Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Israel and Palestine, Day 3 - Class Recap


My view of Mt. Hood and Lost Lake on final approach into Portland International Airport on Memorial Day weekend in 2015.

Dear class,

Welcome back from your long Memorial Day weekend! I hope you are rested up and ready to finish the year strong. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Communication LT 1: I can use language and style that is appropriate to the content area.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.
Knowledge LT 9: I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Knowledge LT 19: I can explain the impacts of nationalism and revolutionary movements. Knowledge LT 21: I can explain how religious ideas impact the shaping of societies.

Soundtrack: "Making Memories" by Rush. Selected for today because of the long Memorial Day weekend, and making sure we keep memories alive. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 5/31/16:
News Brief – Noah
Weekend Check In/Questions
Skype with Aunt Katy
Promises

Homework: Read the blog! Know your grade (updated on StudentVUE and on by ID number on the wall) and how to improve it, if possible. Keep working on your final project for the year (overview here). Next news brief: Alaina.
---
News Brief: Eric K. had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: BBC.com - Alan Pulido: Freed Mexico footballer is 'safe and sound'. We found Mexico in our world map packet and talked about this incredible story.

The next news brief was assigned to Alaina.

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):


Weekend Check In/Questions: After the news brief, we checked in about the weekend, and then generated questions to ask my Aunt Katy about her recent experience visiting Palestine to help teach there. The questions were:

What was the environment/atmosphere like in the West Bank?
How was the hygiene in Palestine?
What was the quality of the hospitals?
How intense is Hamas’ presence? Did you feel a lack of security?
How did the people you meet feel about Hamas?
Were the people you worked with married (do they have choices to do whatever they want)?
What was the food like?
How was your housing?
Could you see any direct effects on the youth of Palestine?
Did you hear anything go off, like gunfire?
What is your opinion about the situation? What do you think should be done?

Skype with Aunt Katy: This was so fun for me to do! I rarely get to see my Aunt Katy (being as she lives outside London, England), and it was great for me to be able to bring her in to share a bit about her time in Palestine recently, as well as answering your questions! We had a video chat on Skype for about 15-20 minutes before we moved on. Thanks for your interest and engagement, everyone!

Promises: Next, we watched the first part of the Promises (2001) documentary, about Israeli and Palestinian children. Here's a link to the note taking guide we are filling out as we watch:


Yes, it is old (about the time you were born)! It is also an incredibly well done look at life for the children in the region and really helps people understand what is going on. We will finish watching this next class.

For homework, you need to be continuing to work on your final project on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here is the information you need for that:


Here is the overview of what the roles are:


Another resource is this timeline of the conflict:


Let me know if you have any questions about what you need to do! Not long now until the end of the year!
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Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Israel and Palestine, Day 2 - Class Recap


Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, everyone! Photo is of the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn, Oregon. Taken in 2015.

Hi everyone,

Today was the last time for almost a week that I get to see you all! It is a very nice and long upcoming weekend. I hope that you take advantage of the last major rest period before our final push to finals and the end of the year! Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Communication LT 1: I can use language and style that is appropriate to the content area.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.
Knowledge LT 9: I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Knowledge LT 19: I can explain the impacts of nationalism and revolutionary movements. Knowledge LT 21: I can explain how religious ideas impact the shaping of societies.

Soundtrack: "Look Into My Eyes" by Outlandish. Selected for today because of the obvious connection in the lyrics of the song to the Palestinian view of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

AGENDA 5/25/16:
News Brief – Malini
Perspectives
Final Project Options
Timeline Review

Homework: Read the blog! Know your grade (updated on StudentVUE and on by ID number on the wall) and how to improve it, if possible. Keep working on your final project for the year (overview here). All late work or revisions due by tomorrow (Thursday). Next news brief: Noah.
---
News Brief: Malini had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - Four climbers dead on Everest, 'mountain of extremes'. We found Nepal in our world map packet and noted we did a news brief story on it. I mentioned that it costs a ton of money to climb Mt. Everest (in gear and permits), and that the last two years, nobody has. I will be climbing Mt. St. Helens after school gets out! :-)

The next news brief was assigned to Noah.

