. I thought it was a great question that we should think about it more than just taking notes than to just read.

We learned more and more by Mr. Armstrong elaborating our answers for the questions that we gave and made us understand more about how the Revolution went on. I thought I learned a lot today and it would be in my mind till we finish our Social Studies Final. I was thankful of Mr. Armstrong for helping us and let our emotion out in the class room to lift our spirits.

The quiz with many questions...

There was no class on Tuesday. Today, most of us entered the classroom sore, from playing all of our instruments from the class before, some of us just took the finals, right before. We were all scared of what was happening next. Unfortunately, because Mr. Armstrong was not here, we could not do the traditional hand-shaking when we first entered the classroom. Everyone sat in their original seating assignment from what I could see. Luckily, our substitute, Mr. Campbell gave us an extra 15 minutes to do some extra cramming before we took the quiz. Many people turned to their neighbors and quizzed each other on something they thought would show up on the test. Finally, the moments came. Mr. Campbell handed out the part of the test where we would ahve to write our answers to everybody, back-sided so that everyone would see the test at the same time. He told us to add questions 21 - 25 and cross out question 3. Then, Mr. Campbell handed out the part of the test that had the questions in it, back-sided once again. Finally, everybody turned the test and got started. We had 30 minutes to finish the quiz. The questions on that quiz were all based on our key terms and main ideas. The questions ranged from the winter at valley forge all the way to John Paul Jones. We all let go of our anxiety by writing evrything we knew about that subject. Finally, when we had only about 5 more minutes until we had to hand in our quizzes, almost everyone was double - checking their work to see if they made any mitakes. Quiz time was over. But, luckiyl Mr. Campbell surprised us by letting us have another 3 minutes to modify or delete our answers with the help of our textbooks. I think that almost everyone raised their grades higher by getting this extra time to edit our quizzes. Finally, we really had to turn in our tests. Mr. Campbell worked his way from my left all the way to the right, collecting everybody's tests. We had a few minutes so everyone discussed about the questions on the test and how hard they were. Class finally ended and everyone made their way out of the classroom, trying to forget everythign about the quiz.

-Esther Y. 8A

Diving head first into new info-by Jeong Ah K. 8A

Today, when we got into class, we felt a scorching blast of heat. Nobody was, of course, happy about this, because we had just completed perhaps the most embarrassing fashion show of our lives with wearable art from our art project. What made things worse was the fact that we had just climbed up a whole lot of stairs.
However, one of the biggest problems was that due to forgetfulness, people forgot their seating arrangement and decided to plop their lazy selves into any chair they thought would be nice (Mr. Armstrong, you should have made little hardcopy charts like the other teachers do). So we had to shuffle around a bit, and after that, we had a little awkwardness with Mr. Campbell, but he managed to get us back on track with our Immersions for weeks twelve and thirteen. Of course there were a few people that preferred to waste their time on certain sites, but Mr. Campbell got most of it straightened out.
There were a few problems with the videos though. Apparently, no one really brought the box with headsets so a lot of people had to use their own. It was a very cluttered and confusing day for all of us.
We didn’t have a general lesson but we all kind of learned that…
a) With freedom comes responsibility
b) Never underestimate any teacher…even if it’s the substitute
c) If a seating chart is given, try to remember the people around you
This time the kudos with the digitized candy (drum roll please) goes to Esther Y. and Se June H. for their work in class. Esther (though she did not enjoy the work) did her part as class representative and tried to get everyone in order. She handed out the laptops and aside from giving Dean laptop number 21 instead of 12 (she was reading the numbers upside down), she did a good job. Se June was extremely focused on his immersion and seemed to get a lot accomplished today (I’m not being biased Mr. Armstrong, he did seemed focused on his monitor and notes).
Just a few quick reminders for 8A: remember you have your quiz on Wednesday and make sure you finish your immersion. An immersion should be handwritten, with the main ideas as well, and the sources. Au revoir!

-by Jeong Ah k.

Immersed into Immersions...

Today in class, we just totally immersed our selves in to the Week 12 & 13 Immersion; the fight for Liberty. Actually, before we immersed our selves into immersion, Mr. Armstrong made a quick reminder about taking notes, since he’s going somewhere from this Friday. The reminder was like the following;
1. Notes have to be HANDWRITTEN
2. Always document your source. (i.e. Holt Social Studies, ABC CLIO, etc)
3. Focus on Key Terms & Main Ideas.
4. With freedom & responsibility
Also, Mr. Armstrong told us to behave well in class while the substitute teacher is there. He said that we have been very independent for 4 month, which means that we’ve been feeding ourselves for such a long time, and we shouldn’t have a problem while he’s gone. Our 8th grade is going to have a quiz while he’s gone, but if we are faithful writing our notes, we shall have no problems… well maybe a quite few, but we can still e-mail Mr. Armstrong, so it doesn’t really matter. Mr. Armstrong assigned seats for everyone, so that we would have no problem with it. Then, we started to immerse ourselves into Week 12&13 Immersion. Our immersion was mostly about the revolutionary war, and we’re studying the point where the Peace with British ended. Now it’s “’You kill me, or I kill you’– by Mr. Armstrong”. It was quite interesting how they fought each other. After we took notes about 30 minutes, Mr. Armstrong gave us 3minute break, and then we started to immerse our selves into the immersion. Today, in our class, there was such fabulous news. Our dear friend Grace left the comment for us at our class scribe. It was just wonderful how we can contact with her even if she’s in Canada. I miss Grace so much… Today, our assignment was to do immersion, it’s not like due till some day, but since there’s a quiz next Tuesday, we have to get prepared. Overall, everyone should be applauded, because our whole class worked so hard taking notes.

-by Jane Y.

The Continental Army and the British Army Jenny P. 8A

Today in class, we had a better understanding of the beginning and cause of the revolutionary war. We watched a part of a movie called "The Patriot", and understood how the war was declared. We discussed about the difficulties and advantages of both the colonies and Great Britain when it comes to war. The colonies had an advantage that they were supported by many other nations, they knew their land(geography), and that Other European nations supported them, but had difficulties that they had a lack of money and military supplies, and there was little to no military experience or training. Most of the soldiers were farmers, so they weren't trained to fight. Besides, the British had advantages that they were well organized and had a trained army, and also that the soldiers were veterans of the French and Indian war. They still had weaknesses that they failed to understand how much all the colonies had disliked them and their rules. We also discussed in class about how the Continental army was going on. Most of the soldiers were farmers, so they were used to being not clean and being sweaty all the time, therefore, they didn't wash or change clothes, and refused to go to bathrooms so the area around the army smelled awfully bad. We also got handouts explaining this week and next week's immersion schedule & main ideas, since Mr. Armstrong will not be here until next week Thursday.
Everybody in our class had used their time wisely to go over the textbook or the handout we recieved for the last 15~20 minutes given. It was very impressing how everyone stayed focused and didn't talk, which is very unordinary for 8A!! Everyone did an awsome job.
We were expected to do the immersion for week 12&13 ( the first part), and identify the key terms as well as the main ideas as usual. We were also told that we would get our final exam schedule soon!!

We the Eight-Grade Declares Independence - Staci S.

IN CLASS, November 26, 2007

The unanimous Declaration of twenty middle school students of Korea International School.

When in the coarse of studies, it becomes necessary for one people to not follow rules, which have made connections between students and teachers, and to assume this is a impossible situation to happen, our leader Mr. Armstrong gave us an opportunity to rebel, and now we, the students of eight grade have made several declaration per colony (or pods).

We hold this meeting in room M403 with the help of Mr. Armstrong, that leads to publish sixteen declarations out of the whole eight grade. That to be more informative, we received “Declaration of Independence Remix,” “Declaration of Independence,” handouts and a Middle School student handbook. That whenever any information and guides are needed it becomes handy. Without any further delays, we the students of eight grade, brainstormed the facts that weren’t satisfied by themselves, and now, for tomorrow’s English class, we have started our first drafts on the Declaration Independence. Such can be similar wordings and formats to the Declaration of Independence written by Tomas Jefferson.

