June 20-24

Students completed the lesson on Early Central American civilizations,
watching a brief movie on Teotihuacan (in what is today southern Mexico).

They were also reminded of their opportunity to re-do In-Class Works on
which they had performed poorly, and given class time to ask questions and
tackle the task.

It was then time to begin the Persian Empire. The teacher lectured and drew
a timeline on the board, which led to a more general discussion of the
difficulty of communication in ancient times, a task magnified by the size
of a number of empires.

The teacher mapped the plan on the whiteboard for the outside activity,
which would take the students on the Persian "Royal Road" 
and show them one strategy in which the Persians tackled the communication
challenge.

To demonstrate the 3-month horseback trip across the empire, one student
"rode" another student (carrying his feet while the "horse" 
traveled on his/her hands) to deliver the message given by the teacher to a
student at the other end of the field.

Subsequently, the faster, 1-week horseback trip was demonstrated, using four
"horses" stationed en route to deliver the message.

In the effort to read the Persian Empire lesson, students' focus was
improved by writing questions on the board on which the students would be
informally quizzed.