Congratulations! You made it to the summer! Picture taken by Mr. Fritz at the 2008 Holiday Bowl, in San Diego, California.
Hello former students!
This is seriously so strange! First, this is the first time I have written a class recap blog days after the actual class. It was just insanely busy there for everyone at the end of the week. Secondly, I have no idea who is actually going to read this, considering there is no real reason to unless you are interested about what happened in class or what I am up to. Anyway, here goes! Please let me know (as always) if you have any questions or comments!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? How did the concept of nonviolence develop and become implemented?
Soundtrack: What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. Lyrics here. As I said in class, this is one of my favorite songs ever, and the one that I picked to best describe myself when I was a sophomore in high school. A great one to end out the year of Global Studies!
AGENDA 6/11/09: News Brief What We Want to Be Class Reflection Debrief Travel and Thrive
Homework: Have a wonderful summer! Read the new blog, if you like! Stay in touch!
After going over all of the stuff written on the board, I gave everyone my personal e-mail address (because I lost my Beaverton one at midnight last night), which is: LukeFritz@aol.com.
I am very serious when I say that I want you to stay in touch! Send me updates on what is going on! Need me to proof read a paper? Send it my way! Have a question about something going on around the world? E-mail me!
I also pointed out that I have started a new class blog for all of my Global Studies students to keep in touch with each other, which can be found here: http://westviewgsalum.blogspot.com/. I have already e-mailed everyone I could find addresses from to become authors on there - please let me know if you did not get one and want an invite! I am guessing that this new blog will only be as good as you help make it. If I see that nobody is actually reading it, I am sure that it will die off soon. I really do not want that to happen! Please favorite it and come back every so often to check in - if you have something especially cool to post, let me know, and I can give you a screenname to post on the blog with, anytime you want!
News Brief: Again, this is a little strange, because a lot of this happened a few days ago, but here goes.
Katelyn was going to mention for her news brief (before someone else mentioned it first) the shooting on Wednesday at the Holocaust Memorial in Washington D.C. Here is a recap of what happened: CNN.com - Guard killed during shooting at Holocaust museum. I was also blown away to hear how truly hateful this 88 year old man is. Hopefully this will show you one of the reasons why the United States supports Israel so much - for whatever reason, there is a LOT of hatred for Jewish people (which is called being an Anti-Semite) out there in the world. Here is a great article about responding to hate and intolerance in this case: WashingtonPost.com - Stepping Up to Defy Intolerance. A great quote, that reminds me of so many things we have talked about in class this year:
For many visitors, the reopening yesterday was an opportunity to make a statement of defiance against intolerance.
"We can't let hatred win," said William Dailey, a teacher at Jefferson Junior High School in Toledo who was chaperoning a school trip.
Toward the head of the line was Tammi Miller, 17, visiting Washington with her family from South Florida. Miller was in the museum Wednesday and was evacuated by way of a fire escape when the shooting began.
"It's important to come back, because if you don't, they win," she said. "It's a form of terrorism."
Really interesting and tragic at the same time. It is a sometimes brutal world out there!
Thank you for your interest and attention in the news brief section all year! I love how the class brought such interesting things in to talk about and keep me on my toes!
What We Want to Be: As I pointed out, I got very little sleep the night before because of grading your papers, so I did not get to do anything fancy with your "be the change" assignment that I had you do last class - as in a PowerPoint or something. However, I think it was almost as good just to be able to read them aloud and have you write about what your fellow classmates said. Here is a picture of what we came up with as far as noticing what everyone said:
I know this may have been a little boring, but I really thought it was cool to see what everyone said. Stay true to your hopes and dreams! You all are seriously amazing!
Class Reflection Debrief: During this part of class, I projected what everyone had to say (no exceptions) in answer to the questions that I asked you to reflect upon in class last time. These are always interesting for me to see and talk about! Thank you for all the valuable information and thoughts!
Travel and Thrive: The "Travel" section of this part of the lesson was geared around watching about a 10 minute clip from near the end of movie Elizabethtown (2005). The rest of the movie is pretty good too, but the particular sequence that I showed you I just LOVE! It is all about just exploring the country and talking to others and making connections (even with the character's dead father). I made this relate to class because Orlando Bloom visits the place where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot to spread some ashes. Really one of my favorite sequences (I love the music too) of traveling that I know of. My other favorite movie about traveling is Lost in Translation (2003) which is downright fantastic (however, please wait until you are 18 for that one please)! In fact, it is my eighth favorite movie of all time (ask me sometime if you want to know the top 10). :-)
The "Thrive" part of this was watching one of the most inspirational speeches that I have ever seen:
This was former North Carolina State basketball coach (and National Championship winner) Jimmy Valvano, who at the time was dying of cancer. A few months after this speech, he passed away, but wow, what a legacy to leave behind! You laugh, you think, and you cry, that is a heck of a day. Yes it is!
Anyway, after this clip, we had a short discussion about where people were traveling to this summer, if they were. Many of you were going to really amazing places! Please, please take notice of how amazing the world is around you, where ever you go! Take pictures, breathe it in! One of my favorite things to do when I am traveling is to sit down, close my eyes, and simply just listen. That would have been the activity we would have done outside, by the way - with some creative writing attached to it. Soak in life!
