September 11, 2001 - Class Recap

This is part of N591UA, which operated United Flight 93 on September 11th, 2001, and was hijacked for possible use against the White House. Instead, a passenger revolt forced down the plane into a field in Pennsylvania. A part of my 9/11 story is that I once flew on that exact same plane, from Portland to Chicago in 1996. Check out my FlightMemory map of lifetime flights.

Hello wonderful students,

Today, I tried to make sure everyone learned about the basics of the major events of September 11th, 2001, which happened 16 years ago on Monday. Sometimes, I just want to focus on the moment! Here's the class recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Behavior LT 1: I can manage my responsibilities as a student.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Green Day. Selected because it is September, summer is over, we are losing sleep, and we discussed the events of September 11th, 2001 today in class. Lyrics (which some may argue directly relate to the War on Terror) here.

AGENDA 9/8/17:
News Brief - Hanrui
The Wall
September 11th, 2001
Fear

Homework: Read the blog recap! Post a comment if you have not. Bring in a photo for the wall that is either: 1) A place anywhere in the world that you have been. 2) A place anywhere in the world that you want to go to. 3) A picture of you and/or your family. Next news brief: Jaycee.

News Brief: Hanrui had the news brief today and chose this story to talk about: CNN.com - Kenya sets presidential election rerun for October 17. The first news brief of the year! Hanrui did an excellent job recapping what this story was about, as we discussed the twists and turns of the election in Kenya, as well as lots of other news stories from around the world. Thanks for leading us off, Hanrui. We then talked about what else we knew about what was going on around the world recently!

Jaycee was assigned to do the next news brief.

As part of the news brief, we also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

Hooray for knowing what is going on around the world!

The Wall: As a get to know you and get to know the room activity, I split the class up into six groups. Everyone in the group was responsible for knowing everyone else's name. I also assigned each group to look at one of the big photo posters in the back - trying to analyze where they were taken and different aspects of them. It was just an attempt to try and get everyone to work together and use some critical thinking skills. I revealed during this exercise that I took all of the photos that are currently on the back wall. I love traveling and photography! :-)

Your homework was to find a photo to contribute to the back wall. Just a regular 4 x 6 print is 29 cents at Walgreens (I know, because that's what I used to print some of the photos for the back wall). It has to be able to be stapled up (so don't use the last copy of a precious family photo). Here's what I am looking for (choose one):

1) A photo of a place you have been to before.

2) A photo of a place that you want to go to.

3) A photo of you or your family.

I am really excited to see what everyone brings in! Again, if you need help with this, please email me or comment on the blog. I am hoping for an amazing back wall, full of all sorts of pictures from our adventures, hopes, and families! :-)

September 11th, 2001: To start this section, I asked students to do a free write for about 5 minutes on the following questions:

What do you know about September 11th, 2001? What have you heard about it? Do you remember anything? What have you learned before, in class, or from parents?

After the free write time, we shared responses as a class and I told my story about September 11th. I was starting my Sophomore year at Wilson High School in Portland. It was definitely a day I will remember for the rest of my life. To drive home the point as to what the day was like, I showed this video in class, which was a timeline of the day:

From there, I moved on to discussing how September 11th, 2001 came about.

Fear: We talked about in class about FEAR. To start to look at how fear played a role after September 11th, I showed a couple of videos:

This is United States Secretary of State Colin Powell addressing the United Nations about the "weapons of mass destruction" that the U.S. government thought was in Iraq. It turned out that there were not any such weapons.

This video contains a montage of President George W. Bush and many of the key figures in his government repeating words in speeches that sounded pretty scary.

The last bit to class was another free write. This time, it was about fear in our lives. 

The prompt was: write about a time in which you experienced fear and how you felt. What did you want to do in that moment?

We didn't get to share these in class, due to the shortened assembly schedule day, so we will come back to them next time.

I wanted to make the connection between the fear much of America felt after 9/11. In fact, one of the ways that the government might have helped keep people fearful (or ready) is by making a threat level color coded system.:

In the entire history of the threat level system (which ended under President Obama), the threat level never went below Elevated - meaning we were supposed to be at "significant risk of terrorist attacks," constantly.

That was it for the day! Have a great weekend!

September 11, 2001 - Class Recap

This is part of N591UA, which operated United Flight 93 on September 11th, 2001, and was hijacked for possible use against the White House. Instead, a passenger revolt forced down the plane into a field in Pennsylvania. A part of my 9/11 story is that I once flew on that exact same plane, from Portland to Chicago in 1996. Check out my FlightMemory map of lifetime flights.

