w+Kellum+Sowers

==I teach 6th Grade World History at J.E.B. Suart Middle School. I have been with Stuart for 6 years, and have been the STC for the last 4. Last year I was given some relief when the principal at the time decided that we should split into the two tech system. This year, I have been using a podcast more of a parnet tool, however, I have only published 3 podcasts, I plan on doing more. You can find my podcasts by following the top link below. You can also search them out at iTunes using sowersworldhistory. They are pretty basic, but I really enjoy doing them. The bottom link is to my oncourse page. As you can see, my share # is 593090 add me if you like! Its what I have thus far, and I feel, does a decent job of keeping my parents up to date. Now all I have to do is get the webmistress to link to it through our school's website. She does a great job keeping it all updated. I look forward to working with all of you. I am happy to say that I know Tony Guy from Kirby, as our wives work at JU.==

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I have just set up a wiki for my class. I really like the fact that the $5/month was free for me as an educator, I just have to get my students going. I have decided to keep this as a private wiki thus far, but we shall see.

My first lesson.
==I am not sure how simplistic that we would like this to be, but as I recall in the meeting, we were asked to integrate technology as painless a way as possible, so here comes my contribution. This is the format that we use at Stuart. The lesson was delivered a few weeks back and deals with the geography of Greece. How the individual city-states developed as a result of the landscape and how they looked to the sea for their living.==


 * __Mr. Sowers__

Unit VII: ANCIENT GREECE

Topic:** The Rise of Greek Civilization.


 * Essential Question:** How does geography (i.e. natural barriers) influence the development of civilizations?
 * Warm Up:** Page 47 of the WORKBOOK, students will use their reference and research skills to find answers for Chapter 3 assessments numbers 1 and 2. This will be collected.


 * Lesson Focus/Goal:** The focus of this lesson is to learn how geography affected the development of many city-states in Greece, even though these city-states are very close together physically.


 * Mini-Lesson:** Using page FL47 of the Text books, students will review how to utilize a Physical Map.


 * Modeling/Lesson:** Students will use the text books on page 167, and be shown an overview of the physical features of the Greek Islands via Google Earth©, with it they will begin to understand how the mountians divided people and drove them to be fishermen and traders in the sea.


 * Work Period:** Studnets will read pages 168 and 169, then complete the Map Master Skills Activity on page 167 by answering both the describe and drawing conclusions questions. They will then use the work Peninsula in a sentence to demonstrate they understand its meaning.


 * Closing:** Students will be given an Exit Slip on which they will write one sentence about a physical feature of Greece. If time permits they can begin the Second homework assignment listed below.
 * New Vocabulary:** Peninsula


 * Materials:** A computer with projector for Google Earth©, Exit Slips.


 * Modifications:** None at this time.


 * Method of Evaluation:** Exit slips.

Reflections::: The lesson went well. Google Earth was very engaging. They wanted to get off task and see their houses and the like, but very engaging.

Attached below is lesson number 2. I am still writing the reflection for lessons 3 and 4 and they will be posted as soon as I can. Thanks, welcome aboard to all the newbies!



For my final lesson, I have no lesson. I am requiring my final project be posted to the wiki that I have created for each class. It was pretty easy to set up, and all of my students have loged on and started creating their pages. I know that this is definately not what was asked of me, but I feel that it is a great way to have my students use the internet in a postitive way. I have run into one problem, one parent has become upset that I put his childs name on the private wiki (not username), and has asked that I remove all access by his studnet (had to delete his username), frustrating, but I am not going to question a parent. Anyway, I have no fourth lesson, just that I have now incorperated the wiki life into my class. Thanks