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):


Perspectives: After the news brief, I played this music video, which was the soundtrack for today: "Look Into My Eyes" by Outlandish.


We looked at some of the lyrics to the song, including these lines:

See I've known terror for quite some time
57 years so cruel
Terror breathes the air I breathe
It's the checkpoint on my way to school
Terror is the robbery of my land
And the torture of my mother
The imprisonment of my innocent father
The bullet in my baby brother
The bulldozers and the tanks
The gases and the guns
The bombs that fall outside my door
All due to your funds
You blame me for defending myself
Against the ways of my enemies
I'm terrorized in my own land (what)
And I'm the terrorist?

This song was obviously a Palestinian viewpoint on the war. The other perspective is that of the Israelis, which was demonstrated in this overview video that we watched in class as well (starting from around 7 minutes in):


If you would like to see a similar video from the Palestinian perspective, here it is:


I also shared this post that my British Aunt Katy wrote about working and teaching inside Palestine recently. I'm hoping for her to to be able to Skype with the class soon!


The point here was to learn more about the perspective of each side. Our final project is a simulated peace conference, and it does no good to simply yell at the other side and demand concessions. You have to truly understand each side and what they want, in order to compromise and find a solution that might work.

Final Project Options: At this point in class, I passed out this paper, which goes over a variety of different ways to improve (or maintain) your grade on the five different proficiency learning targets that the final has as available options:


The really important part here is knowing your grade in the class, so that you know what would help improve your grade for finals, or maintain the grade that you want. Again, here is the overview of what the roles are, which I passed out last class:


Timeline Review: The rest of class was devoted to reading through an in class set of this reading, thinking about how you are going to construct your final presentation or writing:


As students were doing this independently, I talked with everyone in the class about what their current grade is, what learning targets they should focus on for the final, and how they might be able to demonstrate proficiency. I know it seems like the final is a long way away, but next week, we are watching a documentary in class, then there is 3 more days before the actual final day. There is lots of work to do during this time!

Have a great long weekend and keep working hard! We are almost done! :-)
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Monday, May 23, 2016

Israel and Palestine, Day 1 - Class Recap


A sign that was in the hotel I stayed at in 2014 in Amman, Jordan, which was hosting refugees from the ongoing battles in the Gaza Strip.

Hi everyone,

Welcome back from the weekend, for a short 4 day week, followed by a 4 day weekend, followed by another short 4 day week! Today, we started work on our final unit for the year, on Israel and Palestine. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Communication LT 2: I can use language and style that is appropriate to the content area.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.
Knowledge LT 9: I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Knowledge LT 19: I can explain the impacts of nationalism and revolutionary movements. Knowledge LT 21: I can explain how religious ideas impact the shaping of societies.

Soundtrack: "Battlefield" by Jordin Sparks. Selected for today because the end of the year feels like a battle, and because the country of Israel is seen as a battlefield by many. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 5/23/16:
News Brief – Caden
The Lesson of War
Brainstorm
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Homework: Read the blog! Know your grade (updated on StudentVUE and on by ID number on the wall) and how to improve it, if possible. Start working on your final project for the year (overview here). Next news brief: Malini.
---
News Brief: Caden had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - EgyptAir Flight 804: The latest. We found Egypt in the world map packet, and talked about the geography of the region, in terms of trying to figure out what happened with this crash. We also checked in about the weekend before moving on.

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):

The next news brief was assigned to Malini.

The Lesson of War: To start the Israel and Palestine unit, we watched this video, about children on both sides of the recent war in the Gaza Strip:

I asked students to take notes about what was happening in the war and how each side was impacted.

Brainstorm: After the video, we brainstormed the conflict in Israel and Palestine by noting what we did know at this point, and questions we still had to learn the answers to. Here is what your class came up with:


We have lots to learn about, which is good!

