Period 1: Somalia - A Failed State? Day 2 - Class Recap

Our class discussion thoughts, courtesy of Zack T.
Click for full size and use for your homework!
Good afternoon,

This is the first time I have written a class recap while actually still being at Westview! Fun little fact. I am sitting at Mrs. DeFrance's desk in the Lower North teacher's cluster - nobody came and visited me during lunch (check that, Abe just came in - nice!), so I'm sure that everyone is eagerly awaiting the recap and there are no questions about things. :-)

Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? Is Somalia repairable?

Remember, essential questions are framed so that they do not have a clear answer. This was key for our discussion in class - lots of different opinions on what should happen and what the answer to the problem is. They also lead themselves to way better learning, because you are actually creating something as a response, instead of just memorizing facts and reciting them back. At least, that's my hope!

Soundtrack: "Somali Udiida Ceb (Somalia Don't Shame Yourself)" by Maryam Mursal. Picked because Maryam Mursal is from Somalia and the song is about Somalia. She is a very interesting person - check out this article on her: NYTimes: A Voice that Pleads for Home.

AGENDA 1/30/09:
News Brief
Somalia Recap
Expand Article Thoughts
Seminar on Somalia
What Time is it?

Homework: Is Somalia repairable? Develop/expand on a five point plan. Check blog. PACK THE PIT! (7 PM, vs. Sunset – Freshman and JV at 5:45).

I will go over this again, but just to make sure it is near the start and clear: I want you to develop a five point plan on repairing Somalia (if it can be - what would need to happen?). Use the article summary and your own thoughts about what is important to know about Somalia to build this. So again, five paragraphs, one for each point in your plan. I also want your article thoughts attached - if I did not check yours off today, please do it by Tuesday and attach it. That was more than a little ridiculous today - to see how many people just plain did not do the first assignment of the semester. Do not allow yourself to let down the class - remember, the class agreed that getting in homework on time was an issue that needed to be resolved. Let's make sure it doesn't happen again.

News Brief: Abe brought in an article on a Nigerian girl being shot to death, which can be found here: BBC.news - Girl Shot Dead in Nigerian Delta. Really just insane. I asked everyone to think about the people around the world that were born the same year, day, and probably hour as you, and are fighting in wars. A good dose of perspective is definitely needed for all of us.

We also talked a little about the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Definitely an interesting news item to consider.

I then asked if people were fired up this morning to come to class and learn about how bad the world is. Obviously, this was a sarcastic question. I do not want anyone in the class to think that we only are talking about the bad things in the world - how nobody ever does anything, how the United Nations and United States are screwing up everything, etc - because that is not the case. I want the class focused on identifying problems and proposing solutions. This shows way more intelligence than if I were to just be concerned with when Somalia was colonized, for instance.

Somalia Recap: I asked the class for some general information about what we learned about Somalia. It was interesting to hear that the first few things were pretty much exactly the same as what you already knew before talking about it. I then showed a clip from a documentary, which can be viewed below:



I discussed aspects of Somalia that have extremely high instability, according to ForeignPolicy.com - which I linked to in the last recap, but if you didn't get the chance to check out, can be found here: Failed States Index, 2008.

Obviously something has gone very wrong in Somalia. The question I have is: what could possibly help?

Expand Article Thoughts: I know this was probably confusing, until I wrote it on the board (thanks Morgan), but I wanted you to look again at your article or article summary, and see if it proposed any solutions. The question I wrote on the board that you should have written out on the back of your article recap was: "what do you think needs to happen in Somalia?" This, obviously, was supposed to set you up for the class discussion. Again, if you did not do the article summary, please get it into me ASAP. You will lose points for it being late (more for each day you do not turn it in), but it is way better than not doing it at all.

Seminar on Somalia: Wow. Wow. Wow. To those that contributed, you absolutely blew me away, once the discussion finally got going good. I think that could have lasted another 30 minutes easy. I do want diverse opinions in there though, so be careful to let those who may otherwise be quiet talk.

A few things here. The list that Zack T. made on the board (fantastic job, by the way) can be viewed at the top of this post. Remember in the future for these discussions (I cannot imagine not doing them again, because again, wow): no raised hands. Address each other, not me. Reference the text/reading/article you have been assigned to read. Go with the flow - but be careful to respect one another and listen to everyone.

About the actual discussion: I started off with the very general question of - Is Somalia repairable? There were a ton of directions to go with this. What does "repairable" actually mean in this situation? What does it mean to you? What does your article say?

I started off with this article and said that I was not really sure it Somalia can be repaired any time soon. We had a ton of thoughts come up, and I again especially want to thank those that really got into the discussion. There were a ton of different explanations and possible solutions brought up. I thought it was really interesting how half of the class seemed to be sort of advocating that another country invade and take Somalia over because it would be better for it - because really, isn't that the logic that almost every country in the modern world has used to justify an invasion? I am not saying it is wrong, just that it is a very interesting argument - "you would be better off if someone invaded and told you what to do."

So again, for your homework, I want a five point plan that you think might repair Somalia. One paragraph explanation for each point. I do not see any way that this could be accomplished effectively in less than a page.

What Time is it? The answer to this question was going to be "Game time!" But we never got to it because the discussion went so well after we got into it. I'm sure this will pop up another day, so I will save my description for it until that time.

If anyone has any questions about the homework (or anything else we did in class), please either comment below (again, just type your name in on the the "Name/URL" option and you are good to go) or e-mail me. Or see me at the game tonight - 7 PM against Sunset! Go Wildcats! Go Blazers (on Ch. 8) on Saturday! Watch the Super Bowl and The Office after it on Sunday! Have an amazing weekend!