Genocide in Rwanda, Day 1 - Class Recap

A look at your responses for "Name five things that come to your mind when you think about Europe" question on the pre-assessment quiz today. Next class, I'll show you the Africa responses, as well. What do you think it will look like?

Hi everyone,

Welcome back! Now we have a fast paced dash to Winter Break for the next few weeks. We have a lot to pack in, for sure! Here's what happened in class today:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 21: I can identify the critical components of imperialism.
Critical Thinking & Analysis LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.

Soundtrack: "Storms in Africa, Pt. 1" by Enya. Selected for today because we started talking about Rwanda, which is a country in Africa. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 12/3/14:
PRIDE Lesson
News Brief – Fernando
Review Tests/Grades
Research Questions
Pop Quiz/Textbook Hunt
Genocide in Rwanda

Homework: Read the blog. Review your notes from the PowerPoint. Next news brief: Brian.

PRIDE Lesson: We started off class by reading a story about building community and empowerment through climbing, then I had students write at least one way to encourage people to build community here at Westview. These answers were collected and went to the counseling center!

News Brief: Fernando had the news brief today and selected this article (thanks for posting it as a comment on the blog!): CNN.com - Pentagon: There are 'indications' that Iran may have bombed ISIS in Iraq. We found Iran on our world map packets.

Brian was selected to do the next news brief.

Review Tests/Grades: Thanks to the grading day Monday, I am now completed with all grading and late work, so your class grades should be updated! I passed out the government tests, forced choice reflections (graded for two learning targets, both in class discussion and with your written reflection about multiple perspectives and the role of government), and any other missing work.

Research Questions: I know this was a little strange, so thanks for going along with me. Basically, I wanted to see how good everyone was at writing research questions, because we will come back to them next semester. Part of what I need to do as a teacher is prove that you learned something, right?

Pop Quiz/Textbook Hunt: I will sit down tomorrow and type up a list of what everyone said in response to the questions (we just did 1-16). I know there were a lot, so thanks for hanging in there with me. Like I said in class, I took this exact same quiz at Lewis and Clark (as part of the class where I learned how to be a teacher) and was absolutely amazed about what I did and did not know. I'll share your responses next class.

The textbook hunt: I'm not sure if all of you understood what I was saying, so here it is again. In our Modern World History textbook, which was published in 2005 (11 years after the genocide in Rwanda) there are TWO in text mentions (a one sentence recap for each) of the genocide, each citing ethnic violence between the Hutu's and the Tutsi's and 500,000 people dying, while there is ONE other picture, with two small paragraphs beneath it, citing a number of 1,000,000 dead. So again, the textbook barely had anything at all to say about the genocide, and when it did, it couldn't even be consistent with the number of people killed. Why do you think this might be?

Genocide in Rwanda: Finally, the presentation:

Google Drive: Genocide in Rwanda: The Basics PowerPoint

A few things about this. One: most of the statistics I used in the first few slides are found here: CIA World Factbook - Rwanda. Now by NO MEANS are those statistics solid hard facts. I know of plenty of other sites that will give different numbers. However, since these are the official US government statistics, I think that it will be useful for your upcoming assignment (which I will reveal on Friday).

Two: I found the picture of the propaganda, "beat the cockroaches" on Wikipedia, here: Rwandan Genocide. Now as most of you know, NEVER use Wikipedia as a source in a paper or for anything else. However, it can be used as a good start to researching something for yourself - just find the sources the article links to at the bottom and go from there. As Michael Scott from The Office once said: "Wikipedia... is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information."

No, it is not. But it is a funny quote nonetheless!

Much less humorous information: The horrific picture of the Hutu man (who did not support the genocide) that lived after being hacked multiple times by machetes can be found here: Salon.com: Inferno.

Please review the PowerPoint and your notes for next class, as we will be going more in depth!