Period 1: Nonviolence and Gandhi, Day 9 - Class Recap

At my Lewis and Clark graduation yesterday! From left to right, my dad, my brother, Mrs. DeFrance, me, my mom, my grandma, and my grandpa (my dad's parents). Fun times! It was a way too fast weekend! Time to finish out the end of the year!
Good morning class!

It's just another Manic Monday! My last ever with you guys! Sad times. I hope that today was productive and interesting! I always like talking about what is going on in the world and how we can hope to have a positive impact on everything. Because really, what bigger calling in life is there?

Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? How did the concept of nonviolence develop and become implemented? - We looked at multiple angles of the answers to these questions today!

Soundtrack: "If You're Out There" by John Legend. Lyrics here. The verse that I especially wanted to highlight is:

If you're ready we can save the world
Believe again, it starts within
We don't have to wait for destiny
We should be the change that we want to see

Great song! I am going to try to bring in the very best for you this week! :-)

AGENDA 6/8/09:
News Brief
Example Paper
Talking About Gandhi
Be the Change

Homework: Finish and turn in any late work/revisions. Read the blog and ask questions!

As I said at the start of class, please come see me to check in and make sure there is nothing you can do to get your grade higher! There is really no downside to doing this, so why not? I will be available during both lunches for the rest of the week (except for second lunch on Friday), as well as after school and before school. Make sure you finish the year strong!

Also, if you have not given either Mrs. DeFrance or me your paper, please do so ASAP, either in person or by e-mail: luke_fritz@beavton.k12.or.us - thanks!

News Brief: Lots to talk about, as usual! Here's what I wrote down to link to, after we talked a little about how your last weekend as a Freshman was:

Zach N. mentioned that the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, is under quarantine in China because of swine flu fears. Here is an article about that: NYTimes.com - New Orleans Mayor Is Under Quarantine.

Brandon talked a little about the two American journalists in North Korea, who have been tried and convicted of "crimes" that will put them in a labor camp for 12 years. Crazy stuff. You can read all about that here: WashingtonPost.com - North Korea Convicts 2 U.S. Journalists.

Abe noticed the really interesting story of a couple that is accused of working for 30 years to pass U.S. secrets to Cuba. James Bond stuff, for real! Here is that story: NYTimes.com - U.S. Charges Couple With Spying for Cuba.

Finally, the last thing I have written down to post about was our discussion about corn based products like cups, which stemmed from our talk about this article: CNN.com - Search for downed plane highlights ocean trash problem. This was really interesting, and made me do some research of my own on this, which is great! Here is an interesting article from the Oregonian about all of this: Soyatech.com - Corn Plastic Sounds Great, But Recycling It Is Difficult. Jazmyne talked a little bit about her mom and using reusable bags instead of plastic bags. I don't think people really understand how bad plastic bags are. Here is a great article about them: Salon.com - Plastic bags are killing us.

A very interesting conversation, thanks!

Furthermore, as I mentioned for in the last blog NYTimes.com - Addressing Muslims, Obama Pushes Middle East Peace - President Obama had an enormously big speech in Cairo, Egypt last week. He was talking to Muslims in the Middle East. Some of it was almost EXACTLY the same as what you guys did for your Israeli-Palestinian project! Specifically, I wanted to show the class what he had to say about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and nonviolence (tying the last two units together):



I also showed the end to the speech, when the President tried to say that Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all had the goal of promoting peace in the world. This was very much like C.J., Carson, and Zack T.'s presentation for the Israeli-Palestinian unit! The video we watched can be found here.

Good stuff. You can watch the entire speech as well as click on a link for a transcript to read here: WhiteHouse.gov - The President's Speech in Cairo: A New Beginning.

I was reminded to have Ben do his news brief article for the day, which can be found here: Yahoo! News - Shootout kills 16 gunmen, 2 soldiers in Acapulco. The article talks a little bit about authorities thinking that the violence is possibly related to drug wars. I talked in class about how people don't really realize that the drugs people buy in the United States directly fund criminals in all sorts of countries. Yet another reason why illegal drugs are just plain stupid to use.

Thanks for the news brief Ben! Would anyone like to volunteer for next class? :-)

Example Paper: After this extremely long news brief section, I showcased an example of a really good research paper, done by a student in one of my other classes. It was all about chocolate, and how it has an impact on the economy, health, and happiness! See, that is the power of a thesis statement - I didn't even have to look that up. Because the student had a really memorable thesis and paper, it is easy for me to recall what she was talking about. Hopefully, showing her paper to the class was something that everyone learned from!

Talking About Gandhi: I asked everyone to volunteer a few things that Gandhi tried to do in order to better society through nonviolence. The class mentioned his hunger strikes as well as resisting temptation and living simply. This was good! After a brief discussion, we watched a biography (if you can call a three minute video a biography) of Gandhi and his philosophy on nonviolence, which you can watch again here.

Be the Change: At the end of class, I wanted everyone to really be thinking about how they want to have a positive effect on the world. To get you thinking about this, I showed this video (one of the most popular on YouTube):


I then asked the class to write about how you want to be the change you wish to see in the world (a Gandhi quote). How are you going to leave a lasting positive impact? We shared a few of these aloud, then everyone turned them in. We will be doing something with these next class, I suspect. Thanks for the participation here!
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I will be at Westview until at least 7:00 tonight, as I have to coach at football practice from 5-7. However, I will be available to post comments and respond to e-mails both before and after practice. Please keep in touch! Have a great day!