Period 1: Nonviolence and Gandhi, Day 4 - Class Recap

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.
Hello and welcome to your Memorial Day weekend!

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.

Zack T. talked about a burst of violence in Iraq over the past few days. Here is an article talking about that: HuffingtonPost.com - Baghdad Roadside Bomb Kills 3 US Soldiers.

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.
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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! :-)