Brainscape: Flashcard App for iOS

Great work, freshmen, on your collaboration on the study guide. I will turn that work into online decks of flashcards that you can study using any modern web browser or the iOS app (freely available in the App Store). Continue to work on the Google Doc until I create the flashcards some time tonight. I will update this post when they are ready.

UPDATE: The flashcard set is ready. You'll have to create a login to access the full decks. Again, I encourage you to edit the cards to make them more accurate or fill any gaps. Happy studying!

Final Exam Study Guide

UPDATE: The Google Doc is now closed for editing. Follow this link to access your study guide in flashcard form and continue to edit and study it.

As a class, you will divide and conquer the study guide for your final exam. Click on this link to get to your collaborative study guide. Edit the cells in the second column to identify or answer the content in the first column.

Sit together and work in the following groups on Thursday and Friday:

• Chapter 7: Oliver, Davis, Michaela, Joshua
• Chapter 8 & 9: Jason, Danieke, Naike
• Chapter 10: Lily, Ruth, Mutara
• Chapter 11: KC, Ella, Adam
• Chapter 12: Kassidy, JinHee, Esther

You may share your handwritten notes with other groups. If your group is finished with the assigned chapter, feel free to split up and help other groups with their chapters. Be careful not to edit the same cell at the same time. The document will be closed for editing on Friday afternoon. (You will still be able to view the document until your final exam.) So, work on this outside of class on Thursday afternoon or evening, if necessary. This is an ungraded assignment. Your incentive is helping yourself and your classmates to learn and achieve higher scores on the final exam.

p.s. Pressing control+enter is the same as pressing enter within a cell.

p.p.s. The truly OCD students can "clean up" the accuracy, grammar, and spelling in other students' work.

Constructive Distraction

Chapters 13-14

1. Find a Wikipedia article directly related to the content of Chapters 13 and 14 of your textbook.
2. Find nine (9) more articles on topics directly linked from other Wikipedia articles you have looked up.
3. On the linked spreadsheet above, find the tab with your name, list your article titles in the first column, and write a brief (2-3 sentences) description of each person or term in the second column.

Professional-Quality Fonts (Free!)

Want to make your presentation look sharp but tired of the same old Microsoft font collection? Want to stand out from the crowd? Here's a couple articles that link to deliciously free designer fonts:

• 40+ Excellent Freefonts For Professional Design
• 75+ Excellent Free Fonts For Professional Design

Presentation Rubric

• Content - 40%
• Accurate - 15%
• factual
• no personal opinions
• debated points presented in a balanced way
• Informative - 10%
• connects to class discussions
• adds to class discussions
• Thorough - 15%
• detailed information
• no trivial information
• Presentation - 40%
• Organization - 10%
• Structure
• chronological
• modular
• physical
• spatial
• problem/solution
• issues/action
• case study
• compare/contrast
• matrix
• Transitions
• Voice - 5%
• loud enough for everyone to hear
• moderate rate of speech (not too fast)
• Slides - 5%
• few ideas (ideally one) per slide
• minimal text
• at least 20 slides (not including title slide and works cited)
• Images - 5%
• quantity
• quality (appealing; high resolution)
• appropriateness
• citation as footnote on individual slide or all image citations on one slide at the end
• Color Scheme, Text Animations, Slide Transitions, and Fonts - 5%
• appealing
• "less is more" when it comes to animations and slide transitions
• appropriate to content/structure
• Audience Interaction - 5%
• asking questions
• fielding questions
• handouts
• participation
• Time - 5%
• between 7-10 minutes
• Sources - 10%
• Credibility - 4%
• Quantity (at least three in addition to your textbook) - 4%
• MLA Formatting - 2%
• Effort - 10%
• Creativity - 5%
• Planning - 5%

PowerPoint Tips

Here's the presentation that I shared with you in class. Credited and linked, as promised.

Don't Be A PowerPoint Felon from Nick Smith

This one has more tips on slide design. A bit more artsy and certainly more humorous in its sarcasm/meanness. Let's just not be mean about each other's (or our own) presentations. :)

You Suck At PowerPoint! from Jesse Desjardins - @jessedee

Credible Online Sources

How do you know if your source is credible or not? Here's a few guiding questions that I found at a university library's website*:

• Does the site have a scholarly apparatus: a bibliography and endnotes?
• Is there a clear author?  What are the author's credentials, biases, and perspectives? 
• Who is the publisher?  A university or historical society?  A company? 
• Is the thesis built on a foundation of primary source material?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the site?
• How does the site help me understand my topic?
• What questions are left unanswered by the author?

