U.N. Climate Conference

You may want to follow this conference to see if the world is able to come together to prevent climate change. Here is a link to an article to get you started. This would also make an excellent topic for your Current Events blogs.

Lake Atitlan- What is happening? Why?

To find out more about the situation at Lake Atitlan please read this article. This would be an excellent article to comment upon in your blogs.

Check your blogs!

If you see a comment from me than the link I have for your blog is working. If you do not have comment from me could you please check your link and tell me how to fix it. Overall you are doing an excellent job so far!!

Help Stop Hunger!

Please watch this video and pass it along to help the 1 billion people who will go hungry this year. If you want to make a donation go here.

Photo Story 3 Help

For our next class project we are going to using Photo Story 3. This website should help answer any questions about Photo Story that you may have. Please remember to bring your ICT headphones to class with you next week.

The Future of Transportation

Check out this blog by wired magazine that takes a look at what the future of transportation may look at. Remember that transportation is one of the leading causes of Global Warming and one of the ways that we can combat the effects of Global Warming is to change our modes and practices of transportation.

Our Next Unit

After we finish our IT project in the library we will be studying the civilization of Mesopotamia. To get a preview of what we will be studying go and check out this website.

Want to take a closer look at the Lascaux Cave Art?

You can go on a virtual tour here.

Ever wanted to try and write a novel?

November is the national novel writing month and if you have ever thought about writing a novel or even a short story there is a website out there to help. Go and check out this website and get ready to write!!!

Sponge #11 The Now Network

Go and check out this website and move your mouse around the screen to get a real time count of some of things being produced in the world right now. After you have looked around write 3-5 sentences about what most amazed and shocked you.

Sometimes you have to refresh the page once or twice to get it to load properly.

Maybe December 21st 2012 Is Not The End

If you are interested in the Mayan calender and it's predictions check out this article.

Good Video on Homo Habilis

Great Video on the Hominid Lucy from the BBC

Part 1



Part 2


Part 3

Hominid Evolution

New Hominid Discovered!

This is Ardipithecus and is thought to be an ancestor to the hominid "Lucy." This is an important discovery because scientists now think that we did not evolve from "Apes" but instead from another species that resembled an Ape but was more human-like and that both of these species evolved at the same time. To learn more check out the full article here.

Shift Happens

I would like you to take the time to watch this video and then write a response in your sponge book as to how you think education should/will change during your school career to make you prepared for your life after grade school.

Current Events Assignment

Part of Social Studies is making sure we take the time to look at and understand the world around us. This year as part of our Current Events Curriculum you will be working in a group and creating a blog so that you can explore some of these events and reflect on how they may impact your lives.

As a part each post of your blog I would like to see the following things:

1. A link to or the the article or video of the event you are looking at embedded in your blog.
2. The title of the article or video and author.
3. The date when you found it.
4. What you think the theme is? E.g. Environment, Education, Health...
5. A short summary of what it is about.
6. Whether or not you thought that there was any bias.
7. How this event may impact YOUR lives.

For this assignment you will be in groups of three and I would like to see at least one post in your blog per week.
This assignment is going to count towards your 10% homework grade. I will be checking your blogs each Monday to see that you have completed this task.