Site:
Deer Creek Middle School
Class:
Sixth Grade World History
E-Mail:
leminr@deercreek.k12.ok.us
I have been teaching at DCMS since 1995. For the 2011-2012
academic year, I am teaching six sections of sixth grade World History.
With the sixth grade faculty, I have developed four major inter-
disciplinary activities: "The Gathering," based on the Stone Age (October);
"Agora - The Greek Marketplace" (December); "Antlerborough Faire," based on
the Middle Ages (March); and "The Factory," based on the Industrial Revolution
(May).
Before coming to Deer Creek, I spent more than 25 years as an actor,
director, playwright, and producer in Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma. I wrote
four children's theatre scripts, all of which have been staged at various
community theatres, colleges, and public schools in Oklahoma. I have acted in
or directed roughly 150 stage productions.
On television, I was a re-enactor for the NBC Television Network's
"Unsolved Mysteries" in 1989; and I worked on the mini-series "Oklahoma
Passage" for PBS, through its local affiliate the Oklahoma Educational
Television Authority (OETA) ["Oklahoma Passage" is often shown in Oklahoma
History classes at Deer Creek High School. Watch for my appearance as the
Railroad Foreman in Episode Three.]
In November 2007, I portrayed the 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt, in
the City of Guthrie's Centennial Celebration, including a speech to the
Special Joint Session of the Oklahoma State Legislature at the Scottish Rite
Temple.
The sixth grade world history class is a survey course in Western
Civilization. During the academic year, students will study the basics of
world cultures, highlighting their legacies: their values, customs, relig-
ions, governments, and education, including language and writing systems.
During the first semester, students will experience the Old and New
Stone Ages, Ancient Egypt, the Fertile Crescent (with emphasis on Sumer,
Babylon, and the Ancient Hebrews), and Ancient Greece.
Returning from Christmas Break, study continues with Ancient Rome and
the rise of Christianity; moves into Arabia and the beginnings of Islam;
extensively covers the Middle Ages, including the Crusades; on to the
Renaissance and Reformation; the beginnings of Modern Science; the Age of
Exploration and its effects on the Americas; and ends with the Industrial
Revolution and the French Revolution.
Additionally, students will have the opportunity to advance their skills
at note-taking, sequencing, predicting, comparing/contrasting, and summar-
izing. Students will also frequently engage in limited role-playing and
experience hands-on knowledge through my "artifacts," a collection of repro-
ductions, replicas, and toys. [For information on how you can contribute to
this collection, see the Wish List icon on my home page.]