One final class related note: please RECYCLE your papers that you know you will not need in the future. I would feel terrible if we you spent an entire year in Global Studies and then threw your paper into the trash, to make even bigger piles of garbage around our planet.
That should just about do it, everyone! Make sure to keep checking in and getting on the alumni blog, which I have some big plans for! Seriously, I will be so disappointed if you do not! Have a fantastic few months off, and let me know what you are up to! Also, barring me being on another continent or something, I will definitely be coming back to see everyone graduate in three years (though obviously, I want to come back tons of times before that too). Just know that you have that to look forward to. I will never ever forget everyone in this class. Until the next time our paths cross, this is Luke, signing off. :-)
At my Lewis and Clark graduation on Sunday! From left to right, my dad, my brother, Mrs. DeFrance, me, my mom, my grandma, and my grandpa (my dad's parents). Fun times! It was a way too fast weekend! Time to finish out the end of the year!
Hello everyone!
Oh my goodness, we only have one more class together! This is all coming to an end really fast. I hope you enjoyed today's class - thanks for the attention, even with multiple things going on during the lesson. Please remember to finish out the year strong with the paper and any revisions that we asked you to do. Also, come see me or e-mail about any late work you may have to do! Let's go out on a high note!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? How did the concept of nonviolence develop and become implemented? - We looked at multiple angles of the answers to these questions today!
Soundtrack: "If You're Out There" by John Legend. Lyrics here. The verse that I especially wanted to highlight is:
If you're ready we can save the world Believe again, it starts within We don't have to wait for destiny We should be the change that we want to see
Great song! :-)
AGENDA 6/9/09: News Brief Be the Change Letter to Self Class Reflections
Homework: Finish any late work – REVISE your papers (or turn them in for the first time), if needed! Read the blog and ask questions!
Seriously, if you do not have your paper in to me, I need it ASAP. As in, it is totally unfair to wait until the last minute and put even more work on both of us. We will hand back the grades for the papers on Thursday, as well as do final revisions.
News Brief: I tried to make sure that this section was shortened today, as we had a lot of stuff to do today. One item that was mentioned in particular was: KGW.com - Report: Murdered pregnant woman had infant cut from womb. This sparked a quick discussion about all of this, which was interesting!
Katelyn, you are up for the last news brief of the year on Thursday. Any article about anything currently going on around the world outside the United States. Thanks!
Be the Change: After the news brief, I wanted everyone to really be thinking about how they want to have a positive effect on the world. To get you thinking about this, I showed this video (one of the most popular on YouTube):
I then asked the class to write about how you want to be the change you wish to see in the world (a Gandhi quote). How are you going to leave a lasting positive impact? I then left you to be writing as Mrs. DeFrance checked in with many of the people that turned in the paper and I went around and made sure to talk to people with missing work about turning everything in.
Letter to Self: For this portion of class, I handed back the letters that you wrote to yourselves from the beginning of the year as well as a reflection piece to do on them. Mrs. DeFrance and I have read a few of these reflections so far, and they were really interesting! Thanks for doing such great, thoughtful work here! I hope you enjoyed the process!
Class Reflections: For the last ten minutes of class, I asked you to reflect on the year of Global Studies. I am looking forward to reading all of these and showing everyone what they thought of class this year! ---
Have a great night! I have a million things to do: grading, blog writing, football practice, more grading, lesson planning, dinner, and possibly (hopefully) sleep at some point. Thus, please do not be offended if I can't post your comment right away. I will promise to read and respond to everything that you send me though! Please keep working hard through the end of the year! :-)
An Air India 747-400 at Newark International Airport on Memorial Day weekend. If not for Gandhi, it is possible that Air India would not even exist today! Picture by Mr. Fritz.
Hello and welcome to a ridiculously short class recap!
I am guessing that I am going to spend way more time writing this blog post than we actually had in the whole of class today, due to the senior assembly going WAY over time. Because of this, we had roughly 20 minutes in class together, and I really had to condense (or eliminate) a lot of things that I wanted to do. Such is life! Follow along, let's go!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? How did the concept of nonviolence develop and become implemented?
Soundtrack: (Would have been) "We Can Work It Out" by The Beatles. Lyrics here. Because most of you were already in the class during the assembly period, it turned out to be pretty pointless to play the song as a soundtrack. It is a great one though!
AGENDA 6/5/09: News Brief Who Was Gandhi? First Draft Check-In The Old Man
Homework: E-mail either Mrs. DeFrance (audra_defrance@beavton.k12.or.us) or me (luke_fritz@beavton.k12.or.us) so that we can give you advice on how to revise your paper to be turned in on Tuesday, to be graded!
This was the revised homework - we would have used the class time today to go over each paper with you, but there was simply no way to have this happen in the time that we had left. If you are at all concerned about your paper (and really, your final grade in the class), please e-mail one of us and we will help you out!
News Brief: We talked about the enormous lightning storm that happened in Portland last night! It was certainly something to take notice of. I was inside watching the NBA Finals. Good times.
There was a really scattered news brief today, but I want to specifically mention that I showed this clip to the class, about how President Obama tried to create some sort of peace in the Middle East through getting people to come together - your assignment for the Israeli-Palestinian unit too!
This was at the end of the President's speech in Cairo, Egypt yesterday. You can watch a clip of President Obama talking specifically about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the speech here. Good stuff. You can watch the entire speech as well as click on a link for a transcript to read here: WhiteHouse.gov - The President's Speech in Cairo: A New Beginning.