To prove this today’s class stars,

• Hoon Ho Chung, who has stood up all of eight grade to point out one of the teachers, and had reasons and evidence why this teacher was not significant all the times; and every member of the team agreed. Brave, Hoon Ho.

Extra News

• Congratulations New Couple of Eigth Grade; now we currently have 5 couples
• We have 3 more weeks to go!!!! Hold On everyone!~!!!

EVERY ONE FIGHTING

American Revolution Quiz!!

Today, my class had an American Revolutio quiz. Before we took the quiz, we went over the packet that Mr.Armstrong distributed before. It was about the Declaration of Independence which was wrttien in old British English. Even though it took some time to intrepret the sentences, my class was following very well and seemed like there was no problem.
Also Mr. Armstrong showed us the real paper - the Delclaratin of Independence - and everyone was amazed by handwriting. It looked like it was typed, not handwritten. Besides, we noticed that John Hancock's signature was the biggest among the others. We guessed that it is bacuase he wanted to show that he was very courageous and proud of what he did even though he knew that just singing is dangerous thing.
Then we recieved our laptops and checked if internet is connected and went to quia class page as usual. I personally liked the password which was pasta. Anyway, the quiz had begun. At first, when I was a bunch of multiple choice problems, I wanted to scream and jump out of the room. But it was not that hard. I hope it went okay. There were a lot of essay questions different from last time. This quiz was a great reminder for me to think what I had learned this week again.
At first time, everyone was nervous and ended with a relief. I believe that is a good part of taking quizes or tests; you feel proud of yourself and feel like you have thrown your heavy durden.

Rachel L.

Everybody Starts to Moan-Justin L. 8A-11/15/07

As always, we shook Mr. Armstrong’s hand and got into our assigned seat. When we got settled, he told us to get out our agenda to write down the homework. Our homework for today (11/15/07) is to study for the quiz, which is on Monday for 8A. After that we did a water fountain discussion with our members of the pod about Thomas Paine and the Declaration of Independence. My pod reviewed the key terms and talked about Thomas Paine, Common Sense, “e pluribus unum”, The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, Loyalists, July 4^th of 1776, and the Prohibitory Act. We didn’t get to finish all of the terms and the main ideas. Mr. Armstrong handed out papers, but it wasn’t just one or two pages, it was ten pages. And then most of my classmates were moaning. I was too. It was like what I have expected. It was to read sections from the Declaration of Independence and answering what the questions asked. For example, (part 1- Preamble) The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. And the question was According to this paragraph what is the goal of the writers? Mr. Armstrong said that no answer was wrong, but you could only get information from what is given, not extra from other sources. And that wasn’t the only question. And when Mr. Armstrong was going around the classroom, he said that the pod that one of the pods (can’t remember the color) was hot. Meaning that they were on fire with the explanation. So I guess that pod was the stars of today. But after this assignment I got better information and understanding of what the Declaration of Independence is saying. We worked on that worksheet rest of the class time and when the bell rang we went out. Mr. Armstrong was very proud of all the understanding and the work we did. And that is the end of the day. Bye. And also review for the quiz.

Justin L.

8A

11/15/07

Finally...the Declaration of Independence Jenny L. 8A

When we first entered the classroom we were assigned to different pods. Once we settled down after the attendence had been taken, Mr. Armstrong outlined the homework that was to be completed by tomorrow - Week 11 Immersion on the Declaration of Independence.

Today, instead of going through different key terms in our pods, Mr. Armstrong told us to share the main ideas and rate the answers given by each person, in the order of the shoe sizes people have in each pod. Then as a class, we shared the main ideas, guided by the Powerpoint presentation Mr. Armstrong had, yet again, prepared for us. The presentation showed different illustrations appropriate for the topic and we also watched a mock-interview video on Paul Revere and his contribution.

We also discussed as to why the colonists were so upset about the acts that the British parliament passed and we learned that everything led up to the English Bill of Rights. Mr. Armstrong handed out paper which outlined the Declaration of Rights and told each pod to interpret different sections of the Declaration.

Once we were through, the pods shared their ideas of the Declaration of Rights each one another and realized that the document was stating one main idea: No taxation without representation.

Throughout the entire class, Mr. Armstrong made the understanding of the concept easier by using the usual metaphor involving a strict mother and a resisting child.

There were no significant questions posed by the students but when Mr. Armstrong did, as a class, they gave synchronized answers, such as filling in the blanks of Mr. Armstrong's explanation on English Bill of Rights.

Once again, we finished off another Social Studies class with deeper understanding and more knowledge than what we came to the classroom with in the beginning of the class.

Jenny L. 8A

How To Treat Your Kids... Harin L. 8A

The class started with the normal routine of shaking your hand with Mr. Armstrong and bringing out the agendas with the renown words of "questions, comments, concerns, guilty consciences?" with any of the homework. Today's topic was the relationship between the colonies and British and how one side wanted one thing and the other side wanted another. We started off with the parent-child relationship and how Britain was trying to control the colonies. Mr. Armstrong asked us what our parents would do. One of the most memorable ones was Dean's suggestion that the parents should starve their children. Of course we were reminded that even though the British really did want control, of course they didn't want to have dead colonies. Then Mr. Armstrong showed us a Powerpoint presentation where he showed the views of the two sides and how each were having very different ideas on what they were doing to each other. He also explained how these events led to the Revolutionary War and the how the tensions were rising. Before he explained this though, Jenny L. asked why the wars took so long. Mr. Armstrong explained to Jenny that because of the long distances between the colonies and and the actual Mother country, Britain, it was hard to actually sustain all the recruits overseas and be able to continue war. After this was made the clear the Powerpoint continued with the diagram of the colonies and the one British man with a crown representing the tensions between the two but how the colonists were still unsure of whether to cut ties with the British or not. After this, we were to take notes on the key terms and main ideas from the textbook. After a while Mr. Armstrong asked for any clarification on the key terms and David asked what was the difference between the minutemen and the Continental Army was. After the class explained, we all understood the contrasts and comparisons of the two key terms. This is what we did for class today. In my opinion, this was more of an immersion session then an actual comprehension of the information, but overall, we learned a lot from today's note taking.
Harin L.

Julia L. 8D IC/OC - Semnar

Today in class, we had our second IC/OC seminar about the conflict in the colonies. An IC/OC seminar where the class is divided into half, and one half is in the innercircle, and the other half is in the outer circle. While the inner circle people mainly discuss on certain topics that Mr.Armstrong gives us, the outer circle people usually take notes on what the inner circle says. You also note any questions or comments you have about a person's statement or question. The first half of the class, the inner circle discussed about many topics like the Stamp Act, Sugar Act, and many others. Many people spoke out, and I think that is the main reason why the discussion didn't have any dead air, and it went on smoothly. We learned a great deal about the conflict in the colonies, such as that although the colonists didn't mind paying the taxes, they were mostly upset because they were taxed without their permission, and this goes against their slogan, "taxation without repersentation." The colonists just wanted to be treated more equally. Also, we learned that many acts were enforced so that the tax could be collected properly. But most didn't work because the colonists were very good at smuggling. I think today was actually one of our best seminars we've had so far, and that if we keep going at this level, we will definitely learn a lot. In myopinion, an IC/OC seminar is a great way for everyone to participate and to just sit back and listen sometimes.

Britain and the Colonist Perspective

Today when I step in class I could notice that we were going to be in the same group as last time. Mr. Armstrong gave us an handout about the colonies. The handout showed how unstable and un-united the colonies were. We could of notice that by an example the handout showed. It told that if the colonies were attacked by native americans the colonies next to the attacked colony didn't help them at all even if they asked for help. If a colonist came over to another colony the colonist would shoot the other colonist. I think that Samuel Adams said that with out Britain the colonies would be a diasaster. After the handout we were organizing our scripts for the British and the Colonist Perspective. We had to write scripts for our homework so our group was getting a general idea what we were writing. Our group help each other out and I gave Britney a job as an interviewee. We fixed each others work. Our whole class made a google docs for their group. Mr. Armstrong stated that he was nervous because we took so much time just making a google docs but later our class was working efficientally. Today, it was hard to notice who was working hard and stood out because in social studies class it the groups were working independantally but I think that our class was working hard today.




