A photo I took last summer at the Portland Japanese Garden. Really an incredibly beautiful place! Some of you are investigating aspects of Japan's culture for the paper, so that is how I am making this relate. :-)
Good morning Period 1!
Despite the chatter during the time when you should have been working on actually writing your paper, I thought that today was absolutely excellent. Thank you for the involvement in all parts of class: for bringing things in to talk about, to asking lots of great questions about how to write the paper, and meeting with Mrs. DeFrance and myself. Thanks for that! Please work hard on getting the rough draft of this paper done for Tuesday!
Essential Question: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? - As I said in class, I am sure there are many of you that are researching parts of conflict. I am hopeful that we will be able to come back soon to talking about Gandhi!
Soundtrack: "Hands Held High" by Linkin Park. Lyrics (Warning: explicit - I played the clean version of the song before class) here. I read a few of the verses off - definitely a song that relates to conflict and responses to it! Thanks for the suggestion Randi! :-)
AGENDA 5/29/09: News Brief Writing the Paper Quiet Base Group Work Conferences
Homework:Rough draft of paper due for peer revisions! Read the blog and ask questions!
We went over this quite a lot in class, so I am expecting that everyone is clear about what I am asking for you to do for next class. A typed copy of a rough draft, that your base group will peer review and edit. Again, if you have any questions or concerns, please be asking away in the comments! I will try as much as possible to clear things up!
News Brief: Plenty to talk about today! We started out the conversation by Brandon telling us about a mosque bombing that he had seen on the bottom scroll of the news this morning. In all probability, that was what this article is referencing: LATimes.com - Iran blames Sunni extremists, U.S. for deadly mosque bombing.
This sparked a discussion about the recent terrorist plot that the FBI broke up last week, that was supposedly going to be about attacking synagogues (Jewish places of worship) in New York City. A good article about this, and how it came to be found out (or possibly created), can be read here: NYTimes.com - Informer's Role in Bombing Plot.
For some reason, we then detoured into talking about the World Cup in 2010, which is in South Africa and Mustafe said he is going to. So cool! I think we talked about this because I mentioned the Champions League (in Europe) Final between Barcelona and Manchester United on Tuesday, which Barcelona won 2-0. A recap of that game can be read here.
For another reason entirely, we talked a little bit about ethanol fuel. Right now, there is a big push to blend ethanol (which is usually made out of corn here in the U.S.) with gasoline, so driving a car does not pollute as much. What people ignore is just how much money it takes to make ethanol, and if it is really doing any good at all for the environment (due to all the other costs that it takes to make it). Two years ago, my mom wrote a good piece on her blog about this (she knows her stuff), and convinced me to write a research paper for a college course I took on the possible benefits and costs to ethanol. Anyway, you can read her blog post about it here: AmandaFritz.com - Oregon State biofuels study. Also, another piece of information that I think is interesting when it comes to this can be found here: AmandaFritz.com - A Biofuels Fact. In the comments, you can also see that the corn it takes to fill an SUV tank with ethanol once would feed a person for a year. Wow!
I also mentioned that Portland (and a lot of the state of Oregon) has started requiring that every gas station blend their gas with 10% ethanol. An article on that can be read here: KGW.com - Oregon gas stations required to sell ethanol fuel.
We also talked about General Motors probably about to declare bankruptcy (and the Italian car company Fiat now owning Chrysler): CNN.com - GM bankruptcy still likely despite deal. Again, this means that GM has to restructure all of their debt, not completely go away. Really hard times for American car companies!
Whew! Zack T. ended this section of the class up with this article: BBC News - Sudan army takes town from rebels. This is directly related to the genocide in Darfur (which, by the way, the United Nations does not say is a genocide, mostly due to China having veto power as well as a lot of relations with the Sudanese government for oil, which is one of the reasons why many people wanted the U.S. to boycott the Olympics in China this last year).
Thank you so much for this really interesting conversation! Continue to be paying attention to the world around you! :-)
Writing the Paper: During this section of class, there was a really fantastic discussion about the finer points of citing a source and how we want you to write the paper, which would be impossible to entirely recap on the blog. However, if you were paying attention in class, I feel pretty confident that you understand what is going on. If not, please ask questions in the comments about how to construct a paragraph and cite a source! Remember, we do not want you using a ton of direct quotes. Pick a couple really key ones, and summarize the rest! You still have to cite them, but now you are showing me what you think about your research!
Remember that the format of the paragraphs is there to just give you a general idea of the sequence that we want: topic sentence, concrete detail, concrete detail, commentary, concluding statement. Those do not all have to be single sentences! In fact, if you elaborate each point, your paper will probably be much easier to write!
Again, let me know if you have any questions about all of this!
Quiet Base Group Work: Perhaps I should have underlined "Quiet" here, because I really doubt that most of you used this time effectively. I wanted you to check in with each other about how things are going with the paper, then get right down to writing your rough draft. Some of you chose to utilize this time, some did not. During this, we also did...
Conferences: Mrs. DeFrance and I really like doing these. It is always awesome to get to check in with everyone! I started from the bottom of the class list and she started from the top. If you did not get to chat with either one of us today, the questions that I asked were: how are you feeling about your research question and sources? Does this paper make sense? Do you need any help with it? Do you feel confident about writing the rough draft this weekend? Finally, I showed everyone their grade and gave out ways (if possible) to get it up.
Thanks for visiting with us! I really value the opportunity to sit down and chat one-on-one, because that happens way less frequently than I would like. ---
Okay, there you have it! What a busy day and end to the year! Keep working hard with me please!
I will be working at the airport tonight (Friday) for the last time ever (sad times), so I will not be able to post and respond to comments from about 4 PM until after 10 PM. Other than that, I will be working hard all weekend on grading and getting the rest of the year ready to go, so most of the time I will be online ready to get back to you.
Big games in the NBA! Mr. Hardin's Lakers play the Denver Nuggets tonight at 6:00 PM on ESPN. The Cleveland Cavaliers (or really, the name should just be "The Team that LeBron James plays for) play the Orlando Magic on Saturday at 5:30 PM on TNT. If Cleveland or Denver do not win, they are out!
Speaking of sports, I am super excited to get to finally watch a little bit of the French Open this weekend. I love this time of year! The Stanley Cup finals start soon in hockey too. Woo hoo!
