Welcome to a new school year. Please watch for your "Family History" assignment which will be posted soon. In the meantime you should be thinking about events of historical significance in your family history - your best sources may be your parents and grandparents so develop some interview questions (see these suggestions for developing good interview skills - here and here), pick up a pen and paper or a recording device and ask away!
If you're really, really keen or developing a family history is something you and your family are interested in taking further check out this guide from Smithsonian: http://www.folklife.si.edu/resources/pdf/InterviewingGuide.pdf.
Welcome:
Welcome to a new school year and welcome to our website. You should check in regularly - assignments and due dates will be posted on your specific course webpage but please don't limit your use of this website to your course's page. You should also explore the "Media", "Writing Resources" and "Links" pages. Each has important information for you and lots of support material to help you succeed in the history course you're taking. If you'd like to suggest any additional resources or pages to add to the site please let me know.
A note on wireless devices in the classroom:
You are encouraged to bring your smartphones, tablets, and laptops to class. We will utilize a great many online resources over the course of the year and strive to use as little paper as possible in our examination of the curriculum. To that end, our room is wireless ready and I will make much of our material available to you electronically. Please note though, that the use of these tools in class is a privilege and you are to be responsible in your use of all wireless electronic devices. They are to be used to facilitate appropriate learning.
Critical Thinking:
As we explore the curriculum we'll also strive to develop the habits of mind unique to critical thinking. In that vein, I invite you to read the following article from the Critical Thinking Consortium (available here).
Twitter:
The teachers in Canadian and World Studies (Economics, History, Law and Politics) are constantly learning - in order to share new ideas quickly and effectively with all of our students we often Tweet these from @nsshistory - we encourage you to follow us (there's a link on the upper right of this page). You'll find great stuff for your course and from all the others in our curriculum area.
Once again, welcome to History at Northern! I'm thrilled you've joined us and excited about the year ahead.
Mr. Dingwall