• Welcome to Mr. Barber's Virtual Classroom!
     
    Welcome!
     
    Teacher Information:
    Name: Jeffery Barber
    School: Erie High School
    School Phone: 814-874-6200 ext. 1540
    Email: jbarber@eriesd.org
    Room #: 210
    Classes: World History, American History, and Modern American History!
    Special Help: Thursday's until 4PM in room 210!
     
     
    Stay up-to-date with Mr. Barber's life by visiting the 'Keeping Up With Mr. Barber' tab! Ill try to update it weekly with little blurbs and pictures of whats going on with my life! 
     
     
    Important Information: during our district shut down, I will be checking my email twice a day! Once prior to noon, and again at 4PM. If I am not responding, be patient! This is the only form of communication I will be using at this point and I may be bombarded with questions and concerns at any point!
     
     
    Below is a list of bell ringers AND assignments that ALL STUDENTS in each of my courses (9th, 10th, or 11th) can be working on during the district shut down! The website will be updated weekly! Be sure to stop back each Monday for additional tasks! All activities listed below are "just for fun" and should be completed to develop life skills. THEY WILL NOT BE GRADED and course-specific content will not be posted at this time. See the activities below of a list of steps and directions and feel free to contact me via email with questions and concerns!
     
    Get to work!
     

    ALL COURSES: Weekly Bell Ringer Activities! (Cross-Curricular)  

    DIRECTIONS: Under my classroom resources tab is a copy of my weekly bell ringer worksheets! Feel free to download and print this file for use on these assignments! If you do not have the ability to download and print a file, that's OK! Feel free to use a sheet of paper to complete these assignments. All bell ringers for my classes have been listed below since the start of the shut down. Bell ringer activities will be added to the list every two weeks! Feel free to work on these tasks at your leisure to stay up-to-date on the bell ringer activities inside Mr. Barber's classroom!

     
    WEEK ONE:
     
    Day 1 - 3/23 - Math Maniac: Solve the equation 4x + 5x = 27. Show your work!
     
    Day 2 - 3/24 - Turn Up Your Vocab: Look up the word "ANTIBIOTIC". Define it. Use the word in a sentence!
     
    Day 3 - 3/25 - Wild Writings: Copy down the following prompt. Respond to it in paragraph form!
    PROMPT: Describe a pandemic to the reader. What is it? How has a pandemic recently affected your life?
     
    Day 4 - 3/26 - Throw it back to the lesson: draw a picture of Mr. Barber teaching inside his classroom. Label the image to help the viewer identify its parts! Feel free to color the image if you are able! 
     
    Day 5 - 3/27 - Funky Freewrite: Imagine you worked in a hospital or the medical field right now. What would your job be like? Describe this imaginary experience to the reader.   
     
     
    WEEK TWO:
     
    Day 6 - 3/30 - Math Maniac: Solve the equation 14a + 10a - 12 = 36 + 72. Show your work!
     
    Day 7 - 3/31 - Turn Up Your Vocab: Look up the word "EPIDEMIC". Define it. Use the word in a sentence!
     
    Day 8 - 4/1 - Wild Writings: Copy down the following prompt. Respond to it in paragraph form!
    PROMPT: Describe the coronavirus in your own words to the reader? What is it? When did it start? Where did it originate? How has it spread? 
     
    Day 9 - 4/2 - Throw it back to the lesson: Draw a picture of how your are spending your time social distancing from one another. Label the image to help the viewer identify its parts! Feel free to color the image if you are able!        
     
    Day 10 - 4/3 - Funky Freewrite: If you could create a vaccine for any disease in the world, what disease would you cure and why? Explain your thoughts to the reader!
     
     
    WEEK THREE:
     
    Day 11 - 4/6 - Math Maniac: Solve the following word problem. Show your work. PROBLEM: Jakob wants to invite 20 friends to his birthday, which will cost his parents $250. If he decides to invite 15 friends instead, how much money will it cost his parents? Assume the relationship is directly proportional.
     
    Day 12 - 4/7 - Turn Up Your Vocab: Look up the word "AGRICULTURE". Define it. Use the word in a sentence!
     
    Day 13-  4/8 - Wild Writings: Copy down the following prompt. Respond to it in paragraph form!
    PROMPT: After researching the coronavirus and pandemics, explain why social distancing and isolation are an essential part of combating this infectious disease. Use information from your research to support your response.  
     
    Day 14 - 4/9 - Throw it back to the lesson: NONE! ENJOY YOUR SPRING BREAK!!!    
     
    Day 15 - 4/10 - Funky Freewrite: NONE! ENJOY YOUR SPRING BREAK!!!
     
     
    WEEK FOUR:
     
    Day 16 - 4/13 - Math Maniac: NONE! ENJOY YOUR SPRING BREAK!!!
     
    Day 17 - 4/14 - Turn Up Your Vocab: Look up the word "NATURAL SELECTION". Define it. Use the word in a sentence!
     
