Extra Credit Film Review

As we will be beginning our second unit on Tuesday, I'd like us to take a brief detour Monday afternoon to discuss (and watch a short film) on a current event. Specifically, we'll be watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain's: No Reservations. The episode concentrates on the events following the assassination of Beirut's Rafik Hariri. As always, this review will be worth a possible ten extra points on a test. For this review, you will need to do a bit of outside research. Please see the links below to guide your review and enhance your knowledge of the subject. The film review will be on Monday (October 5) afternoon from 3:45 - 4:45. The typed film review will be due the following Monday (October 12). Please be aware that if any part of your review is plagiarized you will receive a zero for the assignment and be barred from participating in other extra credit opportunities.

Click here to access a New York Times article on the assassination of Rafik Hariri.

Click here to access a timeline regarding the events surrounding Rafik Hariri's assassination.

Click here to access a case study regarding life in Beirut prior to Rafik Hariri's assassination.

Saturday Study Session

Students showed off their knowledge this weekend at the Saturday study session. All materials from the study session will be available in class on Tuesday for students who were unable to attend.

Dinner at Himalayas

Everyone seems to have had a great time at Himalayas on Friday night (Angil says that she'll stick to American food, but she enjoyed the night anyhow).

AP World Indian Outing

Parents,

As we have been studying ancient India in class recently, there has been a request by the students to go out as a class to eat Indian food. I told the students that this would be fine as long as some parents volunteered to attend and help chaperon (it should be noted, however, that this is not an official school field trip). If I can get some parents to volunteer, I'd like for the students to meet at Himalayas Restaurant (5520 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., Atlanta 30341) tomorrow night at 9pm. I realize that this is late, but many of the students are in marching band and will be attending the football game prior to this event. If you'd like to volunteer to help with this, simply leave a comment on this blog entry, or e-mail me at benschinef@fultonschools.org. As a heads up to both parents and students, should we not get enough interest in this event to warrant its occurrence, I will post a note on the blog tomorrow by 4pm, cancelling or confirming the event.

Origins of Imperial China

Seeing as we had to rush through the material on the Qin and Han Empires, I've posted the PowerPoint here. Please make sure to download and print this off so that you can study the material sufficiently.

Supplemental Notes on India's First Empires

Click here to access a detailed outline of Thursday's lecture on India's first empires.

Chapter 7 Guided Reading

Click here to access the chapter 7 guided reading. The assignment will be due in class on Thursday, October 1.

Chapter 6 Guided Reading

Click here to access the chapter 6 guided reading. The assignment is due in class on Friday, September 25th.

Unit 1 Test & Study Session Information

The Unit 1 Test will be given in class on Friday, October 2 (multiple-choice) & Monday, October 5 (primary source analysis). The test will cover the major historical events from 8,000 B.C.E. to 600 C.E. (roughly, chapters 1 - 7 in the textbook). Study session times will be as follows:

Saturday, September 26: 9:00am - 1:00pm (parents click here to access the unit 1 study session parent letter)

Tuesday, September 29: 7:30am - 8:15am

Wednesday, September 30: 7:30am - 8:15am

Thursday, October 1: 3:45pm - 4:30pm

Extra Credit Mapping Activity

A great group showed up Tuesday morning to complete a georgraphy activity pertaining to Alexander the Great's Empire. Students worked in groups of 4 to chart Alexander's Hellenistic expansion and label major geographical locations throughout eastern Europe, Africa & western Asia.

Permission Slips

Parents,

In class I will often use film clips to supplement previously studied material. While most of the films are rated G or PG, I sometimes show clips from films with a higher rating (for example, The Pianist or Last of the Mohicans). Before the end of the week, you should be recieving an annotated permission slip listing the films I might be pulling from. However, if you click here, you can access the full permission slips for each film which contains a film summary, its relation to the Georgia Performance Standards and its rating. Please feel free to contact me any questions concerning these.

Extra Credit Opportunity

There will be an extra credit opportunity Tuesday (September 15th) morning at 7:30am in my classroom. To earn the extra credit you will need to come early to school to participate in a mapping activity relating to Alexander the Great's Empire. If you plan on attending, see me on Monday so that I can sign your agenda, thus allowing you to get past Officer Johnson before school begins.

Religion PowerPoint Presentations

Here are the pictures from our "Religions PowerPoint Presentations" (8000 B.C.E. - 600 C.E.). Covered subjects included: polytheism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Confucianism and Daoism. Overall these were very successful.

Chapter 5 Guided Reading

Click here to download the Chapter 5 Guided Reading. It will be due on Monday, September 21st.

Chapter 4 Guided Reading

Click here to download the chapter 4 guided reading. Don't panic. We're trying a different format on this one.