Hello wonderful students,

Today, I tried to make sure everyone learned about the basics of the major events of September 11th, 2001, which happened 15 years ago on Sunday. Sometimes, I just want to focus on the moment! Here's the class recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Behavior LT 1: I can manage my responsibilities as a student.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Green Day. Selected because it is September, summer is over, we are losing sleep, and we discussed the events of September 11th, 2001 today in class. Lyrics (which some may argue directly relate to the War on Terror) here.

AGENDA 9/9/16:
News Brief - Teja
The Wall
September 11th, 2001
Fear
Maps

Homework: Read the blog recap! Post a comment if you have not. Bring in a photo for the wall that is either: 1) A place anywhere in the world that you have been. 2) A place anywhere in the world that you want to go to. 3) A picture of you and/or your family. Next news brief: Ed.

News Brief: Teja had the news brief today and chose this story to talk about: CNN.com - Russian fighter jet makes 'unsafe' intercept of US aircraft. The first news brief of the year! We talked about Russia, the Black Sea, and how our military might be in conflict with Russia over the region. Thanks for leading us off, Teja.

Ed volunteered to do the next news brief.

As part of the news brief, we also watched the one minute BBC World News update. Here's the link to see the latest one minute update, at any time of day (it will probably be different from what we watched in class):

BBCNews.com - One-minute World News

Hooray for knowing what is going on around the world!

The Wall: As a get to know you and get to know the room activity, I split the class up into six groups. Everyone in the group was responsible for knowing everyone else's name. I also assigned each group to look at one of the big photo posters in the back - trying to analyze where they were taken and different aspects of them. It was just an attempt to try and get everyone to work together and use some critical thinking skills. I revealed during this exercise that I took all of the photos that are currently on the back wall. I love traveling and photography! :-)

Your homework was to find a photo to contribute to the back wall. Just a regular 4 x 6 print is 29 cents at Walgreens (I know, because that's what I used to print some of the photos for the back wall). It has to be able to be stapled up (so don't use the last copy of a precious family photo). Here's what I am looking for (choose one):

1) A photo of a place you have been to before.

2) A photo of a place that you want to go to.

3) A photo of you or your family.

I am really excited to see what everyone brings in! Again, if you need help with this, please email me or comment on the blog. I am hoping for an amazing back wall, full of all sorts of pictures from our adventures, hopes, and families! :-)

September 11th, 2001: To start this section, I asked students to do a free write for about 5 minutes on the following questions:

What do you know about September 11th, 2001? What have you heard about it? Do you remember anything? What have you learned before, in class, or from parents?

After the free write time, we shared responses as a class and I told my story about September 11th. I was starting my Sophomore year at Wilson High School in Portland. It was definitely a day I will remember for the rest of my life. To drive home the point as to what the day was like, I showed this video in class, which was a timeline of the day:

From there, I moved on to discussing how September 11th, 2001 came about.

Fear: We talked about in class about FEAR. To start to look at how fear played a role after September 11th, I showed a couple of videos:

This is United States Secretary of State Colin Powell addressing the United Nations about the "weapons of mass destruction" that the U.S. government thought was in Iraq. It turned out that there were not any such weapons.

This video contains a montage of President George W. Bush and many of the key figures in his government repeating words in speeches that sounded pretty scary.

The last bit to class was another free write. This time, it was about fear in our lives. 

The prompt was: write about a time in which you experienced fear and how you felt. What did you want to do in that moment?

We didn't get to share these in class, due to the shortened assembly schedule day, so we will come back to them next time.

I wanted to make the connection between the fear much of America felt after 9/11. In fact, one of the ways that the government might have helped keep people fearful (or ready) is by making a threat level color coded system.:

In the entire history of the threat level system (which ended under President Obama), the threat level never went below Elevated - meaning we were supposed to be at "significant risk of terrorist attacks," constantly.

That was it for the day! Have a great weekend!

September 11, 2001 - Class Recap

This is part of N591UA, which operated United Flight 93 on September 11th, 2001, and was hijacked for possible use against the White House. Instead, a passenger revolt forced down the plane into a field in Pennsylvania. A part of my 9/11 story is that I once flew on that exact same plane, from Portland to Chicago in 1996. Check out my FlightMemory map of lifetime flights.

Hello wonderful students,

Today, I tried to make sure everyone learned about the basics of the major events of September 11th, 2001, which happened 14 years ago. Sometimes, I just want to focus on the moment! Here's the class recap for today:

Learning Targets:
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

Soundtrack: “Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Green Day. Selected because we discussed the events of September 11th, 2001 today in class. Lyrics (which some may argue directly relate to the War on Terror) here.

