Welcome to 7th Grade Geography! 2022-2023

 

Welcome to Miscoe Hill Seventh Grade!

It is with pleasure that I write this post reconnecting with many families that I have gotten to work with in the past, and introducing myself to others that I look forward to meeting and working with this school year.

My name is Heather Langdon, your seventh grader’s Social Studies teacher. My classroom is in the green hallway of Miscoe, room 433.  It is down the main hallway, take a right, up the ramp, and all the way down.  My classroom is the second to last room on the right. 

I have been working in the Mendon Upton School District for 23 years, and I consider it home.  My family is invested in the town and the schools with the lofty goal of bringing up highly educated, creative, and innovative thinkers for our world. I know how special my position is as a teacher, and I hope that my work with your child inspires them to be the best they can be.  I hope we can work together to do this!

This post on my blog is just a  simple introduction and to establish communication with you,  as I believe it is a major part of the success of your child’s learning.  Throughout the year, I will be using email as a means to contact you, and I would like you to also feel no hesitation to contact me throughout the school year with concerns or questions so that your child will have a successful and happy seventh-grade year.  My email address is hlangdon@mursd.org.

Another means of communication is the use of a Google Classroom.  Our district has used this platform for several years now with great success, and it will be used this year for all of my classes.  Students will be able to join the Google Classroom for geography when we get together on our first day of school.

I look forward to meeting you all at Open House!   

Keep enjoying the summer :)

Heather Langdon

Technology Boundaries

 Dear Families and Students, 

We hope this email finds you enjoying the warmer spring weather and sunshine!  

As a Seventh Grade Team, we have been invested in teaching our students about setting appropriate boundaries when it comes to technology use in our classrooms.  According to a majority of parents, based on research from the 2020 Pew Research Center,  71% are concerned about their students getting too much screen time.  We agree!  As teachers, it is a major concern as anxiety disorders, addictive behaviors, and disconnections occur more readily in our students.   We believe in creating structures that keep technology in its place,  and we have created a good balance between using technology and using hard-copy books and literature to offset the digital.  In many instances, we give students the choice of completing the activity or assignment digitally or hard-copy.  This empowers students to use technology in meaningful ways, focused on what product they want to produce, depending on the activity. 

At the start of each class period, students place their phones in pockets at the front of the room. We have set up this structure since the start of the year,  but recently, we noticed that fewer students have been following this procedure.  We ask for your help at home in reminding our students that iPhones are not allowed in the classroom, in desks, or in pant pockets during class.  Each student must place their phone in the phone pocket at the start of class, or keep their phones in their backpack in their lockers. We have put this structure in place to create a healthy boundary and set class time apart from online “social media” time.  Notifications and the tendency to get on the iPhone is so tempting!  With the phones in their place, we can focus on our content skills and curriculum study.   

We also ask that you speak to your child about iPad games.  We understand that games are very readily available on the internet and on the iPad.  Even so, these games take up a lot of energy and time from your students’ learning.  They also feed into mindless behaviors and waste valuable learning time.  A discussion at home would help us as we are giving this message in school, but we are finding reminders are necessary.  Our messaging is focused on students using self-control, focusing on their priorities, and using school time appropriately.  We know that having your support system at home working collaboratively at the same message will help our students set boundaries around technology use.  

We thank you for your cooperation and collaboration around setting boundaries with our technology use in school.  Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns!

Sincerely, 

The Seventh Grade Teachers

Welcome! New year, new way of doing things...

 Welcome to the new school year! 

2020-2021 

I am excited to meet all of you and help create another year of learning and growth for your students.    With this new school year, we have many changes that make our learning different and perhaps a bit more difficult.  But even with this situation we find ourselves in, my hope is that we can grow more resilient and overcome our challenges and learn how to connect and learn in many new ways.

