Daily Warm-ups:
8/23-- Make a list of everything you can think of that happened in American history before the Civil War.
8/24-- Respond to the following quotation: "The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there." - Leslie Poles Hartley
8/25-- Respond to the following quotation: "We are not makers of history. We are made by history." - Martin Luther King Jr.
8/26-- Think ahead: How do you think that a small number of Spanish conquistadors would be able to defeat the enormous Aztec and Inca empires?
8/29-- Without looking at your notes, name one civilization we have learned about so far and describe the ways they adapted to where they lived.
9/2-- Respond to the following quotation: "History records...who won, who lost, and who lived to lie about it afterwards." - Ralph Ellison
9/6-- Imagine you are a European explorer in the 1400s. What would you bring with you on your voyage?
9/7-- When you give someone directions to get somewhere, what are important things to include?
9/8-- What do you already know about Christopher Columbus? List everything you can think of.
9/9-- How do you think life in the Americas began to change after Europeans began exploring the continents?
9/12-- Think ahead: How do you think that a small number of Spanish conquistadors would be able to conquer the great Aztec and Inca empires?
9/13-- If you had lived in the 1500s, would you have gone to the Americas? Why or why not?
9/14-- When you are using a map, what are some important things to look at?
9/15-- Without looking at your notes, name as many explorers as you can and say what they did.
9/19-- "If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development." - Aristotle
9/20-- What are some good test taking strategies?
9/21-- How should you behave in the computer lab?
9/22-- "History teaches us everything, including the future." - Lamartine
9/27-- Name the colonies we have learned about in the order in which they were founded.
10/3-- As we have learned about the original colonies, do you find them to be more similar to one another, or are they different? Why?
10/4-- What is the picture on the SmartBoard (slave ship)? Free write about it.
10/5-- "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again." - Maya Angelou
10/6-- Without looking at your notes, name as many of the original 13 colonies as you can.
10/10-- Expansion leads to confrontation. As the British colonies expand westward, who is already living there? What opportunities for conflict do you see?
10/11-- Remembering the video on the French and Indian War, list some causes of the war.
10/17-- Do you believe that people have the right to change or destroy a government that becomes unjust? Why or why not?
10/18-- What makes a government unjust?
10/19-- What is the difference between fact and opinion? Give examples of each.
10/20-- What is perspective? How does it influence the way we learn history?
10/21-- Remebering the events we have learned about, do you think that the colonists would be justified in rebelling against Britain?
10/24-- Recalling the video on Friday, what was the Boston Massacre?
10/25-- Without looking at your notes, list all the events you can think of that led to the Revolution.
10/26-- Imagine you lived in the 1770s. Would you have been a Patriot (for independence) or a Loyalist (loyal to Britain).
10/27-- If you had to choose one event that was the most important in leading to the Revolution, what would it have been and why?
11/2-- "The die is now cast. The colonies must either submit or triumph...We must not retreat." - King George III
11/3-- "They who will give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
11/7-- "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable." -JFK
11/8-- "That which obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly." - Thomas Paine
11/9-- At the begining of the unit, we made a list of British and American advantages and disadvantages. Without looking at your notes, what were some of these?
11/10-- Hessians were German mercenaries hired by the British during the Revolution. Why might the British have hired them? Why would the Patriots especially hate them?
11/14-- Recalling last week, why was it a problem that most of Washington's troops were only signed up for 6 months to a year of service?
11/15-- "Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please." -Karl Marx
11/16-- Why would other countries want to join with the Americans in their revolution?
11/18-- Thank you notes to guest speakers
11/28-- "Mankind is the same in all times and places." -- David Hume
12/2-- Why do we write so much in history class?
12/5-- Remember the causes of the American Revolution (taxes, voting rights, etc). What powers do you think the Americans would or would not give to the new government they create?
12/6-- What states are in the northwestern U.S. today?
12/7-- Where does money come from? Why does it have value?
