Period 2: Turmoil in the Middle East, Day 3 - Class Recap

The New Irene, a South Korean ship docked in Portland during Spring Break. I took this picture with a tripod on the Steel Bridge, using an 8 second exposure, F5.6 aperture value, and 100 ISO.
Hello amazing students!

Today was one of those days where I went into class and thought it was going to go one way, and then it kind of went a completely different direction. I totally was expecting to have a good little discussion on some things, then move on to having the class actually do some cool things with our perceptions of women. We can totally save that for next class though. I really love having good class discussions! The problem is that it is very easy to tune out, or get derailed through side conversations. I'm sure we will get better, and I will try to not have classes where we are completely focused on discussion for almost the entire time. That is a rarity, but I am glad that we got to know each other a little better through it!

Essential Questions: How does conflict arise and in what ways have various people responded? What impact can women in the Middle East have on policy?

Soundtrack: "Soak up the Sun" by Sheryl Crow. Lyrics here. A very good song for the first amazingly bright and beautiful day of the year! I can't tell you how excited I was to get in the car to drive to Westview in the morning and actually have the sun up! Please enjoy the great weather - I'm sure it will be gone before we know it!

AGENDA 4/6/09:
News Brief
Thoughts on Homework
Michelle Obama
Women’s Perspective
Class Unity Activity

Homework: Enjoy the weather! Read blog!

Seriously, get out there and have some fun, exploring the world around you!

News Brief: Ricardo brought in an article on North Korea launching a missile, and getting almost everyone else in the world upset. Here's a link to it: CNN.com - 'Satisfaction' from Kim over N. Korea launch. Very relevant and interesting! We talked in class about how North Korea said it was launching a satellite, but the U.S. thinks it may be a missile that could potentially hit Hawaii.

Breanna talked a little about the earthquake in Italy, CNN.com - Dozens dead in Italian earthquake. Also, as I was looking up these articles, I saw this one about pirates in Somalia: CNN.com - Pirates seize British cargo ship in Gulf of Aden. See, now isn't that all really interesting? Paying attention to the news is really a great way to stay involved in class, as well as see why everything that we are talking about is relevant. Krishna, you are up for next class on Wednesday. Any article about anything going on the world outside the United States.

Thoughts on Homework: I did this with my other class after I saw a presentation at Lewis and Clark about the lack of value of assigning homework. Mostly, I wanted you to be able to vent about homework, as well as explain my thoughts about it and how it will work in this class. Remember, the key is effort and getting it in on time.

There were a lot of interesting and good thoughts about how much time homework takes up and why it may or may not be important. Everyone really should be getting lots of good sleep, as well! That is definitely important. Hopefully, all of the homework that I assign you in this class is relevant, interesting, and not overwhelmingly daunting. Please remember to ask questions if you are at all confused with what I am asking you to do!

Michelle Obama: Today was one of those days where technology (as much as I love it) conspired against me, and I was not able to show the video clip I wanted to. That's okay, I will bring it in for a future class!

Women's Perspective: This was somewhat of a difficult transition, since the video clip I was going to use to set it up and have you reflect upon your homework did not work. However, I still think we had some very good thoughts on what is going on around the world in regard to the struggles of women.

A few things that I noted that I wanted to link to. We talked about the differences in pay across the board between what women make and what men make, even here in America, and even though it is illegal. A good article breaking down the reasons behind how this happens can be found here: About.com - GAO Report: Why Women Still Make Less Than Men. The article cites the U.S. Government as saying that women make about 80 cents for every 1 dollar a man makes. Remember, if you ever feel like you are being discriminated against (for your gender, race, religion, etc), report it as soon as you can. The legislation that President Obama signed on this front was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

Furthermore, I cited an article that I remembered reading about how much a stay at home mom would earn if someone really thought about all the things that they do. To my great delight, I was able to find that article here: CNN.com - "Being a mom could be a 6-figure job". The best part:

"Salary.com determined that a stay-at-home mother might be paid as much as $134,121 for her contributions as a housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, janitor and CEO, among other functions."

The most recent estimate of a stay at home mom's worth can be found here.

Anyway, this was a good discussion. I wish we could have made it a little more intertwined with women in the Middle East, but as long as you are thinking about these really critical issues, I am excited.

Class Unity Activity: Ahh yes, the part where we all sit around the campfire. Hopefully we will get the chance to do a lot of these sorts of activities to get us to really know each other! Just know that we have a lot in common with each other and people around the world! That theme will continue next class! :-)
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The NCAA Men's National Championship is tonight at 6:21, on CBS. The Women's Championship (I love how we actually talked about this in class) is at 5:30 on ESPN, tomorrow. Also, I will be watching 24 tonight and the Blazers (playoff bound!) play at Memphis tomorrow at 5:00 PM.

Remember that I will not be here tomorrow, due to the Oregon Educator Job Fair, downtown at the Convention Center. The first district that I hope to interview with is Beaverton! :-) Please remember to be getting all of your work in before Friday, when the quarter ends! Have a wonderful day - go outside and enjoy the weather!