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: This was a PowerPoint that I went through with the class. I decided to be nice and pre-print all of the notes to hand out, because I know that it has been a challenging last few months, and I wanted to give everyone a break. I did want to make sure everyone focused on the images and words in the presentation, too. Here's the PowerPoint, for those who missed class:


And here are the pre-printed notes that I handed out:


After the presentation, I passed out the first look at what your final project will be, which is a simulation on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. We went through this in class in detail, but basically, you can pick any (or all) of the five learning targets listed at the top of this post to show proficiency on, by either writing a paper to be turned in on finals day, or creating a presentation (which might also involve writing a paper), if you are in big time need of improving your grade. Here's the handout (note that the second page is the backside) that I passed out:


There were lots of questions here, which was good. Hopefully, students are starting to understand what I am going to be looking for!

Finally, at the end of class, we watched a VOX video on Israel and Palestine, which does a really good job at explaining a large amount of details about the conflict in 10 minutes. I know this was a lot at once, so turning the captions on is definitely a good idea:


This should give you a solid framework with which to start thinking about how you want to do your final project, and what you should focus on! We will continue to be investigating this in the next few classes. Thanks for your focus today! :-)
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Thursday, May 19, 2016

Demographics, Day 5 - Class Recap


I will be gone at the state tennis tournament tomorrow (Friday) for Westview! This photo is of my favorite tennis player, Roger Federer, playing in Eugene, Oregon.

Dear class,

I really appreciate your hard work today in class, as we had a work day to wrap up the demographics unit and check in about grades in order to improve them by next Thursday, if possible. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Knowledge LT 9: I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own" by U2. Selected for today because we had a work day for me to help students in understanding how to improve their grade in class. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 5/19/16:
News Brief – Tiffany
Election Review
Demographics Work
Grade Check

Homework: Read the blog! Finish your demographic unit work (see below for links). The last day I will accept any late/missing/revised work for the semester is next Thursday. Next news brief: Caden.
---
News Brief: Tiffany had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - EgyptAir Flight 804: Wreckage found, airline official says. We found Egypt in the world map packet and talked about this story, as it was breaking news as of this morning. It does sound like some of the wreckage has been found now.

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):


The next news brief was assigned to Caden.

Election Review: For this part of class, I went over the results from the Oregon primary election on Tuesday! The main page that I showed can be found here:


Here is the link for Multnomah County election results. My mom, Amanda Fritz, has won re-election to her job as Portland City Commissioner. Yay!

In the primary for local positions (like my mom's), a candidate needs over 50% of the vote in order to be declared the overall winner (no further election needed). If no candidate gets to 50%, then the top two candidates face off in the general election in November. We went over lots of different results in class together. Yay, democracy!

Demographics Work: The rest of class was spent as work time (hopefully you were able to turn in the whole packet today) for the demographics packet:

Google Drive: Demographics Development Indicators

Students needed to find the statistics for countries on the CIA World Factbook (some of the statistics might be found from other sources, too).

The next assignment was related to the Children of Syria documentary in class.

Here is the assignment that I passed out with the movie:


Here is a link to watch the documentary, if you missed class, or wanted to watch it again at home with your family. An hour really well spent:

Next, we did the End of Poverty reading and assignment last class:


Here is the reading that goes along with the assignment:


Finally, we watched World in the Balance and did an assignment related to that. Here is the assignment:


And here is the video we watched in class:


All four of the assignments, in order, were what was due today in class. I appreciate your work on this!

Grade Check: As students were working, I called everyone in class up to talk with me, one by one, so I could go over every grade, along with what was missing (if anything) and needing to be turned in or revised by next week. You should have a plan of action for this weekend, if you need to do work for me! If you have everything in, rest up and get ready for the final unit of the year, which we will start next week! Have a great weekend, everyone!
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Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Demographics, Day 4 - Class Recap


The pathway along a Shinto shrine in Toyko, Japan. Today, we learned about the demographic pressures on Japan's population - especially when it comes to a very elderly population. Photo taken in 2014.

Hi everyone,

It is always nice to see you all in the morning! Today, we watched a documentary about population and demographics. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Knowledge LT 9: I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "Battle Without Honor or Humanity" by Tomoyasu Hotei. Selected for today because we learned more about Japan's battle against demographic trends in their population, and because it is Election Day, and because you are battling towards the end of the year!

