Culture, Day 6 - Class Recap

A pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This was right across the street from where my friend Clarke lived for a while. Photo taken in 2011.

Hi everyone,

Today, we had some exchange students come in, we finished the Time For School assignment, and continued to work on the Culture Project. Here's the recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Critical Thinking LT 1: I can explain multiple perspectives and viewpoints.
Knowledge LT 15: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.
Behavior LT 1:  I can manage my responsibilities as a student.

Soundtrack: "Rhapsody in Blue" by Leonard Bernstein. Selected for today because I went flying over the weekend, and this song is used in United Airlines commercials. No lyrics, but listen here.

AGENDA 10/24/16:
News Brief – Isaac
Exchange Students
Time for School
Culture Project

Homework: Read the blog. Continue working on the Culture Project! Next news brief: Carson.

News Brief: Isaac had the news brief today and talked about this story with the class: BBC.com - Belgium Walloons block key EU Ceta trade deal with Canada. We found Belgium on our world maps (in Europe) and talked about this story for a little bit, as I tried to explain what free trade deals are and why a part of Belgium being against the deal means that all of the rest of Europe cannot sign it. Carson was selected to do the next news brief.

We checked in about the weekend (I am still quite tired from my quick weekend trip to the Bay Area!), and anything else that was happening, as well.

We also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

Finally, we watched Wildcat News. If you missed class or wanted to see it again, here it is:

Exchange Students: We were very fortunate to have two exchange students at Westview present about their culture today in class: Laura from Brazil and Philine from Germany! I really enjoyed hearing about their culture and perspective on our culture. Thank you for your focus and great questions during this time! If you see either of them around Westview, be sure to say hi and thank her again for coming in! :-)

Here was Laura's presentation that she went through in class (Philine had her's on a USB drive, so I don't have a copy of it):

Google Drive - Laura's Presentation on Brazilian Culture

So cool! My thanks again to Laura and Philine for coming in!

Time For School: We finished Time For School today. If you missed class and the handout, here it is:

Google Drive - Time For School Documentary Handout

Again, the point to this was to analyze how we see surface culture and what deeper culture is like in different areas around the world.

We finished this video last class, if you missed class and need to catch up, or simply want to review it again:

PBS.org - Time For School 2003-2016

Today, we went back to the assignment, talked about the students and their culture, then answered the three questions on the back side of the paper.

Culture Project: I introduced this last class. This is one of the main assignments for the culture unit, and I hope it is interesting for students to work on! There are a lot of options of what to do - it could be writing, a visual, a presentation, or something else. Here's the assignment:

Google Drive - Culture Project Assignment

This will be due in class next week (on Tuesday), so be working on it at home, bring work into class to do, and ask questions if you need help!

The rest of class was devoted to working on the Culture Project, as I went around the class and answered questions about it, or brainstormed ideas. Please continue to be working on this at home! See you next class. :-)