By: Sungmo K.

Joseph K. 10.26.07

Today in Social Studies, the class was a little different. Instead of reviewing something we already learned, Mr. Armstrong gave us the whole class time to learn on our own. We did an activity about five laws(Sugar Act, Stamp Act, Townshed Acts, Tea Act, and Intolerable Acts) where we had to find the date of the laws and how the colonists reacted towards those laws. The laws were to tax the colonists so they could pay for the outcome of the French and Indian war after Great Britain had won. The unfair laws lead to many boycotts, protestings or rebellions, and the forming of the Sons of Liberty and the Daughters of Liberty. In 1764, when the first law to earn money, which was the Sugar Act, people thought it was unfair and refused to buy goods. In 1765, because of the boycott, the new law was passed. The Stamp Act was a law that required people buying any paper goods to buy stamps. The, the Sons of Liberty formed, and they either used violence to scare the tax collectors, or just refused to buy stamps. That caused colonial courts to shut down. After the Parliament got rid of that law, another law called the Townshed Acts was formed on June in 1767. This time, another group called the Daughters of Liberty formed, and they supported protestants. Because people were refusing to buy many British goods, the law was disabled, and the Tea Act, which was taxing tea goods, formed. Irate colonists disguised themselves as Indians, and dumped three hundred fourty chests of tea that were on three ships. Because they had to pay for the loss of so much goods, the Parliament passed the Intolerable Acts and got the colonists angrier.
I think that this type of class could be useful from time to time, but I think that after working on your own, if there was a time where we could ask the teacher about things we didn't understand, just like we do during reviews, it would help to understand the topic better. I also think that the activity helped me because I had to read the whole passage to understand just one part of it.

Joseph K.

French and Indian War

French and Indian War

2007.10.24

Today was one of the days that my ears were naturaly attracted to the words of Mr. Armstrong. As I stepped into the classroom, I found that the desk arrangements were different from any other kinds we were used to. I soon figured that one side of the class was French, the other was Britain, and in the middle the Indians.

The point of doing this was to understand why the Native Americans allied with either France or British. Native Americans liked to trade with British; in exchange for weaponary (such as guns) the British recieved fur that were sold at high price in England. But the main reason the Native Americans were allies is because they needed support; people who can back up when another tribe of Indians attacked. The Indians liked to ally with French people because they did hardly any harm to the Natives, nor take their land. Unlike the French, English colonists took away land to make massive plantations for they brought prophit from growing crops. But as some tribes allied with the French, the other tribes bacame anxious and afraid, so they allied with English colonists.
We also learned of George Washington, a name so famous and friendly felt. I always thought that George Washington was always stern, inteligent, quick, keen, and all those other nice words. But as I learned of mistakes Washington had done I was astonished how human-like he felt because he always seemed so perfect in history books. I think many other students felt like this too, because I overheard some students talk, as well as in their class reflections.
I really enjoyed today's class because the information that was flying around my from taking notes settled down on to a nest that pulled all the information together. Small details that Mr.Armstrong explained to us seemed like a missing piece or puzzle found.

Deborah K 8B

Review of Colonial Government-Soyon J. 8B

The seats were spread out we all sat down and looked at the board and again, there it was, the mother England and the 13 colonies drawing. I wasn't sure why it was up there again and I don't think many people understood either. We finally found out that Mr. Armstrong was going to give an review of the Colonial Government system. Many people seemed like they weren't really sure about what the government system. There was a lot of confusion during the IC/OC seminar also. To clear things up, Mr.Armstrong gave us an review through armstrong art. I think that afterwards, everyone understood and was clear about the Colonial Government. After the review, we had time to do our immersion with the Holt Handbooks. Overall, today's class was mostly spent by doing the review. The review really helped a lot to get rid of the confusion amongst us about the Colonial Government system.

The French & Indian War and Conflicts Among Colonies Dean Lee 8A

We learned about the conflicts in the North America colonies and a great eruption of conflicts, French & Indian War. There were no handouts given for today, and Mr. Armstrong used his board to lecture. We were expected to know key terms and the main ideas for today participation. We also needed to concentrate on the class to write the discussion in the Wikispaces, especially I, responsible for today's scribe.
First of all, our class reviewed our key terms by grouping in 2 or 3 people. I discussed with Hoonho Chung, and I think he deserves commendation. He said that King Philip functioned as Pontiac because they both opposed the moving colonists, and I think Hoonho was successful at making connections.
Amy Kim was the first student to help the others. She said that the fur trading encouraged the British and French to get the Ohio Valley. Jenny Lee asked, "Did French colonized the Ohio Valley?" In my view, I think this question wasn't effective because in our notes, they say that French only traded, while British settled. Therefore, the Ohio Valley wasn't colonized by French, and French just got profits from fur trading. However, it was an interesting question to ask.
The person who used his time wisely was Jenny Lee. She really participated and willing to ask questions to solve all of her confusions. Some of her questions were quite far ahead of topics, but those questions had connections with what we learned so far.
Today was a nice class to refresh our mind about the French & Indian War. Thanks to the teacher and participances, we got the main ideas easily and we now can think deeply about this topic.

The Great Social Studies Enlightenment

The Great Social Studies Enlightenment
Today is October 18th 2007. During Social Studies, we learned various material and did an activity.
The first thing we did, was take out our agendas and write down the homework which was to do Week 9 Immersion, like you know, do the stuff you always do? (key terms and main ideas)
After that was put away, Mr. Armstrong then started to make a graphic organizer of the monarch, privy council, governors, assemblies, town meetings, colonial courts. I finally understood how we were supposed to do it... (Week 8 Immersion Main Ideas Question 1) This is somewhat similar to what we drew:

Monarch
---------------------
Privy Council
(set colonies laws)
---------------------
Governors
+
Advisory Council
---------------------
Colonial Assemblies
(made laws)
---------------------
Town meetings
(discussed local affairs)
---------------------
Colonial Courts

We also did an activity in which we made a timeline of some important dates that we researched in the Holt Social Studies United States History textbook. We had to write a summary of each event. By the time you are done doing the homework, you should have a clear understanding of the French and Indian war. I think that the sparknotes link which you can find immediately after pressing on Week 9 immersion, is meant for extra information or a clear summary of the information. Everybody remember that you have got to watch the video and take notes or you can print out the text version of the video and then take notes.

Class Stars!!
Grace- for creating further discussion in our Inner circle seminar by provoking thought by asking cool questions about the topic. You rock!!
Jay- for letting Amy borrow his pencil case and pencils *^^*

Extra News~~!
Jenny C*0- Happy Birthday!! Don't let those pesky 7th grade boys whom you don't even know, badger you and win cake from you!!! Take control of your cake!!

Everyone have a happy three days off !!! (I know Grace, its heartbreaking it isn't four days><)
HAPPY END OF QUARTER!!!! I COULD DIE WITH HAPPINESS!!!!
(This isn't IM language Mr. Armstrong><, Freedom of Press!!!)

Amy K. (you don't need to know the rest)

The IC/OC Seminar - Jenny J. 8B

We entered the classroom, bewildered about the seating arrangements, and sat at the desk where our name tags were on. Today was when we had our Week 8 Seminar. Usually, our past seminars have been including all of the students in one circle but today, Mr. Armstrong divided us and set our seating arrangements into an outer circle and an inner circle, which is called the IC/OC. Before we started, we wrote on the reflection page like we always do before every seminar. First, the inner circle, placed in the middle, the students would discuss about the main ideas in their circle. While the inner circle students are having a small seminar, the outer circle students were taking notes about the useful information stated and things that were confusing said by the students in the inner circle. After 30 – 40 minutes, the outer circle students got a chance to ask questions or say statements to the inner circle, who were answering these questions. Then, when the inner circle was finished, both, inner and outer circles switched places. So the students, who were in the outer circle, were now the inner circle members, who were answering and discussing the main ideas that weren’t asked or stated before. Overall, I think the new Seminar style was successful and made a fresh experience for us because everyone made a great connection.

