Week 4 Day 2

Unexpectedly, today there was only one teacher. Maybe Mr. Rick forgot, or we forgot to remind him that this was class 2. Well, anyway, here is what we did today.

1. Today, Mr. Rick got frustrated on why is there no PowerPoint for today. 

Then he remembered that he forgot to prepare the PowerPoint for today's class. 

It's okay, Mr. Rick uses his memory and the book to help him teach.

Today, we learn about "Why did the Revolution Erupt in 1789?" It was not much, because Mr. Rick did not prepare a PowerPoint. Mostly what we discussed was about how to answer Cambridge Questions. 

2. The Revolution Erupted because of a few things. First was about the Economic Slump. There was bad weather in France during the whole year, which results in crop failure. In 1787, rainy autumn, mild winter, hot summer results in silk harvest failure. In 1788, the Rainy Spring, freak hailstorm in July results in terrible harvest. In 1789 the hard winter and bad frosts still have good harvest, but poor wine harvest.
The second thing was about calling the estates general. Because the government was bankrupt, no one could lend money or collect existing taxes or  make new taxes, the King called the Estates General. The Estates General is made up of all the estates. They were asked to write lists if grievances and hopes for the future. When they were done, they thought that the King will fulfill it. But it turns out it wasn't, because the King was worried about something else. So they got angry and the Revolution Started.

3. There is the teacher today, but unfortunately the person who teaches is the one who usually takes the pictures for the blog, the rest forgot to take pictures of the person, so there is no picture of of the person. But here is an example of the slides.  

Now, Mr. Rick gave us the activity where we need a piece of paper. It was the same activity like last class about how to answer a describe question, so it wasn't very new. We were introduced to a new question, "Describe the reasons why the people wanted government reforms."

Then, after we wrote those, we were asked to draw a mind map.

To draw a mind map, you draw a circle. After that, you draw six sticks poking out of it. And so, it was made.

And then, we write ideas on the six sticks. We need to research these ideas for now. This is the group researching...

And this is the rest of the class researching.

After that, we choose two which you think is the best one. Then we write an opening sentence. An opening sentence could be...

One of the reason the people wanted government reforms is because of unfair tax.

Then you use the second idea to make the second sentence. So the first part of the answer could be...

One of the reason the people wanted government reforms is because of unfair tax. Another reason the people wanted government reforms is because the people think the way France governed is bad.

The next step is to make a defense on the ideas. State why is it true or not true. Then, frame the answers correctly.

After that... it is the end of the class!

4. What we can do better is to pay attention to the person in front who is teaching so we will not miss any important things. And we also need to help each other, and not let one person do everything while the rest just play! 

Week 4 Day 1

For today, we don't have LdL. We cover up some stuff today. So, there will be 2 LdLs for tomorrow, and it means there will be two teachers! Phew!

1. The Beginning of class...

Mr. Rick told us that no one teaches today because there is something more important that needs to be discussed. Mr. Rick checks who has done the first LdL...

And then we watch a video from Horrible Histories. It is about the French Revolution. (And it is a bit funny!) Here are some photos of the video and the class.

 These pictures are about Madame Tussaud, she made wax models of people during the French Revolution.

And this is the group watching the video... (well, sort of)

After the video, Mr. Rick begins his lecture. It is about "Changes in France". 

Everything needs a process so it can happen. Like the French Revolution, there is a process, and then it will happen. The process is long, and then it will be the revolution. After that, Mr. Rick assigns a group activity about the types of Cambridge Questions.

2. About the topic "Changes in France", we have some questions. These are the photos of students asking questions.

What we study is about the process on how the French Revolution happens. The first problem is about taxation. The tax was burdened to the third estate, and the second and first estate did not pay the tax. The third estate had the middle class, who were rich, but not in the nobility. They also wanted to not pay tax, like the nobility. The others, who don't have enough money have to pay feudal dues, which is 50% of their wages paid to their lords. It used to be that the nobility's feudal dues are paid in blood, which means they provide armies to protect the country. But now there is no war, so they sit there like lazy people and get all the money from the ones working for them. The third estate don't like this burden.

The second problem is, while the third estate is working hard to pay the taxes, the others sit there and enjoy the luxury of having a lot of money. The King controls everything. But, the third estate want everyone to be equal. Like when the French help the American Revolution, they remember that everyone is equal, no one higher or lower. So they think that the aristocracy is unfair.

3. Today there is no teaching. Teaching was replaced with a different activity. Mr. Rick told us it is an activity to improve how we answer questions on the Cambridge test.

We need a piece of paper for this activity. We need to draw a mind map about the causes of the French Revolution. There must be 6 causes. This is how it looks like...

After that, we need to turn them into descriptors. Descriptors are questions that are asked to describe something. This is the group "discussing"...

We are not done though, luckily we can do it for homework. And then... that is the end of class!

4. What we can improve better is that we need to be active in the group. We should be helping each other discuss. Need to communicate more! And also, we need to assign jobs for the team, like, when one is taking pictures, the other helps do the assignment. We will learn to improve day by day!

Week 3 Day 2

We have History Class today, and the lecturing was short! More of it was about the teaching.