    Day 18-  4/15 - Wild Writings: Copy down the following prompt. Respond to it in paragraph form!
    PROMPT: Describe what your school is doing to keep you safe during the coronavirus outbreak. What steps have your principals and teachers taken in order to make sure you are safe at this time? Be sure to use your own words and be as descriptive as possible. 
     
    Day 19 - 4/16 - Throw it back to the lesson: Imagine you could be anywhere in the world right now. Where would you be? Construct an image that shows the viewer where you would go if you could travel anywhere at this time. Label the image to help the viewer identify its parts! Feel free to color the image if you are able!       
     
    Day 20 - 4/17 - Funky Freewrite: Write a short horror story about completing an ordinary situation (ex: buying groceries, going to the bank, playing outside, etc.) Your story should be about a paragraph long and should scare the reader from wanting to complete the task!

    ALL COURSES: Enrichment Activities! (Cross-Curricular)

    LESSON ONE: Write a Letter Activity! (Assigned 3/23/2020) - NOT GRADED
     
    Materials needed: paper, pencil or pen, an envelope, scotch tape, and a stamp!
     
    Directions: write a letter to an elderly person inside one of Erie's nursing homes! Tell them about what you have been doing since school shut down, and how you feel about the current pandemic. Tell them about your hopes and dreams for the future. Ask this person how they are doing, and if they can tell you about a time in their life where they experienced a hardship or experience similar to the current situation at hand. You may also ask this person for advice, and ask that they write you back with their thoughts and concerns on this pandemic. 
     
    In order to mail this you'll need an address for one of the nursing homes. You can Google "Erie Nursing Homes" and select one of the addresses from the list OR ask a parent or guardian for assistance. They'll know how to locate one!
     
    Once you have written your letter, place it in an envelope with a stamp and address the letter. DO NOT LICK THE ENVELOPE TO SEAL IT. USE TAPE! Nursing homes across the country are asking relatives and family members of their patients to do this in order to prevent spreading the coronavirus. After that, you're all set! Just be sure to mail the letter, and wait for the magic to unfold. Not only could you potentially brighten someone's day with your kind words, you may receive some of the best advice yet if your pen pal chooses to respond! Good luck! 
     
     
    LESSON TWO: Journaling Activity! (Assigned 3/23/2020) - NOT GRADED
     
    Materials needed: paper (or a notebook) and a writing utensil!
     
    Directions: The coronavirus is a scary pandemic for any person right now. Teachers, doctors, nurses, athletes, celebrities, parents, and students around the world are frightened, and little is to be known about "what could happen". Many of us are riddled with anxiety right now. The fact that most of our daily life has been disrupted by closures and curfews is disheartening. One way to combat the anxiety of all of this is to journal.
     
    Each day I would like your to write a small paragraph about the things you are doing, eating, watching, reading, or learning in order to keep yourself occupied at this time. Tell me what you ate for breakfast, or about the new series you started watching on Netflix. Write about your emotions or feelings. Are you happy? Sad? Depressed? Angry? Why? Explain your thoughts. Tell me how you feel and what you wish you could do right now.
     
    Your journal entries do not have to be long! A couple of sentences (7-10) each day should be sufficient enough! However, if you would like to write more, go for it! This is your journal, and only YOUR EYES (unless you share it with me) will see it!
     
     
    LESSON THREE: Creative Cooking! (Assigned 3/30/2020) - NOT GRADED
     
    Materials needed: index card (or paper), writing utensil, and whatever ingredients needed to cook your favorite recipe!
     
    Directions: Cooking is one of Mr. Barber's favorite pastimes. It helps relax him, and its a fun way to pass the time. Cooking is an essential skill that every individual needs in order to survive in society. Under the classroom resource tab, I shared a few of my "favorite" recipes that I have been cooking since the shut down. There is one for my homemade macaroni and cheese, one for my favorite sausage and tortellini soup, and another one for my 'world famous' international stir-fry dish! Sorry, fellow teacher friends! My meatball and sauce recipe is staying in the vault!
     
    What I want you to do this week is to cook your favorite "meal" for your family, and write the recipe down as you cook it. It does not have to be anything extravagant or over the top. You could make hot dogs and macaroni and cheese, fried chicken and greens, spaghetti and meatballs with linguine, or even grilled cheese! The point is to cook something and document it!
     
    What does document mean? It means you tell me what to do in your recipe step-by-step! How do you make your dish? What ingredients are needed to make it? How much of each item do you use? How long do you cook it for? You can even tell me why you chose the dish and why it is your favorite recipe to make!!! As you create your recipe, write each step and task down. You can use my recipes in the classroom resource section as a guide to setting up your own recipe card, or you can ask a parent or guardian for assistance with this task! Remember, if you don't have have index cards at home to write your recipe on, that's OK! You can write your recipe on a sheet of paper, or better yet, TYPE IT! Whatever works for you is okay with me!
     
