Thursday, May 28, 2015

Israel and Palestine, Day 4 - Class Recap


The Embassy of Palestine, in Bogota, Colombia. I got yelled at right after I took this picture. Photo taken in 2009.

Hi everyone,

A quick week together! Next week will be our last full one of the year, with plenty to do to prepare for the final. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets: 
Communication LT 2: I can use language and style that is appropriate to the content area.
Critical Thinking LT 2: I can explain connections between events, issues, problems and concepts.
Knowledge LT 10: I can explain demographic changes in the world and their effects.
Knowledge LT 20: I can explain the impacts of nationalism and revolutionary movements. Knowledge LT 22: I can explain how religious ideas impact the shaping of societies.

Soundtrack: "Put Everything Aside" by E-Z and Tailsman. Listen to the song here. Selected for today because Orel sent it to me as a comment on the blog. He helpfully translated the lyrics, which definitely relate to our work in trying to come to a solution for Israel and Palestine! Thanks, Orel!

AGENDA 5/28/15:
News Brief – Olivia
Finish Promises
Epilogue/Discuss
Final Roles

Homework: Read the blog! Know your grade (updated on StudentVUE and on by ID number on the wall) and how to improve it, if possible. Keep working on your final project for the year (specific guide for what to do here). All late work due by next Friday at the latest. Next news brief: Emory.
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News Brief: Olivia had the news brief today and selected an article about this story to talk about: BBC.com - Sending ice to Antarctica. After reading the article, this makes much more sense than what I thought in class. Basically, scientists want to preserve ice from other regions of the world in Antarctica, as lots of ice in warmer places is melting, due to climate change. An interesting story, and definitely the first time we have talked about Antarctica in the news brief! Thanks, Olivia.

I also showed the video from this story, about how my mom has been advocating for improved safety barriers on interstate freeways in Oregon, after my dad was killed last September - an example of local news impacting us!


My mom will be visiting the class on the Tuesday of finals week, so I wanted to show a little bit of what she has been up to.

We also watched VICE News for the day, before moving on.

The next news brief was assigned to Emory.

Finish Promises: Next, we finished watching the Promises (2001) documentary, about Israeli and Palestinian children. Here's a link to the note taking guide we are filling out as we watch:


Here's a link to a stream online for the documentary (this quality isn't very good, but it's better than nothing): Veoh.com - Promises Streaming.

Epilogue/Discuss: After the documentary, I asked if anyone wanted to see what the kids were up to later in life, and there was a near unanimous yes, so I showed this epilogue that catches up with a few of them in 2004:


How crazy is it about Faraj and where he ended up?

I also showed this link, which is a recent interview with Sanabel: An Update from Sanabel. I'm glad that she is happy students are still learning about the conflict and thinking of ways to solve it!

We discussed the documentary and the roles of the children involved with it. Keep these notes to work on your final project!

Final Roles: Speaking of the final project, I handed out a form that clarifies what the expectation is going to be on the day of the final, as well as what students should be writing/talking about. Here it is:


I'm going to keep it simple and have students just focus on this. You should already know what learning targets you need to work on. Use the chart at the top of the second page to focus your writing/speech notes on the specific issues in the conflict.

Another resource is this timeline of the conflict:


Let me know if you have any questions about what you need to do! One more full week of classes to go until finals! You can do this! :-)

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