Have a great weekend everyone! I will see the ballers during second lunch. For the last time, if you are confused or concerned about anything about the paper (or in the class) please either comment or e-mail me! :-)
An Air India 747-400 at Newark on Sunday. If not for Gandhi, it is possible that Air India would not even exist today!
Good afternoon colleagues,
We are really getting down there to the end of the year! I think today went fairly well, though I must say that I am probably going to have to rethink what we are doing with the paper because many of you were not prepared with sources or notes. Next class, please come prepared with your homework, and we will talk one on one about how everything is going.
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? How did the concept of nonviolence develop and become implemented?
Soundtrack: "Bomb the World" by Michael Franti and Spearhead. The lyrics, which I showed on the projector and read aloud in class because I thought that they were really interesting, can be found here. This song was suggested to me by Ms. V'Marie. I played it today because of the nuclear bomb test in North Korea, which we talked about in the News Brief section.
AGENDA 5/27/09: News Brief - Exploding Nuclear Bomb (and Possible War) Edition MLK and Gandhi Paragraphs and Citing Sources Rubric and Work
Homework: Notes #4 due (all other sources as well) and completed bibliography to be checked off. Read the blog and ask questions if needed!
Seriously, if you are having any questions or problems with this paper and the research, or how to do the bibliography, please ask away! I will be available on here in the comments, by e-mail, or in person!
News Brief: At the start of class, I went over the essential questions, soundtrack, agenda, and homework, then asked the class about what they did for the long Memorial Day weekend! Andrew talked about playing soccer in Florida, Jazmyne mentioned the packing up process for her, and I talked about how I was super sick over the weekend in Princeton. Still, good to have the rest!
After some good conversation here, we went on to talk about the enormous news of the weekend. I found it absolutely incredible that in both of my Global Studies classes yesterday, nobody had heard that North Korea had detonated a nuclear bomb as a test over the weekend. North Korea has also said that it will not continue to agree to the peace deal "armistice" that it signed with South Korea in 1953. Bad times. You can read all about that on really any news site. CNN.com has a special section dedicated to it, which you can find here: CNN.com - News & Videos about North Korea.
Finally, I mentioned that President Obama had selected Sonia Sotomayor to be on the Supreme Court. She has to be confirmed by the Senate now, but seems likely to be the first Hispanic (her parents were born in Puerto Rico) on the court, as well as the third woman. This is another HUGE deal, that is all over the news. Her biography can be found here: CNN.com - Who is Sonia Sotomayor?.
Zack T. volunteered to bring in a news article for Friday. Thanks!
MLK and Gandhi: I actually think this went well, though I was a little worried before class about how it would all work out. First, I had you get out your Civil Rights notes and think again about Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy. Then, we watched this video:
We talked about how there were aspects of his philosophy in that short video. I then handed out this article to read together: SFGate.com - Gandhi's Influence on King.
Finally, to complete the media section here, I played this video of MLK talking about Gandhi:
After all of that, we came back together and tried to identify aspects of philosophy that Martin Luther King Jr. said that he borrowed from Gandhi, while I had everyone write on the board one thing they knew about Gandhi.
This was a really productive and interesting conversation, thanks!
Paragraphs and Citing Sources: For this part of class, I had you get into base groups to talk about how things are going with the historical investigation, while Mrs. DeFrance and I went around to check off the sources that you brought in. After that, we talked about how to write a body paragraph in Social Studies, with an Introductory Statement, a Concrete Detail, another Concrete Detail, a Commentary, and a Concluding Statement. Mrs. DeFrance talked about her own investigation and body paragraph, which she did as an example on global warming.
We also talked about citing sources inside the text (for about 2 minutes, before having to do the lock down drill). Basically, my point here was that if you have the author of the article (or book) that you are working with, when you are writing your paper you need to cite them inside your paper to give them credit when you quote them or use facts from their work. For instance.
"Westview is the coolest school ever." (Fritz, 3) - In this case, I am citing myself! Remember that it goes (Author, page number). If you do not have the author of the article, it needs to be ("Title of Article"). If you do not have the page number, do not put anything in. I will try to explain this more next class.
Rubric and Work: I was able to hand out the rubric as you left the class after the drill, but we will come back to this. Read it, please! ---
I am excited for the Lakers-Nuggets game tonight (6:00, ESPN)! Other than that, I have about a million things to get done, so I will be hard at work trying to accomplish them all. I hope that you are doing the same! See you on Friday!
At the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in Cambridge, England. The inscription on the cross reads: "Here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known but to God" - it is a grave of a soldier whose remains could not be identified. I took this picture when I visited the cemetery in the summer of 2007, during my study abroad time in England. I put a feather on top of the cross to give it another artistic angle.
I thought that class today was a little scattered, but generally, I think (and hope) that we got some good work done today on figuring out a research question and writing notes on sources. I hope that it all made sense! Please be letting me know how I can best be helping you out and getting you excited about finding out information for your paper!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? How did the concept of nonviolence develop and become implemented? - As Abe noted, the second question is a new one. We did not really have the time to start exploring the answers to it today, but it will come back next class!
Soundtrack: "Making Memories" by Rush. Lyrics here. A great song about traveling (which I will be doing this weekend). I selected it by searching my iTunes for songs that could relate to Memorial Day.
AGENDA 5/21/09: News Brief Scheduling Taking Notes MLK and Gandhi
Homework: Continue to find sources and take notes on the papers! Develop your paper! Check the blog – have a great weekend!
Remember, the schedule that we made today in class says that Note/source pages 1, 2, and 3 are due next class. This will be explained in greater detail below, so keep reading!
News Brief: The first news story that was brought up was from Brandon (who was all over the news today, way to go!), who said something about finding Laci Peterson's body (though I am not sure about that, since it was found in 2003).
EDIT: Wow! It looks like we messed up my Peterson wife murderers, with Scott instead of Mike (no relation, I am pretty sure)! Here is the story that Brandon was talking about, which think we all confused with the story above and below: CNN.com - Autopsy finds little on body found near homes of missing women.