Day of Revision - Ryan H. 8B

The first thing I noticed when I entered the class today was that Mr. Armstrong had drawn a simple picture depicting a mother and a child. Without the slightest idea of what the drawing was about, everyone giggled thinking that it was amusing and funny since it was so random.

However, when Mr. Armstrong started class, the drawing was not just a thing to laugh at; rather, we could see that it was a metaphor used to help us better understand the class materials.

Today we learned that the mother in the drawing represents England and that the child represents the 13 colonies. What Mr. Armstrong was trying to convey to us was the fact that the relationship between England and its colonies was similar to that of a mother and a child.

England built an empire in the New World, and established 13 colonies. It governed and took care of its colonies by providing it with essential needs such as food, wealth and protection. However, as the 13 colonies grew and prospered they demanded more independence and freedom from England.

This is similar to a mother and a child relationship in that when a child is young, his or her mother would nourish and protect him at all costs. The child, also young and helpless will be very much dependent on his or her mother. However, as the child grows he/she would want more freedom, and when that freedom is not granted to his/her satisfaction, the child would try to leave his/her mother.

By this comparison, we were able wrap up out thoughts on this week’s lesson.

After that activity, we were to review and discuss our week 8 immersion with the people in our table group. We were expected to be able to know our key terms and resources from which we have gotten the information we used. We researched and went over significant terms such as John Peter Zenger, Navigation Acts, Town Meetings, Mercantilism, and so forth. It is very interesting that the town meetings consisted of local people solving current day issues, which is very similar to today’s democratic governments.

At the end of the class, Billy and I gave a presentation in front of the class on the economic system of the 13 colonies.

Billy and I were chosen to show the whole class how things worked in terms of trade by demonstrating how economic deals were made during the colonial era. We exchanged fake cash for necessity goods such as yarn (clothes) and shoes, while at the same time we showed how colonies could increase or decrease their profit by pretending to purchase some goods and paying for it.

Today was a wrap up review session to make sure we worked diligent and efficient enough to get the accurate information into our heads. I thought it was a good opportunity to refresh and polish our work by discussing it with the rest of the class.

I believe that the class star should go to D.K. because he helped our table group understand things more clearly. He also asked good questions that sparked new conversations which also reminded us of the immersions we did a while ago.

Mother and Child

When we entered the classroom, some were confused by the drawings on the board of a 'Mother' and a 'Child'. As the lesson began, Mr Armstrong explained to us that the mother represented Mother England and the child was the 13 colonies that England had control over. Mr Armstrong explained the relationship between the 13 colonies and England as the relationship between a child and a mother - it starts out as a good strong relationship and the mother provides things, such as money, protection etc. to help the survival of the child. However, as the 'child' i.e. the colonies grow there becomes friction in the relationship as the child wants more independance etc. I think that this helped many people to understand the concept a lot better and gave us something to compare the relationship to.
Then we had a water fountain disscussion and talked about the key terms that we had been taking notes on in immersion. In our group the star was Grace, because she thought of questions and made many links that a lot of people were not able to make and helped us to get a better understanding. She asked questions that helped to analyze the information, such as, 'What was ther problem with the Navigations Acts'.
After this me, Jay and Jorma showed a short presentation on what mercantilism was and why Navigation acts were put in place. I think that the fact that there was a visual made it easier for people to figure out the concept, including me.
Today's class was really about trying to analyze the information given to us and rather than just simply understanding it and trying to take it to another level.

Ashley K 8A

Starting day of the different goverment system study-Junwoo H.

Today was the second day after the test. Everyone was smiling, without the terrfied faces like the day we took the test. Today in class, we got a map of the American colonies that we have studied so far. We labeled the countries on the map and colored the colonies differently to seperate them. Then with our new class textbooks, we colored in the lands where the Spanish and the French had control of. Now, we are getting in to more deeper informations about the colonies' government systems. By next lesson, we need to know about different forms of colonial government.

Test Review-Jiheon K. 8A

When we went into the classro0m, the desks were all lined up. Mr. Armstrong let us choose where we wanted to sit. After the bell rang and Mr. Armstrong took attendance and we received our tests back. Mr. Armstrong gave us a few minutes to look over the test and check some of the questions we got wrong. Then, we all looked at the screen in front of the classroom. The percentage of the students that got the questions correct was on all the questions. We looked over some of the questions that a lot of the students got wrong. The questions seemed to be very confusing and in some of the questions, only about half the students had gotten the answer correct. After we reviewed the questions, we looked at examples of the answer to the short answer problems. After we were finished reviewing the test, Mr. Armstrong took them back. The students seemed to not be familiar to the new type of test we took and they weren't really prepared for this test, so Mr. Armtrong said that he would give us an extra 7% on this test. However, next time, he said that we need to be fully prepared.

A Shock of Reality- Hee Jae C. 8B

(This is the post for Thursday's class.)
The room was dark. Deadly silence and tension filled the air. With our faces molded into a stern, stiff expression, we stared at Mr. Armstrong for a long time. He was firmly holding a pile of papers and an odd wave of anxiety spread across the room as he said that today, we'd be looking over our tests and discussing about the mistakes that many of us had made. Looking at one another, we all gave nervous glances to each other and I bit my lips hard, knowing that this would not be a satisfying moment.
The light from the projector spilled across the room like a flowing fabric of silk and as each of us looked at the countless zeros on the sides of the paper, Mr. Armstrong opened his mouth to say the words that we had all dreaded to hear. Although taking a quiz on Quia was a new experience for us, it was our duty to put forth our best efforts and think carefully on what to choose as an answer. Countless people had gotten many of the questions wrong and it seemed so obvious that studying, more effort, and hardwork was greatly in need.
The heavy burden and disappointments in our stomachs dropped lower and lower as seconds, minutes, and an hour passed. Everyone was murmuring about their grade and the stupid mistakes that they had made, but at that moment, we had no idea of what was coming ahead. Mr. Armstrong slowly said as he looked at us with stern eyes that we'd be recieving extra seven percentage points. The tense moment had broken and everybody was sharing their new grade, some showing a bit of pride and arrogance.
Mr. Armstrong had saved our lives, but it was clear that we were lacking something important. It had somehow leaked from our heads and many people had forgotten the passion for effort and hard work that once existed within us. However, this class was advantageous for us in a way. It shook us with great shock! It reminded us that for the next test, we wouldn't get by easy like this; the amount of effort that we put in will reflect on our test grades.

The day we took The Tormenting Test... - Esther Y. 8A

Unfortunately, most of us entered the social studies class in great agony today. Most of us were dreading this moment, when we would finally take the social studies test. We all shook Mr. Armstrong's hand and took a seat next to the computers that had our numbers on it. Fortunately, Mr. Armstrong gave us an extra five minutes to do some last minutes cramming for the online test. Most of us were quizzing each other on possible subjects that we each thought might come up on the test. Finally, the dreadful moment came and we had to put away our notes and turn on our computers. We first went to this website (http://armstronghistory.edublogs.org/ ) from there we clicked on Quia class page which was a link to the website (http://www.quia.com/pages/armstronghistory.html). We finally typed in our user names and passwords and began to take the test. The questions ranged from true or false to essay questions and even to multiple choice. The test was over everything we learned, starting from the beginning of eighth grade, therefore there were many questions. It all ranged from Roger Williams to Puritans to the Plymouth Colony to the middle colonies. Unfortunately, most of us found a problem in the test, there were two questions that were repeated. For me, the test was very confusing, every time a new question popped up, there would always be two answers that seemed to fit the answer in my opinion. Some students even said, "The social studies test was so hard!" I agree with them, it was very confusing. Luckily, we didn't have any homework for today.

