Rockhurst University

October 3, 2017

Social Studies Express Important Dates: Parent Teacher Conferences: 9/4 Fall Break: 10/15-17

Get to Know Mr. Kocour

Hello, my name is Trevor Kocour and I graduated from Kansas State University where I majored in Kinesiology and minored in business. I have a Masters degree from Rockhurst University. I am from Atchison, Kansas that is mostly known for two things—Amelia Earhart and being haunted. I am excited to be working with students and their parents this year. It is going to be a great year.

Communication Goals Communication between a teacher and a student and between a teacher and a guardian is a very important part of the day-to-day operations as a teacher. I want, both students and parents to feel that they can come to me with questions, concerns, and comments. My goal is to have an open classrooms where students can say their thoughts and opinions on a topic without judgment from me or their peers. I want the classroom to be fueled by questions and discussion that stems from curiosity of the topic that is being covered.

Contact Information •

[email protected]

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School phone: 867-5309

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Room 11

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https://sites.google.com/site/ trevorjkocour/home

Using the Inquiry Approach The inquiry approach is a method of teaching that uses primary documents. Students assess these primary documents, usually of two different perspectives, and see what information they can imply and infer from them. The students are able to see how authors can shape public opinion and sway readers to form certain opinions. The inquiry approach helps to teach students how to source documents, which means that students must know the

context and time period of which hthe author was writing and any bias that he or she had. By having students form their own opinions and discuss them with their peers, they are discovering history for themselves.

“Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.”—Edmund Burke

About the Text This section of the newsletter will talk about the textbook, primary sources, or other documents that are being used in the classroom. It will source the text and help give parent’s insight into the classroom and what is being taught. Hopefully, it will help parent’s to see how important that primary documents are.

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Weekly Assignment This article will entail one assignment that the class is doing each week. It will be a way for the parent to stay up to date with what is going on in the classroom because as wee all, probably, know high school students' don’t exactly give parents much detail about their school life. This section gives parents a look into the classroom and, also, makes them feel a part of it.