Continuted from above: We had a discussion about the impacts of this case, as Laci Peterson was seven and a half months pregnant at the time of her death. Her husband, Scott Peterson was convicted and sentenced to death for both Laci AND the unborn child's deaths. Obviously, this brings up the topic of abortion, which I do not particularly want to start a debate about in this class, for a variety of reasons - chief amongst them being that it really does not relate to Global Studies and it is frequently a really unproductive debate because neither side wants to even consider the other points. However, it is a really interesting case to study. After the killings, Congress passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act in 2004.
Abe asked if abortion is legal in the United States. Ever since the incredibly controversial Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, yes, it is. However, since this is such a really big debate, there have been decisions that limit this - more specifically, some states ban late term abortions, which was upheld by the recent case Gonzales v. Carhart. I mentioned in class that there is also a debate about what to do in cases where the health of the mother is in jeopardy because of the fetus. Yes, this is all really complicated, I know. Definitely something to know about, because it will remain an issue, probably forever.
Finally, Brandon volunteered to bring in this article about the current situation in Sri Lanka: CNN.com - Sri Lanka: We're providing enough for refugees. I talked a little bit in class about the 25 year long conflict in Sri Lanka between the government and the Tamil people, frequently named the "Tamil Tigers." Apparently, the civil war is finally at an end.
Russel volunteered to bring in an news article for next class, on Wednesday. Thanks!
Scheduling: For this section of class, I had everyone take a schedule and write out what we will be doing in class for the rest of the year. Here is what I put down on the board, for those of you that were not in class or lost the schedule:
May 21 (today): Research Questions and quiet work on notes. May 27 (next class): Notes on sources 1-3 due. Work on citing in paper. May 29: Notes 4 due. Check off bibliography in class. June 2: Peer Review in class - rough draft due. June 4: Paper Due. June 8: Paper pass back for revisions. June 10: Final draft of paper due, to be graded. June 12 (last day of the year): Paper pass back.
I went over all of these dates and what I will be checking off and looking for in class. We had a lot of questions about these dates, as well as about what we will be doing for the finals period. Like I said, I have some ideas, but am not willing to share them at this point. :-)
Taking Notes: For this section of class, I had everyone come up and take 4 sheets of paper for your notes on your sources to put in your folders. I talked about the awesome system for writing the paper. Take one of these papers and write #1 on the top, then write #1 on your first source. Write your research question in, then look at the "cheat sheet" in your folder to find out how to correctly cite your source for the bibliography. Finally, use the three smaller sheets that Mrs. DeFrance and I showed you how to take notes on (quotes/summarizing sentences/summarizing the entire source), and use those to create your notes for each source!
I know that this sounds complicated, but I feel fairly confident that I explained this well in class. I saw lots of nods and agreement here, which was great. Again, if this is not making sense, PLEASE ask me to clarify! There is simply no way that I can know how to best explain it if you do not tell me what you are confused about.
After this explanation, I had everyone get in to "base groups" of 3 people (there was one group with 4), to talk over what your research questions are about and what sources you have. You will continue to be in these base groups for the rest of the year, writing the paper! I have found that it is really nice just to have people to check in with, who know what you are writing and bring good ideas to the table.
For the rest of class, people were working on their research questions (running them by Mrs. DeFrance or me), as well as writing notes about your sources. Again, try to have at least two direct quotes per source! This will make writing the paper so much easier, I promise!
As I said at the end of class, I am not sure how productive this whole period of time was, because there seemed to be a lot of talking and not a lot of writing. We will see what happens for next class, when I am asking you to bring in three sources with notes on each source! :-)
MLK and Gandhi: We did not get to this, but I am sure we will eventually. Really a pretty interesting connection. ---
As I stated in class, this weekend I will be visiting my brother at college in Princeton, New Jersey to help him pack up to come home for the summer. I am really excited! I am flying out on Friday morning and getting back on Sunday night. If you are at all interested, you can track my flights in the air here: Portland to Seattle (Horizon Air Flight 2172, 9:30 AM PST Friday), Seattle to Newark, New Jersey (Continental Airlines Flight 1680, 11:45 AM PST Friday), Newark to Phoenix, (US Airways Flight 77, 4:35 PM EST Sunday), and Phoenix to Portland (US Airways Flight 94, 8:10 PM MST Sunday).
Also, if you would like to see that really awesome website I showed the class during the Nigeria unit that has all of the flights I have ever taken in my life mapped out, check out this: FlightMemory.com - Ml007. I love flying! Looking forward to putting that Newark-Phoenix route on that page later! If you end up doing this (I know that Zack T. and Scout already have), post a link to yours in the comments! I would love to see where everyone has flown to!
Whew! With all of that being said, I still should be fairly easy to communicate with this weekend, though it may not be as fast as you are used to. Please keep in touch and ask questions, post comments, or e-mail me with anything I can help you with! Enjoy the long weekend and Memorial Day, and thanks for being so great! :-)
EDIT: Friday, 7:30 AM - Is there anything better than sitting at Horizon's A Gates at PDX, connected to free wireless, about to read the Bill Simmons ESPN.com - The NBA playoffs mailbag, Part I? I say no.
EDIT 2: Friday, 10:50 AM - It turns out I was wrong. Being in the exclusive Alaska Airlines Board Room in Seattle (which is roughly 1000 times better than the Board Room in Portland), getting free food and drinks with an incredible view of the airport, reading the Simmons ESPN.com - The NBA playoffs mailbag, Part II is much better. My flight memory page is already updated for the PDX-SEA flight, which was on N403QX. Now I have to take some more pictures and run over to the Continental gates! Catch everyone in New Jersey! :-)
One of the photos that we talked about today in class. The African-American girl in the photo is Elizabeth Eckford, of the so called "Little Rock Nine." You can read a really fascinating account of her life here: Vanity Fair - Through a Lens, Darkly.
Hello and welcome to another class recap!
Generally, I liked how today went. I enjoy the fact that I can trust you guys with a completely random (for the most part) seating chart! I really liked what we did with the pictures of the civil rights movement. I am not sure how clear the talk about the bibliography and your research question for your final paper was, so I am thinking that we will devote most of the class on Thursday to writing notes about your sources and continuing to write the paper.
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What are civil rights?
