A New Trimester, Stock Market Winners...

As you may have noticed, I have redesigned my website to make better use of the "screen real estate".  Basically, I turned it into a three column layout as opposed to only two.  This way the calendar and announcements sections can be seen without having to scroll down.   If you have any ideas or comments please let me know as I am always looking for ways to improve it!
    We have started our third and final trimester of the year.  Can you believe it?  This means that we have finished our world history part of the class and have moved into Washington State History.  This is a favorite of mine to teach as I was born and raised here and think it is such an amazing place.  Please be aware that students who do not pass the class this trimester will have to repeat it again in high school as it is a graduation requirement.  As part of the class we will be embarking on a trimester long project that I call the "Excel Map".  Basically, students will be making a digital map of Washington using Microsoft Excel complete with pop-up comments and media that shows what they have learned in the 13 chapters of the text.  I'll be explaining more about this in class tomorrow, but if you'd like to see the scoring guide, click here.
    I am excited to report that we have received information about the woman survivor of war that the 7th grade students are sponsoring for the next year.  She is an Iraqi woman with two children.  I sent part of the money that the students raised to Women for Women International and they sent me back a packet of information just last week.  I'll be figuring out a way that we can correspond directly with this woman. More to come on that in the coming days/weeks.  In addition I sent the the remainder of the money that was raised in my Holiday Challenge to UNICEF to purchase a "school in a box kit" that can be used in emergency situations like the Haiti earthquake. 
    Finally, I am happy to announce that Gerritt Jones is our 2nd Trimester Stock Market Contest winner!  I am not sure what to do for a prize for him, so if anyone would like to provide a cool gift card (itunes?, best buy?, mix-it-up?) please let me know.  Coming in 2nd place was Jennifer Clark while Isaac Mullins came in 3rd.  Parents, if you'd like to participate in our 3rd trimester contest you can do so by clicking here (use this password: smseagles).