Period 1: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 4 - Class Recap

Wonder Woman, as envisioned by Kierra and her group today. Try to think of all the symbolism - there is a ton!
Good afternoon class!

Oh wow. Today was absolutely fantastic. I left that class just beaming! Thank you so much for being willing to follow along and go with what we were doing. What a truly fun, interesting, and inspiring day. Thank you again! A great way to head out on the break. A ton of things to talk about, link to, and explore further, so let's get on with the recap!

Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? What impact can women in the Middle East have on policy? - Remember, that first one is something that is directly impacted by the concept of globalization!

Soundtrack: "A Whole New World" by Brad Kane. Music Video from "Aladdin" can be viewed here. Lyrics can be found here. Song chosen because we were talking about the entire world today, and what brings us together. I have a lot problems with the way that Disney portrays some of their characters, but I have to admit, that is one catchy song, especially first thing in the morning. Sorry for my terrible singing voice at the start of class, I couldn't help it. :-)

AGENDA 3/19/09:
News Brief
Wonder Women
Globalization
Commonality
The Break

Homework: Have a great, safe, Spring Break! Check blog!

As part of our discussion of Spring Break, and what was going on in the world, Archana mentioned the Carl Landry story. Check it out if you haven't heard about it (which is likely - Archana and I are really probably the only people in the class that pay that much attention to the NBA). Just crazy. Please, please be safe out there, as you are exploring the world!

News Brief: We started out the class by talking about plans for the next week, the NCAA Tournament (still astounded that nobody else signed up for the class bracket), and the Blazers playing Cleveland tonight. I collected your Nigeria essays, so I can look them over again. For those who got them in today, thank you. For those that did not, I am sorry. Jazmyne talked a little about a cool article that she saw about a Russian woman having a lot of influence on her government. That article can be found here: Meet Maria Sergeyeva. See, this is what I am talking about everyone! What we learn in class is so relevant to the rest of the world around you! :-)

After that section of class, Kierra came in and was able to share a news article from the Middle East (nice!): Reuters.com - Top Sunni Arab official assassinated in Baghdad. A quote:

"The killing of al-Samarai represents an attempt to target Iraq's unity and cohesion. Those who made this assassination want to destroy the goodwill in the hearts of Iraqis," a statement on the IIP's [Iraqi Islamic Party] website said.

Unity and cohesion, under attack. Sound like things we have been talking about? Thanks for bringing this in Kierra! Jordon volunteered to bring in an article on the first day after Spring Break, but if he forgets, that is totally fine too.

Wonder Women: This turned out to be a lot of fun, especially with the really talented artists that we have in our class! I asked the class to get out the homework assignment (which, by the way, I took a look at a few already, and they look AMAZING, thank you!) and collaborate with a group to create a visual representation of a wonder woman, using all of the characteristics that you thought of that women needed to have in order to impact policy decisions in the Middle East. It sure sounds like a lot as I type it, but the class definitely got it, because what you made was great! I posted Kierra's at the top of this post, but every other group had really interesting ways to represent your ideas! A really fun exercise to do and to see the results of what everyone thought was important in a woman's ability to have an impact on policy. I love all the creative talent in the room! :-)

Globalization: To begin this section, I asked the class to give me a few ideas of what globalization is. I then went on to read a little bit of a Roger Ebert blog entry: Roger Ebert's Journal - "A slow boat to anywhere". Some really interesting thoughts there, especially about how American's do not travel very much, and that there are amazing ways to go about traveling, even in today's economic climate.

After that, I shared one of TIME magazine's "10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now" - 6. Africa, Business Destination. This was another one of those things where I was just browsing around online, ran across this article, and thought "wow, that is exactly what we are talking about in class, I am going to bring it in." Really interesting, especially if we want to change our perceptions about Africa. Check out the entire thing if you get the chance!

I then handed out a worksheet, guessing about a "miniature earth" and how lots of different factors were related. This concept was if the entire world was reduced to 100 people, representing the rest of the world. So, if there are 13 North Americans in the 100 people, that means that in reality, 13% of the world is North American. Got it? Here's the video we watched, twice:



I really liked the response to this too. Liked hearing the gasps at the "75% of the world lives without a house, closet, fridge, and bed." Liked the "I want to do something about this" that I heard. All of that. When I hear stuff like that, it means I am bringing in something pretty powerful. I'm glad that everyone thought this was interesting. The song in the video is "Mad World" by Michael Andrews (made for the Donnie Darko soundtrack, it is a cover of a song). Lyrics here.

After watching the video, which can be found at miniature-earth.com (with a different soundtrack), I asked about some of the guesses that you had that were completely off. Interesting stuff! Again, really glad to see all the hands up here. A TON to think about in that movie, I think we will come back to that for a bit after the break. Also, Lauren talked about how she was surprised that there were not as many North Americans. There was a little debate about the third largest country (by population) in the world - that country is the United States: InfoPlease: World's Most Populous Countries, 2008. Indonesia is #4, Brazil is #5.

Commonality: So we had a little bit of depressing, real world stuff to think about. In order to send you out on the break on a high note, I asked about what all humans have in common. I had some pretty sugary responses (hehe), but I really liked "laughter" and "dancing" the most. We ended class by watching this video (props to my Lewis and Clark classmate Megan for showing it to me), which, as I stated in class, is positively real, shot on location:



I would highly recommend going to the actual YouTube site and clicking "HD" on the side of the video - it makes it all the more better. The guy in the video is Matt Harding, who runs a website called "Where the Hell is Matt?" - I think my favorite part is the blog, where he currently has a really funny video up, explaining how he purposely tried to get people to believe that the video was a hoax (but he made the reasons completely ridiculous), and they ended up believing him. Quality comedy, seriously. Check that out here: Matt Reveals the Hoax is a Hoax at MacWorld. Some good background about who he is there too - sponsored by Stride gum, apparently! That is an incredible life!

The Break: This is one of those videos that I watch and just feel inexplicably happy about. Yes, the world has a lot of problems. However, dance is one of those things that goes across all cultures. I would have loved to have had a little more time at the end of class to talk about your reactions to this (especially all the dancers, because I know we have a few), but perhaps it was even more powerful just to say "okay, go out there and enjoy the world!" So please, do that, and come back refreshed and ready to go. :-)
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In other news, my bracket almost totally got trashed by Memphis, who needed to rally from behind against 15 seed CSU Northridge to win their game. Bad times. Also, the Blazers play tonight against Cleveland, with Nic Batum definitely out and LaMarcus surprisingly upgraded to questionable. That is on TNT and CSN, starting at 5:00. I am so, so mad that I have class and will miss the whole thing. Though it probably won't be a competitive game after the first quarter. Also, watch The Office tonight, 9 PM, on NBC for some laughs. Tons of NCAA tourney games all day and all weekend, all of which are on CBS (channel 6).

I will post a "Spring Break Open Thread" for comments after school on Friday, because I don't want anyone getting the impression that you are done yet. Please keep checking back to see if anything else is going on! Have a wonderful, relaxing break! See you in a week! :-)