Soundtrack: "Amazing" by Kanye West. Lyrics here. Selected because I keep hearing it for the NBA playoffs commercials, and because you guys are amazing. :-)
AGENDA 5/19/09: News Brief Recap and Gallery Walk Final Paper Bibliography Research Questions
Homework: Have research question formulated for next class, begin work on writing paper! Read blog recap!
If anyone would like help with formulating a good question, please post a message in the comments with your topic (something that you are interested in studying), and I will try to make it work! Your fellow classmates can help with this too!
News Brief: I don't know about you, but the start of class seemed to drag on for me. This was partially because I had to pass back about 40 papers, and partially because it seemed like we did not have too much to talk about. Sure, there was the Los Angeles earthquake, President Obama speaking at Notre Dame University, and the swine flu cases nearing 10,000. There is definitely so much more going on though! Remember to keep paying attention to everything!
We used this same article to talk about how to write a bibliography for a website later in class. Mainly, I wanted to point out that President Obama met yesterday with Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to talk about exactly what we have covered in class! What should Israel do about the threat of Iran? Should there be a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Again, I try to make everything that we learn about relate to what is currently going on in the world!
So, if anyone would like to step up to do the news brief for next class, on Thursday, in the comments, I would much appreciate it. Thanks!
Recap and Gallery Walk: For this part of class, I asked everyone to get out your note sheets on civil rights and what Martin Luther King Jr. had to say about how to get them. I wrote a few ideas on the board that we talked about last class, using excerpts from MLK's speeches. Then, I had everyone go around the room and look at the pictures from the African-American fight for civil rights in the United States. I asked you to choose four, and write down how they were (or were not) visual representations of MLK's philosophy.
I thought the class discussion on these, using the ELMO to look at a few with everybody, was really fantastic. Look, those were pictures that were supposed to be pretty controversial and get a response out of you! It is no wonder that there was some great thoughts about how the pictures were possible representations of non-violent philosophy. Thanks for this!
Final Paper Bibliography: For this section of the class, I talked about how to create an easy bibliography, using the "cheat sheets" that were stapled in your folders. I used the aforementioned CNN article as an example. Remember, for your final paper, you need to have at least four different sources, and three of them have to be a newspaper article, magazine article, and a book. Wikipedia is NOT a source, but it does frequently link to sources at the bottom of each page!
Research Questions: Abe and I handed out a bright yellow sheet to help you with formulating a good research question. We brainstormed on the board the aspects of a great question, like: being specific, testable, interesting, and easy to follow. For the last 10 minutes or so, we worked in class on developing your questions. Again, please see me if you want any help with it! Begin researching and answering your question! This should be a fairly lengthy paper - about 3-4 pages by the time you are all done. We will continue to talk about great ways to take notes and accomplish all the other objectives for the paper, next class. ---
Whew. That is a lot. I am guessing that a lot of it still does not make much sense, or is really stressful if it does. Let's continue working on this all together! Have a great rest of the day, and please make sure to stay in touch!
The Wordle for what everyone likes about the class. I was really glad to see that most everyone had a positive view of what we do! Thanks again for your thoughts here!
Welcome to your weekend!
First off, thank you for reading the blog. I guess it kind of hit me last night how much effort and time I really do have to devote to it. That was the first time I had really thought about calculating how many pages each recap must be. For the last one to be four pages, that means I have typed around 200 pages for your class alone! I know that is a TON of reading for you to do, but I truly believe that by reading, you will do better in class, and even more importantly, succeed in knowing more about the world. So thanks for checking it out, and thanks for the great class today! I was really happy with how everything went. :-)
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What are civil rights?
Soundtrack: "Get Up, Stand Up" by Bob Marley. Lyrics here. A fantastic song for thinking about civil rights! I am sad that Robert wasn't in class to hear it today - he has been wanting some Bob Marley for the soundtrack all year!
AGENDA 5/15/09: News Brief Debrief Class Reflections Martin Luther King Jr. Final Paper Note Taking
Homework: Bring sources (at least one more) for next class. Continue to work on research! Read blog recap!
I was really disappointed that we only had about 7 people actually bring in an article for the class today. It ended up being okay, because we did not have time to use them in class (that would have been the next step after Mrs. DeFrance's talk), but seriously, that was one of the easiest homework assignments ever: find something that you are interested in about the world, search Google News, print off an article. You didn't even really have to read it! Next class, I want everyone on the ball please.
News Brief: At the beginning of class, I went over the essential questions, soundtrack, agenda, and homework, then talked a little bit about my friend Ryan, who came in to visit the class, and his trip to Rwanda coming up! We are hoping that we can do some sort of webchat or something, to really tie everything together for the year! Super cool. Here is his post on Biking for Obama about it. Again, exactly what we are talking about in class, with connecting cultures through sports and other similarities!
I also pointed out that The Office season finale was amazing, that Mr. Hardin's Lakers lost (Game 7 on Sunday at 12:30 on ABC), and that the weather is amazing. After that, I started handing back your grades for the Israeli-Palestinian projects. Again, if you did not get something from me today, that means something is wrong and I need you to give me something else. Way too many "somethings" in that sentence. Anyway, please come see me!
A couple really interesting points from the class discussion during the news brief. Again, this section is only as good as you make it! It is your turn to bring up interesting things to talk about!
I have a couple of notes from this. One, was Aaron asked why the United States continues to fund other countries, even though our economy (like everyone else's) is terrible right now. I pointed out that our national debt (click on that link if you are at all interested in this - it is fascinating) is on the upswing again, as we have to borrow more and more money to pay for things. Further, I noted that China holds most of the debt that we owe to foreign governments. A really interesting article about the recent consequences of that in today's economy can be found here: Forbes.com - China's U.S. Debt Quandary.
I'm not sure who asked (it might have been Zack), but there was a question about which country in the world has the most debt. That's sort of a complicated question to answer, because it depends how you look at answering the question. Is the debt as a percentage of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product, which basically means ALL of goods and services within a country in a year)? If so, Zimbabwe is not looking too hot. Source: CIA World FactBook - Country Comparisons - Public Debt.
A lot of mumbo jumbo that you almost certainly do not care about, but the basic gist of it all is this: The United States economy is over three times bigger/richer than the next biggest economy, which is Japan. You can see why when the U.S. has economic problems, the world does too, to a large extent.
