Period 4: Last Week, Day 2/2 - Class Recap

Sunset over London, in 2007 as I was studying abroad there. I am very sad to be leaving teaching at Westview and also excited to be able to travel to one of my favorite cities in the world next month!

Dear class,

Thank you for a wonderful last day, full of fun, laughter, and a bit of learning. I will really miss you all - so much so that I will probably be back the very next class to check in and help out Mrs. DeFrance Gilman. I hope you enjoyed my time as your long term substitute teacher, because I thoroughly enjoyed working for you. On to the last recap!

Essential Questions: What brings people together? What tears people apart? - Something that brings people together is education. Something that tears people apart could be the lack of available funding for more full time teaching jobs - which eventually meant that I was available to be the substitute for your class! A big circle. :-)

Soundtrack: "Thankful" by Kelly Clarkson. I always have this at the entrance music for my last classes, because I truly am thankful for the all the blessings, and the lessons that I have learned with everyone! Lyrics (some of which I read to the class) here.

AGENDA 4/26/13:
News Brief
Final Jeopardy
Geo. Comp.
The Long Goodbye

Homework: Keep in touch! Work hard for Mrs. DeFrance Gilman!

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News Brief: So many articles today, combined with the lock in drill - a lot happening. Here's what I have as being brought in, by Zakeiba/Elliot, Kenji, Jack, and Luis:

1) CNN.com - 38 people dead in fire at psychiatric hospital near Moscow.

2) CNN.com - Spain's unemployment rate climbs to record high.

3) FOXNews.com - American tourists recovering after swimming for 14 hours when ship sinks in Caribbean.

I hope that you enjoyed the news brief section as much as I do! It is always interesting to hear about what is happening around the world. That curiosity is something that really helped me in my time as a student.

Final Jeopardy: I loved this so much. It is always fun to play - congratulations to Team 1 for winning the friendly competition! As a reminder, the categories were: World War I, Russian Revolution, 9/11 Unit, The Class, Mr. Fritz, and "Places in Pictures."

A little loud and rowdy (I'm sure Mrs. Carpenter loved it next door), but that was okay.

Geo. Comp.: Yes, the return of the geography world map quiz! Your class scored 144 out of 197, good for second place (by only one!) in my Global Studies classes. I am a nerd, so I love playing this game (I have named all 197 a few times, but not recently). Let me know if you play it and how you score, without cheating!

The Long Goodbye: At the end of class, I said a few words about how grateful I was to be able to teach your class, and talked a bit about ways in which you can stay in touch with me, if you would like to. I am not sure how long I will continue to have the Beaverton school district email, so if I do not respond to that, you can write to me at lukefritz64@gmail.com - I would love to help look at papers, give advice on school stuff, or just check in!

I also talked about social media, because I know that students are aware of my presence there. So yes, a good way to follow what I will be up to is bookmark and/or follow me on twitter, here: @LukeFritz64 on Twitter - I made sure to explain that what I post on twitter is NOT teaching - it is my own commentary and should not be seen as factual. Also, if you want me to follow you, let me know. I will just assume that you do not want me to unless you tell me. Another social media site that I am on (also publicly, so you can follow without me following you, if you want) is www.instagram.com/LukeFritz.

We talked in class about my role (just like any other adult that works with students) as a mandatory reporter, meaning that if you post something that threatens your own life or others, or about physical, mental, or sexual abuse, I am required by law to contact Child Protective Services to try and get you help.

In general, I would love to be a resource to help you and keep in touch in the future! I hope to see everyone again soon. Please keep working hard for Mrs. DeFrance Gilman the rest of the year!

Until next time, thank you so much again! :-)

Period 4: Last Week, Day 1/2 - Class Recap

The one fun event I was able to attend this weekend was the Portland Thorns FC home opener, in the middle of grading historical investigation papers. Here's the awesome Rose City Riveters supporters group (I am a part of developing it), holding a welcoming display for our new team!

Dear class,

Welcome to the last week with me as your teacher! Only one more day after today as your long term substitute teacher. Plenty of work for me to do, so I will not dwell on that fact. Thank you for your hard work and focus today! On to the recap:

Soundtrack: “At Last” by Etta James. Selected because this is the last week as your substitute! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/24/13:
News Brief
Middle East Map Quiz
Letter to Mrs. DeFrance Gilman
Historical Investigation Grades

Homework:  Check the blog. Next news brief: Everyone that has not gone yet! I have that as Luis, Katie, Osvaldo, Tylin, Elliot, Jack, Casey, Zakeiba, Selina, and Kenji. Obviously quite a lot there - I will not be able to rescue you if you forget, so please have something ready to go!
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News Brief: Today's news articles were brought in by Joe/Enrique (same story), and Zoey. They were: CNN.com - Bangladesh building collapse kills more than 70 and CNN.com - Taliban capture 10 after chopper makes emergency landing.

