It's hard to believe it's already October! Technically the first quarter isn't over until October 18th, but we have some exciting projects we are starting to work on in our accelerated social studies class that we wanted to share with you! Please read below to learn more about what your student will be working on over the next few months! Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions!

All Heritage students in accelerated social studies classes will be participating in National History Day this year. National History Day is a 6 month long academic program that engages students in grades 6-12 in conducting research on a historical topic of interest. In addition to providing students with the opportunity to learn historical content, NHD also helps students to develop research, critical thinking, and communication skills through the study of history. This year's topic is Taking A Stand in History. Students will be learning more about the project requirements and narrowing down their topics over the next few weeks. Please visit http://hmsnhd.com for more information.

Fantasy Geopolitics is a year long competition with a mission to motivate students to be more engaged in current events around the world.

Instead of players, students recently drafted countries from the Eastern Hemisphere. Countries with the most mentions in the news will score their team more points. They are able to keep track of who is in the lead and what countries are currently trending in the news by logging on to their account at fanschool.org.

Throughout the year students are expected to stay in the know about their team of countries. They will be completing a variety of activities on their countries and will occasionally have the ability to attempt to trade countries with other students.

PenPal Schools is an online learning platform that offers students a chance to learn about the world alongside a pen pal from another country. Recently your student met their pen pal(s) and begin a 6 week online World Explorer course.

The course reading and correspondence with their pen pal should take between 30-45 minutes a week and students will be given time to complete the weekly course work in class. At no point will students need to share private information (last name, email, etc.) with their pen pal and all correspondence is monitored.

Our Student Led Conferences will be held on the evening of Wednesday, October 26th and throughout the day and evening on Thursday October 27th. Please use this link or complete the paper form that was sent home with your student to sign up for a time slot.

Since these are student led conferences it is very important that your student come to conferences with you! You can come anytime during the time frames below. Students do not need to follow their schedule, so if the first classroom you go to is too busy feel free to go to another class and come back.

Please be sure to allow enough time to visit every class (we recommend 10-15 min per subject), as teachers have individual conferences scheduled in between the student led conferences and will not be able to stay past the scheduled time.

Wednesday, October 26th 4:00 - 7:00

Thursday, October 27th 9:30 - 11:00

12:00 - 3:00

5:00 - 7:30

Due to conferences, students will not have school on Thursday, October 27th and Friday, October 28th.

Columbus has some amazing opportunities for students to experience other cultures as well as celebrate their own. Below are some upcoming events that may be of interest to you and your student as we continue exploring our world.

If you ever know of a event that you think students might be interested in, please send the information my way!

Remember to keep checking our classroom website. I've added a new tab specifically for accelerated social studies students and families. Also, be sure to check Power School to keep updated on your students progress throughout the year.

Email: colej@wcsoh.org
Website: mrscolehms.com
Location: website password: hms
Phone: 614-797-8586