Michael Irving

Welcome to my blog---my ride's here!

 
  

 
  How I spent my summer vacation. I was in Oaxaca, Mexico for a month as part of a Study Abroad program at Kennesaw State University.  I experienced an earthquake, swimming in the Pacific, and so much more.  Ask me some time.

So here we go into a brand new school year, 20111-2012.   Welcome to Mr. Irving's BLOG (does any one know what BLOG stands for?)

Now think to your self, "...here is my new teacher, he has no secretary, so any and all mistakes are his, but must be excused." 

What do you need to know?  Mr. Irving teaches 7th Grade World Cultures and Geography (Social Studies).  What does that mean to you? If you are in any of Mr' Irving's classes, the BLOG is a tool to help you know what is going on, what assignments are and when they are due, and can even help you if you are not in class. We all hope he is up to the task of keeping the blog up to date. He likes you to be responsible for yourself and to work hard and hopefully you will work harder than he does, as you are the one he does all this for.

A few words of wisdom: "Good---better---best.  Never let it rest.  Until your good is better, and your better BEST!"

I plan to post assignments, work and my weekly lesson plans on this Blog, so if you are absent or forgetful, check here first.  It might also be helpful for you to get the phone number or contact information from a classmate and check with them when you are absent to get any work if you are out for more than a day or two.

 What do I do when I am not at school.  I enjoy bicycle riding to stay fit and trim (yes I watched the Tour de France), I also enjoy scuba diving to be in a totally different environment from school, then there is stunt-kite flying to let the wind take me where it will, and finally reading a good historic novel. My favorite author is Robert Louis Stevenson, but he hasn't written anything lately.  I do enjoy a good cup of freshly brewed coffee. 

Parents, if you need to contact me, the fastest manner is to shoot off an e-mail. Phone messages are useful but I may miss checking a message, where I do read my e-mail once a day, hopefully in the morning.

Please be aware of the Student Behavior Management plan and students---use your Agenda to write daily assignemts and keep up your notebook. Tests and quizzes are taken from things in your notebook.

To contact me. michael.irving@cobbk12.org or

770-591-5020 ext. 424

 so begins the task...                                       

M. Irving

 

New forms for Go Blue I hope

There was a technical problem with retreiving the documents for the Go Blue assignment so here's a second try.

Download Go Blue with Comparing and Contrasting Literacy Rates and Other Data

Download Go Blue with Comparing

African Cultures

Over the MLK Holiday students were to complete a "Personal Artifact Display" ---no everyone did it. Please check with your student that this assignment is completed and handed in.

We have a class not page entitled "Cultural Groups of Africa" that students will need to be studying.

Download Cultural Groups of Africa

We have a activity to support our math and language arts people called "Go Blue..." which is a writing assignment where they have to analyze a chart.

Download Go Blue with Comparing

We will be having a quiz next week that will contain geography items students should know, vocabulary students should know, and cultural aspects.  See items in student notebooks.

Our next area of exploration will be health and environmental issues in Africa.

The trade in ivory has caused great destruction to animal populations.

Short Week before the Break

Today, Monday Dec 19 my AC classes are reading a story from the Literature text about Masai warriors in Africa.  After completing that they need to finish the handout page entitled African Resources and Regional Notes that some have completed in class but not everyine.  Homework assignment for tonight is from the text at home. see attachment if you have lost it.

Download African Cultures and Empires

Some have not handed in the Flip Page assignment and are losing points each day it is not turned in.

"I thought I say a 'puddy' cat"

Africa blank map

Quiz Thursday Dec 14---Know locations from Flip page in your notes.

Cote d' Ivoire    Dem. Rep. of the Congo    Egypt    Ethiopia    Kenya    Lesotho

Madagascar        Mozambique       Namibia    Niger    Nigeria    Somalia    South Africa

South Sudan     Sudan    Swaziland        Tanzania    Uganda

Geographic Features and Nations of Africa.

Quiz on Wed or Thur 12/14 or 12/14.