Productive Time of Study and the Blowhard

As what we did everyday, when we entered the room we shook Mr. Armstrong's hand, and assigned in pods. My pod, green, which were consisted of myself, Jenny L., Jorma B., Jenny Ci, and Justin L. When I first came in I wondered why Mr. Campbell came to us to watch. As Mr. Armstrong discussed about Quizlet, that it had problems that only one part could contain only 50 questions. Anyways we kept resuming on the resources that we needed to study like the Moodle Chat/Wikispaces/Podcasts. Then 8A itself started to get ready for podcasts for the entire 8th grade. This really scared me, because if I gave the wrong information to the others, maybe they'll get angry at me so. But we worked in pods to make sure our information is correct. Pod red got recommendations that the people who are listening to the person who's doing the 60 second blowhard should figure out mistakes. As each person went around in the class, finally was the death time: Recording the Podcasts. As one person each went by to the Science Test Room to get theirselves recorded, Mr. Campbell supervised us on studying. As time passed by it was my turn and I went into the horrors of the room. I was very nervous and spoke quite fast. I spoke on the Puritan Dissenters and how each person (Anne Hutchinson/Thomas Hooker/Roger Williams) did. As I finished I went back into the room. It was kind of loud, because we were all studying together and what to do together. I also figured that people who made the vocabularies had wrong definitions or non-specific definitions that made me confusing if this was the right person or not. Anyways today was a working period where we could boost up our skills. I personally think that the slideshows that Mr. Armstrong posted on helped me on tests, and I persuade everyone to see that. Even though today was a working period today, we worked as much as we can studying and recording our 60 second blowhard.
David K. 8A

Contradictions-Scribe

As usual when we entered the room we shook hands with Mr. Armstrong and were assigned pods. Then after everybody was here he showed us a new kind of method for studying and that our homework was to contribute to it. The new page for this was Quizlet. In this useful tool we could make electronic index cards where we could study with it, take tests and play scatter. He told us that our homework was to add two "index cards" for us to study. Also he told us to make our new Moodle accounts and while at that to vote for the time that would be convenient for the online chat on Sunday to ask questions. He showed us that to take the poll we had to go to wikispaces and the test review and in that page at the top was the poll. Then he told us what many got nervous after (especially me) that we would have to talk for a straight one minute about our toondoo topic. I heard some groans but thankfully we were allowed to have an outline. After the explanation of homework we moved on to discussing the immersion in our groups. While at that Mr. Armstrong called us one at a time to see if we used all the immersion sites. He was upset that we didn't see the video but just read the text. Then he had a slide show ready about the whole information. Mr. Armstrong was happy when people like Ashley pointed out that the information was contradictory like no slave use but Penn having slaves. The teacher said that there are many ways to interpret history and that we would have to learn how to trust the many information. Today's class was really great in ways of discussion but still there is need for accurate information that solves the contradictions.
Se June H.

Final Immersion of Unit 1-Yoona C.

Today was the begginning of another chapter of unit 1. This time is was about the "Middle Colonies." It is the last chapter of the first unit. Everyone seemed to be pretty excited about finishing a unit at last. Mr.Armstrong handed out a grpahic organizer which had three different sections; name of colony founded & founder, year and the faliures & succeses of that colony. Together, in the pods that we were assigned, each group worked on filling in the graphic organizer with information and important people. For example, Anne Hutchinson founded Portsmouth in 1638 to ban the idea of must having a church minister telling you what to do, etc. To complete this handout, we were expected to know important information on last week's chapter, which mainly about real religious freedom and the settlement of Rhode Island. Afterwards, the class worked on taking notes for the final immersion of unit 1. After about 30~40 minuets of taking notes the class ended with the homework as finishing taking notes on the "Middle Colonies'" key terms and important people.

Scribe-Sangwoo Song

Scribe - Sangwoo Song (8C)Block D

scribe date Sept. 21, 2007
post date Oct. 2, 2007

Friday

The class was pretty much very wonder at Friday. Everybody concentrated on their toondo work because toondo was due at friday night. Everybody worked on either english group project or social studies. Friday was the last day for english group to work. The class was silent and there were no hand outs given this day. Because there were lot of indivisual work going on such as toondo I was able to see people helping each other using the toondo and how to put the toondo together. Most of the people were using their time wisely and many people finished their toondo during the social studies class.

I believe the friday class was just perfect with everybody concentrated on work.

Review of Colonies Jay G.

It was October 1st. When we came into the classroom after shaking hands with Mr. Armstrong, we were assigned in pods. I was assigned in green pod. When were all seated in our assigned seats, Mr. Armstrong told everyone to write the homework down, which was week 7. Soon after that, we found a paper which looked like some sort of an organizer. Mr. Armstrong soon told us that it was an organizer which we were to organize the colonies we have learned so far. We started, but discovered that Mr. Armstrong forgot to give us our sheet of information. After receiving it from Mr. Armstrong. Soon after, Jeong Ah and Se June discovered that the sheet of information did not contain Roger Williams, the Mayflower Contract, and other information. Like us, Mr. Armstrong had been enjoying the Chusok vacation and was not out of relaxing. He soon told the class that some information was missing. After 20 minutes of talking and jotting down notes we stopped. We went over the organizer to see if we had any missing details. Then, Mr. Armstrong lowered the screen and started to explain about the colonies now known as New York and Pennselvania. We started to learn about them and Mr. Armstrong fed us information. He then said to do our immersion. The immersion had a Holt PDF and ABC CLIO. It also contained 2 videos. While we were doing the immersion, Mr. Armstrong announced to the class that there was a quiz on Tuesday next week. There were a few groans. After some time, Mr. Armstrog told us to turn off our laptops and put them in the laptop cabinet. When most people had gone out, Jeong Ah and Se June recieved two pieces of candies for finding mistakes in the sheet of information.

scribe-BritneyB.

On Wednesday, we learned how to usu the second part of toon doo. There were no handouts that were giving out. We worked on our project through out the whole class. Our class was suppose to know how to upload the toon doo on wikispaces.
In class, Jamie followed direction on wikispaces so she got done with her work by herself without getting help of Mr.Armstrong. Mandy used her time wisely becuase she worked on revising her English and than she did toon doo, too. She made wise choice by working hard and getting two works done on the same day. No one have said anything that was interesting. Andy Lee and Alex Lee helped several people out with other people's computer. This post was written late because I did not know how to do the scribe. I apologize for not posting this scribe on the right time.

The day that Mr. Armstrong announced"Create your own Comic Book" - Cindy M. 8C

Today, like always we shook our hand with Mr. Armstrong and he told us the color so we can sit in a table. After that Mr. Armstrong called out the attendance, like always everyone said “here” but again Walter was the only one who said “Yoo-Hoo” and we always laugh. When he said we do not have a test on this week everyone was cheering and all of sudden they were in happy mode. Then Mr. Armstrong said we have some kind of project which was comic creation, people’s face expressions some people were happy and excited about it but some people did not but still whether they like it or not they had to do the comic creation. Later he said the number that they have it for their computer, it is the number of your topic. Some people liked their number or the topic but some did not most of the people who had 1-8 they were kind of complaining that how can they show on the comic book. After that we had discussion in their tables about their topic, people got some ideas, information, and advices for making the comic book. Anyway, people thought that we had to make the comic book by their art skills. But later on in class our teacher said “you are creating your comic book by computer” In that second he spoke about that everyone was shocked and just said “eh?” As he explained about the comic book and how to create on computer everyone’s eyes and ears were focused on Mr. Armstrong. People were interesting about the comic creation cite. The rest of the class was playing with the comic creation site to know how it runs and how it is done.

Discussion and Getting Info - YoungKyu K 8D

Today, everyone of our class mates did their note taking. I think everyone (including me) was scared about what happened last week. The class started with Mr. Armstrong doing attendence. He called nicknames for people and it was really funny. I hope he does that every class. Then the class began and the first part of the class, we shared information about the Puritan dissenters with our groups. Everyone in our group had good information and so Mr. Armstrong was happy with our group and probably other groups too. After the discussion, we went over some more information with Mr. Armstrong. When I went over information with Mr. Armstrong, I had a very clear vision of what the Puritan dissenters did. I always have a clearer vision of the informations after going over it with Mr. Armstrong. He makes them easy to understand and also it is fun. The picture in the slideshow was espicially helpful and gave me a very good idea of how the colonies were like in the New England.
At the end of class, Mr. Armstrong said that we did a very good job today in class. That made everyone happy. Today's class went really well and I hope it would be like this everyday.

