Course Syllabus- World Geography



Dear Parents and Students,

My name is Jerrel Wolf and I will be your son’s/daughter’s World Geography teacher this year. I look forward to working with them and you over the next 10 months. I have a website with the school which can be accessed from home that will be updated with student assignments and important classroom information, so I would suggest checking it regularly.

World Geography is a year long course. I strongly urge students to keep up with due dates and upcoming assignments. Students will need to come in before school to make up any missed work. All make-up tests will be essay format unless prior arrangements have been made. Students that miss the exam will not take the same test as other students.

It is important for your child to be in attendance every day. If you have any questions about the make-up or late work policies please check the student handbook. If your son or daughter is in need of tutoring they are welcome to make arrangements with me before hand (I can not guarantee my availability if no prior arrangements are made).

Grades are posted so that parents can view their child’s grades online. Your son/daughters computer log-ins are the same log-ins to check their grades. The grading policy for the World Geography is Pre-AP – Test 70% and Daily 30%, for level is Test 60% and Daily 40%. Each 6 - 9 weeks your child will have a project to turn in. This will be worth 1-2 test grades. Failure to do the project can result in failure of the class.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns 281-641-6445 or jerrel.wolf@humble.k12.tx.us . If you contact me via email please be sure to put your son or daughters name in the subject line.

Thank You,

Jerrel Wolf

Directions to get to my website



Course Syllabus- World Geography

Humble High School

11-12

INSTRUCTOR: Jerrel Wolf

REQUIRED TEXT: World Geography, Glencoe McGraw-Hill

World Geography:

Username: GWGTX password: cer2ze5wet

COURSE DESCRIPTION: World Geography deals with the earth and how people interact with their environment. The course offers an understanding of the way people live in particular places and why they live as they do. Exploration of the physical and cultural features of the earth, changing earth's resources, people and the land, political boundaries, economic growth and technological change will also be studies. The concepts will be explored within regions. Current events will be strongly emphasized.

LEARNING GOALS: 1. students will use maps, globes, atlases, and grid-refaced technologies. 2. Students will acquire a framework for thinking geographically. 3. Students will acquire a framework for thinking about earth's physical systems: Earth/Sun relationships, climate / ecosystems, and land forms. 4. Students will identify and analyze the human activities that shape earth's surface. 5. Students will analyze ways in which humans affect and are affected by their physical environment. 6. Students will understand the influence of physical and human geographic factors on the evolution of significant historic events and movements.

Attendance: Attendance is very important to the educational process. Attendance will be taken on a daily basis. You are absent if you: miss the entire class period or are tardy for more than 20 minutes.

Extra credit: All papers must be typed, Times New Roman, Double font, you will need to discuss the exact nature of the paper with me individually. Papers will need to take up the entire page.

Go to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and see a major exhibit that is social studies related (you must get this ok’ed by me before you go)- ticket stub and 2 pages- 25 points to a test

Ream of Paper- 10 pts on a test

Art Museum- 2 pages and proof you went, 10 pts on a test

Holocaust Museum- 2 pages and proof you went, 10 pts on a test

San Jacinto Monument/Battleship Texas- 2 pages and proof you went, 10 pts on a test

Renaissance Festival- ticket stub and 2 pages- 25 pts

Other opportunities come along during the year, if there is another museum that interest you, ask and I might approve it.

CLASSROOM RULES:

1. Follow all rules outlined in the 11-12 Student- parent handbook.

2. Do not talk while others are talking.

3. Be in the room when the bell rings.

4. Come to class prepared. You will be tardy if you must go get materials.

5. Tests and quizzes are due when the bell rings. You may not stay after class to finish a quiz or test. A teacher may not give you permission to be late to another teacher’s class.

6. Respect EVERYONE!

7. Use appropriate language at all times.

8. Sit in your assigned seats.

9. No Sleeping, if you are participating, you won’t be sleepy.

STAAR- EOC exam

You will have an End Of Course exam on May 11th for World Geography, so it is vital that you pay attention and actively participate in class. More information to follow as it becomes available.

Moodle-

We will be using Moodle to take test and do some work in this class. You must have your school computer log-in by the 3rd week of school. Failure to do so will result in loss of points on your grades, due to not being able to perform classroom assignments.

AREA COVERED:

• Skills handbook

o Types of maps

o Map skills

o Globes to maps

o Projections

o TODALSIGS

• Social Studies Skills

o OPTIC

o SOAPStone

o SQ3R

o Cornell Notes

o Map bias

• Vocabulary

o Landforms

o Water bodies

o Basic geography

• Why geography matters

• Essential physical features – (Sahara, Himalayas, etc.)

• Parts of a river

• External – Internal forces of change

• Plate tectonics

• Sphere – hydro, litho, atom, and bio

• Water cycle

• Seasons, etc.

• Earth – Sun Relationship

• Global grid

• Climate factors

• Climate regions

• Climographs

• Ecosystems / biomes

• Natural hazards

• Climate change

• Biomes

• Culture hearths

• Growth of cities

• Urbanization

• Pre-AP: urban models

• Urban areas (essentials – 26 largest urban areas and 30 extra cultural centers)

• Immigration / Migration (Push-pull factors)

• Economic activities - Primary / secondary / tertiary / quaternary

• Adaptation to environment (AC / desalination)

• Population density

• Population distribution

• Land use

• Population pyramids

• Sustainable development

• Demographics

• Levels of development

• Human Development Index

• Human demographic transition model

• Culture regions

• Culture change

• Traditional societies

• Culture traits

o Religion, beliefs, customs

▪ Buddhism

▪ Christianity

▪ Hinduism

▪ Islam

▪ Judaism

▪ Sikhism

o Language

o Institutions

o Technologies

o Education

o Land use

GRADING: Grades for this class are calculated as follows:

One six weeks-

Tests and Projects 70%

Daily grades and quizzes (quizzes count 2 times) 30%

One semester:

Average of three six weeks 80%

Semester final 20%

Asking for grades:

I will not give you your 6 weeks grade during class. If you want to know your grade, check it online, or ask before or after school. I am not trying to be mean, but if I take the time to tell you, then I have to tell everyone and that takes too much time away from everyone.

