Period 1: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 9 - Class Recap

After a Blazers game against New Orleans earlier this year. From left to right: my brother Maxwell, my great friend Clarke, and Mr. Fritz, in my Brandon Roy jersey. Go Blazers! :-)
Hello amazing and delightful students,

Thank you for the (as always) interesting class today! What I particularly love about you guys is that, for the most part, you really feel comfortable sharing your opinions and bringing in things that are going on around the world to talk about. Naturally, your enthusiasm for material makes me even more excited to learn about things, if that makes sense. For instance, how could I have possibly known that we would have a 15 minute conversation about gay marriage today? You keep me on my toes and excited to come to class for some engaging thinking. At its core (in my opinion), Global Studies is about fostering interest in other countries and cultures. Today was definitely one of those days where that happened, in all likelihood. A great way to head into a new quarter and get ready to finish out the year.

Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? What is the impact of religion on policy in the Middle East? - We also went back a little to an essential question from earlier in the unit: What impact can women in the Middle East have on policy?

Soundtrack: "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin. Lyrics here. As Archana helpfully pointed out, Kashmir is a region in between Pakistan and India. Learn more about it here. As I said in class, this is another one of those regions in the Middle East where there is a LOT of conflict about who should control it. Also, I cannot believe that it has taken me this long to use a Led Zeppelin song for the soundtrack - they are one of my all time favorite bands. "Kashmir" is also used in some of the Portland Trail Blazers introduction videos at the Rose Garden, and P. Diddy made a remix of it for the movie Godzilla. Now THAT is a versatile song selection!

AGENDA 4/9/09:
News Brief
Afghanistan
Michelle Obama
Mapping the ME
Late Work/Revisions

Homework: Study for Middle East map quiz. Read recap on blog!

Hopefully, you got to study up during class. Please remember to keep looking at it this weekend! More instructions on that below.

News Brief: As I handed back work at the beginning of class, I asked Archana to recap the Blazers game (undeniably the biggest road win this season) at San Antonio last night. By the way, if you are a Blazers fan (or even if you are not) and you are not reading the Behind the Blazers Locker Room Door articles by Jason Quick of the Oregonian, you are SERIOUSLY missing out. Those are some of the best, most insightful, interesting reports that you will ever read.

I asked the class to talk a little bit about Tuesday with Mrs. DeFrance. There seemed to be an outpouring of statements about homework. To clear this up: Mrs. DeFrance asked you to take notes on the reading for homework. She told me that she got some resistance from the class about assigning it, which gives me pause for concern. Though I try not to assign you homework that I think is meaningless or excessively time consuming, you definitely need to do any homework that IS assigned, on time. That is our deal. Now, this time is an exception, because I was not aware that homework was assigned, but in the future, I do not want any sort of backlash against assignments.

Finally, before we got to the news brief, as part of my standard "what's going on in the world, everybody?" question that I like to try and ask at the beginning of class, someone brought up the news story of Reuters - Vermont becomes 4th state to allow gay marriage, which was hot on the heels of: Washington Post - Iowa Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage.

This was an incredibly interesting discussion! A few notes that I wanted to point out. We had it right in class: the four states that have legal gay marriage are Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and now Vermont. I pointed out one of the key debates: who should even determine if gay marriage should be allowed in a state? Should it be up to the people, in the form of elections, so that the majority truly rules? Or, should it be in the form of the judicial branch, where judges interpret the Constitution and other state laws, to make sure that there is equality and fairness? It is an interesting question. In the first three states, MA, CT, and IA, it was all judges that decided that banning gay marriage violated the Constitution. Vermont is unique in that the state's legislators (the people that were elected democratically) decided to legalize gay marriage - and even overrode the governor's veto to do so.

I also talked a little about the whole idea of liberals and conservatives (which I suspect you will learn much more about next year). Basically, conservatives want a return to the traditions of the country, like small government and "family values." Liberals are more concerned with the pursuit of "progress" and reforming things. Naturally, liberals tend to be on the forefront of pushing for gay rights, where conservatives form most of the opposition. If you remember the website fivethirtyeight.com from election season (when I showed you all the polls that said Obama was in the lead), the head writer, Nate Silver, wrote a terrific piece on the politics of gay marriage recently, which can be read here: Nate Silver - Will Iowans Uphold Gay Marriage?

