Period 4: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 14 - Class Recap

The flags of Israel and Palestine, with the word "Peace" in both Arabic and Hebrew.
Good afternoon class,

Wow. This class seems to be about half full of students that care, and half with those that have completely checked out of school mentally. I feel bad for the latter half, and I promise to keep trying my hardest to help and get you to succeed, but at some point, you have to be willing to take ownership of your own destiny. Only you can make that decision!

Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? How can the Middle East be stabilized?

Soundtrack: "Sweet Emotion" by Aerosmith. Chosen, as Brenan guessed, because your presentations today were geared around appealing to emotion in trying to get Israelis and Palestinians to come together.

AGENDA 5/26/09:
News Brief (Exploding Nuclear Bomb Edition)
Student Presentations
Research Questions

Homework: Continue to work on final paper for the year, develop a research question! Finish any late work! Read blog recap!

For those of you that did not do the Israeli-Palestinian presentation today, I will expect to see them on Thursday. If not then, I am sorry, but I really cannot help you.

News Brief (Exploding Nuclear Bomb Edition): At the start of class, I went over the essential questions, soundtrack, agenda, and homework, then asked the class about what they did for the long Memorial Day weekend!

After some good conversation here, we went on to talk about the enormous news of the weekend. I found it absolutely incredible that in both of my Global Studies classes today, nobody had heard that North Korea had detonated a nuclear bomb as a test over the weekend. You can read all about that on really any news site. CNN.com has a special section dedicated to it, which you can find here: CNN.com - News & Videos about North Korea.

I also mentioned: FT.com - Tehran puts block on Facebook access as election date looms. Apparently, Iran's government recently restored access, but it is interesting to see nonetheless!

CNN.com - California high court upholds same-sex marriage ban - this was the "Proposition 8" topic that I mentioned would be decided at 10 AM today. Basically, the Supreme Court sided with the voters in California that elected to ban gay marriage last November, but also that the people that got married when it was legal for a short time last year (about 18,000 people, including Ellen DeGeneres) still have valid marriages in the State of California. So basically, neither side of the debate is happy. The debate continues!

Finally, I mentioned that President Obama had selected Sonia Sotomayor to be on the Supreme Court. She has to be confirmed by the Senate now, but seems likely to be the first Hispanic (her parents were born in Puerto Rico) on the court, as well as the third woman. This is another HUGE deal, that is all over the news. Her biography can be found here: CNN.com - Who is Sonia Sotomayor?.

Tyler, you are up for next class for a news brief. Anything going on around the world outside the United States.

Student Presentations: I really do not think I need to recap these, but I will say that I was very excited for the people that did do them today, who I have down as Mitchell and Maddie, Cameron and Tyler, Brenan and Chris, and Haley. If your name is not listed there, you will be expected to go Thursday. No exceptions.

The link to Brenan and Chris's video can be viewed online here (WARNING: Graphic Images).

Please remember that I need your explanation paper (with the basics of the conflict, sides to the debate, and what your product is going to do about it), your presentation (if it can be turned in), and your skills packet. I also will eventually need your notes on the presentations as well. Lots of credit to give out!

Research Questions: We used the rest of class (about 10 minutes or so, plus a few minutes that I held you after), to talk about what a good research question looks like, because it is your homework for tonight to design one for your final paper. Here are some of the aspects that we talked about for a good research question:
- Specific (Is it defined to a particular area or areas? What, exactly, are you studying?)
- Testable (Can you actually find out information about it?)
- Hypothesis (Can you make an educated guess about what you are going to investigate?)
- Relates to the topic (Something of "global significance" - please ask if you are confused about if a topic will work or not)
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There you have it! Hopefully this all made sense! Have a wonderful evening, see you on Thursday!