Period 1: Nonviolence and Gandhi, Day 7 - Class Recap

The tail of UPS 757-200F N413UP, with a Southwest 737 taking off into the sunset. Picture taken by Mr. Fritz on Friday night. I am going to miss working out at the airport!
Hello and welcome to an abbreviated class recap!

Thank you for the hard work (at least, I think it was hard work) today during class. Peer reviewing is sometimes time consuming, but really worth it in the long run. In fact, it is an excellent habit to get in to for the future. Another pair of eyes always helps improve your paper. I am excited to see what you can come up with to turn in next class!

Essential Question: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various peoples responded?

Soundtrack: "Every Last One" by Common Market. Lyrics here. As I said in class, I think my favorite line is:

We 'bout to change the mentality
Of old world savagery into a new reality
One where teachers and lawyers will trade salaries

That sure would be nice! Thank you Zack T. for the excellent suggestion!

AGENDA 6/2/09:
News Brief
Peer Review/Conferences
Going Outside?

Homework: Paper Due (first draft, typed with bibliography)! Read the blog and ask questions!

To be very clear: your best effort at a final draft of your historical investigation paper is due next class.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about this all. I am here to help! Use the feedback you got from the peer review today to revise your rough draft into a final copy for Mrs. DeFrance and I to look at!

News Brief: Two stories that I wanted to highlight this morning as items of interest that everyone should know about were these - AVHerald.com - Crash: Air France A332 over Atlantic on June 1st 2009, aircraft lost. Check out those last few pictures of the extreme weather patterns in the area. As I mentioned in class, it would be hard to pick a more remote place in the ocean. We talked about the "black box" or flight data recorder that is virtually indestructible and can be used to help determine what happened in an accident. Here is one from an Evergreen International Airlines 747 that I worked on two winters ago:


Really a horrifying event. Though for any of you that are concerned about flying, know that you have a way higher chance of dying from a car accident on the way to the airport than you do the actual flight you are on. Flying is really one of the safest modes of transportation in the world. It just so happens that every so often, things go terribly wrong.

The other story I wanted to point out was this: CNN.com - GM bankruptcy: End of an era. Really an incredible day. General Motors was the biggest car company in the world for something like 90 straight years before losing its position to Toyota. Many people and dealerships will be out of jobs, though the company is expected to remain mostly intact through the bankruptcy (as it tries to get rid of the huge debt it has).

EDIT: From here on down, I added at 11:40 PM on Tuesday night. Hopefully people actually read this, and my sacrifice of sleep will be worth it!

Brandon mentioned that Dr. George Tiller, who was killed as he was passing out church bulletins this last Sunday by an extremely Pro-Life person (Dr. Tiller is famous for providing abortions to women in Kansas), was once attacked by a women from Oregon. I had not heard that until he mentioned it! Here is an article talking all about the connection: OregonLive.com - Slain abortion doctor shot by Oregon woman in 1993. The topic of abortion is really one of the most heated debates in the entire United States. Think about it. On one side, people firmly believe that the other side is murdering innocent babies. On the other side, people firmly believe that nobody should have the right to tell someone what to do with their own body. Those are two really difficult positions to sway people from!

Someone mentioned the story of Derrick Rose, the Rookie of the Year in the NBA, possibly cheating on his SATs to get into Memphis. Here is the most current article on ESPN.com about the whole thing: ESPN.com - Memphis Tigers find no proof Derrick Rose cheated on SAT. As I pointed out in class, who is to say that Derrick Rose is a "dumb" person, even if he did cheat on the test (which is a really dumb thing to do, but also something I understand people feel pressure to do). Different people are "smart" at different things. For instance, I am smart at knowing random news stories. I am really dumb about knowing how to change the oil in my car. Does either one of those prove anything? Yes, I could learn exactly how to change the oil in my car, but what if that is simply not something that I find relevant or interesting? This is exactly why I try to make Global Studies relate as much as possible to the real world. Sorry for the tangent.

Jazmyne told the class about the United Nations sending an investigative team into the Gaza Strip to determine if human rights violations are occurring or occurred during the recent fighting with Israel. Here is that story: BBC.co.uk - Goldstone's UN inquiry team arrives in Gaza. I also mentioned that the big controversy between the normally really close United States and Israel relations is about Israel continuing to build settlements in the West Bank. President Obama's administration sees that as being unnecessarily aggressive and will wind up making the Palestinians even angrier. Here is an article about that: Guardian.co.uk - Obama: halt to new Israeli settlements is in America's security interests.

The knowledge that you hopefully gained from our Middle East unit will be incredibly valuable to you in the years to come, as this all continues to develop!

Thanks for bringing in that article Jazmyne! Jordon volunteered to bring a news article in for Thursday. Thanks!

Peer Review/Conferences: At this point in time, I handed out papers to peer review your rough drafts. We went through and read exactly what I was looking for in regards to the paper, and how everyone could be helping each other revise. I trust that this section was helpful for everyone!

In the meantime, I finished up our conferences with everyone in the class. These were really nice for me to be able to do, and I know that Mrs. DeFrance feels the same way. Hopefully this cleared up any questions you may have had about your grade or your research paper.

I was a little concerned about the class not using the time in class to actually be quietly reading and peer reviewing, or working on your rough draft (if you did not do your homework). I expect that when I give you time in class to work, that you use that time. For the most part, I think you did and I was really glad for that. Thanks!

Again, I just want to help you succeed in this class and on this paper as much as I can! Please let me know how I can best be doing this! :-)

Going Outside? As I noted after the fire drill (which I never hear about, because I never get the e-mails in time in the morning because I am always in class setting everything up), we did get to go outside for a little bit. Seriously though, I am hoping for some better weather and a cooperating schedule, and we will go outside to enjoy the world a little bit! Keep hoping!
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That should just about do it! Off to sleep for 6 hours, then back to the grind! I did get a lot accomplished today, even with three football meetings/practices and not getting home until 7:30. Let's keep working hard together! Almost to the finish line!

A reminder to all Westview athletes: Nike is putting on a SPARQ testing event tomorrow (or I guess today, as I am writing this) from 3:00 to about 4:30 outside on the football field. This is a great opportunity to see where you stand and get some good exercise in! Come outside and have some fun!

Have a great night - keep working on those papers please! I am excited to read them! :-)