Discussion with Classmates - Allison L. 8C

In friday, September 14, we went to Mr. Armstrong's class and we were divided into five groups. After taking attendance, we get our notebooks that has notes about the dissenters. For the people who didn't taked notes had to take it when the groups had discussions. We started to discuss about the major three people which are Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Thomas Hooker, and the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. Some people took notes that they didn't have in their notebook. After Mr. Armstrong checking our notebooks, we took notes from the powerpoint. There were only significant points of the three people. After watching the powerpoint presentation, we could understand more easily about the division of Protestant and Puritans by Mr. Armstrong's art. First it was little confusing because there were many dividing, like Puritans came out of Protestants, and Puritans were again divided. However, Mr. Armstrong made it easier. After writing our homework, the class ended.

Chicken Pox Kills!- Terry K. 8D

Today, in social studies class, we had done a lot to help each other understand things we weren't sure about. Claire brought up a question that a lot of people needed help to understand on. Claire was probably today's superstar because if it wasn't for her, many of us wouldn't have had the courage to ask more questions and just go on to the next topic without truly understanding it. We reviewed the significance of the Mayflower Compact, General Court, John Winthrob, Squanto, and William Bradford. We cleared many of our questions during just a short period of time in our class.
Later, we got more information on the true story of Squanto. Mr. Armstrong wanted to show us information not in textbooks to show that the textbooks don't tell all the true or right information. It was kind of shocking and amazing to find the reasons why Squanto could speak English and was in the Wampanoug tribe. Eddie brought up a funny thought of how people could die of chicken pox.
He was thinking something crazy and talking about how a high fever made by chicken pox xan kill you.
After all that review, we took THE quiz. We took it on a new internet site called quia. It allows our class to take quizzes on the computer. If there are no short answer questions, we could get our grade right after our quiz was taken. There are some downfalls to this due to some emergency cases that happens during the course of the quiz like your computer connection goes down and closes the site. The quiz was quite easy especially since Mr. Armstrong gave us quite a bit of time to study before our quiz. We were able to get our grades right after our quiz. I am quite happy about my grade.

The Day of the TEST!!=) Gloria L. 8C

Today was the day. Where everyone feared and worried for it was the day of our first quiz! All the students were msning the night before discussing what might come out on the quiz. But when we cam e to class, while the students were in worry, Mr. Armstrong explained about the separation of England people mainly because of religion and split the class and made the boys Catholics and the girls Puritans. Later he separated the girls by Puritans and the Protestants. Later then he separated the group of puritans from a group of puritan dessenters which was what we were gonna learn about in tonight's week 4 immersion. After that whole incident we got handouts to learn a little further more on indentured servants which we really thought all indentured servants got good rights though we now learned all the hardships and we got a chance to actually understand at least a little more about indentured servants. Our expextatioins to learn from our homework today is to learn deeply about the Puritan Dissenters and watcg videos about them.
All classmates helped each other today when Mr. Armstrong gave us the 5-10 minutes of study time right before the quiz. We took the social studies quiz on an online internet quiz source called "QUIA" and it was a very organized test and approached to us as a test in a new way which a majority of our classmates liked better in my opinion and that we can see our scores right after we're done. All of our classmates used their time wisely enough so after they were finished with their test they were working on the immersion we had for this week. Overall today's social studies class seemed to pass by so quick which I think it was because of the quiz.

Gloria Lee 8C

The GREAT Seminar of 8C!! -by Christine L.

In today’s class, we had a seminar on week three immersion. This week’s immersion focused on the middle passage, the triangular trade route, which were basically the factors that led to development of slavery in the colonies. Other main ideas were the conditions of slavery ships going through the middle passage, what role the religion played in helping the New England colonies get established, and how the political, economic, and social situation of the New England colonies and the Southern colonies differed and how they were similar in some ways.

As usual, our seminar started out with Walter’s clear loud voice. Not only introducing new facts and answers to the factors of slavery development, our class students also brought up the ideas that we discussed last week about slavery. Soho gave a very good description of how the triangular trade route worked in detail. What the middle passage is was also discussed though the facts about the conditions of slavery ships bound for the middle passage were not discussed in depth. I think we got great explanation from Patrick about the role of religion played in the establishment of New England colonies. While talking about the role of religion, we got in depth with the Catholics and Protestants which also introduced to the topic of Separatists, Pilgrims, moving to Plymouth Bay on Mayflower which led to Mayflower Compact and then to Great Migration of the Non-Separatists group to Massachusetts. Our class also did a good job with compare and contrasting New England colonies and the Southern colonies.

We had a lot of information that we had to cover this week so in the seminar we also had many facts and ideas to talk about. Because of that reason, I think we ran short on time and several people did not get to participate in the seminar. But still it was a good discussion time with our class and we were able to understand better on the main ideas we covered this week.

Apology to Mr. Armstrong Suzie K. 8D

Today, we were assigned in each group tables, and were ordered to take out a piece of loose leaf paper as usual. This was because Mr. Armstrong had wanted to check whether every student had taken good notes on the week's immersion, which are supposed to be organized and cited with the information's source. He told us each key terms we learned in the week and asked the students to define each terms, using their new knowledge and referring to their notes also. After the short quiz, the students were informed to work as a group, each of the group members taking turns explaining the key terms in short sentences. This activity had been able to give the students a short practice of the seminar the students needed to prepare for the next day. The first person to speak out in the table is able to give the most basic information of the word and as there are more people adding information about the term, it is harder for the latest person to explain this word. So, the last person has the job of combining the information that was said, organizing the whole seminar. However, this activity had not worked out as planned and did not give much improvement to the students. Most of the students had not been prepared for class; there were some whom did not have their notes or even do it. Because of this it was difficult for the activity to move on easily, since students whom did not do their homework had nothing to say in the group, only making a waste of time. Mr. Armstrong was very disappointed to the class of such less preparation, and how many had not been able to fulfill his expectations. The students also regretted in such misbehavior. By these reasons, Mr. Armstrong had no choice but to review a part of the lesson that was for week 3. By his review and explanation, classmates whom did not do their notes were still able to understand the basic information which was to be learned in the further week. After the class, the students had talked of how they felt bad of what had happened in the class. We all apologize to Mr. Armstrong of such bad behavior as a student which has disappointed you greatly. Also the students whom are responsible for this, has learned that they should put more effort in to their own learning.

Understanding the information better

After we shook hands with Mr. Armstrong, we were divided into groups first. Then we took the second pop quiz , which also allowed us to see our notebooks to see if we got enough information about the key terms. The questions were defining the Mayflower compact, puritans, William Bradford and Samoset & Squanto. After that, each group got to talk about the New England Colonies; about the Mayflower, puritans, pilgrim, William Bradford, Mayflower Compact, Samoset & Squanto, General Court, John Winthrop and apprentice. It was more like a waterfountain-talk like we did previously; group by group. The waterfountain talk allowed us to obtain informations that we needed. For the rest of the class period, Mr. Armstrong defined us more accurately about the difference between puritans and pilgrim. He used pictures, also known as armstrong-art, to understand about the information better, which did allow us to comprehend it better.

What we did today... Kaila Kim 8C

Yesterday, as we entered Mr. Armstrong’s room, we sat at the seat which our name cards were on. Of course, he checked the attendance, and the class began. First, we watched a video which we supposed to watch but didn’t work. Mr. Armstrong said it was because anyone cannot download that video and upload it in another site. Anyways, we watched the video called ‘Slave ship’ and it was about slaves being locked in the ship for a week, months, or years. After watching that video, Mr. Armstrong showed us 8th Grade US History Blog, what countries are using this site. After, he handed out the lab top, and we could immerse ourselves into the information in Unit 1, chapter 3. We took notes by reading the site and watched video that Mr. Armstrong put it in wikispaces. He turned on the music and opera songs came out. It made us focus better. For the video, we had to put earphones. Mr. Armstrong went around and answered questions that we asked him. As the bell rang, the class ended.

