Period 4: World War I, Day 3 - Class Recap

My Great-Grandfather, Joseph Herbert "Bert" Frank, who was a medic for Great Britain during World War I. Photo courtesy of a conversation with my grandmother in 2007!

Hello everyone,

Thanks for another great class! I thought it was a good mix of new content and reflecting on what we have learned so far. I appreciate your willingness to listen and follow your own ground rules.

Essential Question: Why do wars happen?

Soundtrack: “The War Was In Color" by Carbon Leaf. Chosen because the song directly relates to learning about World War I. This was not just some old black and white documentary. I felt like it is probably what my great-grandfather would say if he were still alive and I asked him what it was like. Lyrics here. A sample I love: This black and white photo don't capture the skin/From the flash of a gun to a soldier who's done/Trust me grandson/The war was in color.

AGENDA 1/28/13:
News Brief/Blog Recap
Sparks Into Fire
My Connection
Life in the Trenches
Grades/Make Up Work

Homework: Check the blog and post a comment if you have not done so! Have a great weekend!
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News Brief: Sarah presented an article (no direct link because it was in a magazine, but here's one close to it: USAToday.com - Russian adoption ban frustrates American couples) about how there are 700,000 orphans needing to be adopted in Russia, with only 18,000 Russian families willing to adopt. A new law is banning Americans from adopting Russian children. This seems pretty ridiculous to me, but hey, maybe there is more to it.

Zakeiba mentioned the fire in Brazil that killed many people yesterday. ABCNews.go.com - Brazil Nightclub Fire Kills More Than 230 People. This is such a terrible event, and it is great that we now know about it. It reminded me of this famous Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City in 1911, which killed 146 people.

Another news topic that I brought up Iran threatening to attack anyone that tries to intervene in Syria (remind anyone of the World War I alliances?): LATimes.com - Iran issues threatening warning against attack in Syria.

You can always count on having at least some discussion on what is currently going on around the world in this class! Sai, you have the news brief for next class, please!

Blog Recap: Thank you to everyone that has commented already. Also, if a PowerPoint does not display correctly when you click on the link, please download the file in Google Docs.

Sparks Into Fire: During this section, I showed the class the map animations slideshow for the start of World War I here: PBS.org - Europe in 1914 and here: PBS.org - The Great War. I asked the class to take general notes about what the maps dealt with - especially in regards to the "Western Front" and "Eastern Front" relating to Germany. These are two very famous terms that you will hear about later in life, I am sure. It is important to learn about all of the different "dominoes" that fell in terms of alliances at the start of the war, as well.

My Connection: This section was a short and sweet (I hope) presentation about my great-grandfather's involvement in World War I as a medic. I did not ask the class to take notes. In case you missed class, or wanted to see the pictures again, here it is:

Google Docs - Mr. Fritz's Connection to World War I PowerPoint

I hope it was interesting, and I hope that you ask about your own family history! It was fascinating for me to learn about it from my grandmother over tea. :-)

Life in the Trenches: This section consisted of two parts. First, I showed the class a few minutes of a documentary on World War I (in color!) that talked about how awful the war was from the perspective of those who fought in it. That video can be found here (I started it at 7:49 and stopped it about 11:30 or so into it): YouTube.com - World War I in Color, Episode 2: Slaughter in the Trenches.

After watching the video clip, I talked a little more about conditions in the trenches, which were long lines dug out in the ground, not far away from each other. Over the course of the war, not much progress was made in the battles, since any advance by the opposition was fairly easy to stop. I believe I called the whole idea "stupid" quite a bit in class. It totally was. Someone asked about soldiers literally using dead bodies as "meat shields" to cover themselves. I could not find anything about that specifically. Here's some similar terms: Wikipedia - "Cannon Fodder"

I said that World War I was way different from wars in the past (like the Revolutionary War), especially because of the difference between machine guns and muskets. military.discovery.com - Revolutionary War Flintlock Musket. Twenty seconds and 13 steps per shot. Obviously a machine gun that fires multiple rounds per second is much more deadly to large armies.

I handed out a worksheet of letters home from soldiers on in the trenches, and then had the class imagine they were in the same position. This was what the work was for the rest of the class - making up your own letter on the back of the worksheet. If you missed class, you can download the worksheet and create your letter here:

Google Docs: Life in the Trenches - Letters Home Worksheet

Thank you for your work on this. It should be fairly easy points for me to give you. I am trying to help you out if you are close to that next letter grade!

Grades/Make Up Work: The rest of the class was devoted to me checking in with everyone about exactly where they stand and what you need to make up, if there is anything.

If you want to turn in any late work or revise your Rwanda speech, you need to have it into me as soon as possible. As in, if you are reading this at home, it is probably already too late - but ask/send them to me anyway. You also need to include the original graded copy of the speech, so I can see the changes you made. Sound good?

Good luck on finals! Please remember we do not have a final in this class, but we will definitely be working hard.