Period 1: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 1 - Class Recap

The CIA World FactBook map of the Middle East
Dear class,

Thank you for an interesting day. I definitely feel like I was not on the top of my game, due to the complete lack of sleep and sore throat, but you carried me quite nicely. I always like bringing in good topics for discussion, and today was another great day for that. However, I am becoming increasingly concerned about the use of general class discussions as a way to hear student voices, because to be honest, I know many of you have amazing things to contribute, but choose not to do so (and thus, get to tune out). We have got to get past that! I may have to go back to the playing cards or something.

Anyway, it was wonderful to see you all and start the new unit! Obviously, we are in the very beginning stages, but I think it will be something that you like. Next class, we are going to go over the basics of what the Middle East is (answers to the same kinds of questions I asked your groups to answer today) and why we are studying it.

Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What impact can women in the Middle East have on policy?

Soundtrack: "Mesopotamia" by The B-52's. Lyrics here. Again, I love this song because of the lyrics "I am no student, of ancient culture," which is a great line for when you have just finished a test of some sort. As I talked a little bit in class, Mesopotamia is the region around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which includes most of Iraq and some other Middle Eastern countries. It is frequently referred to as the "cradle of civilization" or part of the "Fertile Crescent."

AGENDA 3/10/09:
Hand Back Work/Weekend/Collegiality
News Brief
What is the Middle East?
Domestic Violence
Queen Noor

Homework: Interview (take notes!) an adult female about any possible struggles that she perceives women have in the world and/or in America.

The assignment should be fairly clear. I am interested to see what you can get out of these! As a heads up, I will be collecting your notes next class, so please write neatly. Also, please get your essay done and turned in by Wednesday, if you have not done it. This is your opportunity to get it done without too much credit being lost! Please let me know if you have any questions on this.

Hand Back Work/Weekend/Collegiality: At the beginning of class, I handed back the essays that I had graded this weekend and explained why (I think these are fairly good excuses) I could not get them all done - getting sick after playing basketball on Saturday (which you could still hear, I'm sure), and the car/bike accident I was involved in yesterday.

I talked about my writing symbols on the papers, which I really did try to grade thoroughly but easily. All I really want are five paragraphs of five sentences, organized in the way that we talked about in class. Let me know if you are still confused about this in any way.

Other points: the feedback from the exit tickets last class good to know! The main things were about how to start essays (thesis, hook?), how to format paragraphs (is it necessary?), and that the questions are too general (how to put in Nigeria?). I will maintain for the rest of the class (and probably the rest of my life) that just giving you facts to give right back to me is not really a good way to check if you are learning anything or not. When you actually create something new off of what has been given to you, in order to answer an essential question, you are much more likely to form a real understanding of something.

I also talked about what collegiality in the classroom means. I pointed that out, because I would like to think that we are all colleagues, working towards the goal of really understanding something. I say that, because honestly, there are days that I come in and am blown away by what the class has to say, in framing an issue in a way I have not considered before, or asked questions that I have no idea how to answer. This is good! We have created a classroom environment that is all about learning! Thus, do not hesitate to give me honest feedback about how you think things are going. If you really want to take an issue with something, you know that I am always open to it. On the other hand, please know that I definitely do not see it as "sucking up" or "brown nosing" if you have positive comments about the class. I need to hear those too, so I know what is going well!

News Brief: Carson brought in an excellent (and timely) article on a suicide bombing at an Iraqi police academy. Here is a link to the article (or one really close to it): IHT.com - "Iraq police academy bomb kills 28". As I said in class, this is a really interesting way for people that are not satisfied with the U.S. and our role in shaping their country. By bombing police recruits (who, by the way, are reportedly VERY hard to come by, to the point that I have heard that there are sometimes 5 American trainers for every 1 Iraqi), the people who disagree with us are making sure that other Iraqi's do not cooperate out of fear. Lots of things to think about! Thanks Carson! Andrew K, you are up for Thursday. One current article, having to do with anything outside of the United States.

What is the Middle East? This was a really fun activity to do and for me to see! I was not sure how it was all going to work out when I planned it, but everyone definitely brought in some interesting general impressions. I loved Brandon's question of if I was going to Wordle it or not. I did not really need to, did I? I remember the main impressions were "Muslim," "terrorist," "oil," "turban," and "Osama." Sure enough, I will bet that the rest of the the United States would probably agree with you. However, you guys know me too well at this point. This was a good set up for the rest of the unit.

Domestic Violence: I masterfully transitioned to this part by asking the class what leaders that you could think about in Africa or the Middle East. After a good little guessing game, Zach N. (possibly with the help of Abe) noted that they were all men. Yes! I asked if gender was a possibility of a structure of power, and I think the general consensus was that it was. Someone (I think it might have been Nolan) asked me if there were any women that are currently heads of state, but not royalty. The one big example that I could think of was Angela Merkel, who is the current chancellor of Germany and one of the most powerful women in the world. The other question I asked was why it was so unusual for women to have power up until very recently (and perhaps, still).

