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.AGENDA 5/28/09:News BriefStudent PresentationsConferencesHomework: 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. AGENDA 5/26/09:News Brief (Exploding Nuclear Bomb Edition)Student PresentationsResearch QuestionsHomework: 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.I also mentioned: FT.com - Tehran puts block on Facebook access as election date looms. Apparently, Iran's government recently restored access, but it is interesting to see nonetheless!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 BriefFinish PromisesIP Project WorkFinal Paper BibliographyHomework: 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:Israeli-Palestinian Project Assignment SheetFor 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!News Brief: Chris (I think) led this off with a crazy story about a child being found buried in a playground in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here is that story: CNN.com - Police release composite photo of boy buried in playground sand. Wow.There were other stories, but nothing I wrote down to post about. Armando brought in the following news article, talking about people in Great Britain: DailyMail.co.uk - Middle-class debt epidemic: Wealthy plunged into crisis by recession.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.Basically, don't start knocking on the United States, yet. Here are some lists of the biggest GDP (Gross Domestic Product - basically, the value of every good and service in a country for one year). Sources: Wikipedia - List of countries by GDP (PPP) and Wikipedia - List of countries by GDP (nominal).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!Have fun out there, see you on Tuesday!