Cameron asked why we never hear any news about Australia. Well, that is partly because nobody brings in articles related to it, but partly because there really is not that much to Australia outside the main cities. However, here is an article about something interesting happening in the country: CNBC.com - Australia Escapes Recession ... For Now.
Maritza, if you could bring in a news article for next class, that would be great. Thanks!
Who Was Gandhi? I apologize that I really had zero time to set this up well, but we ended the class by watching a short biography of who Gandhi was and what his philosophy of nonviolence was about, which can be found here.
We had to scrap pretty much everything else, but the main points of the class were these: E-mail your paper to either Mrs. DeFrance or myself. President Obama had a speech in the Middle East talking about exactly the same stuff we talked about in class. Gandhi tried to get independence for India from Britain by using the tactic of nonviolence. ---
Whew! Yes, that took me a while. Still, I hope you enjoyed class! Have a great weekend and let me know how I can be helping you out! See you for the second to the last time on Tuesday! Ahh!
A "peer review" by sea lions at the Oregon Zoo, last summer. Picture by Mr. Fritz.
Hello and welcome to another class recap!
Thank you for the good hard work today (for the most part). I was glad to see everyone actually working on something during class. Whether you needed to continue working on your rough draft or you needed some really good peer review feedback, I think you should have had a great amount of time to actually do this today.
Essential Question: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded?
Soundtrack: "Get Up, Stand Up" by Bob Marley. Lyrics here. A fantastic song for thinking about civil rights!
AGENDA 6/3/09: News Brief Peer Review/In-Class Work Questions Rubric
Homework: First draft of paper (typed) due. Read the blog and ask questions!
Remember that you need a typed bibliography at the end of the paper, with your sources in alphabetical order! I know this is a lot of work, so please let me know how I can be helping!
News Brief: Sometimes we spend a lot of time on this section of class, talking about what is going on in the world. I am sorry if this gets boring for some of you, but I really like talking about everything that is happening! It is a good way to stay connected to what is happening. Today we had:
Also, we talked about Osama bin Laden coming out with a new audio tape that just aired this morning (or we got news about it). This is a recap of what we currently know about that all: NYTimes.com - Message on Obama Attributed to Bin Laden.
Really interesting stuff right? Haley continued this section by bringing in this article to talk about: FOXNews.com - Large Chunks of Air France Jet Found in Atlantic Ocean. This was related to what we had talked about last class and earlier today as well, about the crash of the Air France jet off the coast of Brazil. Really a sad and mysterious story.
Maritza, please bring in a news article for next class, about anything currently going on around the world outside the United States. Thanks!
Peer Review/In-Class Work: At this point in time, I handed out papers to peer review your rough drafts, if you had that done (which was your homework). We went through and read exactly what I was looking for in regards to the paper, and how everyone could be helping each other revise. I trust that this section was helpful for everyone!
For those that did not have the homework completely done, or needed more time, I had you quietly work on developing your paper. Some of you really worked hard during this - thank you! Others in the class seem like they are still in need of a lot of help and/or effort on this. Please let me or Mrs. DeFrance know what we can do!
Questions: At the end of class, I took a few questions about everything that is going on - though there seemed to be about five other conversations going on. I just hope that everyone is clear about what we are doing!
Rubric: Finally, at the end of class, I handed out the rubric for the historical investigation paper. We went over this briefly - please take a good look at it if you can! It will help you out! There may be sections that might be confusing (for instance, the "summary of evidence" section is about your concrete details), but I trust it will be helpful for you. ---
Remember that there is Nike SPARQ testing after school today from 3:00 to about 4:30. Also remember that I am crazy busy these last few weeks, so I might not be able to post and respond to your comments on the blog instantly. Please be sending them though! I love hearing from everyone, and helping as much as I possibly can!
Have a great evening, thanks for being so awesome! :-)
Earth, as seen from the Apollo 17. This is probably the most famous image of Earth from space, and is sometimes referred to as the "Blue Marble" picture. Found on the consistently incredible (bookmark and come back every day) NASA.gov - Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).
Dear Period 4,
I really liked how today went, despite a few areas where I thought I could have done a better job teaching how to write the paper, and where the class really needed to be focused on actually writing the rough draft. Other than that, I loved the participation, engagement, and overall focus. Thanks!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What are civil rights? - Wow, we have been seriously neglecting the essential questions, but I am really hoping that we will be able to come back to them at some point!
Soundtrack: "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado. Lyrics here. I'm not sure if anyone really knows what this song is about, including Ms. Furtado, but man, is it catchy. As I said in class, it reminds me of a California road trip I took in 2007! Chosen for today because I searched my iTunes for "right" and this was the best song that came up.
AGENDA 6/1/09: News Brief Writing the Paper Quiet Base Group Work Conferences
Homework: Rough draft of paper due for peer editing. Read the blog and ask questions!
To be clear here: I would like a typed copy of the rough draft of your historical investigation (including everything that we talked about in class today - an introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion, and bibliography) for your peers to help review in your base groups next class.
Please be sure to be asking questions and asking for help in the comments if you need it at all!