I then set up the following clip by saying that we really needed to be serious about the effects of domestic violence because the statistics say that it has almost certainly affected someone in our class or a friend. I did not have those statistics on hand in class, but here they are, and they are horrifying: Find Counseling.com - Domestic Violence Statistics. An estimated 25% of women in America will experience physical abuse in their lifetime, and around the world, the number is more like one in three. Furthermore, only about 50% of domestic violence is reported. THIS IS INSANE! Guys, I could not imagine a less talked about issue of vital importance for overall health. I am glad that your health classes have talked a little bit about it. I specifically wanted to look at how the Middle East, which has a really big stereotype of repressed women (we noted in class the clothing that sometimes covers everything except the eyes). Here is the video that I showed twice:


We had a good class discussion about the imagery used in the video to portray violence afterward, as well as general impressions. Everyone, I am really serious about this. If you bear witness to a physically abusive relationship, it is not ever okay. Especially if you are directly a part of one. You need to get help and speak out, not only for the safety of those around you, but for your own personal well being. The counselors at Westview are absolutely incredible, and would be amazing at helping you out. This goes for any relationship that you are in as far as high school dating goes too.

This was all kicked off by this Chris Brown/Rihanna insanity that was recapped well in class. However, I have a few links for you to check out as well. Here is a really good article talking about the basics (supposedly) of what happened, as well as the question on everyone's mind: why in the world would you get back together with someone that did this? CNN.com - "Commentary: Brown-Rihanna case's dangerous message"

Two, Katie Couric (and Oprah, who apparently is devoting her entire show on Thursday to domestic violence) have really stepped up to the plate for using this incident to get the word out there that domestic violence needs to be talked about and stopped. In particular: HuffingtonPost.com - "Katie Couric on Rihanna & Chris Brown: Talk to Your Children". Insane statistics about teen sexual and physical abuse in that article as well: 20% of teens will experience some kind of assault at the hands of their partner.

Also, CNN had a fascinating article (which if you only click on one link today, this should be it) up today about how to avoid abusive people. CNN.com - "How to avoid dating an abusive creep". I have extremely high confidence in everyone in our class, but this is something to constantly be on the lookout for.

Queen Noor: One of the most amazing people and stories I have heard of. A real life fairy tale! It's like the Princess Diaries, only better (by the way, totally watched both those movies like 5 times with my sister). Here is her official biography from the Jordan government's website. Just fascinating. I mentioned her book, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life in class. I know that my mom really liked it!

Anyway, I introduced her as a way to think outside what you would normally think a Middle Eastern Queen is. I showed the following video in class and asked everyone to write down what she is proposing that women do in the Middle East. This originally aired in 2007, on the almost always interesting "Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer.


We did not end up with a whole lot of time to debrief this, but I think it was very valuable to see someone who was originally American, spoke extremely eloquently, dressed in a western style, and also happened to be a Queen and a Muslim. Again, combat stereotypes!

What we did get to talk a little about was how she was calling for women to unify across the Middle East. I pointed out that women are actually the majority in the world, and I said I would post a link on the blog. However, finding proof of this is somewhat difficult, because there are a ton of factors that come into play (like the amount of female babies that are aborted in China because of the "one child policy" and so forth). So maybe I had better retract that statement. I am fairly sure that I heard in my college biology class that the odds of being born female are slightly higher than male though.

Another thing that Queen Noor mentioned very briefly (before being cut off) was Rwanda, which has the most women in its government out of any country in the world, I am fairly sure. Link: AFP.com - "In a world first, women in the majority in Rwanda legislature". This was just last year. Wow, we still have a long way to go.

I am really wanting to focus a lot of our analysis from the viewpoint of women in the Middle East. It was a really interesting way to approach this unit, that is for sure!
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Remember to interview an adult woman on struggles that she sees for women in America and/or around the world. I am looking for a half a page of notes here. Feel free to ask your own questions - be the reporter!

Our amazing Blazers will play Dallas tomorrow at 7:00 on KGW (Ch. 8), almost certainly without Rudy Fernandez (but all indications are that he will be fine). I will not be on campus tomorrow, because I really need to be able to sleep to kick this sore throat, and I still have to come in on Friday, so I will miss seeing everyone in the halls! I will definitely hope to have all of your essays and work back, but please continue to make up anything that you need to submit, re-submit, or revise!

Also, it is possible that I may have a special guest speaker for the class on Thursday. Be excited for that! Have a great evening! :-)