History is Fun, But Hard-Joshua K. 8D

Today in History class, everything started with Mr. Armstrong's loud, deep voice like he did usually. We wrote the homeworks in our agenda after the attendence. The homework was only writing 2 comments in different people's discussion, and taking notes for the seminar which will be on Monday. Mr. Armstrong went over the homework, which was writing notes about the Middle Passage, by using Jay Lee to demonstrate the real situation that happened long time ago. Jay Lee was the captain of the ship and he went to Terry Kim for Africa and took Terry Kim to Nick Yun colony, which was the Americas. For getting the slave, Jay Lee got sugar, tobacco and other things to England. By Jay Lee showing the triangular trade route, it was better to understand. After knowing the basics, Mr. Armstrong showed us a video which was related to the slaves on the way to Americas. The slaves were very desperate in the video, can see that they didn't get treated well. We turned on the computer that was on our desk at the beginning after we watched the slaves going throught Middle Passage. We took notes for like about 20 minutes and the bell rang.

Group Review of Unit 1- Micky Kim

Yesterday, we had lots of fun reviewing what we learned for the past few week. We had used different graphic organizers that were given to us by Mr. Armstrong. We were assigned into groups and wrote into our organizers. After that, we discussed the answers as a class, but what came next was the something amazing, that only our grade had seen: Armstrong Art! Using the suggestions and the information that every student gave, Mr. Armstrong drew pictures of the southern colonies and how things came to be. We drew ours on a A4 paper that the teacher gave us. The next part of our class was talking about the Triangular Trade System and about how the slave population would get higher and higher. After the discussion, Mr. Armstrong handed out a sheet with info on the topic. For our homework, we have to take notes and watch a video online.

Working together - Stella Kim

Today we worked on understanding the things we reviewed.
First of all we worked in groups. In the groups we had a chart where we filled out what colony came first, date, importance and all those kind of information. This helped us understand better.
Also for the people who "forgot" remembered easily. It was fun out of all the other classes, no offense and all, but we got to learn more. Other time it was free research so some of us weren't that sure. Armstrong art helped us learn more too. It gave us a visual sight on what we learned. Today we achieved on working together, cooperating, and reviewing what we learned.

The second seminar- Elizabeth Kim

As students stepped in to the classroom, they sat in their assigned seats and got out the notes they have researched for the passed days. Today was the day we had to do our second seminar. A seminar is discussing about some of the main topics we have researched for immersion. Before doing the discussion or the seminar, Mr. Armstrong handed out the same handout with the reflection in the back. It was the space we wrote about our ideas, thought and later our grade(in our opinion). For the quiet students, it was a difficult assignment because there were many outgoing people who were comfortable speaking to the class without raising their hands up. The starting of our seminar was rough; no one talked for the past 1 minutes and then Walter began to talk about the joint-stock company.The main ideas we have discussed today was the success and failures of the joint-stock company, John Smith, Nathaniel Beacon and the various states. There were so many arguments, and strong reasoning that I learned a lot from today’s discussion. I personally thought that our class was good at both listening and talking about the topic. We sometimes got out of the main topic but most of the time; we were on topic and showed respect to other people while they were talking. When everyone stopped talking, Mr. Armstrong helped our class by asking various questions that sometimes were hard to answer.
Even though all of the students had a good argument or information they shared, if I had to point out someone who had tried hard, I’ll say that it was Andrew and Gloria. I think that Gloria tried hard today and showed great improvement. And Andrew had unique ideas that made many people think about it. Andrew made many side conversations that made people laugh. I think that many people did better than last time and since it was the only 2nd time doing the seminar, I think we did well.

Discussion time. Again Claire J. 8D

Well, today we had a discussion time again. Mr.Armstrong had informed us that we will be having a discussion probably every week. It would be a challenge for me and other shy students in my class, but I think its a good opportunity to learn how to make your voice heard. We had a topic about the joint-stock company, John Smith, and success and the failures of early settlers. I think our class did better than last time, because we did more listening this time. I think we will improve more as the year goes on. We respected each other, especially Terry and Young-Kyu showed some respect to each other. But in the middle of the discussion time, we got too loud and Mr.Armstorng said to listen to others, so we calmed down a little.
Today, there are many people I want to point out as class stars, but if I had to pick two, then I would pick Eddie and Sangwoo. I didn't know that Sangwoo was so active as others, but he brought up many good points. Mr.Armstrong also complimented him with his answers. Also Eddie gave a perfect example of ARE. He gave an argument, a reason, and evidence. He was also good at sourcing the information. Young-Kyu was very hillarious during the discussion. Mr.Armstrong asked a question about why the Russians would stick their flag to the bottom of the ocean. Young-Kyu answered by saying "Because the flag my float...?". It was very hillarious and everyone laughed. I think it was a really fun and comfortable discussion that everyone could join in. We could improve more, but it's only the second time we did this, so I think we did really good.

Let's Be Prepared for Mars! - Jee Min H. (8D)

Yesterday in class, the first thing we did was to share the notes we took with our groups. The notes were about key terms and people on week 2 immersion- The Southern Colonies. After everyone got a chance to look at each other’s notes, the class discussed their thoughts about the notes that our others took, good or bad, whether it was too detailed or too brief. After that was done, each group got a big piece of paper and wrote the factors of success and failure of Jamestown on the half of the paper. When we were finished, we walked around the classroom and looked at what other groups have come up with different ideas. When we rotated around the class, we came back to our table and used the other half of the large paper to write about Mars. By looking at the success and failure of Jamestown, we had to write the preparations we need and the things that we have to get in order to be successful when we go to Mars, so basically, Mr. Armstrong wanted us to learn from the mistakes that Jamestown made. After, we rotated around the class like we did before, and looked at other group’s ideas. When Mr. Armstrong collected the paper from each group, we got our laptops out and we made our new account for Quia, in http://www.quia.com/web. Then, we went to our Google Readers and deleted KIS blogs, and instead, added www.armstronghistroy.edublogs.org.

Class Discussion- Hoon C.

Today in class, we did something called making a poster. First of all, Mr. Armstrong told us to do the post by Friday for our class. Then we started on with the class. Mr. Armstrong told us to take the notes out, which was homework and gave us these huge sheet of paper to write the success and failure of the colonists made by groups. I am not sure about the other groups, but in our group we have said many things. For example, everyone agreed on the part what John Rolfe did for the colonists. He had sold the tobacco and made a lot of money. Also in our group I liked what Harin said. I thought that Powhatan was caused only good things to the colonists, but she told the group that they weren't always good. When I went back to my notes, I found that it was true because the colonists and Powhatan they weren't very close to each other after killing the leader of Powhatan. What Harin said was a great point. Next in class we wrote the things we will be needing when the humans go to Mars. Our group wrote very normal things, but when I went to Dean's group I saw some funny things. One of things they wrote was "Marry an alien." I though that it was very creative idea. After doing the poster we took our laptops and organized our things in the computer. Mr. Armstrong told us that all the "kisblogs" file has been deleted. He told us the new site that we are going to be using for the rest of the year. Then we added the site in the google reader and saw a video clip of the things that are going to happen in the future. One thing that I found interesting was that China is going to rule the whole world in the future. Finally, the bell rang and we were dismissed from Mr. Armstrong's class.

Afloat, Mostly - Jenny Ci.

Fortunately, today didn’t consist of any loud arguments in guise of discussions. Noise level was down. My head felt much clearer that way. I was very thankful for that. We voted for class representative. Mr. Armstrong went through about 100 years of European and American history in about ten minutes. My interest was nearly nil, until he talked about Roanoke Island, which sort of reminded me of The Blair Witch Project. Much like the Age of Exploration theme, we were told to take notes after reading up on resources and questions on our laptops. Having taken U.S. History in fifth grade before, some of the names were disturbingly familiar. (But unfortunately I could not recall anything about them) Mr. Armstrong called up people and asked them about their note-taking. I must say I wasn’t feeling pleasant when he called my name. My handwriting, along with condition my notebook is usually in and its structure, is a mess. Literally. My arms were starting to go white from pressing down on my notebook. Mr. Armstrong, if he did notice this condition at all, did not comment. I ended up relearning quite a lot more about Jamestown and other aspects of colonies. I spent the rest of the class wondering whether Space Age colonization might result in lesser aliens being enslaved by us. Mistakes shouldn’t be repeated, right?

