Geography, Day 7 - Class Recap

On September 21st, 2013, my dad chose to have his birthday celebration by parking our R-Pod (recreational trailer) outside my grandparents retirement community on the street and have the family sit around inside while eating a BBQ style lunch together. Cool guy, my dad. :-)

Hi everyone,

It was so good to see you all today, after just an awful week away. As I said in class, I am so grateful for your support and to feel so welcomed back by smiles, kinds words, hugs, and understanding. My heart and soul is really in our work together here at Westview and it is so good to know that everyone has my back. On to the recap:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 6: I can demonstrate an understanding of the characteristics of locations and regions.
Knowledge LT 7: I can demonstrate the ability to use geographic tools.

Soundtrack: "Tom Sawyer" by Rush. We played this song at the end of my dad's private memorial service on Saturday, because he loved it and we liked ending with classic rock before the reception. I talked about it a bit in my tribute remarks at the service, but here are the full lyrics.

AGENDA 10/3/14:
My Dad
News Brief – Marvin
Grade Oceania/Europe Quiz
Africa Quiz
Five Themes of Geography/Asia

Homework: Read the blog. Asia map quiz next class (need labeled and colored Asia map completed to be able to use on the quiz). Keep working on your Five Themes of Geography packet with the in class atlas (this will be due in class next time we meet - you will have some time to work on it). Next news brief: Paysen.

My Dad: I obviously wanted to take the first bit of class to talk about my dad and what happened. I tried to give an overall impression who my dad was. I talked a little bit about the car accident that killed him (we are under the impression that there was absolutely nothing he could have done) and what the last week has looked like for my family.

More than anything, though, I wanted to let everyone know that one of the main lessons my family and I are taking away from this horrible experience is just the importance of being kind and loving. My dad was an amazing man, and I feel so blessed that I got to spend 28 years with him, on an almost every day basis. Our family is so strong because of the leadership of both of my parents. We try to treat everyone with respect and love. It would be so easy to be angry about this, and I suspect that might come from time to time. We are going to try to react out of love. That's why I am back at Westview: I absolutely love being your teacher and the community here. I know it is where I am supposed to be, and doing what I am supposed to do with my life.

So thank you, everyone, for all your kindness to me. I said I would link to a few articles and stories if you were interested in learning more about who my dad was and what happened over the last week, so here they are:

First and foremost, here is the tribute speech that I wrote for the private memorial service we had on Saturday:

Google Drive - Steven Fritz Memorial Tribute Speech

A really well done video recap that the Oregonian did about the public celebration of life on Sunday:

The obituary style article that ran in the Oregonian the day after my dad was killed: OregonLive.com - In death, Dr. Steve Fritz remembered for putting patients first, supporting wife, pursuing adventures.

The written recap of the celebration of life downtown on Sunday, which hundreds of people came to: OregonLive.com - Steve Fritz memorial: Hundreds pay respects to Portland man who was 'unapologetically himself'.

There are at least 16 different articles posted on the Oregonian website about the accident and the aftermath, including one about Westview and me being a teacher here (this was seriously crazy to read out of the blue, especially with my tweets being quoted): OregonLive.com - After Steve Fritz's death, Westview High School supports his teacher son, Luke Fritz.

If you have any other questions or comments that were not addressed in class, please feel free to comment on the blog, email, or just see me personally. Thanks so much, everyone. It's going to be a process, for sure. I can't guarantee that I will always be happy or upbeat with this. I do want you to know that I love you all and I am glad to be back.

News Brief: With that, we started back up with the news brief. Marvin brought in this story today for it: NYTimes.com - Video: Delay in Fight Against Ebola. We found Liberia on our world maps (it's in Africa!) and highlighted it. We had a good class discussion about Ebola and how worried we should be about it. I showed this tweet from the White House, which talks about how someone gets the virus. All in all, it was a good discussion. Thanks! Paysen was selected to do the next news brief.

Grade Oceania/Europe Quizzes: Since all of my Global Studies classes are in somewhat different places, I wanted to try and get back on track. Basically, we should have a quiz on Asia next class (while handing in your three best map quizzes, the world map packet, and the Five Themes of Geography notes and activity). That will bring us to the first progress report, which teachers will be working on next Friday (students do not have school).

Africa Quiz: This took the rest of class to complete (some students did not get the chance to finish, so they can do so in Study Hall or during either lunch).

Five Themes of Geography/Asia: After the quiz grades were done, I wanted students to move on to trying to finish the five themes packet (linked above in the homework section) and make sure that Asia was labeled and colored.

That was it for today. Thanks again, everyone, for your understanding. It's going to take me a little bit of time to get up to speed with everything - hopefully this weekend will help. Be kind and good to each other. It matters. :-)