Period 1: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 8 - Class Recap

The Beaverton School District booth at the job fair today.
Good afternoon class,

I really hope you had a great class with Mrs. DeFrance this morning! I have some basics about what she planned to do, but since she (as you already know) is a fantastic teacher and already knows exactly what to do, I left most of the lesson planning up to her. I will recap what I know below in a second, but first, I'm sure that a few of you might be interested in what happened at the job fair.

Basically, as expected, it was almost an entirely depressing experience, with lots of standing in line (think Disneyland, except with no fun ride at the end), a little bit of face time with a few districts, a lot of "we're not hiring now, apply online and check back later in the year," and a decent amount of handing out resumes. The Convention Center floor is enormous! My feet got tired quickly of walking everywhere and standing in line. I was there for about 4 hours and had a few really good interactions (and mini interviews), but other than that, no leads. I walked out a little frustrated, but not entirely surprised. Actually, more than anything, it made me appreciate your class and interning at Westview that much more, because having the job of teaching you is something that is beyond awesome. It truly has been one of the best experiences of my life. I couldn't possibly want to do anything else! The future may be entirely up in the air, but the present is pretty dang amazing. :-)

On to the class recap!

Mrs. DeFrance knows a lot about the Russian Revolution, and even has a lesson called "the Russian Revolution in a nutshell," so I am sure that everyone got to learn some pretty interesting things! We really wanted to relate how the Soviet Union got caught up in Afghanistan (as the United States is now) and why all of that happened. Here is the breakdown of activities for the day:

Map of Russia
Quick Briefing of WWII
Nicholas Tsar – Reading
Video – What's a Revolution – OAR Revolution Song
Russian Revolution in a Nutshell
- Knowledge
- Comprehension
- Application
- Analysis
- Evaluation
Going from a Monarchy to Communism
Communism Quiz
Talk about how it "theoretically" has to go through 5 stages
10 bad things that happened during the USSR

It certainly looks like a lot! Talking with Mrs. DeFrance beforehand, she told me that the quiz would be graded "communist style," where everyone would be graded equally. A fantastic idea! I wonder how that one went over? :-)

We also wanted to point out the reasons why communism is inherently unstable and that there has never really been a true communist country in the world. Basically, people are greedy. Also, people generally love power and do not like giving it up.

Zach N. should have given a news brief, with Mustafe up for this Thursday.

You should have no homework from today's class, other than to get in all late work (by the next time we meet on Thursday - we do not have school on Friday).

Other than that, I'm not really sure what to say! I really missed you all and I think one time a year missing teaching a class is more than enough for me. Let me know your thoughts on how it went and what you did in class in the comments! Have a great day! Go Blazers (tonight at 5:00 on CSN)!