Tips on finding credible sources:

• One clue that can help you decide if a site is credible is the domain name.  In general, sites that end with "edu" (educational sites), "gov" (government sites), or "org" (nonprofit organizations) offer more credible information than sites that end with "com" (commerical sites trying to sell something).
• Google your topic along with the keyword "library guide" or "libguide".  This will lead you to library web sites about your topic, and librarians generally list only high-quality sites on their pages.
• Specialty Search Engines
• IPL2: works like Yahoo, but finds mostly quality sites discovered by librarians
• InfoMine: scholarly internet collections

*http://guides.lib.ua.edu/content.php?pid=126639&sid=1087764

Project: Middle Ages

• Pick a partner or work alone.
• Choose a specific topic that you would like to research.
• Write at least three specific questions that you would like to investigate regarding your topic.
• Find at least three reliable resources in print or online in addition to your textbook.
• Choose a medium for what you will produce to demonstrate your learning including but not limited to:
• a 5-10 minute movie
• a PowerPoint/Keynote/Prezi presentation
• Rubric (0-5 in each criterion):
• Presents accurate information about your topic (30%)
• Presents information clearly so people can learn about your topic; concepts organized in a logical manner  (30%)
• Selected product allows you to convey your message/information (5 %)
• Reflects careful planning, creativity and effort; final product presents a polished appearance (30 %)
• Uses and cites a minimum of three references (5%)
• additional consideration will be taken for individual effort and collaboration for those working in groups
• Scale
• 5 - Excellent
• 4 - Commendable
• 3 - Adequate
• 2 - Developing
• 1 - Remedial
• 0 - Nonexistent

Project: Middle Ages - Topics

Looking forward to some great projects! Hope that you get quite a bit done this weekend. Carpe diem! :)

• Lily/Jason: Innocent III
• Naike/Esther: Papal Power
• Danieke: The Black Death
• Ella: Feudalism
• Ruth: Papal States
• KC: Christian Living
• Michaela: Vikings
• Jin Hee: Monks
• Mutara/Joshua: The Crusades
• Davis: Charlemagne
• Kassidy: Nuns
• Adam: Serfs vs. Slaves
• Ollie: Medieval Mythology

Becoming Pope

1. List the qualifications to be considered a candidate for Pope.
2. List the process by which the Pope is selected.

8-1, 9-1, 9-2 Study Guide

Please be prepared for the following terms, people, places, and themes:

• Terms
• dowry, Greek fire, patriarchs, icons, iconoclasts, iconoclastic controversy, heresy, excommunication, mosaics, Hagia Sophia, hijrah, Qur'an, jihad, mosques, caliph, Jabal Tariq, imams, caliphates, dower, sultan, millets
• People
• Justinian, Theodora, Cyril and Methodius, Ottoman Turks, bedouin, Muhammad, Abu Bakr, Berbers, Moors, Al-Razi, Janissaries
• Places
• Constantinople, Bosporus, Arabia, Jidda, Mecca, Al-Madinah, Baghdad, Cairo, Córdoba, Toledo, Seville
• Themes
• 8-1: The Byzantine Empire
• Discuss the great contributions made by Justinian.
• Identify the strengths of the Byzantine Empire.
• Identify the factors that led to the decline of the Byzantine Empire.
• 9-1: The Rise and Spread of Islam
• Summarize the central beliefs of Islam.
• Explain why Islam spread so quickly.
• Describe ideological differences that developed within the Muslim community.
• 9-2: Islamic Civilization
• Describe contributions that Arab Muslim culture made to the arts and sciences.
• Specify ways that Muslim culture spread to Europe.
• Contrast the rules of the Turks and the Arabs.

7-4 to 7-6 Study Guide

Please be prepared for the following terms, people, places, and themes*:

• Terms
• Pax Romana
• aqueducts
• colonus
• rabbis
• martyrs
• patriarchs
• pope
• inflation
• collegia
• anarchy
• People
• Praetorian Guard
• Galen
• Ptolemy
• Virgil
• Tacitus
• Constantine
• Commodus
• Huns
• Vandals
• Alaric
• Attila
• Romulus Augustulus
• Places
• Jerusalem
• Nazareth
• Bethlehem
• Constantinople
• Rhine & Danube Rivers
• Themes
• Section 4: Roman Society and Culture
• Identify aspects of Roman rule that helped unify and solidify the empire.
• Describe how Roman citizens made a living and entertained themselves.
• Discuss the role of learning, education, and the arts in imperial Rome.
• Section 5: The Rise of Christianity
• Explain how Christianity arose out of the Jewish tradition in Judaea.
• Identify difficulties and successes experienced by Christians while under the influence of the Roman Empire.
• Discuss changes that occurred in the church during the late Roman Empire that helped stabilize and solidify it.
• Section 6: The Fall of the Roman Empire in the West
• Identify problems that plagued the Roman Empire during the AD 200s.
• Explain how the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine slowed the decline of the empire.
• List problems that led to the Roman Empire's decline.

*You do not need to include all of these terms, people, places, and themes in your study guide. In fact, please limit your study materials to what is most helpful for you by focusing on items that you need to study the most. Use your time wisely! :)

New Year, New Blog

Hello, students of KICS. I'll be experimenting with posting relevant class activities to this blog for your good. Enjoy.