News Brief: Two stories that I wanted to highlight this morning as items of interest that everyone should know about were these - AVHerald.com - Crash: Air France A332 over Atlantic on June 1st 2009, aircraft lost. Check out that second picture of the extreme weather patterns in the area. As I mentioned in class, it would be hard to pick a more remote place in the ocean. I also said that I would upload a picture of the "black box" or flight data recorder that is virtually indestructible and can be used to help determine what happened in an accident. Here is one from an Evergreen International Airlines 747 that I worked on two winters ago:
Really a horrifying event. Though for any of you that are concerned about flying, know that you have a way higher chance of dying from a car accident on the way to the airport than you do the actual flight you are on. Flying is really one of the safest modes of transportation in the world. It just so happens that every so often, things go terribly wrong.
The other story I wanted to point out was this: CNN.com - GM bankruptcy: End of an era. Really an incredible day. General Motors was the biggest car company in the world for something like 90 straight years before losing its position to Toyota. Many people and dealerships will be out of jobs, though the company is expected to remain mostly intact through the bankruptcy (as it tries to get rid of the huge debt it has).
Tyler asked about someone calling Sonia Sotomayor (President Obama's Supreme Court nominee) racist. That is an interesting debate, some of which can be recapped here: CNN.com - Sotomayor: GOP cries racism, Dems cry foul.
Finally, Maddie was wanting to see and hear about the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Here is an article about how he has denied that the Holocaust happened. Associated Press - Rival criticizes Ahmadinejad's Holocaust denial. Go searching on YouTube if you want. He is a weird guy.
Brenan brought in the following article to talk about for the news brief today: CNN.com - Israel stages biggest-ever war drill. Again, Israel and many other places in the Middle East are involving in really long running conflicts that are almost sure to continue. Very interesting to learn about!
Haley, you are up for a news article for Wednesday. Anything currently going on around the world that is happening outside the United States. Thanks!
Writing the Paper: During this section of class, there was a really fantastic discussion about the finer points of citing a source and how we want you to write the paper, which would be impossible to entirely recap on the blog. However, if you were paying attention in class, I feel pretty confident that you understand what is going on. If not, please ask questions in the comments about how to construct a paragraph and cite a source! Remember, we do not want you using a ton of direct quotes. Pick a couple really key ones, and summarize the rest! You still have to cite them, but now you are showing me what you think about your research!
Remember that the format of the paragraphs is there to just give you a general idea of the sequence that we want: topic sentence, concrete detail, concrete detail, commentary, concluding statement. Those do not all have to be single sentences! In fact, if you elaborate each point, your paper will probably be much easier to write!
Again, let me know if you have any questions about all of this!
Quiet Base Group Work: Perhaps I should have underlined "Quiet" here, because I really doubt that most of you used this time effectively. I wanted you to check in with each other about how things are going with the paper, then get right down to writing your rough draft. Some of you chose to utilize this time, some did not. During this, we also did...
Conferences: Mrs. DeFrance and I really like doing these. It is always awesome to get to check in with everyone! I started from the bottom of the class list and she started from the top. If you did not get to chat with either one of us today, the questions that I asked were: how are you feeling about your research question and sources? Does this paper make sense? Do you need any help with it? Do you feel confident about writing the rough draft this weekend? Finally, I showed everyone their grade and gave out ways (if possible) to get it up.
Thanks for visiting with us! I really value the opportunity to sit down and chat one-on-one, because that happens way less frequently than I would like. ---
Again, please let me know how I can be helping you out! Do not stress about this, but please get it done! Thank you!
I will be involved in many football meetings and practices this week after school, but should be able to respond to comments.
The picture in Hsuan-Ting's PowerPoint today that had everyone really interested and talking. Really cool way to look at a response to the conflict!
Hello Period 4!
Let me just say that I very much enjoyed today and thought that it was WAY better than last class. Thank you for your focus, having your presentations ready to go (for those that did them), as well as the work on the research project. It was so very much appreciated. Hopefully we can continue to focus on getting all of this done until the end of the year!
Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? How can the Middle East be stabilized? - This was the last day of the unit, for answering these questions! Thank you for doing your best to try and do this!
Soundtrack: "Takin' Care of Business" by Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Lyrics here. Selected for today because we really needed to take care of business when it came down to this paper and presentations and with finishing the year strong.
Homework: Find sources for your research project! Read the blog and ask questions!
At the end of the class, we had you pick up different colored sheets of paper for each source that you are going to find for writing your paper. For the weekend, I would try to find at least three different sources. Remember, I know that the book may be hard to find. Concentrate on finding newspaper and magazine sources. Use Google News to search online! If you really cannot find anything, please post a comment and I would love to try and help you out!
News Brief: Partly because I am so tired, but I do not remember much of what we had to say here. Also, there really wasn't too many people involved in actually bringing news items in to talk about. Luckily, Tyler was there with a news source to bail us out: CNN.com - Cancer death rate dropped nearly 20 percent in 15 years. This was mainly talking about the United States, but it is a really interesting article! We talked about a lot of it in class. Cool to see that new technology is really helping people overcome these diseases.
Also, I tried to remember a quote that Kanye West had about Magic Johnson, since we had a discussion about if HIV/AIDS was curable now or not. It is in the song "Roses" and it goes something like this: "If Magic Johnson got a cure for AIDS/and all the broke [people] passed away/You telling me if my grandma was in the NBA/right now she would be okay?"
Interesting thoughts! Brenan, you are up for a news article next Monday. Anything currently going on around the world, outside the United States. Thanks!
