SOCIAL STUDIES

2011/2012

MRS. CAROL WILINSKI

My name is Carol Wilinski, and I currently teach 6th, 7th and 8th grade Social Studies at St. Matthew School.  I have a BA in Secondary Education and Humanistic Studies from UWGB. I grew up in Madison, WI where I attended Our Lady Queen of Peace grade school and Madison West High School.  I have been married to my husband  Brad for 31 years. We have three grown children; Melissa(27), Adam(26), and Kristen(23). My children all attended Notre Dame Academy and St. Bernard School where we are parish members and where I was a middle school teacher for 12 years.  My hobbies include reading, playing tennis, cooking, traveling, shopping, going up north to our cottage, and tutoring for the Green Bay Literacy Council.

SCHEDULE:

I am at St. Matthew School all day Tuesday and Wednesday, and Thursday mornings.

CURRICULUM NOTES

Sixth grade spends the first trimester learning about various types of maps, landforms, and the Five Themes of Geography. We are currently working in small groups on "prezi's" a web based project that will apply what they have learned about the 5 Themes of Geography to a specific region of the United States. We hope to end the first trimester with an intensive study of individually chosen countries/cultures.

During the first trimester, seventh grade will explore early civilizations, including Mesopotamian empires and how their geography influenced their cultures. They have each chosen a specific empire to focus on learning more about during computer lab time. This will culminate in further knowledge that each student will share using hyperlinks, and glogsters.

Eighth graders have studied the various Native American cultures in South America, MesoAmerica and North America. They have learned what makes each culture unique by looking at the geography, customs, religion, and leadership of the culture groups. We are looking at exploration and development of the Thirteen Colonies, including reasons for exploration, geography, needs and wants of the colonists, and The American Revolution.

My student teacher, Mr. Neil Gloudemans, a teacher candidate from St. Norbert College, will begin his placement at St. Matthew on Monday November 7. This will be an exciting time for all. Mr. Gloudemans has a major in Education with an emphasis on Social Studies and technology. He will be at St. Matthew throughout the first half of the 2nd trimester.

Throughout the year I will be asking the students to refresh their knowledge and placement of the 50 United States, their postal abbreviations, and capital cities.

HOMEWORK UPDATE

CURRENT EVENTS:

All students will have current events on Wednesday of every week. They are required to have a new current event ready to present, if called upon. I will collect their current events notebook periodically during the trimester.  Occasionally,  we will read an article or two from the Weekly Reader Current Events magazine. If  assigned, questions from this magazine will also be due the following Wednesday. 

All students are required to have their binder with them in class on a daily basis. They will have a section labeled for "Do Nows" a geography question on the board for them to answer on Tuesday and Thursday. They may use any resource necessary. Another section will be labelled for current events, and a third section for notes.