AGENDA 5/17/16:
Election Night News Brief – Meher
World in the Balance
Review
Demographics Work

Homework: Read the blog! Finish your demographic unit work (see below for links). The last day I will accept any late/missing/revised work for the semester is next Thursday. Next news brief: Tiffany.
---
Election Night News Brief: Meher had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - International Space Station orbits the Earth for the 100,000th time. We found Russia in the world map packet (which I guess goes with space exploration and the creation of the ISS along with lots of countries) and talked about this story.

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):


The next news brief was assigned to Tiffany.

We also talked about following the results from the entire state of Oregon, which can be found here (starting at 8:00 PM tonight):


Here is the link for Multnomah County election results, if you would like to join my family in rapidly refreshing the page at 8 PM to see if my mom, Amanda Fritz, has won re-election to her job as Portland City Commissioner:


In the primary for local positions (like my mom's), a candidate needs over 50% of the vote in order to be declared the overall winner (no further election needed). If no candidate gets to 50%, then the top two candidates face off in the general election in November.

World in the Balance: This was a NOVA documentary that we watched together in class. I was asking students to write about the three countries in the film: India, Japan, and Kenya, and what their population/demographics is like. Here is the assignment that goes with this:


And here is the video we watched in class:


Thank you for your focus and interest in this! As I said before watching it, I think the issues are really interesting and worth our time to learn about.

Review/Demographics Work: We did not have much time at the end of class today, but I did want to link to the assignments in the demographics unit, which are as follows:

Google Drive: Demographics Development Indicators

Students needed to find the statistics for countries on the CIA World Factbook (some of the statistics might be found from other sources, too).

The next assignment was related to the Children of Syria documentary in class.

Here is the assignment that I passed out with the movie:


Here is a link to watch the documentary, if you missed class, or wanted to watch it again at home with your family. An hour really well spent:

Next, we did the End of Poverty reading and assignment last class:


Here is the reading that goes along with the assignment:


Please have all of your demographics work ready to turn in at the end of next class, as I will give work time and also check in about everyone's grades! Thank you!
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Monday, May 16, 2016

Demographics, Day 3 - Class Recap

NOTE: I was at the Metro League tennis tournament for Westview on Friday, so I missed class. Here is the recap of what was supposed to happen.


My brother visited Portland this past weekend! Here I am with my sister and brother with my mom in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, over Winter Break 2014.

Dear class,

There was a fair amount of reviewing data and reading today - thanks for following along. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Knowledge LT 9: I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

AGENDA 5/13/16:
News Brief – Josh (P1), Sim (P5)
The End of Poverty
Group Work
Finish Demographic Packets

Homework: Read the blog! All late/missing/incomplete/revised work is due next Thursday, May 26. This is the last time I will accept any work from the semester before the final. Next news brief: Gavin (P1), Meher (P5).
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News Brief: Josh (P1) and Sim (P5) had the news brief today. The next news brief was assigned to Gavin (P1) and Meher (P5) before class.

The End of Poverty: This was based on learning more about what life is like in different countries. I asked the class to split up based on how fast students thought they were at reading, and assigned this paper and reading to a group of four:


Here is the reading that goes along with the assignment:


Group Work: We spent a good time in class going through this in groups, and then going over it afterwards. Hold on to these completed assignments, please!

Finish Demographics Work: Your demographics work will be due later this week, so please finish all of the assignments related to it!

Thanks for your focus and work today in class!
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Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Demographics, Day 2 - Class Recap


Photo taken in 2007 at the Denver Aquarium.

Dear class,

We continued looking at demographics today, through the very recent documentary "Children of Syria" which does a great job giving a case study of the Syrian refugee crisis. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Knowledge LT 9: I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. Selected for today because being happy could actually be considered a demographic indicator. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 5/11/16:
News Brief – Sim
Children of Syria
Review
Trends

Homework: Read the blog! Finish your demographics packet! Be good for the sub on Friday! Next news brief: Sim (then Meher on Tuesday).
---
News Brief: Rebecca had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - ISIS says it's behind Iraq blasts that kill scores. This was a perfect news story to talk about, since the documentary today showed more of the conflict with ISIS in the Middle East. We found Iraq in the world map packet and noted we did a current event on the country. I also showed some of the geography of the region, before asking about what students were up to outside of the classroom, as always! :-)

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):


The next news brief was assigned to Sim. As I noted in class, I will be missing my first A day all year on Friday, to attend the district tennis tournament. I showed the class what I was hoping to have students do, in getting in groups of four and reading about four different countries. The hope is that you will learn more about how demographics impact quality of life in countries! Thank you in advance for being good for the sub!