Student Presentations: As I said above, I thought that most of these were absolutely fantastic. Way to go! At the end of all of the presentations (if you did not do one, please come and talk to me about how you are going to make up the credit), I had everyone turn in: the notes, the skills packet, your explanation paper, and finally, your presentation (if it was something that was able to be turned in, like a collage, or a PowerPoint). Hopefully this all made sense. I will try to get these back to you as soon as I can, but like I said at the start of class, it does take me quite a while to get through them all, since I want to respect your hard work with all the comments I can give.
Conferences: At this point in class, I had everyone get into "base groups" - you will be in these for the rest of the paper work - to conference on how the paper is going, what help you need, and finally, really be thinking about your research question and possible sources of information for it. I am not sure how well you used this time to actually be writing, but I am sure everyone is on top of this paper.
Until the end of class, Mrs. DeFrance and I tried to do a one-on-one conference with everyone. We did not get to some of you, but I do know that it was really awesome to get to talk to the people about how everything was going! We really tried to help you out with a research question and tell you exactly how you were doing in the class, along with possible ways to improve your score. Again, if you are at all interested in keeping in touch about this sort of stuff, please be coming to see either of us!
Generally, it was a good, productive day. I know that you probably feel like you have a lot of work ahead of you this weekend, but don't stress! I am here to help! Ask me if you are having trouble with the sources! :-) ---
I am becoming increasingly busy it seems, but should be mostly available to post and respond to comments over the next few days. This week has been absolutely exhausting! Let's keep working hard together to finish the year! Have a wonderful evening!
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.
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.
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) ---
There you have it! Hopefully this all made sense! Have a wonderful evening, see you on Thursday!
Faraj Adnan, one of the people in the movie Promises that we finished today. The picture can be found here. Also, here is a site that tells you a little bit about what happened right after the movie. Faraj is now 24. Should you feel so inclined, here is Faraj's MySpace, and here is his FaceBook. Also, while you are at it, here is Yarko Solan's FaceBook. Certainly something that connects cultures and countries - social networking sites! :-)
Good afternoon, Period 4!
That was a really interesting class - it showed me how nice it would be if class sizes were small all the time! I appreciate all of you that came, and for those of you that elected to do the walk-a-thon for autism, way to go! Hopefully we will have everyone checking out this post, as there is a lot going on to talk about and go over! Let's get to it!
Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? How can the Middle East be stabilized?
Soundtrack: "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses. Lyrics here. Chosen because we finished watching a film about Israeli and Palestinian children today in class.
AGENDA 5/20/09: News Brief Finish Promises IP Project Work Final Paper Bibliography
Homework: Israeli-Palestinian projects/presentations AND explanation papers due next class! Read blog recap!
We talked about this in class, but yes, your presentations and explanation papers will due in class next Tuesday. I feel no sympathy if anyone was surprised be this, considering it has been your homework for the last two weeks to be continuing to work on. For those needing the assignment again, here it is to download:
For those needing further clarification about what I am asking you to do:
For the paper, please type at least a page, and show your understanding of the conflict. This can best be accomplished by using the "who, who, when, where, why" and sides to the debate that we wrote in class in your skills packet. Then, tell me how your creative product (below) is related to the conflict and will make people come together. Explain it to me!
For the product, you have hopefully picked an activity or some sort of presentation that you can use to come before the class and explain how Israelis and Palestinians should come together and connect (building off of the essential question for the unit). This needs to have some sort of emotional response to the conflict and be able to actually be used. It should also last for at least 2-3 minutes. You will be presenting in class next Tuesday!
So, to recap: I need your paper, presentation, and skills packet turned in during class on Tuesday. Let me know if you need any help with this at all!
Really interesting! I talked about how the world economy is very much impacted by what happens here in the United States, and gave some statistics that I would love to back up here.
A lot of mumbo jumbo that you almost certainly do not care about, but the basic gist of it all is this: The United States economy is over three times bigger/richer than the next biggest economy, which is Japan. Which is what I put up on the board - the nominal GDP statistic. Bobby asked what is the third richest country in the world. That looks to be either China or Germany, depending on what list you believe. You can see why when the U.S. has economic problems, the world does too, to a large extent.
Tyler, you are up to bring a news article about anything going on around the world (outside the U.S.) for next class on Tuesday. Thanks!
Finish Promises: I'm glad everyone participated in this! Even more so, I was really excited to hear your thoughts about all of it, especially about the innocence of children and the circumstances that they were born into. This was so related to the rest of the movie and the overall point!
By the way, now that the film is done, here is the trailer for the movie, and you can also watch the entire film on YouTube in 10 parts. That playlist can be found here.
I am very interested to see what you did with these conversations! I think it was a good way to approach watching the film. It is possible that we will do something next class with these as well. Again, thank you for your participation! I really liked all of the thoughts that we put on the board at the end of this as well! Thanks!
IP Project Work: For the rest of class, we discussed the Israeli-Palestinian project, which I recapped in some detail in the "homework" section above. Please look at that if you have any questions about what I am asking you to do, or if you need a particular thing for next class. If anyone is doing something electronic, I would appreciate if you e-mailed me the project so I know it is good to go.
