George vs. George Skits Teaser Trailer

We recorded over 70 minutes (WOW!!) of footage for our George vs. George skits last week.  It's going to take me a little bit to edit and splice together all of that footage, but until then, here's a teaser trailer from our skits.  Enjoy!

Real-Life Stamp Act?!

What would you do if your 8th grade teacher presented you with this memo after giving you a 3-page quiz?

Now you owe $0.45 for the 3 pieces of paper you just used.  Is that fair?  Is that just?  What are you going to do about it now?

Today social studies students spent the day exploring this problem and how they would solve it.  Using some systems thinking methods such as BOTGs and feedback loops, as well as their own personal opinions and ideas they all came up with solutions to the problem of the school now charging them for their paper usage.

In the end students made the connection between this "real-life" Stamp Act and the one that occurred back in 1765.  A lot of their proposed action plans were similar to what the colonists did: rebel...refuse to pay...riot against their oppressors.

The French and Indian War

Lately in social studies we've been exploring various events that led up to the American Revolution.  So naturally we arrived at the French and Indian War.  Instead of just reading about the war we decided to spice it up a bit and turn it into a movie.  The students used the French and Indian War as the premise for their movie they were to review and create a poster for.  I was blown away by some of the posters and critiques these 8th graders came up with!  Through the posters and critiques it is clearly evident that these students understand the causes of the war, the outcomes, the consequences, and the aftermath.  Check out below some of the posters and movie critiques..enjoy!