Culture, Day 1 - Class Recap

Part of my family's culture is attending Oregon Duck football games (well, maybe not so much for my sister). This is us outside the 2011 BCS National Championship Game in Arizona.

Hi everyone,

Today, we moved on to a new unit: Culture! What an interesting topic. Culture defines who we are, yet we shape and create it every day! Here's what happened today in class (we did a lot, so be ready for a fair amount of reading):

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 16: I can explain how culture both reflects and shapes society.

Soundtrack: "Speak Life" by TobyMac. Selected because Jocelyn wrote a very thorough and well reasoned comment in asking me to play it. Thank you, Jocelyn! The lyrics for the song are here.

AGENDA 10/9/14:
News Brief – Matt
What is Culture?
The Lost Boys
Iceberg Reading

Homework: Read the blog. Turn in any late/missing work (will not be reflected on progress report grade). Next news brief: Takumi.

News Brief: Matt brought in an article about this story for the news brief: NBCNews.com - ISIS Imitators Discussed Attacks on U.S. Targets in Canada. We talked about this for a little bit, but since I have your world maps still to grade, we did not go find and highlight Canada. Hopefully, you know where it is already! Takumi volunteered to do the next news brief.

What is Culture?: I started this section and new unit by asking what everyone had for breakfast today. The answers were:
- Nothing (13)
- Cereal (6)
- Toast (4)
- Fruit (3)
- Waffles (2)
- Bagel (2)
- Sandwich (1)
- Yogurt (1)
- Protein bar (1)
- McGriddle (1)

I saw this article last night and thought it was interesting, which is why I asked:

NYTimes.com - Rise and Shine: What Kids All Over the World Eat For Breakfast

We looked at a few of these different types of breakfast (all of which were certainly better than "nothing" as the high answer - you need to eat before school, everyone!) and identified "food" as an aspect of culture. Then, I passed out this sheet:

Google Drive - What is Culture? PowerPoint Picture Activity Worksheet

I had students guess about what culture is with the top space on the worksheet, then we brainstormed as a class all the different aspects that could go in the second box, of 10 characteristics of culture.

After that, we went through this slideshow of pictures from the National Geographic Photography: Culture website. Here are the photos we went through:

Google Drive - Culture Around the World Slideshow

I love all of these pictures because the world is such a diverse and interesting place! I enjoyed the class guesses as to what was going on in each.

The Lost Boys: Next, I showed part of a documentary on The Lost Boys of Sudan. This shows the dramatic differences between the culture in Sudan and the culture in America - something I think we do not think much about at all.

National Geographic - Lost Boys of Sudan: Cultural Differences

As a counterbalance, I showed this commercial that was made about Lopez Lomong, who was one of the "Lost Boys" and who eventually gained American citizenship, made the US Olympic Team, and carried the American flag into the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing:

I showed these videos to highlight some key aspects to American and Sudanese culture. We will continue to explore cultural similarities and differences of various different cultures during this unit.

Iceberg Reading: Near the end of class, we started going through this reading about culture (which apparently, the substitute started with the class while I was out):

Google Drive - Cultural Resources Reading Handout

We talked about some more aspects of culture, including the fact that the American school system is obsessed with time and being on time, whereas in other cultures, time is something that is more of a relative concept.

To end class, I showed this video compilation of various people around the world dancing to "Happy" by Pharrell Williams. This was to highlight a similarity of cultures: dancing!

This ended the class for the day. See you next week! Enjoy the long weekend!

Geography, Day 8 - Class Recap

This is me doing the Gangnam Style dance, at Gangnam Station in Seoul, South Korea, in January of 2014. Yes, the Korean girl who took this was laughing at me.

Dear class,

We are finally done with map quizzes and most of the Geography unit! Thank you for your patience and understanding as we finished today and there was a flurry of activity. I will grade your packets in the coming days and over the weekend for your progress reports on Monday. Here's what we did today in class:

Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 7: I can demonstrate the ability to use geographic tools.
Knowledge LT 11: I can demonstrate an understanding of the connection between the physical and human systems.

Soundtrack: "Gangnam Style" by PSY. Selected because we had our last map quiz today, on Asia. South Korea is where PSY is from, which is in Asia. Lyrics (which are mostly Korean, and hilariously translated to the English alphabet) here.

AGENDA 10/7/14:
News Brief – Paysen
Asia Quiz
Finish Five Themes
LT Self Assessment/Turn In

Homework: Read the blog. Your geography packet needed to be turned in today, so if you have parts you did not turn in (it may not be graded by progress reports), please get it to me ASAP. Next news brief: Matt.

News Brief: Paysen brought in this article for the news brief: NYTimes.com - North and South Korea Agree to New Talks. We found North and South Korea on our world maps (it's in Asia!) and highlighted it. I told my story about visiting North Korea for about two minutes this last January, which was a pretty interesting experience. Matt was randomly selected to do the next news brief.

Asia Quiz: This was the last map quiz opportunity (remember, you had 6 possible opportunities with different map quizzes - 3 of which you choose as your best work to be graded along with the other geography work we have been doing). We graded and passed this back in class, so everyone should have had all the graded quizzes available for selection.

Finish Five Themes: We didn't have the time in class to go through the results of this activity, so I will see how everyone finished up with it while I am grading. There was time in class for students to be finishing this, after the Asia quiz. I hope you used your time wisely!

LT Self Assessment/Turn In: Finally - the first graded packet of work for the semester! This was the accumulation of all the work we have done with the geography unit - the quizzes, five themes papers, and your completed world maps by continent (colored and labelled). Here was the rubric students used in class to self assess:

Google Drive - Geography LTs 7 and 11 Self Assessment Rubric

I will look at what students wrote on this, along with the work that was stapled and turned in with it, in order to determine your proficiency grades are for these two learning targets, which is what the first progress report is entirely based on. Thus, if you did not do well with keeping up with your maps, doing well with the quizzes, and making sure to use class time effectively for the Five Themes of Geography packet, you may have some unfortunate news coming soon.

Next class, we will start our look at culture in depth. See you then!

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. :-)