What do geometry, Walter Cronkite and Forest Gump have in common?

Last week the 7th/8th Grade CREW worked really hard to complete an essay about Walter Cronkite and his influence on the Vietnam War. Two weeks ago we read his, 'We are mired in Stalemate" broadcast immediately after the Tet Offensive in 1968. Students were asked to write a five paragraph essay to explain the message of the broadcast, and they were asked to explain why this message was more important because of Walter Cronkite. There were a few tears, there might have been some laughs, but everyone finished (except for a few absentees).

In 8th Grade Math we have successfully completed our units on Algebra Basics, Linear Equations, Pythagorean Theorem, and Exponential Equations. After our test on Exponential Equations on Wednesday, we began a new unit on Geometry Basics. The first Investigation is in symmetry. On the first day, I brought in pattern blocks and gave them the period to create a design with the most lines of symmetry. Unfortunately for me my challenge was lost in the excitement, but fortunately for the 8th graders they quickly resorted to their 2nd grade-selves and experimented with the patterns. The end result was several gigantic and fascinating designs. These designs allowed us to discuss symmetry, and even with their best efforts the lesson was not lost. Hence there is the experiential learning in Action.

At the end of the day friday, we watched the a section of Forest Gump. The discussion of how movies portray the Vietnam War was extremely rich, and the students seemed to really open up and discuss their appreciation for our military service men and women. As a class we also watched the movie critically, and we discussed the use of music in the film. The film makers of Forest Gump used music from the time period to create emotion and to change the mood of the film. Overall it was a wonderful experience, and I think the students found a new appreciation for film making.

This coming week, we will begin our final products for our Power to the People expedition. We will be working on those and a few other projects over the remaining four weeks of this trimester. If you know any veterans of the Vietnam War, who would like to come talk with us about their experiences with the War. Please send me their contact information. We are currently working on a class wide project, and we would love to have some people involved to interview.

FInally a new Post!

One of our class jobs this trimester has been to write a weekly post for the 7/8 CREW blog. Unfortunately we had difficulty with this challenge, and as a result we haven't been posting regularly enough for this 7/8 CREW blog to be effective. It was a combination of short notice, poor teacher oversight, and the fact that we are always busy. Therefore I have decided to take back over the responsibility of blogging for our CREW. I do encourage students to follow, and I encourage them to post questions and comments.

Our 2nd trimester expedition was called Songs of Change, but today I am officially changing it to Power of the People. Why? Our expedition is into the Vietnam War, the power of public opinion, and how we can alter public opinion. The Vietnam War was a major turning point in our American History. Music, Art, Television, Cinema and print media dramatically changed the political landscape of our Nation. After decades of Cold War, a generation motivated by music and art changed the public opinion on our Foreign Policies. Initially we were only going to examine music and musicians, but we have discovered through research the power of news anchor Walter Cronkite, boxer Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr., photographers, artist like Bob Masse, and writers.

On the very first day of our expedition, we began with a mystery gallery walk. I placed 60 pictures of musicians, military efforts of the Vietnam War, Presidents of the time, and major protests like the Human Be In and Woodstock. Students were asked to walk around silently recording questions and comments about the pictures into their expedition journals. At the same time I played songs about the Vietnam War from Janis Joplin, CCR, Bob Dylan, Beatles, the Animals, and Jefferson Airplane. I asked them to come to school the next day in the costume of the time period they thought we would be studying.

During our Building Background Knowledge, we began with a common text/ song. Country Joe and the Fish who sang I'm A Fixin To Die Rag Thyme. We first listened to it a few times, and discussed how it was sort of a silly song but with dark lyrics. We then examined the lyrics and asked questions. Students were asked to write a letter to a friend, pretend that they were a teenager in 1968, and describe their thoughts and feelings about the lyrics. After the common text, students were given experts texts/songs from other influential artist of the 60's. They examined the texts, wrote their fictional letters, and we then shared them as a whole class.

Over the last few weeks, we have learned about the foreign policies that led us into the Vietnam War, the Truman Doctrine of 1947, the Domino Theory of 1954, and the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. Students created a timeline of major events between 1945 (The end of WWII) and 1975. We have looked at the geography of Indochina, read in depth on major events like the Tet Offensive, Operation Rolling Thunder, and the My Lai Massacre.

After gaining a context of the war itself, we began to consider the change of public support for the war between the years 1965 and 1970. One of the most influential people in America at the time was Walter Cronkite and his famous "We are mired in Stalemate" broadcast of 1968. This past week, we have discussed different kinds of protesting and their effectiveness. Our next step will be to examine major protests during this time period.

On top of all that, students are beginning a new Literature Circle this week. They have their assignments, have picked their groups, begun to establish a reading schedule, and they have chosen their books. Their final literature report will have a vocabulary log, chapter summaries, and an essay comparing themselves to a main character in the story.

We also got a lot of snow this week!!!