Anyway, I know I am a huge nerd for getting into that stuff. Here's something that Abe was excited about bringing in to talk about: CNN.com - Myanmar democracy leader facing trial after American's swim. Honestly, this is a really amazing story. I'm not sure if you guys got all of what I was saying in class about it, so it is really worth a read! Wow, to think I would have had no clue at all about this if I had not been listening to OPB's "The World" on the way home from school yesterday, on 91.5 FM, from 3:00-4:00! Man, I love learning. :-)
I did not assign anyone for next class to do a news brief, so if you would like to bring something in for next Tuesday, please let me know in the comments. Otherwise, I guess I will just do it myself!
Debrief Class Reflections: As I think I said in class, I was up until about 12:30 AM doing this last night (and that wasn't even including the MLK stuff, which kept me up until 1:00). I was really glad to be able to do this, though, as it is always incredibly interesting!
If you missed what I said, or want to see all the answers again, here they are:
1) What do you like about this class? (What about the structure gets you excited to come in the morning?)
Easy, not strict, fun x 3, debates x 2, discussions x 4, news brief x 6, soundtrack x 8, something different, topics x 4, people x 10, community x 2, nothing (too freaking tired), Mr. Fritz (smile) x 5, no homework due (usually) x 2, atmosphere x 3, "wakes me up in the morning," energy x 3, learning x 2, relevance, understandable, "not going to Hardin’s class" and "Hardin is funnier, but overall I’d much rather be in this class," everything, essays, relaxed x 2, the Blazers, work, projects x 2, never boring, activities
2) What could the class improve on?
Being more involved (participation), nothing x 2, too cold, music too loud, turning in homework x 6, quietness x 6, tardiness x 2, "stop shouting random comments," respect x 3, attitude, explanation, community x 2, participate more on blog, nicer to Mr. Fritz, annoyingness, listening, "people starting side conversations" x 3, staying on topic x 2, less essays and papers, more group work
3) What do you like about Mr. Fritz as a teacher?
Not strict/lenient x 4, enthusiastic x 13, energy x 4, approachable x 3, potential, positive attitude x 2, optimistic x 2, lets us revise, effort, reaches out, different topics x 3, fun x 2, interesting, nice x 2, no tests, learn a lot, taste in music, effort on blog x 2, understanding x 2, relatable, manliness, cool x 2, plays basketball x 2 "like Michael Jordan," dedication, love, passionate x 2, awesome, "get us to care," motivated, "wants people to do good," ideas, creativity, minimal homework, "not a harsh grader," "makes learning better," activities, "always has something as a visual to explain what you're doing" movies x 2, "relaxed unless you need to get mad," calm, relaxed, helpful
4) What can Mr. Fritz improve on?
Too much time on one topic (news brief, Blazers), explanation x 8, student engagement, nothing x 10, strictness x 2, "not so many projects that make us get up in front of class," "get a job here," "punishing for late work, so people will do it," class outside x 2, quieting down the class x 2, enthusiasm, handwriting x 2, less strict, give more time on projects, not talk about uncomfortable topics (like rape), more movies, "I think you need to make the class respect you more. At times, it’s a little too 'buddy buddy' and we forget that you are our teacher. Which is good, but we still need to know you are our teacher." "talking maybe a little quieter," hands on activities, make homework worth more, keep on topic --- Thanks again for participating in this activity! I really think it is a great way to see how class is going.
Martin Luther King Jr.: For this section, I asked you to get out your notes on civil rights from last class. I then proceeded to hand out a sheet of excerpts from three different speeches, which can be found (along with many others) at MLK Online - Speeches.
The speeches that I quoted from were "Letter from Birmingham Jail," "Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech," and "I See the Promised Land." All incredibly powerful speeches, with some amazing context for when they were given! For instance, check out this excerpt from the end of the last speech he ever gave, "I See the Promised Land":
If that does not give you chills, I do not know what to tell you.
After reading through these excerpts, I asked the class (using volunteers and playing cards) to tell me a little bit about the philosophy behind what MLK was saying. How was he trying to get civil rights? I thought that this was an incredibly productive conversation to have (I took notes on the board and asked you to copy them down). It was a little shorter than I wanted, but that is the nature of things for the rest of the year, since we also have the following section to work on!
Final Paper Note Taking: Mrs. DeFrance had you write down your research topics on the board, and most of them looked absolutely great! I am excited to see what you guys come up with for them! Mrs. DeFrance and I explained the strategy that she really likes for taking notes, using her folder system. She asked me after class if this made sense when she was writing on the overhead, and I told her with 100% confidence that it did. It really is a great system and easy to use! We talked about using the three colored sheets in the folder. One is for a sentence/short thought, the second is for paragraphs and chunks, and the third is for the entire article.
Thanks for listening and being great note takers, during the note taking part of the lesson! Let me know if you were at all confused about this. Again, next class I want you to bring in sources to take notes on! ---
Have a stupendous weekend! Enjoy the great weather! I know that I am ready for a rest. This week has been totaly exhausting. Only 4 days of school next week, and then I am flying off for the long weekend to New Jersey to see my brother at Princeton and help him pack up! Super excited for that. By the way, speaking of airplanes, I will be at the airport tonight working at UPS, seeing some friends (for possibly the last time, as the company I work for out there is losing the contract at the end of May - sad times!). Thus, I will not be able to post or respond to comments from about 4:00 to 10:00 tonight (Friday).
Thank you for being such amazing students. I was not lying when I said that you guys make all of the work worthwhile when I see you in the morning. Please work hard for me too! :-)
EDIT: Just checked, and without the picture and video, in Times New Roman size 12 font, this blog post is exactly four pages long. Whew!
Earth, as seen from the Apollo 17. This is probably the most famous image of Earth from space, and is sometimes referred to as the "Blue Marble" picture. Found on the consistently incredible (bookmark and come back every day) NASA.gov - Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).
Hello everyone!
That sure does feel nice, to type a new unit title! Thank you for participating in everything today. I get the feeling that the rest of the year, every day will be crammed full of stuff to do. We accomplished a lot today! I know there is probably a lot to clear up and write about as well, so let's get on to the recap!
Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What are civil rights? - The first one is from an earlier unit (we have now talked about every essential question that the Westview Social Studies department wants us to), and the second is one for the lesson today.
