What works; skills and techniques that ensure success in Geography (and other classes, and life)!

8/10/2011

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41 Comments

Bingham

8/10/2011 03:49:49

Yeah, so I was looking at how well most Red Day people are doing on my Geographic Skills test (the average score is in the high 80’s, nudging up against 90) I had a couple of feelings. First, I felt kind of proud of you guys. I know the test wasn’t tough and I gave you a preview, but YOU made it easy by doing the work. Remember at the beginning of the year I told you that all I require from you is your effort? That is what I meant. The class is designed so that effort pays off, and slacking gets burned. Also I started to think about how you will do on the Geographic Review test. It is a lot harder. I won’t put up any answers or practice tests. The time has come for you to convert what you have (the four packets and your notes) into advance notice and confidence that you will do well on the test. So watch this blog over the weekend. I’m going to post some stuff to help you focus your effort and come in on Tuesday or Wednesday KNOWING you will earn a high score on this test!

Anonymous

28/2/2012 08:46:38

Mr.Bingham is rad.

Bingham

9/10/2011 06:01:20

Okay, so there are a whole bunch of questions about what continent specific geographic features are located. Like the Amazon is in South America, like that. I'm thinking the Orinoco River will catch some people.
Know your latitudes stuff we did when I used the PowerPoint on climate. Be familiar with what we discussed there (it on the unit page if you took sucky notes).
Know TODALSIGs.
Know your blankosphere stuff.
If you blew of working through The People and Nature packet, take care of business!
Don't post or email me asking "what did you mean by that?" or "I wasn't here!" Figure it out, be an adult. And everything you need is on this site if YOU make the effort. Study groups work, BTW.

Crowder, Shylah

11/10/2011 11:00:09

Mr. Bingham, can you create a chart of some kind of the geographic features that we need to know and where they're located? The packets you give us use a lot of examples of places and it's hard to tell which ones are the ones we need to know. Thank you.

Bingham

11/10/2011 11:18:49

Hey, that sounds like a great study technique! I could make a chart listing each continent. Under each one I could list all the mountains, rivers, deserts and the like. Boy, then I'd really know all that stuff!
But wait, I already know that stuff! And I'm not taking the test! But if I were, that's what I would do for sure. I'd also do one on the biosphere, lithosphere, etc. And maybe another one for TODALSIGS. Hmm, what else? Yeah, I think you are really on to something! :-)

Bingham

11/10/2011 11:29:00

By the way, Gray day people get a reprieve due to the PSAT. Check the calendar.

Crowder, Shylah

12/10/2011 10:48:58

Geez Mr. Bingham.... I was just wondering if you could give us some pointers on the REALLY important stuff,... but thanks for the advise anyway :)

Nik Liebster

12/10/2011 14:28:20

I wanted to comment on today's lesson. For most people they need the outline or study guide. You said that we need to find a system that works for us, and I've found my system. Just reading it over and being there 100% when I am reading it is enough for me, just as it is enough for me to listen in class and get an A in your class. I know that the Outline is a surer way of learning and doing it, but i feel like unless it's something that i really just flat out don't understand, I don't feel like writing the outline would be an effective use of my time (seeing as in the end, everything comes down to time management).

Bingham

16/10/2011 12:38:39

That's cool Nik, as I told you Friday. Two cautionary comments though. You are demonstrating that you can master this material with that method (most of your peers are not in that place, and they DO need a new system) so yeah, go with what works. Everyone however, in some subject, at some level, reaches a place where it doesn't come easily anymore. You will too. The danger is getting drowned before you know the water is rising. You may not need to use a particular technique now, but keep some in your back pocket for the day when you get in over your head. (Wow, I think I'm going metaphor crazy!)

Bingham

18/10/2011 12:23:12

Yeah, so about the test Wednesday/Thursday: There is a ton of those "where is this" questions. You can pretty much be sure that if it's bold in the packet, it's on the test. The "what doesn't fit" questions are a touch harder. Look at the answer choices and ask yourself what do three of them have in common? Does one of them NOT have that characteristic? 93 questions, pretty much just memorization...it's just about - did you do the work...do the reps to push that weight up? Are you going to be a one bagger or a three bagger? It's up to you.
Remember, I'm taking up your comp book to see your work. Failure to comply (bring it with you and turn it in) is not a learning issue, it's a discipline issue, and I'll handle it accordingly. The four completed maps will add up to 7 points (depending on neatness, completeness & accuracy) to your test grade and count as a quiz grade. Failure to turn that in will result in a zero for the quiz.
DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? Good, I really want you to smoke this test so we can move on.

