We spent today's class participating in a special webinar, the "Anniversary in Schools Webinar" brought to teachers and students from the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. We began by viewing a 35-minute program that tells the story of the 9/11 attacks through personal stories from first responders and survivors. It was incredibly moving. We were then able to take a virtual tour of the museum and memorial. We learned how many communities, families and NYC will observe the anniversary tomorrow on 9/11/21. Bells will toll at the exact times that these horrific events took place 20 years ago, starting with 8:46am and end at 10:28am. It's still hard to process that in between those hours, 2 planes crashed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center, 1 plane crashed into the Pentagon and another plane, diverted by passengers from likely hitting another target in Washington, DC, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Also within this time frame, each of the World Trade Center Towers collapsed. In less than two hours, almost 3,000 people were killed and history was forever altered. We viewed the special light installation that illuminates the NYC skyline on the night of every Sept. 11 since 2001. It projects the image of two towers reaching up into the heavens for almost 4 miles. We then returned to the "Great Migration" of Puritans from England to what would become known as the New England region of the colonies. We reviewed the founding of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

We were practicing the lesson learned previously.

Bella read the next chapter of the nonfiction novel Escape from Camp 14. She analyzed the chapter for tone and rhetorical strategies that created the author's effect on the reader. She then imitated the writing style in a short writing piece where she expounded on the theme.

Bella continued her study of the nonfiction novel Escape from Camp 14. She discussed the geography and government of North Korea and its place in the world today. She analyzed the protagonist's personality traits based on his growing up in the camp and compared and contrasted him to the leader of North Korea.

While France and other European nations were working hard to replace Spain as the world's colonial superpower, the English had been mostly content to simply steal gold from Spanish ships. And in the end, these English pirates, nicknamed 'Sea Dogs,' finally turned the tide of world history in favor of England. It was one of these Sea Dogs, Sir Francis Drake, that first sailed around the world for England. He arrived back with a large bounty back in England in 1580. This led Queen Elizabeth to consider establishing a permanent New World colony of her own, as a base for launching even more raids. Jamestown was the first lasting English settlement in America, the beginning of the nation's government, its introduction to diplomatic relations with Native Americans, and a foundation for bartering and cash crops, which gave the colony (and later the nation) an economic boost. Historians estimate that the first slave ship to arrive in what would be the 13 colonies landed in Jamestown in 1619. We then discussed the Puritans in the Church of England, a persecuted group of Protestant Christians, they were also known as Separatists. Some of these Separatists decided to flee to the "new world." They considered themselves Pilgrims because their journey had a religious purpose and they hoped to find a better life in America. The Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower in September 1620 planning to settle in the Virginia colony. But the first land they sighted was Cape Cod. Before going ashore to Plymouth, the Pilgrims drew up a formal document called the Mayflower Compact. This document was an important step in the development of representative government in America. Bella shared with me that she has ancestors that came to America around this time and that her dad has been working on getting more information! She excitedly called her dad and placed him on speaker phone. Although he is awaiting documents, he shared some amazing specifics about their family history. Their ancestors' last name was Goddell and evolved to Goodale. The Goodales worked for neighbor, Giles Corey, who was not a good man. His wife was accused of witchcraft and hanged while Giles was tortured and died during the Salem Witch Trials. I told Bella and her Dad I would research what I could. It did not take long to find information about the Goodales and Coreys of historic Salem, MA! I will share this information with Bella soon as most of class tomorrow will be spent on commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Sept. 11th.

Bella took notes and completed practice problems on 1.2. She did so well I gave her a challenge problem at the end and she got it right!

After warm-ups we concentrated on optimum positions of tongue, mouth and jaw to produce a full, rounded sound,and Bella sang "Videogames" by Lana Delrey. We then worked on certain phrases from the song with the techniques. I began teaching her sight-singing (first concepts) which we shall build on during the syllabus.

Today's lesson focused on an introduction to English settlements in America. We know that Roanoke was an English colony that failed and that the fate of its settlers is one of US history's great mysteries. However, the English engage in later attempts to establish settlements in North America. In 1606 an English joint-stock company called the Virginia Company sent 144 settlers back to the area of Virginia. The group entered Chesapeake Bay in April 1607 and established a settlement they named Jamestown, after their king. The settlers built Jamestown on a peninsula so they could defend it from attack. However, the site had many drawbacks: it was swampy and infested with mosquitoes, it lacked good farmland, there was no gold or silver to be found and disease and hunger took a huge toll on the colonists. Bella will read more about Jamestown tonight. We concluded class with a quick look at the famed Flagler Family of Palm Beach County. Bella has been interested in them ever since she and her family met some of the Flaglers recently. We learned that the Flaglers were central to the construction of the railroad here in Florida. In 1912 Henry Flagler arrived aboard the first train into Key West, marking the completion of the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway's Over-Sea Railroad to Key West. With the completion of the Over-Sea Railroad the entire east coast of Florida, from Jacksonville to Key West, was linked by a single railroad system. That's quite an accomplishment!

Bella took notes on 1.1 and did practice problems on 1.1.

We learned what significant figures are, how to identify them, and how to round numbers to the appropriate number of significant figures.