Period 2: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 10 - Class Recap

The immediate aftermath of Game 2 of the Blazers-Rockets playoff series, in Portland. Picture taken by Mr. Fritz.
Hello Period 2!

Interesting day today! It actually took us much longer to work through the things I had planned, now that I think about it, but it ended up okay in the end. Thank you for the participation with everything! Hopefully I was able to make class interesting and relevant to you, as always. Let's get on with the recap!

Essential Questions: In what ways are cultures and countries interconnected? What are the factors to consider in the development of a Palestinian state? - We definitely tried to work hard on both of these questions today!

Soundtrack: "Look into My Eyes" by Outlandish. The lyrics, which we read together in class because I thought they were just excellent for expressing the Palestinian perspective, can be found here. Thank you Nasser for suggesting the song! I played it about 15 times in a row last night after I downloaded it from iTunes. A great song!

AGENDA 4/28/09:
News Brief
Proficiency Packet
Child Marriage in Yemen
Project Work

Homework: Continue to work on the final project. Watch the Blazers game! Read recap on blog!

I liked most of the ideas that I heard today in class, but some of them I were not able to approve due to it not being able to address the matter at hand. Remember, this is not about solving the conflict, or giving a huge history of it. It is about bringing people together somehow. What are you going to do to get both sides talking instead of fighting? That is the ultimate goal here.

The Blazers play tonight at 7:00 on KGW (channel 8) and on NBATV. No, you don't actually have to watch it for homework. Especially not if they give up and lose by 50+, like New Orleans just did at home against Denver.

News Brief: As I passed back the Middle East map quizzes, most of which were excellent (but if they weren't, you get one opportunity to retake it - just let me know), we had a conversation about what is going on in the world. Apparently, Ariel's softball team cannot be stopped. Iris helpfully brought up the topic of the swine flu, using this article: Associated Press - World health officials race to stem deadly flu. Really interesting!

As we talked about in class, I have no doubts that this is an immediate and pressing concern. However, how come we all too frequently lose sight of much bigger problems that would absolutely benefit from a lot more publicity? For instance, how about the estimated FOUR THOUSAND plus people that have died so far just in 2009, in the United States, as a result of drunk drivers? Source: AlcoholAlert.com - Drunk Driving Statistics. That is an INSANE statistic!

Some of you may have Mr. Hardy for Biology, and as I was getting super worked up about this in the teacher cluster, he completely agreed and said if people would only start paying attention to the fact that the number one cancer by far and away in both men and women is lung cancer, mostly as a result of tobacco use. And that heart disease is the number one killer of adults in the United States. What is really more dangerous? Swine flu that may or may not take over the world, or you smoking cigarettes?

Thanks for bringing in the article! Ariel, you are up for next class. One current news article about anything outside the United States.

Proficiency Packet: I introduced this packet as a way to look at proficiency in Social Studies. This is a lot like Math, except we are looking at things like, "Can you identify and explain the critical components of an event, issue or problem?"

We will be using the rest of the packet (and some additions) to go through and construct your explanation paper and final creative product for the unit. So, to begin explaining the who, what, when, where, and why on an event, issue, or problem, I provided the Associated Press game recap ESPN.com - Outlaw scores 21 as Blazers claim home-court advantage. We read this as a class together and then I asked you to write identify and explain the critical components of the event! A fun transition here.

After that, I asked you to use that same skill to identify and explain the main parts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, using the PowerPoint notes and any other information you know. After some hesitation about exactly what I was asking you to do with each question, I think this went pretty well! Remember, the more that you can explain or put down, the better. If I ask who is involved, it is not enough to say Israelis and Palestinians. What are the characteristics of those two groups?

Hopefully the recap on the board helped you out as well. This is something we are going to continue to explore! We really want to know, do you have this certain skill? Thanks for participating in this!

Child Marriage in Yemen: Next, I passed out an article that I found in the Sunday Oregonian section that I saw the death penalty debate about: Islamists Fight Yemen Law Banning Child Marriage. The link doesn't have the cool "who, what, why" box that was in the article I handed out, but you can see what the point of us reading this was. Having the ability to assess current issues, events, or problems is a really critical skill! I was also careful to mention again that while this may be a problem in some Middle Eastern countries, by no means are women this oppressed across the region.

Project Work: For the rest of class (about 10 minutes), you were supposed to be working on either your paper or your creative product. Please see me for anything you may need, whether it be advice or getting materials. Be sure to e-mail me or comment if you need help too! :-)
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The Blazers play tonight vs. Houston at 7:00 PM, on KGW and NBATV. Win or we are out of the playoffs. Big game! It is also my mom's birthday tonight, so we are going to be celebrating while watching it.

Thanks again for the hard work in class! Let's keep it up! Have a great afternoon!