Final Paper Bibliography: We did not get to this, but frankly, I am okay with it because I did not want to confuse you about what your main task for this weekend should be. We will come back to this next week. ---
As I stated in class, this weekend I will be visiting my brother at college in Princeton, New Jersey, to help him pack up to come home for the summer. I am really excited! I am flying out on Friday morning and getting back on Sunday night. If you are at all interested, you can track my flights in the air here: Portland to Seattle (Horizon Air Flight 2172, 9:30 AM Friday), Seattle to Newark, New Jersey (Continental Airlines Flight 1680, 11:45 AM Friday), Newark to Phoenix, (US Airways Flight 77, 4:35 PM Sunday), and Phoenix to Portland (US Airways Flight 94, 8:10 PM Sunday).
Also, if you would like to see a really awesome website that has all of the flights I have ever taken in my life mapped out, check out this: FlightMemory.com - Ml007. I love flying! Looking forward to putting that Newark-Phoenix route on that page later! If you end up doing this, please post a link in the comments! I would love to see where you have flown to! :-)
Should be a great weekend. I will try to be available as much as possible to post and respond to comments or e-mails. However, try searching around the rest of the blog for answers if you can - there is a lot here!
One of the promotional images for the film Promises that we are watching in class. Found on the official website, here.
Dear Period 4,
That certainly was an interesting class. I am not sure what it was about today, but there seemed to be an almost class-wide lack of focus. Possibly because it was a Monday after a sunny weekend. Possibly because the class just was not all that interesting (which I have a hard time believing, but could totally be true). Whatever the reason, I really had a difficult time quieting everyone down, making sure that people were paying attention to what was going on, being prepared, and other aspects of class that should really be entirely up to you guys. Take some ownership of class! It simply just will not work if I have to do it all. That, as we saw today, would take up most of the class.
Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? How can the Middle East be stabilized?
Soundtrack: "Beautiful Day" by U2. Lyrics here. Chosen because it really is a beautiful day outside! Some of the lyrics that relate to the interconnectedness around the world:
See the world in green and blue See China right in front of you See the canyons broken by cloud See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out See the Bedouin fires at night See the oil fields at first light And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth After the flood all the colors came out
It was a beautiful day Don't let it get away Beautiful day
AGENDA 5/18/09: News Brief Promises, Part II Final Paper Note Taking
Homework: Bring sources (at least one more) for next class. Continue to work on research and on your IP project! Read blog recap!
As I said in class, we have two different projects that we are working on. The Israeli-Palestinian project, which will probably be due next week, which can be downloaded here:
That project is designed to make each side come together for a common purpose (which you have to decide).
Secondly, the final research paper for the entire class, which is an historical investigation about anything of global significance (your choice). That will be due at the end of the year. You can download the assignment sheet for that here:
News Brief: We had a few good topics to talk about this morning, but none that I actually took note of to post on the blog. However, I did have a couple of items to point out in class and on here. The first was this article: CNN.com - Woman elected in Kuwait says gender in politics is 'history'. Super interesting article, I thought! Exactly what we were talking about at the beginning of this unit with how women can have an impact in the Middle East. Yay, progress!
Generally, interesting news! Armando, you are up for next class. A news article about anything going on around the world outside the United States. Thanks!
Promises, Part II: We watched the film until about 20 minutes left in class, pausing to stop and write questions and conversations to the kids in the movie. I would say that we have about 30 minutes left of this for Wednesday. Hopefully, everyone can see why this documentary is so important to watch! Keep your heads up and eyes focused, please!
Final Paper Note Taking: During the final few minutes in class, I had everyone go up to the board and write down what their idea for their final research project is. I was not expecting a really concrete idea, but many of these seemed entirely too vague or not thought through enough. Again, your homework was to think of something and bring in a news article about it! That is your homework for tonight as well!
For the rest of class, I had you take notes on three separate sheets of paper in your folders. Here is exactly what I typed on my laptop, for future reference:
YELLOW SHEET:
Quotes. One sentence quotes: put quote in quotation marks "quote" in parenthesis (author, page number)
Bigger Quotes: Indent quote and single space --> for multiple sentences and paragraphs (author, page number)
RED SHEET:
Summarizing paragraphs or chunks.
Put the author's words into your own words (do NOT just rearrange the words)
PURPLE SHEET:
Summarizing entire articles.
Main points --> what is the general purpose of the source?
--- We finished with these thoughts. Please be using these to take notes on your articles! Your paper will write itself, if you do this correctly!
Have a great day! Enjoy the sunny weather, but please make sure to keep working hard in all of your classes (and especially mine). The year is almost over! Let's get there together please! :-)
Outside the World Trade Center in downtown Portland, near the waterfront. All sorts of countries and cultures coming together there! Picture taken by Mr. Fritz on April 17th.
Hello class!
I think that was a generally good class! There really has to be some way to cut down on the side chatter and lack of focus at times, but that has been an issue all year with you guys. Other than that, I think that this was a really interesting and good day. A whole lot to talk about, so let's get on with the recap!
Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? What are the factors to consider in the development of a Palestinian state?
Soundtrack: "We Belong Together" by Mariah Carey. Lyrics here. Chosen because we are continuing to think about what brings people together.
AGENDA 5/14/09: News Brief Ping Pong Diplomacy/Music in Pyongyang Promises Final Paper Folders
Homework: Continue to work on your Israeli-Palestinian project. Decide on what topic you want to do (for your research paper), bring a source to take notes on next class. Read blog recap!
This will be talked about a little more in the "Final Paper Folders" section. Basically, I want you to decide on what you want to investigate for your final paper, and bring one source in (like a news article, book, magazine, etc) that relates to your topic and that you can take notes on. We will help you do this in class! All I need for you to do is to pick a topic, and choose something to take notes on about.
For anyone that was not in class today, or that has lost (already) the assignment sheet, here it is to download:
Again, we will be talking about this much more. In fact, for the rest of the year, this is what we will be doing. As I noted in class, I am thinking that we will have about half the time for the rest of this unit (and projects), and the other half to developing the paper.
News Brief: After a slow start to this section, Maritza started us off well by saying that she had heard something about the President of Guatemala. This was with good reason - there is a huge outrage in that country because he is believed to have ordered the killing of a lawyer! Interesting story! Here's your source: AP - Guatemala president seeks support at home, abroad.
Maddie wanted to know about the laws in Mexico about emigration (if people are moving OUT of a country, that is called "emigration" - if they are moving INTO a country, that is "immigration"). This appears to be a good breakdown of the situation: A Primer on Mexico’s Immigration and Emigration Laws.
Nikola talked about China remembering the one year anniversary of an incredibly deadly earthquake. Source: CNN.com - China marks earthquake anniversary. That was certainly a huge event that will effect that region for a long time to come. I wanted to post a picture of school desks holding up the ceiling of a building that had otherwise completely collapsed. Here is your evidence:
That was after the 1985 Mexico City Earthquake. Though I will admit that this is a pretty unlikely outcome, given a really strong earthquake, at least it is better than nothing. We do those earthquake drills for a reason! :-)
I also talked (for whatever reason) about me being in a "Stop Plate Tectonics" club in high school. I will try to remember to wear the T-Shirt tomorrow, if I can find it!
Abraham, you are up for next class on Monday. Any news article about anything currently going on outside the United States.
Ping Pong Diplomacy/Music in Pyongyang: Before watching Promises and talking about the final paper, I wanted to show you a couple of really famous instances of creative ways to get countries talking (which is what your Israeli-Palestinian project is about). One of the most interesting that I can remember (and as highlighted by the fantastic movie Forrest Gump) was the "Ping Pong Diplomacy" that happened between the United States and China in the 1970s. This was an HUGE deal. Here's the video we watched in class:
Maddie helpfully pointed out that the Ping Pong Diplomacy wouldn't really work for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, because neither side wants to make amends. This thought led directly in to a more current situation, with North Korea and the United States, where music was used to bridge long held divides (partially). Here's the video we watched in class about the New York Philharmonic playing in Pyongyang:
I also mentioned an excellent report that Christiane Amanpour did for CNN as a result of the trip, where you get to see some really interesting footage of what life is like in one of the most secretive countries in the entire world. Here is the link to the first YouTube video in the series - Notes from North Korea (1 of 6).
Promises: We watched about 20 minutes of this movie, pausing from time to time to write down thoughts and questions to the children in the film. From what I could tell, everyone knew what was going on, was actively involved in watching the film, and had some incredibly interesting thoughts to share. I am really excited to continue this up next class! Please bring those conversation pieces to class!
Final Paper Folders:As I think Mrs. DeFrance and I said in class, this "historical investigation" project is one that every freshman at Westview is working on, as part of the common assessment for Social Studies. If you remember, the first semester version of this was the visual metaphor. Thus, this is a really big deal!
Mrs. DeFrance talked about her really amazing folder system for helping you write papers. Seriously, if I had this in high school, I think I would have written 10 page long papers with ease. It is really a pretty incredible way to keep track of everything. Please keep everything in that folder - including all the sheets of paper tucked inside!
I linked to the final paper assignment sheet above. We read that together in class, as I tried as best as I could to introduce this as something that you do not have to stress out about. Make it interesting to you! After reading everything together, we started brainstorming ideas for "issues of global significance" on my laptop, which I projected. Here are your results:
• Heritage of people • Climate Change • Genocides • War • Peace • Sports • Children across the world • Music • Homelessness • AIDS/Diseases • Education system • Medicine • Science • Resources – oil, water • Cars • Industry • Technology • Government • Art • Religion • Communication • Fashion
Pick one of these, or any other issue for your homework, and bring in something to start you off on the project on Monday! I want you to be excited at finding out information about the world, that you may not have really had the chance to learn about in class this year!
Put it this way, there are entire college courses devoted to just these topics. In fact, I was in one last year at Western Oregon University! It was called History 492: World Problems. I ended up writing a 10 page paper on the search for Osama bin Laden. It was a really interesting class!
If you are still totally unsure about what to do, try a Google search for "world problems" or "globalization" or something along those lines. If none of that sounds interesting at all, come talk to me and I am sure we can get you started. :-) ---
Other news of interest: Brandon Roy was selected to the All-NBA Second Team! This is a really huge honor! The first time a Blazer has made All-NBA since Clyde Drexler in 1992. Source: BlazersEdge.com. Brandon Roy is simply incredible. What a guy.
The Office Season Five finale is tonight (Thursday)! It is totally worth checking out, even if you have never seen it. The fun starts at 9:00 PM, on NBC (Channel 8 for most of you). The Office is my favorite television show of all time. I am really quite sad that the season will be over and we will have to wait until the fall for a new episode! Every year this happens, and there is a huge cliffhanger, and it just kills me.
