Period 1: Revolution! Day 4 - Class Recap

I passed around my two passports for the class to look at today. My US passport has special privilege embedded in the chip - since I went in to an interview with the government and passed a background check, I am allowed to skip most US customs lines and sometimes go through a faster and easier security scan at the airport.

Dear class,

Another great day of discussion! It was cool to see how interested many people were in talking about the issues. Thank you for participating today - especially if you normally don't like talking in class! :-)

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

Soundtrack: “Miss Independent” by Kelly Clarkson. Selected for today because we continued the "forced choice" activity, where you were expected to make independent stands on various different social and ethical issues. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 2/27/13:

News Brief

Forced Choice

Reflection

Homework: Read the blog! Finish the forced choice reflection if you have not already completed it (see below for instructions). Alyssa, you have the next news brief.

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News Brief: Kayla brought in this news article for us to talk about today: CNN.com - Swimmer killed in shark attack at New Zealand beach. I noted that I have seen a FaceBook meme about sharks and humans. Here's the picture I was talking about. Apparently there are about 4.2 shark attack deaths per year. I wonder how many shark deaths there have been in the name of protecting humans?

Forced Choice: Again, I loved your thoughtful participation here and willingness to respect each other, even with different viewpoints. I noted when Marsuk said that it is cheaper to put someone to death than to kill them that the opposite is true. Here's the evidence to back that up: MSNBC.com - To execute or not: A question of cost? - the quote in the article is that the death penalty is 10 times more expensive than life in prison. A while ago the Oregonian newspaper had an article of the same nature about our state, which was really interesting. Check it out here: OregonLive.com - Can Oregon afford the death penalty?

Here are the questions we went over today (the questions with ** by them were what we talked about).

1) Giving up some of our rights (like our phones being listened to without a warrant) is a necessary for our own protection. 

2) I would always support my country, whether it’s right or wrong. 

3) There is only one correct religion in the world.

4)  Religion is worth fighting for.

5) We have to have violence in order for there to be change and peace in the world.

6) Oppression of any type should not be tolerated anywhere. 

**7) The government of a country should have the power to make decisions that the majority of the people in it do not support.

8) Under no circumstances should someone take land away from someone else.

9) Someone is always at fault for beginning a conflict.

**10) Democracy is the best form of government, no matter where you are in the world.

**11) Killing a person for killing somebody else is not right.

12) I would be willing to fight and give my life to stand up to oppression.

13) Being patriotic, means having absolute loyalty to America; no matter what.

14) It is worth it to take the lives of a few to save the lives of many. 

**15) People in power are always corrupt in some way.

At the end of the activity, I had the class begin (some finished in class) this reflection on it. This is homework if you did not complete it in class.

Write a one page reflection on the activity. What was the most difficult or controversial question for you? Why? How could these sorts of questions make it so that people want to revolt against their government?

Please be ready to turn these in at the start of class on Friday. We will debrief a little and then move on to some actual history.

Definitely let me know if you have any questions about the homework, or final responses to the forced choice activity. See you on Friday! :-)

Period 1: Revolution! Day 3 - Class Recap

The song for today was one that I love to start my training runs to. Here's a picture of the result of all that training: with my Uncle Andy (who has run almost 100 marathons) after the Portland Marathon last year - my first ever full 26.2 miles! :-)

Dear class,

I am always somewhat hesitant to run the "forced choice" activity if I haven't done it with students before, just because I am afraid that it is totally going to bomb and the point (of disagreement) won't be proven. I was so happy with the result today! Lots of great discussion and I think I managed to get just about everyone involved. Way to go! Read on for the recap:

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

Soundtrack: “Shake it Out” by Florence + The Machine. Chosen because I like to start my runs with this song, and we are starting a new week/unit. I went for a 10 mile training run this last weekend. A few of you asked what my time was. I wasn't aiming to push it and much of it was uphill, so it took me 1:29:12. I really love the Nike + app - here's a map with the pace and elevation of my run. For context, I ran 13.1 miles last May in 1:32. Here are the lyrics to the song.

AGENDA 2/25/13:

News Brief

Feedback Review

Forced Choice

Reflection

Homework: Read the blog! The next news brief is assigned to Kayla.

News Brief: After checking in about the weekend and discussing the Oscars for a bit, Tia introduced this article as her news brief: CNN.com - Fighter jet crash in Yemen's capital kills 10. We discussed how the US is involved in Yemen and the concept of drone warfare to kill those suspected of terrorism - which was another theme we talked about with the forced choice activity. Thank you, Tia! 

