Tonight, I would like to give this software a try.  In a text message from your cell phone, tell me what you think of the "what was 7th grade Like" project.  Remember, you are leaving a digital footprint. 
Directions: send text to 87884 then start your message with @wif38955 and add your message. 
We will check out the site tomorrow during class. 

I forgot to mention that we used skype today to meet Mr. Pennington and his students.  We were able to connect with five classes.  Schedules make eight period only able to skpye on Wednesdays.  However, the good news is we will be able to use skype so that all Beachwood and Chardon students will get to work together this year. 

The last two days we learned ways to be organized and  about media literacy.  Students read Mr. Daugherty's blog Keep up the great work. They left their first digital footprints on her blog--they were not asked to do this, but felt the need.  They did a great job of using complete sentences and adding value.  I was proud of this work.  Click Ms. Daugherty's blog to the left to read the comments.  Then we defined Social media and discussed ownership of web material.  They read a NYTimes article and began to see the web in a different light.   Then I asked them to watch the Digital Footprints youtube and write down a few things they should remember.   It is on the homepage of this website.   After that we went deeper in how the net is being saved and what that means to them.  Check out the Way Back Machine and leave a "positive digital footprints worth following." 

Interviews should be completed by Sunday Nights.  Tomorrow Mrs. Uniger will teach students tomorrow how to use Imovie to build the 7th Grade Project. 

Garth Holman
Senior Picture to the left.
1984-1985
Jordan, New York
Jordan-Elbridge Jr. Sr. High School


What was 7th grade like is a project that asks students to be historians.  They are researching, questioning, interviewing and interpreting the data and artifacts.  They should be interviewing someone over 30 years old during this week.  The interview should be completed by Sunday night Sept. 26.  We will begin the presentation work on Monday.   They have two essential questions they are working on:  What does an historian do and how do they do it?  How has life changed since your parents were in middle school?  

Get out those year books, report cards and pet rocks.  Have fun with this project and help you children understand how the past impact them.  They are very excited about this project.  In the end they will digitize your images, stories and "your life" for future generations to view and learn from.  Once again, have fun.   

Below are a few more images from high school.  We looked at these images today and talked about how images are primary resources and tell us about the past.  They got a kick out of "Big hair" and dress.  What will your year book teach them. 

Mrs. Crandall and I went to a Northeast Ohio Educational Conference at Bedford Heights High School on Friday Sept. 17.  Alan November, international know  educational technology specialist, was the keynote.  He spoke about media literacy and technology use in public schools.  He mentioned Twitter, wikis, blogs, and much more.  He was inspiring and insightful.  But then a twist came. 

At the break, he walked over and started to talk to Mrs. Crandall and I.  Mr. Pennington and I  had lunch with him a month ago at Bowling Green while presenting at a conference on ways to integrate technology.  He said, "Garth you should pull up the work your kids are doing and share it with this group."  I was excited, but scared as well.  Mr. November began the second part of the keynote and sure enough, said, "Mr. Holman, come up here and show them what your students are doing just down the street."  Mrs. Crandall, caught this picture as I shared the stage with Alan November.  It was a trill and something I will not soon forget. 

On another note, I hope to have Alan November be one of the interviews we do for Podcasts for Tomorrow.  Let have a great week. 

I introduced a project that CMS and Beachwood students will be completing, outside of class.  Podcasts for Tomorrow is a chance for students to collaborate and interview professionals in all walks of life.  Over the course of several weeks, small groups of students will work during lunch to create interview questions and then actually interview professionals (doctors, lawyers, electricians, military personal, politicians--maybe the candidates for Governor,, etc) about education, skills and culture.  Interviews will be turned into podcasts and posted on the website.  Students have a hand-out, that they received today, if you would like to read more about this exciting new opportunity and have your child take part. 

This is outside of the regular school day.  It is not for credit or a grade, but students will get much more from the experience.  This group will be limited, but I hope to rotate students in so that all who would like to do it get a chance.  Please add comments or questions to this blog post and I will respond for all to see.  

We started this in class and some students asked for it to finish at home.  Here it is.  Have a good night.

Last week we finished up our discussion of culture.  Students worked in small groups to build a visual of American Culture.  We then started Friday off by having students write for ten minutes about what they had learned.  Many students shared they had expanded their understanding of culture and better understood the term.  Another key idea noted was how history impacts a societies culture.  That was the transition I was waiting for.  We then moved to the events on Sept. 11, 2001 (these students were about 4 years old then).  We discussed what they knew, cleared up some facts and then saw a short History channel overview of the events from that day (about 6 minutes).  We discussed this and it became clear  that is part of American Culture now (our collective memory).  Our society was changed that day and they understand that.

This week we moved to the "What was 7th grade like?"  On Monday, students got a brief overview of this project.  Then we started to talk about essential questions that this project would try to answer.  Students will be creating one more, but here are the ones we came up with:

1. What does a historian do and how do they do it?
2.  How has life and culture changed since your parent (s) were in middle school? 

Student then brainstormed ideas and topic about life: Home, school, discipline, technology, friends, relationships, teachers, sports, behavior, fears, hopes, dreams, tv, movies, and much more was on the board.  Then students were to use these topics to create 20 opened questions to use for the interview that will take place late this week or early next week. 

On Tuesday, we shared our 20 questions and talked about what made a good question for the interview.  Students were encouraged to add new questions or change question they to make them more effective.  After this we discussed some slang of the 1970 and 1980's.  They enjoyed this. 

For homework on Tuesday, there were asked to find five events from the decade their parent was in middle school.  First they should ask you, and if you don't remember, they might check out this website: http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/decades.html

Below is a copy of the directions for this project.  Student have not gotten this yet, but it provide an overview of the whole project.

This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.

Most days I plan to have student's do this blog.  Here is our first attempt.  Thank you Anielle.

Yesterday, September 1, 2010, in class, we learned about open and closed questions. We learned what they were and what kind of questions were considered to be open or closed.
Today, September 2, 2010, in class, we did an activity in partners to help us better understand what Essential Questions are. The activity was to look at a statement about Essential Questions and try to gather any information that could help us better define Essential Questions.

The Homework for September 2, 2010:
       -Write 5 Essential Questions on a notecard
       -Bring in a picture of yourself for "Mr. Holman's Wall of Fame" (it can have other people in it)
       -Bring in old magazines for an activity


~Anielle