Period 1: Nonviolence and Gandhi, Day 2 - Class Recap

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.

Along the same lines, this made me interested in how to calculate the richest countries in the world. Basically, don't start knocking on the United States, yet. Sources: Wikipedia - List of countries by GDP (PPP) and Wikipedia - List of countries by GDP (nominal).

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
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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!
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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!