Welcome! Behold the latest academic report for New River Academy. This one written by our very own Jason Aytes, teacher of all things historical, governmental and the like. Enjoy!
In both AP Government and AP History, Palmer Miller and Nelson Jones have been spending class time preparing for their exams. Their preparations have included studying chapter material, flash cards and taking practice test. Both Palmer and Nelson have been putting ample time into studying for these college credit exams and are looking forward to putting the test behind them. These exams will be administered this week.
In Human Geography class at the beginning of the quarter I asked the students, “What are you most interested in studying in this class?” The response was, “The Middle East.” We have spent the first part of the quarter working on the history, culture and customs of Middle Eastern society. As a group we learned the geographical locations of Middle Eastern countries and capitals of these countries. Also, as a group we studied the chapter in our textbook on the Middle East. This included general information on this part of the world. We took a day to discuss modern day policy of the Gaza Strip and West Band area. The main focus on this unit involved each student preparing and teaching a lesson on different aspects of the Middle East. The students took this assignment very seriously and did a wonderful job with their presentation to the class. Stephen Forster chose modern day politics and economics in the Middle East. Zach Kathrein compared the religions of Islam and Judism. Emery Tillman tackled the task of reporting on modern culture. Jackson Conn taught us the differences between Shi’its and Shunnies. Alexandra Shallhorn prepared a report on the history of Islam. Tracy d’Arbeloff’s presentation included Middle Eastern human right’s issues. The students showed a great deal of interest in their particular areas and we also enjoyed listening to the presentations. Now in Human Geography class we are doing a unit on genocide. Each student picked their choice of a modern genocide and is presenting their research to the rest of the class. Presentations are due at the end of this week. This has been a sad but educational unit.
In U.S. History we have been doing a variety of activities. The quarter started out with the students researching and presenting history on where they grew up. Issac Holden presented Chattanooga, TN. Keegan Grady’s presentation was on Lapasse, ON. Eli Spiegal showed us the history of the Seattle, WA area. Along with these reports we added in a section featuring some of the area’s water basins and whitewater. This was especially easy for Keegan as he grew up in Whitewater County. Now we are also studying genocides in the U.S History class. This class showed interest in the subject after the Human Geography class started the same unit. We are studying genocides and the involvement or lack of involvement the U.S. had during these events. We are finishing up this unit by taking a non-bias look at Henry Kissinger who has been a controversial figure in American History.
Tags: Academic Report, Academics, AP classes, AP curiculum, AP education, high school government classes, high school history classes, Jason Aytes
