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Virtual Back to School Night - 2021

Added Aug 31, 2021 •

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A breakdown of the norms and practice of Mr. Williams' social studies courses and a discussion of how best to support your student in them.

Show Transcript

good evening parents and guardians of our wonderful coyote my name is Mister William I am the social studies department chair here at Castaic High School world history modern and world. as well so hopefully your ear in the right place and your student has any one of those courses you can be very brief and summarize what's going on in all three of those and what s b i l look like in a classroom give you my contact information and we'll call it a night when they're so otherwise I'm a product of e William Hart School District I graduated from Saugus High School in the late 1990s one of the reasons why I my teacher is I had an incredible mud tape teacher when I was in 10th Grade that really turned my life around and I'm very very much lucky to to work with that monster teacher it is our current superintendent of the school district and find myself you doing something do I approach education from a little bit of an unusual background what kind of Troublemaker but I was always at the market I got my bachelor's in history from Tito and I also got my teaching credential from Steve, Nor Cal State Northridge I'm currently were do my Masters in Education in curriculum and instruction from Western Governors University and this is my second year here so they had social studies last year so I along with one other Peter Built the social studies Department from scratch last year and we're very much looking forward to adding another grade-level next year as well contact info how you can reach me by e-mail is absolute best in a DS Williams District. Org a lot of people think it dies my middle initial needs to be in there otherwise your emails going to get kicked back to you this is the absolute best way to communicate with me I promise you I'm pretty timely about Rick wanting to email request I have a 6. Conference this year so that means I'm available to meet or four phone calls during stick. In my pension is 505 the same as my room number so call the school if you'd like to talk to me in person pictures during otherwise I'm going to be teaching during my other class. My website gear which will be linked to your student account in in canvas by star google.com laugh hard disregard Oregon's last Dax Williams I don't be the court website for any of the forces that I teacher 4307 Mont Haven I'm going to make this real quick so much is a survey course about the Van de foundations of modern society call Mazda of that his nickname for me civilization so really throughout the school year this is a two-semester course that's trying to understand how to where we got to the society that we're living in and that means that we start with the enlightenment start roughly in the year 79 it is a very eurocentric course but we try to pull in a lot of history in other world event teach students to think in multiple perspectives and to think critically and to form their own opinion put the backhoe is up with track and Mythic and proper historical analysis it goes all the way up to current a but really it ends around 2001 by the end of the school year we just don't have enough fun never even made a point about my we talked about several centuries of history in a school year we are focusing main ideas for the details that mean your favorite part of history of my favorite part of History we may have had to kind of feels like we may have had to rush through a little do something like World War really spend a few weeks on World War II because there's not important stuff to know but because we have so much to talk about and so many students to keep in constant material that we move it a pretty quick pick so we are focused on the main ideas rather than becoming historical expert in one thing or not obviously some controversial topics history didn't happen to make us feel comfortable in history didn't have for our entertainment either so there are parts that are closed during which I totally disagree with but they're boring and their parts that are very controversial we don't want students to skip this even if it might make them a little uncomfortable learning about these things we don't want to get these parts you said we want to equip our students of how to think critically about what really happened in the past and discuss it in a very civilized manner special topics obviously in otherwise we're going to be skipping huge parts of world next bar AP World History modern this is our 10th grade AP social studies class is the survey course covering even more time than mod it must've does it covers from 1200 until now in the same thing in a school year so in an AP class will make a little bit different than this is a college-level course a p stand for placement that mean these students are taking college courses now while they're in high school several years before they're ready for them in terms of college to so that means it is a very rigorous course load and for many of our students is our first so they get kind of Blindsided with the high expectations and the rigor that an AP class to me the biggest struggle that most people have the ability to keep up with their heavy reading outside of class this requires some kind of time management and self-discipline skills that students in their sophomore year of high school may or may not have by this point so they really need your help building at Gilpin building we are focused on Pi level analysis of cause and effect for causation in history comparison broad patterns and historical thinking skills like that and where to mate rather than trying to memorize every single detail or become an expert in one subject for another we have even more time to talk about so we have over eight hundred years of History to talk about in still just a single school year and with a really high ax listen for what you think we will be given the opportunity to take an AP exam at the end of the year strongly strong I strongly recommend taking the AP exam but it is not required