Soundtrack: "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado. Lyrics here. I'm not sure if anyone really knows what this song is about, including Ms. Furtado, but man, is it catchy. As I said in class, it reminds me of a California road trip I took in 2007! Chosen for today because I searched my iTunes for "right" and this was the best song that came up.
AGENDA 5/13/09: News Brief Reflections on Goals/Unit/Class Civil Rights The Final
Homework: Decide on what topic you want to do (for your research project), bring a source to take notes on next class. Read blog recap!
This will be talked about a little more in "The Final" section. Basically, I want you to decide on what you want to investigate for your final paper, and bring one source in (like a news article, book, magazine, etc) that relates to your topic and that you can take notes on. We will help you do this in class! All I need for you to do is to pick a topic, and choose something to take notes on about.
For anyone that was not in class today, or that has lost (already) the assignment sheet, here it is to download:
Again, we will be talking about this much more. In fact, for the rest of the year, this is what we will be doing. As I noted in class, I am thinking that we will have about half the time devoted to this new unit, and the other half to developing this paper.
News Brief: We really did not have that much to talk about today, for any number of reasons, but that is totally fine. Just so long as you are paying attention to what is going on in the world!
Specifically, Lauren talked about China remembering the one year anniversary of an incredibly deadly earthquake. Source: USA Today.com - A year later, China vows to rise from quake. That was certainly a huge event that will effect that region for a long time to come. I wanted to post a picture of school desks holding up the ceiling of a building that had otherwise completely collapsed. Here is your evidence:
That was after the 1985 Mexico City Earthquake. Though I will admit that this is a pretty unlikely outcome, given a really strong earthquake, at least it is better than nothing. We do those earthquake drills for a reason! :-)
Abe said he will bring something in next class on Friday for us to talk about. Thanks!
Reflections on Goals/Unit/Class: At the start of this section, I had you pull out your goal sheets from the beginning of the semester, that I gave you back last class. I asked you to write a little reflection about how things are going, what you can improve or continue to work on, etc. I read all of these, and generally, I am glad that you are participating on this! It is really important to set goals for yourself, and come back to those goals from time to time. On one paper, someone even wrote something like "I completely forgot about this, but I was right. I have to work harder, starting now!" Good stuff.
I then asked you to get out another sheet of paper to do the activity that we had done at the end of last semester. The questions that I wanted you to respond to were: 1) What do you like about this class? (What about the structure gets you excited to come in the morning?) 2) What could be improved about the class? 3) What do you like about Mr. Fritz as a teacher? 4) What can Mr. Fritz improve on?
To be honest, I have not read all of these yet, but I did glance at them, and I am really thankful for your honest feedback. It really does help me out (and in theory, you as well)!
Civil Rights: To start this section of the class, I asked you to get out another sheet of paper and I projected this quote for you to reflect on (like Mr. Hardin's class): "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." - Mohandas Gandhi.
After a really great period of focused work (I could tell you guys were used to doing this), I had everyone come up and write one example or thought you had that came to mind as you were thinking about the quote. I thought all of these were really interesting! We had 9/11/2001, The Blazers, Revolutionary War, 300, V for Vendetta, amongst others. The point to doing this was as a warm up to think about the fight for civil rights.
Next, I asked you to help me brainstorm about what, exactly, civil rights were. To be honest, I think I could have done this portion of the class better. I noticed that a lot of people were tuning out, and at some level, I can't blame you. However, I was really happy with those that participated in this. We had the right to love, live, vote, own land, free speech, and some other good thoughts! Zack T. noted that there is a limit on some of these, like in this instance: ESPN.com - Ovechkin, Caps putting threat behind them. Yes!
As I went and got Mrs. DeFrance, I asked you to take notes on our brainstorming session. Next class, we will work with this! :-)
The Final: As I think Mrs. DeFrance and I said in class, this "historical investigation" project is one that every freshman at Westview is working on, as part of the common assessment for Social Studies. If you remember, the first semester version of this was the visual metaphor. Thus, this is a really big deal!
Mrs. DeFrance talked about her really amazing folder system for helping you write papers. Seriously, if I had this in high school, I think I would have written 10 page long papers with ease. It is really a pretty incredible way to keep track of everything. Please keep everything in that folder - including all the sheets of paper tucked inside!
I linked to the final paper assignment sheet above. We read that together in class, as I tried as best as I could to introduce this as something that you do not have to stress out about. Make it interesting to you! After reading everything together, we started brainstorming ideas for "issues of global significance" on the board. I took a picture of the results:
Pick one of these, or any other issue for your homework, and bring in something to start you off on the project on Friday! I want you to be excited at finding out information about the world, that you may not have really had the chance to learn about in class this year!
Put it this way, there are entire college courses devoted to just these topics. In fact, I was in one last year at Western Oregon University! It was called History 492: World Problems. I ended up writing a 10 page paper on the search for Osama bin Laden. It was a really interesting class!
If you are still totally unsure about what to do, try a Google search for "world problems" or "globalization" or something along those lines. If none of that sounds interesting at all, come talk to me and I am sure we can get you started. :-)
Finally, at the end of class, I read an article about the Pope (the head of the Catholic Church) visiting Jerusalem and calling for peace. Here is that article: CNN.com - Pope visits Jerusalem's holiest sites. I wanted to read this off as an example of an issue of global significance, directly relating to what we just learned about!
By the way, I just found this article: AP - Pope in Bethlehem endorses Palestinian homeland, which I think is really a fantastic example of why everything we learned about in class is important. I think almost all of you will understand everything in it now! Woo hoo! :-) ---
For anyone that is accustomed to reading the blog right after (or during) school, sorry about getting this up late. It kind of reminds me of before I started being at Westview full time! Very relaxing and easy to write the blog at home, I must say. Seriously, I am very busy lately. Here is what I did after class today, for anyone interested:
Put away projector and put files, folders, and laptop on desk. Enter attendance for class on eSIS. Complete grading the Israeli-Palestinian projects before lunch (by the way, these are all done, if you provided me with both a paper and the creative product, if possible). Create lesson plans for Periods 2 and 4 tomorrow. Make copies of final assignment sheets for both. Make copies of Promises conversation assignment for Period 4. File away everything for easy retrieval tomorrow. Enter grades for everything I have recently graded on eSIS. Read goal sheets we did today in class. Do quick update on blog. Miscellaneous grading of late work. Help Mrs. DeFrance with a PowerPoint question. Finish reading and responding to Period 2's Promises conversations.
