Stuff for Teachers
This part of the site is for teachers, although students and parents are welcome to browse here as well. We have nothing to hide here at MrKersey.Org. This is where I will post my small contributions to the world of teaching, and perhaps even help or inspire others. The best teachers pilfer each other's ideas, and so I feel I must contribute. Feel free to contact me with feedback or ideas if there's anything here that strikes your fancy or makes you angry. Feel free to modify these to fit your needs.Those Darned Navigation Acts! - A Colonial Economic Simulation (PDF) - This is an activity I created to simulate the effects of the Navigation Acts on the colonial economy. It does a pretty good job of demonstrating the effects of a real market economy and a limited supply of cash in the colonies. The download includes a brief introduction for students, a price list, a list of events that occur during the simulation, job assignments for students, coupons representing goods, and some pretty lame fake money. It DOES NOT yet include in-depth written directions for students or teachers, since a lot of it is in my head. I am working on these and hope to have them included soon. Until then, you'll just have to wing it or figure it out on your own. Of course, you should also feel free to modify it to fit your own needs or preferences (as long as you don't try to sell it).
Project: A Super Cool Research Project 2005 (PDF) - This is the whole shootin' match. This packet contains directions, important dates, and rubrics for completing a Super Cool Geography Research Project. This project was designed for my 7th grade geography students, but feel free to modify it to fit your own needs. You'll obviously want to change the standards to meet your own state's requirements, and don't forget to change the dates as well.
Create a Country Project (PDF) - This project has been around since my first year of teaching. I have tried several times to get rid of it, but each year the legend of the project grows and each year my new seventh graders ask me on the first day of school, "Are we creating our own countries this year?" I just can't break their little hearts. In this project students create their own country. They are given a set of guiding questions to answer, maps to create, and boy do they run with it. One year I had a kid create his own language and alphabet. I got a sixty page paper from own group before I eliminated the written portion of the project. (And yes, that's from seventh graders). Two years ago I had a student sing his fictional national anthem in a fictional language while saluting a fictional flag. It was one of the few times I actually got anything from that kid. This is the new revised version with streamlined instructions and no written portion. The original version follows this if you'd like to look at that as well. The project also contains a research portion to hone those library and social studies skills.
Create a Country Project (TXT) - The 2007 version of the project mentioned above, new and improved.
Forging a Nation Project (PDF) - This is the original version of the Create a Country Project listed above. The directions are more detailed, but more difficult to follow for many students. This also includes a written portion to the assignment, which I have since eliminated due to the shear length of the papers I tend to receive.
Washington's Advice to the Nation (TXT) - This activity includes excerpts from Washington's farewell address. Students are asked to restate the excerpts in their own words. This may be somewhat difficult for younger students as the reading level is somewhat high. The second part asks students to find three present day examples of how we have not followed President Washington's advice. This document is in .txt format so please forgive any formatting errors.
American Revolution Game (TXT) - This group project has students create a game using facts about the Revolutionary War. Students can create a quiz game, board game, card game, or whatever. I borrowed this idea from a teacher I met at a convention. She did the same thing, but with the Civil War. I just didn't want to wait that long to try it out. Kids have a blast playing their games when they are finished, and it's easy to grade, since it becomes very obvious very quickly which games work and which do not. It can be easily adapted to fit all manner of content areas and one could also make it an individual project as well. (In fact I usually give that option to those who ask). This document is in .txt format so please forgive any formatting errors.
Writing an Olive Branch Petition (TXT) - This is a fun, quick little group activity. I usually let my students have about two 45 minute class periods to work together on this, allowing them to use resources from the library or on the internet. The students are required to write their own version of the Olive Branch Petition to try to avoid full scale war. A fun addition to this is to have a group share their petition with the class, and allow the rest of the class debate about whether or not the petition would convince the king to keep the peace. This document is in .txt format so please forgive any formatting errors.
Advertising the Colonies (PDF) - Students create advertisements in the form of posters or brochures trying to convince would-be English settlers to come to the New World. Includes a rubric.
A Colonist's Journal Project (PDF) - Students seem to like this one. They create an authentic looking journal from the early 1700's documenting their experiences as a settler from the crossing of the Atlantic to their first days in the New World. Includes a rubric.