Use blue or black pen or pencil for all work turned in for a grade. Twenty points will be deducted for work done in any other color.

Major Projects will be assigned periodically during the school year. Projects may be turned in any day that week but I give 2 points extra credit per school day that you turn the project in early (up to 10 points).

SUPPLIES:

Binder with paper and dividers (just for this class, so it can be left with me) or Spiral notebook.

Pens- Blue or Black ink only

Pencils

Glue

Map Colors

LATE WORK:

All students have the same number of days they are absent to make up assignments. What this means, is that if a student is absent on a Monday and Tuesday, they will have 2 days (Wednesday and Thursday) to make up work. If for some reason the student does not make the work up by Thursday, I will take the assignment the next day will receive a 10 point deduction per day past that, then it is my discression. It is YOUR responsibility to ask me for the make-up assignments. After the allotted amount of time (in this case 2 days) the assignment will become a 90 and then the next day an 80, the next day a 70, then it will be a 0.

Additionally, any work not turned in by the beginning of the period on the day it is due, will receive a 10 point deduction.

PLAGIARISM

Any student who is caught plagiarizing, cheating, or copying someone else’s work will receive a 0 and possible office referral. If you are not sure what plagiarism is, I will devote a full day to this topic in class or you can visit the following websites. Other than this, just ask me.







TIPS FOR SUCCESS IN MY CLASS:

1. Ask questions

2. Keep up with work and materials

3. Ask for help, if the instructions are not clear, then ask, if you don’t ask, I don’t know (I can’t read minds).

4. Come in for tutoring.

5. Don’t procrastinate

6. Turn in work on time or early.

7. Put your name on assignments (I will throw it in the garbage)

8. If you have a problem see me.

9. Don’t plagiarize or cheat. If I catch you with someone else’s work, I will let you turn yours in for a grade and give them a 0.

10. Study

11. Do your work

12. Have supplies and computer log-ins

13. Keep old assignments- I make mistakes, I am human, if you can’t show me the graded assignment, you keep the 0.

14. Don’t ask what you can do to pass the last week and a half of school. This is what I will tell you (see the above list).

15. Do not turn in work on ½ sheets of paper, I will throw it away.

REQUIREMENTS OF THE CLASS:

Keep notes- Cornell style

Turn in assignments

Get me your parents information

Don’t lose handouts- I am not kinkos- I don’t give extra copies.

Go to the restroom before or after class.

Working in groups can get you a 0- if a person in your group plagiarizes, you get lose all the points from their work. Awe, Mr. Wolf that’s not fair, then don’t work in groups.

Have computer log-ins and supplies each day.

There are school computers, so the excuse that your computer is broke or something happened at home, too bad. You have access to school computers, in my room, or library or other teacher’s classroom. The school computers are free. When turning in projects, they do not require printing; you need to save it in the file I have set up for your class saved as your name or the names of the people in your group. Save your work in several places and it would be a good investment to invest in a zip drive. There are after school tutorial busses that can give you a ride home.

SAVE FILES AS .doc

WRITING RULES: We will be writing quite often in this class (more if you are Pre-AP).

1. Paragraphs are a minimum of 4 sentences long.

2. Indent -10

3. Spelling, punctuation, grammar

4. Text language- 5

5. MLA Works cited -100

6. No Cover page- 10

7. A page starts on the first line and ends on the last

8. Times New Roman, 12 pt font, Double spaced (unless otherwise stated)

Dear Parents,

During the year, we will be viewing different movies for educational reasons. Some of the films that are shown in the class are rated R. The films will be aligned with the curriculum and I feel they will help your son/daughter have a better understanding of the material presented in class. Because of the rating of these movies, I will need your permission for your son/daughter to view the films. If they are not allowed to view the films, they will not be penalized. They will go to another classroom, while their class views the film. I have added a list of movies that we will POSSIBLY be watching in my class. While this is not a complete list, it does cover a large majority of the movies I might show. Additionally, many movies will not be shown in their entirety, but rather parts will be shown to stimulate class discussion.

Thank you,

Jerrel T. Wolf

281-641-6300

jerrel.wolf@humble.k12.tx.us

Here is a list of the movies: Not all movies are rated R

Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Amistad

Saving Private Ryan

Schindler’s List

Valkyrie

Forest Gump

Far and Away

Spartacus

Medicine Man

The Last Samurai

The Ghost and the Darkness

Gladiator

Gandhi

Circle One Please

I DO / DO NOT give my son/daughter permission to watch the movies.

Please Print Your Childs Name: _____________________________________________

Parent/Guardian Signature: _________________________________________________

Parent Information

Return by Friday 8/26- Doing so will get you a homework pass.

I have read, understand, and agree with the classroom rules and expectations.

Student Name: ______________________________________

Student Signature: ___________________________________

Female Parent / Guardian Name: ________________________

Female Parent / Guardian Signature:_____________________

Home Phone Numbers:_______________________________

Work:_____________________________________________

Cell:_______________________________________________

Email:______________________________________________

Male Parent / Guardian Name: ________________________

Male Parent / Guardian Signature:_____________________

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Coach’s Name: ______________________________________

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