Yeah. I was busy. I'm sure I am forgetting stuff there too. Thanks for bearing with me, if this is a little late!
Other news of interest: Brandon Roy was selected to the All-NBA Second Team! This is a really huge honor! The first time a Blazer has made All-NBA since Clyde Drexler in 1992. Source: BlazersEdge.com. Brandon Roy is simply incredible. What a guy.
The Office Season Five finale is tomorrow night (Thursday)! It is totally worth checking out, even if you have never seen it. The fun starts at 9:00 PM, on NBC (Channel 8 for most of you). The Office is my favorite television show of all time. I am really quite sad that the season will be over and we will have to wait until the fall for a new episode! Every year this happens, and there is a huge cliffhanger, and it just kills me.
There is a TON of sporting action going on. I am sure that Westview's spring sports are all worth checking out. Add to that two Game Sevens in the NHL, the Lakers-Rockets and Celtics-Magic series in the NBA (both Game Sixes), and Major League Baseball, all tomorrow. Wow. It is a great time to be a sports fan!
Whew! That was quite the recap! It took me much longer than usual to put together. The life of a teacher, rolls on! Have a great evening! Come see me if you want to see your grade or need any help at all! Feel free to continue the conversation in the comments. See you on Friday! Thanks for being amazing! :-)
Faraj Adnan, one of the people in the movie Promises that we finished today. The picture can be found here. Also, here is a site that tells you a little bit about what happened right after the movie. Faraj is now 24. Should you feel so inclined, here is Faraj's MySpace, and here is his FaceBook. Also, while you are at it, here is Yarko Solan's FaceBook. I wonder if they are friends? Certainly something that connects cultures and countries - social networking sites! :-)
Good morning class!
Wow, there was definitely a lot to talk about today. Thank you so much for the focus and attention! I really liked what we did with everything. This was really an excellent way to end the unit, as well as reflect upon all the good stuff that we have done throughout. Obviously, we did not get even close to being done with all the things that I was planning for, but that is okay. Next class (there are only EIGHT left - can you believe it?) we will get to all of that. For now, let's go on to the recap together!
Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? How can the Middle East be stabilized?
Soundtrack: "Let Love In" by Goo Goo Dolls. Lyrics here. Really an excellent song. It can also definitely be related to the conflicts that we are studying!
AGENDA 5/11/09: News Brief Finish Promises Reflections on Goals/Unit/Class Civil Rights
Homework: Finish any late work – work on your goals! Read blog recap!
Specifically, I would like you to write a little reflection about how you are doing in accomplishing the goals that you set out for yourself at the beginning of the quarter. Also, about the late work/progress report grades: what ended up happening was that I did not feel comfortable speeding through all your wonderful papers and presentations to grade for the Progress Report. Thus, I graded the skill packet (almost everyone got a 10/10), meaning that your grades were virtually unchanged from the quarter grades. Please come see me if you would like an update on where you stand - I am hopeful that I can get everything back to you on Wednesday! Sorry about the wait!
News Brief: After going over the essential questions, soundtrack, agenda, and bowing down to Mr. Chamberlain, I introduced Mr. Paul Copley, the teaching legend at Lewis and Clark who came to watch for the day, and we sung Happy Birthday to Mrs. DeFrance. Then, after settling down a bit, we talked a little bit about the current news of the day. Someone mentioned a story about someone being pushed off a building in the Middle East. Mr. Copley was able to tell me after class that this was probably about the recent 60 Minutes feature on Ashraf Marwan, a secret agent that both Egypt and Israel praises as their own. I do not know anything about the story, but it certainly looks interesting. Here's the link: CBSnews.com - 60 Minutes: Was The Perfect Spy A Double Agent?
Abe asked about Yasser Arafat, and whether or not he was a terrorist. That question sort of took me aback, because I was (and am) really uncertain about how to answer it. Put it this way, it is exactly like this forced choice prompt that I asked you to think about: "People that fight for their countries freedom are to be commended and encouraged."
I'm simply not sure how to answer it. How do you define "terrorist"? Definitely interesting to think about.
Before Lauren went, I read this article aloud to the class: CNN.com - Saudi judge: It's OK to slap spendthrift wives. Honestly, this was one of those cases where I read this last night as I was making the lesson plan and knew that it would be perfect to bring in to talk about. I liked the responses here! We certainly could have done more with it, but I wanted to make sure that we had enough time for the film.
Lauren brought in this article to talk about: Yahoo! News - Ex-soldier could get death in Iraq rape, slayings. Really interesting and very sad. Certainly another factor to think about in the conflict that the United States is in with Iraq: how do that country's citizens see us?
Abe volunteered to bring in an article for next class on Wednesday. I think I will continue to ask for volunteers, or just pull cards.
Finish Promises: I really loved the thoughts throughout watching this movie. Your class is the easiest to tell that you are into stuff like this, because of all the laughter, exclamations, gasps, tears, etc. I liked how when I stopped the tape right before the kids were about to meet, a lot of people got mad. Good! I'm glad you were in to this! Even more so, I was really excited to hear your thoughts about all of it, especially about the innocence of children and the circumstances that they were born into. This was so related to the rest of the movie and the overall point!
By the way, now that the film is done, here is the trailer for the movie, and you can also watch the entire film on YouTube in 10 parts. That playlist can be found here.
I am very interested to see what you did with these conversations! I think it was a good way to approach watching the film. It is possible that we will do something next class with these as well. Again, thank you for your participation!
Reflections on Goals/Unit/Class: Obviously, we did not get to most of this. I handed back your goals from the beginning of the semester as you were writing about Promises. We will do this activity next class, which I am excited about. Always good to have feedback!
Civil Rights: Yes, did we did not get to any of this. That is okay! A nice clean break with the next unit! ---
I cannot believe how much stuff I have to do. This is ridiculous. Because of this, I should be working hard all throughout the rest of the day near the computer and will be able to respond to comments and e-mails in a timely fashion. Other than that, I will be watching the third to last episode of 24 tonight at 9:00, on FOX. Possibly some playoff basketball too. Have a great evening! Continue to work hard! The end of the school year is coming right up!
