Mr. Holman and Mr. Pennington will be teaching students how to bookmark to the cloud for future use.  This software allows kids to save bookmarks, highlight important text on the web, add post it notes to sites, take images and more.  
Then students from both schools will get a email (daily or weekly) with site other students have found.  It is a great way to share the work and great finds of other students.  

To join the History with Holman/Pennington do the following: 
1.  Create an account here
2.  Click the image below and request to join the group. 
3.  Mr. H will approve all accounts and then you will learn how to use Diigo. 
4.  Watch the how to video for more information. 

Thursday we had our Chardon Means Something spirit assembly.  This is the first time in years that we have had such an assembly at CMS.  The students and staff had a great time and school spirit was at an all time high.  Big thanks to Mr. Sciarabba and the other teachers that helped organize such a successful event.  Students watched videos of students participating in a variety of events, the cheerleaders cheered, the band played on and Mr. Bowens kept the whole show rollin'.  Below are just a few images I snapped while running around making sure the technical aspects of the show went on without a hitch.

In class, I asked all students to rest their heads, close their eyes and listen to a story.  I then asked for feedback...here is what they said. "I really liked how we had to use our imagination, and the movie that you showed, it really made you think, WOW!!"

One of my students shows what Siri and the new Apple Iphone 4s can do.  This may change many things about the world.

Thursday students worked in groups to examine the geographic elements that helped make domestication and civilizations successful.  Students focused on 3 geographic features (Mountains, Deserts and water) and 3 ancient civilization locations (Egypt, India and China).  Students will finish their work on Monday with the sub.  I will be presenting in Cincinnati at the National Association of Pupil Services Administrators' National Conference with Mr. Holman.

Here is a short 3 minute tutorial on how to save your movies to a version I can collect. 

Finally finished with IOWA testing and back to a regular schedule tomorrow.  I need to catch up with students and check on the progress of the "What was 7th grade like?" project.  Our laptops are due in by the end of the week!!!

Because of technical difficulties in the LGIR this afternoon, we were not able to finish our team film concerning a project ran through math class.  We will finish that film in social studies class tomorrow and a bit on Wednesday if needed.  This buys us a little bit of time for the laptops to come in and gives students a final chance to prepare all of the information they will need for their final project...the first project we will complete using the laptops. 

The first grading period is always chaotic and scattered feeling.   I promise that things will smooth out and all of our work over the past month will start to pay off as we dive into our ancient curriculum.