In the spring when the Coronavirus first reeked its ugly head, I was in the middle of teaching my 20th year with the Mendon-Upton School District.  While I have experienced many ups and downs during my career here,  in the way of budget cuts and the moving of my position within the district, I can honestly say that I never could have imagined or predicted being thrown into remote teaching and discovering how to connect and teach students through Zoom.  While it feels more difficult, it can be done!  Unfortunately, it requires even more stamina and discipline from our students than what might be needed had they been in school learning.  I have witnessed students that normally struggle with the in-person learning model suddenly be less distracted and more productive.  On the flip side, I have seen normally engaged students in-person become distant and less engaged.  As a parent of both types of students mentioned, I know that it required more hands on for me to manage and connect with them and to make sure they kept their boats afloat.  Please keep me in the loop as I know first-hand how tricky this is on your end as a parent.  I am here to help and know that working together is our best course of action.

The schedule for our students will be a block schedule and it is at this Link.  I have found that printing it and keeping it handy may help many students because it is more tangible and can be referred to easily as needed.

Your student will also be using Google Classroom for each of their classes.   Teachers will be posting all assignments and necessary announcements to their Google Classroom page.

Another suggestion as we get closer to starting school is to help your student create spaces  for their learning.  A desk is a great choice, but even setting up a regular space at the kitchen table or somewhere they can go to daily where all their supplies are located and it is their "school" spot.  Some students might want multiple spots to change up their environment.  This will create the habits necessary for their remote learning to set off on the right path.  Here is a link  to the supply list put out by Miscoe Hill.  Please refer to the 7th Grade Supply page.

I hope you consider me part of your team to help move your student to greater maturity as a student and make their 7th grade year a success.  Contact me through email:  hlangdon@mursd.org with any questions or concerns.

Resources and Information

Resources for Extended Learning

Throughout these next few weeks, things will be a little off our regularly scheduled routine for sure. I hope to have a lot of the same learning links that I normally use in the classroom to ensure a bit of normalcy. Here are a few resources for you to know and be aware of. Students have been using these apps/resources throughout the year. I use Google Classroom as my 'home-base' and every practice activity I assign will start there.

Google Classroom

I currently set up a new Google Classroom for each unit of study. Currently, you'll find your students Google Classroom for this study called: Southeast Asia, Australia, and Oceania. All activities are posted there with appropriate links for the students to use to complete their assignments.  So far, students have two 'ASL' practices posted.

Gimkit, Quizlet, Quizizz

We use many game-based apps to review our content knowledge. These apps allow students to "play" with the content and learn vocabulary in a game-based way.

Epic Reading

Within each unit, I compile a list of books that students can read from to acquire background and supplemental information to help with the unit study. On Google Classroom, you'll find a section/tab labeled Read/Research and Review. Within it, I include the link to Epic. Please encourage your child to read from Epic every day from our Southeast Asia collection.  This will give a great amount of background information for our unit study!

McGraw-Hill Online Text

We have been using the McGraw Hill text this year for each of our unit studies.  Currently, students can access all required reading by clicking on the app on their Ipad. We are working through Chapter 8.  Before we left, we were reading lesson 1.  

 Along with the text, students can also access games and other resources to practice.

MURSD Extended Learning

The Mendon-Upton Regional School District has also set up an Extended Learning Website for parents and learners looking for resources to promote learning at home.  

Office Hours 

Mrs. Langdon will be available for

office hours every day from 10-11.  Please contact through email:  hlangdon@mursd.org

Mrs. Langdon's personal Zoom Room:

  https://mursd.zoom.us/j/4110642259

Mrs. Langdon's personal meeting ID: 411-064-2259

I will be posting an Extended Learning Activity on Monday (3/23/20) in Google Classroom for students to work on next week.

Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns.  I know there are a lot of unknowns right now, but I will do my best to help in any way!

Midyear Happenings

Coming up... Southeast Asia

We've been very busy with our Social Studies classes.  We have just completed our East Asia study and have taken the final test on Friday, March 6.  Next week we will begin our South East Asia unit.  All work that your child has in their binder that pertains to East Asia can now stay at home.  We will start fresh again collecting resources for Southeast Asia in our binders for this new unit.   

Progress Reports...

In your students' binders, you will also see progress reports for Term 3.  It is our hope that students and parents are monitoring grades on Power School.  All students should have an understanding of this process but if you find that your child doesn't know how to log in to PowerSchool, please have them take a visit to our help desk for a quick reteach.  You may also direct your child to a teacher on our team to help as well.   Hard copy progress reports need to be signed by a parent/guardian by March 13.