AGENDA 9/11/15:
News Brief - Michelle
The Wall
September 11th, 2001
Fear
Maps

Homework: Read the blog recap! Post a comment if you have not. Bring in a photo for the wall that is either: 1) A place anywhere in the world that you have been. 2) A place anywhere in the world that you want to go to. 3) A picture of you and/or your family. Next news brief: Caleb.

News Brief: Michelle had the news brief today and chose a local story (a really sad one about someone being hit by a car!) that unfortunately did not have a relation to anything outside the United States, which is a requirement of the news brief. That's okay! We are just getting started with the year, so it's understandable. Caleb volunteered to do the next news brief.

As part of the news brief, we watched the latest VICE News "Beyond the Headlines" video about stories around the world, which is available to watch here:

The Wall: As a get to know you and get to know the room activity, I split the class up into six groups. Everyone in the group was responsible for knowing everyone else's name. I also assigned each group to look at one of the big photo posters in the back - trying to analyze where they were taken and different aspects of them. It was just an attempt to try and get everyone to work together and use some critical thinking skills. I revealed during this exercise that I took all of the photos that are currently on the back wall. I love traveling and photography! :-)

Your homework was to find a photo to contribute to the back wall. Just a regular 4 x 6 print is 29 cents at Walgreens (I know, because that's what I used to print some of the photos for the back wall). It has to be able to be stapled up (so don't use the last copy of a precious family photo). Here's what I am looking for (choose one):

1) A photo of a place you have been to before.

2) A photo of a place that you want to go to.

3) A photo of you or your family.

I am really excited to see what everyone brings in! Again, if you need help with this, please email me or comment on the blog. I am hoping for an amazing back wall, full of all sorts of pictures from our adventures, hopes, and families! :-)

September 11th, 2001: To start this section, I asked students to do a free write for about 5 minutes on the following questions:

What do you know about September 11th, 2001? What have you heard about it? Do you remember anything? What have you learned before, in class, or from parents? How did the U.S. Government change after 9/11?

After the free write time, we shared responses as a class and I told my story about September 11th. I was starting my Sophomore year at Wilson High School in Portland. It was definitely a day I will remember for the rest of my life. To drive home the point as to what the day was like, I showed this video in class, which was a timeline of the day:

From there, I moved on to discussing how September 11th, 2001 came about.

Fear: We talked about in class about FEAR. To start to look at how fear played a role after September 11th, I showed a couple of videos:

This is United States Secretary of State Colin Powell addressing the United Nations about the "weapons of mass destruction" that the U.S. government thought was in Iraq. It turned out that there were not any such weapons.

This video contains a montage of President George W. Bush and many of the key figures in his government repeating words in speeches that sounded pretty scary.

The last bit to class was another free write. This time, it was about fear in our lives. 

The prompt was: write about a time in which you experienced fear and how you felt. What did you want to do in that moment?

We didn't get to share these in class, due to the shortened assembly schedule day, so we will come back to them next time.

I wanted to make the connection between the fear much of America felt after 9/11. In fact, one of the ways that the government might have helped keep people fearful (or ready) is by making a threat level color coded system.:

In the entire history of the threat level system (which ended under President Obama), the threat level never went below Elevated - meaning we were supposed to be at "significant risk of terrorist attacks," constantly.

That was it for the day! Have a great weekend!

September 11th - Class Recap

This is part of N591UA, which operate United Flight 93 on September 11th, 2001, and was hijacked for possible use against the White House. Instead, a passenger revolt forced down the plane into a field in Pennsylvania. A part of my 9/11 story is that I once flew on that exact same plane, from Portland to Chicago in 1996. Check out my FlightMemory map of lifetime flights.

Hello wonderful students,

Today, I tried to make sure everyone learned about the basics of the major events of September 11th, 2001, which happened 13 years ago. Sometimes, I just want to focus on the moment! Here's the class recap for today:

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: “Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Green Day. Selected because we discussed the events of September 11th, 2001 today in class. Lyrics (which some may argue directly relate to the War on Terror) here.

AGENDA 9/11/14:
PRIDE Lesson
News Brief
September 11th 2001
Fear

Homework: Read the blog! Next news brief: Isaiah.

PRIDE Lesson: For today's PRIDE lesson, I wrote KINDNESS on the board and asked the class to brainstorm what the definition of kindness is. We shared out and I wrote the responses on the board, and then provided the following definition: "Kindness is an intrinsic quality of the heart expressed through an act of benevolence reflecting care and good will for self and others."