Let It Sink In by Hyun Kim

During our class today, we went over the immense material we had covered last week. It was sort of like a time to let the information we were given, sink in. Some few things were on what we went over was: Who was responsible for all this, what did the people invent to make this possible, and who got the advantage from this. Things were cleared up. I think adapting to the new ways will get easier as time passes if we keep doing this until the end of this school year. This is especially helpful if you go to a collage and start listening to lectures. All you get is information, information, and information. The ability to summarize and take short notes on this massive material is the true ability and it helps you understand it more thoroughly. After going over the material we covered last week, we went on and started working on taking notes from the week 2 material. I don't think this year will be an easy one if we keep progressing like this. Is it only me that is having problems trying to sink all this material into my head? I hope not.
Photo by Futureatlas.com

The Discussion (a.k.a. The Yelling Match) by Jenny C.

It was earsplitting. It was frustrating. Our first discussion in Mr. Armstrong’s class was more like a yelling match than a discussion. At the beginning of class, Mr. Armstrong stated that in order to get a good grade, you must speak during the discussion. Consequently, here’s what happened: during majority of the discussion, many people tried to talk at once. Participating in the discussion was very difficult, because the room was so loud. The people who contributed to the discussion the most were Jenny L., Esther, David, and Grace. Mr. Armstrong brought out two great points during our discussion. He informed us that listening was just as important as talking, and that it was important to get information from reliable sources instead of ourselves.
Listening first and talking second is very important. The habit of listening then talking is one of the seven habits in Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It seems like a little listening would have solved a lot of our problems during class. Class 8A will get better at discussing as the year elapses.

The War...

Today in class, we were quite barbaric... We have had a discussion on topics that we had to answer for homework. Walter, Angie, Soho, and some other kids. These kids were amazing, and gives me the intention of thinking of their personality as a well prepared, organized person. Anyways, the conversation for 77minutes was disastrous. It was very intimidating, and just gave the sense to me that I needed to talk! Kids were stating about Barbaric scenery's, on the route to India. Now, one intellegent kid had this amazing, interesting mind of saying that "Columbus is stupid..." and the story goes on. Mr. Armstrong was a good talker during class, but he was quite in to it too... He stupidified some people, but also taught us to get focused on the topic when discussing. We learned that we need to "site our sources," because people were stumped due to the fact they didn't know where in the world they have got their information. Overall, class was quite interesting but noisy in a way...
note！Studying all day is worth it, because knowing your facts would have gave us a solid A...

Coming Up for Air

After being, quite honestly, dunked in an ocean of information (or "immersed" as Mr. Armstrong says), we were given a day to reorganize our thoughts, brainstorm new ideas, and get more info from another source. Quite a bit like coming up for air from our ocean of... stuff. Sitting with new people, we reviewed the notes we had so far for Immersion, and figured out that we all needed to do a little more work on them. For myself, it was the Main Ideas about the Age of Exploration that threw me off, and needed rethinking. We went on sharing the notes we had collected, as Mr. Armstrong came by to check on us. Our new source of info was a United Streaming video about the Age of Exploration in general, which we watched while frantically jotting down notes. This was punctuated with "Water Fountain Chats" which I didn't really understand, not having attended KIS before. Lastly, we brainstormed ideas for the Discussion due tonight, like things needed for future space travel. Some highlights from our's were: bread, butter, meat, cabbage, mustard = HAMBURGER... incredibly important for a voyage to outer space, I'm sure. Finishing up, thanks to Mr. Armstrong for a great class, and good luck in the Discussion tonight everybody! Good night!

Another Step Towards Technology by Albert C.

Today, in Mr. Armstrong's class, everyone actually started learning and taking a closer look at the early European explorers and how they changed and shaped America. Along with this, Mr. Armstrong gave a inspirational lecture on how everyone will need to learn, relearn, and unlearn. He explained how the world and technology are dramatically and rapidly changing. Thus, students nowadays should sometimes forget about the technology 10 years ago and learn more advanced technology. Mr. Armstrong showed different types of technologies the 8th grade will be using, such as the podcast where he could record his voice and the "online textbook." 8th grade U.S. History class will use http://armstrong-history.wikispaces.com/ as our textbook. The class went over the Wiki rules too, just in case some bully comes in and bully. With the remainder of time, the class went on taking notes and answering questions online about European explorers or simply, Age of Exploration.

Laptops for everyone by Jorma.B

Today in class Mr.A showed us the web site http://kisblogs.org/armstrong he told us that all the things we will need for class will be on this site. He gave us the definition of Imersion and Disscusion on the kisblog website which Amy gave a good definition for. He then passed out a worksheet that tells us what is ok and no ok for commenting or bloging. We went threw the steps for the online textbook and how to take notes to study for tests from the site. Then everybody got there laptops and started answering the imersion questions as notes and figuring out the site. I thought all the complicated steps of the website were well explained by Mr. A. That was what we basically did in class today, hope you enjoyed.

The start of the first lesson-Dennis Han 8C

Today, August 20, 2007, 8C had a first social study lesson of American history. First part of the class started with Mr.A teaching us how to use Wikispaces and blogger. Also there was 6 links leading to different web sites with informations of American history. Then Mr.A gave us a sheet that has rules about blog and Wikispace. There was three main important ones that Mr.A emphasized was, not putting personal things,no bullying or writing something offensive about someone, and not using wikispace as a messenger. Secondly, we began our lesson of American history from Age of exploration, we had some time to take notes with the web sites given previously, for about 25 minutes. In addition, we have some homeworks that has to be done by wednesday, which are some discussion questions. Today is class, everyone did their best in taking notes and they all listened to Mr. Armstrong quietly and patiently.

Class Scribe Prompt - Jiwon C

Today in Social Studies class (F block), Mr. Armstrong gave us two handouts, a class syllabus and a checklist that said Technology set up day. First of all, we went over the syllabus in class, the materials we need, tools we are going to use, the grading system, etc. Mr. Armstrong told us about the missing work form and what we had to do if we didn't have an assignment that was due on that day. We were assigned in pods with a laptop. We checked if we still knew our user names and passwords for moodle, trunitin.com, google, and more. Then we turned in all our IDs and passwords into Mr. Armstrong through google docs. The captain's job was to make sure the group was on track and had no problems. Nevertheless, everyone was helping each other and did a great job!

Working on Laptops

Today in our class, we went over the US History class syllabus and we learned how to use different websites and programs to help our learnings in school. First, we talked about the syllabus which basically was about class requirements and rules, grading policy, and more. Then, each of us were assigned to a laptop to work on. Each group of tables had a captain to check if all of the group members are doing fine. Today, captains were helping classmates a lot. When some students had problems, the captains were helping them to solve that problem. Mr. Armstrong handed out checklist sheets, that included directions to follow, spaces to check off, and spaces to fill out each student's own username and password. We went through total of 7 websites and programs to enroll in the right class, make sure our usernames and passwords do exist, and to learn how to use them!

There were three handouts, and they were US History Syllabus, Technology set-up, and missed assignment excuse form. Many of the students were participating hard enough and they were using time wisely. We tried our best to finish different tasks on the time, even though going through different sites and working with laptops were challenging. It was an interesting and a very helpful class!

Written by Minjung Chi

Class Scribe Prompt - Lisa A.

During block F, 8D class got to take US History, taught by Mr. Armstrong. Today was the first regular history class for the 8D students. Some handouts that were given out today were multiple intelligence checklist, class scribe prompt, the four learning styles, and the learning style/multiple intelligence checklist. The topic that we covered today was exploring the learning styles that suit the individual students. We took some tests by paper and online to check how we learn best. For today, our only homework was to finish the learning style/multiple intelligence checklist. The class star today was Mr. Armstrong. He tried his best to get everybody actively involved in class discussions, use quotes from well-known people, such as philosophers, and to engage technology. Over all, class today went fairly well. Everybody was focused on their own work, rather than chatting with students around them. We worked quietly to produce quality work. We are off to a good start!