Period 1: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 2 - Class Recap

As requested, the full Wilson Football 2003 Highlight Video. I am #64, Ryan is #15. Our quarterback, Sean Setzer, who went on to play for Utah State (I saw him this year in Eugene against the Ducks) is #4. Joe Bozikovich, who got a scholarship to Boise State and started for the last two years for them is #67. Also, enjoy random appearances of my brother yelling on the sidelines and other fun stuff, like the clip Ryan showed in class, our head coach with the words at the end, and the rest of the 2003 PIL City Champion (9-0) football team. I was always the first person down field to celebrate touchdowns. :-)
Good afternoon class!

With that fun introduction out of the way (I can't wait to hear the comments...), welcome to the Class Recap! A really fun, deep, and interesting day today, thank you! Even though I could really barely talk, you kept us on track and engaged in what we were doing!

I am going to try to remember to link to all of the things I talked about and we discussed in class (citing my information!), but also attempt to keep the blog length down, because I know that last time was a whole heck of a lot. Let's see how I do with that!

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? - I asked what "policy" means, and got a few good responses, like the rules and laws that are made by government, as well as the projects and proposals that they support.

Soundtrack: "Rock the Casbah" by The Clash. Lyrics here. Wikipedia has a really interesting background on the song: Wikipedia.com - "Rock the Casbah". As I said in class, one possibility of the song's meaning is about the banning of rock music in Iran. Also, a song featured in many commercials, and Will Smith used it as the beat for his song "Will 2k" on his album Willenium. You can watch the video for that song here.

AGENDA 3/12/09:
Hand Back Work
News Brief
Guest Speaker
The Women’s Perspective
Seminar Discussion

Homework: Do something that you have been putting off for a while (homework, chores, apologizing, etc). Check blog!

I have a full 10 students that have not turned in even a preliminary copy of their essay. I need this fixed right away. Remember, I will give you all the help you want, but I need you to show some effort on this. Also, as part of the team mentality of the class, I need you to help me out in proving that you actually learned something from the Nigeria unit. Please be working on the essays if you have been putting it off. Otherwise, find something else that you really think it is about time you did. Post it, if you want! Let me know if you have any questions!

Hand Back Work: At the start of class, I handed back the last of the essays that I had graded. If you are not happy with your grade, please make the revisions that I asked for, and ask me any questions about what I am expecting you to do. By and large, I liked the effort on this assignment. It is really just about getting the sequence and organization of your thoughts down. I am not expecting you to be brilliant essay writers yet, but I am expecting good effort and a good attitude! Let's get through this together!

News Brief: I went over the essential questions, days until Scout's birthday (12), soundtrack, agenda, and homework, as well as asked the class a little bit about what was going on. We talked a little bit about the Blazers, and I mentioned that Blazers Edge is a site that really any good Blazer fan should be checking up on, because it is seriously fantastic.

Andrew then brought in an article about the "Slumdog Millionaire" children and what sort of life they will have now that they are back in India. Here's a great TIME magazine article on them: Time.com - "What Will Happen to Slumdog's Child Stars?". Really cool kids, and a really great movie that I think just about everyone would enjoy. Thanks for bringing that topic up Andrew! Next class on Tuesday it is Kurtis's turn (despite his pleas) to bring in an article that has something to do with the world outside the United States.

Guest Speaker: This was really a treat for me - to get to bring Ryan in to talk to everyone and see you guys! Literally, I just found out for sure that he would be able to come in yesterday, on his trip from Los Angeles up to Seattle. Thanks for paying such close attention to what he was saying! His website for the trip to the inauguration is Biking for Obama and his new website is Ryan With The Bike. Check out those cool graphics! Ryan talked about his trip to Mali (you can check out the website he created to document his trip here: Oxy.edu - Ryan Bowen), the importance of sports in Rwanda, as well as a little about his trip across America to Washington D.C.

I linked to this right after the inauguration, but in case you are interested, here is the picture that you can zoom in and find Ryan, if you look really hard! Gigapan - Inauguration. I am not sure what other sites Ryan would want me to link to, as he is currently napping on my couch downstairs. Busy guy! Maybe he will post in the comments and answer any other questions you might have? We will see!

The Women's Perspective: Okay, this was absolutely fantastic. I asked you to get out your interview notes (which I forgot to collect, and I am kicking myself because I really wanted to see those - hopefully I will remember next class and give you credit) and talk about what the person you interviewed had to say about the struggles of women across the globe. This was an incredibly interesting discussion - so much so that I took a picture of the thoughts that we came up with on the board:


A few things that I noted that I wanted to link to. We talked about the differences in pay across the board between what women make and what men make, even here in America, and even though it is illegal. A good article breaking down the reasons behind how this happens can be found here: About.com - GAO Report: Why Women Still Make Less Than Men. The article cites the U.S. Government as saying that women make about 80 cents for every 1 dollar a man makes. Remember, if you ever feel like you are being discriminated against (for your gender, race, religion, etc), report it as soon as you can. The legislation that President Obama signed on this front was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

I also talked about the concept of "mutually assured destruction" in response to Aaron's question about women being able to carry firearms for protection. It is an interesting Second Amendment issue - if everyone had a gun, would we really all be better off? Or if we took away firearms from everyone except a select few (like police officers), would crime really be reduced?

Furthermore, I cited an article that I remembered reading about how much a stay at home mom would earn if someone really thought about all the things that they do. To my great delight, I was able to find that article here: CNN.com - "Being a mom could be a 6-figure job". The best part:

"Salary.com determined that a stay-at-home mother might be paid as much as $134,121 for her contributions as a housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, janitor and CEO, among other functions."

EDIT: The most recent estimate of a stay at home mom's worth can be found here.

Finally, the last point that I can remember about needing to post was about the Equal Rights Amendment that was proposed to the Constitution. This is the entire proposed law:

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

Now, if I say something like "this amendment failed due to conservative women" in class, I had better be able to back that claim up. Though I would definitely encourage you to do some of your own research if you are interested, here is an excellent breakdown of the debate from the opposition to the ERA: A Short History of the ERA.

Anyway, tons of great discussion, and I really like how we turned it into thinking about how women in the Middle East have many of the same struggles, but without even close to as much political power (yet). Well done, everyone. Hopefully discussions like that are why you enjoy coming to class, because I certainly think so.

Seminar Discussion: We did not get to this, but I did hand out the article for you to read if you want for next week (though as I said, I will give you time in class to read it before our discussion). Basically, I am going to have you highlight or think about ways that the women in the article are trying to have a voice, whether or not you think it is going to work, and finally, going back to the essential question, what impact the women of the Middle East can have on policy. Sound good?
---

Ryan took some great pictures of the class, but I am hesitant to post any of the ones with students in them, due to confidentiality restrictions. However, here is a good one of your faithful teacher, excited as always:


Have a wonderful long weekend! Enjoy it, but please be productive at the same time! Blazers game tomorrow (Friday) against New Jersey at home (7:00, CSN) before a five game road trip starts on Sunday (Atlanta, 10:00 AM, CSN) and continues on Monday at Memphis (5:00 PM, KGW). Also, watch a new episode of The Office, tonight at 9:00 on NBC! Other than that, have a fantastic weekend and enjoy the sunny weather while it lasts! Thanks for a great class!