Next, I showed a video that was an example of Embracing Community. We talked about times in which we have embraced community and been kind to each other. To finish, I asked everyone to: 1) Plan and commit a random act of kindness, and 2) Commit to stepping up if a situation arises that calls for embracing community.

Thank you for your focus and work with the PRIDE lessons! PRIDE is a huge part of our community here at Westview.

News Brief: Olivia brought in this article for her news brief today: NPR.org - Underneath Stonehenge, 'A Map Of What Was There In The Past'. We talked a little bit about the mystery that is Stonehenge - there are so many different theories about what it was for! Certainly a cool place.

Here I am at Stonehenge in 2007, when I was studying abroad in London!

Thanks, Olivia! Isaiah was the lucky winner of the random popsicle stick draw for the next news brief..

September 11th, 2001: To start this section, I asked students to do a free write for about 5 minutes on the following questions:

What do you know about September 11th, 2001? What have you heard about it? Do you remember anything? What have you learned before, in class, or from parents? How did the U.S. Government change after 9/11?

After the free write time, we shared responses as a class and I told my story about September 11th. I was starting my Sophomore year at Wilson High School in Portland. It was definitely a day I will remember for the rest of my life. To drive home the point as to what the day was like, I showed this video in class, which was a timeline of the day:

From there, I moved on to discussing how September 11th, 2001 came about.

Fear: We talked about in class about FEAR. To start to look at how fear played a role after September 11th, I showed a couple of videos:

This is United States Secretary of State Colin Powell addressing the United Nations about the "weapons of mass destruction" that the U.S. government thought was in Iraq. It turned out that there were not any such weapons.

This video contains a montage of President George W. Bush and many of the key figures in his government repeating words in speeches that sounded pretty scary.

The last bit to class was another free write. This time, it was about fear in our lives. 

The prompt was: write about a time in which you experienced fear and how you felt. What did you want to do in that moment?

After writing and sharing in partners, I asked for volunteers to share with the class. It is nice to be able to look back on scary moments in life and laugh, or just be thankful that we escaped out of it. It was also good to hear about how fear makes us feel - anxious, wanting to do anything to escape, and not wanting to experience it again.

I wanted to make the connection between the fear much of America felt after 9/11. In fact, one of the ways that the government might have helped keep people fearful (or ready) is by making a threat level color coded system.:

In the entire history of the threat level system (which ended under President Obama), the threat level never went below Elevated - meaning we were supposed to be at "significant risk of terrorist attacks," constantly.

That was it for the day! Next class, I really want to make sure that we dive in on making our maps. They have been ready to go the last two classes, but we just haven't made it there yet! Soon!

Period 1: Historical Investigation, Day 8 - Class Recap

An overview of the city of Boston, from the top of the Bunker Hill Monument. As I told the class today, I flew into or out of Boston a combined 53 times in 2011 as part of the JetBlue "Blue Pass" promotion. I took this picture on my last trip, before seeing Jay-Z and Kanye West in concert.

Hi everyone,

Only two more classes as your teacher! Plenty of work to do before then, so let's get to it.

Essential Questions: What brings people together? What tears people apart?

Soundtrack: "More Than A Feeling" by Boston. Selected for today because of the obvious connection of the band name to the bombings in Boston. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/16/13:
News Brief
Rough Draft Peer Review
Finish Understanding Afghanistan
Reasons for War

Homework: ***FINAL draft of Historical Investigation due next class – printed and ready to turn in with the grading rubric stapled to the front (no work in class on it)!*** Study for Middle East map quiz.

Next news brief: Esmy, Kenyon, Jen, Alexis, Jerikahlyn.
---

News Brief: The news articles were brought in today by Marleen, Sooly, and Daniel: Bigpondnews.com - UK police arrest 29 football fans, WSJ.com - Turkish Pianist Receives Suspended Jail Sentence, and Yahoo.com - Venezuela opposition demands vote recount, protests flare.

The obvious big news from the top of the class was about the bombs in Boston, so I went over everything that is known so far and what we don't know and are total guesses. I talked about the bad information that flies all over the place immediately after events like this, and how this may or may not be connected to what we are learning about in class.

Rough Draft Peer Review: After the more lengthy than usual news brief, we moved on to reviewing the historical investigation rough drafts. As I told the class, this is a BIG deal. If you had an A in the class and do not turn this in next class, you will have a D at the very highest until it is turned in and complete.

Here is the peer review form that I passed out during class. Please remember that this is a general guide for what to look for - I am specifically grading on the rubric:

Google Drive: Historical Investigation Rough Draft Peer Review Form

If you missed class, or wanted to see for yourself the absolute basics of what you need to do, please check out that form.

