Period 1: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 5 - Class Recap

My cool Spring Break photo of a MAX train coming up the Steel Bridge. 25 second exposure, F9.0 aperture value, 100 ISO, with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTI.
Hola clase,

Estoy escribiendo a el escritorio de Mrs. DeFrance, en Westview! Wow, I wonder if that made any sort of sense - it has been a while since I have written out Spanish! Welcome to another delightful, insightful, and not hopefully not frightful recap. From now on, these recaps will probably be written at Westview, during 1st AND 2nd lunch on A Days. Please come visit if you have any questions about anything, or want to just check in! Let's get on with the recap!

Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? What is the impact of religion on policy in the Middle East? - Religion is such a HUGE part of why the Middle East is a region of turmoil. We will be looking at the impact of it for the next few days.

Soundtrack: "B.O.B. (Bombs over Baghdad)" by Outkast. Chosen mainly because of the song title - Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, which, as we hopefully all know, is in the Middle East. Look up the lyrics if you want - we talked a little bit in class about the derogatory nature of the term "ragtop" to describe an Arab person.

AGENDA 3/30/09
The Global Spring Break
News Brief?
Ryan Moats
Otherizing Obama
$2 a Day/Revisions/Check-In

Homework: This WAS going to be an assignment on living on $2 a Day or less, but we did not have time to properly set this up, so I will save that until next class. Your other homework was to finish late work because the end of the quarter is next Friday. Please e-mail me if you have any concerns at all about how you are doing in class - I would love to tell exactly what you need to get in, if anything. Next class I am hoping to have some good time to do this, but we all saw what happened today, when we got lost in some really interesting conversations about stereotypes. Finally, check the blog, which, if you are reading this right now, you have done. Woo hoo!

The Global Spring Break: After getting our new seating chart implemented (again, let me know if you have any huge issues here), I asked you to talk a little about your spring break with everyone else, with a twist: you had to find out some way to connect what you did to a country outside the United States. I gave the examples of taking a ride in a Honda (Japan), eating tomatoes (Mexico), riding in an Airbus plane (France), buying clothes that were made somewhere else, and watching TV (Japan). Hopefully this was a fun way to catch up with everyone, as well as realize that we are all connected to the world around us!

I showed you some of the pictures from my break, and connected my picture of the New Irene, a ship from South Korea that was docked down by the Rose Garden:


8 seconds, F5.6, 100 ISO. Lots of fun, and actually not that difficult to do! Even just exploring the areas around you at home is part of adventuring around the world. Go outside and enjoy what is going on!

News Brief: Jordon brought in an article about AIG (American International Group) being "bailed out" by the U.S. government again, which basically means that taxpayers are paying to make sure the company does not fail (because it is so enormous). We talked some in class about why the government is doing this and how it is hoping to get the economy on track again. Recently, AIG got in a huge amount of political trouble because it was found that the company was paying executives gigantic bonuses, as recently as a few months ago. Interesting article Jordon - I'm glad we tried to relate this to the world! Ben, you are up for next class. A current event article about anything going on outside the United States.

Ryan Moats: I started this section off by showing the class the following video clip.



I asked the class to write about how stereotypes start and then we had a little discussion about it. We related the video to stereotypes about gay people, and what impact that has on our society here in America. Lots of really good input here, thanks!

I asked about why stereotypes begin at a young age and had some interesting perspective from the class. We then watched the following recap of the Ryan Moats incident.



Here's an excellent recap of what is currently going on in the situation: ESPN.com - Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats accepts officer's apology. I asked the class to write how how stereotypes MAY have had an impact on this situation. I didn't say it in class, but what if Ryan Moats happened to be Tony Romo, the star QB from the Dallas Cowboys? Would the situation have happened any differently?

Otherizing Obama: This section of class was built on reading this opinion piece by Nicolas Kristof: NYTimes.com - The Push to 'Otherize' Obama. We talked about how making someone "foreign" or "non-American" or "Muslim" was a strategy to make people seem not like "real" Americans. I showed the McCain campaign commercial that Kristof wrote a little about, which you can find here.

Great discussion on this too! Why is it that many people don't just believe President Obama when he says he is a Christian? Why is it even an issue in the first place? Why do some people really believe that Obama is the Anti-Christ? All of these questions and more were just excellent, and I am glad that we had the time to go through them.

I also wanted to have a discussion about what it might really be like to be an Arab-American Muslim today, but we can do that next class.

$2 a Day/Revisions/Check-In: A side effect of the quality discussion was that we did not have time to do this portion of the class (which is especially weird because I planned a good 30 minutes for it, but hey, sometimes you just have to go with the flow). Again, I really must stress the importance of turning in any late work. Your grade is guaranteed to go up if you turn in things. Think about it! I really want to sit down with each of you on Wednesday and go over everything so there are no surprises. I will also ask you to compose a day where you only had $2 for every expense you have. It should be a fun class, as always!
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Thanks for the energy and enthusiasm today everyone. Make sure to check out the Blazers play an enormous game against Utah tomorrow night at 7:00 (CSN). 24 airs tonight at 9:00, though it has somewhat gotten away from the Africa plot that was so interesting earlier in the season. Come see me tomorrow and wish me luck with Period 2! Guess what the first assignment for them will be? A nice letter to Mr. Fritz. Ahh, the good ol' days, right? :-)

Have a wonderful afternoon! Leave any thoughts or questions about today's class or anything else going on in the world in the comments below!