Locate nations from Flip Pages paper in your notes.  If you want a blank map of Africa, Google "Africa Blank Map" and sites will let you print your own to practice.

Below are the "Geographic Class Notes" for completing the descriptions on the Flip Page paper.

Geographic Features Class Notes for Flip Pages

 Atlas Mountains:  Located in northwestern Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea which are of generally low elevation but appear higher when viewed from the Sahara.

 Sahara Desert: Largest desert in Africa stretching more than 3000 miles from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. About70% is made up of plains covered with a mixture of sand and black, red, and white gravel. Only 20% consists of large sandy areas called ergs.

 Sahel: Semi arid region south of the Sahara. Suffering from desertification---process by which desert spreads due to overgrazing, deforestation, and drought.  Area where desert meets the grasslands of the savanna.

 Savanna: Large grassland that is located south of the Sahel and runs to southern Africa.  The savanna remains hot all year. It is also near the equator. Rain is heavy in the summer and light in the winter.  Elephants, lions, rhinoceroses, and giraffes live there.

 Tropical Rain Forest…Congo Basin and Congo River: Large rainforest area in central Africa that is surrounded by higher ground and mountains to the east.  Close to the equator it is covered with jungles and many rivers.  Home to gorillas, monkeys, and other primates.  Suffers from deforestation as large trees are cut down.

 Niger River: Begins in highland tropical rainforest in west Africa flowing northeast through the savanna and into the Sahel before turning south to flow through Nigeria to the Gulf of Guinea.  It fans out into swamps in southern Mali. Used for transportation and trade.  The delta area contains large deposits of petroleum.

Nile River and Great Rift Valley: A rift valley is a large, visible break in the Earth’s surface. The Great Rift valley stretches about 4,000 miles from Syria to Mozambique, formed by shifting tectonic plates. Jagged mountains and deep lakes are the result of volcanic action.  It has rich volcanic soil to support farming.

Ethiopian Plateau [Highlands]: Volcanic mountain peaks including Kilimanjaro. Area marked by escarpments with steep jagged cliffs and flat topped mountains. Escarpments create barriers to trade by blocking ships from sailing between the interior and the sea.

Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika: Victoria is the largest and the source of the White Nile.  Tanganyika is the longest and the deepest.  Both located and a result of the forces that created the Great Rift Valley and provide freshwater and fishing to people who live nearby.

 Serengeti Plain: Broad level area of land located in north central Tanzania and extends east of the southeastern shore of Lake Victoria.  Large herds of wildebeests, zebras and other mammals migrate searching for seasonal grasslands.  This area is fertilized by the manure of millions of these animals. Part of the savanna.

 Kalahari and Namib Deserts: The Kalahari in Botswana is covered by vast stretches of sand.  It has high temperatures and little rainfall.  When it rains it is immediately absorbed by the sand, leaving the surface very dry. Certain areas of the Kalahari have trees with long roots that reach the moisture in deep sand. The Namib in Namibia is  made up of rocks and dunes.  It is arid but receives breezes off of the Atlantic Ocean.  Fog forms which adds moisture for succulents or cacti.

Orange River and Drakensburg Mountains: Located in the southeastern coast of South Africa reaching above 11,000 feet and run for about 700 miles.  The mountains are said to look like giant spears sticking out of the ground.  The Orange River flows out of the Drakensburg Mountains and skirts the Namib Desert as it flows to the Atlantic Ocean.

So where do you think this picture is?

New vocab & places to know

1. Introduce Vocabulary…3x5 index card match up...place item on one side of the card and the description or definition on the other.

Vocab:

Animism                                    Arab

Ashanti                                      Bantu

Deforestation                             Desertification

Drought                                      Escarpment

Infrastructure                             Over grazing

Pastoralism                                Population density

Plateau                                       Subsistence farming

Swahili                                       Urbanization

Locations and capitals:

Egypt – Cairo                             Kenya-Nairobi

Dem. Rep. of the Congo – Kinshasa

Nigeria – Abuja                          

South Africa –Leg./Cape Town; Jud./ Bloemfontein; Admin./Johannesburg

Sudan/Khartoum                        South Sudan/Juba

Niger/Niamey                            Ethiopia/Addis Ababa

Deductive reasoning; which words fit together or not?