1. We learnt about Part 2 of "What was life like before the revolution?" We reviewed the 3 estates. This is Mr. Rick...

Then we started something new. We talked about the lava lamp effect. It is about the clergy and nobility being lower than the third estate, the middle class. It is mixed up, so the revolution happened. This is the class taking notes...

This is the group taking notes...

2. As Mr. Rick taught us about the lava lamp effect, it doesn't seem quite fair. You could become a second estate nobility and be poorer than other rich merchants in the third estate. This made titles seem meaningless. The country had to pay tax as well. The first estate did not need to pay tax. The second estate did not need to pay most of the taxes. The third which is everyone else, had to pay all the tax. For the rich ones, they could pay the tax and still have money left. For the poorer ones, especially the peasants had to work for the tax. It is like being taxed without benefit. On the same time, the Americans are having the same problem, and they rebel. So the French did the same thing!

3. If the teacher is late, he has to pay Rp.5000. Today Mr. Rick is late...

Same like everyone, if they break the rules, they have to pay Rp.2000. We have regular book check, where we have to raise our books and see if others have them as well. If not, they have to pay. Like this one...

And we do computer check. Luckily everyone brought their computers. And for the girls, they have to have their hair tied back. For the boys, they have to make sure their undershirt is not longer than their school uniform. Everyone followed this rule well.
Now, we have the teaching. This is our lecturer for today...

He prepared an okay presentation. But... Mr. Rick came and said that it was only 9 minutes long. It had to be 10-15 minutes long. We have to make longer presentation. 
Mr. Rick told the class about the PowerPoint presentation length. It must be long enough. He also told us on how to score the lecturer.

4. On what we can do better is to pay attention to the lecturer and we should be listening to the teacher well. We should also be serious when doing things that are serious, so we can learn well. One more, we should be communicating with each other and reminding things that will be coming up.

Week 3 Day 1

Today, we are back on schedule, no holidays or flood are disturbing our classes and everything can go smoothly. Luckily we remembered to take pictures for this class! 

1. Mr. Rick talked about how we should research. He created a "tower" out of tables and chairs for the demonstration.

If we teach only about the textbook, our knowledge is only below the tower. When we research, and we add more and more, it gets higher and higher. 
We also discussed about the topic "What was life like before the Revolution"? Life before the revolution has three estates, the first one is the Clergy, which is the bishops and priests. Major bishops are rich, while many parish priests are poor. The second estate is the nobility. Major ones are rich, but many are poor. The third estate is the rest of the people, including peasants. Not all of them are poor, there are some who are rich, they are the middle class, and they are forming.

2. About the tower, we will need to research more from other resources such as the internet. Our knowledge is not only based on the textbook, there are lots of other things out there. The internet is a huge one, you can fins lots of things there. This is why our teaching must be 10-15 minutes. Our PowerPoints must be full of... Research! 

3. We taught in class. So this is our lecturer for today...

Everyone in class were doing okay on this activity. This is what happened after we finish teaching...

4. What we can improve better is we need to be more diligent on doing our work. We also need to help our team member if they need help. And also... we are going to need some more pictures!

Week 2 Day 2

There is no class 1 this week because there is a national holiday, so we have to have class 1 and class 2 together, which is a busy time!

1. The topic of the day is How has the French Revolution Been Remembered? We study on how the French Revolution is remembered. One way is the French celebrated it in 14 July 1989. There are other things too, like the Guillotine and the Bastille.

2. That time, the Guillotine was a new way of executing people. It made it a lot easier to "chop people's head off". The Bastille is an obsolete castle and was not used anymore. These days, the castle has been rebuilt.

3. We begin the regular teaching schedules. Everyone has to teach for at least 10-15 minutes (non-stop). Apparently, there were issues with the group and some miscommunication, so there was a bit of problem on teaching time! (No PowerPoint issue)

4. The way we can improve is to communicate more. We didn't have a PowerPoint because of that. We shouldn't be soccer balls too, doing when told only. We have to work harder next time.

We still have no pictures for this post, so next post we might have Pictures.

Week 1 Day 1 and 2

This is the first week of school. We haven't studied much, but Mr. Rick told us about something.

1. Mr. Rick told us to become a soccer player, not a soccer ball. What it means is... Soccer balls only move if there is a force applied to it. So, similar to a soccer ball, the teacher asks us to do something, we then will do it. If not, we will not do so. A Soccer Player would kick the ball to make it move. So, similar to a soccer player, we must already know what to do, not do it when told. 

2. We must know what we should do. If the teacher doesn't come to class, the students must react, and start teaching by using their own PowerPoints. If a student doesn't come and it is their turn to teach, someone must back-up the person and teach. And so on...

3. So for today, we chose new admin and finance. We are introduced to new rules, where we have to pay Rp. 2000 if we break rules. We also are assigned new groups called fours. So there are only four people in a team, and the starter names are called A-G, Alfa, Bravo, Charlie... etc. We get to choose our own group names. This team "Puncake" is Delta Team!

4. We are new to these groups, so we communicate a little with our new group members!

Unfortunately, there are no pictures yet! Later Blog Posts will have pictures.