Emily Sherman

25/10/2011 11:33:10

Mr. Bingham, on Sunday I babysat the little boy who lives 3 houses down from me, he's five, and his mom told me that they are studying adding and subtracting at his school right now. I noticed that he went and pretended to teach his stuffed animals the things he was learning, like 1+5=6, and when I asked him some basic problems like that, he knew all the answers. So I thought to myself 'Mr. Bingham said that you remember 90% of what you teach, maybe I should use Tucker's method'. I know this sounds silly, but I went up to my room and taught my old stuffed animals and barbie dolls the ch. 4 stuff, and when I came back down to work on the worksheet you gave us, I knew my stuff and I didn't have to look in the textbook. This is my official new learning method: teaching my stuffed animals.

Bingham

25/10/2011 12:21:15

That is awesome Emily! Maybe some other people will catch on!

Bingham

26/10/2011 05:05:28

Here are some sample questions from the upcoming quiz for you to chew on...
"The spread of ideas and customs from one society to another is called..."
"The XXXXX shows the average number of children a woman would have if she had children at the current rate for her country."
Get the idea?

Ellie Sondock

26/10/2011 15:12:06

If you take your outline/graphic organizer/web whatever you use, I use an outline and convert it to notecards I find that is really useful in addition to what Emily said which is VERY helpful. Notecards is just making you rewrite the information in a whole new way again and your brain will remember it even BETTER. I find that this really helps me when studying.

Morgan

30/10/2011 02:25:16

I definitly agree with Ellie on making notecards. I usually write the word on the front and the definition on the back, but it's all a matter of what you prefer. I use notecards for almost every subject, they help soooooo much!

Bingham

30/10/2011 10:09:36

That works for so many people. Like all systems though, they only work if you use them every day. It's the making the cards that really makes things stick.

Good for you!

Crowder, Shylah

1/11/2011 11:13:15

While making the cards are helpful, I find that just doesn't completely do the trick for me. I have to take notes in my comp, then rewrite those as note cards, and then I have to quiz myself on those note cards. If you can just make the cards and go then you are quite lucky, but it is purely the repetition that works for me.

Tiye Mckethen link

1/11/2011 14:38:27

I went to Half price books this afternoon and bought a book about racial tension in lower parts of Africa and kind of laughed at the fact that Afrikaans were treated like African-Americans here and that if Anglos were on the other side of the fence it would be similiar to that. just something i noticed.

Elizabeth Martinsen

2/11/2011 13:30:38

I would like to see that book, Tiye; it sounds interesting!

I just wanted to say that flashcards and teaching other people (or stuffed animals) have been overall effective for me. In addition, I would like to recommend a documentary to everyone! It's called "Up the Yangtze ," and is about different lifestyles of people in China who are affected in someway by the river. It's very well done, and is very interesting.

Bingham

3/11/2011 04:29:48

Good stuff guys!

I'm curious to hear you responces to the question I posed to you right before you took the test, "what was your emotional reaction and what level of effort lead you to the emotional place you were as you answered (or tried to answer) each question?"

Luck is NOT a factor.
Ability in irrelevant to you as an individual.
What matters is your EFFORT. How much do you need to make to get the results you want?

Crowder, Shylah

4/11/2011 00:08:05

I did think about that question during EVERY single question. On quite a few I felt pretty proud, for I had just saw that face or piece of information during the five minutes of study that Mr. Bingham gave us. Unfortunately, there were a few questions that I did say Oh S### about. But I think overall my study did pay off.

Emily Sherman

7/11/2011 11:44:01

I didn't have any "oh crap" moments, but I know I didn't get a perfect score either. I felt fairly confidant that I knew my stuff, but some of the questions I was a little bit lost on, so I read the question about a million times and then guessed on what you were trying to ask. I felt proud of myself though. I wasn't slaughtered by the sword.

Also, the discussion we had in class today was so interesting! This is why I love history.

Bingham

11/11/2011 03:46:35

Okay, as you dig through the first two sections of de Blij's chapter one, mining it for meaning, remember the elements of summarizing:
*delete the redundant
*delete the trivial
*replace lists with super-ordinate terms
*find (or write) the topic sentence for each paragraph.

Generally speaking, there is one main idea in each paragraph, figure that out.