And oh, for the curious---where is this found?

New Unit Time

We took the Benchmark test for the Middle east today which means that you can empty out your notebook of everything Middle East and pack it away---do not throw it away because we will need it to review toward the end of the school year.  We will begin the study of Africa dealing with geography and locations.  Our first activity today is using our class Atlases to answer a series of questions.  We will then proceed to doing a couple of maps and describing the geography of certain places. If you are at home let me know when someone will be coming in for work and I will get you the Atlas and the work.  Tomorrow we will be doing the maps and more so they you go.  If you have colored pencils, please bring them.

So where is this?  Somewhere northwest of Taos...but where is Taos?

New Unit Time

We took the Benchmark test for the Middle east today which means that you can empty out your notebook of everything Middle East and pack it away---do not throw it away because we will need it to review toward the end of the school year.  We will begin the study of Africa dealing with geography and locations.  Our first activity today is using our class Atlases to answer a series of questions.  We will then proceed to doing a couple of maps and describing the geography of certain places. If you are at home let me know when someone will be coming in for work and I will get you the Atlas and the work.  Tomorrow we will be doing the maps and more so they you go.  If you have colored pencils, please bring them.

So where is this?  Somewhere northwest of Taos...but where is Taos?

Economic Study Guide

For those of you that have a hard time figuring out how to study, here is something we have used befor that might help.  I give you the questions, you come up with theanswers from your notes which you should have from the last few day [or has it been a week?]  If you have gaps, make sure you ask.  You need to be looking at this everyday until you get to the point where you know it frontwards and backwards.  And now the answer to the last picture.  A sunny faced door in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Next?  Where did I find this?

Economic things to be studying

1. The 4 Factors of Production

A. Natural Resources [Land], B. Human Resources [Labor], C. Capital Resources [Money], and D. Entrepreneurship {needing an innovative idea or product, capital and investors, and the ability to promote the idea or product.]

How can human capital be improved? Think [THE] training, health care, and education.

2. Basic Economic Questions

A. What goods and services will be produced?

B. How will goods and services be produced?

C. Who will consume the goods and services?

De able to define goods [things that are manufactured] and services [things provided to people who cannot or willnot do those things for themselves.]

What is an economic trade barrier?

De able to define the following:

export, import, quota, tariff, and embargo.

What is meant by scarcity? When unlimited wants are greater than the limited productive resources available for satisfying those want...thus there is not enough of something people want resulting in scarcity.

What is opportunity cost? Because of scarcity, anytime a choice is made, there are alternatives that are not chosen.  More precisely, there is always one next best alternative that is not chosen.  The value of the next best alternative is called opportunity cost.

Productivity refers to the relation between output and input.  IMPUT deals with 

natural resources + human resources + capital resources = OUTPUT [good and services producted] 

We will be looking at Traditional Economies, Command [Centralized] Economies, Market [Decentralized} Economies, and Mixed Economic Systems.

Specialization and Interdependence will also come into the picture.

Students need to be reviewing their notes and learning these concepts and term on a daily basis in order to be successful.

"A major goal of economics instruction is teaching students to recognize and evaluate opportunity costs when making decisions.  As consumers, students should realize that the "cost" of buying an item is not really the price; rather, it is the most valued item that now cannot be bought.  For producers, the opportunity cost is the next most valuable good or service that is not produced as a result of the decision to produce something else.

The concept of opportunity cost also relate to the use of time.  Since time is scarce, the time spent doing one activity cannot be spent doing another.  Thus, the real "cost" of watching television is not the time itself, but the most valuable other activity [studying] that could be done during that time."

So where in the world was I when I took this picture? 

16.68 * North Latitude and 92. 61* West Longitude