12/11-- "A little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing." -- Thomas Jefferson
12/12-- "If men were angels, no government would be necessary." -- James Madison
12/13-- What is the purpose of government?
1/4-- Check the answers on your practice exam.
1/5-- "The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government." -- Patrick Henry
1/6-- "Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but nothing in this world can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." -Benjamin Franklin
1/9-- "The Constitution does not grant rights, it recognizes them." -Jason Laumark
1/10-- What rights do we have according to the Constitution?
1/11-- Name one branch of government and describe what it does.
1/12-- What Constitutional rights do you think students do or do not have in school?
1/17-- If you could change one thing in the Constitution, what would it be and why?
1/23-- "Yesterday is a cashed check, tomorrow a promissory note. Today is the only cash you have, so spend it wisely."
1/26-- What do you already know about Washington's presidency?
1/27-- Thinking back-- What was Shay's Rebellion and why was it important?
1/30-- John Adams was elected President after Washington. What do we already know about him?
1/31-- Is it every okay to limit a person's right to speak against the government?
2/1-- Remembering yesterday-- What important events occured during Adams' presidency?
2/2-- "No one who has ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it." -- John Adams
2/6-- "Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto." -- Thomas Jefferson
2/7-- Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd President of the United States. What do we already know about him?
2/8-- The U.S. bought a large chunk of land known as the Louisiana Territory. Why would we want this land?
2/9-- “Every eye in the U.S. is now fixed on this affair of Louisiana. Perhaps nothing since the revolutionary war has produced more uneasy sensations through the body of the nation.” - Thomas Jefferson
2/10-- Recalling yesterday's video, what were some of the major events of the Lewis and Clark expedition?
2/13-- Imagine you are President. A group of Americans gets taken hostage in another country. Their captors demand ransom for their safe return. What would you do?
2/14-- Without peeking at your notes, recall why Britain and the U.S. were mad at each other during the Jefferson Era.
2/16-- What is an interchangeable part? (You may look at your vocab) How do we use interchangeable parts today?
2/21-- Remembering class on Friday, what were some of the new transportation technologies that were developed during the Industrial Revolution?
2/23-- What do you already know about Andrew Jackson? List everything you can think of.
2/28-- What were some of the events during the Jackson era? List as many as you can think of.
2/29-- "There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses." -Jackson
3/1-- "Nullifcation means insurrection and war, and the other states have the right to put it down." -- Jackson
3/5-- Was it our country's destiny to spread across the continent?
3/7-- What is "Manifest Destiny"? You may peek at your notes.
3/8-- If you had lived in the early 1800s, would you have moved west? Why or why not?
3/9-- "History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are." - David McCullough
3/12-- Write a diary entry pretending you went on the California gold rush. What is life like?
3/13-- Why would Texas have wanted to become a state in the U.S. rather than remain an independent nation?
3/15-- "The destruction of the union would be the destruction of all the states. A stab in the heart is worse than a cut in a limb." -Sam Houston
3/19-- What were some of the differences between the north and south in the early 1800s?
3/21-- "Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking." - Nina Simone
3/23-- It has been said that America is a country of immigrants. What does this mean?
3/27-- "Education, then, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men." -Horace Mann
3/28-- Recalling yesterday, what were some of the institutions that reformers targeted during the Age of Reform?
4/9-- What in life is worth fighting for?
4/10-- Are men and women treated equally today?
4/11-- We've already learned about the differences between the North and South. Some of these helped cause the Civil War. List as many differences as you can remember.
4/12-- Why did the south have slaves, but the north did not?
4/23-- If you were a slave, but then your master moved to the north and brought you along, would you be free?
4/25-- "[Our situation] illustrates the American idea that governments rest on the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish them whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established." - Jefferson Davis
4/26-- What was the most important cause of the Civil War? Why?
5/1-- How did sectionalism, conflict, and compromise lead to the Civil War?