There are some great glossaries done by fellow students on the "Geographic Destiny" page that will speed up your vocabulary building.

Happy digging!

Mary Williams

17/11/2011 13:36:20

Mr. Bingham,
I am having difficulty deciphering the paragraphs and getting the point of what De Blij is writing. I have already tried to rewrite each of the paragraphs into words that I would better understand, but I still do not feel confident over the materials I have studied. Do you have any study recommendations that might help me better understand the book?
Thanks!
--Mary

Bingham

18/11/2011 08:01:28

I think we made a lot of progress in class today. Watch for those "cues" such as, "the point here is that...", "what is unique in this case is...", "the real lesson is..." That should help quite a bit. De Blij usually makes his points at the end of paragraphs I've noticed. Do your read through ignoring the tangents and examples until you get his meaning, then go back through focusing on the main ideas and recognizing the examples for what they are, an elaboration, not a point.

Natalie Barnaby

24/11/2011 11:25:28

Mr. Bingham,
I have a question regarding the "cues". So does, "For example" count as one of those, or are they just things I should skip and not worry about for the quizes and stuff?

Bingham

24/11/2011 13:55:21

Well actually, I think it's the "for example"s that are distracting you guys. Those are only there to help you to understand deeply, not divert you from the meaning of the passage/paragraph. Try to focus on de Blij's points, not the examples unless they help you understand the point. Check out the help on the Geographic Destiny page.

Bingham

25/11/2011 04:47:13

There is lot's of help here on the web site if you are preparing to "kill" the upcoming test on chapter one of The Power of Place. Dig! Hsck!

Nik Liebster

27/11/2011 13:16:10

Thanks so much for the review packet! :D

Tyler Dennis

27/11/2011 23:00:27

I'd like to thankyou for giving me the good study tips for reading De Blij's chapters. Plus, by looking up synonyms to words that I don't know, makes have a better understanding of what I'm reading when I replace the words with those synonyms. So, thankyou so much, Mr.Bingham!! :D

Bingham - from Anna Waters

28/11/2011 02:25:44

The "Mobals and Motives" summary has a somewhat major typo. It says "Refuges during war-time are also mobals," when it should be "Refuges during war-time are also NOT mobals".

There are also some other minor typos in the other summaries, but I have yet to see another that actually alters the meaning of the original text from PoP. It might be good to fix this one, unless you don't mind letting the less scrupulous pick up the wrong things. :)

Bingham

28/11/2011 02:27:30

Anna makes a good catch here...but remember, the standard for the test is what de Blij said in the book, not what anyone else said about what he said. Those essays were there to help, and sometimes stuff gets missed or mis-typed!

Drew Tollett

10/12/2011 03:05:11

Hey guys, What works for me is little interactive web games that teach the stuff. but sometimes it's hard to find these, so I'm learning how to make them. but in the mean time,does anybody know of one that works for the geographic features of the world?

Bingham

11/12/2011 03:24:53

No answers yet? Well, let me know what you figure out. Remember what I said in class, if you work through all the items on the study guide, you WILL do well on the final!

Shylah Crowder

11/12/2011 14:08:18

Here are some websites that might help with learning geographic features.

http://www.yourchildlearns.com/mappuzzle/world-features-puzzle.html

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/games/geographygames/quizyournoodle-geography-facts/

Hope these help. They were the only ones I could find.

Jacob Allen

12/12/2011 01:49:27

Mr. Bingham,
I just checked the Pre-AP tab, and read all the Winter reading info, but I also noticed you suggested we all sign up to the College Board website. There's one small issue. I went to sign up, and one of the required fields was "High School Graduation". Can I put the year and month I WILL graduate, or does it mean that I'm gonna have to wait till I ACTUALLY graduate to sign up?

Shylah Crowder

12/12/2011 08:58:33

You put the year that you will eventually graduate. For freshman you should put 2015.

Bingham

12/12/2011 12:00:14

Yeah Jacob, I think we talked about that today. If someone else is wondering the same thing, Shylah is correct!

Shylah Crowder

15/12/2011 06:35:59

Mr. Bingham, how are we supposed to determine what continent a sea belongs to when it touches several different continents?

Bingham

17/12/2011 09:48:29

You guys did an outstanding job on the Fall Final. Across all classes the average score was 83. Well done!

Emily Soice

20/9/2012 13:19:40

Hey Bingham! I can't find the pacing guide for the extra credit. Where(and what) is it?

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