Period 1: Nonviolence and Gandhi, Day 1 - Class Recap

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:

Historical Investigation Research Project - Overview
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! :-)

I think it was Brandon that brought up the story of a refrigerator in San Jose, California smelling so bad that people had to be hospitalized. Crazy, but true! Here is your source: CNN.com - Office refrigerator stench packs punch, sends seven to hospital.

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! :-)
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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! :-)