Update to 6th Grade History Assignment

Hello Again,


I've received some emails for clarification on the Internet Assignment from Monday. Here it goes:

1. Textiles are clothes, rugs or any other product made from wool, cotton, etc. Think about the colorful, geometric rugs you see in the rooms below the library. Oriental Rugs are a great example. In the video on YouTube there is a description of how textiles were important to the economy of the Islamic Empire. The cue for the section is 35 minutes in. This will help to introduce you to the topic. Take the time to just watch at first and then rewind and re-watch as needed.

2. Your assignment is to draw and color some textile product that could be found in the Muslim World of 1100 - 1200 AD. You will draw this on a 8.5" x 11" (regular printer paper) with pencil and colored pencil or crayons or markers. If you have construction paper you should glue the picture to that.

3. Once you have completed that you will create a brief decription of your textile product. Remember when you are in a museum and you read the brief description of the piece of art? That is what you are writing. The PBS site has a list of exactly what you will need to include on your description. When it says materials used, it wants you to describe what that textile product would have if it were real. The description is not true, but it makes sense in the context of the time period and is historically accurate. For example, don't use walrus leather as a material because that would not be found in the Muslim Empire of 1100-1200....

For example, "Made from lamb's wool, ca. 1135, Syria. The design is meant to draw the eye to the center of the rug where the ritual would take place. This rug was used by the caliph Abda al Symon in ceremonies of surrender after battles."

4. On the PBS site, use the Video Note Guide to get the information you will need for the Museum Description portion of the assignment. You will use this guide while watching the video.

5. On the PBS site, peruse the websites they reccommend to learn more about textiles in the Muslim world. This will help you get ideas of what to draw and what to include on your museum description.

6. Use the Project Scoring Rubric on the PBS site to determine if you have done enough to complete the assignment.

Message to My 5th Grade Math Class

Hey Guys,


I hope you are enjoying Round 2 of this winter storm. I remember when I was a freshmen in high school we had a similar blizzard and we were out of school for a week....and they had to cancel exams!

Well, you guys may be out for a week, but they aren't cancelling exams. Sorry. Also, we have all this great technology so I can get in touch with you to send an assignment home. I've got to keep your math minds sharp. Isn't that great! (They didn't have all this when I was freshman in high school.)

Here is you Blizzard Assignment:

1. Go to Mr. Little Math Blog on the Calvert Homepage or click on the link: http://calvertschoolweb.org/wlittle/5th%20Grade%20Textbook/Chapter%204.pdf

2. On the right hand column select Math Textbook and Resources

3. Select 5th grade math

4. Under the Textbook column, select Chapter 4

5. When the textbook chapter has loaded, scroll down to p. 93 and complete the Mid Chapter Review ALL on a separate sheet of paper. Please put your name and the date on it.

6. After this, scroll down to p. 114-115 and complete Chapter 4 Review #1-36 ODDS on a separate piece of paper. Please put your name and the date on it.

Good luck and email me with any questions you may have. These are due when we return to school tomorrow or Friday.

Snow Day and Work Day

I guess all the dancing, spoons and cotton balls worked! My goodness there is a lot of snow around here. I've done a lot of digging and am starting to think I'm living in an igloo! There is talk of another winter storm coming our way Tuesday night which could affect school on Wednesday....

All of that sounds great but my 6th grade history class still needs to keep their "History Minds" sharp. I created the following assignment for them to complete at home, and if any of them are reading this blog tonight, they'll see it here too.

Since not all of us have the textbook, and/or our notebook, I am assigning the following Internet Assignment to be completed by the time we return to school (either Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday).

This assignment will revisit the video we watched to introduce the topic of Islam. Below is a link to Video 2 of the movie, Islam: Empire of Faith. You will need to view it to complete the accompanying assignment found on the link below. Read the directions carefully. If you do not have the material at your home, do your best to find something similar, but DO NOT go out and get anything.

The PBS Video on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1PxJomypQE

The PBS Internet Assignment: http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/lesson3.html

Good luck.

Mr. Skeen

Expectation & Enchantment

Snow Days: Not Just for Students

Over the last three months the mid-atlantic and south have seen some of the largest snow storms in recent memory. Of course, all of this is child's play to our friends in Minnesota, but we're still proud of our accumulation thus far in 2009-2010. While the snow can create major issues for traffic, work, and government budgets, it is something students and teachers keep a keen eye on because of the potential for snow days.

The expectation of snow days can be as exciting as the expectation a child feels on Christmas Eve. When snow does come and blankets streets, trees, and bushes silencing the "white" noise of our neighborhoods, the enchantment with the beauty and power of nature sprouts and spreads through our souls. Children experience a direct connection with nature that (in our urban context) is lacking. A natural serenity envelops adults like the snow envelops evrything below it.

Tonight we will fall asleep (with our pajamas turned inside out and a slight sweat from the snow dance we just completed) and dream in different shades of white. Our expectation is that we will get a free day - a snow day. We hope enchantment will greet us when we awake.

Inspire to Innovate

As educators we hear two words all the time: inspire and innovate. Two words which separately are powerful, but used together provide a mission. Inspire to innovate.

Inspire has ten definitions, all of which capture different gradations of the same theme: influence. Influence to great thoughts, great acts, great relationships.

Innovate has only two: to introduce something new; make changes in anything established.

As always, we must be cognizant of the balance between innovation for innovation's sake and genuine, 21st century, necessary innovation. Teachers should be fueled by the mission of inspiring to innovate. The means by which we inspire is our craft, and the guidance we provide along the path of innovation will shine a light on that balance for the students.

In this time of exponential change at lightning speed, we need to accept that innovation will be a way to success in our students' world, and shape our influence in a way that sets a foundation for our students to be inspired to great and good acts, great and good thoughts, and great and good relationships.

Calvert's Honor Code, its mission, its philosophy aligns with this goal. Our academic rigor sets the parameters for the great acts, and our Honor Code provides the guidelines for making those great acts good.

Monday Ponderance: Make Yourself Stick

As we begin a new year we are leaving a decade full of change. The pace of that change was exponentially faster than any period in history. One of the defining characteristics of this period has been messaging: Text, IM, Facebook, My Space, Twitter, commercials, previews, OnDemand, Billboard, and on and on and on. All of these are (to borrow a term from Chip and Dan Heath in their book Made To Stick) made to stick - made to shape the way we think about things, ideas, the people and places around us, and ourselves.

As some of us prepare for high school and the rest of us prepare for the near future, one thing we can be certain about is that we will need to know how to create messages that will stick. Particularly, very soon we will be faced with decisions that will shape our ideas about ourselves, and others' ideas about who we are.

It is important that we shape that idea through the right choices.

Our Honor Code provides the content of that message: I am respectful, I am responsible, I am honest, I put forth maximum effort, and I reach out to others. In order to make that idea stick, think about the following methods (again, borrowing from the Heath brothers and their book, Made to Stick)

1. Pay attention and consider how you can be unexpected or distinct


2. Be able to understand yourself. Have a concrete idea of who you are and be able to communicate to others.


3. Believe in yourself and you will be credible to those you interact with.


4. Care about yourself and others to bring an emotional connection to your relationships. This might be the stickiest of all the methods.


5. Be able and willing to act on your ideas and values. Be responsible for your own story.

Happy New Year, happy new decade, and happy sticking.