Thank you for your focus here, in the middle of the earthquake/fire drills! Only one more news brief section to go!

Middle East Map Quiz: Almost everyone did well on this - probably because I gave you time to study right before. I was able to grade these and get them back to you in class. Fast grading in action! Thank you for studying this important area of the world. The points from this helped many get some back from the research project grades.

Letter to Mrs. DeFrance Gilman: For the rest of class, I had everyone write a letter to Mrs. DeFrance Gilman, explaining what you have been up to in the time she has been away (I gave you four areas to write about, with some examples):

What history content have you learned since January?
- World War I
- Russian Revolution
- Historical Investigation
- 9/11, Afghanistan, Iraq
- News Briefs
What skills have you developed?
- Essay writing
- Forced Choice Debates
- Researching
- Citing sources
- News gathering
How was Mr. Fritz as a teacher?
What have you been up to since you last saw Mrs. DeFrance Gilman? What should she know about what she has missed with class?

Thank you for working on these! I will pass them on to Mrs. DeFrance Gilman, probably on Friday.

Historical Investigation Grades: Like I said, I spent almost all weekend grading these. Overall, the class average was around a high C. I explained how I graded and that I put lots of comments throughout each paper. I really value your time and effort in working on this difficult project! If you would like to revise it, I am guessing that Mrs. DeFrance Gilman will let you do so (I am not sure I will have the time to take revisions this week).

See you next class! It should be fun, if I have the time to get ready for it! :-)

Period 4: Historical Investigation, Day 9 - Class Recap

This is my friend Beri, who is from Kurdistan, which is a region that contains parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran (all countries in the Middle East). We were hiking with my great friend Clarke (Beri's boyfriend) in Vietnam and saw this buffalo in the forest!

Hi everyone,

Woo hoo! Today was the day we have been looking forward to, even before Spring Break! Hopefully you are feeling quite accomplished with turning in your historical investigation. If you did not, please get it in to me as soon as possible. My last day as your teacher has been changed to next Friday.

Essential Questions: What brings people together? What tears people apart?

Soundtrack: “We Are The Champions” by Queen. Selected for today because you should feel like a champion for completing the historical investigation! If you did not, I definitely do not think you are losers, as the song says! Please just keep working on it and turn it in ASAP. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/19/13:
News Brief
Editorial Analysis
Study for Middle East Map Quiz

Homework: Study for Middle East Map Quiz next class! Check the blog. Next news brief: Zoey, Joe, Zakeiba, Enrique.

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News Brief: Seriously SO MANY news articles brought in today. Four, by my count. Saul, Nathan, Susmitha, and Jisu selected these to talk about:

1) CNN.com - Message in a bottle found after 28-year trip from Canada to Croatia

2) CNN.com - Billionaire Saudi prince tweets support for women driving

3) ABC.net.au - NZ legalizes same-sex marriage

4) IBTimes.co.uk - India: Woman and Daughter Left to Die by Busy Road As Motorists Ignore Pleas For Help

This week was just packed full of major international and national news. So much to talk about and be aware of! We also talked about the latest news from Boston and the region of Chechnya in Russia, which is possibly connected. Two more days of classes left, two more news brief sections!

Editorial Analysis: To start this, I played a four minute clip of the Michael Moore film Fahrenheit 9/11, which talked a bit about the lead up to the Iraq invasion by the United States. Then, I asked students to get into groups of four and analyze one of the editorial articles linked to here:

Google Drive: Reasons for the Iraq War Editorials

Then, the class tried to come up with as many reasons as possible for why the United States invaded Iraq. We came up with a really good list! This activity was to again show the class that there are many different perspectives of history. You might be asked to give your own editorial on the US involvement in the Middle East next class.

Study for Middle East Map Quiz: For the last part of class, I passed out blank maps of the Middle East and explained how I remember where each one goes. Here it is to download if you want another copy:

Google Drive: Blank Middle East Map

The countries that you will need to know for next class (the quiz will look very similar to the map above - I will give you the country names, as well) are: Iran, Iraq, Israel, Sudan, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Remember that the reason we are doing this is that a study in 2006 found that 88% of Americans aged 18-24 could not find Afghanistan (a place where over 2,000 US soldiers have died) on a map. 

Be ready for the map quiz at the start of next class! Get your historical investigations in if you did not turn it in today in class!