War Lords of Japan

We are in the midst of War Lords of Japan: A Simulation of Shogun History of Feudal Japan.  During this simulation, students join one of five Samurai clans.  The clans are competing with the ultimate goal of taking of Japan and becoming Shogun, the ultimate military ruler of Japan. 

In conjunction with our ELA Asia/Pacific Rim Literature Unit, students are studying the socio-political landscape of Feudal Japan.

Before we began the simulation, we talked about the structure of Japanese Feudalism.  As our classroom is usually collaborative and student centered, I wanted to make sure students were prepared for the shift in power structure.  During the simulation, I take on the role of Empress Lau, and students take on the role of Samuri.

Students are arranged into five clans, and it is their job to work together with their clan.  Each day, students are assigned one of the following roles:

• Leader:  The leader organizes the groups and directs the Empress where to move the clan's troops
• Accountant:  The accountant completes the ledger for the day.  The accountant keeps track of  the koku (rice currancy) which is earned and spent and the armies gained and lost.
• Journalist 1: Informs the Empress of the clan's army movements and battle accounts.
• Journalist 2: Informs the Empress of the knowledge earned and the day's fortune.
• Artist: Completes an art project to decorate the classroom. 

Take a look into the classroom below:

Maps of Japan on the back wall.  Each clan is represented by a different color thumb tack.  Each thumb tack represents one army regiment.

Clan leaders gather around Empress Lau (me) to inform the Empress of armies to be bought and troops to be moved.

In province R, Oska and Edo prepare for battle.  Only one army my occupy a province at a time.  

Samurai in their castle groups plot their next moves.  You can see the Japanese artwork hanging from the ceiling.

Artists hard at work on their Japanese Kite Fish

Geographer Skype

The class gathers on the carpet to Skype with Ms. Raimann

Yesterday and today, we had our geographer Skype!  We Skyped with Margaret Raimann, a geographer and cartographer from XNR Productions.   To prep for the Skype, students looked through Margaret's personal website as well as the XNR website.  Then, each class brainstormed a list of questions, and students volunteered to ask the questions.  Click here to see our question sheet.

Here's some of the highlights of what the students wrote they learned:

"You can make a map of anything, not just locations." 

"Most maps she makes are made with software on the computer!"

"You don't have to know all the countries and capitals to be a map maker"

"You can use photoshop on maps!"

"Editors have to look over every map to see if there is a mistake."

"People actually order different types of maps"

"There are many steps to making a map"

"Blueprints are maps"

Some other interesting topics Margaret highlighted is that most maps are made on computers now, so computer programming is a valuable skill in cartography.  She also said that if she could meet any cartographer, she would want to meet Arthur H. Robinson, the man who created the Robinson Projection.  He was a cartographer and he worked for the CIA.  We studied the Robinson Projection in class, so it was cool to make that real-life connection to that!

Take a look at our experience below:

10th Hour Skype

Tuesday, 2:25-2:45

The class engaged in the Skype.

Students go up one by one to the laptop to ask Ms. Raimann questions.
Here we see Chris asking a question.

View of the class. You can see students sitting on the carpet listening.
In the back, we see Riley asking a question and Leah "on deck."

9th Hour Skype

Wednesday, 1:35-2:05

Class gathers on the carpet for the Geographer Skype.

Class engaged in the Skype.

View of the Skype.  In the background we can see Gavin asking the question and Wren "on deck."

Wren asks Ms. Raimann a question.

Mackenzie asks Ms. Raimann a question.

Ms. Raimann let us know that we can create our own maps using Google Maps Engine.  Most of us thought that was pretty cool!  She'll be sending us some more resources in the next couple of days, so I will be sure to share! 

Thanks Ms. Raimann!  We really appreciate the time you took to talk with us! :)

Central and South America Project

This week, students began their Central/South America Project.  The Project goals include:

• Students will select one country and research the connections to the five themes of geography, internal and external forces, landforms and the weather and climate of the country they've selected.  
• Students will create a Slideshow Presentation to organize and share their information.
• Students will understand how to use citations tools to give credit to the places they found their information.

This week, students were assigned their partners and received the rubric to guide the project.  For specific information about the project requirements, please see the rubric.   I've included a sample slide show, created by Alan Northouse, that can serve as a mentor presentation to the students: