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.