Distraction-Free Zone...

As you are aware, phones cause a lot of distraction for our students' daily lives.  Since the start of this year, it has been the policy in the classroom that they are to keep them put away and out of sight.   But even with this in place,  we have found that the notifications and visits to the bathroom with their phones to check notifications and posts on social media continue to distract from the learning.  Because of this, the Seventh Grade Team has instituted a new policy.  All students must keep phones in lockers or put them in the classroom drop off at the start of class.  This way notifications and other distractions won't stand in the way of learning.  Thank you for your help and understanding with this new procedure.

March Conferences

Mark your calendars for March 25 and 26.  These two days are 1/2 days for students.   Parents are invited to stop by for a conference with the team.  We will be available from 12:15-2:30.

Showing what we've learned....so far.

     Thank you to all parents who came out to Open House this past Wednesday!  It was nice meeting with you and sharing my expectations for our students.  If you missed Open House, I have included the slide show to this blog, just find it as a button at the top of the page.

This week we took the 'Tools of Geography' test, but we're not done yet!  Students are now getting the opportunity to show all they have learned about maps by creating their own map.   These maps will be due on Friday.  The assignment is posted in their Google Classroom.  There, you will see the rubric that they are following as a guide for the elements needed in their maps.  Students should be 1/2 way done in their completion.  Please check in with your student to see how they are doing with this project.  They will have 60 more minutes to work on it in class.

     This week students who are interested in running for our Miscoe Hill Student Council will need to submit their requests to campaign for a spot.  This will be posted on Google Classroom soon.    All students who campaign will need parent's permission, be able to meet on Fridays 7:30-8:10, be a role model to classmates and lower grade levels and have a positive attitude toward school.  STUCO is a great opportunity to get involved in making a positive impact on Miscoe Hill!

Permission slips and $ for our field trip are due this Friday!  This information is posted in Google Classroom (Go Green Team).

Encoding, retrieval, metacognition...oh my!

I've been really thinking about 'best practices' recently. These 'best practices' are defined in Merriam Webster as 'a procedure that has been shown by research and experience to produce optimal results'.  It's hard not to think about 'best practices' when you are a teacher.  You want students to 'get it' and incorporating different strategies to meet the needs of every learner in my classroom takes a bunch of different approaches to help information 'stick'.   One way I'm working to incorporate best practices this year is by using ideas I've read about in the book called, Powerful Teaching by Patrice Bain and Pooja Agarwal.  These authors have taken research done in the area of cognitive science and have broken it down to be used in the classroom.   By understanding how the brain processes new information (encoding), and how it recalls information (retrieval) is necessary in helping students learn.

So, I've been using the vocabulary of the cognitive scientists in my classroom.  Yes, I've been getting a few funny faces from the students when I use these words.   Last week I explained metacognition to them with hopes they will understand as learners that it is important for them to be able to assess where they are at learning something.  Basically, are they thinking about what they know and what they don't know? This is why I have incorporated some form of self-quizzing every day.  We use several 'game' apps that incorporate metacognition skill into their school day, like Quizlet, Quizziz, and Kahoot.  I also assign a daily warm-up (DWU) every day through Google Classroom that either reviews or introduces concepts.  I purposely give the same/similar questions several times a week with the hope they will learn the skill of self-correcting their mistakes to improve their scores.  Teaching students the skill of memory retrieval, and helping them understand that we should be actively working on 'retrieval' practices to help our memory which will help us to learn. 
 
This week, we will have our first test on the concepts we have learned so far in geography.  All of the links for review are found in the students' Google Classroom.  Links for Kahoot review, Quizlet vocabulary links, and Quizziz have all been posted so the students can review.  We have also kept some hard-copy binder notes stored in the geo/history section of their white binders.  We will be reviewing in class on Monday and Tuesday by meeting with 'study groups' and reviewing information.  I look forward to seeing their growth so far.  

Don't forget to come out and meet me and the other teachers on Wednesday, September 25.  The Open House schedule begins with parents meeting the Specialist/Elective teachers for the first 15 minutes.  Then, they go through a sample day in their core subjects up in the classrooms.  

 See you there!