Children of Syria: This was a fantastic documentary that recently came out (like, within a month) on PBS Frontline. Part of the learning target for the unit is tying demographics in with current events, so this was perfect. Here is the assignment that I passed out with the movie:


Here is a link to watch the documentary, if you missed class, or wanted to watch it again at home with your family. An hour really well spent:


Review: After the documentary, I selected a few random students to answer questions from the documentary review. Thank you for your input and thoughts here! I was glad to see that almost everyone was really engaged with answering the questions and watching the film.

Trends: Next class, if you have any time remaining after the reading and group work, please use the time to work with your partners on writing down the demographic trend information for the USA, Israel, West Bank, and Gaza Strip in the packet we worked on last class. Thanks, everyone! I will miss you all - have a great rest of the week!
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Monday, May 9, 2016

Demographics, Day 1 - Class Recap


A Vietnamese man and his son, in the streets of Hanoi, 2011.

Hi everyone,

A lot of work today, with the start of our new unit on demographics! We also reviewed the religion test and then went to the Computer Lab. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Knowledge LT 10: I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "Ordinary People" by John Legend. Selected for today because demographics is the statistical study of people. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 5/9/16:
News Brief – Marquis
Demographics
Indicators
Computer Lab S210

Homework: Read the blog! Finish your one column (all four pages) of data for the country on the demographics profile. If you have not turned in your Historical Investigation, please do so immediately. Next news brief: Alex G.
---
News Brief: Marquis had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: BBC.com - Leicester City celebrate with Premier League trophy party. We found the UK in the world map packed and noted that we did a news brief story about it. This was a stunningly improbable event - Leicester City was 5000-1 to win the Premier League a year ago. As usual, I asked the class if they were up to anything fun or interesting outside of class - especially with it being Mother's Day weekend.

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):


The next news brief was assigned to Alex G.

Demographics: Our next unit is on demographics. We started this section of class by watching this video about population, health, and income over time, which I think is an amazing way to visualize all that data:


Demographics really help in determining what a country is like, when it comes to the people inside of it. We will be doing a lot of work with data and statistics in this unit!

Indicators: To further explain the concept of demographics, I went through this PowerPoint and asked students to take quick notes about what demographics are:


Hopefully, you are beginning to get an understanding about how demographics work and why they are useful in determining what is going on with people in a country.

After the presentation, I passed out this assignment, which we did today in the Computer Lab:

Google Drive: Demographics Development Indicators

To get the information needed to complete this (I asked students to just split the columns up for people to work on, like one person taking the United States), students needed to find the statistics for countries on the CIA World Factbook (some of the statistics might be found from other sources, too). Students did not need to do the last column (another country of choice).

Computer Lab S210: The rest of the class was spent working on finding different development statistics on the US, Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip in the Computer Lab. Again, please have one full column (all four pages) completed for next class, when I will provide some time to finish (not in the computer lab) before we discuss the data and what it means.

Thanks for your continued hard work! Keep working on getting your grades up, if at all possible! :-)
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Thursday, May 5, 2016

Religion, Day 8 - Class Recap


Today, we finished the religion unit in class - the last bit of fire has been extinguished on the unit! This is a photo of a pagoda in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, taken in 2011.