One of the promotional images for the film Promises that we are watching in class. Found on the official website, here.
Dear class,
It looks like the mammoth "Turmoil in the Middle East" unit will finally be concluding on Monday! Taking a look at the amount of tape left on the Promises VHS, I would say we probably have about 30 minutes or so to go. I really appreciated the focus on everything today in class. I think some of you were perhaps getting tired, because I saw a few heads going down, but overall, thank you.
Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? How can the Middle East be stabilized?
SOUNDTRACK: "SWEET CHILD O' MINE" BY GUNS N' ROSES. Lyrics here. Chosen because we are continuing to watch a film about Israeli and Palestinian children.
AGENDA 5/7/09: PASS BACK WORK/TURN IN PAPERS NEWS BRIEF INTERNALIZING THE DEBATE PROMISES, PART II
HOMEWORK: TURN IN LATE WORK BY TOMORROW FOR PROGRESS REPORTS. READ BLOG RECAP!
Whew, I don't know if I have ever typed that much in all caps. I feel like I just yelled everything at you! I wrote the agenda today that way to make a little fun of my supposedly bad handwriting on the board. Sorry, but I won't be doing that with any frequency. Seriously, most of the time, it should be fairly legible. If it isn't, please let me know! :-)
Anyway, as I said in class, I need to have your progress report grades in on Friday (tomorrow). Thus, I would like anything that you haven't turned in brought to me ASAP.
Pass Back Work/Turn in Papers: At the start of class, I went over the essential questions, soundtrack, and agenda, and then passed back your notes on the speeches (which again, I found really interesting and liked what everyone had to say!). You got five points of credit for that if I saw it for both days. I also passed back your skills packets, because I needed to have you do something else for me. However, we started by doing the customary...
News Brief: I actually don't think there was that much to talk about here. Abe mentioned a new swine flu death. I noted that there are now KGW.com - 45 swine flu cases confirmed in Oregon. Yep.
1). I mentioned that the U.S. provides a lot of aid to Pakistan (in order to help it fight the Taliban and other Islamic extremists in the country), and that last summer a report came out about some of the wasteful spending. Specifically, I mentioned a fleet of cars that Pakistan bought with U.S. money. Here is a great article talking all about that: WashingtonPost.com - U.S. Funding to Pakistan Plagued With Problems, GAO Report Says. A relevant quote:
In one example, the report cited monthly payments averaging $19,000 per vehicle for 20 passenger vehicles used by the Pakistani navy that appeared to contain "duplicative charges," the GAO said. The Pentagon often did not document its basis for evaluating claims and did not check Pakistan's currency conversions, which could have led to overbilling, the report said.
Look, this is not to say that all the aid the United States gives to Pakistan is being spent terribly. I tend to disagree when people make the argument that all the money being put forth to a particular purpose must be not worthy because of individual specific cases of inefficiencies, where money is spent badly. That is the same sort of argument that some people use to say that schools should get less funding, because they waste a lot of money on administrators, or other individual aspects. It just makes no sense in the grand scheme of things.
In fact, check out this current article from just this last Monday: CNN.com - Legislation would triple U.S. non-military aid to Pakistan. Currently, we provide 500 million dollars a year to Pakistan. This bill would up that to $1.5 million. Again, a HUGE reason why paying attention to the Middle East is important. These are our tax dollars! We need to know what is going on, in order to be well informed about why our money goes where it does!
2). Furthermore, I talked about the relationship between Al Qaeda (Osama bin Laden's terrorist group) and Iraq before 9/11. Basically, there was no relationship, and the U.S. government actually has come out and said so: CNN.com - Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda not linked, Pentagon says. A quote:
The assessment of the al Qaeda connection and the insistence that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were two primary elements in the Bush administration's arguments in favor of going to war with Iraq.
The Pentagon's report also contradicts then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who said in September 2002 that the CIA provided "bulletproof" evidence demonstrating "that there are, in fact, al Qaeda in Iraq."
Bad times. You can start to see why many people were really angry (and still are) about the U.S. involvement in Iraq. I mentioned that then Illinois State Senator Barack Obama had come out against invading Iraq in 2002, as it was happening. This was one of his trump cards over Hillary Clinton in last years primaries and general election. That speech can be found here: BarackObama.com - Remarks of Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama Against Going to War with Iraq.
3). I noted that the U.S. had helped Saddam Hussein and Iraq fight Iran in the 1980s; in which "weapons of mass destruction" were used. That would take forever (there are entire college courses devoted to just this stuff) to adequately source, but as always, Wikipedia has a great start with collecting information: Wikipedia - Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction.
The same Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense in 2002, that I quoted in the CNN article above was the Donald Rumsfeld in this picture, shaking hands with Saddam Hussein in 1983: GWU.edu - National Security Archives. Incredibly interesting website there!
4). Finally, (I know, I know, I'm sorry, but I really get in to this sort of stuff), I noted that the United States provided all sorts of aid to the fighters in Afghanistan against Russia in the 1980s. The U.S. covert operation for this was called Operation Cyclone. A lot of these same people are now fighting against the U.S. Karma, as Abe put it.
Whew! Okay. Thanks for getting that conversation started Jazmyne! Lauren, you are up for next class. Any current news article about anything outside the United States.
Internalizing the Debate: At this point, I asked you to open up your skills packets again, because I actually needed you to answer the questions in the debate part, rather than just copy down what we came up together on the board. We spent about 5 minutes doing this, and then everyone turned them back in. Thanks! Now I can give you credit for doing that! :-)
Promises, Part II: There is a whole bunch that I will say about this film when we are done, but I think I will hold off for now. Next class, we will finish this up, do some reflections on goal setting, give me some feedback about the class, and probably move on to the next unit. Woo hoo! ---
My teacher at Lewis and Clark, Paul Copley, will be watching class on Monday, so be prepared for that! He taught for 30 years at Sunset, so he is a pretty amazing guy. Also, Mrs. DeFrance's birthday is Monday! Get her something, if you want! :-)
The Office is on tonight at 9:00 on NBC. The season is almost over! I am sad. Other than that, thanks for checking up on everything! Stay in touch and keep working hard! Have a great, restful weekend!