Finish Understanding Afghanistan: After devoting a fair amount of time to reviewing (and worryingly, many students still seemed to have a lot of the historical investigation missing), I moved on to finishing up the PowerPoint we started last class. If you missed class, or I went too fast, here it is to check out again:

Google Drive: Understanding Afghanistan PowerPoint

Remember that I will be using some of this information for the Jeopardy game we will play during my last class as your teacher, next week. Mrs. DeFrance Gilman also might use it in her lessons for you in the future.

Reasons for War: At the end of class, we ran out of time to really get into this section fully, but we did get to talk a bit about why the United States invaded Iraq in 2002. Next class, we will come back to this and wrap it up, before I give you the rest of the period to study for the Middle East map quiz (I will give you a blank map to study from and the countries you will need to know).

Get your historical investigations reviewed, edited, and ready to turn in next class! Let me know how if you need help!

Period 1: Historical Investigation, Day 5 - Class Recap

Today, we started talking about 9/11 and the impact it has had on the world. I told you that I was on the exact same plane that crashed in Pennsylvania (United Flight 93), earlier in my life. Here's a picture of one of the remaining scraps from the plane, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

Dear class,

Only five class periods left as your substitute teacher! I'm getting sad already. Thanks for a really interesting class today. I appreciated the huge amounts of energy, even if it does get a little tiresome to keep waiting for quiet to move on. I would much rather have that problem over a completely non-responsive group. On to the recap!

Essential Questions: What brings people together? What tears people apart?

Soundtrack: “Mean” by Taylor Swift. Selected for today because you might think I am mean for assigning you the historical investigation and because we were learning about some pretty mean people. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 4/5/13:
News Brief
9/11
The “F” Word
Parts C + D/Study for Map Quiz

Homework: Work on Part C and D, ready to type next class! Study for Middle East map quiz (I'll warn you when this is coming). Next news brief: Christian and Khushali.

---

News Brief: The two articles that were brought in today by Sarah and Alex were: CNN.com - Mexico foils assassination plot targeting lawmakers and CNN.com - Reported Saudi paralysis sentence 'outrageous,' rights group says. I wondered aloud if the plot in Mexico was at all related to the ongoing drug war that the government is waging against drug traffickers. The Saudi Arabian story is a definite case of the philosophy of "an eye for an eye" - if you do something bad to someone else, you should have that same thing done to you.

Sarah also brought in this article (which I didn't let her use for the news brief, because it was inside the United States) about President Obama cutting his own salary because of ongoing budget issues in the federal government.

9/11: To begin this section, I asked the class to write a response to these questions: What do you know about September 11th, 2001? What have you heard about it? Do you remember anything? What have you learned before, in class, or from parents?

While the class was writing, I played this video without warning (before this, I said that anyone who felt the need to step out and compose themselves could do so without asking):

The point for playing this in the middle of writing was to kind of send a shock to the system. This is what I felt like on September 11, 2001, when I was almost exactly the age many of you are now (15 years and a little less than two months old). I told my story of September 11th and how I learned that I flew on one of the hijacked planes a few years earlier. Here's my Flight Memory map that I showed in class.

I asked the class for some reactions and memories (there were some very powerful ones), then played another video, which goes over the basic timeline of that day: YouTube.com - 9/11 Video Timeline: How the Day Unfolded.

The "F" Word: As I said at the start of class, this probably wasn't the one you were thinking of. ;-) No, this was FEAR. For sure, when September 11th happened, I was definitely in a state of fear about what was going on in the world. Next, I had the class write out a time that you experienced fear in your life, responding to these questions: What is a time in your life that you felt fear? How did it make you feel? What would you be willing to do to get away from that fear?

After responding, the class shared within small groups, then we talked about a few overall. I shared that I have a fear of letting down my parents, who have been simply incredible to me for my entire life. We will look at the role that fear plays in starting conflicts, especially with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Parts C + D/Study For Map Quiz: For the last part of class, I explained what Part C (your analysis essay for the historical investigation, which needs to be at least a page) and Part D (the conclusion) should look like. I showed the class the Historical Investigation Assignment again, which details how to write this. I am confident that everyone knows how to write an essay at this point, since you have done it multiple times for both Mrs. Carpenter and I.

As for the map quiz: if you want to get ahead of the game, here's a site you could be studying from - Rethinking Schools - Middle East Map Quiz.

At the end of class, I had students turn in Parts A, B, and E for the Historical Investigation. If you did not have this in by the end of the school day, I will attempt to try and call home to let your parents know that you are behind on the biggest assignment of the year. If you did not get this in today, please see the blog post below for instructions on what to do. Thank you and have a great weekend!