Dear class,

I did not anticipate the religion test taking quite so long today, but that's okay! I'm glad everyone worked hard and I am looking forward to grading them and getting them back to you soon. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Knowledge LT 10: I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Knowledge LT 21: I can explain how religious ideas impact the shaping of societies.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "Oye Como Va" by Carlos Santana. Selected for today because of it being Cinco de Mayo (remembering a famous Mexican victory over the French) and because Carlos Santana is an amazing Mexican-American guitarist. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 5/5/16:
News Brief – Emily
Religion Test
Demographics
Indicators

Homework: Read the blog! If you have not turned in your Historical Investigation, please do so immediately. Know your grade and how to improve it -  Russian Revolution work (found on this post), World War I work (found in this post) and finishing Historical Investigation if you have not - revisions needed, as well. (if you want to turn in a revised copy, please give me the original graded copy for review, as well). Next news brief: Marquis.
---
News Brief: Emily had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: BBC.com - Syria conflict: Air strike on refugee camp 'kills dozens'. We found Syria in our world maps and noted that we did a news brief about it again. I answered a few questions in class about the refugee situation and explained some of the demographics (you will start hearing that word a lot!) of what is going on, and where people are trying to get to. We also talked about the presidential campaign and the weekend for a bit.

The next news brief was assigned to Marquis.

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):


Religion Test: After the news brief, we started the test (I hope you did your homework and studied)! As I wrote above, I was a bit surprised by how long this took (close to the entire rest of the class), but that is okay. I'm glad students were taking their time and being thorough with their work. At the end of class, we graded the multiple choice section together.

Next class, we will start learning about demographics and go to the computer lab to do some research on different demographic indicators. Thanks for your hard work and focus today in class! Moving on to the last new learning target of the year!
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Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Religion, Day 7 - Class Recap


Buddhist prayer flags at Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu. Photo taken in 2015.

Hi everyone,

I had a lot of fun today, playing Jeopardy to review religion concepts and vocabulary! Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Knowledge LT 21: I can explain how religious ideas impact the shaping of societies.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. Selected for today for three reasons. 1) The was a recent PRIDE assembly. 2) I was correctly assuming that there would be a spirited competition with Jeopardy. 3) Nirvana is a Buddhist concept of working towards enlightenment. Lyrics (good luck trying to understand them just listening!) here.

AGENDA 5/3/16:
News Brief/Ballot – Alex K.
Crash Course
Jeopardy Review
Study Time

Homework: Read the blog! Study the religion vocabulary for test next class! Know your grade and how to improve it: Russian Revolution work (found on this post), World War I work (found in this post) and finishing Historical Investigation if you have not - revisions needed, as well. (if you want to turn in a revised copy, please give me the original graded copy for review, as well). Next news brief: Emily.
---
News Brief/Ballot: Alex K. had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: CNN.com - American killed in Iraq after ISIS broke through Peshmerga lines. This was a sad story out of Iraq, which also related to our religion unit (and talk about ISIS the last few classes). We found Iraq in the world map packet, and also checked in about what students were up to outside of class.

I also showed students my blank ballot to vote in the upcoming primary election. Obviously, this is more Government than Global Studies, and I still think it is important for everyone to know how voting works here in Oregon.

The next news brief was assigned to Emily.

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):


Crash Course: Before playing Jeopardy, I wanted to show part of a Crash Course video that might help students understand 1) Islam a bit better, 2) How religion impacts society in a variety of ways. It was only the first 4 minutes or so of this video - and there are lots of other Crash Course videos on the history of religion, if you are interested!


Again, just another opportunity for studying, if you want. I like that the videos are closed captioned, because they are very fast paced!

Jeopardy Review: Here is the PowerPoint we went through (I will post this after my class tomorrow plays), playing Jeopardy to review - this should help, along with going over your notes and asking others to help quiz you!


I told students that I would put a question from the test on the blog, in the hopes of encouraging students to look, so here it is:

The term that describes a "branch" of a religion is: a) Worship. b) Pillar. c) Secular. d) Sect

Keep studying!

Study Guide: At the end of class, it was study time for the test. Please note that there will also be a question or two based on some of the religions we talked last class, too! This guide is intended for you to help review your Religion PowerPoint notes. Here it is:


Be aware that Google Drive makes the sheet two pages, whereas the copy I passed out in class is just one page. Study the vocabulary and your notes from the religions we went over last class! The test will be next class! See you then! :-)
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