Learning+Log

Learning Log: Comparing Colonies 9/23/09

1. What did you know about the colonies before we began our unit of study? Not very much. I knew that there were thirteen and that Deleware was the first official state, and that they were against the British, but other than that, nothing.

2. How has your learning or what you have learned changed during our unit of study? I've learned almost everything that I know about the colonies during this unit. I learned where they were, how Massachusetts was part of two different territories, who founded most of them, about the geography, economy, and government of the colonies. I also learned a lot about Maryland because I did my project on it. I learned so much about the colonies this unit, it would be hard to convey in one post.

3. What questions do you still have about this unit of study? Almost none. I learned A LOT from this unit and do not have any questions except: What did the Native Americans have to do with the colonies at the beginning? I remember 1 colony was peaceful with them, I think it was Rhode Island, but other than that, they weren't mentioned. I assume that that means that nothing special happened to the colonists because of the natives, then?

4. On a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest, 3 in the middle, and 1 the lowest), how hard have you worked during this unit of study? Support your answer! I would give myself a 4. I think that I should recieve a four because I put a lot of effort into this project, but not as much as possible. I could have created a more creative line for my "explaining" catchy statement 1, "Have a merry time casting your line in the fish-rich waters of Chesapeake Bay," but I didn't. I could have put more color into the poster, but I didn't. I could have supressed my anger at Ebrima for doing something or other (I can't exactly remember what), but I didn't. I also could have spent less time talking to Akanksha and more time doing the assesment, but I didn't. You know, I think I've changed my mind. I made too many mistakes for a 4. I believe that I should recieve a 3, looking back. I really didn't put as much effort into this unit as I should've.

5. What could you have done differently during this unit of study? Well, pretty much what I mentioned above: more self-control, more effort, and less chatting time. More effort is something I really need to work on, but mostly less chatting. I now don't think it was that good a choice to sit next to Akanksha.

11/16/09

1. How has your learning about Colonial America and slavery changed throughout this unit? My learning has changed because now I know more about Colonial America than I ever have before. For example, I didn't know that St. Augustine was the first settlement in America, I thought it was Plymoth. Well, I thought that before last year, I thought it was Jamestown before this unit. I also didn't know that Frederick Douglass was kind of just like any other slave, that he got whipped and whipped and yelled at. I thought he had nice masters who maybe let him free. 2. What questions do you still have about this unit of study? I don't really have any questions. I know everything that I think I need to know or want to know now and think that we have been taught well. 3. How did you like working in a group on your research questions using the wiki? Explain. I liked working in a group, but I did not like using the wikis. Wikispaces is slow and typing, even if you're a good typer, is really annoying when your words don't show up on the screen when you type them. Even if I typed my heart out for five minutes, it would still take Wikispaces another five minutes at the least to actually put my words on the screen. Working as a group on research questions was great, and doing it again would be fun, but not on the wiki. 4. On a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest, 3 in the middle, and 1 the lowest), how hard have you worked during this unit of study? Support your answer! I think I deserve a four. I have put as much effort as Sam and more effort than Reggie into this project. Not to critisize Reggie or anything, but Sam and I were the only ones who actually worked on the project, Reggie didn't write anything on any of our pages. I wrote the initial paragraph for all three pages, Reggie's twice because Sam accidentially deleted it, and added on to Sam's contributation on two of the pages. I think I put enough effort into this project, but not more effort than needed. I could have "dug deeper", in your words, Ms. C, on all three of the pages, but I didn't. I think I put a lot of effort into this project, too, considering I was pulled out to be with Mrs. Bell a few times when we were working on it, but not all I could. I was sucessful but not overly amazing. 5. How could we use wikis in the future when studying about social studies? Well, if wikis weren't slow, than pretty much anything. We could write a question on our own pages, then be assigned one other person's page to complete the research on. We could copy and paste useful information on our wikis then pick things out to show that we can put things in our own words. There are many other things we could do that would be useful in socail studies, probably, and I think that, given enough time, all of us could think of at least ten things. For example, you could post a social studies explination and we could summarize it, or something like that.