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A young Egyptian guy, who wanted me to take his picture in front of the pyramids in Cairo. Photo taken in 2014.
Hi everyone,
Two more weeks of work until a nice break! Lots to do - today, we looked more into Imperialism and Privilege, as I asked students to think about how they may have impacted Rwanda. Here's what happened in class today:
Learning Targets:
Knowledge LT 20: I can identify the critical components of imperialism.
Communication LT 1: I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Critical Thinking LT 1: I can explain multiple perspectives and viewpoints.
Soundtrack: "Africa for Norway" by SAIH - The Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund. I was projecting this video as students walked in - it is a humorous look at stereotyping, and how Norwegians should not stereotype Africans, because what if the opposite happened. I read the reasoning behind the video in class.
AGENDA 12/8/15:
News Brief - Samahdi
Imperialism
Privilege
Speech Work Time
Homework: Read the blog. Rwanda speech due - bring two copies, typed. The Rwanda resources will help. Next news brief: Natalia
News Brief: Samahdi had the news brief today and selected an article about this story: BBC.com - China pollution: First ever red alert in effect in Beijing. I showed a few pictures from Beijing and talked about how this is happening at the same time as a global conference on climate change in Paris. The level of pollutants in the air in Beijing is something like 11 times higher than healthy limits. We found the China on the world map packet and noted we did a news brief there.
Natalia was selected to do the next 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):
Finally, we checked in about the weekend and what everyone was up to. I shared about going to Columbus, Ohio to watch the Portland Timbers win the MLS Cup championship!
Imperialism: Next, I went over the concepts of imperialism and colonialism, in the form of a PowerPoint. Students took notes (if you took Cornell Notes, all the better) on the presentation.
One of the learning targets associated with this unit is Knowledge LT 20: I can identify the critical components of imperialism. This presentation was to help students understand how to do that, especially in regards to how Belgium had an impact in Rwanda, long after the independence in 1962.
Privilege: Another component of how we look at people in the world is the concept of privilege. Specifically, white privilege - a system of advantages some people get over others, that are often not even recognized. Here is the reading we went through, by Peggy McIntosh:
Basically, I am asking everyone to think about how our privilege here in America (of being a world superpower) relates to our study of Rwanda. Specifically, I think that race has a lot to do with it. We did a quiet activity with this document, which I think was pretty powerful (the Westview teachers recently did this, too). Thank you for your participation here.
As part of this section, I also provided some counter stories to the negativity surrounding Africa. In particular, I highlighted these:
As part of this section, I also provided some counter stories to the negativity surrounding Africa. In particular, I highlighted these:
This was about how the highest levels of educational achievement in the United States are from African immigrants.
Since some people believe that Africa is very far behind in technology (and to be certain, some places are), I pointed out this story, which is about how Kenya has a system that is the best in the world for sending payments on the go.
I also showed RisingAfrica.org, which has lots of stories about the positive sides of Africa.
Finally, as a challenge assignment for the TAG students in the class, I read the first part of this long article on Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda. If you want to learn more about why the balance in assessing Kagame is so tricky, and enjoy a reading challenge, here's the entire article:
The first part has to do with how clean and safe Kigali is now, which is related to the counter stories I was trying to present.
Speech Work Time: The rest of the class (about 30 minutes) was devoted to working on your speech. Here are the directions, from last class:
The final assignment for the unit and before break is a speech before a mock United Nations, in class. You will be pretending that it is April 24, 1994 - the actual date that arguments were ongoing at the United Nations Security Council about how to respond to the conflict in Rwanda.
There are a few steps in the process to prepare for the speech, which will be given on Wednesday, December 16th. The first is to write a persuasive essay (in the form of a speech you could give). This is due in class (TWO COPIES, typed) next class - Thursday, December 10th. Here's the assignment:
As a reminder, this will eventually be a formal speech before break that you give as a part of a group, in front of the class, with myself and another teacher and/or administrator (like Dr. Franco) listening. You are going to need to persuade us to act and do something!
1) The United Nations definition of genocide, as agreed to by the world in 1949. This is helpful, because if you can persuade the United Nations that genocide is occurring in Rwanda, they HAVE to act (because that's what they agreed to).
2) The Eight Stages of Genocide. I read over the stages, but not all of the content describing them. There is a lot of information that might help you craft your speech! You can certainly talk about every stage of genocide, occurring in Rwanda, up to April 24, 1994. Here are some hints on how to do this.
3) A reading that goes over more of the history in Rwanda, what happened during the genocide, and the end. Remember, you can't talk about anything after April 24, 1994, but you can make predictions as to what will happen if the United Nations refuses to act! The reading is pages 5-10 here:
Another resource that might help could be your Cornell Notes from last class, which was on this presentation:
Please be sure to ask me if you have any questions or need help in any way! I'm really excited to see what you can come up with! :-)
