Period 4: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 9 - Class Recap

The United States provides Israel with an average of 3 billion dollars a year in military aid. Source: NYTimes.com - U.S. and Israel Sign Military Aid Deal.
Good afternoon and welcome to the weekend!

Lots of interesting information and content to go over today. Generally, I liked how class went! We still have to work on listening to each other when someone is talking, as well as some focus issues. However, I especially loved all the ideas you were coming up with at the end of class! Let's keep it going!

Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? What are the factors to consider in the development of a Palestinian state? - The second question is a new one, built off of our final project (which just so happens to be based off the first essential question).

Soundtrack: "Dear Mama" by 2Pac. Lyrics here. Chosen because it is Mother's Day on Sunday! This is an excellent song - it is the ringtone for when my mom calls me! :-)

AGENDA 5/8/09:
News Brief
Middle East Map Quiz
The Israeli-Palestinian Problem
Final Project

Homework: Come to class with an idea ready to work on for final project. Read blog recap!

I would like you to bring in one concrete idea for what you are going to do for your final project. This will be recapped in great detail below in the Final Project section.

News Brief: As I said in class today, this was pretty much exactly what I am looking for in the "News Brief" section. I want people to bring in interesting things that are happening in their lives and around the world! Lots to go over today, so let's get to it.

Someone mentioned the fire in Santa Barbra, California. Here's a link to an article about that: Reuters - California fire sends 20,000 fleeing, burns 75 homes. Pretty crazy, considering it is the beginning of May. This stuff is becoming way too common.

I think it was Maren who mentioned that there is widespread flooding in Brazil! Interesting! I actually hadn't heard about that yet, so this article was a good read: CNN.com - At least 31 dead, 50,000 homeless in Brazil flooding.

Someone mentioned that a swine flu vaccine is being made. Here's an article about the efforts behind that: Reuters - US FDA scientist sees challenges in H1N1 vaccine.

Diego's news brief was about him hearing that the swine flu started in India. Not this time, at least. Source: The Times of India - India remains free of H1N1 flu as US sees second death. However, the BIRD flu has been a big problem there in recent years: CNN.com - Bird flu scare hits northeast India.

Thanks for that start to class, everyone! Nikola, you are up next class. One current news article, about anything outside the United States.

Middle East Map Quiz: Thank you for being quiet and focused on this. I took a gander (great word) at these, and most of them look okay, at the least! Remember that it is so important to know where these places are, especially when the United States is fighting wars in two countries in the Middle East! I will have these graded and back to you on Tuesday.

The Israeli-Palestinian Problem: This section of class was devoted to learning a little more about the conflicts in Israel. I handed out the notes from the PowerPoint (please come see me if you were not in class for this) and went through this presentation, asking you to take notes about things that were interesting (or in some cases, what I had just told you to write down):

The Israeli-Palestinian Problem PowerPoint
I am not sure if I like how my handing out the PowerPoint notes relates to a seeming lack of attention to the presentation. Today we were much better than the last time, but still, I would really appreciate your attention and focus when I give you a break and do not make you take enormous amounts of written notes for each slide to stay focused. I realize that some of you doodle to stay focused, but please know that I might be calling on you to see if you understand what I am saying if I don't see that I have your attention.

Something that came up during the PowerPoint was my love for the Olympics, and how the recent Opening Ceremony in Beijing was one of the most incredible performances I have ever seen. Here is a video of it, or at least, the first few minutes.

Final Project: Transitioning from the presentation and using all of the information we have learned about different cultures across the Middle East, I handed out the final project for this unit, which can be downloaded here:

Israel and Palestine Final Project Handout
We read this together as a class, and as promised we will go through many different aspects of what I am asking you to do over the next few class days. Again, your homework is to think of an idea that you can bring in to start working on (and get my approval) for next class. I want you to have fun with this! Do something that you really enjoy doing and will look forward to sharing with the class!

As I said in class, the main point of this assignment is not to try and determine a Middle East peace plan between Israel and Palestine. There are some classes that do that exercise, and while I think it can be incredibly valuable, I want our class to create something that can help get us to that point. I heard many good thoughts in class today, and I also listed out a few options in the assignment. Please come see me or ask away in the comments or e-mail me if you have any questions about this project!

I was glad to see that we ended up with a good 15 minutes or so to think of ideas for the project. Most of this was good work, but please remember to stay on task when I give you time to work on assignments. :-)
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Treat your mothers well this weekend! I know that they are all amazing, because they helped make you into the wonderful people you are today! :-)

Tonight (Friday), I will not be able to post or respond to comments or e-mails from about 4 to 10. However, I will be grading for almost the entire weekend, as well as creating lesson plans, so please fire away any time in the comments or on e-mail, and I will probably get back to you quite quickly! Enjoy your weekend! Thanks for being great students!