for AP World History modern other than the cost of the exam and it's something that is a downside for you and your student please talk to me or Catholic High School there's tons of resources available to help didn't pay for the exam Step 1 do I need a free or reduced lunch application in health office. Can I pick up to when you want to take the AP early whether or not they were take a piece and we need to make a decision sometime in October even though the AP exams not till the very end of the year questions about that please email me or see the end of email I sent you guys about a week ago I'm pretty third quarter that I keep Kiera Cass Tech High School World Geography is a brand new course for the district to something that is very much in the experimental phase and I'm sort of trying to break new ground and see how's it going to fine-tune this pot you look like you but dealing with topics about human interaction with location so it is not a traditional geography Court in the same way that you and I probably think of a traditional geography course in most of we think of his geography is memorizing that making sure you know I wear every countries located this is not what we are doing in World Geography there's a tiny bit of that you should at least know the continents and the oceans in the meter region immediate worth the most most talked about or most significant significant countries in the world are located in whatever topic we were discussing but the point of the classic pre-order call Jill literate that mean citizens. Senior Living in a twenty-first-century globalized world with a good understanding of global Trends and how everything sort of interconnected with each other how this depends on where we saw the tagline for twitch pretty but I love it for its like geography is where it's at and we're trying to make didn't really understand the importance of location in terms of all these kisses otherwise I just hit on ncia quick you probably seen this in a number of other videos today and I think there's a video specializing in it but our assignment will all be at at 4 unless you were in an AP class but it'll be out of five I'm at this is roughly what that number attached to the assignment mean and this is what it look like in a peek or something where you feel a little bit confused on what it looks like in history class room please reach out to me over email otherwise I don't want to repeat something has been saving a bunch of other day is very unusual for social studies classes that you and I probably went to his FBI in social studies class for instance in my class students will not be taking giant event in the APK they will at practice exam to get them ready because there will be multiple choice but in mod Steve and in geography they will not be taking traditional multiple choice is very heavy on the reading and writing so literacy literacy literacy skills and Mastery of our literacy standards the last part of our presentation for tonight is how can I best support my there are number with the first it's a pair with your student on canvas ask your students for their Observer code that's not something I can give you that something unique to your student and they know how to access me been trained on their advisor if not can do that for you what your student will provide you with a unique code then you can be an observer attached to their canvas account somewhat similar to Google Guardian if you guys ever use that before when remind this will put you in a group where you get the exact same homework reminder at the students to are there a different code for each of the courses that I keep here but the process is still the same the phone number 1010 you expected one of those codes on screen the Wilmot Dave at will apwh or at will World depending on the course that your student are the biggest way however is reinforced country with the future learning by talking about their students about what talking with your students about what they are learning this is just straight-up how we learn and how we best memorize think is if we get a bunch of new content and then forced to use it in the actual realistic setting here so if they learn a bunch of new stuff in our social studies class where there's eight or World Geography or mods and then that night they know they're going to have to actually use it in conversation and Noah certain topic with you and explain or paraphrasing this is what's going to help them understand and memorize things the absolute that so the number one thing you can do to support this too is to talk to them nothing to tell you do not lie basis because I don't know if you guys are history nerd like I am but at least a couple times a week check in with him hey what did you learn about Tiffany hey what did you learn in AP today and then actually have them explain what they learned to you so I O do this with my student where I pretend like I know nothing I'm like Blank Slate right and I'll make you need to teach me braces today and if you were talking about confucianist so I was like I don't know anything about impeaching what is this word even mean in there teach me and then I was able to sort of 40 straight or kind of guide their thinking in a certain process so little little Effectiveness with dinner talk or maybe car right soccer this is the number one way so we can get our student actually remember what they're doing in their social studies but I don't remember when I was in high school tell me what caused the French Revolution whatever something like that and laughing all the way to wrap it up because this video is going a little bit long so I will say remind you that emailing me with any questions comments or concerns I look forward to it parent or Guardian communication I'm here to support your student just like you were here to support your students best and we can work together but that all starts with communication and you know Mutual if so email is the absolute best way thank you for your time I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening and I hope this video didn't repeat too much of all the other videos you got to work tonight look forward to working with you over the course of it for you thank you

Uploaded by David Williams.