There is a TON of sporting action going on. I am sure that Westview's spring sports are all worth checking out. Add to that two Game Sevens in the NHL, the Lakers-Rockets and Celtics-Magic series in the NBA (both Game Sixes), and Major League Baseball, all tonight. Wow. It is a great time to be a sports fan!
With that, I think I will sign off! I hope everyone is doing well! Have a wonderful weekend! Keep in touch and keep working hard on everything we are doing!
Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The founders of our country debated here to create the Constitution! Picture by Mr. Fritz, May 23, 2008.
Period 4,
That was an interesting class today, in a number of ways. I think that we had some really good thoughts about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict come out, but I also think that the overwhelming amount of people that were just plain unprepared (see rule #2 that you guys made for the class) or not willing to participate (rule #3) was really disheartening. At some point, I guess I have to be willing to say that some of you simply just do not care and there is very little I can do to stop that. For those that were prepared and participating in class, I really appreciate your efforts, despite those that were not. On to the recap!
Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? What are the factors to consider in the development of a Palestinian state?
Soundtrack: "Talk" by Coldplay. Lyrics here. Picked because it is a great song for talking and debating, as we did in class today.
AGENDA 5/12/09: News Brief Proficiency Packet Comprehending the Debate Project Work
Homework: Continue to work on final project. Read blog recap!
If you have lost your assignment sheet for the Final Project (I would not be surprised, considering the amount of people that lost the PowerPoint notes), it can be downloaded in the post below. Basically, I want you to continue thinking about ways to relate to people, and connect cultures and countries!
News Brief: A few interesting items to note, after we watched the "Wildcat News" and I handed back your Middle East Map Quizzes (again, you can retake this once for more credit, if you want). First, we had a story about places around Portland that are haunted. I cannot really find a news source for that one.
Someone mentioned the story of a baggage container getting sucked into an aircraft's engines. Here's the source for that: MSNBC.com - Airliner engine sucks in luggage container. Crazy picture there too! This was a Japan Airlines 747, in Los Angeles. Airplanes definitely connect cultures and countries! I really love everything to do with aviation, so this was a cool story.
Finally, I noted a follow up to Morgan's article a week or so ago about the Iranian-American reporter that was convicted of spying and sentenced to 8 years in an Iranian prison, after a one day trial. Fortunately, the diplomatic pressure was enough to free her today. Source: Reuters.com - Freed U.S.-born reporter says to rest, be with family.
Nikola, I need you to do the news article for next class, on Thursday. Please remember and come prepared. Thank you.
Proficiency Packet: I introduced this packet as a way to look at proficiency in Social Studies. This is a lot like Math, except we are looking at things like, "Can you identify and explain the critical components of an event, issue or problem?"
We will be using the rest of the packet (and some additions) to go through and construct your explanation paper and final creative product for the unit. So, to begin explaining the who, what, when, where, and why on an event, issue, or problem, I provided the Associated Press game recap ESPN.com - Outlaw scores 21 as Blazers claim home-court advantage. We read this as a class together and then I asked you to write identify and explain the critical components of the event! A fun transition here.
After that, I asked you to use that same skill to identify and explain the main parts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, using the PowerPoint notes and any other information you know. After some hesitation about exactly what I was asking you to do with each question, I think this went pretty well! Remember, the more that you can explain or put down, the better. If I ask who is involved, it is not enough to say Israelis and Palestinians. What are the characteristics of those two groups?
Hopefully the recap on the board helped you out as well. This is something we are going to continue to explore! We really want to know, do you have this certain skill? Thanks for participating in this!
Comprehending the Debate: At this point in class, I asked everyone to think of something to debate (since I had arranged the room with two desks facing each other). We ended up debating the death penalty, using a handy sheet in your packet. The sheet was made using the amazingly interesting and helpful ProCon.org website. The page on the death penalty can be found here, while the "1 Minute Overview" that we used in class can be found here.
To begin, I told everyone facing the windows to argue the "Pro" position, while everyone facing the hall was "Con." We debated for about three minutes. I think it was a great start. I then turned the tables and had everyone had to debate the side that they were just arguing against.
Then, we argued another issue, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict! The ProCon.org page for this debate can be found here (that would definitely be a good website to look over for your project, if you have time), and the "1 Minute Overview" that we used in class can be found here.
After this, I asked why we would do the debate in class. I really liked the responses! Empathy, perspective, comprehending what the issue is - all of it. We debated both sides of the table for three minutes each, and then came back together to write down some of the aspects of both sides. Using this list, I had you do a five minute response to the questions in your skills packet. Remember to keep this handy! It will definitely help you in writing your paper, and you do need to turn it in as well!
Then, it was the end of class! We definitely did a lot today (normally the skills would be on two different days). Thank you for working hard on this! You will be turning these packets in to me, so make sure that they are constructed well!
Project Work: Unfortunately, we ran out of time and did not have any to devote to working on your projects in class. That is okay, because I know you are making good use of your time outside of class! :-) ---
That should just about do it. Have a lovely evening! I will be here at school for football meetings until about 7:00 tonight (Tuesday), but should be pretty good at getting back to any comments or e-mails in a timely fashion. Let's come to class with a renewed sense of purpose on Thursday, please! :-)