Feedback Review: Another element of my classes that I thoroughly enjoy doing. I read all of your responses from last class about what is going well and what needs to be improved on and combined them into a PowerPoint presentation. The first slide used wordle.net "word clouds" to show the impact of words being frequently used across the class. The second slide for each question was what you all actually wrote to me. Here is the presentation if you wanted to see it again:

Google Drive: Period 1 Feedback Review PowerPoint

My general impressions were that the class enjoys the atmosphere we create and knows it needs to work on being quieter. Also, that I am doing a good job of being relatable, bringing the energy and interesting content, and explaining things, while I need to work on various different areas like notes, activities, and strictness (we talked a bit in class about this). Thank you again for providing the feedback! I think it should be useful going forward.

Forced Choice: Again, I LOVED this. So many great opinions here. I believe we were able to have a smart discussion that respected our individual viewpoints (and hopefully was not boring). We only got through the first five statements (out of 15), so next class we will probably continue where we left off - though I will just pick and choose the rest of the 10 to go over. At the end you will be writing a reflection on the most difficult choice you had to make and how these sorts of questions could make people want to change the form of government they have (via a revolution). I hope you enjoyed this activity as much as I did! I would love to hear more thoughts and feedback in the comments, if you are interested in doing so.

We obviously did not get to the end of this activity, or start the reflection, so even though I said at the beginning of the class that it would be homework if not completed during class, it absolutely is NOT homework. We will work in class next time on it.

Period 1: Revolution! Day 2 - Class Recap

If I were to do the "togetherness" poster, here is a picture that I would choose to talk about. Everyone in the world should be able to appreciate beauty in nature. I took this at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve in 2008.

Hi everyone,

Thanks for another good and interesting class! I am really looking forward to next week and the real start of content for the revolution unit. Until then, here's what we did:

Essential Questions: What brings people together? What tears people apart? - A good example of that in today's class!

Soundtrack: “Get Up, Stand Up” by Bob Marley. Selected for today's class because you were making tough decisions about where you stand in regards to certain issues. Lyrics here.

AGENDA 2/21/13:
News Brief/Blog Recap
Finish Posters/Present
Feedback
Forced Choice

Homework: Read the blog! Turn in missing work. Tia, you have the news brief next.
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News Brief: The news brief today was brought in by Sakib, who selected this article to talk about: CNN.com - Bulgaria's government resigns amid protests. I would say that it is somewhat rare that a student brings in a news article about something I had not heard before - this was one of those cases! It sounds like there might be a potential revolution brewing? Get it? Hehe.

Another news event that was brought up (by Neil) is this story: CNN.com - Pistorius details night of girlfriend's death. Really sad story, regardless of whether or not Oscar Pistorius is guilty of murdering his girlfriend or not. I talked about who Pistorius is (a disabled Paralympic athlete who was so good with two blades for legs that he made the Olympics) and what we know happened so far.

Finish Posters/Present: Again, a lighthearted activity - just to try and remember that not everything in the world is war/genocide/violent revolutions. I appreciated your effort here. Congratulations to Michelle for winning the free Chalupa coupon with her depiction of a taco. :-)

Feedback: After finishing the posters and presenting them, I had the class write out some anonymous feedback, since today marked one month since I began to be your teacher for Mrs. DeFrance Gilman (baby Brandt was born a month ago today). Here's what I asked - again, this activity was done without putting your name on the paper, in the hopes of you feeling like you could be as honest as possible:

1. What do you like about this class and what is this class good at?
2. What does the class need to improve on?
3. What do you like about Mr. Fritz as a teacher?
4. What can Mr. Fritz improve at?

I really value your feedback and we will review it together next week. Thank you for your honest opinion!

Forced Choice: This next section was about choosing yes or no (not maybe or "I don't know") to various different moral and ethical choices. Here is the list, if you wanted to see them again. Next class, you will be asked to take a stand and talk about why you made a particular choice.

1) Giving up some of our rights (like our phones being listened to without a warrant) is a necessary for our own protection.
2) I would always support my country, whether it’s right or wrong.
3) There is only one correct religion in the world.
4)  Religion is worth fighting for.
5) We have to have violence in order for there to be change and peace in the world.
6) Oppression of any type should not be tolerated anywhere.
7) The government of a country should have the power to make decisions that the majority of the people in it do not support.
8) Under no circumstances should someone take land away from someone else.
9) Someone is always at fault for beginning a conflict.
10) Democracy is the best form of government, no matter where you are in the world.
11) Killing a person for killing somebody else is not right.
12) I would be willing to fight and give my life to stand up to oppression.
13) Being patriotic, means having absolute loyalty to America; no matter what.
14) It is worth it to take the lives of a few to save the lives of many.
15) People in power are always corrupt in some way.

You absolutely have to have your answers for these for next class. Please just try to answer in a way that is true for you - not anyone else.

Have a great weekend. See you next week!