After this great discussion, Mustafe gave us an incredible news story out of Somalia: BBC.co.uk - Hijacked US crew 'retake vessel' From the last I heard, the U.S. captain is still being held hostage on the small boat. See, now you can tell anyone else all about Somalia and the reasons behind why pirates exist there! Everything that we learn should be useful knowledge in this way!

Tanya, you are up for next Tuesday. Any news article, having anything to do with the world outside the United States.

Afghanistan: I talked a little about how the Russian Revolution and communism has impacted the country of Afghanistan. This is a country that is extremely difficult to control. Russia invaded Afghanistan and got bogged down in a never ending war, when the United States supplied the fighters in Afghanistan. Today, the United States is involved in a long war there, with no real prospects of "victory" any time soon. However, we do support the new government we have installed, with President Hamid Karzai at the helm. Which makes the following video (if you can't watch the video, read this article: CNN.com - Afghanistan 'rape' law puts women's rights front and center) all the more incredible, especially when we assess the state of women's rights in the Middle East:



As I made sure to note in class, it is not as if all countries in the Middle East (or all Islamic countries) have such restrictive measures on women. Turkey would be a good example of a country that has a relatively great record on women's rights: Wikipedia - Gender Equality in Turkey.

We noted that this new law is for Shia women, but there is a new one for Sunni women in the works. Someone in the class asks what the difference between Sunni and Shia was. I was right on my educated guess that Shia believe that the direct descendants of the prophet Muhammad should be the leaders of Islam, while the Sunni believe that new leaders should be elected amongst the people best suited for the job. A good recap on that can be found here: About.com - What's the Difference Between Shia and Sunni Muslims?

Michelle Obama: We then watched a clip of Michelle Obama talking about the importance of education, as well as making some London girls go hysterical. Here is that clip:



As I noted after the video, it really touched me when I first saw it, to the point of me tearing up. Such a powerful image - the First Lady shrugging off Secret Service agents to hug ecstatic girls in London. I used this to transition to talking about our goals for next quarter, because education is so important to overall success in life. Everyone in the class wrote something down that they could improve on in the classroom, and what they could do to achieve it. I took a quick look at these and I am really excited about helping you guys get to where you want to be! Thanks for participating in this!

Mapping the Middle East: I handed out blank maps of the Middle East, and asked the class to identify the following countries for an upcoming map quiz (I am thinking Thursday): Iran, Iraq, Israel, Sudan, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Again, so everyone is clear on exactly why I am having you do this, we read this article in class from the projector: Reuters - Most Young Americans Can't Find Iraq on Map: Study. Simply incredible statistics, especially because the United States is currently in the midst of two wars in the Middle East. In 2006, only 12 percent of 18-24 year olds could place Pakistan on a map – 40% could find Iraq, 25% could place Israel and Iran. Let's improve those numbers a bit, shall we?

It really is important to know exactly where world events are located. Thank you for getting right down to work on this!

Late Work/Revisions: I tried to leave as much time as possible (though the assembly shortened schedule made it difficult) to work on making these maps, as well as getting any late work in and checking in with you about your grades. I did not get to everyone, but I trust if you are at all worried about your grade, you have already come and talked to me about what you can do. Again, I am more than happy to help you out - all I need is the effort from you! If you have something you can get to me via e-mail, please do so by tonight.
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The Period 1 Dream Team of Jazmyne, Jordon, Abe, Russel, Mustafe, and I absolutely dominated at lunch basketball today. Like, it wasn't even close. Abe must have hit 3 to 4 threes, Jazmyne, as is typical, cleaned up for about 6 lay-ups, and Mustafe simply could not be guarded, so he started showing off. No baskets for me, but really, why would I even need to shoot? Good times all around. Thanks for letting me play guys! You are truly incredible, on and off the court.

There are TWO new episodes of The Office tonight on NBC! I am incredibly excited. It starts at 8:00; at 8:30 is the new show "Parks and Recreation" by the creators of The Office, and at 9:00 is another new Office. Oh wow, life rocks. Except that after that, this weekend gets unbelievably busy with grading, writing my own papers, and creating lessons for next week. The Blazers play the L*kers tomorrow night at home, on KGW (Ch. 8). Wow, could I love this Blazers team any more? Doubtful, but we will see! They also go down to L.A. to play the Clippers on Saturday at 7:30 on CSN, as well as Monday back in Portland vs. Oklahoma City at 7:30 on CSN.

Other than that, enjoy the long weekend, study up, and come back refreshed and excited for our last nine weeks together! I can't wait! :-)