Thanks for a being such a great group of students!! It was a wonderful way to begin teaching grade 8 social studies. I learned a lot from you and I hope you learned a lot of stuff, too.

Please complete this survey as a wrap up to our course.

The Scientific Revolution

Today was our last class of looking at new information regarding the European Renaissance. Tonight's homework is to complete a review summarizing how 4 areas impacted the worldview of society. (Science, Economics/Trade, Technology, Arts) Please use the graphic organizer at the end of the final handout on the Northern European Renaissance. We will have 15 minutes to wrap up these organizers tomorrow.

Please read over the Scientific Revolution carefully. The people discussed in the handout are going to be good examples of the type of person we need to look for in today's society as examples of whether we're in a modern Renaissance or not.

Humanism

Humanism

Today, we're focusing on the philosophy of humanism. Humanism was a major shift from the medieval world view. During the Middle Ages, people focused on living a life directed by a spiritual point of view. Everyone was focused on giving to their neighbour and trying their best to live holy lives, so that they could achieve the goal of heaven after they died. If bad things happened, it was because God willed it and because you were sinning against God. If good things happened, it was because God favoured you. People relied on the priests and bishops and other church officials (nuns, abbots, monks, etc.) to explain the teachings of the Catholic Church. Few people had access to the manuscripts of the Bible and the ancient Roman and Greek writings  kept by monasteries and read by nobles and church officials.

With the invention of Gutenburg's printing press, bibles and other writing became available to many more people. Because of the Black Death and the decline in population, more people were able to get better work or buy land. Standards of living rose and more people were able to learn to read and write. Also, the power of the Church was shattered by the overwhelming world changes caused by the Bubonic Plague. Nobles and educated people began to question their beliefs in God. How could a loving God allow such a terrible thing to happen? Surely, people could not have sinned so much to cause that kind of disaster? Perhaps, as ancient Greeks and Romans wrote, people could control their own destiny by becoming better educated and using reason to think about the world. Philosophy (the study of reason and thought) became more popular.

As we begin to wrap up our overview of the European Renaissance, please complete the following survey. 

   

City States of the European Renaissance



Today we reviewed conditions which led to the Renaissance in Italy and then focused on what things in the City States promoted the Renaissance. We discussed the impact of trade and merchant families on the economy and arts. Students had 20 minutes of quiet time listening to Bach while working on the questions related to today's videos and textbook reading.
It was disappointing to see that 10 students of the 24 did not have the homework due today completed. Those students were asked to stay for Connections block and complete their work so that it could be handed in today. I will be available to help them, as I'll be working in the library.
Homework for tonight is to finish the work that was not completed in class today. (4 questions: 1 graphic organizer, 2 sentence answer questions and 1 paragraph on the role of City States in the Renaissance worth 15 marks altogether.)

Conditions that lead to the Renaissance

Hi everyone!

Today we started off by talking about the TED talks we watched last night. Who knew mosquitos were so interesting? TED talks are an example of how big ideas are changing the world today. Big ideas also made the Renaissance happen. We watched a 10 minute video clip about how the Black Death not only caused massive population change, it also changed how survivors saw the world and expressed their ideas, it also forced technological and political changes because of the massively reduced population/work force.

Today's homework is three questions from the handout you received on the conditions that led to the Renaissance beginning in Italy. This assignment is worth 12 marks: Question 1 (graphic organizer) 5 marks, Question 3 (sentence answer - full sentence, please!) 2 marks, and Question 4 (paragraph of 3-5 sentences, correct punction, grammar, spelling) 5 marks.

Please make sure you finish reading the handout and include information from the handout in your answers.

See you tomorrow morning, when we look at how conditions in the city states promoted the Renaissance.

New Year, New Project

Hi everyone!

Happy New Year! Today we begin our last 13 classes before the end of Semester 1 and you finish Social Studies 8. Our last topic for consideration is the Renaissance.
As discussed in class today, some people view our current time as a new renaissance. (Renaissance means rebirth.)  We read most of an article from the Tyee (an on-line newspaper) entitled Idea#10: The Reinvention of Nearly Everything by Phillip Smith, an expert in the field of digital publishing.  Mr. Smith wrote about some big ideas that are changing the whole world's access to radical ideas which allow ideas to rapidly come to life faster than ever before. One of the ideas Mr. Smith explained as having a huge impact was TED talks. Your homework tonight is to find a TED Talk which is between 5 -10 minutes long about an idea you think could change the world. You need to be prepared to share which video you watched and which idea you think will change the world. (You may watch at school if you don't have access at home.) This assignment is for extra credit points.
This is the start of our project which will take the next 3 weeks.  To understand whether we're in a renaissance today, we need to understand the European Renaissance and what the big ideas were then. We need to know who the "big thinkers" were and what their "big ideas" were and how they changed the world after the Middle Ages.

Our project will be to identify who the big thinkers are today, what the big ideas are and whether this time period we're living in could be considered a renaissance period. Working in small groups, you will read/view/research a topic area (science, art, philosophy, inventions, government/economy) during the European Renaissance, then cover the same topic area in today's time. Each person in the group will write an article or create a digital artifact (podcast, video, slide show, etc.) to embed into our Zeen (an electronic magazine) called The New Renaissance.

Tomorrow, after your input, I'll post the rubrics for evaluation of work in the next 12 classes.

The prescribed learning outcomes that we'll be meeting are:

Applications of Social Studies:

• identify and clarify a problem, an issue or an inquiry
• gather and organize a body of information from primary and secondary print and non-print sources, including electronic sources
• interpret and evaluate a variety of primary and secondary sources
• plan, revise and deliver written presentations
• co-operatively plan and implement a course of action that addresses the inquiry initially identified

Society and Culture 

• identify period of significant cultural achievement, including the Renaissance
• describe how societies preserve identity, transmit culture and adapt to change
• demonstrate awareness of artistic expression as a reflection of the culture in which it is produced

Politics and Law

• describe various ways individuals and groups can influence legal systems and political structures

Economy and Technology

• describe the impact of technological innovations and science on political, social and economic structures

See you tomorrow!