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!

Aug/13/07 class scribe prompt(?) by Soho Char

Today in Social Studies class, the class basically discussed about the 'Multiple Intelligence' that each individual has. The whole main point of the discussion seemed to be "Just because you don't perform well in school does not mean that you are a complete idiot. You may show outstanding performance in other things". The class progressed to this conversation about what things would match with each individual. It was based on Howard Gardner and Carl Jung's theory which described one's intellectual mind. The class had to take a test provided in the Internet, handout etc in order to figure out their demeanor/style of learning. There was also a new job introduced to the class called the scribe. It is simply what I am doing right now...writing specific details that happened in the class.

NOTE: Information above may not be accurate since I have short term memory.