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.