    Once you have finished cooking your meal and writing your recipe down, feel free to email your 'recipe cards' along with few pictures of your dish or meal if you choose to cook something! If you don't want to cook, but have a favorite recipe, feel free to share it! I'd love to hear about your favorite meals and to see what y'all are cooking this week!! Plus, it'd be nice to hear from a few of you and see what is going on in your lives!
     
    The point of this lesson is to one, enrich your mind by teaching you a skill that you can use throughout your life, and two, to allow you to do something for your family during this pandemic! Cooking is a great way to take your mind off the news, while getting you away from your phone and social media for a little bit! Plus, it can bring you and your family together for a nice home cooked meal! 
     
    Good luck and stay safe! Now get to cookin' something fun and be sure to share those recipes with me!!! 
      
     
    LESSON FOUR: Journaling Activity! (Assigned 3/30/2020) - NOT GRADED
    Continued from Week 1...
     
    Materials needed: paper (or a notebook) and a writing utensil!
     
    Directions: The coronavirus is a scary pandemic for any person right now. Teachers, doctors, nurses, athletes, celebrities, parents, and students around the world are frightened, and little is to be known about "what could happen". Many of us are riddled with anxiety right now. The fact that most of our daily life has been disrupted by closures and curfews is disheartening. One way to combat the anxiety of all of this is to journal.
     
    Each day I would like your to write a small paragraph about the things you are doing, eating, watching, reading, or learning in order to keep yourself occupied at this time. Tell me what you ate for breakfast, or about the new series you started watching on Netflix. Write about your emotions or feelings. Are you happy? Sad? Depressed? Angry? Why? Explain your thoughts. Tell me how you feel and what you wish you could do right now.
     
    Your journal entries do not have to be long! A couple of sentences (7-10) each day should be sufficient enough! However, if you would like to write more, go for it! This is your journal, and only YOUR EYES (unless you share it with me) will see it!
     
     
    LESSON FIVE: States and Their Capitals! (Assigned 4/6/2020) - NOT GRADED
     
    Materials needed: States & Capitals Worksheet (see classroom resource tab) Use pencil and paper if you are unable to print the worksheet!
     
    Directions: download and print the states & capitals worksheet on the classroom resources page! Look up each state capital for the United States. Match the correct capital from the bottom of the page to each state listed on the top of the handout.
     
    If you are unable to print, that's ok! List each state in the United States on a sheet of paper! There are 50 states. Once you have the states listed, look up each state capital. Write the capital of the state next to the state name on your paper.
     
    Keep this resource and study it! Who knows...Maybe they'll be a pop quiz on states and their capitals if we ever get back into the classroom! ;)
     
     
    LESSON SIX: Journaling Activity! (Assigned 4/6/2020) - NOT GRADED
    Continued from Weeks 1 & 2...
     
    Materials needed: paper (or a notebook) and a writing utensil!
     
    Directions: The coronavirus is a scary pandemic for any person right now. Teachers, doctors, nurses, athletes, celebrities, parents, and students around the world are frightened, and little is to be known about "what could happen". Many of us are riddled with anxiety right now. The fact that most of our daily life has been disrupted by closures and curfews is disheartening. One way to combat the anxiety of all of this is to journal.
     
    Each day I would like your to write a small paragraph about the things you are doing, eating, watching, reading, or learning in order to keep yourself occupied at this time. Tell me what you ate for breakfast, or about the new series you started watching on Netflix. Write about your emotions or feelings. Are you happy? Sad? Depressed? Angry? Why? Explain your thoughts. Tell me how you feel and what you wish you could do right now.
     
    Your journal entries do not have to be long! A couple of sentences (7-10) each day should be sufficient enough! However, if you would like to write more, go for it! This is your journal, and only YOUR EYES (unless you share it with me) will see it!
     
    Remember, your official 'spring break' begins Thursday, April 9th and ends on Monday, April 13th! That is the reason for the 'easier' assignments the week of April 6th! Be sure to remain safe during this time off, but enjoy the time to take a break! Do something for yourself, spend some time alone, and relax! DON'T TRAVEL! Remember, it's not about what the virus will do to you! It's about what the virus can do to someone you love that is younger or older than you!
    Learning is fun!
     
    Students in every grade should also be working on "Work From Home" packets the school district created! If you did not retrieve a paper copy of this packet last week, its OK! The packets are available on the school district's website using the following link: Work From Home Packets! On the website, there is a packet for 9th and 10th students and another packet for 11th and 12th grade students. Students should complete the packet that corresponds with their current grade level. The district is adding new packets each week! Be sure to stop back and check to see if additional packets have been uploaded to the district page! If you have any questions about the contents of the packet, be sure to contact your math or English teacher! Good luck!
     
    This website is currently up-to-date as of 3/30/2020! Be sure to stop back each MONDAY to check for additional bell ringer materials and/or other exciting enrichment activities! Feel free to email me with further questions or concerns. Good luck and stay safe!!! -Mr. Barber